When you wake up in a strange world, a world filled with monsters and creatures of the dark, do you pick to wander aimlessly back into the forest? Or do you choose the daunting building right in front of you, regardless of the dangers it may hold?
The problem was there were just to many ifs here. She didn't know what was waiting for her in the Temple. She knew roughly where she was in the Dragon Realms, but she didn't know when she was. Maybe she was here a hundred years before the Guardians were born. Maybe she'd been dropped in long after the story had ended. Maybe she was somewhere in the middle.
Maybe the Temple was abandoned. She would find nothing there and starve to death, or be killed by wildlife. Or maybe the Guardians were waiting within. Maybe they could help her.
Maybe they would kill her.
She knew that the Guardians were on the good side. They were honourable and brave warriors, great and just leaders. But she had no reason to believe they would be merciful or kind, especially to a strange creature they had never seen the likes of before, a pitiful creature who would be of no use to them even if they didn't ascertain her as a threat.
She didn't see this going well, even if someone did still inhabit this Temple. But her other options were to run into the mushroom forest that was inhabited by dangerous creatures, on what she knew was a small island without any other signs of civilization. What choice did she have?
I've died once already I think, so I suppose it doesn't do any harm if I do it again, she pondered as she slipped through the halls, drifting her fingers along the runes carved into the walls. Her footsteps echoed softly, and suddenly she missed being outside, because at least there she could hear the gentle ambiance of bugs and animals. Now, in here, the vast silence drowned it out.
A part of her hoped that there would be someone in here, however hostile they were, so at least the horrible weight of the silence would life off her chest. Stepping gently through these halls, she could feel it crushing her, wrapping around her chest like a snake.
She wanted to scream but she thought better of it, so she had to swallow her panic as she wandered helplessly, knowing that she was just a kid in way over her head.
