The Crystal's Wishes: Lorian and Dan's Epic Adventure

I think it was the first time Lorian had ever seen a temple. I know it was the first time I had.

You see, we lived in the countryside of South Africa. Where the only temples I’ve seen were just white walls with a cross on top, or a Star of David. Or sometimes, a combination of both of those things. But never one like this. It was that big, golden pagoda-thing that Lorian saw when we were walking home from school one day. We stopped to look at it - it looked out of place, like a great shining beacon in the middle of this empty landscape. There was nobody else around and we - I mean, I - started wondering if we could find something worthwhile inside.

It took us hours to get through that door, at least three hours for me to be able to push it open enough for myself and then Lorian to slip through. It also took us hours to find our way down into whatever was underneath that temple, back when we thought it was just a ruin. And there was nobody else around because nobody would want to go and explore an old ruin in summer with 40-degree Celsius heat and no water around for miles - especially when there's nothing valuable inside unless you’re interested in rotted furniture and some enigmatic inscriptions on the walls that none of us knew how to read.

We found the Crystal when we were just thinking about going home after all that walking around in the dark and hot airless space underground. We could never figure out how they got electricity down there or where they got ice cubes from because every room had big blocks of ice in them that glowed blue-white but didn't melt or even get warm after hours of staring at them while we waited for our eyesight to adjust so we could see what was there without bumping into anything.

And then, finally, we saw the Crystal sitting on top of a pedestal next to the wall opposite from where the door had been. We didn't notice it at first because its glow blended in so well with the cold light from the ice cubes. And up close, you could see little rainbows flicker across its surface as if millions - billions? - tiny rainbows were held within it by an invisible barrier that kept their colors contained within until they faded away again only to be replaced by different ones next moment. The Crystal itself wasn't actually small either; it looked bigger than me even though I'm not exactly small for my age and Lorian is even smaller than me... well, he used to be anyway!

We almost left without taking anything at all because neither of us really believed that there would be anything useful in here ... but even back then I was convinced there must have been something valuable here somewhere because why else would people build a whole temple around a single glowing Crystal? It couldn't have been cheap! And there are some things people will go pretty far to protect too... so we decided to try asking for a wish from this thing instead! We didn't really believe anything would happen but hey - maybe it was worth a try! Maybe this ancient Chinese magic artifact would work! So I said: "I wish that Lorian could grow bigger!"

And he did! He grew so fast! It wasn't long before he was taller than me and then he started pushing his way past me through that door! And then he pushed past everyone else who came into sight as he rushed towards home until nobody could see him anymore! Except me and my parents who were standing on our front lawn looking around worriedly when they heard my shrill scream after Lorian squeezed past me near our house where I managed to grab hold of his finger with both hands before he escaped out of sight again!

And then I screamed again because he broke free from my grip and ran inside through the front door with his head brushing against the ceiling! His head hit the light fixture over our front door which fell down behind him as he ran deeper into the house until another loud crash sounded from somewhere inside when his head hit something else too! My parents rushed into our house after hearing more crashes follow those first two loud crashes with worried expressions on their faces and then they too saw Lorian running away from them towards our living room where yet another loud crashing sound echoed through our house when his head hit another obstacle further inside! After hearing yet another crash followed by thuds and bangs as he kicked against walls and furniture as he tried to escape our house towards somewhere safer, my parents began rushing around trying to catch him before he hurt himself or someone else seriously or worse (they didn't catch him!). They ended up calling a wise, old neighbor who said she knew someone who might be able to help Lorian, so they called her while they continued searching for him in panic, managing somehow not to harm each other while chasing him around everywhere in our house (they couldn't find him)! In between searching for Lorian, my parents managed