I have been long exalted as the explorer of the forgotten. I traverse the chilliest peaks and the most blistering of jungles to exhume the secrets of past civilisations. My bedroom is littered with things of legends — idols of stone and sterling, some ornamented with gems aplenty. 

Or at least the last time I checked. My little adventures take me too far and too long! I am barely acquainted with the warmth of my bed and the treasures atop my overcrowded shelf! But that is precisely why I am here, meandering through these rancid thickets before the sun's reveille, bound for the elusive Mirror Pond. 

According to the sacred texts I voraciously consumed this past month, this pond can grant hopeful travellers their deepest wish. 

My books have also admonished:

Well, clearly, only the best and truest of ambitions can be fulfilled. What do I have to fear? 

My simple and noble wish is to procure an assistant, someone just like me, forged from Prometheus' fire and Hephaestus' steel! I'd have a capable other to optimise my exploration!

Ha! Desires of folly? Such fools merely wish to fill a shallow, emotional lacuna. Their gains can barely be measured. But mine? Gauged by all the precious artefacts I unearth!

With my boots crunching down a gravelled promenade, an azure glow in my path flushed into a bevelled slip. A deep sapphire pond soon lay before me. 

It glistened slightly, unyielding to the mystical vines and willows veiling it from the forest. No mortal dared to dawdle by it, not a whisper, not a twitch — the enigmatic oasis slumbered in its shaded recluse.  

Recalling my wish, I bend down, staring intensely into the blue. Its gaze entwined with mine, pulling my arm into its tranquil deep. With my hand rippling through the water, I shut my eyes, feeling an electrifying surge dancing through my limbs. 

I dig deep into my chest, declaring, "Grant me a wish! Give me the foolishness of my mettle and the ambition of my flesh! Provide me with an earnest warmth, a hardened soul — show me a fellow adventurer who knows no danger!"

As silence rushed back to the air, a weight tugged at my grip. I shovel my skinned knees deeper into the ground, eagerly fishing out my prize. 

An explorer of a similar stocky stature crawls out of the pond's warbles, a tanned backpack slung over him, his build clad in muddied khaki nylon gear, taupe boots and a scratched olive safari hat like mine. We rise on our feet, visually assessing the other. 

Before I could find my words, my assistant piped up, "Where to next?" As expected, always ready to go! I grin widely, "This foul forest seals a sacred idol, worshipped aeons ago and was whittled from an exoplanet's ore, granting its owner otherworldly strength and vitality!" We both perk up with excitement, smiling toothily at the other. 

My assistant reaches into his shirt pocket, unfurling his map abundant with scribbles and his battered compass. "Sounds great! We are bound eastwards. You can call me Theo—"

Before he could finish, I stormed eastwards, yanking him by the backpack. Why is he wasting the seconds? Time is of the essence! 

We finally emerge from the abode of the mirror pond, where an ambered dawn washed the forest in marigold hues. 

"Strange. I could have sworn that entering the pond was faster than leaving it." I wandered aloud. Theo blurts, "It must be your drift! I noticed your footsteps slanted left, but I did try to keep us on course." 

My head whips around to him, his map and compass still in hand. How did he catch that? What a curious explorer! At ease without the burden of navigation, I soaked in the sight of lush flora by our footsteps and the faint hum of insects in the humidity. 

"You said the forest was foul, but I think the trees here are great." He grins, pointing ahead at a bundle of trees by the rust-coloured trek. "These are Tembusus!" He jaunts ahead of me, running his fingers through the grooves of a tree trunk. 

I crane my neck upwards, searching for the crown of the towering Tembusu. My gaze attempts to follow the trunk's valleys, only to be greeted by bronze specks as sunlight seeped through its rich foliage. 

Perhaps this is a waste of time, but if Theo handles the navigation, then our gains and losses in the hours are balanced! 

Pushing eastwards, Theo and I follow a stream deeper into the woods. Its current blithely tumbled down stoned crevices, ushering tiny tangerine fishes through its flow. The fish glimmered slightly against the stone, pulling my gaze into its flumes. 

As I admired the trickling stream, Theo tapped my shoulder, "Perhaps we should stop here to refuel. You should be getting hungry too." 

Before I could jettison my unwieldy bag, Theo was crouched by white waxen cubes and a metal contraption resembling a bear trap. Without speaking, he lit his matches, setting alight a bundle of cubes, and placing a tin above the flames. 

Hm. I've never seen anything like it, but his method of cooking does seem fast... But perhaps, he could use some help too. I gingerly pry open my cans of tuna onto Theo's metalware as he wrangled open his bag of bread. 

"Hey, really appreciate your help, now we can save my cans for dinner!" Theo expresses, handing me a sublimely rolled bread, warm tuna encased in it. My eyes widened slightly, betraying my surprise. I reached for it, reclining by our equipment under the canopy's embrace. 

We trek further east as the sun returned a honey haze above us, and I began to unravel an understanding of the artefact. At Theo's behest.

A learned explorer like me, he narrated the story of the eagle-headed lion as a war idol. It blessed troops marching into battle against a rival tribe, who worshipped a fearsome emerald-eyed winged leopard. 

"Toss me your lamp, we should set up for the night!" He suggests, ending his spiel on idol literature. He gestures towards a small clearing in the deadfall, as I retrieved my rickety lamp. 

As he began to rest by my lit lamp, his tanned skin cracked slightly, revealing flutes of scarlet glares. For a brief moment, he resembled torrid magma, glowing against a violet dusk. 

"Oh, the pond—", he utters.

 

The same electric surge I met with by the pond before dawn burst through my being, jolting my weary frame upwards. "Wait! Please—"  

I attempt to grasp his arm, only for him to fester before me. 

To sod and dust, a scent of seared sanguine and burnt bones inundate the still air. Reduced to grit by my lamp, its listless flames lick away at its glass entrapment, waltzing beneath the canopy's seams. The celestine moonlight ambles through your greyed ash, lifting it to nightfall's sable obscure. 

My jaw agape and eyes ajar, my gaze saunters about the scene — from your dust to the flickering of the stars. The insects and trees fall silent with woe, trodding over to gander at your departure. 

Did you have to leave so soon? Was it your time to go? For once in a blue moon, I revelled in the cinders of your warmth. For once in a blue moon, the mirror stared back long enough, just enough for me to reach through it — for me to reach you. 

Frozen by your splintering smoulder, my lamp began to dim. The moonlight dwindled as your soot ebbed into the night breeze. My eyes shut; limp body wilted by your crumbling glow. 

One breath, abated. Two breaths, my chest stifles. Three breaths, I succumb to a deluge.