THE V.O. SUPER DUPER
PATENTED DISCLAMER THING! :
Umm… I'm poor. I don't
own anything. Anybody who tries to sue me is a loser.
Thank you for taking a look into my first fanfic. I hope
you enjoy it. It is not finished, and will probably have several more parts
before the conclusion, if it is liked. Please take the time to review and give
constructive feedback.
If you are not interested in reading something slightly
new that involves new characters, don't bother to read any further.
This story will probably read much like a short novel.
Give it a little time to get into. ;-)
25 YEARS LATER
"Damn it,
Linus! Stop it!" screamed the voice from the hole. Brown sand and rust colored
earth spewed from the large pit in the ground as a dirty face peeked up over
the edge.
"Stop
friggin' playing around! We have work to do!", spat the face, as it's owner climbed
out of the hole. It wasn't a bad looking face either. It belonged to Amy Rill,
college student extraordinaire. Or, soon to be extraordinaire anyway. That was
why she was out here, trying to fulfill her dream of becoming someone. Hah. Off
rooting through the wilderness, looking for her professor's lost 'marbles'…
Lord help him. So, digging a hole in the desert floor may not SEEM like an
aspiring start for a paleontologist… but everybody has to start somewhere…If it
wasn't for her STUPID professor and all his STUPID obsessions… she would
probably have government funding, on some trip of her own. Off rooting through
pyramids or something.
Amy was
brought sharply back to her senses when a clod of mud smacked her in the side
of the head. The thrower, her younger brother Linus, danced around like an
idiot, giggling like a little school girl the whole time.
"You
little brat! C'mere!". Dropping her 'mature' mentality, Amy took off across the
dig site after the blond headed teen, losing her shoes and half of her dignity
on the way.
Linus
took the path straight through the middle of the dig camp, the one surrounded
by all of the temporary white cloth tents that the students and professors used
on their outings.
'Looks like a whole bunch of junk thrown together by some homeless
desert people.', thought Amy. 'God, I hate this… chasing my stupid younger
brother through what's basically my college classroom…If only I didn't have to
baby-sit him all the time…'
"AGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" Amy looked up
from her sprint just in time to see Linus fall over a foot sticking out from a
nearby tent flap… flat on his face. He raised his head and spit out a mouthful
of sand.
"Damn it, Nigel! I could have
gotten away!" yelled the scraggly boy angrily.
The owner of the foot stepped outside
of the tent, yawning and grinning sheepishly.
"Uh.. sorry. Thought you were
somebody else." laughed Nigel. Nigel and Amy were very good friends, and
had decided to do the whole paleontology thing together. Nigel was the closest
thing to what you could call Linus's friend at the dig site. Though it was kind
of hard to tell, the way they beat up on each other all the time.
"Thanks for catching him for me…"
said Amy, giving Linus a hard slap on the back of the head.
"OW! HEY!" he whined.
Nigel placed a hand over Linus's
mouth, yawned again, and gave Amy another grin. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be
checking out that new area over on the edge of the camp?"
"Yeah, I was… until this little
crackhead thought it would be funny to screw me up. It's not like I would have
found anything anyway…".
"Ah, well. I'll beat him up for you
later. Right now I'm kind of hungry, you want some grub?"
Amy smiled. "Sure thing... but we
have class right now, remember?"
Nigel frowned. "Oh, right. Great
fun. Alright, let's go."
******************************************
"Hello
there kiddies! Welcome to your third week of hell!" The University's Director
of Archaeology, Professor Wuldeen, waddled around in front of about 30 college
students in a large, mess-hall like tent. The fat, lethargic looking man was
not the 'plump pleasant' type, but more of the fat, hairy, smelly type.
However, he was the most learned Archaeologist on the continent (which didn't
make putting up with his ceaseless crap any easier). He was currently trying to
scare a whole bunch of the freshmen into submission with another scary speech.
Amy ignored him.
She
doodled on her paper while she thought of her life. 'Archaeology… Maybe if Dad hadn't died, he'd have the
Professor's job by now…'. Amy's mother and father had died in a terrorist
bombing three years ago. They were en route to an archaeological expedition on
the Philidean continent, and had gotten off their helicoptor at the airport
while it refueled. According to the death report, they were in the gift shop.
Probably picking out something cute and ditzy to bring back to her and Linus.
Poor Linus…
Linus
was only twelve when they died. He hadn't taken it nearly as well as Amy, and
he didn't like to speak of his parents. Amy's father always seemed to come up
in conversation with Professor Wuldeen though… which always lead to
confrontations. Linus always won. He would end up cussing out the Professor and
calling him a fat moron and such… while the Professor would stalk off to his
tent, fuming. Amy smiled to herself.
The Professor couldn't so much as look at Linus the wrong way. He had specific
permission from the University's Dean of Historical Education, Mrs. Monson.
Mrs. Monson was an expert scientist and historian, and was stunningly beautiful,
and also Amy's favorite teacher. 'Good thing she took Linus under her wing… I'd
hate to be without him.. even if he is annoying… I…"
"MS.
RILL! It's good to see that you think my lecture is IMPORTANT!" the professor
had waddled up right behind her and startled her out of her daze. "I've been
going over the details for the past THIRTY MINUTES, and you haven't even
written so much as ONE WORD on the topic!"
Amy
glared at him through lowered eyebrows. From somewhere in the back of the room,
she heard Linus's voice. "WOW! THIRTY MINUTES HUH? BUT WE DON'T NEED THE
DETAILS OF YOUR NEW DIET PROFESSOR!". There was a burst of laughter.
The
professor puffed up like a red balloon and glared around the room. Other than
sporadic snickers, all was quiet.
"AS I WAS
SAYING…" yelled the professor… "It is VERY important that we find at least one
of these artifacts on our expedition.
He waddled up to the front of the class room and turned on the film
projector (one of the only things supplied with electricity in the camp).
An
enlarged picture of three small marbles appeared on the white projection
canvas. They looked like ordinary, school yard marbles, other than the fact
that they were all an odd green color.
Amy frowned. This was only… what… the sixteenth time this month that he
had given this 'lecture'? The poor professor was obsessed with these marble
things… according to the Seniors, this was the third expedition he had led out
here, and the object of each one had been to find one of these marbles.
Amy
raised her hand. "So what exactly do we do once we find one of these?"
The
professor glowered at her. "The procedure is the same as for any other find.
You turn it in to me to be cleaned and packaged immediately… the only
difference is that the first person to find one will automatically have their
grade brought up to a 97 for the semester, no questions asked."
The
students whispered among each other. A 97 in Professor Wuldeen's class was
unheard of. Hardly anyone passed it. Amy had a low 'C', but it wasn't because
she was a bad student. It was because the professor was an ass…
"Well,
you're dismissed! See you again after the morning work detail! Get a good
night's rest so that you can work extra hard tomorrow! Oh, and Ms. Rill! You
owe me three hours of your free time. You have an extra work detail that you'll
be attending." He guffawed at his humor and headed out of the tent.
Amy
flicked him off when he turned around.
******************************************
The hustle and bustle of the camp
greatly increased during the night time. Small lanterns flickered outside every
tent flap in their never-ending waltz with the desert wind, while tanned desert
guides and pale, dust streaked students roamed the camp, laughing and just
having fun after a hard day's work.
The only quiet place was in a small
clearing near Amy's tent, on the south side of the camp. It was there that
Nigel had built a fire and cooked some hot dogs and beans in a can. Nothing
great, but it was better than what some people had to eat.
And, every day, like clockwork,
Linus brought up the forbidden topic.
"So what do you think these
marble-things are that the professor has us out here looking for?" he garbled
through his hot dog.
"You mean what he has everyone BUT
YOU out here looking for… you're just kind of along for the ride…" said Amy
quietly.
Nigel chuckled. "Oh, c'mon Amy.
He's not that bad. Besides… think about it. Wuldeen has everybody comb the same
area… I mean, every class that comes out here into the desert has been restricted
to this area of land… right here, to the west of the Outer Peaks." Nigel
pointed to the nearby mountain range. It looked like the teeth of some rabid
hound, pointing up into the night sky. Amy shuddered at the thought. She didn't
like dogs…
"What if it's the Ehrgeiz?" munched
Linus.
"Ho ho… that's a good one, kid!"
said Nigel. The big 23-year-old gave Linus a friendly pat on the head. "You
don't honestly think that a bunch of college kids and a teenager would be
looking for something like that, do you?"
"Something like what?" said Amy.
Both Nigel and Linus turned and
gave Amy the weirdest look. Suddenly she felt very stupid…
"HEY! IT'S NOT MY FAULT I HAVE A
SOCIAL LIFE!! IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN SPEND ALL MY TIME STUDYING! YOU PEOPLE SHOULD
HAVE RESPECT FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS! OH MY GOD! HOW CAN YOU BE SO
HEARTLESSS! I NEVER…"
"Sheesh…" moaned Linus, his hot dog
forgotten in the verbal onslaught. Nigel rubbed his ears. Even the Outer Peaks
seemed to retreat into the desert, cowering away from the roaring girl.
"Grr…" she growled. "OK… so what is
it?"
Linus sighed and bit into his hot
dog again. "The legendary weapon! I can't believe you haven't heard of it!"
"Grr…"
Nigel interrupted quickly. "The
Ehrgeiz is supposed to be some sort of ultimate weapon. The power to destroy
nations, armies… that sort of thing. It was supposedly destroyed during the
Gothic Age, but… most people agree that if it was actually that powerful… it
would have been very hard to wipe out completely. Besides. Most people believe the
Ehrgeiz to be a sword, not a marble-like object."
"I
doubt these dumb round things that the professor has us looking for have
anything to do with the Ehrgeiz. What do you think is the point of having us
search through three miles of desert for Dr. Fat Man's stupid lost marbles?"
Amy snapped.
Nigel
gave Amy his withering look again. "You really don't come to class that often,
do you? He told us that these 'marble-things' were valuable artifacts. Shiny,
small, round bundles of money, basically. But why would something like that be
worth so much? There has to be more to it than he's letting on."
Amy
pondered the possibilities for a moment. "So… what do we do if we actually find
one of these things?"
Nigel
coughed. "I doubt that we will, considering the other class's results. But, if
one of us happens to run into one… HOLD ON TO IT! I don't think we should let
the good doctor know about it right away. Maybe we can sneak it into the
school's tech lab and let Mrs. Monson do some analysis."
Linus
perked up. "Good idea! Maybe there's some kind of conspiracy of something going
on.. you know.. one that Dr. Fat Man has been hiding from us?"
Amy
glowered at her brother. "Stop being dumb. That brainless sweat bag couldn't
blow his nose if brains were dynamite."
Nigel
looked up from his tin of beans. "But he could blow our chances at a career."
Everyone
was silent for a moment.
"Maybe
we should do our best to make him happy." Said Amy.
"Maybe…"
echoed Nigel.
******************************************
That night, when everyone was done
with their food, Amy gave Linus a hug and Nigel a peck on the cheek and retired
to her tent on the edge of camp. She never had liked it that much, being so far
away from both of them, but it was better than being in one of the guide tents.
The guides stayed in tents further out, just in case a random sandstorm came in
the middle of the night, so they could come in further and warn everyone before
hand.
Amy changed into her pajamas and
lay in her sleeping bag, staring at the swaying dance of the lantern outside
her tent, listening to the windsong of the desert play with the camp. And she began to think.
'Why did I do this? Didn't I know I
would never have a chance to do something that I wanted? Mom always said you
should go for your dreams… before she left anyway. Dad always said you should
take the clearest path available. The one that you know will give you what you
want. But it's never that easy. At least not anymore. Out here looking for
over-sized marbles. Over-sized kid's toys. It's hopeless. Her mother would be
proud. Her father, pissed. But isn't that the way it always is?….."
Amy nodded off to sleep, her head
filled with dreams of floating marble earrings and big, shiny swords, and a huge,
fat, angry Professor screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs.
So fast asleep was she, that she
never noticed the shadowy form that slid past her tent flap. Never noticed the
four legs climb up and stand above her head. Never noticed the canine snout
sniffing her hair, or the cold blue eyes roaming her face. Never noticed it's
hot breath on her cheek…
Never noticed the gleaming, red
ball that it dropped into her pillowcase… the one that glowed with an inner
fire all it's own…
As quietly as it entered, it was gone…
******************************************
