"I can't believe it-I thought it was just legend..."
Thousands of years ago, a man would not have uttered these words. But after hundreds of years of searching, one man finally found it.
Donkey Kong Sr. and his men had just found the one thing that all their ancestors had slaved a majority of their lives dedicated trying to find it
They had found Kerotuff's tomb.
Present Day
Cranky clutched his hair, the bags under his brown/hazel eyes showing just how stressed he was. He'd been working nonstop for over thirty-six hours and needed some sleep. Lucky for him, that day was Friday. As one of the loop holes in the rules of being the Patriarch stated, he could have weekends off and also, every nine months, one day in the week off when he chose(as long as it wasn't Friday even though that'd be senseless and funny at the same time). So knowing him and these rules, you know what he's immediately going to do when he got home.
But the off-days thing had to be cut if something important came up.
He'd lost that privelige so many times when his son Donkey Kong Jr. (DK) was still an infant. One of the many times was when they had discovered Kerotuff's tomb. The aftermath of the discovery had been a good time. He hadn't seen his wife or son in a while so he was happy to go home after they were apart so many hours.
KNOCK
KNOCK
KNOCK
Cranky's head, which was bobbing up and down as he tried to keep himself awake, snapped up and he returned to full-alert mode, accidentally spilling the cold cup of coffee onto an important paper.
"AW CRAP!" he shouted, hurrying to save the document. Luckily he did. He turned his attention to the door. "Oh, eh... C-come in?"
"You really need some sleep when you come home," his wife said as she entered, her blue eyes having a sad look in them. "Do you even know what day it is?"
"The last time I checked it was six-thirty in the morning on Wednesday," Cranky mumbled, scratching his cheek. "And I know, Ina. I'm not dumb."
"Sweetheart, you have been working for over thirty-six hours without so much as a break. What have you been doing here all this time?"
"There was some weird crap happening at Kerotuff's tomb even though we'd excavated it completely when we found it." He sighed. "I don't understand. I finished everyhting they wanted me to work on about it but they keep piling other important stuff on top of it. I'm sorry I haven't been home."
"No no. It's OK. I know you have a lot of work to do."
"I just hope I don't have to go on field work anytime soon because I know that I'm going to fall asleep."
"Hey, boss!" a voice shouted as if on cue and one of the assistants, Itachi, busted through the door at that moment. Cranky's eyes widened as wide as they could with them all droopy from sleep-deprivitation.
"Please!" he shouted, clawing his eyes. "Please! No more papers! No field work! For the love of god, I'm fricking tired! I have been working for more than thirty-six hours straight without a break or even a little sleep and I don't want to do anything else now but sleep!" He broke down like he always did when he'd been up for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.
Silence.
"Geez," Itachi said, raising an eyebrow. "If you don't want to go and see what the hell is happening down at Kerotuff's tomb, that's fine by me. Don't do your job." He turned in his tracks and five seconds later, he was holding his slightly-bleeding head.
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP BEFORE YOU GET FIRED?" Cranky screeched, shaking his hand in order to get the feeling back into his knuckles. "Fine! I'll go! But if I fall asleep and hurt myself badly, you'll be the ones to blame and also pay the hospital bill."
"Uh, Cranky?" He turned around and looked at his wife. That was the first time he noticed that she was holding a metal cup by the handle. "This is the other reason I came here." Cranky recognized the smell and, turning to her, his eyes went wide again.
"Is that... hot coffee?"
"Yes and it's also fresh." Wrinkly handed him the cup and he stared at it. "I brought it for you because I thought you'd need a little boost. I suppose that this is what was keeping from falling asleep. Hey, don't hold it by the metal! You'll burn yourself!"
But he didn't care about that. All he knew is that it was burning hot, which is the coffee he preferred when he forced to stay up for long periods of time. It burned his throat as it went down but again, he didn't care about it. Cranky finished the cup and a satisfied, wide-awake look appeared on his face. He grinned and threw his hands in the air.
"Well, what're we waiting for, Itachi?" he said. Itachi looked at him as Wrinkly took the cup back from her husband. "Let's go do some field work! Thanks for the coffee, Inari!"
"Just don't hurt yourself," Wrinkly told him. She new that too much coffee would cause him to go incredibly hyper and eager. Kinda like a puppy and a kid with ADHD. "The coffee will probably wear off in about five hours or so. Be careful."
"OK!" Cranky snatched his coat from the back of his chair and grabbed Itachi by his shirt collar, dashing out of the office. "Thanks again, Inari! And don't worry, I'll be careful!"
Wrinkly still stood there a few minutes later, smiling softly. She didn't think he thought she also meant to be careful and not run into people. Which is funny because a few yards away from the office, he'd ran over DK.
"What the hell was that about?" their son said as he walked in at that moment. He looked at his mom, who grinned. "You didn't give him burning hot coffee, did you?"
"No," she said. "I gave him fresh burning hot coffee."