Ursula Downs/Doom of Eztli Themed

Darkness, almost like a piece had been cut out of the world. The rest of the jungle was a vibrant mass of life, colours and smells and noise colliding in a riot for the senses, but not here. The temple had been an astounding find, weeks they had been cutting trails, trudging through the mosquito infested lowlands. They had abandoned the cars days ago when the trails became too narrow, and impassable due to the thick undergrowth. The forest here appeared older, more dense than the earlier parts of their journey, unwilling to give up it's secrets.

Elli had stayed back at the makeshift base camp, along with all their emergency rations. When Ursula had departed, Elli had been so intent on restringing an ornate bow they had uncovered she hadn't even looked up from her work. A dismissive wave and some expletives were all Ursula had received as a farewell. She wasn't really up to this sort of fieldwork anyway. Dr Horowitz was better suited for a musty museum, but her knowledge of mesoamerica was unparalleled and Ursula had grown quite fond of the woman during the expedition.

"She would love to see this", Ursula thought taking in the ancient stone in front of her. It was intricately carved with archaic glyphs and depictions of traditional sacrifice along with a host of deities, some of which she recognised, but many she didn't. They had been told that the Eztli people where a myth, but Ursula generally didn't find herself on expeditions unless someone thought they could make some money from a discovery.

They had already unearthed a number of small artifacts, which would easily pay for further exploration in the area. She glanced queasily at the gold band around her wrist, still digging into her flesh; she really needed to find a way to remove that. Wearing the artifacts was generally frowned on by the archaeologists but she had put it on without even thinking, and had been regretting it ever since. She rolled down the sleeve of her cotton jacket.

They had literally stumbled across the temple two days ago. One of the scouts had unfortunately found a fallen stela with enough force to crush three of his toes and had to be carried back to camp. Ursula had stayed on to explore the ruins and was slowly tracing a path around the edge of the monumental structure when she had found the opening.

Her eyes could perceive nothing inside the small hole, but as she brought her face close she could smell the musty air. She reached into the hole somewhat reluctantly, they have had a lot of problems with snakes in recent days, and felt the edges of the space. She couldn't reach a back wall and the air at her fingertips felt cooler. Could it be a way inside? She got out her flashlight and clicked it on, crouching down by the low hole only a few inches off the dirt. The wan light from the torch showed her little more, the walls of the passageway were roughly hewn and speckled with moss. It appeared that the tunnel slanted downwards by a few degrees, but the light failed to show more than a few feet before being ungulfed by the preternatural blackness. Her hand moved to the amulet around her neck, a gift from a local woman, said to ward off evil. Ursula was hardly the superstitious type, she had raided enough temples to have been cursed five times over, but this whole affair had been strewn with bad luck ever since they unloaded at the airport and found that poor student. What a terrible way to go.

She looked at the hole again, black and oppressive, leading down into the earth with the weight of the entire temple pressing down on it. Fear had never stopped her before. Ursula slipped out of her backpack, leaving it as marker for those who might come after. She lay on her belly, torch in hand and squeezed into the narrow hole.