Map Seekers: The Brotherhood

Chapter 2

It didn't take long for Hunter to convince his dad to let him keep the mysterious fragment. It's not that his mother was a worry wart, but given the option between being uneasy about something or waiting to see if it might be okay, Hunter's mom would always fall on the side of being anxious.

David, Hunter's father, was relaxed and more willing to see where things led before becoming stressed. There was a part of him that sought adventure, too. Of course, if things took a turn for the serious, David would be the first to stop and reassess the situation, more often than disagreeing with his wife and putting a stop to whatever Hunter wanted to do.

After a few minutes of begging, pleading and rationalizing, Hunter got his way, but the entire agreement was contingent upon Hunter agreeing to tell his parents if anything weird happened.

Hunter's enthusiasm was greater than any he had in years toward anything, and his parents didn't want to squelch that. Hunter also appealed to his dad's sense of logic-obviously Granddad had been out in the sun a little too long when he sent the package and the whole thing was a spoof.

Once he convinced his parents, Hunter spent an entire day studying the fragment. He was enthralled by the amount of detail in every element of the map and imagined what the entire thing must look like.

Hunter assumed that the fragment he had was a side piece, because one edge was nearly perfect. While the edge was dog-eared, compared to the other sides which were obviously torn, the fragment had to be one side of the map.

Drawn on the fragment was a small but amazingly detailed vignette of two people bordered by ornate scrollwork. Hunter recognized this type of ornamental detailing on maps from the 1600s and was surprised to see it part of a map which his grandfather claimed was from Biblical times.

Hunter studied the vignette carefully. The ink was faded but he could still make out two figures. One looked like he was offering the other figure a bowl and a seat. Hunter had no idea what it meant.

Upon furtherinspection with a magnifying lens, he noticed strange symbols which he did notrecognize: ταπεινοφροσύνη

He did the best he could to transcribe on a pad of paper what he assumed were letters so he could look them up later.

Also on the fragment were a number of lines that were neither parallel nor perpendicular. Hunter took a piece of tracing paper and drew what he assumed would be the natural extension of each line. He discovered they converged on a common point. This made the lines radial lines, like those found on portolan charts, which used a network of intersecting straight lines called 'rhumb-lines' as direction-finding aids. Hunter knew that rhumb-lines originated from sixteen equidistant points spread around the circumference of a hidden circle.

With this knowledge, he could begin drafting what the relative size of the entire map might be. He soon realized the 8 x 11 sheet of paper he was writing on would not be large enough. By his rough calculations, he would need a sheet of paper at least 80 inches by 80 inches. This was one huge map, he thought to himself.

In addition to the symbol, or word, found on the edge vignette, there was obvious lettering in a faded colored box near the top of the piece. Next to the box was a drawing of a hideous and malformed creature. Hunter did not recognize the creature as anything he had ever seen but he was aware that mapmakers often created fiction, fanciful creatures to symbolize the unknown. This figure looked like a man, but he was contorted and his face and head were misshapenre misshapedunknownnize the creature as anything he had ever seen but he was aware that mapmakers often created fiction, fancif. Hunter didn't much care for looking at the image.