POV Rio
Mount Kilimanjaro was beautiful. As was the environment. The locals were also very kind. Though I did start to get annoyed with all the staring. I had noticed it in Greece as well, but even with hiding my ears with a hat and some prosthetics, everyone was still drawn to look at me. Now, at first I thought I had something on my face, or maybe my outfit was weird, but I quickly learned why everyone was staring. I am really beautiful. And I don't mean that arrogantly; it's just a straight-up fact due to my elven physique. I had an ethereal, almost saintly beauty to me. And I say beauty, as I was somewhat androgynous looking. I had pearl white skin with shoulder-length golden blonde hair and deep blue eyes that people would often stare into. My face was also perfectly symmetrical, which is quite rare and also something that people pick up on subconsciously.
Now, to make things worse. I have assimilated 007, James Bond, the ladies' killer. That man practically oozed charisma. Which did not help me in the slightest. In DnD terms, I had started with a high charisma stat, and now I have even more from 007. But at least nobody swarmed me or anything. Which was a mixed bag. They seemed to think I was out of their league, so they didn't even try. Which I don't know how to feel about. On one hand, they aren't bothering my privacy, but on the other hand, nobody approaches me to talk. I have to approach everyone else.
Regardless of my first-world problems, I had been having a lot of fun in Tanzania. I learned that Elves are natural friends of nature, and as such, the wildlife seems to love me. Finding the mountain I was looking for was a bit tricky. But I had been flying around most nights on my magic broom with the Invisibility Cloak over me. I wanted to try to spot it from the sky, but after that, it didn't work. I hired a translator to talk with the various tribes in the area. It took 8 days to locate the mountain I was looking for.
"Leave the orb and go. Never speak of it. To trespass on the Cradle of Life is to risk flooding the entire world with death," speaks my translator.
"Others will come to take it. And they will not look upon it with fear and respect; they intend to use it and destroy the world in the process. And I am deeply sorry if I have to disturb your gods to do so, but I will do what I must," I reply.
The chief looks disappointed, but he waves at me to follow him. I follow and take a seat as he discusses with me.
"Do you truly understand what you are doing? Are you truly prepared for what you are about to learn? Some secrets must remain secret. These are very heavy burdens, very lonely burdens... And if you find the box, you will have to carry them," my translator says.
"I am prepared," I say firmly.
Another elder of the tribe speaks up, warning that nobody who had gone looking before had come back. And about the Shadow Guardians. Then, about the riddle to reveal the Cradle and the confusing mess that is the Cradle. Then they said they would give me twenty men to take me as far as they could.
The journey took most of the day, but we arrived, and I let the translator and tribesmen return while I entered the mountain. I first tried going during the day, but found it was sealed during the day. As such, I waited until nightfall and snuck my way in. I knew hiding visually would be useless as they have movement-activated senses. But as I was about halfway in, I froze and felt one of the creatures was nearby. And I was right, as mere moments later, a Shadow Guardian left a tree and started walking around before leaving my sight. The creatures looked like a mix between a LotR Troll and Wildmutt of Ben 10. But it was after the Shadow Guardian disappeared that I felt a rush of instincts telling me to do something or else I would die.
I trusted that instinct and let my body react automatically. As such, I drew the Elder Wand and cast a spell I hadn't cast yet.
"Expecto Patronum!" I yell.
A sphere of white light was formed at the tip of my wand and created waves of light and energy. The Shadow Guardian hit by the spell were forced to retreat as they screamed in agony and fear of the light. Those who push too far into the spell's effects started to disintegrate. Then, after some time, I noticed my Patronus, which was a Kitsune. It looked at me and bowed before charging at the Shadow Guardians. Any Shadow Guardian hit by my Patronus disintegrated instantly. By the time the spell had ended, all the Shadow Guardians had been destroyed.
I breathed a sigh of relief and then walked towards where the entrance to the Cradle of Life should be. I threw the orb like a basketball into the hole and got a three-pointer shot. The ground gave way to reveal the Cradle of Life. I walked down the wall and started exploring the maze. I also took a few samples of the rocks to study later. Eventually, I arrived at the pool of black acid, and Pandora's Box was sitting in the middle.
"Accio!" I cast.
The box comes flying out of the acid and right into my inventory.
[Pandora's Box]
[This box was made to contain all the world's evils. Zeus was the original guardian of the box, but during a non-consensual sexual encounter with Pandora, the first artificial human, the box was left on Earth. Pandora found the box and opened it, releasing all the evils contained inside. She was then punished by the gods and turned into the Cradle of Life, where she would remain until the box was destroyed. This box contains the Original Sin and will kill anyone who opens the box. It also contains the Anti-Life Disease, which is the first disease to exist and can kill anything, even gods and celestials. ]
'...Zeus is a dick.'
Though to some extent the rest of the gods held some responsibility for this, without a doubt, it was all Zeus's fault. If the guy wasn't such a raping bastard who was so focused on banging anything with a hole, this wouldn't have happened. Still, there was nothing I could do, and I wasn't about to tempt fate by speaking such a thing out loud. Instead, I started to focus on the black acid. Supposedly, these were Pandora's tears. But I wanted to take some samples and if anything, collect as much as I could, as if I destroy the box, then it is possible that this acid will vanish alongside the Cradle. As for collecting it, I decided to try something.
I hovered my hand near the acid and attempted to collect some, and it worked. The next check was to make sure it didn't start destroying anything in my inventory. But thankfully, it had no effects as time was frozen in there. The next test was to see if I could store it in several types of beakers and bottles. One by one, they all failed until I started using Quartz Beakers. Once I confirmed I could store them, and from the looks of it, not only safely but stably for long periods, I stored all the acid I could in my inventory. I ended up emptying the pond. But my inventory was dangerously full.
I quickly left the Cradle. I was tempted to gather more samples, but I felt it was for the best if I didn't. Once I left, I opened my inventory and moved to absorb the box.
[Are You Sure You Want To Absorb Pandora's Box? Any Items Inside Will Automatically Be Either Absorbed Or Destroyed Depending On The Type Of Item.]
[YES] [NO]
I breathe a sigh of relief, as I was scared that it might release the Original Sin in my inventory. Or worse, just release it completely. I didn't even really know what the Original Sin was, but I didn't want to find out. But what I was sure about was that I wanted to destroy the box and everything inside it, so I pressed YES.
A second later, the box was gone, and the inventory space increased massively. It went from a 51-meter cube to a 200-meter cube. The size increase wasn't as much as I had hoped, but I wouldn't be picky; the box and the horrors it contained were gone, and that was what mattered. As I was thinking this, the ground shook, and I quickly chose to apparate away. I returned to the outskirts of the village, and moments later, the mountain shook a bit, causing some rocks to fall off.
'Uh oh. Eh, maybe nobody will notice.'
Then the front of the mountain caved in, though it was thankfully not too bad.
"Thank you..." a voice on the wind said.
I close my eyes and bow towards the mountain.
"Rest in peace," I say quietly.
I felt lighter, but that could have just been my imagination or perhaps the feeling of righting a several thousand-year-old wrong. In either case, I returned to the tribe and told them what had happened and requested secrecy. But before I could even say a word, they all bowed before me and started saying words of gratitude. Which is when I realized I could understand them.
"What?" I say aloud, and I swear they understood me.
"Thank you for giving rest to the great mother. We knew she had been suffering for too long. But we were powerless to end her suffering. You are welcome in our tribe forever. And we shall not speak a word of what happened to a soul. We swear an eternal oath," the tribe leader says.
"I thank you for your help," I say with a bow of my own.
I stay in the tribe for a bit longer, but eventually I have to leave. I get in my truck and start driving. Before we arrived at the town, I hired a translator. I deal with him.
"Stupefy!" I cast and knock him unconscious.
Once he is unconscious, I pull over.
"Obliviate!" I cast and start altering his memories.
I make it so he remembers taking me to experience the local cultures, but nothing to do with the Cradle of Life or my talk with that tribe. Then I wake him back up, and we head back to town. I pay far more than I need to to compensate for the little memory manipulation. Then I ended my little vacation and started my journey back home to New York.