A Short Story
As I ran on all fours along the cold, hard, crackling ground beneath me, I stopped at a halt. The small opening of water that sat before me seemed lifeless and desolate, but I knew better. I knew it was here, the thing I had been searching so desperately for. As much as I hated to do it, I knew the only way to reach it was to leap in, so with a groan and a moan, I jumped in, front legs first. As soon as I landed on the body of water, I realized that it was far, far larger underneath than what it had led me to believe when at the top. What I once thought to be a small lifeless lake turned out to be enormous, as soon as I could see it under the water. My thoughts were immediately interrupted when I saw what I was looking for. “Bingo”, I thought to myself. I swam toward the small fish biting down on it before it had a chance to escape my jaws. I swam back up to the top and attempted to dry myself. I hate water.
Perhaps it was the foul taste of this particular fish or the slow day I was having but a thought managed to burrow its way into my mind. It was only brief but it was enough to make me finally stop my unrelenting feasting and think. There was once a time that this lake was not here, a time when this gigantic piece of architecture had.. Humans live here. Hundreds of them came through this place every day. Hundreds of them offered food and other riches to me for absolutely nothing in return.
Humans were truly strange animals, but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being able to live comfortably without having to do any work to survive. I enjoyed being groomed and taken care of every day. I enjoyed the lavish life of receiving love and food from all who entered this place. Now though, it was nothing more than a dead memory of better days. A forgotten, bygone era. This place once looked absolutely beautiful and fantastic, and now it looked like a dead tomb. A dead, dying place that was falling apart more and more every day. The once beautiful, carpeted floors were now nothing more than cold, dead concrete with small blemishes of what once was. The once sturdy and powerful walls were now riddled with holes and cracks of all shapes and sizes. Many areas are simply inaccessible due to the pillars collapsing, which is the work of the unyielding decay of time. This was truly a dead place.
I wish I could remember how things became this way, yet all that sits in my memories are the sounds of men screaming, women and children crying, and massive, strange eruptions that forced holes through many of the walls. When the dust settled, the temple was barren and the village that lay outside was completely eradicated. Nothing remained except the rubble and debris. That colossal wreck was surrounded by the corpses of the dead humans. Men, women, children... It didn’t matter. In the distance, I watched the lone and level sands stretch far away.
I finished my meal, and made my way back through the empty temple, toward the small hole I had turned into my home. Tomorrow was another day.
