Exploration
Stunned, Tom stood in the doorway of an apparently functioning mechanical door. A breeze blew in sending shivers down his spine. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Tom began taking notes and photographs of the now open door. Unfortunately, the sunlight would not stretch beyond the door and darkness swallowed the interior. Pulling out his flashlight, Tom hesitates before moving onward. Was the door the first layer of traps that was supposed to ward off tomb robbers? He would have to proceed with extreme caution. His discoveries would be worthless if he stumbled into a trap and died there. Regardless, he was wanted to know what laid beyond.
The cavern sloped downward and the temperature quickly dropped, leaving him shivering. Watching his steps carefully Tom made has way downwards and was surprised at the of decor that lined the walls. Usually the deeper a tomb is explored the more ornate it is, usually holding the corpses of priests or jewels, and while Tom was overjoyed with his finds of clay jugs he couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that there was no other major finds.
Taking notes in his book at the lack of anything in the cave for the first hundred feet or so, he didn’t see where his feet were and managed to trip and fall. Hissing in pain, Tom quickly takes note of his injuries. He wasn’t too hurt, for it was a fall of his own fault not some complex pit trap, but his hands were still scraped up and his ankle was probably twisted when he landed on it. Breathing through his nose, Tom couldn’t help but feel frustrated with himself. So far nothing had injured him but his own stupidity and eagerness. Sitting on the floor for a few moments, gathering his thoughts, Tom forced himself to take it slow. He was already slightly injured and it would not do to get more injured.
Picking himself off the floor and standing carefully on his feet, making sure not to put too much of his weight on his twisted ankle, Tom continues going down the gentle slope of the cave. Finally reaching the end of the tunnel, he came across another stone door, this time with a roaring lion carved in the front of it. Luckily, it was not covered in that damned ivy. After taking a couple of pictures (trying and struggling to get the lighting right) he pushed on the door, and to his great relief, it easily swung open on its own, just like the first one did.
Shining the flashlight in the room he gasped at the beauty it held. The walls were line with vivid murals, even more intact than the ones at the enterance, and the room held beautifully carved stone caskets with an ornately painted one held up on a dais away from all the others. Making a note of the placement of the caskets, as well as his theories that a high ranking priest was held on the dais with his slaves and subordinates surrounding him, Tom carefully walked towards the middle one.
A beautiful carved face decorated the casket, red loincloth painted on and vibrant green leaves twisted around the sides. Tom was positioning the flashlight and the camera it focus on the details, when he nearly dropped his supplies hearing something loud banging noise. Looking around he couldn’t see anything out of place or fallen over. Was there a cave in at the enterance. Tom took a step away from the casket, and was about to go back out to see if he could find what made that noise, when the horrible scraping noise of stone on stone came from behind him.
Slowly turning back towards the decorated casket, Tom watched in shock as the lid was being pushed off before clattering to the ground making the ground shake with a dull thud. Now free of the stone lid, a lean tanned man sat up in the casket and looked around. After a moment of silence, the man snapped his fingers and torches that Tom didn’t notice lining the ceiling suddenly flared to life. The man grinned before stretching, pulling his arms above his head until his back popped, showing off his tribal tattoos, before he let out a pleased sigh.
Throwing his legs of the edge of the casket, the man stood, and smiled widely as he took note of Tom’s stunned presence before speaking in a language Tom never heard before.
“Hello, child. Have you been sent to wake me?”
After a few beats of silence, Tom realized that the man was waiting for him to respond, and said a tentative “Hello.”
The man frowned slightly at his response, before speaking again. “Have the elders not taught you how to speak yet? Or are you a foreigner?”
“Um.” Absolutely stunned, Tom found himself at a loss for words a the beautiful man sighed and walked over to him. Now standing in front of him, Tom could easily see the green of his eyes, though he found himself struggling to meet them. The man sniffed the air slightly before speaking in that enchanting tongue again.
“You smell of blood. Are you hurt?”
Tom, still frozen and uncomprehending continued staring at the man, before slowly lifting his camera and taking a picture. If he was going insane, and just hallucinated a man come out of a stone coffin (that weighed at least a hundred pounds) then it wouldn’t show up on the picture. With shaking hands he used the camera wheel to look at the picture he just took. And sure enough standing in the middle of a previously unlit chamber was a tanned muscled man, covered in tribal tattoos wearing nothing but a red loincloth and jewelry.
The man, apparently not satisfied with his non-answer, reached out and touched him and Tom felt a pleasant tingling take over his entire body, and he could only stare in awe as the cuts he sustained from the ivy vanished and his ankle stopped hurting. Pleased with himself the man nodded once, before moving behind Tom to look at the camera.
“There we go, much better. What are you looking at so intensely child?”
With the man standing directly behind him, Tom’s brain (finally) kicked into gear. He went into the lost cave temple that no one was able to successfully find. He documented his discoveries before opening a door that led downward. Then he got hurt, before opening a second door. That door led to a chamber filled with corpses and one non-corpse who could apparently heal through touch.
No one back at the lab was ever going to believe him, even with the photograph. Shoulders straightening, Tom resolved to take him back to Britain with him. If nothing else he would provide good insight on what was in cave and the script on the wall.
“How did you make a portrait of me that quickly?! And that realistic too!”
Though he’d need to break the language barrier first.