Chapter 9 – The Secrets That Lie Within.

Chris and Rachael made their way down the road, walking past the last of the abandoned houses, and then the blocks of empty land, towards the border of Old Town. The sun was bathing them in it’s warmth, a slight breeze attempting to ruffle Chris’s skirt. The hint of dew was still present of the grass. It all felt so surreal. Chris was half expecting terror to take him or Rachael over at any point, or that they’d find some reason to suddenly stop and turn around, but no, they kept on walking, right up to the invisible border between the two suburbs. They stopped, Chris taking a deep breath, calming himself and psyching himself up. He looked over at Rachael, a thoughtful expression on her face, which shifted into a smile when she noticed him looking at her.

And then they stepped over the border, into Old Town itself, and started making their way down the main road. Chris had almost expected something odd to happen, or there to be some sense telling him that they had crossed a forbidden boundary, given how much people avoided the place, especially when he had seen Millie’s reaction when she had been close to the border, but no, there was nothing. It was peaceful, ordinary. Rachael too seemed unphased.

It felt nice too, walking out in the open while dressed like this, the comfort and fit of the clothes, the feel of the air on his legs through the tights. He couldn’t get over how right it felt, Rachael’s acceptance of it and her compliments reinforcing it. Why couldn’t he have been born a girl? Then being like this wouldn’t have to be temporary. Rachael had asked him, and he hadn’t answered, but he knew the answer now, even though he also knew that it was entirely out of reach. Did he want to be a girl. Yes, yes he did. How was he going to deal with the fact that he couldn’t be? He didn’t know. That train of thoughts scared him at the moment. He wasn’t looking forward to the day being over. Then he’d have to change back into his normal clothes, the freedom lost. Not to mention the day spent with just Rachael would also be over, and they’d both have to deal with whatever was starting to develop back at their home. Chris sighed, pushing those thoughts to the side. No point in fretting about the future. He should instead enjoy the present, before it was gone.

Chris looked over at Rachael as they walked, and smiled. He wasn’t sure why, but she looked more alive, more her, at the moment, a partially thoughtful and partially confident expression on her face as she looked around. Actually, the entire area looked and felt more alive than the rest of the time. The area vibrant in the sun’s rays, and he could hear the songs of the birds in the trees, sparrows, goldfinches, bellbirds, even a kereru. That last one was a definite, as he watched the bulky bird flap out of one tree, the branches swaying with its departure, and land in another nearby one. The colours seemed more intense, the plants vibrant, their smells sharp. It was almost as if the land was saying, that’s the real you, so here is the real me. Come.

“Have you been in here before?” Rachael queried as they neared the pile of stones that Chris had left. He was pleased to see that it was still exactly as he had left it. It actually hadn’t taken them long to reach it, but he wasn’t so sure about the benefit of that aspect. He wasn’t in any hurry to leave.

“Yeah, earlier in the week. I found myself here by accident, just before dark. To say it was stressful would be an understatement, not to mention that I thought I’d lost something important.”

“Oh!”

“I’ve been building up the courage to come back, but it ended up being easier than I thought.” Chris gave a shy smile. “You though, why aren’t you effected like Millie was? You saw how agitated this place made her when she ran with you yesterday.” She’d surprised him at how easily she was handling this place.

“Must be your influence,” Rachael replied with a grin. Chris was certain that wasn’t the case, given what he had seen, but whatever the cause, she must have a reason for not saying and he wasn’t going to pressure her on it. He was just happy enough to have her along, and her support. The shoes were really comfortable too.

“This is the place,” Chris stated as they reached the pile of stones. “Something flew out of my pocket here when I was fleeing last time, and it landed somewhere over there,” Chris said as he gestured to the relevant area.

Rachael stopped beside him, looked at the pile of stones, and then to the patch of rubble. “What was it that you lost?” she queried.

“I thought I knew, but was proven wrong when I got home. We’ll know it when we find it.”

Chris walked over to the edge of the path and crouched down, giving the area a careful browse over before he started carefully inspecting on and between every piece of rubble, pushing the grass aside as needed. This was going to take a while, even with Rachael’s help, as she joined him, gingerly climbing her way over a few stones to start looking a little further in.

It was quarter of an hour later when a glint a caught Chris attention. Bored already from the monotony of the search, he eagerly moved over to where he’d seen it, which was not too far from Rachael, and it only took him a moment to locate the figurine, which was lying wedged at the top of the gap between two bricks. He pulled her out, holding her in his hand as he found a larger piece of rubble beside Rachael, and making sure his skirt was positioned properly under him, sat down.

“That’s Pyre!” Rachael exclaimed, sitting down next to Chris.

“It is,” Chris affirmed nodding, holding her up and examining her all over. “Yet, it can’t be. She is sitting on the shelf by the bed, where I left her this morning. And as she was the evening I found myself out here. When she fell out of my pocket, I thought I had accidentality taken her with me. But I had not, as she was there when I got home. It is however a perfect duplicate, even to the painting mistakes and scratches.”

“Can I see?” Rachael asked, taking it from Chris as he handed it to her and examining it herself, before handing it back. “You’re right. It is. That’s really weird.”

Chris made to put Pyre-2 into his pocket, before realising with a slight blush that he didn’t have any.

Rachael giggled. “Would you like me to hold onto that for you?”

Chris nodded, handing it to her. Next time he dressed like this he would get himself a handbag or something. He had brought along his backpack, but had left it in Rachael’s car as he didn’t think he’d need it, and it meant that he didn’t have to carry around all the extra weight. Not to mention it felt wrong wearing it with his current attire. Ah the trails of female attire.

“What now?” Rachael asked. “Are we going to head back?”

Chris shook his head. “I want to explore a bit more. There is something about this place, like it calls to me. It feels... comfortable here. There has to be more to this area than meets the eye. There must be. The answers must be here somewhere. After all, figures don’t just magically appear. If you’re happy to keep looking?”

Rachael smiled at him. “Sounds like a plan. You’re not afraid at all?”

“No. I’m a little excited actually.”

Rachael stood up and stretched, causing Chris to blush once again, before she gracefully hopped across the rubble back to the street. Did she even realize what she was doing half the time, or was this just a new thing for her? Chris smiled, content that she was with him in the first place, and then also carefully made his way across the rubble back to the street.

“Where to now?” Rachael queried, looking around.

Chris looked around. Everywhere still looked the same to him, so whatever secrets there were, they weren’t in the immediate vicinity.

“That way,” Chris eventually said, pointing further down the road. “I’m sure I had gone a lot further down this road, so it’s as good a direction as any.

They walked for a while in silence, carefully making their way down the road. At first everything just looked the same as before, and Chris had started to wonder if there was actually anything else here, but as they started to get beyond what Chris judged to be the extent of naked eyesight from the border to Old Town, changes started to kick in. At first it was just the state of the residential plots, the greenery being more dominant than the rubble, but then the rubble started to disappear entirely, along with any fences or indication of division between the parcels of land, becoming large stretches of overgrown grass and trees. The condition of the road also started to quickly deteriorate, first becoming rougher and more broken up, till eventually, like for the plots, the asphalt disappear entirely, and they found themselves walking along a dirt road. Then the trees started to become more prominent, thickening up till Chris was certain that they had entered a forest. He was even certain that he had spotted a doe and her foal.

“This is really weird,” Chris finally stated, voicing his thoughts. “This doesn’t happen in ten years, at least I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t.”

Rachael nodded. “That it does not, at least as far as I am also aware. At least I’m wearing the right colours,” she joked. “Still keen to keep exploring?”

“Definitely! We’ve come this far already. No point in giving up now, and no one is going to believe us with just this anyway.”

It was like someone had taken the wilderness from outside of town, and planted it in the middle of Old Town, not to mention that Old Town wasn’t anywhere near the forested areas on the outskirts of town. Chris had studied the map, and while there weren’t any other suburbs in this direction (though there were two other suburbs other than Agerslows that did border Old Town), once you were out of town proper you ended up heading for the coast, and the land in between was mostly scrub and grass lands. Not a dense forest.

They continued along the road, as it curved it’s way through the trees, allowing them only limited sight ahead. While the road was now a dirt one, it still remained clear of any foliage, allowing for smooth passage along it. If anything, it was actually easier to walk on than the broken up road that they had been travelling along initially. The air felt a lot cleaner than that of the city, and Chris started to see creatures as well that he hadn’t seen before. Varieties of squirrels and rabbits that were largely unfamiliar, as well as numerous small tree birds and the occasional owl. He also thought he spotted a wolf or larger dog like creature walking through the trees near them, but was relieved when a red fox scampered across the road in front of them. The trees at least looked familiar, a combination of natives and pines. As they walked, the conversation ended up drifting to the various characters that they had role-played over the years, and Chris was surprised to learn that Rachael had only been role-playing since she started studying. Millie had been doing it for quite a bit longer, but Rachael hadn’t been around when Millie had started, and so had only joined in when they got back together again at university.

About half an hour later Chris felt a subtle shift in the terrain around them. The ruins of structures started to appeared, mingled in with the forest, the air taking on a sharper texture. Rachael appeared to notice it as well, her attention becoming more focused as their conversation stopped.

“We’ve arrived somewhere important, haven’t we?” Chris queried.

“I’d say so,” Rachael replied.

Then abruptly they broke through the treeline, the road stopping at the edge of a cliff overlooking a large basin. Looking around, Chris was able to trace the edge of the forest right around the basin, which he guessed to be a couple of blocks across in size and probably around a hundred meters deep. A narrow path made it’s way down the cliff face from where they stood to the basin floor, which was currently bathed in the days sun, and sitting in the middle of the basin was another ruined building, but nothing the like of which Chris had seen. It looked foreign, and very ancient. Surely if it had been in Old Town the entire time they would have known about it?

“This was the epicentre of the earthquake,” Rachael stated, as she gazed down, a thoughtful look on her face. “An anchor temple.”

“Huh?” Chris queried.

Rachael shook her head, then smiled at Chris. “Just random theories. Shall we go have a look?”

Chris smiled back, and he was sure his eyes were glowing with anticipation. This was almost like a role-playing campaign. He knew that there was something definitely amiss and off with the entire situation, but he couldn’t deny his curiosity or the pull to go and explore. They weren’t going to do anything silly, and surely there wasn’t any harm in looking. After all, it was technically part of their backyard.

“Definitely!”

With Chris leading, they made their way down the side of the cliff face. Chris felt a bit anxious as he made his way down, the path narrow, and he hugged the wall as much as he dared. The path seemed to be sturdy however, and there wasn’t even a single loose rock or slip to complicate the descent, Chris giving a huge sigh of relief once they reached the bottom. The floor of the basin was covered in a soft short grass, almost as if someone had been tending to a lawn, a few scattered fruit trees surrounding the structure. The ruins in the middle looked to be more intact than he had initially thought, crafted from white and grey stone, and standing a couple of stories high. Massive decorative pillars surrounded the structure, writing in a script that he did not recognize accompanying the various scenes that were carved into the walls. Each segment of wall had a different landscape, he could see forests, plains, swamps, beaches, tundra, fields, and so on. Some scenes had people in them, others not, the sun rising, or was it setting, in all of them. They were all peaceful scenes as well.

“Wow.”

They discovered that a pair of draconic statues guarded the main entranceway as they made their way around, the statues as tall as the building itself, seemingly carved from a single stone and intricate. Running his hand alone the leg of one, he could fell the depth and texture of it’s scales. They were western dragons too, the big fat style that was typical for fantasy settings.

“Senrir and Dynis,” Rachael stated, as she ran her hand along some script at the bottom of the statues.

“Their names?”

“Yup. I’m not sure how I know, but that is what it says on their plaques.”

Chris stared at the foreign script on the plaques, and then it suddenly hit him. She was right, that is what it said. They were the guardians of the temple, to awake when the need arose, in an age that had long since passed. They would have been powerful beasts, if indeed they had been real. He shivered in spite of himself, and no it wasn’t because of the skirt. There was something strange about this place. For a moment he wondered if they should just leave, but the desire to explore and know more quickly quashed that.

There were a dozen steps leading up to the entrance of the temple, which Chris and Rachael carefully made their way up. A soft glow lit the interior of the temple, coming from regular spots in the roof of the structure. Some form of archaic skylight Chris guessed. The inside of the temple was similar to the outside, stone pillars placed regularly around the wall, murals of scenes between each pair. They were of the same style, landscapes with the occasional smattering of people. The interior almost felt empty, as if there should have been a lot more there. There certainly a lot of space. It had dragons at the entrance, why were there no beasts inside. Or statues of people or even gods. Nothing about the temple seemed to indicate who it was for.

In the middle of the temple was a lowered section of floor, four steps going down to it. A dozen pedestals stood in it, and unlike the rest of the temple which seemed to be immune from being overgrown, the lowered section was filled with grass and other assorted weeds, a few flowers included. The pedestals were all empty, a couple of them broken, the top halves lying in the grass. Would they have been used for offering perhaps? A glint beside one of the broken pedestals caught Chris’s eye, and he made his way down, to look.

“There’s something here,” he called to Rachael, as he moved the grass off to the side, revealing some items crafted from metal. White and gold. Rachael joined him, and it didn’t take them long to find a few more items, which they pulled out and placed at the top of the steps nearby.

“They’re beautiful,” Rachael exclaimed as they examined them. They must have formed part of some ancient armour, though they appeared to be in perfect condition, which made Chris feel anxious. Nothing abandoned and left lying in grass and moisture should look as good as they did. But Rachael was right, they were beautiful. Stunning. But also incomplete. They had four items. A small round shield, white metal with a gold seam around the outside, a sun blazing in its middle. A short sword, the blade pure white while the hilt and pommel were a mixture of the white and gold, interwoven together, with the emblem of a sun again at the top of the hilt, just before the blade. And finally a pair of armoured heels, thigh high, and the most intricate of the lot. Threads of white and gold weaved their way up the length of them, blossoming around the three suns that were positioned there. The height of the heel was about the same as the heels that he had bought, and as Chris held them and turned them over in his hands, he wondered if they would fit him at all. He’d checked the inside, and they were, surprisingly, clean.

“You want to try them on, don’t you?” Rachael asked with a coy smile.

Chris blushed. “Yeah,” he murmured.

“There’s no reason not to,” Rachael said. “I’m certainly not judging you, and they don’t appear to be anyone's.”

“And you don’t get to wear something like that every day,” she added with a grin.

She was right of course. His heart racing (why was it doing that anyways), he took off the shoes he was wearing, carefully putting them off to the side, and then slid on the heels. They were surprisingly easily to put on, he thought they would have needed a zip or something on the side, and they fit perfectly. Not to mention they were comfortable. Like really comfortable. He stood up, and walked around the temple a little bit. They felt nice, and right. Like they had been made for him. He sighed. He could get use to wearing something like this all the time, but there was no way he’d be able to, even given that they were some ancient armour or something. Rachael was watching him, smiling.

“Did you want to try them on?” he asked.

“Nah. I’m not wearing the right clothes for it.”

Chris went back to the pile, and picked up the sword and shield, holding them both as he assumed they should be.

“How do I look?” he asked, a smile on his face, as he tried a pose.

“Like a warrior princess,” Rachael said with a grin. “They suit you. They really do.”

Chris blushed. “Thanks...” he said quietly.

“You should...” Rachael started, when a blood curling howl echoed through the temple, a misshapen shadow appearing at the entrance. She went white, her eyes going wide with horror.

“Oh gods, no!” She exclaimed, fear in her voice. “What’s one of those doing here.”

Chris felt fear wash over him, as the creature shambled into the temple itself. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t seem real, and it was terrifying. It looked like some form of werewolf that hadn’t fully transformed, it’s face a grotesque mess and its limbs elongated. It was covered in a fine fur, muscles bulging, and the claws on its hands were dripping blood. It growled, gazing at them both one at a time.

The demon wolf thing them howled again, and leapt towards Rachael, moving faster than Chris thought possible. He tried to move, to intercept, Rachael was his friend and he needed to help her, but fear kept him rooted to the spot. It crashed into the floor beside Rachael, it’s claws attempting to tear into her, but she had already dodged out of the way, crouching a few feet back and swearing.

“Run Chris, run!” she exclaimed, as it leapt towards her again. Rachael dodged again, her movements fluid and graceful. Howling, it tried a third time, and again she dodged to the side, her hand brushing past it as she did so, the creature screeching out in pain. It glared at her, hate in it’s eyes, before it grinned wickedly, and turning, leapt towards Chris.

Survival reflexes finally overcoming fear, Chris brought the shield up and tried moving off to the side, having no idea really of what he was doing. The claws of the creature slammed into the shield, wrenching it from his grasp, and throwing both the shield and himself to the side. He grimaced, pain shooting through his arm. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was broken.

“Oh no you don’t,” Rachael yelled, as she slammed into the creature from behind and causing it to fly into the wall, her palms glowing white.

“Come on, we’ve got to leave,” she said, taking Chris’s hand and pulling him up. Chris yelped in pain, the sword still being held in his other hand, stumbling.

Rachael looked like she was about to apologise when the creature slammed into her, claws tearing into her arm and spraying blood everywhere, and throwing her across the room.

“Leave her alone!” Chris screamed in rage, instincts taking over. Clenching the sword tightly in his hand, he lunged at the creature, its eyes opening in surprise as the sword glowed bright and cleaved right through the arm that it brought up in defence. Howling in pain, it swung its other arm around, its claw catching Chris in the middle and throwing him clear across the room. Pain racked Chris’s body, and he found his vision getting blurry. He tried to get up again, to aid Rachael, but couldn’t, the strength no longer there, blood pooling around him.

Rachael screamed in rage, her entire body lighting up in an eerie glow as she leapt at the creature. Her fist slammed into it, flesh searing as the impact threw it into the ground, the floor cracking underneath. She didn’t hesitate, landing on top of it, her fists slamming into it again and again.

Chris tried again to get up, his breathing ragged, but was unable to do so, his face falling to the stone floor. Funny, for as warm as the day was, he was starting to feel cold. Perhaps he just needed to rest. Yeah, that would be a good idea. He felt Rachael lift him up, holding him close. Wait, was she crying? He was having difficulty making out what she was saying.

“...no, no no! This is not fair. This is SO not fair!”

I’m so sorry Rachael.

And then everything faded to black.