Chapter one: how it all began.

Victoria sat against the door with her feet on the seat and head on her knees, watching the branches of the trees along the path slide past. She never was one of the long travels, let alone through such boring jungle rides and had already tried everything to get her mind off the uneventful drive. But the unchanging scenery and the constant hum of the engine got to her eventually.

“Guys, anyone got an educated guess as to how far away we might be from these ruins?” she asked.

Garett keeping a close eye on the path ahead and trying to maneuver the 4x4 through the trees unscathing, answered “I’m sorry, Viccy, but I can’t really say. Those people only gave us a general area it should be located in and we got to stick to these paths to get anywhere around here.”.

Alex put her hand on Victoria’s shoulder and encouraged her “We are almost there, Victoria, we must be. It could be standing around any corner we take now. Isn’t this exciting? Finally exploring on our own, trying to uncover things only told in stories and lore.”.

Victoria rolled her eyes, turned towards Alex and said “Lex, you are as unbearably positive as usual.”. Then she smiled and said “But I’m glad you went with us. I can use the optimism in these kind of moments.”. Victoria turned back to her original position and started to look out of the windows again. “Ok, I’m gonna be the first to find it.” she said with renewed energy.

“You go, girl.” Jesse said, next to her. Victoria turned to him and said “Ah shush, you party pooper. You could try to be a bit more positive too. Aren’t you the least bit excited?”

Jesse pulled up his shoulders and replied “Of course I’m mildly curious, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”. “You mean you otherwise wouldn’t have anyone to hang around with for the holiday?” Julia mumbled while looking out the window with her elbow leaning on the door, supporting her chin. Jesse turned around to her a bit agitated. “Well, can’t say I had any other plans for the holidays, no. But you are certainly not the worst people to be around and I reckoned you might need my expertise.”.

Michelle sat in the front seat, turned towards the people in the back seat and noticed a smile on Garett’s face. “It’s never boring with this group of crazies, isn’t it?” she said to him with a giggle and a smile. His smile got wider and replied “Never!” while he slowly shook his head.

Charlie sat in the back and catched that little tidbit and shouted with a grin on his face “Who are you calling crazy? I for one are 100%, completely, certified…” “...Insane.” giggled Alex, while she finished Charlie’s sentence. “Heeeey!?!” Charlie yelled, while he gave Alex a playful push. Julia smiled while she kept looking outside and agreed with Alex “If the girl’s right, she’s right.”. Charlie turned towards her and said with a hint of disappointment “Not you too, Julia?”. To make it up to Charlie, Alex gently rubbed and then patted his left shoulder with her right hand, smiling at him softly while he looked away with an obviously played hurting look on his face.

Garett, still focused on driving the vehicle suddenly yelled “Hey guys, look at that!”, pointing at something between the trees to their right. “I think we have reached our destination.”.

Everybody turned their eyes towards the place Garett was pointing at and started to talk and act excitedly amongst each other. Michelle turned towards Garett and asked “Now that we found it, is there a way to get there by car?”. Garett stopped the car and took a look along the edge of the forest stretching all the way from the front to the back of the road and then took a map of the region they got from the local hotel and opened it. “Hmmmm, doesn’t seem to be a path at all leading into that direction” Garett said. “What do you guys think? Should we make a path towards the temple or do we walk?”.

Victoria said “It will probably take a while before we can make a path wide enough for the car to pass through and the distance to the temple seems walkable.”. Everybody agreed with her, so they drove the 4x4 off the path, out of sight of passerby’s, packed their bags and set off in the direction of the temple.

The trip towards the temple was a bit tiring because of the humid air, muddy ground at places, uneven terrain and lots of branches in the way. But eventually they reached the temple entrance in a safe and uneventful way.

The temple seemed Incan and quite plain from the outside. Made up from big pieces of stone slabs, covered in moss and with quite a long set of stairs leading up to the entrance. Seeing nothing of interest on the outside to investigate, the group decided unanimously to walk up the stairs and enter the temple.

While walking up the stairs, the group recognised markings on the front of each step. Victoria remembered that these signs were fertility signs, but didn’t know what they were used for nor what it meant in this situation. Nearing the entrance the group also noticed a big drawing above the doorway what looked like a big cocoon surrounded by stone chairs with people in them and what seemed like a light that all the people were looking towards. The drawing being interesting but not seeming to be of any major importance, the group started moving again and entered the temple.