"𝙰𝚗 𝙰𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚎𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚑𝚞𝚜𝚋𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚠𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛."
- 𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚊 𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚎
I always liked History. While all my other classmates in high school dozed off during history, I used to sit in the first row and listen intently. I don't understand why people find it boring. Don't they want to know what happened in the past? Aren't they curious?
I decided I wanted to be an Archaeologist at the age of 12 and finally after completing my masters in Archaeology two years back, I got a government job as an Archaeologist. Unlike many people, I love my job.
Last week, a fossil of what seemed like a tree with some ancient script written on it was found by one of our team members when he went hiking. We've been trying to figure out that script for five days. I saw many ancient scripts and languages as an Archaeologist but this, this looked way too different.
"How was your weekend Eirene?"
I lifted my head at the sound of my good friend and colleague, Alex.
"Nothing eventful," I smiled at him. Little does he know.
I met Alex two years back when I joined this job. He is my first and only friend here. When he himself came up to me and introduced himself, I was surprised. I mean apart from my team nobody knows that I exist here.
"What about you?" I asked him.
He let out an overdramatic sigh.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Life's become pretty boring," he said.
I let out a small laugh.
"By the way, did you find anything about the fossil?" he questioned me.
I shook my head.
"Nothing. Not even a small clue," I said shrugging my shoulders.
"Why don't you try scanning it on our computer? I heard they got it repaired," he said.
We have a computer, more like a machine which is filled with complete information about history. If we scan something, the information about it will pop up on the screen.
"Oh yeah, I should. Talk to you later," I stood up, taking my bag and ruffled his hair.
He groaned, slapping my hand away.
I laughed at his expression.
I politely smiled at my colleagues whom I saw on my way to the fifth floor which has the computer on it.
Elevator made a ding sound, signalling I reached the fifth floor, I stepped out of the elevator and made my way towards the system.
I carefully took out the fossil which was in my bag and put it under the scanner.
When I saw that some information popped up on the screen, I removed the fossil from under the scanner.
I printed the information and when I was placing the papers and fossil back in my bag, I found the book the old woman gave me. I don't know why, but I brought the book with me to the office. I took it out and opened the page which contained the image of the woman.
I placed that image under the scanner and crossed my fingers, I waited for almost five minutes, when nothing popped up I stretched out my hand to take back the book but suddenly I saw that something popped on the screen.
I looked at the screen, it contained an image of two women. One of them, who stood to the left, was the one in the book and another one was a woman, no less gorgeous than my possible ancestor. She had black, almost raven-coloured hair in a long braid. She had many rings on her finger. She had no expression on her face while my ancestor had a small but dazzling smile on her face. But what really made me excited was the names written under the image.
Avaline Royala.
Aindrea Astley.
That's it. It only had their names. Nothing other than that.
I quickly printed out the picture and placed everything in the bag.
I went back to the second floor, where my team was working and handed them the fossil and the papers I printed.
"Oh, you got them," Mr Whitely smiled at me.
Mr Whitely was a sixty-year-old man, the oldest member of our team who is like a grandfather figure to me. He is a very kindhearted person.
"I will research about them, why don't you take a break, dear? You've been working from morning," he said kindly.
I look at the watch sitting on my wrist.
It was almost 13:00 pm. I did not even realize it. As if on queue, my stomach made a grumbling sound.
"Okay, Mr Whitely. I will go and have my lunch. I will be back in an hour," I smiled at him.
"No hurries, dear. Take your time," he replied.
I gave him one last smile and left the office after taking my bag.
I did not pack my lunch today because I was so busy thinking about the incidents that happened today.
***
I parked my car in the McDonald's parking lot. The door made a jingling sound indicating there's a new customer.
I ordered a cheeseburger with fries and coke.
I sat in a booth and took out my phone, scrolling through social media.
"Oh dear, I was thinking how to find you,"
I looked up at the voice and found the old woman from the antique shop.
"What, Mrs?"
"Mrs.Williams, dear," she replied and she occupied the seat opposite to me.
"I would like to apologize for my behaviour today morning, Mrs Williams," I said with a small smile.
"Oh, no worries, dear. I should apologize too for the way I behaved," she replied.
"You were trying to find me?" I asked her remembering her words.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot," she took out a paper from her bag and handed it to me.
My eyes skimmed over the words and numbers on the paper. It looked like a phone number and an address.
I looked up at her.
"I found this paper in the book I gave you, I forgot about it today morning. This must be the information of the girl that owned this book. I never tried calling the number," she explained.
"Thank you so much, Mrs Williams," I looked at her gratefully.
"Oh, don't thank me, dear. It's the least I could do. I never bothered finding about those weird creatures. I really hope you find whatever you are looking for, child. I got to go now. Take care, dear," she stood up and gave me a small smile and was about to go but stopped. I glanced at her confused.
She turned towards me. "I feel like whatever you are so willing to find is very dangerous. I just want to say be careful, dear."
When she said that nervousness seeped through my body. I managed to fake a smile.
"I will!" I said more to myself.
The waiter placed my order on the table and I thanked them.
I sighed and looked down at the paper she gave me. I don't want to deal with it now. I want to enjoy my lunch peacefully.
With that, I placed the paper in my bag and dug into my food.
A/N: Not everything mentioned in this story is true or exists in the real world.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
With love,