Epilog
The mountain is a great place to hide when you're a human, except from the sun. The blistering heat brings steam even out of the dry rocks to meet with the clouds. A lonely figure traversed up the steep paths of one particular mountain, Legends Peak. The sharp point and the sheer steep cliffs that belonged to the mountain side warned all but this one traveler. His blue hooded cloak fluttered in wind strong enough to take the feet out from even the heaviest of men, and yet he continued. His breath heavy and feet sore, he gripped the wall as if it were the only thing keeping him planted to the earth as he reached out again to inch his way forward.
As he neared the corner of a rock ledge, the wind suddenly stopped, as if giving up and saying 'you passed my test'. The traveler turned the corner to find a magnificent stone temple, carved out of the wall of the mountain itself. The temple stood almost sixteen oak trees high and came to a point near the top, a place that looked strangely like a bell tower. Above the entrance was carved a symbol of the sun surrounding what looked to be a woman figure. "I found it." the traveler said. His voice was slightly deep yet gentle, telling anyone who could hear that he would be no threat to them. However, no one was there to listen. The man continued forward and pushed the two enormous doors open, giving it all his remaining strength. When the doors were far enough apart that he could walk through, he collapsed to his knees breathing heavily and exhausted from his journey. He lifted his head when he thought he saw something. On the far side of the room, the wall appeared to have a message written on it, in letters of light, 'Accept my challenge and take the swords' it read. Breathing heavily the man spoke again, "You're sure that the swords in this temple will give me my revenge. The beast that destroyed my village must pay." The message disappeared and was replaced by another message in the same writing, 'Your revenge will be by your own hands, these swords will be the indestructible tools you need to achieve it'.
The man rose to his feet and glanced at his surroundings. The room was large, larger than any room he'd ever seen. He could only guess at the size of the place. To each side were seven doors each, leading to various parts of the temple. In front of him stood a massive stair case, one he had trouble seeing the top to. He guessed that the weapons he was looking for were there. Tired and week, he traveled to the top of the stair case, slowly. Step by step he crawled, slowly making his way to the top of the stares. He dared not count them, for fear of losing his own spirit in the sheer number of them. When he reached the top, he found a curved pedestal made of pure stone with two curved swords sticking out of each side, a katana on the right, and its partner blade on the left, buried to the hilt. Standing to his feet, he took a glance behind the pedestal, and beheld a large, but beautiful, painted mural depicting a samurai wearing golden armor and riding on a horse, charging through a battle field and cutting down any and all enemies in his way using what looked like swords made from light. The mural had to be the size of an oak tree, or bigger, he didn't know. Lowering his head, he looked at the two handles poking out of the stones curved surface, and grabbed them both. Suddenly the wall shined with a message again saying, 'Accept my challenge'.
"Whatever you got for me, I can handle. I accept." the traveler said. As soon as he said these words, he could feel the two blades begin to release themselves from their grip of stone. The message rewrote itself to display, 'After drawing the swords, you are never again to bath yourself in light. Now shrink, shrink to the size of a forest creature and remain in the shadows forever'. After reading the message, the traveler looked on in shock, turning his head, he could see the sun beginning to make its way to peek through the windows of the temple, and the sunlight was nearly touching the top stair. In his panic, his dug inside himself for the strength to free the two swords and pulled with all his might. With every second that slipped away, he felt his body begin to shrink. Pulling with every ounce of his strength he felt the swords finally slip free of their prison, and he ran, vaulting over the pedestal in order to flee the light. Swords in hand, he felt his body get smaller and smaller, the two swords shrinking with him. Finally he found himself small, so very small, and running out of shadows quickly. Looking around, the man spotted what looked to be a mouse hole and darted in, turning the corner to keep the sunlight off of him. His breath became ragged and his knees buckled from under him, collapsing the poor tired man to the floor. Shifting himself so the sun would not find him, he fell asleep from his exhaustion.
When he awoke, he found the sun was falling behind the horizon, night was falling and he had to get out of there and down the mountain quickly. As soon as the sun had set completely, he began his journey to descend the mountain; keeping in mind he could not bathe himself in the light. When he reached the top of the stairs he realized, everything was bigger when you're the size of a Smurf.
