The Rooftop Gazebo

Walking over to the gate that faced down the mountain Ashley neared the edga and looked down at how the lava had been held back by the gate until it had overflowed and started flowing a light layer around the outside of the gates and walls before cooling enough to solidify. As she then walked around the outer edge and looked at it on all sides she grew disbelieving and then went over to Harmon and asked, "Professor Maelyn was related the tale of the lava coming down the mountain and filling the inner set of walls around the castle. Do these tales say anything about another source of lava?"

"Why should they?!" Harmon testily responded, "Doesn't it look like what the mountain sent down was enough?!"

Instead of responding directly to him, Ashley turned to the pit over the palace and called, "Hey boss! I looked around the cube and I think they didn't tell you the whole truth about this lava!"

Surprised and curious, Maelyn paused her scanning of the open area underneath the roof to give her attention to Ashley and asked, "What do you mean? You can see the flow where it came down from the caldera of the volcano and flowed over the entrance yo that cave then followed the path and filled up this area between the inner walls to form this cube here then filled the area between here and the outer walls. What part was missing about that when you can plainly see the end result?"

"The part that's missing is that..." Ashley started before deciding to explain with an analogy, "Well, think of the lava like water or I guess some thick honey. If you're gonna fill up a big bowl, like the area between these walls, you can't fill it up all the way if you you leave one of the gates open and can't fill it from the outside if all the gates are closed. So there must have been a lava source inside these walls to fill this cube up!"

"Oh! Duh!" Maelyn responded in shock and smacked herself in the head, "Why didn't I think if that when I was scanning the site with Daughtry!"

"Ma'am, I think David deserves a smack too!" Ashley consoled her and reminded her, "He teaches Geology as well as Paleontology at the University! So HE should've seen it right off!"

"Well thank you for noticing what should've been obvious to me!" Maelyn told her, "And tell Daughtry that he owes you an A in Geology!"

"I will!" Ashley agreed then told her, "I'll head back over to that gate and work on opening it up for you now!"

"Alright! Thank you for giving us an easier way in!" Maelyn thanked her and got back to scanning the opening as Ashley walked away.

After scanning what was inside the opening she surprised Harmon when she turned, grabbed all of the scanning equipment, and walked up the newly built stairs to the top. As she then walked towards the ramp he demanded, "You should come back here and continue your work! You've finished with your devices so you can start digging away at this rock that is blocking your access NOT walking away!"

"I AM doing my job!" Maelyn snapped at him as she continued to walk to the ramp, "I am going to review what I have scanned so that I know what type of open area is there. How far down I need to dig. What I am going to be seeing. If we can even access the palace through this opening or if it's enclosed and the window or door is still blocked by the basalt. Etcetera etcetera etcetera."

"But don't those scanner things have screens that show you what they're scanning?!" Harmon angrily snapped back, "So if you had been paying attention you would already know what was under that roof!"

"Look here lazy butt!" Maelyn told him as she turned around and pointed her finger at him, "me PAYING ATTENTION is WHY I am going to review what has been scanned! Because according to these scans the dead body our initial scans said would be on the second floor is actually in this open area! AND there appears to be another one of those talismans next to THIS body like it has been with all but one of the other bodies we have uncovered so far!"

"I don't care about these dead bodies!" Harmon asserted, "And the only talisman I care about is the crystal dragon talisman that the next king has to hold to get recognized as king!"

"And like I have told you NUMEROUS times!" Maelyn hollered back a him, "You will be WAITING until we get to that room and I have inspected the room in it's ENTIRETY before you will be able to even LOOK at the thing! So let me do my job if you want to have a chance of getting there any time soon!"

Muttering to himself he waved her off towards the tents as he walked over to the wall and stood there leaning against the wall to wait on her to finish reviewing the scans.

Entering the tent Maelyn hooked up each of the scanners to the laptop and downloaded the scans she had done of the open area. After they had all been loaded onto the laptop she then set it up for each of the scans to overlay on top of the visual scan she had done. Once she had set it up to overlay individually and separately she then started to evaluate each of the scans.

As she evaluated them she started with the visual scan and could see an open area under the roof that went almost the entire length with a small part enclosed for the stairs leading downstairs. On the opposite end there was two stone supports to hold the roof up that looked to be covered in the same type of scales that covered the roof. However, directly in the center of the roof, there was a body that was dressed in what looked to be a dress made with scales covering all of the cloth except for the shoulder straps. Also, like with all but one of the previous bodies, there appeared to be a black talisman that she was unable to identify the material it was made of from this distance.

As Joseph walked in she invited him to come look at the scans to offer his insight as well. As he viewed each of the scans and then overlaid a couple of the scans, he informed her, "Looks like this body may be royalty. You can't hardly see it but I'm seeing some type of crown on this body's head."

"Yeah," Maelyn agreed and added, "I'm thinking this is the queen because according to the records we've been able to access, she was the only adult royalty alive at the time of the lava deal. The only other royalty at the palace was a daughter that was barely a year old at the time."

"So could THAT talisman be the one that lazy butt is wanting to get ahold of?" Joseph asked, "Cause I thought he wanted a diamond looking one or some other type of clear crystal?"

"This one isn't the one he wants." Maelyn informed him, "He want's a clear one like you said. I'm thinking it's gonna be some type of quartz but the way he obsesses about it it's looking like he is gonna be looking for a diamond one."

"Well could I get him off our butts and 'discover' a talisman made out of straight glass and hand it off to him?" Joseph asked, "I know he'd be riding us extra hard when he figured it out, but I'm hoping it would buy us at least a couple of days without having to put up with him!"

"Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to say no." Maelyn regrettably told him, "Cause a stunt like that could make his pettiness rear it's head and have him shut down the entire sight until we find the right talisman."

"I know." Joseph defectively replied, "But it made for an entertaining little fantasy."

"I don't know." Maelyn reluctantly answered, "What would be more entertaining would be to see him acting like a toddler as we got close to the throne room but having to wait on us to finish with each room before going to the next room."

"Well the first step towards that is gonna come tomorrow when we start clearing the basalt till we get low enough to step across." Joseph told her, "Cause you know he's gonna want us to squeeze in and get started as soon as we get a big enough hole for his fat butt to squeeze through."

"I know." Maelyn replied with a sarcastic grin, "And that is why I plan on making him wait until we have a perfectly level floor at the same height as the floor of this gazebo type setup."