‘Look. We go in, clear out the place. Grab the treasure. Then as soon as we get everything we need, we leave. Alright? Just because we’re paid to do this doesn’t mean the job’s any easier or harder. Just do what we always do.’
The entire speech was spoken in around a few seconds. Quick, hurried, yet clear. There was no dramatic pause waiting for a question, no deliberate pacing to make sure certain phrases were emphasised. One either heard it or didn’t. That was it. That was all there was to that short speech.
Sofis sat with her eyes staring emptily at the ruins that lay ahead of them, nestled, protected and caged by a wall of trees and vines. A path had already been carved out leading to its entrance, but aside from that, there had supposedly been no human activity in the area for centuries, if not millennia. She gazed at the stepped pyramidal structure that stood at the centre, its flat roof already collapsed for an unknown amount of years.
It was certainly an imposing sight to behold.
Her linen robes rustled slightly. A bug had climbed up her leg. Her body twitched instinctively, and she quickly swatted it away from her sight. She noticed bits of dirt had already soiled the edges of her robe, a sign of wear before the journey had even begun.
Well, it would probably get much worse from here on out.
‘Got it, scholar?’ the man who gave a speech shouted for her, startling her a little. Well, everything said by him was loud anyway.
‘Um, yes.’ Sofis looked around her only to find the disapproving glances from her ‘companions’, if she could even call them that.
‘Pack up your stuff, this is going to be a long journey.’
With a bit of a struggle, she picked up her heavy belongings and carried it on her back. A stack of paper, small empty boxes, brushes, a mattress and other miscellaneous items along with necessities such as food and water made her backpack appear several times larger and heavier compared to the others. Even when the others had already begun walking on the path, she was still struggling to take a couple of steps without the risk of losing balance and tumbling down like an idiot. As if she didn’t already appear like one already.
‘You alright?’ Her load suddenly felt far lighter, and as she turned, she found a large man lifting up her backpack a little with his sturdy arms.
‘Oh, thanks,’ she said politely, ignoring the fact that the kind-hearted man unfortunately reeked of sweat and was suffocating the air around her.
All of a sudden, she somewhat missed the mildly fragrant library back home, even if it was a little boring at times.
‘I can carry your backpack if you want,’ the man suggested. ‘It seems really heavy.’
‘O-Oh, are you sure?’ Sofis asked out of courtesy.
‘Um, of course? I’m not sure what kind of answer you wanted me to say.’ Without even waiting for Sofis’ reply, he went and grabbed the straps around her shoulder and transferred her backpack into his arms.
It seemed that the man had no sense of manners. Then again, that was to be expected of these people she was going to travel with.
‘Hey, Gorath, open that chest for me!’ The man called for his companion. With a grunt, the other man known as Gorath pushed open the lid, revealing a large empty space inside. The first man jogged over to the chest, raised the backpack high…
‘Hey, wait—’
… And proceeded to drop the entire backpack into the empty chest. The pained screams of shattered ceramics and crushed wood attacked Sofis’ ears.
‘Oh… sorry,’ the man mumbled.
‘I told you to— Sigh.’ She couldn’t even be angry. The man stood at least two heads above her and was clearly strong and well-built. There was no point. Instead, she turned and began to follow the others, ignoring the man who was still trying to make his apologies heard.
She would expect similar incidents like this to happen in the future anyway.
She was beginning to regret her initial enthusiasm back in the capital when she first heard of this project. She remembered how she attempted to convince her supervisor day and night to send her on this expedition. The idea of an exploration seemed so novel and exciting to her, at least compared to the endless literary research in the library and submitting studies of pre-existing topics and locations. As a scholar of Academia Historica, this excursion was the perfect opportunity to cement herself among the greats in the field, to uncover a new world never seen before by anyone in her generation. By literally carving out a new realm of research, she would become a household name for years to come, her studies being referenced numerously by current and future scholars and researchers. It was equivalent to the glory of conquest, to mark her name in the annals of history. A beautiful, beautiful dream.
And that dream certainly didn’t include being a member of a dirty, rude band of treasure hunters whose sole connection to the Academia was through multiple channels of recommendation in other fields. Sure, these treasure hunters were reputable and had already contributed an item or two in the Academia’s museum collection. In fact, a few of them were apparently educated to some extent and had expert knowledge in realms beyond just looting and exploring.
But none of their achievements or reputation excused them from harbouring this horrific state which Sofis found herself in. Loud voices, a lack of manners, no sense of hygiene, unsophisticated personalities… All of which clashed greatly with the world she was used to. If it weren’t for the need to use them to collect valuables and guards to protect her, she would’ve simply opted to explore the ruins alone.
Even when they first introduced each other before the journey, she couldn't care less of the identities of the people she was going to travel with. There were around maybe fifteen treasure hunters? Twenty? She couldn’t be bothered to count. The entire band kind of just melted into a blob for her, with only its leader Gennai being of any note. Not that she would remember that name for long, anyway. The rest of the other names simply faded into the back of her memory as soon as introductions were over.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
She was simply here to explore, collect samples and conduct some research. The moment this adventure was over, she would immediately return to the capital to begin her proper studies, as far away from these brutes as possible.
‘Get moving, scholar. You’re dragging the pace.’ A tomboyish woman nudged Sofis, and she staggered a bit despite now without the weight of her backpack. She glared at the woman, only to find that the latter had begun to nudge the others as well, her voice apathetic and indifferent each time.
Well, at least she wasn’t getting special treatment, for better or for worse.
It wasn’t long before they arrived at the massive gate to the ruins. Overgrown vines twisted and wrapped around the stone walls, their leaves stretching towards the limited sunlight mostly covered by the thick canopy of the trees. Moisture trickled down from the top, leaving trails and patches of moss growing on the surface and cracks in the stone. What would’ve been the wooden gate itself had long rotted away, leaving only the imprint of several large hinges that would’ve used to keep it in place. Above, the cracked arch still stubbornly stood, void of decorations save for a single bird-like carving at its centre, crude as if it was nothing more than a graffiti.
Sofis briefly touched the stone, feeling the coldness spread through her slim fingers before she released her contact. As she looked at her hand, she noticed bits of dust and what seemed to be grey pigment on her fingertips. Where her hand had touched, the stone seemed to have rotted away to reveal a pure white marble-like stone inside.
As she looked up, she also noticed the intricate patterns carved on the dark arched ceiling of the gate. Unlike the blank stone walls, the octagonal patterns dotted the entire ceiling, interspersed with squares that seemed to sparkle like stars whenever her eyes focused on them. For a moment, she almost imagined them to be weirdly shaped eyes.
‘The interesting stuff isn’t here. Keep moving.’ Another man patted her shoulder, immediately placing a handprint of grease, sweat and dirt on her clothing. He must’ve been one of the people who cleared out the path, but that thought only made it harder for Sofis to conceal her disgust. Having a moment of wonder being interrupted like that was practically a crime.
Still, they continued, briefly walking past overgrown grounds of what seemed to be gardens and trees growing out of collapsed houses. Strangely enough, while some houses were reduced to rubble, others had only their roofs missing, the brick walls still surprisingly intact and relatively free from the infestation of vines and vegetation. She would’ve gone to grab a sample, but perhaps it’d have to wait until they return.
Judging from the size of the ruins, it was probably either a prosperous town or a major structural complex of some sort. There seemed to be no traces of an external city, assuming nature hadn’t hidden any further structures from sight. Aside from the houses, there were pillars that stretched nearly as high as the tallest trees, highways, corridors and bridges that connected buildings above ground and over what used to be flowing streams. There were traces of a sewage system, evidenced the the half-exposed ducts and pipes, but these immediately stood out not for their appearance, but for their recency. To Sofis’ knowledge, only the capital had developed a proper sewage system like the ones in the ruins… except the system had only been completed twenty years before her birth.
Soon, they arrived at the central pyramidal structure, the building far larger than it seemed when viewed from a distance. The main entrance was a large, pillared gap that stood between two broken stone staircases. At each step of the pyramid were massive staircases of its own, but those were either already destroyed, overwhelmed with weeds and vines or just inaccessible due to the broken staircases before. At the top, a rectangular white marble tower stood high above everything else, its edges along the roof lined with gold. It almost seemed like it was peering down upon the band, and as the midday sun crossed the structure, the gold reflected its light across the entire ruins, illuminating the entire scene with its glory.
It was very strange that she didn’t even notice that magnificent building when she looked at it from afar.
‘Is there any way we can climb up to that tower?’ the leader, Gennai, asked.
‘Don’t think so, boss,’ one of them replied. ‘Our ropes only go so far, and we still have to lug our wheeled chests.’
‘Sigh… Well, I guess we’ll have to see what treasures lie inside this structure first. It is the first of its kind that I’ve seen in my life, so who knows what sort of things we’ll find?’
‘Gold?’ one suggested.
‘Diamonds?’
‘Rubies?’
‘Sapphires?’
‘As I said, we’ll see.’ Gennai then turned to Sofis. ‘Do you know anything about this structure?’
‘I… Well, it is something that very few scholars of the field have studied, and this is a completely newly discovered ruin, so…’ The truth was that she also had no idea the kind of structure they were about to enter into. It didn’t seem like a castle though it had fortification-like properties, it didn’t seem like a palace despite the gold adorned upon that tower, it didn’t seem like a city despite the houses and sophisticated roads.
It was indeed ‘the first of its kind’ Sofis had seen in her life. But she couldn’t possibly admit that to the band. It was tantamount to admitting that she was at the same level as them, and she was supposed to be the most educated one here.
A temple.
‘It’s… a “temple”,’ she blurted.
‘What’s that?’
It was the exact same question Sofis had in her mind as well. She had never even come across the word before. The term simply popped up in her mind. It could’ve been an imaginary amalgamation of many other words, but the word itself seemed too simple to be that.
‘It’s, uh, what we at the Academia call this stepped pyramidal structure,’ she frantically explained, letting her thoughts flow out of her mouth. ‘In fact, it can be extended to the entire ruin complex of this place since it all connects back to this central temple.’
‘So we’ll call this place Temple Ruins?’ he asked.
‘Until I find its actual name, yes, let’s call it that for now.’
‘Well, I guess that’ll be your first contribution to the Brown Hunters, young scholar!’ the leader laughed. He was obviously too loud for her liking, but at least he seemed the friendliest for now. She just hoped he would keep his dirty hands off her body, as was with her attitude towards everyone else.
‘As the leader,’ he announced, ‘I, Gennai, welcome you to the band!’
The fact was that everyone had already ‘welcomed’ her when she first joined the band before they headed off to the ruins. That welcome was really just a bunch of pats on the back which left her mildly bruised and very annoyed. This at least seemed more proper. Well, that was to be expected for a leader.
… And of course everyone once again crowded around her and patted her back again, some of them even having the audacity to violently rub her hair. Sure, it was a gesture of affection, but her flowing hair, already cut short for this journey, was the result of years of great care. And to be ruined like this was just pure infuriating.
‘Hehe…’ she forced a chuckle. She just couldn’t express her anger.
‘Well, everyone, to the Temple Ruins!’ Gennai shouted, marching in without even waiting for a cheer or applause from the treasure hunters.
Sofis sighed, brushing the dirt off her precious hair as she followed everyone else.
This was indeed going to be a long journey.