Iron and Ink

***Well, hey, you guys!

So, I told you all about this short story I got the lovely privilege of writing and here it is!

Iron and Ink!

This story was inspired by the upcoming series event DIG. It premieres on USA Network on March 5th at 10/9C. You can follow their Wattpad page at @DIGonUSA and read the DIG: The Official Prequel, which I've linked.

As always...comment and vote!!!1***

April 1923

Wiltshire, England

By the time Lorraine Ellis was twelve years old, she was used to hearing her father's stories. They were not fairy tales everyone grew up with, but impossible stories about kings and pharaohs, pirates and sunken treasures, lost cities and forgotten peoples. He spoke of these as if they were real and, somehow, most of them turned out to be.

Her father would drag her all over to find all that was forgotten, but Lorraine would keep herself occupied with a book in hand, hidden in one of the white linen tents, while he and his team unearthed what the world had not seen for centuries.

She understood at that moment, walking behind him in the drizzling rain, why she usually hid herself away and became lost between the pages.

"Keep up, my darling!" Dr. Gregory Ellis called back to his daughter. His graying hair stuck to the sides of his face.

He heard her grumble as she stepped in yet another muddy spot. Her shoes were ruined, hem of her long brown skirt wet and torn, and what was once a crisp, white shirt was anything but. "You did not tell me we were going on a trek through the countryside in the rain! If you had, I would have dressed in long trousers like your men!"

Dr. Ellis threw his head back and laughed, pushing past another set of tree branches blocking their path. "You know you would have found some excuse to stay behind and press your nose between the pages of a book."

Lorraine grumbled again. "What, exactly, would 'this' be?" she questioned, raising a blonde eyebrow in his direction. "We are trekking through private land without permission, looking for ruins that you have only heard of. How do you even know they are here?"

"Intuition," he answered with a wink.

Her father's famous 'intuition' was what nearly got him killed half the time. Falling down trenches, barely being missed by falling boulders, and risks of sickness from insects or cuts obtained during these explorations never slowed the old man down. If it were up to Lorraine, he would already have been retired and living in a cottage along a leisurely river. But even then, he would find something to discover. It was in the man's blood...which also ran through her veins. Lorraine would have rather had her adventures in books where the only harm would be a cut from turning a page to quickly to get to the next.

Her father paused as she pushed past the branches he had just moments before, holding a map out in front of his nose. "I think we are almost there...just a little further now."

Lorraine huffed out a breath, pushing a strand of blond hair away from her face. "At least the rain has stopped for the moment. Have I ever told you how crazy you are, Father, dragging us out in the middle of nowhere?"

He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "All the time, my darling," he said lovingly. "But now, I do believe we have reached our destination."