The 101 Lanterns
[Ari's POV]
"I wasn't able to sleep at all" I was awake for hours or days? I don't know anymore. I just tried to sleep but I wasn't able to.
"ARI!" I could hear Moon scream my name. "What is it?" I asked him while burying my face in the pillow. "You should come here to see that" he said. I stood up. "Don't bump into something" I said to myself and then took a step forward. While stepping forward I triggered the teleportation and my body started to disappear.
I appeared outside before the giant doors of the shrine. This time I didn't bump into anything but as I looked down on my right foot, I noticed that my right foot stood on the edge of the seven stairs leading to the doors. If I would have appeared 10cm further, I would have fallen down the stairs.
"What is it?" I turned to moon who was looking at me in curiosity. He was still in his Puma-Like form. "You know I like your cat form more" I said.
"It's tiring always shrinking my powerful body down to a powerless kitten." He said while lifting up his head looking like an arrogant cat.
He pointed with his head to the two statues of him which were standing left and right at the stairs leading to the door. In front of both of them stood a metal brazier. In both of them was a fire burning. As I walked closer to them, I saw that on both of them was a golden plate with ""0"" written on them.
"Why zero?" I asked him. "Well, I didn't know until a few minutes ago. I was sleeping in the interior garden and…" I stopped him. "We have an interior garden?!"
"Yes, but that's not important right now" he answered. "I dreamed about the path of the 100 lanterns. It starts at the foot of the mountain and continues. These two are the last lanterns so they are marked zero." "Wouldn't that make them the 101 lanterns?" I asked. "Well, they are the goal and not part of the path, I guess. But the important part about the story is that the lanterns of this part only light up if someone is coming."
"You want to tell me there is someone coming here" I said while I panicked a little. "We'll have to wait. As you can see, we are above the clouds right now so whoever comes her has to walk through the clouds. So the chance is high the person will die" He said in a cold voice. "But It's better that way then I can continue to sleep" he said.
"But what if someone really comes here?" I looked at the two covered areas on both sides of the door where Moon said the people would pray. A question formed in my mind. "Isn't there normally some offering box for the god?" I asked.
"I already told you, you don't need money so why do you want people to offer money to you?" He asked like I was going crazy.
I tried finding a reason. It took a while until I came up with one. "You said that a god can decide to answer a prayer or not?" I looked at moon. "Yeah but was has money to do with that?" he asked.
"Well can't I use it to see how desperate the person really is? It makes a difference if a poor person throws in the last money he has or a rich person throwing in a lot of money just because their ego doesn't allow them to get rejected?"
Moon stared at me. "Ulterior reasons? I like that!" he grinned. "Don't worry I will do that for you" he said and walked away.
I walked a bit on the place before the stairs. I walked to the edge. I could see a small stone path leading down in the clouds. "People are supposed to walk on that?!" I turned around.
As I turned around, I saw a red wooden post with a small golden statue of Moon on it. Beneath it was a golden sign written in strange characters, but I was able to read it anyway.
"Shrine of the goddess Ari" was written on it. "Really?" I looked up as Moon slowly walked to me. "Of course people have to know where they are if they arrive here!" he said.
"Come on that's embarrassing" I said. I hate it if my real name is written somewhere. And it felt really strange having a sign calling my shut-in self a goddess.
"Don't you dare take it of" Moon growled. "I grinned. "I won't take it off if you show me the interior garden" I said.
And so We walked back inside.