Interlude 1: The Desert's Secret Shrine Unearthed
(Date and Timestamp: 23rd of July 1003, 2:25 P.M.)
(Place: Blooming Oasis Temple Excavation Site, Dry Swamp region, Amphibia)
The beginning of the afternoon in the middle of the humongous desert region of the Dry Swamp: where the dunes and plateaus of the desert are being heated under the scorching hot sun at a temperature of about 41 degrees Celsius (around 106 degrees Fahrenheit), and today the tendency for the temperature is to keep rising until it reaches its peak of 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) at around 4:20 P.M! Besides that, there are no nearby food or water sources (not even a damn oasis or traveling merchants selling food and drinking supplies!), and no sign of any kind of amphibian civilization either.
At first glance, there would seem to be nothing of interest worth seeing or watching in the surrounding areas of the southwestern part of the Dry Swamp (the setting of our current narrative, FYI). However, if we dare to move away from the endless desert for just a few kilometers, we will see that there is one section of this desolate environment that's occupied by amphibian life. It's not a city, neither a town or village, but instead it looks to be a campsite: many tents are mounted and spread around a small area of one of the plainest parts of the Dry Swamp desert, ranging from sleeping tents to medical tents (and even a tent that served as a cantina, etc.), with most of the sleeping tents centered around an unlit campfire. The campsite is bustling with newts and frogs talking with each other, mostly in a playful and teasing conversational environment, as well as other ones still enjoying their lunch break by eating their lunch (consisting mainly of a diet of sun-dried scorpion meat and poached desert spider eggs), playing a few rounds of Bog Jump, and drinking plenty of water to endure the remaining heat wave that was yet to come.
On the other hand, the campsite is not the only place of interest populated by amphibians around these parts; indeed, a few hundreds of meters east of the campsite, we're met by an archaeological excavation site, where dozens of amphibians are working right now. The excavation site is relatively small in size; but, despite its small area, the site workers have dug up so far many remains of the main structures that were once standing in this area, as well as some ancient artifacts that revealed the customs of the way of life of the previous inhabitants of this place: between the findings unearthed at this site we can count the remains of the walls and ground foundations of a few houses and other living spaces, the yellow desert stone platforms of the site's main worshipping shrines, the diamond-shaped central plaza of the town that once stood in the place of the archaeological site (with the remains of a yellow marble statue of the town's last mayor ever recorded), as well as some pieces of silverware, clay bowls and ceramic cooking pots, construction hammers, bows and arrowheads from the armory where the ancient town's army used to store their defesive weaponry, decorative statuettes of the town's main historical figures that the inhabitants took to decorate their homes, etcetera.
Naturally, since the structures and objects discovered at the site are very fragile and could break easily at the slightest touch (whether by an accidental act of clumsiness or by a purposeful malevolent destruction of the archaeological objects), the field workers and archaeologists laid out some very resistant protective nets, made of very strong desert spider silk, over the most fragile of their findings. Not only that, but they were also clever enough to hire a few armed mercenaries (all of them toads) to guard their working fields, as well as put their mole-crickets (quadruped creatures who are half-moles in their upper body and half-crickets in their lower body, responsible for completing the digging tasks at the excavation site) on guard duty after their lunch break.
A few hundreds of meters away from the excavation site and from its corresponding campsite, overseeing most of what was happening from the top of a sand dune, stood a medium-height male newt: he looks to be in his late thirties, or early forties, has burnt brown skin (like he got that skin color from exposing himself too much to the sun) with a lighter underbelly, has light-brown eyes, and short blonde hair combed backwards. Besides these physical attributes, he not only dresses elegantly but also bears an equally elegant posture towards everything: he's wearing a formal short-sleeved beige suit with a pair of loose formal beige pants, a dark-brown undershirt with yellow buttons and olive green explorer boots.
This gentle-newt, for the ones wondering about who he is, is none other than Lawrence Carter, the leading archaeologist behind the whole expedition we've just witnessed with our eyes. He's one of the most distinguished men of his profession, not only inside the walls of the Blazing Ruby (one of the main and biggest settlements in the Dry Swamp, as well as the capital city of the province of the same name) University, where he's also a professor, but also in the entire Dry Swamp region: he's already visited all the universities of the Dry Swamp province capitals, whether for research purposes or for giving classes to their students as a visiting scholar. His area of expertise is the study of the Desert Nomads, the first settlers of the Dry Swamp civilized places.
With his current project, he's hoping to discover and unearth the location of the ruins of the Blooming Oasis Temple, the first monument built by the Desert Nomads over the oasis that served as the birthplace of their civilization, and considered by most of Amphibia's historians as the most sacred ancient place in all of the Dry Swamp. If this endeavor turns out to be successful, Lawrence hopes that his achievement gets recognized by the head of the department of Archaeology of Newtopia's university, so he can fulfill his ultimate goal of working in the most prestigious university in all of Amphibia, as well as living in the best and richest place in the entire continent. He doesn't plan to go alone though, because he's moving to the kingdom's capital with his family: bringing his wife and his only son with him too.
Observing with his sight what the field workers had dug up and preserved so far, he took a deep breath of the burning and dry desert air and exhaled it in satisfaction at the same time he was showing a noticeable cheerful smile upon his lips. Then, he told himself out loud "Ah! I don't even mind that I'm breathing this unbearably hot air right now. Nothing can bother me at this time, not when we're at the brink of finally discovering what we came to look for in the middle of this giant stretch of desert. As soon as we find the exact location of the remains of the Blooming Oasis Temple, my face will appear on the news of every local newspaper of this region, and the dean of the Blazing Ruby university will give my work even more recognition than what I already have. Perhaps he will change his mind and finally accept my proposal to move to Newtopia's university. Then, these last two months of hard work will pay off for sure, and I will be able to get out of this godforsaken hellhole that will lead me nowhere. I will live the high life I've always dreamed of, right in the middle of Newtopia, hahahaha! Oh, I just wish Carl could be here to witness all of this with me. I wonder where he is now..."
Just as Lawrence finished his last sentence, someone appeared from below the highest spot of the dune, where he was standing right now, and that someone was walking towards him. It was too soon to tell the identity of Lawrence's follower, since they were covered in a full-fledged white thawb outfit that covered their entire body, and a bright yellow desert scarf covering their face. Nonetheless, one could tell at a distance that the person following Lawrence was too short in height to be an adult. When they reached the top of the dune and stood beside the imposing archaelogist, the short figure took out the scarf from their face and the thawb's headdress from their head, revealing at last who they were. Coincidentally, we're looking at a much younger version of Carl Carter (the main protagonist of our narrative), Lawrence Carter's only son: he has the same physical appearance as the Carl we know in the present, with the only differences being that he's shorter and younger than his current self (still being at this time of his life in his pre-teens, and only measuring around 1.32 meters, or 4 feet and 4 inches, in height), has curly hair instead of long hair, has some freckles spread across his face, still has his tail intact and has a more high-pitched voice due to not having hit puberty yet.
Lawrence turned away from the contemplation of his excavation work to look directly at his son's face, and with a bright smile upon his face he said to him "Hello, son. What a coincidence, I was just thinking about you! So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit? Did you come to see your old man to tell him how proud you are of his work?"
"Well, not exactly ... I'm getting tired of this place, and I want to go home now. Don't you want to go back home with me, father?"
"You want to go home right now?! But it's so early, Carl, it's only 2:30 P.M.! We still have a whole day of digging work ahead of us, son. Besides, aren't you enjoying spending time with me on the "Bring your Child to Work" day?"
"No, that's not it, father. I do enjoy spending time with you, but it's just that I can't stand this heat! It's burning me up, and making me sweat like a grubhog under these clothes! Every extra minute I spend here it's more time that I spend thinking of how I'm going to die in this dry desert: either of dehydration, or from a heat stroke from exposing myself too much to the darn sun!"
"B-But son, I don't think you understand the point about my job, and what we archaelogists need to endure to make sure we complete our work in the best way possible and as fast as we can! You see, an archaelogist has to be able to work in any kind of environment he or she find themselves in, and under any kind of weather as well, whether it be extreme heat or extreme cold, a violent storm with extremely fast gusts of wind, dry or humid weather, and the list goes on and on... You get the idea, right?"
Carl stared blankly at Lawrence, unaffected by his father's explanation, but it's not due to a lack of understanding the meaning behind his words. Carl understood his father's message perfectly, but he just didn't care that an archaelogist had to endure that extreme heat: he just wanted to go back home and not have to stand the desert's harsh environment.
"Besides, Carl, what you also don't understand is that we archaelogists are not mere office workers: we're field workers too. And that means that, sometimes, we need to travel to places very far away from our homes to investigate the past of the people that lived in Amphibia a long time ago: when that happens, we have to set up camp near the target excavation site and stay there for days, weeks or even months to unearth all the buildings and artifacts we're looking for! We got lucky this time though, because the site we're looking for is only ten kilometers away from our house, otherwise I couldn't have taken you with me to visit my current workplace. Wouldn't want you missing school and making your teachers, the principal and your mother mad, eh? Hahahaha!"
There was a short period of silence between father and son, but it didn't last long before Lawrence resumed conversation with his son, showing once more a bright smile upon his face "But let's leave that aside for now, son. I can't tell you how happy I am that you're finally visiting the Blooming Oasis Temple digsite today, with me! You know, this will be a great learning experience for you as well. Don't forget that, after all, you're going to follow in your old man's footsteps when you grow up and start studying Archaelogy at Newtopia's university, hahaha!"
Carl immediately let out a sigh of frustration out of his mouth as soon as he heard his dad talk about the prospect of him studying Archaelogy at Newtopia's university "Uggghhhh... Father, we've already talked about this countless times already! I don't want to be an archaelogist when I grow up! I just don't want to do it, okay? I thought you would've understood that by now..."
Upon hearing these harsh words coming out of Carl's mouth, Lawrence's facial expression quickly turned from one of joy to one of disappointment, as was evident by his follow-up response "B-But, Carl, don't you feel that what I am doing is important to learn about the history of the ancient people that inhabited Amphibia way before we were born? I would be so proud of you if you could continue my work for me after I am gone from this world... Because, as you know, I won't live forever, neither of us live forever, and if I die leaving an important portion of my investigation work unfinished, I would like you to take my place and finish everything I may eventually leave behind."
Carl wanted to reply back to his father, so as to stand up to his point of view, but the latter didn't give him any opening to do so, continuing to speak his mind "Besides, if you're worried you might not be good at this sort of work, I don't think you have any reason to doubt your abilities: I mean, for starters, you're a really smart boy, as shown by how you manage to get straight As in almost all your classes at school; and you're also very responsible and hard-working, unlike many kids your age, because you rarely resist doing house chores at our home, as you almost never give lame excuses to refuse doing what you're told to do, and you even volunteer to take over some of the harder housework when your mother and I are too busy or tired to do so. That's why I believe you'll be a great archaelogist one day!"
"Father, you have it all wrong! It's not because I think I'll do a terrible job that I don't want to be an archaelogist when I grow up. It's because I think that archaelogy is super boring! I don't find it interesting to spend all day for months on end sitting at your office desk doing research work, and then spend almost the same amount of time at these expeditions digging whatever soil you're on, just to find poorly preserved walls and floors of a few houses and other destroyed buildings, a few pieces of silverware and pottery and coins, and, to be honest, not much else. These excavation works take too long to complete, and they don't bring as much results as you like to think, which is pretty disappointing!", objected the young newt.
Lawrence felt disheartened at each word uttered by his son against his own profession, trying his best to then counter argue against Carl's disinterest "N-Now, my dear son, I know my career may not seem very exciting or adventurous at first sight, but I promise you that this excavation that we're doing as we speak will be different from the ones from my past expeditions! Afterall, we're talking about the possibility of us finding the lost ruins of the Blooming Oasis Temple! In case you didn't know, our history books speak of this temple as one of the most important and most sacred ancient sites in the history of all the Dry Swamp region!"
"Oh, great, here we go again with your delusions ...", Carl replied back to his father, annoyed by the beginning of his tale.
"Don't be such a downer, Carl, let me tell you once again about the Blooming Oasis temple, in case you've already forgotten. As you may know already, the Blooming Oasis Temple is taught in our History classes at school to be one of the major founding places of the society and culture of our people, the Dry Swamp people. To say nothing of the fact that this is only one of the total six founding sites in existence throughout the rest of the Dry Swamp provinces: of course, the other sites have already been discovered and studied as thoroughly as our current techniques and technology allow us to. But, surprisingly, the Blooming Oasis Temple still hasn't met its discoverer up until this day! And I'm hoping to be the long awaited first discoverer of this holy place. That way, all of the work I've put into researching the Temple's history and the effort I've inputed into triangulating its location will have all been worth it! Everyone at the Blazing Ruby city will finally be able to learn exactly how the Desert Nomads first settled this region by making use of the oasis that gave the Temple its name being the only water source in this part of the desert, and I'll also let everyone know how they've evolved over the course of time and the influence they exerted over our people that allowed us to become the proud desert survivors that we are today, hahahaha!"
"Father... I didn't want to say this because I didn't want to discourage you, but I think, and I've been thinking this for a long time, that you are wrong about your calculations and your conclusions about the Blooming Oasis Temple being located here, in this particular place. I mean, it's already been two months since you and your co-workers started the excavation work on the site, and you still haven't found anything here that proves the Temple is here, except the remains of an old village that has no interest whatsover to your investigation! Admit it, Father, you're wrong and it's pointless to continue looking for the temple in here. Just look for it elsewhere and please end this madness!"
Lawrence was absolutely appalled and distressed by hearing that his own son was showing him such disbelief and skepticism over his work on the Blooming Oasis Temple. Nonetheless, he still had enough willpower to retort back at Carl "Yes, you have a valid point son, I've got to give you credit for that: indeed, two months may seem like a long time for a boy your age to wait until the fruits of your own hard labour can be harvested. But the reality is that you have to be even more patient than that if you want to succeed in this line of work, Carl. In this particular case, I think that the thing that's delaying our finding of the Blooming Oasis Temple is that, according to old legends about this site, the Temple is reputed to have been buried very deeply under the desert sands of these plateaus over the course of the centuries, when the winds blowing from the north of the Dry Swamp brought the sands of that area of the Swamp with them and gradually dropped them over the foundations of the Temple, leaving it lost under this vast sea of sand for a very long time ... However, it's only a matter of time before we find it though."
"Whatever you're telling me right now doesn't matter to me, Father. I'm tired of listening to you talk nonstop about your work, about how you want me to be an archaelogist and continue your projects even though I said many times I don't want to, and, to top it off, I'm tired of you living in this illusion you created for yourself and your team that the Blooming Oasis Temple is located here, in the middle of nowhere, when you haven't found any physical proof that the Temple is here!"
Lawrence looked back into Carl's eyes as the latter finished venting out his feelings of frustration and impatience, and the leading archaelogist couldn't express into words how much his son hurt him by devaluing his career and his life's work and not caring about his current expedition. However, the feelings of hurt quickly faded away and gave place to an emotional exhaustion and Lawrence no longer wished to try to convince his son to agree with his point of view "Fine... I can see that you don't want to be here with me, son. I brought you to my workplace today because I wanted for us to spend some quality time together on "Bring your Child to Work" day, but I understand now that it was a big mistake... If that's the truth, then you can go home now Carl, your mother is waiting for you and she will be happy to see you returning safe and sound."
Carl let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he was no longer being forced to stay at a place he didn't feel was right to him at a personal level, and he then began preparing himself to leave the excavation site by putting on the headdress of his white thawb and covering his face with his yellow scarf, as well as grabbing a canteen full of water and putting it inside his left breast pocket, while at the same time he was also grabbing a portion of food rations and was putting it into his right breast pocket.
Before he descended from the peak of the dune though, Lawrence spoke to him "Listen, son, before you leave I think it's necessary to remind you of the curfew your mother and I arranged for you to fulfil: don't forget that you must be back home at most by 6:30 P.M., alright? Otherwise, you know what your punishment will be if you don't do as we told you, right...?"
Despite speaking the words of a father who would speak to their child in a firm and assertive tone of voice, as if he was warning his son to be back home in order not to face the imminent dangers of the desert during night-time, like a normal worried parent, in reality Lawrence referred to the punishment he and his wife would possibly give his son if he didn't fulfil his curfew in a directly threatening and frightening tone of voice, almost like his parents scolding him and taking away his toys were the least of Carl's worries. Like his parents could harm him further than that...
Eventually, Carl had to reply to his father's "warning", but he did so with an absolutely terrified voice and frightened facial expression "Y-Yes, father, I understand. I'll be home by 6:30 P.M.". And so, the young newt left his father's watching point and set his course for their house, which was located in the outskirts of the Blazing Ruby city, just a few kilometers away from the famous bright red Ruby Gate, one of the major landmarks of the city.
After one hour of walking on his own in the middle of the desert, without any of the desert creatures serving as a means of transportation, Carl was feeling exhausted and almost dehydrated (despite having his water canteen half-full), with the extreme heat not helping him reach his destination without much discomfort, as sweat was pouring down from his forehead and face like a waterfall. However, all of this was not bothering him one bit, since he was too focused on reaching his house in time, in fear of what his parents might do to him if he's late.
Unfortunately, Carl was so distracted thinking about the end of his journey that he ignored a massive danger following him right now: a sandworm burrowed underground was rapidly approaching him, crawling through the dense desert sands unnoticed by our young unsuspecting newt. And, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, the sandworm stopped a few meters away from Carl and jumped from its hiding spot into the surface, standing menacingly tall above Carl!
Of course, Carl's focus was immediately interrupted by the sandworm's imposing figure and his concentration has replaced by a feeling of intense panic, as he was standing right below one of the amphibians' biggest predators in the Dry Swamp region. Carl stood very still in the sandworm's line of sight, paralyzed by fear, hoping that a lack of sudden movements would make his predator lose interest in him and move on with its life. But, sadly, that wasn't going to happen: the sandworm didn't fall for this psychological trick and roared very loudly at the young newt, signaling that it was readying itself to leap into the air and devour him without hesitation.
Carl knew then that he was doomed and was going to die before reaching his home. He didn't even try to run away or beg for mercy, as he knew that the sandworm couldn't be outmatched in speed or reasoned with using words. However, Carl still managed to muster the strength to shout his last words in panic "Okay, fine! You win! I know I'm going to die, so you might as well jump and eat me already! I just want to ask that you at least make my death as quick and as painless as possible! Slice me in half with your teeth, and maybe I won't feel a thing!"
After these famous last words, the sandworm decided to prepare itself to leap into the air and eat Carl whole-heartedly. As for the young newt, even though it was fruitless, he raised both of his hands in the air to shield his face from having to stare directly at his killer's eyes during the moment when it would carry on its attack. The sandworm had already positioned itself to spring high into the air, when something very unusual and very mysterious began to happen: Carl's hands began to glow with a bright purple aura, completely out of nowhere, and that same aura somehow spread through the hot desert air and touched the sandworm, almost like it was making a bridge to connect Carl with the creature!
After a few seconds of being immersed in Carl's mysterious purple aura, the sandworm lost all the will to hunt our newt friend, and instead adopted a more peaceful and approachable behaviour towards its former prey. Then, the sandworm tried to communicate with Carl by letting out a few growls and guttural sounds out of its mouth, but Carl didn't suspect that his former hunter was trying to talk to him, since he didn't understand the meaning behind the sounds the sandworm was making: "(Oh my goddess! I finally found a new and worthy acolyte for our order, after so many years looking all over this desert for someone that had the gift! I must bring this youngling to the Mistress as fast as I can. She will be very pleased to meet you!)"
After uttering these animalesque sounds, the sandworm burrowed itself underground once more, leaving Carl confused about what had happen just now, and making him wonder why the predator had lost interest in hunting its prey. However, this state of confusion didn't last long, because the sandworm quickly rised back to the surface, this time resurfacing right below Carl's position and catapulting him into the air, only to cushion his fall by catching the falling newt with the top of its head. Carl's heart was racing on account of the scare he just got from being launched into the air without any previous notice, but he gradually calmed down as he settled and sat comfortably on top of the sandworm's head.
What he wasn't expecting though was that the sandworm, instead of sitting still in its place, lowered its upper body into the ground and suddenly started moving through the hot sands by sliding with tremendous amounts of speed across the arid and vast desert of the Dry Swamp, travelling at about 80 kilometers per hour. At this moment, Carl had many questions on his mind, to which he was getting no answers: he didn't know why the sandworm spared his life, he didn't know what the sandworm was trying to say to him before, he didn't know why the sandworm started moving, and, most importantly, he didn't know where it was taking him right now. What the young newt noticed, however, was that the sandworm was taking a noticeable detour away from the direction of Carl's home at the Blazing Ruby city, and heading east towards the unknown... It seemed that only the sandworm knew where it was going, and Carl was going to have to wait patiently and travel on top of the sandworm's head if he ever wanted to find out where his new destination was located.
Both of them travelled during a solid 15 minutes through the harsh environment of the Dry Swamp desert, until at last they arrived at their destination, about 20 kilometers away from their starting point. The sandworm stopped moving and lowered its upper body in order to let Carl jump from the top of its head without injuring himself when landing on the ground. The young newt did exactly that and landed safely on the ground.
As soon as Carl landed though he witnessed yet another surprising event that he hadn't seen coming: the sandworm didn't stop to rest, unlike what it was supposed to do after travelling 20 kilometers at such a high speed, but instead began moving once again without much notice; this time, however, the animal moved so as to cover a relatively large area of the portion of the desert they were in now, forming the shape of a circle with its movement and making multiple laps around the circled area, almost non-stop. At the same time, the sandworm let out of its mouth more growls and guttural sounds, only this time it seemed like it was chanting some kind of ritualistic song, without Carl having any idea what the song was about.
But, pretty soon, Carl figured out why the sandworm was chanting and moving around in circles on top of the desert sands, because the ritualistic song it was chanting wasn't just any song, it was a summoning song: when the sandworm finished chanting, the earth beneath the sand circle that the creature formed with its movement began trembling violently, making Carl believe that the ground was going to collapse beneath his feet at any second; but, to his surprise, no such thing happened! Instead, Carl witnessed with his own eyes a circular body of water, covering the whole circle formed by the sandworm, rising from below the desert sands and flooding the area with pure, crystal clear and drinkable water. However, the surprises didn't end there, because, from below the water's surface and from the center of the lake, rose a massive stone structure shaped like a cactus rose, and was even colored like a rose too, since it appeared to be made from pink desert stone. Finally, as if the building itself wanted Carl to reach it by foot, some stone steps emerged from the water as well, creating a bridge between the sandy land and the water-bound shrine.
Carl looked with amazement at everything that had happened so far. Words couldn't describe the sense of wonder that had been born in Carl's spirit: something he hadn't felt in a long time. But the sandworm interrupted Carl's contemplative state by speaking to him again, encouraging him to walk towards the entrance to the bulding: "(What are you waiting for? Don't just stand there looking like a fool! The Mistress is waiting for you inside the temple, young one.). Even though Carl didn't understand anything that came out of the sandworm's mouth, his curiosity eventually got the better of him, propelling him to walk on top of the stone steps into the entrance of this shrine.
Naturally, the entrance to the building was guarded by two massive arched stone doors that were sealed shut, so as no unwelcomed visitor could disturb the peace of that place. However, upon closer inspection, we can see a stone circle built on the bottom center section of the doors with a hand-shaped imprint about 5 milimeters in depth: one can infer from this that we're looking at the mechanism that opens the stone doors blocking the entrance to the interior of the shrine, with the only way of activating the mechanism being someone putting their hand inside the imprint and hoping that their hand would be enough to set the proccess of opening in motion.
When Carl arrived in front of the opening mechanism, he wondered if his hand would fit inside the imprint and would, thus, be the most adequate to open the doors to the shrine. Luckily, he didn't need to think too hard about that issue, because very soon a set of letters appeared above him, at the top of the arch where the doors were fitted, spelling a message written in the Dry Swamper dialect (the Dry Swamper dialect is a regional variation of ancient Newtopian: the only differences between the Dry Swamper dialect and the Newtopian spoken in Newtopia are mainly related to differences in phonetics and in syntax). The message consists in the following: "Only the spirits who present a gentle and pure heart may enter this sacred place. For those whose intentions are not pure, begone! Your presence is unwelcomed and unwanted inside the walls of this temple."
Carl reflected about the meaning of the message for a moment: he knew he wasn't the boy with the purest heart in existence, because he was known in his school at the Blazing Ruby city to most of his classmates as an annoying know-it-all who liked to correct the other kids when they were wrong about something, and also liked to brag about what he himself knew. But, as far as he knew, he wasn't a bad kid deep down and he never harbored bad intentions, nor did he ever hurt anyone on purpose. So, taking these two thoughts into account, Carl decided to take a shot and put his hand into the imprint on the inside of the stone circle. Fortunately for him, his hand glew up with the same purple aura from before, when he tried to defend himself against the sandworm, and the mechanism reacted simultaneously to his hand and to the purple aura coming out of his body, prompting it to authorize Carl's access to the inner sanctum of the cactus rose shaped temple by making a full 360 degree turn, in order to force the huge stone doors open.
As soon as the doors finished opening themselves, Carl didn't waste any more time waiting for something else to happen and headed straight towards the interior of the temple. However, he soon found himself in big trouble, because the inside was very dark and our young newt couldn't see a thing in front of him! In spite of the darkness, Carl still made up his mind to walk forward, hoping he wouldn't bang with his head into a wall or a low ceiling, or trip and fall on the floor. Luckily for him though, he only had to walk a few meters forward in darkness, as a torch lit itself once Carl walked into the right position, illuminating the path in front of him, as well as the walls.
This wasn't the only torch in existence, however, because as Carl was walking ahead to reach his goal, more torches were being lit to iluminate more parts of his path. Eventually, enough torches were lit to make Carl realize that he was walking on a very long corridor, which almost seemed to have no end in his immediate sight. The young newt would still have to walk a long way until the end of the corridor.
"What is this place?", Carl asked to himself completely puzzled.
But, when he reached the end, he finally saw what was waiting for him at the finish line: as of now, Carl seemed to be standing inside a throne room. And although the throne room itself was not a very impressive or pleasing infrastructure to look at, what left Carl paralyzed with astonishment and made him open his eyes very widely was who he found to be sitting on the throne.
Sitting on the throne, and occupying a wide space beyond the confinement of the stone chair in question, was a very tall and long pink olm (almost as long as an anaconda), with a very aged appearence and, to put another nail in that coffin, was also blind and couldn't see anything at all, including Carl entering the room. However, despite being blind, it seemed that the elderly olm sensed Carl's presence inside her lair. When the olm realized she had a visitor, she stood up (of course not completely, since she pratically touched the ceiling of the throne room with her head without standing on her feet at full height!) and crawled towards her visitor. When she stood in front of Carl, the elder olm bowed to him and cordially welcomed him "Greetings, youngling, and welcome to my humble lair! I've been expecting someone like you for a very long time ..."
"W-What? S-Someone like me? What are you saying?", asked Carl, dumbfounded by what the elder olm had just said to him.
"Well, my young cub, if you really want to know what I meant by my previous words, you just have to look back at what happened to you a few minutes ago, no? When my pet companion, my dear sandworm Albus, appeared to be readying himself to attack and devour you whole, he stopped and held himself from doing that, am I right? And I know why he didn't hunt you down like a helpless wild animal: it's because you're not like his previous victims; no ... you showed to my Albus that you have a special gift, a gift that very few amphibians have, that was responsible for the bond created between the two of you, instantly pacifying my Albus without much effort."
"W-What? How did you know that your pet tried to eat me alive, and what is this gift you're talking about?"
"Oh, my youngling, you're going to find out very soon that I know a lot of things. And all the things I know are because I share with you the same gift that you showed to my Albus, and it was also because of that same gift that you were able to enter inside this sanctuary in the first place, hahaha!"
"J-just... who are you? And what is this place?"
"Oh, as for who I am, let's just say for now that I'm a guide who will help you begin the most important journey of your short life. And this place... well, let me tell that you're standing inside the Blooming Oasis Temple, one of the oldest standing amphibian made structures in the Dry Swamp, and also one of the many lost and secret sanctuaries of our order!"
"W-What did you just say?! Did you say we're in the Blooming Oasis Temple, the ancient building my father has been looking for the past couple of months?! But... that's impossible... My father was wrong about his research? And he was wrong about the location of the Temple?"