Walking through the cavernous stone halls, walls shrouded in vines and overgrowth. The ruins crumbling from hundreds of years of disuse. The stone pillars reaching toward the sky where once had been a roof were now broken and strewn about. The walls too had holes through which the forest could be seen. The canopy of trees had long since covered the ancient temple remains, but thin shoots of sunlight still broke through, even this deep in the forest.

He crept onward, the near silence having long since been disturbing him. An occasional bird flapping through the green and brown sky that hung above. Occasionally, a gust of wind would be strong enough to rustle the limbs low enough for the sound to reach his ears. He had also long since grown tired of the stifling stillness that surrounded him, the still and stuffy air, and the heat that closed in on him whenever he stopped moving. His brown, light cloak gently swayed behind him with each step he took forward, his staff moving forward before each step he took. After walking this road for what could easily have been ages, the walls fell away and he entered a clearing. It must have once been a large room judging from the massive pillar bases and the shear amount of stone scattered before him, but it now had the appearance of a courtyard.

There were four such bases, having lost the support pillars that had once stood atop them long ago. Here too there was much overgrowth. No trees, but vines draped over the walls and grass sprung from between the fallen stones that had once been the roof of the room and the pillars that supported it.

He walked between the four and found at the far end of the large clearing a stack of stones, but this an ordered pile, unlike all those scattered about, though there were two large cubes of stone on top sitting in small craters where they had landed.

His eyes searched this pile, for he felt it was what he had been in search of. It seemed to be the altar he was told he would find, that spoken of in the legend as the place where it lay. He found on the back a curious hole with jagged edges. He took the amulet from under his fur covering and removed the rope from which in hung from around his neck. The sides matched.

He inserted the object and then stood back and placed the end of his staff into the opening at the amulet’s center. With all the might he had he tried turning the key, but it only moved slightly and then no more. He continued to try several more times before he stopped for a moment. He looked back across the barren clearing. Something was different. He removed his staff and held it at his side, narrowing his eyes as he did so scanning the room.

A light gust of wind reached the forest floor and he could feel it behind him…or was it something else? He walked slowly toward the center of the room. He jerked to his right, staff at the ready, when he heard rock tumbling down a stone grade by the wall. His eyes shifted back and forth, then he took a breath. He closed his eyes and listened with his ears. Then he felt it, a gentle rumble that seemed to be coming from deep within the earth. He opened his eyes and looked at the rocky, stone covered ground under his leather sheathed feet. He grass was now gently swaying in the slowly growing wind just as was his cloak and its hood.

His eyes jerked open, the altar. He turned to see it slowly rising up from the ground, supported by four pillars. The pillars shifted as if they were legs on some living beast and the altar turned completely around to where the now yellow glowing amulet was on the side closest to him. The opening where he had placed his staff now had a dull gray glow, but it looked like an eye. It shifted slightly in his direction, then he heard a low rumble like a deep growl. The stone was alive.

His cloak now fluttered wildly behind him as he lifted his staff into a position ready for attack. Of course such a powerful treasure would be guarded. His eyes locked on its. With a cry he charged the stone which stood thrice his height. With his staff he struck out first its closest limb. The wood echoed off, sending small bits of rockdust from the point of impact, though it seemed not to harm the beast. Continuing his charge, his staff ricocheted off a pillar on the far side as he ran under the beast between its legs, but again no damage did he do.

With the other hind leg of stone, it struck out as he charged past and struck him in the back, sending him forward and to the ground, his face smashing into the stone broken only by shoots of grass. He pushed himself up, his face hot and dripping red onto the rock. He reached out and took hold of his staff setting at his side. He gathered his strength into his legs and pushed himself forward, just before a stone foot smashed into the ground where he had lain.

He landed and spun to again face the beast, but had quickly to spring to the side to avoid another crushing blow. Then he jumped with all his might upward. The hero brought his staff behind him as his height rose, and then as his jump leveled with him at equal height with the top of the living stone, his staff he brought over his head and smashing into the top of the stone altar. For several moments, he hung in the air, his staff slightly embedded within the head of the beast, directly above its eye. Then the moment passed, and the earth took once again his body with its invisible grasp and boy and staff fell to the ground.

In a crouch, he looked up at the glowing eye looking down on him with its unholy glow. His eyes locked with it. Raring back on its rear legs, a strong gust blew from it and he heard a low growl shatter the stillness and cause small rocks to tumble down from the walls. Its two forward limbs came at him from both sides while the glowing yellow and gray flashed down at him from above. His eyes narrowed as he set his attack.

His legs pushed hard against the ground, cracking the stone and sending him once again into the air just as the two stone pillars smashed into each other where he had been in his crouch. This time, his staff he held forward, like a spear or a lance. His body shot upward and his staff in front of him smashed into his target, the amulet, the glowing eye. Under the force of his jump, his staff broke through and the stone around the hit cracked and then began to break apart. The eye shattered.

All was still again, the amulet shattered and the stone laying about on the ground. But in its midst was his prize and object of his quest. He stepped forward, reached out his free hand, and took it…