Chapter 558: So... Now What?
The road stayed the path, but instead of barren wasteland on both sides of the truck, there was grass, trees, bushes and shrubs as far as the eye could see. Not that it was very far since due to the dense foliage, you could barely see ten feet past the edge of the road.
"This is... damn..." Brittany said, eyes glued to the window like a child.
"How.... how is this possible?" Amira asked, right next to Brittany.
Laz wasn’t sure about Brittany, but from the sounds of Amira’s life, this was the first time being in this kind of environment.
Not for Laz though. He’d spent several years in the New York country side where large wooded areas were pretty much everywhere there wasn’t farmland.
Still though, as he stared at these massive growing giants, he felt something was wrong about them. Something.. he could feel more than see. And everything about it hit him as being off. It wasn’t a scary feeling, at least not yet. But it was a feeling like he could reach out and touch one of the trunks of these trees, but it wouldn’t be something he had ever felt before. Or seen before for that matter.
"I wonder what kind of trees these are?" Amira asked, sparking a new thought in Laz’s head.
When Laz had left Tyr back in that massive, ancient forest, the trees there were far different than anything he had ever seen before. What’s more, each of them radiated with a strength from the energy they had absorbed over the long years in the forgotten domain. Looking again at the brown behemoths, Laz now understood his feeling.
"These trees... aren’t from this planet..." Laz said out loud but to himself.
Staring at him, Amira and Brittany took a moment to look at each other before sitting back down. While their eyes still wandered to the window every now and then, there was no longer an innocent joy in their gaze.
All along the road, there were no stops, not turns, nothing but endless trees behind them and in front of them. Sure, there was enough room to get to the shoulder, but other than that, everything around them gave them a jarring sense of isolation, one that cause the girls to not only get closer to one another, but to also have the need and desire to touch Laz, which they both did.
If not for the engine rumbling and the wheels turning, they would have thought they were trapped in place.
After what seemed like both forever and yet a single moment, a dirt road suddenly became visible coming up on their left side. Without hesitation, Laz slowed down and took to the turn, the massive 34 inch tires finding easy purchase on the packed dirt.
"Where are we?" Amira asked, seeing the trees right outside the window now, close enough where if she were to reach a hand out, she could touch one.
"I’m not actually sure, if I’m being honest," Laz said, following the road.
"Then are we lost?"
"No. Not really anyway."
"You seem rather sure about that," Brittany interjected.
"It’s not that. More like, I feel like we are being guided somewhere."
"Oh? Cause that’s not creepy at all," Brittany said with a laugh before seeing the serious look on Laz’s face.
"You mean that, don’t you?"
"Yep. Ever since we crossed the tree line, I’ve had several feelings. Currently, the one I am feeling is that we are being lead," Laz responded with a laugh.
Had he felt threatened or nervous in anyway, he wouldn’t have been acting like this. But instead, he felt guided and since that was what they wanted, he would let them. Besides, they wouldn’t be guiding him without a reason. As such, he was going to just keep going until he figured it out.
The road started drifting and bending while the air was getting a little thinner, but while Laz noticed, the girls didn’t. Soon, it came to an end and in front of them was a massive clearing with a huge open sky. While there wasn’t a ton of room here, there was enough to park the truck behind some trees so that if someone came along the same road, assuming that was possible, they wouldn’t see it right away.
Parking the truck, Laz opened the door to leave.
"Wait. We’re coming too," Amira said, opening her door.
As they stepped out from the truck, they noticed that the sky seemed to open up in front of them, like they had just emerged from a cave. While the road had been dark thanks to the closeness and packed nature of the trees, now they could see an evening sunshine that was setting off to the west. Walking forward, even Laz had to hold his breath when he noticed that sprawled out below them was a massive stone temple, one that seemed to spring forth from the pages of Latin American history. As for Laz and the girls, they were on some sort of cliff that over looked the huge building.
"How?"
"Hmm?" Laz asked, turning his head towards Amira.
"It’s the desert... There shouldn’t be such a cliff’s edge in the middle of the desert. Sure, sand dunes can get to be huge... but this," Amira commented, kicking the stones below her feet.
"This is like another world entirely."
"I can feel it... such energy in the air. It’s like the mana inside of me is singing to be getting such fuel from the world," Brittany interjected her thoughts.
"Well... we probably did stumble onto another world. But unlike a gate door, this one was opened up as a road leading in," Laz advised, feeling the familiar feeling of other worldliness associated with being inside a gate.
"We... we’re no longer on Earth?" Amira started to freak out a little.
"No worries. Unlike other gates, this one is wide open and doesn’t lock behind you. I would guess that if we wanted to leave badly enough, we would be able to. Besides, you already know others who come and go freely, right?" Laz said, grabbing her hand to reassure her.
"Right. Yeah... yes. You have a point," Amira said, putting a smile on her face to reassure Laz.
"Ok... Now what?" Brittany asked. While it was great and all and she felt great, they didn’t come here for a retreat.
’Actually... why am I here?’ Brittany asked herself, wondering for just a moment how she signed up for this before remembering what Laz had done for her.
"Never thought I’d have an adventure like this," Brittany said out loud, betraying her thoughts.
Laz couldn’t help but laugh.
"You’re right in asking that. For the moment, we do nothing. I need to watch this place for a bit to get some idea about it, but you girls are free to do whatever. Still thought, unless you somehow want to cram up into the truck, maybe grab some of the supplies from the back of said truck and set up some camping equipment, Sound good?" Laz asked, staring at his two helpers.
"Will do."
"Sure thing boss," They both said before laughing and hurrying off.
Laz then turned his attention to the temple before activating his heaven’s gaze.
The structure was massive, at least the size of a ten story building while being just as massive at the base. Looking down, there were cars park all around where the front of the temple would be. While they were looking down at it from the side, it was easy to imagine that there should be some entrance that way.
As for the rear of the temple, the trees were cleared all the way back several hundreds of feet, allowing for a massive area to be opened in the back with what looked like baths, a garden and several pavilions dotting the landscape.
The biggest thing standing out though was the absence of that wing monstrosity that had been present in the photo. While Laz wasn’t sure if it was hiding because of the sun, he was sure that it was around somewhere as he could see feel it’s weakened presence.
Looking on, Laz saw more and more cars pull up and park before their occupants exited. Interestingly enough, on each of the people arriving, they all were wearing masks to hide their faces. Even though their clothes were a mix a business and casual clothing, their faces were always covered without exception.
And each of them was greeted shortly before arriving at what could only be the main entrance by a red robed person who bowed low to each person before escorting them inside.
"So what do you see?" Brittany asked, coming up beside him.
"Looks like we arrived on a good day. There is some sort of gathering going on and the ones coming to it are all masked," Laz said, revealing his findings.
"No way are we this lucky," Brittany commented.
"I don’t think it’s luck. Rick obviously wanted those captives for a reason and I think whatever this is has something to do with it."
"That... actually makes perfect sense."
"How did the set up come along?" Laz said, turning his gaze to Brittany.
"Great. Amira knows a lot about setting up a tent and had it done before I could even ruin it."
"Ha. Alright. Well I’m guessing we should probably get some rest. It would be stupid to try to sneak in right now with so much activity. And I also don’t think going in with guns blazing on a god’s lair is the right way to do it either. So instead, we shall wait for tonight before making out move... should only be a few hour wait," Laz said after thinking things through.
"Then maybe we should go into the tent to stretch out legs from that long car ride?" Brittany asked with a grin.
"Wouldn’t it be better to stretch outside than in a small tent?" Laz asked confused.
"Mmm... not for the kind of stretching we want," Brittany purred, leading Laz into the tent and finding an already naked Amira waiting for him.
