The jungle never truly sleeps beneath the rain.
Mist hangs heavy between the trees.
Warm water drips endlessly from the leaves.
While somewhere deep within the ancient forest,
Stone temples glisten beneath stormlight and moonlight.
You have traveled far to reach this place,
Through flooded paths,
Through warm mist.
Through forests so dense the sunlight barely touched the earth beneath your feet.
For days.
Perhaps longer.
There's only been rain.
Endless rain moving across the jungle in silver curtains,
Washing the world clean again.
And again.
Now at last.
Through drifting mist and tangled vines.
The temple appears before you.
Half hidden beneath the roots.
Its dark stone walls glistening beneath stormlight.
Ancient symbols carved deep into the rock,
Filled with rainwater and moonlight.
Warm thunder rolls softly somewhere overhead.
Echoing through the valley like the voice of the sky itself.
You step slowly toward the temple entrance,
Water running over your skin,
Bare feet sinking into warm earth.
While fireflies move lazily through the heavy evening air around you,
Small living lanterns glowing gold against the darkness inside.
Everything changes.
The sound of rain softens,
Becoming distant,
Hollow.
Echoing gently through endless stone chambers.
The temple is enormous,
Far larger within than it appeared from outside.
Vast archways disappearing into darkness,
Streams of rainwater falling through openings high above.
Flowing through carved channels in the floor like silver rivers.
The entire temple is alive with water.
It drips from ancient ceilings.
Collects in glowing pools,
Slides down walls covered in moss and flowering vines.
While candle flames flicker softly in hidden alcoves carved into the stone.
Somewhere nearby.
A drum begins slow.
Steady enough to feel inside your chest before you fully hear it.
The sound moves through the temple like a living heartbeat,
Calling something ancient awake within the body.
Something older than language.
Older than memory.
You follow the rhythm deeper into the temple,
Through corridors lit by amber firelight.
Past enormous statues worn smooth by centuries of rain.
Their face is peaceful.
Watching silently from the shadows.
Until it lasts.
You enter the inner chamber.
And stop completely.
Above you.
The roof of the temple has long since opened to the sky.
Rain falling freely into a vast circular pool at the center of the chamber.
Its waters glowing softly turquoise beneath flashes of distant lightning.
All vines heavy with white flowers hang from the stone walls all around.
The air feels different here.
Sick with warmth.
Earth,
Smoke,
Whetstone and something else.
Something impossible to name.
As though the chamber itself remembers every grief ever brought here.
And every soul that left lighter than they arrived.
You kneel beside the glowing water Watching rain strike the surface in endless ripples.
Each one widening slowly into circles of pale light.
And as the drum continues its slow rhythm through the darkness.
You begin to feel something loosening within you.
Like knots softening beneath warm water.
The body no longer holding itself so tightly.
The breath deepening naturally.
Thoughts slowing like storm clouds finally drifting apart.
The rain continues falling steadily.
Cleansing.
Ancient.
Washing over the temple roof.
The jungle leaves,
The stone,
The water,
The body And for the first time in a very long while.
There is no way you need to go.
Nothing you need to become Only this moment,
This rain This living temple breathing softly around You close your eyes.
Listening to water echo through the chamber.
To distant thunder rolling through the mountains.
To the deep steady pulse of the drums somewhere beyond the firelight.
Until it feels as though the whole jungle is breathing with you.
Slowly.
Patience.
And beneath the endless reign of this ancient place.
Something weary inside you finally begins to rest.
