Another Talisman

Having taken care of Jonteel's loan at the bank they returned to the palace site. Walking up to the tables right as everyone was finishing their lunch, Maelyn told him, "You go ahead and eat you some lunch. Lazy butt still won't be here until the end of our usual lunch time at the earliest cause when we were walking up he still hadn't started the trip up the hill and you know how a walk that takes you five minutes takes him fifteen at the very least."

Jonteel then sat down to eat himself a quick lunch. Maelyn in the meantime checked on the site on top of the block encasing the palace that Joseph had been mainly excavating so far. She then checked the scan her and Daughtry had done of the site they were fixing to open to see what they should expect to see. Surprised to see only a hint of the hollowness they could hear that they were fixing to open, she studied the scans they had gotten from the inside of the first site they had opened.

Seeing the reflective properties of the green residue, she went to the tent they had set aside for samples from the sites and examined the residue. As she looked at it under a microscope she noticed the striated pattern and, fining a larger, more solid piece of the residue, she noticed the pattern and, on a spare piece of paper, started to draw it out piece by piece as she examined each piece of basalt with residue on it that was recovered from that area. As she finished she looked at what she had drawn from each different piece of basalt and, on a fresh piece of paper, took time to draw them together in the positions they were originally in. When she was done she looked in confusion at the picture and, shaking her head with a grin as she realized what the picture looked like, took the picture with her to the second site that they were fixing to open to ask for an independent opinion of what the pattern looked like.

Walking up as the team and the observer were debating on when or if they should open the hollow cavity, Maelyn told them, "Let's wait a few more minutes guys. When I exited the tents I notice slowpoke finally starting to walk up the hill and we all know how cranky he gets at whatever excuse he can find. Besides, I need a little bit of an independent analysis on what I found from the first site. So while he is taking his sweet time walking up, Each of you check this pattern I found in the green residue from site one and tell me what you think it looks like."

As they each examined it, her fellow archeologist Drake offered his analysis, "the striation pattern looks similar to our own nails and the scales of certain mammals and fish. And, judging by the circular pattern that is separating each area, I would say it looks like a larger scale similar to the larger mammals that possess scales."

"Yeah." Agreed Jiwon, "This looks like super huger pangolin scales! I mean most pangolins can fit in your hand, but if you blew one up to the size of that hole it's scales would be about that big too!"

When the drawing was passed to Hagan he looked at it and was only able to offer, "It does look like scales. But the only creature I know of with green scales would be a lizard or a fish. So I don't know what to tell you."

Smiling, Abjul didn't even look at the sheet when it was handed to him and instead reached into his pocket as he handed the sheet back to Maelyn and jokingly told her, "Congratulations Maelyn! For a job well done and your first discovery! What an amazing find! Here let me pay you for this!" he then took one piece of his money and placed it on the paper so it fit right over one of the scales in the picture. As he did so and saw saw Maelyn's expression start to change he finished, "Of course if you found a secret stash of scales worth a hundred scales apiece I'm gonna need to know about it so I can make sure you haven't devised a scheme of counterfeiting our currency!"

"Arrgh!" Maelyn growled as she handed the coin back to him, "At least now I have an idea of why this country is so obsessed with dragons! I still don't believe they were real, but these people living back then had some way to protect themselves that looked like a dragon. Now I just have to find out what it was."

"I have an idea of what it was, but it's hard to find believers of my crazy ideas nowadays." Abjul teased.

"yeah yeah yeah." Maelyn said raising her hand and dismissing his idea with a wave of her hand, "We've still gotta find a lot more evidence and a long way to go before I start believing in that stuff."

"If this hole has the same colored stuff in it I think we'll be finding even more interesting stuff in the palace once we get it opened up and accessible." Abjul told her with a smile, "And I will be right beside you when you do find it because I would LOVE to see your face when you find out that our myths weren't myths but actual events with actual real life dragons."

"We'll see." Maelyn told him, "Cause the reason I like science so much is I KNOW what is true, what is false, and what is based on faith."

As Harmon finally came up them wheezing he started to fuss, 'Why are we standing around at this site?! Why aren't you working on completing what you have been hired to do?!"

Not bothering to look at him and reveal the grin she couldn't hide, she announced, "Alright! The peanut gallery has FINALYY arrived! Drake, Jiwon, you can finally open up site two! Get to swinging!"

As expected it only took Jiwon a couple of small taps with the smaller pointed hammer to open up the cavity. As she was slowly and carefully tapping in a circle after making the first small hole Maelyn informed Harmon, "Second Minister. Since you weren't here for the first opening, here is how this is going to work. After Jiwon completes weakening that opening she will be placing an expandable strainer that will catch the basalt and extract it. After that they will record the inside of the cavity with every scanner. Then and ONLY then will we be able to look with our physical eyes for a short period of time. Then, when we are done or have reached the one hour mark -whichever comes first -we will fill it with foam, let it dry, and then this team will do like the first site has been doing and will gradually and carefully clear the surrounding basalt until we can safely remove the foam and start work on analyzing anything and everything that was under the foam or that sticks to the foam when we remove it"

"And why are you filling these holes up with that foam again?!" Harmon snapped, "Cause I STILL don't see why you are doing this to supposedly preserve something that has already been down there for five hundred years!"

"Let me put it this way then," Maelyn explained as patiently as she could, "When you have a roast in the freezer it will keep for months at a time -if not longer. But would you still eat it if it was left sitting on the table overnight?"

"No!" Harmon told her in response to the disgusted scene he had in his head, "I don't even bother with leftovers! I make the cook prepare me a fresh roast if I desire the same thing the next day!"

"Well, either way, the bacteria that spoils that roast that gets left out will also spoil the body that is at the body of this cavity even faster!" Maelyn asserted, "Before we opened this pit it hadn't rotted or decayed nearly as much as it will now that it has been exposed to fresh air. And, by preserving it with the foam, we will be able to see this person's actual face instead of just a rotted corpse or just a set of bones!"

"And what difference does being able to see the faces even matter?" Harmon dismissed, "Our primary goal is to uncover this place and attain the crystal dragon that will enable us to anoint a new king!"

"By preserving the body we will be able to document any similar facial or bodily features along with obtain viable DNA samples to show us how many of the people living today belong to the same lineage as the people we are finding at these sites." Maelyn explained further, "And, if we find the queen, we could also find out if any of her relatives still live today."

"Our Second Minister when it happened documented that the Queen's only daughter perished along with the Queen when the lava buried the palace and stayed molten long enough that whatever air that there was left in the palace would have already been consumed." Harmon decisively announced, "That is why the closest relative to the queen is this boy Joseph who is descended from her cousin."

"Well we have found at numerous sites that kingdoms that are based on lineages almost always have descendants of some degree due to many members of royal families have always had a tendency to find lovers they have strong feeling for outside of their heartless arranged marriages." Maelyn revealed, "So don't be too surprised when you find descendants you were unaware of."

"No matter! Even if the Queen's younger brother had already sired dozens of children across the whole Kingdom it wouldn't matter!" Harmon haughtily told her, "Our next King will be chosen by the crystal dragon in the throne room NOT! by blood!"

With Jiwon finishing opening the hole and having been scanning the insides of the cavity while they were discussing the importance of the bodies they were uncovering, Drake informed Maelyn as he completed the last scan, "Alright boss, the electronic eyes have finished looking in the hole. Time for the visual eyes to look."

"Thank you Drake." Maelyn replied then asked, "Second minister. Would you like to go first?"

"I am ENTITLED to go first!" Harmon told her with superiority. He then looked inside and, not seeing anything of value, told them, "This one doesn't contain anything worth spending time one. Fill it with that foam stuff if you insist, but I wouldn't bother with it afterward."

Looking into the cavity after Harmon had dismissively stepped away and gone over to the site he had previously been observing, Maelyn looked into the cavity and told the crew and Abjul, "It may not be worth HIS time, but it IS worth mine! This one contains a blue residue and there appears to be a talisman that looks to be made with andara. These talismans by themselves are worth way more than he thinks if they are truly made out of crystals like this."

"Maybe you will be able to take a couple of them and sell them for enough to cover the amount of money father's actions are costing you." Abjul told her as he took his own look, "Also, from the looks of the outfit on this one, He might have been the treasurer. So if you can find his vault you can make a profit off of this endeavor."

"Oh trust me Abjul, "Maelyn replied with a grin, "I am more than covering my costs and, even if I weren't, depriving him of so much profit makes any loss I experience MORE than worthwhile!"