Chapter 11: The Temple of Compassion
It was early in the morning, and Finn was awake, yawning tiredly. He was still asleep on Marceline's couch. He was remembering what had happened this last night, the song and him begging for death, and just looking back on it made him feel dumb. "I need to find Flambo…" he told himself, hoping his friend wouldn't mind him leaving while she was asleep, but he was mostly hoping for Flambo to have information on another temple, for he was lacking any other ideas on where to go, and wandering randomly wasn't much of a good idea. Finn walked out the door, leaving his house and his friend's cave, and setting back off into Ooo on his own again, the ankh dangling from his neck. Finn had to go and talk to his informant, and this instant.
After a short time, Finn found himself near the Fire Kingdom again, and he was waiting around on a rock, waiting for Flambo. "Hey there, kid," he heard, looking behind him. Flambo approached him, still blazing brightly. "Oh hey, Flambo," Finn greeted him, getting up and crouching down to his height. "What is it you need to know now?" the flambit asked with his arms crossed, still not too happy after being tricked into giving info for a piece of gravel instead of real coal. "Well I was hoping you'd know where another temple is… and I brought you real payment this time," the teenage boy reassured, showing a piece of charcoal that he acquired before coming to meet him.
"Real Charcoal…! Great!" Flambo happily took the charcoal and ate it in one bite. It made him blaze brighter for a brief moment. "Thanks. Well, I only know about one other temple," he answered. Finn smirked, glad to know his informant could be relied on, no matter what he wanted to know. "One is off in the mountains to the east, but that's pretty much all I know, kid. Good luck," Flambo told him, trying not to look at his orange eye since it drew the most attention. He just walked away without another word. "Thanks, Flambo" he told him before running off in a flash of excitement, he realized that this might be a little difficult to find temple.
Finn walked through the Land of Ooo. It was bright and sunny, which Finn always enjoyed. What he knew though was that a mountainous terrain might prove it hard to find a single temple door. There were many fields of trees, and it was somewhat hard to climb areas, not to mention the fact that the door might have been covered up over the years due to age. Finn tried not to think of it for too long, but he could then see the mountains in the near distance. Finn took in a deep breath before beginning to walk up to begin his search for the next temple.
After spending most of the day until the afternoon, searching around for the entrance to the temple, he so far couldn't find anything. Finn sighed while walking through a small bunch of trees. He suddenly noticed a light on the other side going through them. Finn spotted a campfire and a familiar person by it.
"Hey… fortune teller lady?" Finn called out, surprised to see her in the mountains. It was indeed the same person who sent him on the quest in the first place. "Hello, evil one," the fortune teller greeted him. Finn sighed, with a sheer dislike he had for being called evil. "Yeah, don't call me that, please. I've gotten a few of the items and mantras," Finn said happily glad to have three of the items and mantras so far. "So is my future looking any brighter?" he continued to interrogate her, curiously hoping that his future will look much better. "It looks… worse. I suggest you hurry. Nine months is all the time you have left," the fortune teller answered. Finn felt guilty in an instant for the bits of time wasting on this quest so far, but he knew he couldn't give up at this point.
"Okay… do you know where the temple is? One is supposed to be here," Finn asked in a blunt tone, the same way one's tone would be while asking the rain to go away. "It's closer than you'd imagine…" the fortune teller answered, pointing out a boney finger to a nearby bunch of trees. Finn, with his eyebrow rose, looked to the fortune teller. She refused to look away from the crystal ball in her hands. Finn just began to cut through the thick trees and bushes. He spotted a wall of vines, pulling out his sword and swinging it once, cutting them all down. Finn watched the vines collapse to the ground to see a large stone door behind it.
Finn looked at the big door with the strange writings on it. Only one word he could make out was Compassion. "Huh… how do I open this one?" he questioned with his eyebrow raised once more. Usually he opened them just by being lost in his own thoughts.
Finn sat down in front of the stone slab. The sun was going down already. He felt like the day had begun and it was already ending after what felt like a couple hours flat. Finn just sat there, sighing. He put his backpack down on the ground beside him and dug through it, pulling out the musical sheet with the song he made with Marceline. Finn just looked over the music, humming the song to himself. He did get a light blush, overseeing the lyrics. "Oh man… I said those things?" he said, barely able to remember how he came up with the lyrics in the first place. It did make him happy though to think of the night before. Suddenly he saw a bright yellow light shimmer from the door as it began to open. "Aha…! Must be my lucky day," Finn told himself, putting the musical sheet in his backpack and putting it on his back. Finn entered the temple of compassion, the door slamming shut behind him.
Upon entering the temple, Finn could see that in the entrance were multiple routes to separate stairwells with flows of water going down in between them, like waterfalls. Vines were also surrounding the walls. "Wow… talk about beautiful…" he muttered in awe before climbing up the left set of steps that led into a tight corridor. There were still a lot of vines on the ceiling. Finn felt somewhat creeped out by them, but he tried not to think about it. At the end of the hall, he noticed a stairwell leading to a pedestal with grass and vines growing on it. On the center of it was a beautiful yellow rose.
Finn was unable to stare at it for five seconds, as noticed a familiar pair of red eyes beginning to appear in the darkness. "Hey! What the glob are you doing here?" he asked. His dark doppelganger was back. Finn wondered how his clone got there all the way from the Snow Temple to here. Finn immediately jumped down the steps and slammed hard on his side in front of the pedestal. He forced his aching body onto his feet and grabbed the yellow rose. At the same time, his shadow clone grabbed ahold of the rose too. Finn reached for his sword and pulled it off his back, swinging it at the doppelganger, making him let go and jump back. Finn took the yellow rose and put it in his shirt pocket, thinking of it as the important item. It was odd to have something that was bright red color-wise, but had a vibrant yellow aura around it.
The shadow clone got up, angered. Finn noticed weird oval shaped objects growing from the vine walls. He saw the dark doppelganger grab one of them and throw it at him. Finn cut it in half, the two parts of the strange plant landing around him and exploding, blasting him upwards near the top of the steps, making him pant and gasp in shock. "Explosive plants?!" Finn shrieked. His dark doppelganger grabbed more of the explosive fruits, throwing them at Finn. He cringed, getting ready for the worst. But then the yellow rose glowed brightly, beginning to let out streams of vines that wrapped around his arm. The rose moved along the vines and completely entangled his right arm. The rose grew bigger, and Finn shut his eyes in fear as the explosive fruit collided with it and exploded.
Finn just opened his eyes again. The rose had suddenly acted like a shield for him. Finn got a smirk before seeing another one of the explosive fruits get thrown at him. This time, Finn spun around and kicked it back with force, sending it flying back at his dark doppelganger, blasting him in an explosive impact. Finn didn't even want to see the outcome of this as he dashed ahead back down the hallway, the rose staying in its shield form.
Finn just began to make his way down the next hallway, though when he did, he was greeted by a wall of water via a heavy waterfall. He could see his own reflection within it. Finn looked at his orange eye and the vines entangling his right arm entirely. "Oh grod. What am I becoming…?!" he mumbled, the one thing he asked himself before. Finn approached the waterfall, holding the rose shield over his head and letting it block the water like an umbrella. He went through it, but could only see a dark hallway afterwards. He could then hear a skittering noise that was only getting louder the farther he went.
Finn arrived to a room that was lit by only one torch. He picked it off the wall and held it out. From what he lit up, green eyes were lingering in the darkness, and there were a lot of them. Finn dropped the torch in fear, and saw something light on fire on the ground. There were cobwebs that were slowly burning up the walls. Three big spiders were on the walls. Each one jumped down, surrounding him and screeching at him. The room was slowly being engulfed in flames since the walls were covered in fire.
Finn readied his sword, hoping he could use the rose shield better than he could last time. One of the big spiders jumped at him, but Finn smashed it back with his rose shield. Finn stabbed his sword in the head, pinning it to the floor. He ripped his sword out, turning around as another spider was jumping right at him. Finn sliced it in half, getting covered in sickening green goo that was its blood. The last spider managed to bite him in the leg, making him scream in pain. Finn kicked it back and stomped on its head, instantly killing it.
Finn was panting as he looked up at the ceiling. The fire had blazed up to there now, but once the fire began to vanish, there were letters written on the ceiling. "…M…u…Mu" was what they spelt Finn looked at them hesitantly. "Got the item… and the mantra… time to go," he said, sheathing his sword on his backpack. The rose that he had been using as a shield began to shrink again, and the vines began to retract up his arms before returning, turning back into a normal rose with a bright yellow aura in his hand. Finn smiled, putting it in his shirt pocket before heading back to the entrance of the temple.
At the entrance of the temple, Finn looked at the door and grinned. "Mu," he said. The door glowed bright yellow and began opening violently. Finn was wondering if he had actually killed his shadow doppelganger this time, but he didn't care. He left to continue his hunt for the temples, knowing he probably had more of them to go, now that he was done in the Temple of Compassion.
End of Chapter 11