Disclaimer applies
Note: links to Yu-gi-oh finally made.
3.
Alright, we were in the air. And I was still alive and well. But everything was said with that. Father was sitting three seats behind me, being all mushy with Gangster girl (let's be honest, what else could she be?). And mum was crumpled up beside Quint, at the other side of the path, Gar (asleep against the window), Gwen and I were sharing another row. I was going over some files on my laptop.
"Sil?" Gwen whispered, bending her head a bit towards me, so no-one would hear.
"Yes?" I whispered back.
"Isn't it your birthday next week?"
"Yes, that's one of the reasons I'm so angry with my mum. I don't want my father there. This would have been the first one he wouldn't screw up, but noo, mum just had to invite him."
"How could he have screwed your last birthday? I thought your parents are more than a year divorced by now?"
"He decided he'd pay a visit, and he managed to offend everyone present, and ruin what was up to that moment a great day." I said, closing my eyes at the mere memory of that day.
"Did he bring Gangsty along that day?" she asked, shocked.
I grinned "No, I met her only two weeks ago, you remember, when you first walked in."
"Yeah" she sighed and paused, then she looked at the screen of my laptop, and frowned "What are you reading?"
"O, that" I started whispering again, after all, I didn't want to get caught "I hacked the computer of my fathers company a few times, trying to find a way to get it into trouble. But according to this file, it seems like I don't have to do anything anymore."
"How come?"
"Well..., do you know KaibaCorp?"
"Yes, I know that. I'm raising money for one of those duel disks."
"Now then, the disks, and all the gaming stuff that goes with it, are only a recent change of strategy that began with the death of the old CEO, Gozubaru Kaiba. When he was still in charge it was a well-known concern for military development, they delivered to several countries of the UN, among them of course the US."
"And..?"
"...and they had a big joint-venture with my fathers company. So big, it had become the core-business of Security ltd. And when Seto Kaiba became the new CEO, he dropped the whole project. So now my father has a big problem."
"Great! Seems like this KaibaCorp took your revenge for you."
"Yeah. I almost feel like I owe them."
Gwen grinned. "That's understandable, but it seems like it doesn't stop him from leaving his company just to ruin this vacation."
"Don't let him deceive you. He's probably got his computer with him, so he can keep in touch. And I think he has somehow found a way to be both bugging us and get in touch with the new CEO."
"Why would he want to speak the CEO? Isn't their collaboration over?"
"Yes, but I heard he is in Egypt."
"Really? Well, we'll see where it goes."
"Yeah. Let's just try and enjoy the flight from here on"
And we decided to watch the movie the stewardess had just put up. Long live Blackadder!
2 hours further, almost at the end of the flight...
"Gwen, Sil." Gar said, after waking up.
"What is it, Gar?" We answered.
He said up straight, narrowed his eyes and scraped his throat "How do we hide from father this vacation, and have a good time like we planned? The three of us have to think of something."
Our mouths fell open, I was amazed. Why hadn't we thought of hiding yet? Had we been so preoccupied with other things? But he was right, we had to think of a way on our own. Mum had planned to spend a relaxing holiday with some books at the swimming pool, and an occasional visit to the market or a local museum. And Quint was meeting some friends he had made on a student- exchange a few months ago, so we wouldn't be seeing him around very much (maybe that was why he was somewhat more relaxed than we were). And we had agreed to do a lot of sightseeing. Why else were we in Egypt?
"I suggest we follow our plan, and sneak out of the hotel early every day, so they can't catch up with us." I said.
"Right" Gar agreed "Would you mind to meet us early, Gwen?"
"No, not at all, I never sleep long in the morning. And maybe you could have breakfast and siesta at my house. I'm sure my parents won't mind. And we could have lunch and dinner outdoors."
"Yes! Great!" We all smiled, our vacation suddenly looked a lot brighter than before. Gar had recovered at least enough to ask what a siesta was.
******************
And so it began. It is starting to get hot in this place, so I guess I'm in the desert, most likely still in Egypt. I hope I don't get bitten by a snake while I recover my memories.
******************
When we checked in in the hotel, we noticed father hadn't been able to reserve a suite anywhere near us, but had a room three floors above us. We secretly exchanged grins. When we got the keys to our room (Gar was sharing one with Quint, and I slept together with mom in a room) we dropped the luggage, and Gar, me and Gwen went to her house to settle her with her luggage and meet her parents. After getting lost a couple of times, we found the house. It was nice, white, with two floors and a terrace on the roof. We rang the doorbell...and a woman, about forty years old, with a hat and an old shirt and shorts opened the door, and she didn't seem to have any perfume on.
"Hello...Gwen! It's so good to see you!" And after she had almost strangled her daughter (they looked enough alike to tell) she released her and took a good look at us. "Ah, I've see you've brought some friends. It's so nice to meet new people. You must be Silandra and Gareth, indeed very nice. My daughter told me about you over the e-mail. I'm Gwen's mother, Calliope, but call me Kelly, please."
"Pleased to meet you, Kelly" we both replied.
I took a glance at Gwen, who looked like she was a bit embarrassed at her mother's flood of words, and desperately tried to think of something to say. She looked at me, and then her face got a determined expression. She turned to her mother "Mum, this is Sil, and that is Gar. I already told you they would be coming to Egypt for a vacation, but fate has taken another turn."
Kelly turned to her daughter, surprised and wondrous "What do you mean, Gwen? Aren't they going to stay those two months?"
"Well yes, but their father, the jerk, and his fiancée have come along, so they will have to avoid him in order to have a pleasant vacation."
"Aha. But don't worry dear, they are always welcome here. It's always nice to have young people around, and I'm glad you already found some friends to explore Egypt with." She smiled friendly at us, and I allowed myself a small sigh of relief. It was arranged! "Now, young ones, please come in, and put the luggage down next to the door, I'll ask Richard to carry it upstairs later. You must all be very thirsty of that terrible heat, some lemonade will take of that. You should indeed drink well while you are here, and..." and while talking she disappeared in the kitchen, and left us in the hall. Gar and I exchanged grins. What a words. But she must be a wonderful woman.
"So, what do you think of my mother so far?" Gwen asked us.
"Delightful, talkative, but delightful." I answered.
"Yes, she's very caring." Gar joked.
Gwen just rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen, so we followed her. There Kelly had already made the lemonade, and handed a glass to each of us. "You just drink it up, and then go to the living room, to meet Richard and his new boss there. She's a lovely woman. And you will find her most interesting. She has a very impressive, very determined, very mysterious attitude"
Gwen rolled her eyes again "Who is she then?"
Kelly turned around again and looked a moment at each of us, before she said "I believe her name is Isis Ishtar, she is from the department of archeology. She's offered Richard a very important task to fulfill."
"What then?" Gar curiously asked.
"Go ask him"
"Ok"
And after a "thanks" for the lemonade we went to the living room. There were two people there. A man, with grey hair, shorts, and a T-shirt as his wife, and a fatherly smile. And a tall woman, or she seemed tall, but she was indeed very mysterious, and had a smell about her that seemed oddly misplaced in the modern home Gwen's parents had created. It smelled more like ancient crypts that were sometimes under medieval churches. And she had long hair, as black as Gwen's, and a toned skin like all the Egyptians seemed to have. She stood up.
"Hello" She greeted us, with an accentless voice.
"Hello" we answered back, all a bit startled, like we had just seen something supernatural happen. She looked at each of us, as if trying to determine what kind of persons we were, analyzing the very depths of our souls. It was creepy. Whatever she saw, she seemed satisfied, as she gave a little smile when she had looked at all of us. Then she spoke, her voice a deep alt "I am Isis Ishtar, good to meet." The business-like way she said that, broke the spell.
"I'm Gwen." Gwen said.
"I'm Silandra"
"I'm Gareth"
Gwen's father came up behind Isis "Ah, hello, children, the plane must have arrived early. Welcome to Egypt. I'm Richard, but my wife must have told you that. This is my new boss, for whom I'll be working now and in summers to come."
"Dad" Gwen smiled and gave her father a big hug, who hugged her back. We had to smile at the family-feeling that came from this. I took a glance at that strange woman, as I wondered what kind of person she was. And her face wore a very serious, firm expression, as though it had never known emotion. But her eyes looked a little sad. Where would that come from? Then she suddenly looked at us.
"You must be her friends." she said, matter-of-fact.
"Uh, well yes, we came here on a vacation." Gar answered, trying to look as polite as he could.
"Do you like Duel Monsters?"
"Well, yes, we do, very much." I answered, a bit surprised.
"Do you know where it came from?"
"We know that it was created from old Egyptian tablets." I replied. A jolt in my stomach betrayed to me that I was at least a bit excited. This was going to be interesting, and a glance at Gar and Gwen learned they were also anxious to hear more.
"Alright, then it will be much easier to explain."
"I'm sorry, but what is 'it'?" Gwen asked.
Isis gave another smile (though she didn't seem like the person who would do that very often) " I figured you would like to know what such an important person is doing in your fathers house, and what could possibly be a job to do in a summer. So I'm going to explain that know to you and your friends, to make sure you are properly informed. And maybe you can be of some help. Do you have your decks with you?"
We nodded, too surprised at this question to do anything else.
"Good."
Gar pulled a face, he wasn't used to being 'of some help'. At home we always needed to ask him specifically to do something. And I myself didn't feel very well at the thought of having to help without being asked. But maybe this would be interesting, and Isis was probably more of a commander than of an asker.
"Follow me to the basement."
So we followed, First Isis, then Gwen, Gar and I, and as the last Gwen's father.
When we came in the basement, I couldn't do anything but gaze. I saw about fifty of those tablets, the paint still intact after thousands of years, and covered in hieroglyphics. It had a strange beauty about it.
"Your father, Gwen, is going to retranslate this, as has been done before with several other tablets. But these were only discovered recently. The temple these tablets used to belong to caved in, and they were used as a fill for the walls of a new temple, that was build during the 21st dynasty. And investigation shows that these were from the 18th dynasty."
"And why could we be of any help, then? We don't know any hieroglyphics, so we can't help translate them." Gwen said.
"Because after retranslation we found that most tablets that were recovered from that time, were about the monsters Mr. Pegasus used to create Duel Monsters. And now we need cards of some sort to test the theory we have."
"What theory?" Wow, Gar had gone berserk, he almost jumped up and down from excitement, for as far as I could tell.
"Come along to this tablet." And she showed us to one that was almost in the back of the room. "When someone called upon a monster in ancient games, it came to live to serve whoever had called him in battle. We think that can happen again with the modern day cards."
"Isn't that already happening with the holographic duel disks?"
"Not exactly. What I mean is that they appear without the help of computers, and in a more proportioned size to the cards, so they would be much smaller and spirit-like."
"Whoa! Can we try?" Gar asked.
"Yes, you can. Please pull out your decks, and pick one monster, and then put your deck but that card back in your pocket."
So we did. And I almost felt like this was funny, because this woman indeed appeared to be supernatural, as was my first impression of her. When I looked at the cards we had chosen, I saw we all had picked our favorite ones. Gar had The King of Yamimakai, Gwen had Dark Elf and I had Hyozanryu.
"Now, lay your card flat on your hand, the brown side up." And we followed orders.
"This summon will probably make you very tired, don't worry about that, it's normal, the first time."
We exchanged worried looks. Could that be dangerous? Then I shrugged to the others, it was almost time for siesta anyway. They understood, and gave a tiny nod.
"Now I will summon them for you" And Isis put her hands over the cards of Gwen and Gar, and chanted something. After a minute or two, the monsters came to life. It looked really weird. First the cards stood up straight, then they began to glow, and then the monster just popped out in a puff of smoke, as large as its card, although Gars level 5 was bigger than Gwen's level 4.
"Can I also have my monster come to life?" I asked, eager to see it.
She turned, and looked at my card "Yes, but you will have to summon another monster, because this monster is too strong to summon for you, at least for now."
"Why?"
"So it says on the tablet."
"So they are already retranslated?"
"No. we have only made a beginning, and it will take at least six more weeks to translate the rest. You will be needed again then."
"Aha. We'll be here." I looked up another favorite of me, The Stern Magic. "Can this card be summoned?"
"Yes, put out your hand." And she summoned him for me. When the card came to life, it looked at me, as though expecting some orders, and I put it on a table in the middle of the basement, where Gar and Gwen had already put their monsters down, so they could walk around. They just stood there for a while, while we gazed at them, wondering how other monsters would look, as we had seen only a few duels with duel disks.
After some time we became tired, and Isis let the monsters vanish when she noticed. But the three of us remained to look at the table, enchanted by the magic of those moments.
"Ahum" And I woke up from my trance.
Gwen's father hadn't said anything since we came in the basement, so I must have looked rather sheepishly when I noticed he was still there. "Shall we go upstairs to discuss further matters?" He asked, and now Gar and Gwen also shook their heads as if to get rid of the spell that had held us all in its grasp.
"I think that would be wise" Isis said, looking as serene as she had done all the time.
When we had all returned to the living room I sat down on the couch, together with Gar and Gwen, curious to hear what Isis had to say.
"Richard, I will see you at the meeting on Monday*, but I have something to say to the youths, in private."
He smiled "Of course, I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me." And after he had given us a smile he walked out of the room.
Then she turned to us, and began to speak, with a dead-serious look in her eyes "What you have just seen is to be kept a secret. You musn't speak about it to anyone." And we nodded. "This was the first time for me to see this, and I am very glad that it went so well, but you must realize this summoning is not without danger." She paused, so we could let it sink in. I wondered what she was going to say next. So we nodded again "I would like you all to participate in this project, as will I. If all goes well we will at the end have the ability to summon monsters without any help from technology."
"What do you want us to do?" I asked, as I was still the most awake from the three of us.
"Well, to begin, I want you all to take lessons in reading and pronouncing hieroglyphics. They will take place in the late afternoon and the early evening, from 3 to 7, so you will be able to go sightseeing in the morning, and go out at night. If you agree, I will send my friend to this house, where he will be teaching you. He can speak English, and if you like he could also teach you some basic Arabic"
We agreed, that was reasonable, and it would certainly come in handy. And most of all, it would be fun to be able to understand all those writings in the pyramids and such.
"Furthermore, I would like you to come and practice in the basement thrice a week, so you can become accustomed to the monsters, and the drain of energy will completely vanish in a matter of days, the tablets say."
We exchanged excited looks. That was good, then we wouldn't be as tired as we were now.
"But." Uh-oh that didn't sound good. "From what we have now translated, we understand you have to undergo a ritual, once you have that skill, or else the ability will vanish in a matter of weeks. So that means we will undergo that ritual when we are done translating."
Wow, that sounded creepy, but it would probably be something like a tattoo or drinking a smelly potion. Nothing to worry about too much. The reward would be great.
"But are all the tablets complete?"
"Yes, we have found ancient scrolls that speak of fifty tablets, and we have them all."
"Won't there be more persons wanting to participate?" Gar asked, finally coming back to his senses.
"Maybe, but I cannot tell you right now if there are going to be more persons involved. You can ask me again the next time we practice."
"Okay" And we stood up, thinking the conversation was over.
"Just one more thing. I have a brother, called Malik, or Merik. If you would ever run into him, don't let him know you know me, because he would torture you to get information." We looked at her, and we nodded in understanding. Then we walked to the door to let her out, and to shake hands. She first said goodbye to Gar and Gwen, and then she shook my hand. We looked each other in the eyes, and something happened. We both smiled. And she left with a last goodbye.
When she had gone Gwen and I exchanged looks, and I saw she had experienced the same thing. We had made a new friend.
Then Kelly called us, it was one o'clock, and time for the siesta. She had set up 5 beds in the back room, where it was coolest. I got to sleep with a lot on my mind.
To be continued.
*It's Saturday.
Note: links to Yu-gi-oh finally made.
3.
Alright, we were in the air. And I was still alive and well. But everything was said with that. Father was sitting three seats behind me, being all mushy with Gangster girl (let's be honest, what else could she be?). And mum was crumpled up beside Quint, at the other side of the path, Gar (asleep against the window), Gwen and I were sharing another row. I was going over some files on my laptop.
"Sil?" Gwen whispered, bending her head a bit towards me, so no-one would hear.
"Yes?" I whispered back.
"Isn't it your birthday next week?"
"Yes, that's one of the reasons I'm so angry with my mum. I don't want my father there. This would have been the first one he wouldn't screw up, but noo, mum just had to invite him."
"How could he have screwed your last birthday? I thought your parents are more than a year divorced by now?"
"He decided he'd pay a visit, and he managed to offend everyone present, and ruin what was up to that moment a great day." I said, closing my eyes at the mere memory of that day.
"Did he bring Gangsty along that day?" she asked, shocked.
I grinned "No, I met her only two weeks ago, you remember, when you first walked in."
"Yeah" she sighed and paused, then she looked at the screen of my laptop, and frowned "What are you reading?"
"O, that" I started whispering again, after all, I didn't want to get caught "I hacked the computer of my fathers company a few times, trying to find a way to get it into trouble. But according to this file, it seems like I don't have to do anything anymore."
"How come?"
"Well..., do you know KaibaCorp?"
"Yes, I know that. I'm raising money for one of those duel disks."
"Now then, the disks, and all the gaming stuff that goes with it, are only a recent change of strategy that began with the death of the old CEO, Gozubaru Kaiba. When he was still in charge it was a well-known concern for military development, they delivered to several countries of the UN, among them of course the US."
"And..?"
"...and they had a big joint-venture with my fathers company. So big, it had become the core-business of Security ltd. And when Seto Kaiba became the new CEO, he dropped the whole project. So now my father has a big problem."
"Great! Seems like this KaibaCorp took your revenge for you."
"Yeah. I almost feel like I owe them."
Gwen grinned. "That's understandable, but it seems like it doesn't stop him from leaving his company just to ruin this vacation."
"Don't let him deceive you. He's probably got his computer with him, so he can keep in touch. And I think he has somehow found a way to be both bugging us and get in touch with the new CEO."
"Why would he want to speak the CEO? Isn't their collaboration over?"
"Yes, but I heard he is in Egypt."
"Really? Well, we'll see where it goes."
"Yeah. Let's just try and enjoy the flight from here on"
And we decided to watch the movie the stewardess had just put up. Long live Blackadder!
2 hours further, almost at the end of the flight...
"Gwen, Sil." Gar said, after waking up.
"What is it, Gar?" We answered.
He said up straight, narrowed his eyes and scraped his throat "How do we hide from father this vacation, and have a good time like we planned? The three of us have to think of something."
Our mouths fell open, I was amazed. Why hadn't we thought of hiding yet? Had we been so preoccupied with other things? But he was right, we had to think of a way on our own. Mum had planned to spend a relaxing holiday with some books at the swimming pool, and an occasional visit to the market or a local museum. And Quint was meeting some friends he had made on a student- exchange a few months ago, so we wouldn't be seeing him around very much (maybe that was why he was somewhat more relaxed than we were). And we had agreed to do a lot of sightseeing. Why else were we in Egypt?
"I suggest we follow our plan, and sneak out of the hotel early every day, so they can't catch up with us." I said.
"Right" Gar agreed "Would you mind to meet us early, Gwen?"
"No, not at all, I never sleep long in the morning. And maybe you could have breakfast and siesta at my house. I'm sure my parents won't mind. And we could have lunch and dinner outdoors."
"Yes! Great!" We all smiled, our vacation suddenly looked a lot brighter than before. Gar had recovered at least enough to ask what a siesta was.
******************
And so it began. It is starting to get hot in this place, so I guess I'm in the desert, most likely still in Egypt. I hope I don't get bitten by a snake while I recover my memories.
******************
When we checked in in the hotel, we noticed father hadn't been able to reserve a suite anywhere near us, but had a room three floors above us. We secretly exchanged grins. When we got the keys to our room (Gar was sharing one with Quint, and I slept together with mom in a room) we dropped the luggage, and Gar, me and Gwen went to her house to settle her with her luggage and meet her parents. After getting lost a couple of times, we found the house. It was nice, white, with two floors and a terrace on the roof. We rang the doorbell...and a woman, about forty years old, with a hat and an old shirt and shorts opened the door, and she didn't seem to have any perfume on.
"Hello...Gwen! It's so good to see you!" And after she had almost strangled her daughter (they looked enough alike to tell) she released her and took a good look at us. "Ah, I've see you've brought some friends. It's so nice to meet new people. You must be Silandra and Gareth, indeed very nice. My daughter told me about you over the e-mail. I'm Gwen's mother, Calliope, but call me Kelly, please."
"Pleased to meet you, Kelly" we both replied.
I took a glance at Gwen, who looked like she was a bit embarrassed at her mother's flood of words, and desperately tried to think of something to say. She looked at me, and then her face got a determined expression. She turned to her mother "Mum, this is Sil, and that is Gar. I already told you they would be coming to Egypt for a vacation, but fate has taken another turn."
Kelly turned to her daughter, surprised and wondrous "What do you mean, Gwen? Aren't they going to stay those two months?"
"Well yes, but their father, the jerk, and his fiancée have come along, so they will have to avoid him in order to have a pleasant vacation."
"Aha. But don't worry dear, they are always welcome here. It's always nice to have young people around, and I'm glad you already found some friends to explore Egypt with." She smiled friendly at us, and I allowed myself a small sigh of relief. It was arranged! "Now, young ones, please come in, and put the luggage down next to the door, I'll ask Richard to carry it upstairs later. You must all be very thirsty of that terrible heat, some lemonade will take of that. You should indeed drink well while you are here, and..." and while talking she disappeared in the kitchen, and left us in the hall. Gar and I exchanged grins. What a words. But she must be a wonderful woman.
"So, what do you think of my mother so far?" Gwen asked us.
"Delightful, talkative, but delightful." I answered.
"Yes, she's very caring." Gar joked.
Gwen just rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen, so we followed her. There Kelly had already made the lemonade, and handed a glass to each of us. "You just drink it up, and then go to the living room, to meet Richard and his new boss there. She's a lovely woman. And you will find her most interesting. She has a very impressive, very determined, very mysterious attitude"
Gwen rolled her eyes again "Who is she then?"
Kelly turned around again and looked a moment at each of us, before she said "I believe her name is Isis Ishtar, she is from the department of archeology. She's offered Richard a very important task to fulfill."
"What then?" Gar curiously asked.
"Go ask him"
"Ok"
And after a "thanks" for the lemonade we went to the living room. There were two people there. A man, with grey hair, shorts, and a T-shirt as his wife, and a fatherly smile. And a tall woman, or she seemed tall, but she was indeed very mysterious, and had a smell about her that seemed oddly misplaced in the modern home Gwen's parents had created. It smelled more like ancient crypts that were sometimes under medieval churches. And she had long hair, as black as Gwen's, and a toned skin like all the Egyptians seemed to have. She stood up.
"Hello" She greeted us, with an accentless voice.
"Hello" we answered back, all a bit startled, like we had just seen something supernatural happen. She looked at each of us, as if trying to determine what kind of persons we were, analyzing the very depths of our souls. It was creepy. Whatever she saw, she seemed satisfied, as she gave a little smile when she had looked at all of us. Then she spoke, her voice a deep alt "I am Isis Ishtar, good to meet." The business-like way she said that, broke the spell.
"I'm Gwen." Gwen said.
"I'm Silandra"
"I'm Gareth"
Gwen's father came up behind Isis "Ah, hello, children, the plane must have arrived early. Welcome to Egypt. I'm Richard, but my wife must have told you that. This is my new boss, for whom I'll be working now and in summers to come."
"Dad" Gwen smiled and gave her father a big hug, who hugged her back. We had to smile at the family-feeling that came from this. I took a glance at that strange woman, as I wondered what kind of person she was. And her face wore a very serious, firm expression, as though it had never known emotion. But her eyes looked a little sad. Where would that come from? Then she suddenly looked at us.
"You must be her friends." she said, matter-of-fact.
"Uh, well yes, we came here on a vacation." Gar answered, trying to look as polite as he could.
"Do you like Duel Monsters?"
"Well, yes, we do, very much." I answered, a bit surprised.
"Do you know where it came from?"
"We know that it was created from old Egyptian tablets." I replied. A jolt in my stomach betrayed to me that I was at least a bit excited. This was going to be interesting, and a glance at Gar and Gwen learned they were also anxious to hear more.
"Alright, then it will be much easier to explain."
"I'm sorry, but what is 'it'?" Gwen asked.
Isis gave another smile (though she didn't seem like the person who would do that very often) " I figured you would like to know what such an important person is doing in your fathers house, and what could possibly be a job to do in a summer. So I'm going to explain that know to you and your friends, to make sure you are properly informed. And maybe you can be of some help. Do you have your decks with you?"
We nodded, too surprised at this question to do anything else.
"Good."
Gar pulled a face, he wasn't used to being 'of some help'. At home we always needed to ask him specifically to do something. And I myself didn't feel very well at the thought of having to help without being asked. But maybe this would be interesting, and Isis was probably more of a commander than of an asker.
"Follow me to the basement."
So we followed, First Isis, then Gwen, Gar and I, and as the last Gwen's father.
When we came in the basement, I couldn't do anything but gaze. I saw about fifty of those tablets, the paint still intact after thousands of years, and covered in hieroglyphics. It had a strange beauty about it.
"Your father, Gwen, is going to retranslate this, as has been done before with several other tablets. But these were only discovered recently. The temple these tablets used to belong to caved in, and they were used as a fill for the walls of a new temple, that was build during the 21st dynasty. And investigation shows that these were from the 18th dynasty."
"And why could we be of any help, then? We don't know any hieroglyphics, so we can't help translate them." Gwen said.
"Because after retranslation we found that most tablets that were recovered from that time, were about the monsters Mr. Pegasus used to create Duel Monsters. And now we need cards of some sort to test the theory we have."
"What theory?" Wow, Gar had gone berserk, he almost jumped up and down from excitement, for as far as I could tell.
"Come along to this tablet." And she showed us to one that was almost in the back of the room. "When someone called upon a monster in ancient games, it came to live to serve whoever had called him in battle. We think that can happen again with the modern day cards."
"Isn't that already happening with the holographic duel disks?"
"Not exactly. What I mean is that they appear without the help of computers, and in a more proportioned size to the cards, so they would be much smaller and spirit-like."
"Whoa! Can we try?" Gar asked.
"Yes, you can. Please pull out your decks, and pick one monster, and then put your deck but that card back in your pocket."
So we did. And I almost felt like this was funny, because this woman indeed appeared to be supernatural, as was my first impression of her. When I looked at the cards we had chosen, I saw we all had picked our favorite ones. Gar had The King of Yamimakai, Gwen had Dark Elf and I had Hyozanryu.
"Now, lay your card flat on your hand, the brown side up." And we followed orders.
"This summon will probably make you very tired, don't worry about that, it's normal, the first time."
We exchanged worried looks. Could that be dangerous? Then I shrugged to the others, it was almost time for siesta anyway. They understood, and gave a tiny nod.
"Now I will summon them for you" And Isis put her hands over the cards of Gwen and Gar, and chanted something. After a minute or two, the monsters came to life. It looked really weird. First the cards stood up straight, then they began to glow, and then the monster just popped out in a puff of smoke, as large as its card, although Gars level 5 was bigger than Gwen's level 4.
"Can I also have my monster come to life?" I asked, eager to see it.
She turned, and looked at my card "Yes, but you will have to summon another monster, because this monster is too strong to summon for you, at least for now."
"Why?"
"So it says on the tablet."
"So they are already retranslated?"
"No. we have only made a beginning, and it will take at least six more weeks to translate the rest. You will be needed again then."
"Aha. We'll be here." I looked up another favorite of me, The Stern Magic. "Can this card be summoned?"
"Yes, put out your hand." And she summoned him for me. When the card came to life, it looked at me, as though expecting some orders, and I put it on a table in the middle of the basement, where Gar and Gwen had already put their monsters down, so they could walk around. They just stood there for a while, while we gazed at them, wondering how other monsters would look, as we had seen only a few duels with duel disks.
After some time we became tired, and Isis let the monsters vanish when she noticed. But the three of us remained to look at the table, enchanted by the magic of those moments.
"Ahum" And I woke up from my trance.
Gwen's father hadn't said anything since we came in the basement, so I must have looked rather sheepishly when I noticed he was still there. "Shall we go upstairs to discuss further matters?" He asked, and now Gar and Gwen also shook their heads as if to get rid of the spell that had held us all in its grasp.
"I think that would be wise" Isis said, looking as serene as she had done all the time.
When we had all returned to the living room I sat down on the couch, together with Gar and Gwen, curious to hear what Isis had to say.
"Richard, I will see you at the meeting on Monday*, but I have something to say to the youths, in private."
He smiled "Of course, I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me." And after he had given us a smile he walked out of the room.
Then she turned to us, and began to speak, with a dead-serious look in her eyes "What you have just seen is to be kept a secret. You musn't speak about it to anyone." And we nodded. "This was the first time for me to see this, and I am very glad that it went so well, but you must realize this summoning is not without danger." She paused, so we could let it sink in. I wondered what she was going to say next. So we nodded again "I would like you all to participate in this project, as will I. If all goes well we will at the end have the ability to summon monsters without any help from technology."
"What do you want us to do?" I asked, as I was still the most awake from the three of us.
"Well, to begin, I want you all to take lessons in reading and pronouncing hieroglyphics. They will take place in the late afternoon and the early evening, from 3 to 7, so you will be able to go sightseeing in the morning, and go out at night. If you agree, I will send my friend to this house, where he will be teaching you. He can speak English, and if you like he could also teach you some basic Arabic"
We agreed, that was reasonable, and it would certainly come in handy. And most of all, it would be fun to be able to understand all those writings in the pyramids and such.
"Furthermore, I would like you to come and practice in the basement thrice a week, so you can become accustomed to the monsters, and the drain of energy will completely vanish in a matter of days, the tablets say."
We exchanged excited looks. That was good, then we wouldn't be as tired as we were now.
"But." Uh-oh that didn't sound good. "From what we have now translated, we understand you have to undergo a ritual, once you have that skill, or else the ability will vanish in a matter of weeks. So that means we will undergo that ritual when we are done translating."
Wow, that sounded creepy, but it would probably be something like a tattoo or drinking a smelly potion. Nothing to worry about too much. The reward would be great.
"But are all the tablets complete?"
"Yes, we have found ancient scrolls that speak of fifty tablets, and we have them all."
"Won't there be more persons wanting to participate?" Gar asked, finally coming back to his senses.
"Maybe, but I cannot tell you right now if there are going to be more persons involved. You can ask me again the next time we practice."
"Okay" And we stood up, thinking the conversation was over.
"Just one more thing. I have a brother, called Malik, or Merik. If you would ever run into him, don't let him know you know me, because he would torture you to get information." We looked at her, and we nodded in understanding. Then we walked to the door to let her out, and to shake hands. She first said goodbye to Gar and Gwen, and then she shook my hand. We looked each other in the eyes, and something happened. We both smiled. And she left with a last goodbye.
When she had gone Gwen and I exchanged looks, and I saw she had experienced the same thing. We had made a new friend.
Then Kelly called us, it was one o'clock, and time for the siesta. She had set up 5 beds in the back room, where it was coolest. I got to sleep with a lot on my mind.
To be continued.
*It's Saturday.