A different perspective

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Cinnamon woke up the next morning and jumped out of bed. He grinned wildly as he put his cape on and fixed his hair up a bit. He ran out of his room and when he reached a corner, tip-toed so she wouldn't hear him.
"VIOLET!!" He yelled cheerfully
"AHG- DAMMIT CINNAMON!" Violet yelled in alarm and then annoyance. The pink triangle sighed and shook her head. "I swear, Cinnamon. You almost gave me a heart attack! If you weren't our king I'd slap you silly!"
"Haha, I know you wouldn't really! Aaanyways, I'm going to go back to the old gazebo. You know that place?" He grinned
"Why? You went there yesterday. And I thought you said you were bored of the woods!" She grumbled
"I found a friend! His name's Jasmine."
"Jasmine? Isn't that a girls name?" She raised her eyebrow.
"I dunno. Why do names have gender in the first place?" He shrugged. "By the way, I'm gonna be gone all day probably. Jasmine's interesting! I want to know him better."
"Sigh, fine. Just come find me later okay? We still have this problem with the newcomers." She said, and walked off.

Cinnamon grinned again and trotted out of the small castle. He waved to some corrupted people and made his way down to the gazebo. It took him half an hour to get there, and the sun was just above the horizon. So, he sat down and waited. He was one of the only people to wake up before sun-up, besides Violet, so he probably had some time to wait. He looked closer at the pillar, and the murals. He'd always been fascinated by the past, and was curious as to what the old heroes acted like. We're they playful? Stern? Serious? Calm? It was fun to imagine them talking. He pictured the square being calm and gentle, the pentagon to be aspiring and bold, the circle to be bright and joyous, and the triangle to be calculating and honest. The fifth shape he'd seen on other murals he would have imagined being stoic and kind. Learning from his past mistakes to protect and guide others.

He longed to be like that, trusted and feared, loved and an inspiration to others. He wanted to wield a sword and shield into battle, fight dragons, travel near and far. It was too bad that the crown had chosen him to be a king. He would've loved being a knight in the king's legion, taking orders and solving problems himself instead of telling people what to do and being mostly stuck in the same place all day. He kind of envied Jasmine's role, seeing as he was the General's second-in-command. Sure, the general wasn't the best person, but that's often how people get in that position in the first place. His train of though was interrupted as a pair of footsteps came within earshot. Jasmine trotted into the gazebo calmly, and smiled when he saw Cinnamon sitting there. He chuckled at the silly grin on his face.

"Good morning, Cinnamon." He greeted.
"Morning, Jasmine! You're earlier that I expected you to be." He tilted his head
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, most people in the castle don't even wake up until after the sun rises. I just didn't really know when you'd be here." He chuckled nervously
"Oh. Yeah, most people in my camp people wake up as the sun rises or afterwards." I'm the only consistently early riser." He explained. "I brought a notebook, by the way. The general wanted me to document the stories on the murals."
"Oh, okay." He responded. "I know a thing or two about them myself, if you want to listen."
"Sure." Jasmine said. "How does it start?"
"Well, it starts right here, on this pillar. It and a few other drawings in this gazebo detail it." He said, tracing the images carved there. "There's a goddess, who created the land with the help of four angels, and their god. The other god created the land and sun, and the goddess created life to put there, and the moon. The four angels spread life wherever they went, helping plants grow, and guiding animals there. Eventually, when everything was done, the goddess created a tree for the angels and gods to meet at. However, the other god, nicknamed the god of corruption, became furious when the goddess attacked his angels in a fit of jealousy. There was a war between them, and eventually, the goddess won. She placed the god of corruption's powers into the tree, and killed him, before eventually disappearing. Without their creator, the angels eventually died, their spirits being reborn as ordinary shapes.
"Those four shapes grew up to be great heroes, defending the newly formed kingdom from ruin. Guarding the tree from evil hands and serving the spirit of the god. The story continues with the goddess angering a demon to get it to attack the kingdom, and destroy the tree. She gave it power, but it was enough for it to mess him up. He went on a blind pained rampage, and ended up absorbing part of the tree. The heroes died, but were resurrected by the god with help from one of the heroes' friends. They removed the tree piece from him, and cleansed him of the goddesses power, relieving him from his pain. The heroes have the demon a second chance to fix his mistakes, and he gladly accepted, repairing all the damage his rampage had caused. They began traveling together, and getting along. Eventually, the demon was given knighthood, and joined the heroes on their quests, bringing victory to every battle they fought." Cinnamon cleared his throat, and ended his story "you can see his grave just outside the clearing, it's one of the only things that lasted this long. Besides the gazebo of course. No idea how it's still here."
"Oh. Thank you for telling me that. I have it all written down now. Do you know this from just the murals?" Jasmine asked
"Uh, yeah. Mostly. Some of it I get from a tale my father used to tell me, when I was a kid." He responded. In doing so, he shifted, and they both heard a strange clicking sound, and a tile on the floor that Cinnamon rested his hand on shifted.
"What did you press?" Jasmine asked
"I dunno. Is it even doing anything, though?" His question was answered by something on the pillar shifting, and a glow emanating from the top.
"Oh. Oh crap. Uh, can you see what it's doing, Cinnamon?" Jasmine and Cinnamon stood up.
"Uh, almost? Oh. Never mind."

The pillar and large tile under it lifted up and started shifting backwards, revealing a hidden staircase underneath. A few vines and some moss that had grown around it receded, revealing the entrance further. As sudden as it had started, the sound stopped and movement ceased, faint cool mist reaching out of it like tentacles. The mist dissolved, and the two were drenched in utter silence, even the birds refusing to sing. But one by one, the natural sounds of the forest came back to life, filling the area with ambient noise once again. Something beckoned them downwards, a strangely comforting feeling. Like answers to unasked questions laid deep within it. As if they weren't moving on their own, they glanced at each other and stepped down the staircase, into the shadows.

For a while there was no light. Hands gripped together as they carefully walked down the stairs. There was fortunately nothing to slip on, and the steps were even and predictable. That is, until they found the bottom. When there appeared to be no more steps, they settled themselves on the smooth stone floor and looked for a light source. As if registering their presence, blue torches lit on the walls, revealing a wide, and even longer tunnel. Only the torches closest to them lit up, however, still shrouding the end of the tunnel in darkness. When they walked towards the end, a few more torches lit up, and when they got far enough away, the ones behind them went out- obscuring the entrance. So they continued walking. Cinnamon thought he heard a faint rumbling noise behind them, but decided to ignore it as they came to the end of the tunnel. Jasmine was jotting down all the murals he saw on the walls, looking terrifyingly similar to him and Cinnamon. Even the hair and clothing was depicted the same- but he didn't have time to see what it was depicting them doing, before he saw it.

Another stone pillar sat in a perfectly square room, walls blank and incredibly smooth. Positioned on top of the pillar was a floating triangle. Effortlessly rotating at a constant pace, it made Jasmine a bit dizzy looking at it. Suddenly, the door to the hallway was closed by a slab of stone, fitting so perfectly with the wall there was no way to tell a door was there in the first place, and the room went dark.
"Jasmine?" Cinnamon called out hesitantly.
"I'm here." He responded, walking towards where Cinnamon's voice came from.
"Wh-where are you? It's so dark in here-" he paused, and Jasmine bumped into him.
"Oof!"
"Oh- you alright?" Cinnamon wrapped his arms around Jasmine
"Yeah." Jasmine replied. "I feel,, really dizzy though..."
"Now that I think about it, so do I. Maybe there's another way out of-" he was cut off by a near-blinding flash, and they both fell to the floor, unconscious.