Crystal Shards (Part 3)

At last we spied some ruins through the dense growth. Covered in vines, the once-sturdy masonry now lay in tumbled heaps, engravings all but faded away.

“How-bout it then fleshy one?” chimed the little sprite, “can you read these characters?”

I looked closely, “no, not at all. These are unlike anything I have ever seen..." pondering the strange question I blurted rudely, "of course I can’t read this you cactuar, I’ve never even been to this world!”

“Alright alright, sputter away all you want angry one. I think you may be closer than you understand.” And with that, the sprite flew about, examining the many runes, and settling upon a heap of crumbled stone it turned and called with chiming voice, “Help me out with this, won’t you, muscly guy?”

Heaving aside the rocks took the best of my strength, but with great labor I made progress on the fallen archway. Brushing away the dry vines that had choked the stone for eons, I examined the runes deeper, desperately, but to no avail. The slick, jungle mists coated my skin, and my swollen eyes ached with sweat. Never dipping, the sun shone still from that same position, illuminating the twin moons ahead (which direction ahead I knew not), and pure light filtered in through the canopy the same pretty way it had when we first crossed into the jungle’s borders.

“That should just about do it, big one!” chimed the sprite excitedly. It breezed past me with a trail of glitter, showering the ancient structure as it passed, and igniting the runes into a voluminous glow.

Before I had the chance to react I witnessed a great reaction. A central runestone, taking on a fey energy at the apex of its archway, unfolded into a rippling blue miasma in the empty air.

“A portal, how exciting!” the pixie teased me, giggling at what must have been a look of extreme relief painted on my face.

I swept up the little sprite and demanded: “to where?”

“Where indeed, and what will this one become on the where that is on the other side!?" a mad giggling, "Oh nothing excites the spirit more!”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m just a spirit, twinkly eyes. I haven’t a body but when I pass through this portal...”

At that moment, as if because of the very suggestion that I was the only body in this ethereal world, I glimpsed a shadow creeping within the obfuscating growth. I narrowed my eyes.

“You there, show yourself!” I called out. But I received no response: the ambient noises of the jungle droned on.

“What’d ya see big guy?” the spirit inquired.

“Another body, I think.”

Producing a curious note, the sparkling fairy drifted around the canopy, “Nothing out there I can see, scaredy snoop. Let’s hop in this portal then right?”

I gritted my teeth, “right.”