Chichén Itza

After spending a couple days in the luxurious zeppelin, sleeping in a regular tent was disappointing for Uriel who expected a lot more from the Mapple corp. Still, he wasn't going to complain about that because every single Mapple corp employee had similar if not worse accomodations.

What bothered him, though, was the presence of Nika on his tent.

'At least now she didn't hide in the shadows under my bed.' He yawned as he got up in the morning. Nika didn't snore and she didn't do anything to upset him, what truly bothered Uriel was that ever since Nika was assigned as his bodyguard he lacked all sense of privacy. Even when she wasn't around, he still felt someone was staring at him because of the unsettling nature of her trait.

By the time Uriel came back from washing himself, Nika was already awake and waiting for orders, her sleeping bag already rolled and placed in a corner. Instead of bossing her around or asking her to roll his sleeping bag, Uriel knelt down and did it himself. He wasn't that used to camping and he wanted to enjoy every part of the experience.

"When will you be visiting the ruins?" Asked Nika who was in a hurry to go back to civilization as soon as possible.

"You need to be patient, yesterday I barely got the chance to look at the site and speak with a few researchers. To investigate further I need to gather more data." Uriel said trying to hide his excitement. In all truth, he could have simply walked inside the great pyramid and translated the glyphs, but he wanted to appreciate the experience properly. It wasn't everyday that a college student got invited to an expedition such as these.

"You know, this is an expensive expedition, even for the Mapple corp. and we can't drag it for too long." She said, already suspecting Uriel's intentions.

"Yeah, well, how long have they been here?"

"That is... about six months." She replied honestly.

"Then what difference does it make if we delay it for a couple days?"

Uriel took a morning walk through the site and dedicated his time to inspect every place from a distance, taking care not to enter Kukulkan's pyramid.

There were vestiges of the priest's houses, The Great Pyramid, the Cenote Sagrado, the Warriors' Temple, the Tomb of the High Priestess, the Wall of Skulls, the Temple of the Bearded Man, the Platform of the Great Jaguar, the Caracoles Temple, the Little Tablet House, the Descending God Building, among other ancient structures. Uriel was engrossed in the sight of so many different structures, most of them were actually in pretty good shape despite the passing of time.

"So... Are you done now?" Nika said trying to keep herself from complaining about the young student. "You sure are taking your sweet time on all this."

"Don't you see the magnificence of this place miss Nika? This is one of the biggest and most important archaeological sites in the entire world!" Flanagan, who had been following them around for a while now spoke from behind.

"See? He gets it." Uriel said with a hint of surprise. "I didn't take you for an archaeology enthusiast Mister Flanagan."

"To be completely honest, I'm not... or at least I wasn't until I was sent here the first time. Since then I've been doing my best to keep up with the research and I must confess it's really interesting."

"That's great! Maybe you can put me up to date with how far along the way the investigation is."

"Certainly, Mister Sage. The site has been under Mapple corp control for about six months, so far we haven't suffered any casualties within the borders of its FOD and..."

"I mean about the research, not just the safety of the site."

"Apologies," Flanagan bowed down to Uriel. "Every single building had been searched for clues and the assistants made drawings of all the sculptures and of all the symbols carved in its walls. They're all stored in that tent and I highly recommend you check them as soon as possible, as my insight on archaeology is limited and my understanding doesn't go that far. Oh! I've also heard they uncovered a few objects, but most of them seemed to be rather ordinary and the archaeologists haven't shown much interest in them."

Uriel followed Mister Flanagan's advice and headed to the tent where they kept all the drawings. He went through the incredibly detailed hand drawn replicas that were miles apart from Luna's rushed doodles on her sketchbook. They were almost as good as photographs and they've also been stored and categorized properly.

'Heaven, this is heaven!' Uriel was so happy he could burst in joy. 'I think I spent all the good luck in my life after being invited on this expedition.' He thought inwardly.

"Are you done now?" Nika asked, deeply irked by Uriel's silent and boring study.

"I'm busy, if you're so impatient why don't you go be annoying somewhere else?" Just the thought of him talking to a woman as pretty as Nika would have made him nervous a week ago but now that he got to know her he was comfortable even sending her away.

"Fine, I'll leave you in the capable hands of Flanagan. Hey you! Do not screw up or I'll have your head on a pike, you hear me?" She addressed a not so subtle warning to her subordinate who showed clear signs of almost crapping his pants on the spot.

"This is it!" Uriel shouted. "Where are they keeping the clay artifacts?" He asked Flanagan who promptly led him to another tent where all the artifacts, not just those made with clay, had been sfely stored in shelves or crates.

"What's the matter Mister Sage, did you find anything that will help you translate the language?"

"Ah, uh, yeah." He lied through his teeth. He really needed to keep the fact that he could already translate it a secret, or else they would rush him to simply open the door and leave him behind. He needed to prove his usefulness before something like that happened.

What he found on the drawing had nothing to do with the language, but with the cryptid that had been spotted around. He searched the catalog for a couple minutes until he found the exact position of a certain clay figurine and he respectfully took it out from the chest with his bare hands.

"We need to take this to the Platform of the great Jaguar as soon as possible!" Uriel shouted after studying for just a minute and ran outside as fast as he could, trying not to drop the valuable figurine to the ground.

As soon as he reached his destination he was suddenly stopped by professor Schlieman who was in the vicinity. Not by chance, of course, he had been following Uriel with his gaze in search for an opportunity to make a fool of the young student.

"I'm sorry young lad, but I can't let you walk any further. Every structure has been sealed and is currently being handled properly by our archaeologists." The professor said trying to hide a smug.

"But I figured it out!" Uriel replied trying to walk past him without any success.

"You are certainly a smart young man, I give you that, but you're not even a college graduate yet and you don't know how to properly handle archaeological remains."

"They brought me here to investigate, how am I supposed to investigate if I can't go near the structures. I assure you, I do know the proper methods for preserving cultural sites."

"You say that, but you even dared to carry that valuable idol with your bare hands, not even wearing gloves!" Professor Schlieman placed his hand over his chest feigning concern for the 'useless' clay figure.