Chapter 1 - Beginnings
I had been gently troweling through my squared section of the excavation site since nine a.m. Essentially I had been excavating for nine hours a day, five days a week for the last six weeks with not so much as a coin appearing in my or any of my fellow archaeologists sections. We were excavating a site in Northern Germany. It was a large open field at the edge of a wood. I was working at the edge of the field not far from where there was a steep hill that overlooked a vast lake. I had no time to enjoy the view, though. My knees were now stiff from kneeling in the soil. I sighed and looked at my watch I had placed over my gloves. Just one more hour I thought and continued to gently trowel through the dirt. Being four o'clock on a Friday evening my co-workers had all left early one by one until it was just an intern and I left. I had let her leave an hour ago out of sheer pity over the look of boredom on her face. She excitedly loaded her car with most of our equipment and promised to drop it off at our teams storage unit on her way home. She waved enthusiastically as she drove off and I waved goodbye as she left me alone at the edge of the forest.
I had taken part in many digs both big and small, all over the world since I graduated. However never had I been involved in one so odd as this. I had been contacted to ask if I would be interested to join a team of archaeologists to assist in an excavation by a private society in Germany. It further detailed all expenses would be paid such as hotel, food, travel and even new equipment. This in itself was not too odd. I had once taken part in an archaeological dig by another private society in Egypt. They too had paid for everything and it was a rather enjoyable and easy sum of money I earned in four weeks. Since my first day of work here things had been strange. Neither I nor any of the team had met our boss. We had been received on the site by a man in a navy suit who called us aside individually to inform us of our duties. We were each assigned individual sections of the site and informed that any findings were to be noted and removed in private with the help of only the intern. We could not discuss our findings with any other team member or anyone else but to only contact the boss via email. Our team worked in silence nine hours a day, five days a week as not one of us spoke the same language. English was my first language and I only spoke a little German so it meant my only communication was with the intern and it was very weak. Much to her annoyance I usually ended up miming my actions which were usually asking for coffee or lunch. It was a legal dig, fully granted permission by the state and local authorities as evident by the English copies of documents I was given. However we did not know what we were digging for or what era of artefacts our boss was looking for. It was odd, but the pay was amazing as were the benefits. I assumed he was a private businessman, with too much money and time on his hands.
A gentle breeze rose from the lake and I sighed heavily. I had decided to stay on and work as I only had three sections left in my area of the site to excavate. I wanted to finish next week so I could finish this job and go home. Six weeks of isolation had worn me out. I was too tired by the time I got home in the evenings to go out and make friends. The only real conversation I had was for an hour at the weekend with friends or family back home. Most weekends I slept in late, exercised, did some shopping and cleaned my apartment. If I could just get this section done today I could finish the rest by next week. I decided to change position and kneel in a different direction just to wake up my weary body. I gently kneeled back down to face the breeze as I worked. However as soon as I knelt back down on the soil I felt a much harder surface beneath my knees. I scrambled back gently and hesitantly brushed the hard surface with my gloved hand. There was definitely something there. Immediately I lay aside my trowel and removed my brush from my tool kit and started to brush away at the hard soil. A layer of black began to slowly be uncovered. I kept going and eventually a rectangle face of black metal lay before me with inscriptions on it. There was pictures too, slight little characters that were too dull to make out in this light. The sky had darkened considerably in the last ten minutes but I certainly wasn't hurrying away from my teams first, and possible only, find. I started slowly trowelling away the soil along the edges of the object, it was painstakingly slow but it was worth it just to see more runes, symbols and even what I to be an old form of German and English inscribed into the block of metal. However I realised that one side of the block had a handle of some sort and after much gentle trowelling and brushing I realised I had discovered a hammer. I stared at the object with my mouth wide open and my heart pumping wildly as it usually did when I discovered any artefacts. What a beautiful find! My hands shook with excitement as I reached for my camera in my tool kit. I fumbled over my gloves and eventually took one of them off to take several pictures of the hammer. I marked its size and exact location it was discovered in my pit. The sky was so dull now, a shower imminent but still stared admiringly at the hammer. Thor's hammer? I thought. I shook my head and laughed as I stood up to retrieve a container for the object in my car. I was too old to believe in children's stories and it was more than likely just a war weapon. I came back with a large plastic container to put the hammer in and my phone, intending to ring my intern and then email my boss as per my instructions. However I needed to remove the hammer first. I knelt back into my sectioned pit of soil and gently starting trying to remove the hammer with my gloved hand. Nothing. So I dug around it a little more with my trowel and tried again. Still nothing.
"For fuck sake! Just move already!" I cried, pulling harder, then laughed as my voice echoed around the field. Not giving up I decided to stand up and try. I wrapped both hands around the handle of the hammer and pulled as hard as I could.
"Come on, you stupid bastard!" I yelled at the hammer. One last rough pull I felt it lift from the soil. Finally I pulled it free from the dirt as the first rain drops fell and a clash of thunder rang out. Climbing out of the pit, I placed the heavy hammer gently aside and rang the interns phone but got no answer. The rain fell heavy now and another even louder clash of thunder roared across the sky. I quickly placed my phone in my pocket and gathered up my belongings. I then reached for the hammer. It was much heavier than I expected and I stumbled and slid on the lid of the container. I fell forwards over the edge of the hill and the hammer which I still held, dragged me down the hill.
I could smell damp earth. And hear a voice. And I could feel the rain. I blinked and opened my eyes, remembering my fall. I gingerly tried to move and finding I could without pain, I sat up slowly. The voice must have been my imagination I thought dimly gently patting myself down for bruising's, broken bones or cuts. Despite a cut on my cheek I seemed fine and stood up as the rain and thunder continued on. I watched the rain hit off the lake in front of me. Obviously the hill looked so steep from above, it merely looked as though it sloped into the lake. So at least I wouldn't have drowned. I thought, trying to keep positive. And at least I didn't get hit by the hammer as I fell.
"Oh shit, the hammer!" I gasped, looking around for it. I first saw a flicker of yellow behind a tuft of grass that was my tool kit. Surprisingly enough it still had my kit intact as I discovered when tying it back on. Then I saw the hammer not five feet from me at the mouth of what appeared to be a cave. I hurried towards it when I heard a voice call again.
"Hello?" I called, thinking maybe a local may have seen me fall.
Nothing but silence followed. I swallowed as I reached the mouth of the cave and gingerly peered in. Creepy. I grasped the hammer but once again it seemed stuck to the soil. I pulled off my other glove, so now both of my hands were free and angrily tugged at the hammer. "What the hell are you made of?" I shouted at it and it echoed all around me and through the cave. "Stupid! Fucking! Hammer!" I cried, tugging it with each word, before pulling it up once more from the earth as the thunder roared on above me.
"Hello?"
I definitely heard a voice this time. There was no doubt now, it came from the cave. I twisted the bright LED light in my tool knit switching it on and stepped into the dark cave warily. "Hello. Is there anyone in here?" I called in croaky voice.
"Hilfen mir!" A voice cried out.
Even I knew what that meant so I hurried into the cave as quickly as I could with the heavy hammer in my hand and the light on my belt guiding the way. "Ich heiβe Molly" I said as strongly as I could, hoping I could get the person to speak again so I could find her or him.
"Molly?" the voice called softly from my right. They sounded so close now.
"Erm…ja. Sprachen bitte?" I asked, hoping they would understand what I meant as I turned right, grateful the stone floor was smooth. Total silence and then.
"Molly? Molly? Molly!?" I walked even closer to the voice.
"Sehr gut!" I cried out encouraging more.
"Molly?" the voice said again and this time the light illuminated a figure in front of me. It was a man tied with his arms behind him around a stalagmite growing up from the ground. I dropped the hammer and it thudded loudly on the stone floor.
"Oh my god" I whispered clasping my hand over my mouth. I rushed towards the person and stopped short in front of him. A pale, green eyed man looked at me curiously from behind a raven black curtain of shoulder length slightly wavy hair. He wore faded, deep green long top, black pants and wore no shoes.
He looked at me and smiled softly. "Molly?" his voice was soft but smooth.
"Yes" I nodded and pointed to myself. "I'm Molly, sweetheart." I said slowly, hoping he wasn't hurt. "I'm going to help you ok? I'm going to get you out and phone the police."
He looked at me all the while smiling before shaking his head. "Englisch?"
I nodded.
He paused briefly looking at me curiously, "I should have guessed by all that fiery language I heard you use outside," he said, smiling.
My eyes widened as a small blush crept into my cheeks. This was not the reaction I was expecting from him.
He smiled again. "Shh, don't worry, dear Molly. I am perfectly ok. I am tied to this thing - "
"Stalagmite" I interrupted and then cursed myself silently for sounding like a know-it-all.
"Indeed" His smile grew more pronounced revealing white teeth. "Tied to this stalagmite as a result of a prank." he said calmly, his accent, which earlier sounded German now sounded like a natural English one in a deep, smooth tone.
"How - ?" I asked him.
"A stag party gone wild." He said and threw his head back and laughed. "Ehehe"
"But why on earth would you be left here?" I asked, totally confused by discovering him, his calm attitude and odd laugh.
"Ah, well my friends and I were camping last night nearby." He said staring into my own eyes, and shrugging as though slightly embarrassed. "I had the usual trick lined up to prank and tie up the groom, however he found out and got me first."
"So…you're ok then?" I asked, hesitantly. His story seemed plausible. Just a wild night, no doubt a few too many drinks and he didn't seem to be injured or anything.
"Well actually there still is the little problem of this" He shook his arms to emphasise his entrapment. "I would like to be freed. Plus I know it would be quite funny to visit my brother and his friends, before they come and get me tonight."
"So how do I untie you then?" I asked curiously, stepping even closer to examine his bonds. They were like little chains of metal. I stopped short at the smell of him. He smelled divine, like peppermint but with a hint of something deeper, earthier.
"What about the big metal thing you came in with?" He asked nodding towards the abandoned hammer.
"Oh, the hammer?" I answered, circling the stalagmite both to hide my blush and to check for any breaks in the metal chain. "I erm don't know. It's not exactly mine."
"The hammer sounded quite heavy when you dropped it though. Perhaps if you just hit the tip of the stalagmite," he said, nodding his head back to show the stalagmites tip was only a few inches too long for him to pull free. "It will break easily and then I can pull my arms out."
I paused, deliberating. I knew the hammer was quite strong and would easily snap the stalagmite. I just didn't want to scrape it. But then again I couldn't leave him here. And this was the only conversation I had had in weeks.
"Ok, I'll try it. But I need you to crouch down for me. This is really heavy." I told him turning to pick up the hammer.
"Oh, Molly!" He said, meeting my eyes again, a dazzling smile lighting up his features " Darling, thank you so much! I owe you!"
I smiled at his gratitude. "You're welcome." I pulled the hammer with both my hands. Again I had to do this a few times before I pulled it put completely. "Crouch down low as you can for me" I asked stepping in front of him as he lowered as far down the stalagmite as he could manage. He was very tall, I realised, so that as he lowered down his legs bent up like a stick insect and his face were mere centimetres from my breasts. I took a calming breath as I stared down and then I saw a blush on his cheeks too. I stepped closer and lifted the hammer carefully. As I did I heard him inhale deeply as though he was sniffing my breasts. I swung the hammer with surprising ease and broke the stalagmite with one strike and a slight yell before I placed it back down. For a moment I stayed still and so did he. He peered up at me licking his lips and smiled. We both looked at one another faces flushed with arousal. Then quickly I stepped back and retrieved the hammer. I looked back to see him stand up slowly and shimmy his arms up the stalagmite until he pulled them free.
"Come on then. I have equipment back up at the site to get you out of those ties," I called.