The Mira Gate

 In my previous Amelia's Vow post, I had mentioned the Lost Temple of Mira. However, the location disappeared from my blog for a while afterwards, and I have wondered, "Why did Mira's temple fall oh so long ago?" But now, I have the answer. This is as close as to what really happened, although Harper's magic may have tampered with it.
(P.S. Enjoy my new blog pet! She will be one of the future blog mascots as soon as all my pets mature. If I need to, I will add advertisements of the real deal to this blog to earn money for personal stuff. Have fun reading!)

 Lisa snuck into Jamaa Township, carefully examining the center. Only a few wandering phantoms and late night Jammers stood in the square.
"What will I do?" she asked Mira through her cane. The pink gem glowed a bit, animal shadows floating around in it. Lisa almost ripped off a leaf to eat before Mira answered.
"Put the onlookers to sleep. Use a spell that will wear off at dawn. What I will say will take that long to discuss."Mira whispered. Lisa was reluctant, but she cast the spell quietly. When she was sure that everyone who could stop her and talk was asleep, she moved like a ninja to the crumbling shrine. 
 There, the turquoise statue of Mira stood, her eyes closed and her leg lifted as she was about to cry a phantom into existence, but had been frozen before her last birth. The statue hadn't changed even since Elvanto poisoned her.
 Lisa took out Mira's stone, and rubbed it against the bronze. Fire slapped her, and she let go of the stone as it fused with the statue. The metal around it started to melt, and the outer shell crumbled to reveal the pure grey and brown bronze underneath, where it had frozen Mira just before she fell into a deep sleep.
"All hail to Mother Sky," she muttered as the coat slid off as easily as one would discard a T-shirt. Mira shook her head to get rid of her drowsiness. Lisa bowed, but Mira disregarded the gesture of respect. Mira always didn't like respect, because she gave all her respect to the ultimate creator of the cosmic powers, Zios. No god before him had existed, not even God, as the Jamaasians believed.  
 "Why did you summon me in my dreams?" Lisa asked Mira. "My dreams were pleasant enough sunbathing in Crystal Sands and boogieing with Captain Melville (my oh my, was he hunky when dreaming, Lisa thought) before you summoned me to the wilting willow tree. This message would better be good to sap Jamaa's powers for it, waking you before the right time, I mean." Mira didn't look impressed by Lisa's complaining.
"Necessity trumps ideals," Mira said. " Listen closely, because I am assigning a crucial mission to the African Alphas. The phantoms have unlocked the gate to my dreams in my temple, and therefore drain my energy through the gate. Only Otto, Ruby, Edmund and Cornelius together can find the key, and lock the door away forevermore."
 Even when she spoke, Mira looked exhausted, and Lisa decided that they had about three days before Mira became a pure statue.
" As you wish, Mother Sky Of All Life." Lisa said, and dove into the woods just as dawn broke, splicing the stone from Mira and reenacting the curse.

 "We have to go with this idiot!?!?" screeched Ruby and Edmund as Marco gently broke the news to them. Ruby and Edmund pointed at each other, hoof bending at hoof. Marco sighed.
"Yes, both of you. Swear on my implanted foot horns that you will cause no mischief." he said in a serious voice. Cosmo had once drilled metal thorns into Marco's feet, and now a gentle kick from him could dislocate your leg.
" We swear on Marco's stupid foot horns that we will cause ZERO mischief." Edmund and Ruby muttered reluctantly.
"I heard that!" Marco cried. Otto and Cornelius were packing in the room, and by the time that both Ruby and Edmund had brushed their teeth, they were ready for a two-day trip to the haunted ruins.
" A can of mace would be what the doctor ordered so that I can spray it on this idiot," Ruby and Edmund murmured at each other. When they heard the other's remark, they huffed and turned away. The rest of the trudge to the northern ruins was silent, even among Otto and Cornelius.

 When they arrived, the Parthenon-style temple rose dauntingly before them, as if the entrance wanted to swallow the quartet. The inner courtyard was large, with many small temples inside and a exact replica of Mira's statue in the middle, but phantom sentries patrolled the entire border. 
"What shall we do?" Edmund muttered.
" We can't kick our way out of this..." Cornelius added.
"...But we'll have to do some punching, too." Ruby and Otto muttered as they stood on two legs and got their paws ready for combat.
 The initial battle was short-lived, as the Alphas had a larger pool of knowledge than the sentries, and soon dead globs of dark tears lay on the ground, slowly disintegrating into the fabric of time and space. They entered the gates,but with dismay entered only to see a gatekeeper's  post.
"Greetings, young ones," the elder kestrel perched on a leg of the phantom-shaped wheel hissed. The eye inside of the rock peered in all directions, yearning for something beautiful to pop up in the courtyard.
" We are the Time Gatekeepers, servants of Mother Mira. However, the mistress is gone for now, and we cannot rid the temple of these pesky pests of phantoms." the stone frog babbled on the other arm. The mist coming from it's mouth spoke, and had some sort of specter's feel to it. A blue gem on it's fat belly swirled with mystery, sometimes glowing like a prism in light.
"So, is it riddle time?" Cornelius asked the Gatekeepers, ready for the first question.
"Very well, overgrown lizard. What runs around a field, but doesn't move and hurts the mind after a while?" the kestrel snarled, it's graying feathers ruffled by his rudeness.
" It's a fence, since it runs along a field's borders. It hurts the mind after some gazing from the interior, for the prisoner is maddened by being bound" Ruby said. The kestrel looked emotionless. 
"Correct, Charger-and-Crocodile-Trampler. Now, for the next riddle." the stone frog said. Cornelius's back still ached where Ruby had trampled him.
"What plays but only speaks?" the kestrel asked them all.
"A loudspeaker!" Edmund cried.
"Correct,"the stone frog said, it's voice distant. The blue mist had been distracted by some yummy vines on the pillars.
"Finally, what spews smoke, is a mind-slave, and runs at 200 mph maximum?" the kestrel asked them. Clearly, it was a Twoleg item, because even its partner, the stone frog, looked baffled.
After moments of silence, Cornelius answered after Sophia had instructed him in Twoleg Studies. 
"It's an automobile!" he cried. The kestrel smiled, and the frog looked amazed by his speed.
"You may pass, but beyond the wheel is danger. Rest here while you can, for you are locked here until you fulfill the full extent of your mission," the stone frog warned. The two spirits dissipated into a cool breeze, and flew away. The wheel turned, and it became a cross embedded in the soil. The cross seemed to radiate good, because all the phantoms were wary around it. One unlucky sentry got burned up getting too close.
"We shall rest,as the Time Gatekeepers are true to their word," Otto said. The other African Alphas followed his example without any defiance.

 To be continued...