The Nightmare Beneath the Sand

Nightmare Beneath the Sand 4

Chapter length: 1742
Words so far: 6,055

Staring at where the workers were starting the dig, Leon scowled into his coffee cup. The day before, once they had arrived, Kran had gone to speak with Amir about what needed to happen. He had taken out the supervisors of the various groups and laid out the grid that they would search. Leon had handed over his sketches of what he had felt under the sand with another warning that it was a bad idea before hiding away in his tent with Alaric.

"This is going to end in bloodshed," he finally said. Alaric grunted, draining the expresso that he had made. They both were living on hard caffeine for the day, Leon wishing silently for some of his favorite energy drinks instead of coffee and expresso.

Last night they had stayed up, translating the tales between Alaric writing out what he had been told by the old woman in the store. It didn't paint a pretty picture for what was under the sand. And Alaric knew just why Leon would say it was going to end in blood shed.

Once they had read the stories, they had started to put the pieces together about what was in the maze. The fully translated texts from the program had given them even more information about what was trapped in the hidden pyramid.

"A creature of Evil. Pure and simple. It predates most of our collective memories," Leon muttered, turning to walk back into his tent, letting the flap shut behind him. "They must know what is under the sand. That is the only reason why this group would be so intent on digging it up. They want whatever is in there."

"Do you think they're connected to the ones who used to worship it?" Alaric asked as he followed his lover into the tent. Leon frowned, looking at the notes and the pictures that they had.

"I think they're connected, yes. But how? That would take a long time to figure out. Mostly because it would require a lot of traveling and digging into their family history. I don't think that they would have that information readily available for any Tom, Dick, or Harry to find," he said. They gathered up the notes and started to put them away, Leon intent on keeping them locked.

Alaric frowned. "And Kran will not listen to you when it comes to something like this," he mused, Leon shaking his head. "For all that he knows of your abilities, he believes that it is a genetic quirk instead of the blessing by Gods older than human memory. That and he has his backers threatening him with losing his funding."

Leon gave his lover a look. "Not many people accept what we know already," he said, tucking the pages into a binder. "What are we going to do?"

"I say that we talk to the Ones Who Guide and see what they want done," Alaric replied, playing with a thin bracelet that sat around his wrist. His fingers found the curved lines that created an old language that his family still remembered even after generations. "There must be a reason why we were chosen to come, and I don't mean just because you are very strong and able to read the land the way you do."

Leon sighed, snapping the binder clips closed with a snap. "Yes, I suppose that you are right. Do we still have some of those strawberries and mangos from the store?" he asked.

"I grabbed a couple extra thinking of having them with lunch today," Alaric admitted. While he found the fruit and carefully prepared it, leaving the skin on the mango but removing the seed, Leon found his journal and carefully tore out some of the parchment paper that was made of it. He found his travel calligraphy set, including his glass pen and the ink block quickly enough, grabbing a cup from their 'kitchen' area of the tent. Using some of the water, he soon had ink and wrote out their questions in order of what they desperately needed answered.

They then placed the note, another sheet of paper, pen and ink, and the fruit into their bedroom with a cone of incense burning. They sent out their prayers to the universe before leaving the tent. While they didn't agree with what was happening, they still had work to do and Leon was hoping to keep the dig slow enough for them to figure out what to do about the thing sealed within.