The next morning was a nice one, the sun was shining brightly and Akascha was hopping around, overwhelmed by the view. They started their trip to the top again, at first Akascha bouncing up and down ahead of the group but after a while she came to walk next to Alec. ‘You know, I still don’t know why we are going to the top for that temple.’ Akascha asked him. ‘Centuries ago, our race was much bigger. We ruled the world and everything went well. We built temples like this one and they were places where people would come gladly because of the peace the temple had. There were a lot of monks living there and they wrote our history down. The rumours say that some temples had gigantic libraries filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of books in it.’ Alec sounded a bit dreamy at that point, but that was probably the dream of a scientist. ‘But even though we prospected for a long time, our race started to decline. We never knew why, but over the decennia’s we decreased to the small amount we have today. As far as we know you are the only female human-wolf there is. And that’s the reason why we are going to this temple. We hope we can find information here about our history and the history of this world in order to find out the reason of this decline. Even if we don’t find the reason for it, we would have a treasure of information. Most of the information of our past was lost in the Great War, something I’m not going to discuss. I would be busy for days.’ Alec said chuckling. ‘But that’s the reason why we are going there. I have traveled around the world and searched in a lot of temples, but I never found much information, just scraps and pieces. Until a few months ago. I and a few others researchers found a manuscript about the different temples in this area and it seemed that the temple on this mountain was one of the important ones even though it is rather small.’ Akascha smiled. ‘You know…You could have like.. Summarized your answer or something.’ Akascha said teasingly. ‘Those young ones, can’t even enjoy stories nowadays.’ He said while shaking his head. Akascha stuck her tongue out to him teasingly.

They walked for hours like that, a few breaks in between. The top was almost in view and unfortunately for them, the road became steeper and steeper. ‘Why did they build that temple on a freaking mountain?’ Akascha said under her breath, once in a while slipping because of a loose rock. ‘Damn fools.’ Akascha muttered, the rest wasn’t hearable anymore but they could all imagine it. After a little while of climbing like that they finally came to another plateau though this one was a lot bigger. Akascha dramatically hugged the ground. ‘Sweet sweet flat ground, I missed you.’ She said, petting the stones with her hand. ‘Silly kid.’ One of the warriors said smiling while others chuckled, she was usually a source of amusement. Alec clapped in his hands for a moment. ‘Okay, let’s set up camp here.’ Alec started. Soon, people were moving around, setting up the camp and doing all kinds of stuff. In the mean time, Akascha was still laying on the ground with eyes closed and a focused look on her face. She would scoot over once in a while, most of the time being ignored by the people around her, they just stepped over her like this was something she did every day. After about an hour the camp was set up and people were settled down. There was a small ruckus after Alec had announced that they would go inside the temple tomorrow morning but that had subsided pretty quickly. And still, Akascha was having her ear to the ground listening. ‘Akascha…have you gone mad?’ Alec asked her like it was the most normal thing on the world. Akascha waved to him as a sign he should stay silent. Alec shook his head. ‘No seriously, what are you doing?’ He asked her. ‘Did you know the temple that we see is just a small part of it? This thing has a huge basement. Or at least that’s what it sounds like.’ Akascha replied in return. ‘What are you talking about?’ Alec asked, now curious. He stood up and walked to where Akascha was laying. ‘If you lay down here, you’ll hear.’ Akascha said, not really in the mood for explaining it. Alec sighed before moving down too though a bit stiff. He was getting old. He moved his ear to the ground too and started to listen, a little bit skeptical. But soon his expression changed into one of amazement. ‘A bell?!’ He said stunned. ‘Yeah, and if you move a bit over there, you hear echoes of the bell. It’s a small one though.’ Akascha said. ‘How did you find this out?’ Alec asked curious. ‘When I hugged the ground back there, I thought I heard something. First I thought it was just you guys making noise but after a while I knew it was something else. But I don’t know how big it is, maybe it’s just an ordinary basement.’ Akascha said, standing up now and dusting herself off. ‘Impressive.’ Alec said before standing up slowly too. ‘You’re a smart girl you know.’ Alec said but he couldn’t help but to ruin the compliment. ‘Sometimes.’ He added. Akascha rolled her eyes and walked to the camp where a warm fire was inviting her to come closer. She sat down and took a piece of bread she was handed from Lestat. ‘I guess we’ll see that tomorrow.’ Lestat said soberly. ‘Yeah, what’s the planning for tomorrow?’ Akascha asked curious. Now she had heard stories about the temple from Alec she was curious how it looked like from the inside and if there was anything interesting at all. She was getting a bit anxious, hoping and doubting if they would find something. And if you would look around, she would notice that more people were feeling the same thing especially the researchers. ‘Well,’ Lestat started, ‘My team and I are going in first to see if it really is safe enough for you guys. I think that will take up the whole morning but that depends on how big it is from the inside. After that I guess the researchers have more idea about where to look. We’ll just be hanging around in case something happens.’ Lestat said, looking to Alec for a moment who was in a discussion or so it seemed. ‘Can I go inside too?’ Akascha asked before she hastily added when she saw the side glance of Lestat. ‘Of course after you deemed the place safe.’ He nodded before sighing. ‘I suppose there isn’t a reason to hold you here.’ Lestat said, which was a yes in Akascha ears. She smiled. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll behave.’ Akascha said with a wink. Lestat smiled and moved his hand through Akascha’s hair. Akascha snuggled a bit against him, satisfied with sitting like this. It was silent for a while before Lestat broke it again. ‘You know, after this we can search for your family if you want.’ Lestat suggested. He didn’t sound like himself, he sounded a bit..Sad? ‘I mean, if you want you can stay in the village of course. Nobody would mind.’ Now he sounded a bit hopeful? Akascha was a bit silent while Lestat seemed to glance at her once in a while, unsure about what Akascha would be thinking after what he had said. Do I want to find my real family? Akascha thought to herself. Why would I want to find them? I have everything I need here. A house above my head, nice people. I even got people who love me, Akascha thought to herself with a smile. I would miss them too much. She liked them too much to just leave like that if she would even find her family. Her train of thought was disturbed by Lestat who softly nudged her. He was looking a little bit worried. ‘I didn’t upset you or anything?’ He asked a bit unsure. ‘What are you thinking about?’ Akascha smiled a bit, touching his forehead for a moment to rub away his crease that had formed there. ‘I was just thinking about what you said and..’Akascha fell quiet for a few seconds. ‘Why would I leave? Why the haste to find my family? I mean, I like it here, with you and Alec and the rest too of course. You’re like my home.’ Akascha ended a bit softer. Lestat just looked at her for a moment before wrapping his arms around her, laying his head on top of hers. ‘Don’t worry about it little one. You can stay as long as you want with me. Besides, I promised you I would teach you more magic right? I can’t back down on my promise now can I?’ Lestat said teasingly to lighten the mood. Akascha smiled and cuddled a bit more in Lestat’s arms. They sat there for a long while, the conversations around them slowly dying out or at least quieting down. Akascha had fallen asleep in the warm safe arms of Lestat. He would move her off his lap and into her sleeping bag. After having kissed Akascha on the forehead he walked off to Alec to speak with him.

Next morning Akascha was woken up roughly. People were being noisy and walking around, excited and all buzzed up. Akascha would get up sleepy, first finding some breakfast before she could even begin to be enthusiastic about this. It is just way too early for this, she thought to herself. In the mean time, the team of Lestat was getting ready to enter the temple. Some were in their wolf form so they could hear and smell things better and the rest were in their human form, looking all tough. When everything was done, Lestat came to her for a moment. ‘You stay here and behave okay?’ He asked her before giving her a kiss on the forehead. ‘Sure sure.’ She said in a yawn, too sleepy to do any mischief. ‘ I mean it Akascha, just don’t… move from this spot okay?’ He told her, worried that somehow she would get herself into trouble. ‘I will, don’t worry. You be careful yourself okay?’ Akascha said with a smile. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll watch this little fool.’ Alec suddenly said, walking up behind Lestat. He ruffled Akascha’s hair when he said that. ‘You mean, I will watch out for the senile old man.’ Akascha corrected him sweetly. Lestat shook his head. ‘Behave, both of you.’ He said with a smirk before walking away. Soon Lestat and his team had vanished into the temple while Alec was talking about this and that’s, probably feeling Akascha’s nervousness.

After what seemed like an eternity to Akascha, Lestat and all of his teammates except two came out of the temple, walking into the wall of impatient researchers who were dying to get inside. Lestat explained that the temple was safe with the exception of two places, the places where the two teammates were stationed so nobody forgot where it was. ‘But if you hear anything crack or you feel like something isn’t safe, call us first so we can check it out. You can never be safe enough.’ Lestat ended. ‘Well, with that said, you can all go inside now.’ Lestat said and as soon as it was said, the researchers stumbled forward to hurry themselves in the temple, Alec as last. ‘I haven’t seen much books though old man.’ Lestat told Alec before Alec nodded silently and went inside. You never know. ‘Can I go now too?’ Akascha asked Lestat. He nodded though it seemed slightly reluctant. ‘Yes you can, just be careful okay?’ Akascha nodded and started to go inside too, curious about how the temple looked like from the inside. The outside wasn’t really impressive, just some dusty old pillars that had vague decorations on it but other than that it seemed like just a normal building. ‘Why do I think the temple will collapse when you enter.. Ah well, you have that kind of luck.’ Lestat muttered to himself while Akascha was entering. Akascha chuckled before waving one last time to Lestat who was already somewhere else in his mind. She changed into her wolf form before she entered so she could hear and see things she usually didn’t see. She had to admit, the temple had been pretty once. The entrance had once been heavily decorated with all kinds of colourful paintings though they had now succumbed to time and poor maintenance. There were big statues of angels, wolfs and their humans beside them. There were several rooms you could go in, most of them either empty or having a researcher in them, busy with studying the books laying there or busy with silly machinery. Alec had tried to explain her the meaning of it but she only remembered the fact that it had to do with measuring energy. She walked around a bit and finally ended up at the main part of the temple, the place where the rituals used to take place. There was an altar in the back, richly decorated with figures and symbols that she didn’t know the origin of. A few researchers were here too, it seemed like they were everywhere. She sat down in the centre of the room, looking around. The altar was interesting for a short period of time before she moved her attention to something else. There was some kind of energy, some kind of feeling in this room which made her quiet like some kind of presence was there. She couldn’t describe it any other way. And I’m not even religious, she thought to herself. Her attention was soon drawn to a statue that was standing on the left side of the room. She walked to it before sitting down again, looking at the details of it. It wasn’t that special, it was made without any shiny decorations. It pictured a man with a wolf beside him, looking to each other with what she could only describe as love for each other. She was somehow intrigued by it, she couldn’t even explain it for herself. She came a little bit closer and sniffed at it, seeking some kind of explanation for what she was feeling. She tried to look behind the statue where a small space was but she was too big for that so she changed into her human for and she slipped behind it. ‘Akascha, what are you doing?’ Alec asked who had joined the researchers at the altar. He had been watching Akascha for a few minutes, noticing the interest of the girl in the statue. She turned around, there was nothing special to see here. She put her hand on the tail of the wolf to get more grip. ‘Nothing I just thought..’She started before the tail of the wolf gave way. Suddenly, the ground underneath her had vanished and she was falling down into the darkness with a screech. ‘Akascha!’ Alec called after her, making his way to the statue before stopping as the statue began to move. The statue moved to the side, revealing a dark stairway. Of course, Akascha fell exactly in the open place behind the staircase. ‘Go get Lestat.’ Alec ordered one of the men present before walking closer to the staircase. He couldn’t see much since it was too dark. ‘Akascha, are you okay?’ He asked, staring into the darkness. ‘I think..I broke something.’ Akascha called back after a few moments, her voice echoing a bit. When she had landed she tried to break her fall with her leg, something she shouldn’t have done. She was holding her ankle which was throbbing annoyingly. Stupid Lestat, being right about my luck, Akascha thought to herself to keep her mind away from the pain. She sighed and looked around trying to see something, but it was really too dark for her. She could only see a small light above her where the staircase was. She held up her hand a bit and focused on it. ‘I need light.’ she muttered to herself while focusing hard on the image of having light in her hand. And suddenly, light appeared in her hand. She smirked a little bit. ‘I’m getting good at this.’ She told herself. She held her hand further up to look around her before blinking. ‘Alec! Hurry your ass down here, you’ve got to see this!’ Akascha called to a worried Alec.

It was late in the afternoon when Akascha stretched herself out lazy. She was sitting against Lestat who had his arms wrapped around her, enjoying the nice view and weather in front of the temple. ‘I really should teach you to heal yourself properly soon, you’re becoming a pain in the ass you know.’ Lestat said teasingly. ‘I swear you’re one unlucky doggie.’ Akascha smirked while starting to tickle him to take her revenge. ‘But on the other hand,’ Akascha said when they were sitting calmly again, ‘I did found the library they were looking for. You saw how happy Alec was a few hours ago. I bet he thinks he died and is in heaven now. I’m surprised one of those old researchers didn’t have a heart attack.’ Akascha said with a chuckle. ‘Don’t jinx it you little troublemaker.’ Lestat said, going with his hand through her hair. Akascha smiled and thought back a few hours. Soon Lestat and Alec had come down the stairs before they froze when they saw all the books. Alec had almost smothered her out of joy. ‘You silly reckless fool, I love you so much right now.’ He had said, he sounded like he had lost his mind. Not soon after that the researchers had swarm the place including Alec. Lestat had carried her outside the temple, taking her away from all the fuss the researchers were making. He had healed her ankle which was broken indeed and soon they had been sitting and talking like they were now. They hadn’t seen any researchers in that time, only some of the warriors had sat down with them, not having much to do after being chased away by the frenzied researchers. Really a wonder nobody had a heart attack yet. But finally there was some sign of life from the bookworms. Alec came out of the temple, almost hopping out of joy. He sat down beside Akascha and Lestat, widely smiling. ‘Did I tell you that you are the best Akascha?’ Alec asked her. ‘No I don’t think so.’ Akascha said suggestively. ‘Well in that case, you’re the best little one.’ Alec said with a smirk, really being happy. ‘So what did you find?’ Lestat asked him. ‘Oh only the whole history of our race. Or that is what it seems like at the moment.’ Alec said cheerfully. The discovery on its own was special and amazing enough, but it was even more hopeful because they believed they would find the answer for the decreasing number of wolves. ‘I think we will be here for a long time.’ Lestat whispered in Akascha’s ear who giggled.