Chapter Text
Jake awoke just before dawn to the shrieks of parrots in the canopy above his home, as the jungle began its transition from night into day. Pale blue light filtered through the open curtains, illuminating the cot he slept on. It had been a peaceful night, one that left him feeling refreshed and content.
He dressed in an uncharacteristic silence. Usually Jake would loudly narrate his thoughts to the air around him, but today it didn’t feel right. He sighed and wished someone was there to talk to. A dog would be nice, he had seen pictures of those in the books his grandmother left him, and they looked like fantastic animals. The closest thing to dogs he had encountered in person were wildcats, though.
With the sounds of the waking jungle around him he tugged a t-shirt over his head and holstered his guns in the pre-dawn light. It faded from blue to purple, dyeing the walls in dreamy patterns. Jake left his home as the sun had just begun to creep over the horizon. The day hadn’t even started and it was already hot enough to make sweat drip down the back of his neck and his shirt cling to him in an unsightly manner.
Butterflies floated by, oblivious to the jungle heat, but for Jake it took a while to adjust after leaving the cool shade of the crumbling building he called home. As he walked down the overgrown path that lead away from his house, he vaguely recalled a time when it was free from vines and ferns. Back then his house had been a bustling place, with smiling visitors and warm arms around him. Then sickness had come, the visitors stopped visiting and those comforting arms were taken away from him. Now he lived alone.
The front gate was slowly decaying in the humidity. There wasn't much he could do for it, except replace it piece by piece as the wood rotted away or was eaten by termites. The sounds of the jungle drowned out his footsteps as he left the confines of the abandoned mission. Here in the deafening quiet, he had no one to speak to but himself.
"It's the start of a right good day, isn't it? Today's going to be an adventure!"
"Of course, every day's an adventure." he said with a grin, stepping lively and placing his hand on one of his guns. They were flintlock, his prized possessions. He had discovered them in a dusty corner of the mission, and only with meticulous care had he brought them back to working condition. Jake dodged under vines and scrambled over the buttresses of enormous trees. Soon the jungle gave way to ruins, immense columns and ancient temples growing out of the rainforest floor.
Jake had discovered these ruins years ago, when he was first learning to survive on his own. He had ventured out of the mission in search of fruit, and had instead come across the head of a statue. It was bigger around than he was tall, and lay on its side on the forest floor. Forgetting his fear and loneliness for a few moments, he had decided to find the statue's body. He could hardly imagine how miserable it must feel to be both alone and headless.
Since then, that small goal had become a fierce determination to explore every inch of the ruins. Like finding food and fixing fences, this was easier said than done. Through his adventures, Jake had found that the statue was part of a temple, and that temple was one of hundreds in an abandoned city that spanned the entire valley.
The entire city was silent, abandoned for hundreds -no- thousands of years, but Jake found life in every corner. Flowers bloomed from cracks in walls, and lizards sunned themselves on the steps of pyramids. Every so often he would get up early in the morning and climb up to the top of the very first temple he had found, the home of that broken statue. From there he would watch the sun rise.
From the roof he could see the entire valley spread out before him, and immense temple that sat in the middle of it. It was much taller than his own perch, so he couldn’t see over the top. Each day Jake ventured further toward that temple, exploring everything along the way. In his escapades he had found the treasure of a hundred fallen kings, the mummies of the kings themselves, and enough wonders to fill the world.
Weeks ago he has stumbled upon, well, into a tunnel that led to a vast underground chamber. Tucked away in a secluded alley, and set back in an alcove behind a building, was a ventilation shaft. It hadn’t quite blended into the architecture as well as its builder had intended, and Jake had immediately noticed something off about the alcove’s placement. In a burst of inspiration, Jake had squeezed himself inside to look for hidden passageways. That was exactly what he had found.
With a jolt the earth beneath his feet had given way, and he found himself plunging down into darkness. The shaft’s sheer descent had angled off after a few seconds, slowing his descent. Suddenly, it dropped off into open air. With a combination of agility and pure dumb luck, Jake caught onto one of the thick roots hanging from the chamber ceiling.
“Holy fucking mackerel...”
Jake dangled at the edge of a vast cavern. Here he was only a few meters off the tile floor, but the ceiling sloped up and away from him until it was lost in darkness. He clambered down as far as he could, and then let go. Jake landed with a huff, and straightened up to get a good look at his surroundings.
A few pinpricks of sunlight shone through holes dotted throughout the chamber, much like the one he had fallen down. Combined, their light illuminated the cage that stood in the center of the chamber. It was larger than life, crafted in an onion-shaped dome and gilded so that it glowed even after laying empty for countless years.
The cage stood on a raised dais covered in faded blue tile. Surrounding the dais was a dry trench that must have once been a moat. Jake wondered aloud what the purpose of this setup was, “This cave must have been a bloody pain in the arse to dig out.”
He climbed up the steps to the dais and peered into the cage, but there was nothing left inside but dust. It might have held tropical birds at some point, or a large animal. The cage was tall, but not wide enough for something like an alligator. It was just the right size for something of Jake’s height and shape. Jake shuddered. Birds, it must have held birds.
Jake had returned to the underground room many times since that day. Even though he could see other holes in the ceiling, ones that let in light and fresh air, he was never able to find any of them from outside. Any actual doors to the cave were either buried or so carefully hidden that not even he could find them. Thus, Jake was forced to use that same damned vent shaft every time he wanted to go back.
Now, as he bounded through the underbrush, Jake was tempted to return. No, he forced himself to stay focused on his goal. If he kept up his pace without pausing to revisit any old sites, he could reach the center of the city by midday. This was a goal he had been looking forward too since that first clear morning, months ago.
Jake didn’t know what it was that drew him towards the center of the city. Perhaps it was the prospect of accomplishment, of an experience greater than day-to-day survival. Perhaps it would be an adventure to remember, one to relive again and again for years, a memory to keep him company. No matter what, it was sure to be grand.