The smell of the forest was thick in the air. Quiet sounds of the forest was only broken by the foot falls of large men. The small group of large men were trackers. Their job was to track down poachers, intruders, and when necessary, a sacrifice. A sacrifice for the lion god.
The sacrifice was a young woman named Rayah, they found her camping near the edge of the forest. She was alone at the camp, easy prey for the trackers. The girl was gagged, bound, and carried deep into the forest. She didn't get a good look at her attackers, but she knew they were large and there were at least five of them.
The deeper they traveled into the forest, the less she heard the men's foot falls. Rayah guessed they were close to their destination, in more familiar territory. It kept getting hotter, her blindfold damp with sweat. She didn't remember it being this hot at the camp site.
After a while, she started to hear more sounds, more people. It sounded kind of what she'd expect if she walked into a small town. It was annoying that no one said anything, no one reacting to her being carried in blind and immobile.
It was maybe ten minutes, walking through town, before they finally came to a stop. They dropped her onto her knees, cut her bindings and ripped the blindfold off her. The light was blinding, and not just from the mid-day sun. The light was glinting off something all around her and it took almost a full minute for her eyes to adjust.
When her sight was finally starting to clear, Rayah was roughly yanked to her feet. In front of her was a massive temple. The temple was a blinding mix of sandstone and gold. She glanced at the men holding her, seeing them in the light for the first time. They were as large as she though, clad in scraps of bright fabric and gold jewelry. Every person she could see wore some kind of gold in the shape of a lion.
Understandably, she was terrified, but she refused to show it. She knew that there was no way out and refused to fight as they walked her up the stairs to the temple doors. Each of the massive double doors had a very detailed lions head on it, the gold polished to perfection.
All but three of the men fanned out, kneeling at the top of the stairs. One of the men kept a hold on her while the other two opened the doors. They were clearly heavy doors, their muscles flexing. The man holding her gave her a gentle shove inside and the doors were pulled closed behind her.
Inside the temple was a lot darker than outside. A few torches on the walls gave off enough light to see. The rest of the light in the room came from a beam of light. The ceiling was open to let in sun, the light landing on a large over hang.
The inner chamber was the entire width of the temple, only broken by two sets of stairs on the wall heading up to a second floor. The landing at the top only reached half way to the door, leaving the air open all the way to the top. Much like a cliff over hang, a piece of the floor stretched out over the floor under, directly in the beam of sun light.
What terrified her was what was laying in the sun. Laying above her, one paw hanging off the edge, was a massive sleeping lion. It's head was laying on the front edge, and the lions head was mind blowing. Living so close to the forest, she knew lions weren't that big.
The lion took a deep breath and she squeaked as it opened its large eyes, looking directly at her. Her back hit the doors and she started to shake as she watched. Large paws made no sound as the beast lazily turned and headed down the curved steps.
