FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

You drink in a deep lungful of air, closing your eyes to further enjoy the smell of Spring all around you. After last night's storm, the scents of moss and trees and the songs of exotic birds fill the air. You open your eyes as you exhale. Golden rays of sunlight stream through the towering foliage all around you. The rainforest is no less spectacular on the last day of your trip than it was the first. If you had been able to find anything in the caves, then perhaps you could have justified an extended stay to on this exploration. It is unfortunate that you couldn't find so much as a vase or jar to indicate the presence of any ancient Incan inhabitation here.

Your gear is already packed into the Jeep and ready to go, but you would take any excuse to stay even a second longer. Your partner, James, has already left to get supplies in the closest city a couple of hours away. You should join him, but you can't resist the urge to check around your camp site one last time, even though you know it is probably a fruitless attempt. You pull your backpack a little higher on your shoulders and trudge one last time into the brush.

You've practically memorized every detail of the nearest hundred meters around your camp by now. You step over the mushroom-covered log, maneuver around the thickest concentration of trees, and slip between the two large boulders that James had insisted looked like breasts. The rain swept away much of the loose soil, but otherwise, the terrain appears the same. When you come to the ravine, however, you realize that this is not entirely the case. It looks like there was a small mudslide which blocked off part of the stream and exposed the roots of a nearby tree.

You walk towards the pile of soil and notice that something seems strange. You climb down into the ravine, doing the best you can to keep your boots dry by standing on rocks or branches. Once you are down in the ravine, you can see that behind the newly exposed roots, there is only hollow ground. You hesitate for a moment, but it doesn't take you long to decide to check inside.

You can only see a couple of feet into the newly revealed hole, and it looks like it might go deeper, so you remove your backpack and pull out one of your last few glow sticks. You give it a few quick shakes as you pull your backpack over your shoulder again. Your first few footfalls settle upon soft soil. You duck down to avoid roots that are penetrate down through the dirt "roof" above your head. Before you can make out any details in the dim, green glow, you hear your boots scuff against smooth stone.

You pause and hold your glow stick ahead of you. You push a bundle of roots aside to reveal what is unmistakably moss-covered ruins. Your heart leaps! This is exactly what you've been searching for! You eagerly rush forward to shine your glow stick across the ruins. It appears to be three small shrines made from dark stone. While covered in moss or mushrooms in most places, it doesn't appear that the ruins have been moved from their original arrangement in any way.

Your thoughts are racing with excitement. You have to tell James! You fumble for your satellite phone, but in your fervor it slips from your grasp. James can wait, you decide. You move to the nearest of the shrines, the furthest to the right, to inspect it more closely. Two totems arise from the mossy floor, seeming to double as pillars to support the ground above. Their carvings are indistinguishable due to the thick growth upon them, but the altar which they frame seems virtually untouched. The solid block of stone is laden with intricate carvings, though they are difficult to make out in the light of your glow stick.

One thing surprises you. These engravings appear to be Mayan, not Incan. It is an interesting detail, but you are too absorbed in the rest of your observations to spend much time contemplating what it might mean. Atop the altar is a carved likeness of a dragon. Its front legs paw at the air as its wings flare and smoke pours from its nostrils. You move to the second shrine. It is arranged in exactly the same manner, but instead of a dragon atop the altar, it is a serpent. Its body is coiled about itself, but its head is raised above the rest, long fangs poised to strike. The third shrine is perhaps more interesting than the other two. You have difficulty making out what it is supposed to be, but eventually you realize that it is a skeleton. While it is represented very differently from anything you've seen before, it seems to remind you almost of dinosaur bones.

As you begin to get over your initial adrenaline rush, you realize that you have to tell someone about this right away. At the same time, though, you can't pull yourself away from your incredibly fortunate discovery. You decide that you can spare the time to take a closer look at just one of the three shrines.

Which shrine do you choose to examine?

A) Dragon

B) Serpent

C) Dinosaur