You go to the village
You mount your horse, Mabel and ride east, the setting sun at your
back. Darkness begins to creep into the jungle, a thick, velvet
darkness you can almost touch. Apprehension pulses through your arms,
your legs, even the very marrow of your bones senses something
crawling in the darkness that envelopes you. Soon you begin to notice
eyes glowing in the darkness. You are seeing everything in a new
light, or rather lack of it. The forest that once seemed friendly, now
seems forboding, the animals, by day, charming, now ghostly with their
shining saucer eyes.
After a small bit of riding and a great deal of trembling, you enter
a clearing in the forest and find yourself before the mass of ruins
you saw from the rock pile. They look to you almost like some of the
ruins in Rome: stately arches, broken columns, statues missing limbs.
You are relieved to be out of the forest, but you find these ruins
equally haunting. 'This must have been a beautiful temple once' you
think sadly. You ride Mabel past the ruins and into the village which
is situated behind them. The village is tiny and appears just as
humble as it looked to you from afar. In the town square, there is a
well and a small statue of a dove in flight. You go over to the
statue, dismount and read its inscription. It says: 'A Dove Of Peace:
Dedicated to our beloved Princess Margaret and the four courtiers
taken hostage by Froptian invaders.'
