She's My Man

Before the strange looking structure Buzan stood.

He stared into the crystal blue eyes of the firebird perched on the stone dragon with wings wide open.

The stone dragon had its mouth wide opened which served as a doorway into the temple, giving one the feeling of walking into the gut of the stone dragon. And perhaps it was truly so since the temple was just the dragon. No other building, just the slick serpentine body of the dragon coiled and stretched out at one point and the other.

There was no lock nor gate. There was just utter darkness which would give one a rethink about going in.

The High Priestess' temple was not a place for the faint hearted.

The firebird perched on the stone dragon looked real with its blazing red feathers.

One couldn't tell if it were a real bird or not.

Tale has it that it has a lifespan. When its time of death arrives, it would catch fire and a new firebird would emerge from it's ashes.

How true the tale was,

No one knew.

Everything about the temple looked both deadly and alive.

The stone dragon was not left out. It's eyes were blazing with fire. And steams were oozing out from the darkness of its guts, through its nostrils and mouth as it does when one exhales in a cold weather and with it came roars vibrating through its serpentine body.

Buzan without hesitation stepped into the dragon's mouth. The action was welcomed with a vibrating growl from the dragon which lasted for longer than the usual roar as if the dragon was alerting its master of an intruder.

The darkness and heat engulfed Buzan as he continued down the "path".

He didn't know what to expect and if he were being honest he wasn't prepared for anything.

He couldn't sleep through out the night and it was barely dawn when he had embarked on the journey to the High Priestess' temple. Moreso, scaling the height of the MoMo's Mountain where the temple was located was no simple task.

Although he couldn't bring himself to believe that the temple was harmless as much as he tried to convince himself, he was at that point too tired to to care.

Suddenly he heard a sound of blazing fire yet the place remained as dark as it was. He continued cautiously down the "path" until he got extremely tired. He felt like he was in an abyss; darkly endless. He fell to his knees in exhaustion.

After some minutes have passed. He struggled up to his feet with a renewed determination to continue.

Suddenly a burst of wind wisped passed him causing the hairs on his body to stand in alert.

Before he could react to the new development, there was a burst of light which sent him falling back on his knees and covering his eyes with his right hand.

After recovering from the daze, he opened slowly his eyes which had automatically gone shut, trying to let them adjust to the bright light.

It was just too bright that he couldn't look ahead of him.

He had to look down again while still on his knees.

The ground beneath him while it was hard enough under his feet looked bloody, making him feel like he was truly inside a dragon.

He had to look around him and even above.

He didn't look at it long enough to notice much apart from the fact that everywhere was just dripping with fresh blood which ran down the sides and disappeared to the gods knew where since they didn't create a pool on the floor.

A voice came from the bright light ahead. His head automatically lifted towards the light which made him lowered his head immediately again because of its intensity. He had to just be satisfied by staring at every other place but ahead while listening to the voice.

"Echos

Echos...

Echos of heartbeats"

The voice whispered. It was a voice of a woman. Buzan thought it would be the High Priestess'.

And then the next voice got him confused. It was that of a man.

It continued from where the woman's stopped.

"Time Time

I am boundless..."

Woman- " Across the 'verses

United as one"

Man- "I am what was

What is

What will be"

Woman- "Strange separation,

So close, forbidden,

So far"

Together- " Echos,

Heartbeats,

Strange indeed"