Cave
Kamchatka Wilderness
Soviet Union
1960
Emily sat up, gripping the child.
"Mama! Mama!" The child cried, gripping Emily in a desperate hug.
"Hello, Little One," Emily smiled, staring into the face of an Ethiopian child who looked strangely like her with dark pigtails on either side of her head and brilliant gemstone green eyes.
"Mama!" The child hugged her.
Emily touched the child's face, checking for injuries. "Are you hurt?"
"No. But I don't like it here."
Water started pouring in behind them.
"Me either." Emily pulled the child close to her non-injured side. "Let's get of here."
"How, Mama?"
Emily thoughtlessly delivered the same line Indy had told her long ago in a similar crisis. "Don't know. I'm makin' this up as I go."
The child grinned. "Thought you'd say that. Gwandpa's on his way back."
Emily stared at the child. "What?"
"Yeah. He and the Treasure Guardian had to have a chat." She snuggled against Emily. "So glad you're fearless, Mama."
"It takes practice, Little One. Just remember what Grandpa taught me... it wasn't fun, but you won."
Emily held the glowing sword above her head, looking around the small chamber.
The swords easily lit the small chamber. Emily found that she could stand up... with the ceiling being much taller than the passageway she'd crawled through.
Water quickly poured in around Emily's ankles, filling the chamber.
The cave ceiling above her had multiple slots in a spiral pattern, like a compass or the workings of a combination lock. Emily looked at the swords, then to the child. "Do you know anything about this?"
"No. But you get out because you haven't met Dad yet." She grinned a Jones grin. Emily's heart melted a little. It was a reflection of Indy and herself - on the face of a child who had deep faith in her mother.
"Why are you here?"
"Treasure Guardian sent me. Thought you might need some encouragement." She blinked as the water rose to above Emily's knees. "He didn't like that the apkallu hurt you when you refused the apkallu's marriage. And he wanted you to know that there was someone out there who would love you, despite the scars." She lay her head on Emily's shoulder. "And he's always known you wanted kids."
Emily smiled. "Yeah. I have. Hang on." She eased the tiny child around from her ribs and onto her back. "Hold onto my shoulders."
"I don't think we're gonna fit back through the passageway," the child warned.
"We're not going back to the gloomy pit of darkness," Emily replied, staring at the ceiling. "Grandpa Henry - your great grandfather, said that the Seven Swords of Diya had something to do with the Sidenstrasse Tapestry. And if I'm remembering correctly - that's the strange mechanism that was on the scroll."
Emily looked at the swords... "And if the Swords of Diya are keys... Then they should open things..."
The child stared up the pattern on the ceiling. She pointed and counted the slots on the outside of the spiral. "It's got seven slots. And you only have two swords. Which one do we choose?"
Emily looked over her shoulder at her daughter. "I was hoping you'd know."
"Uh-uh." Her pigtails whipped around in a negative pattern.
Emily smiled, she'd done the same thing as a child. This child was hers. Her father was right... children were darling treasures and they were littlest artifacts of their parents. Fortune and glory couldn't top this.
YOU ARE READING
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...
