Mosaic

in #fiction5 years ago

As you step out of the ancient stone building, you find yourself in a jungle. Gentle winds pierce the humidity and hushed voices murmur on the breeze.

You stare at the pyramid. It bears a strange resemblance to the last one you visited in Egypt, but not as much as the ruins do to someplace different from where you stand now. Small, faint stone block lines the path, leading up towards the front of the pyramid, where a mosaic of a strange-looking man has been etched into the stone.



You are aware of the fact that you are being watched.

You look around, casting your gaze everywhere but the place you know it should be. But all you see are miles upon miles of dense jungle.

You give yourself a moment to contemplate your location, where you stood before.

Your eyes scan the ground and you see a trail of footprints leading away from an ancient stone building. It is worn from use, but you can still distinguish a pattern of four sets of prints. These were made by four individuals who wore sandals and had their toes split, suggesting they walked barefoot.

Across from the temple, the forest opens to give you a view of the surrounding jungle.

You see a small, jungle animal dart past, but it looks like a cross between a llama and a giraffe. It's grayish body is covered in fine, white shaggy hair.

You stare at it as it runs past.

The animal suddenly stops.

As you watch, it slowly turns its head to face you, then climbs slowly onto its hind legs and begins to walk towards you.

The animal has five legs, a tail, and the head of a cow.

It is taller than you, standing slightly taller than a human. The animal wears a black robe that hangs loosely about its body, revealing muscles bunched underneath it.

The animal, you realize, appears to be shaped like an oversized human, but with two arms.

The creature's face is extraordinarily strange. Two large, round eyes the size of walnuts stare at you with a sort of bored expression while two tiny nostrils pierce the surface of a snout that is the size of a child's hand.

A shaggy, gray beard hangs down the creature's chest, mimicking the hair on its head and legs. A pair of dark, tusks protrude from the bottom of its chin, and there is a pair of hairless lips and a mouth. Where the nose should be, there are two black slits.

The creature stops a few feet in front of you, and you begin to understand that the animal looks nothing like a man.

The animal finally speaks in a voice that sounds forced, grating, and akin to something between a wild, injured cow and a human tongue.

You can't understand the words.

Whatever you're looking at makes a strange noise and begins to encircle you.

You say something, or try to say something, but suddenly you're not speaking your native language.

You can understand what it's saying in a strange, lilting, melodic tongue.

It asks you a question that you don't understand at first and then suddenly, everything makes sense.

The creature is speaking to you.

You realize that you've been given a second chance.

You are about to begin in earnest to save the World.

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Hi fogceres,

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