"Who's coming?" Indy asked, looking around the empty land. "The volcano? The apkallu? Edo?"
Lizavet shook her head. "Something greatly evil. Underneath there are many things. The volcanoes make the earth rumble and I have been in some valleys where hot steam comes from the ground and toxins bubble up from lakes or collapse the ground in sinkholes killing the people and animals who live near them." She swallowed. "Sometimes we find ancient bones and fresh meat from creatures no one has ever seen. Once there was an ice bank of ancient frozen fish. It is a harsh land, but beautiful. I do not like to see it covered in death and ash. But the apkallu will not win. They never do. Death does not win... that is why spring comes after winter." She shuddered. "I am sorry. It is... It was too much like my dreams."
"The nightmares..." Indy questioned. "Where your parents... hurt you...?"
Lizavet nodded. "I used to have nightmares of the apkallu rising up through the earth." She looked at her boots. "Quartz crystal."
"Those weren't there a moment ago, right?" Emily asked.
"No." Lizavet scooped the clear stones into her hands. "But... they will tell us your answer, Papa."
"How?" Indy wondered. "They're rocks."
"Rocks and crystals speak if you know how to listen." Lizavet held the stones in her hands, examining them. "These were formed deep in the volcanoes. My people would call it the underworld. When the volcanoes form these crystals, there are variations in temperature and chemical formation that make the structures different. And..." she paused, holding the stones to her mouth, "sometimes there is much to be learned..." She sheepishly licked the rock.
"Did you just...?" Shorty stared.
"Do I need to add something to the list of things not to do...?" Indy asked warily, suddenly aware that he'd adopted another sweetly crazy child.
"Can I ask why you're licking the rock?" Emily finished.
Lizavet smiled. "The crystals release different chemicals depending on the volcano's temperature and how much pressure they are under. I learned in my schools that I could taste some of them. None of the other students could. Based on the temperature, the bulging ground, the taste of the rock crystals releases - there will be an eruption soon."
"How soon is soon?" Shorty questioned nervously.
"The animals usually leave within days," Lizavet explained. "I have not seen an animal since before I was captured by Edo." She paused. "Within a week. But I sense that what we saw in Edo's camp was just a small eruption. The earthquakes and ash tell me we are not finished with the volcanos."
Indy looked around at the devastation thinking of Pompeii and Herculaneum. "Then we've gotta get outta here. Fast."
"How do the animals know?" Emily asked.
"They can feel the earth speaking much better than humans. It is a low frequency noise that humans cannot hear." Lizavet thought for a moment, considering how much to say. "The KBG experimented with it for biological weapons... such as things like Havana Syndrome. It is called infrasound."
"In the First World War we used it to search for artillery," Indy remembered. "But its below the ability for most people to hear."
"I can hear it and feel it. It comes with being a shaman. There are certain... body imbalances and sensitivities that give shamans their abilities." Lizavet swallowed. "In your western science, there have been some links of infrasound to... What my colleagues called, 'paranormal activity'. They would like... they would like the supernatural to have a natural explanation. It is never that easy or simple."
"Why were the KBG studying these things?" Shorty asked.
"Have you heard of the Dyatlov Pass incident in 1959?" Lizavet watched their faces. "There was a group of hikers who died tragically and violently in the mountains. Some suggested infrasound and tried to duplicate the effect to cause panic in groups of people." She swallowed. "They, of course brought me along, because I could feel the infrasound. That is not a place where anyone should go. There are... things and creatures there. The wicked offspring of the apkallu. I believe your ancient texts call them Nephilim."
Emily looked up, blinking hard, staring across the horizon. "Damn, they're ugly. What the hell are those?"
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The Seven Swords of Diya: An Indiana Jones Fan Fiction - Part 2
FanfictionPart 2: Indiana Jones and his daughter Emily Ravenwood Jones continue their adventure in the frozen Soviet peninsula of Kamchatka, searching for seven mystical swords. With them is Indy's bodyguard from 1935 India - Short Round, grown up! And his re...
