Ruins Raiders: Book Two
Chapter Eight, Venturing Backwards
By Relm
"What... THE HELL?!" Val exclaimed in confused annoyance. "What the hell happened?! Where are we?! How did we get here?!"
They were all very good valid questions that Val asked and they deserved to be answered with good informative explanations but Val didn't get anything but silence. Some of them might have inklings to the answers to some of Val's questions but no one knew anything for sure so they kept their mouth shut.
Lina's inkling was that that altar stone she had in her hand was the cause of this sudden scenery change. The timing was just too coincidental for it not to be caused by the stone but that in itself baffled Lina. It had just been a stone after all not a transporter or time machine. The center had looked like a button and Lina had pressed it but it hadn't been a button. That didn't make sense. If the stone had been some space age machine then it wouldn't have looked like a stone. It was old and had ancient symbols on it.
Looking down at the stone in Lina's hand Lina's eyes went wide. She was sure it was still there but when she looked she realized the stone was gone. Things were just getting weirder and weirder.
Zelgadis had been looking at Lina when she had pressed the 'button' so he was just as surprised to see the stone was no longer in the redhead's hand. It didn't make sense but Zelgadis looked around hoping to get an answer from their surroundings. Many of the trees were foreign to Zelgadis as was the flowers he saw. The bugs that flew around were much larger and more menacing looking. Nothing looked familiar to Zelgadis. It was like they had been transported onto another planet.
Looking further and upwards Zelgadis was greeted with a sight that almost made him gasp. Peeking out from atop of the trees was a massive pyramid. From the distance they were it was hard to make out the finer details of stone structure but Zelgadis knew right away it wasn't a pyramid he'd seen or studied before. The style of it though was familiar and Zelgadis knew right away why the altar stone in Lina's hand had disappeared.
"Lina... Look..." Zelgadis pointed to the pyramid.
Lina turned around and looked to where he was pointing. The question of whether or not the stone was a transportation device was answered. "Oh... shit..."
"What?! What's going on?! Do you know where we are?!" Val exclaimed still annoyed that his questions were being ignored.
"Yeah..." Lina let out a deep sigh.
"Why do you look so disturbed for?! Shouldn't knowing be a good thing?!" Val grilled Lina while getting more and more frustrated.
"Not in this case Val." Filia answered her step brother.
"Well then what is it Filia?! What's going on?! Where are we?!"
"Exactly where we were." Filia explained rather cryptically.
Val growled in frustration. "Why can't I get a straight damned answer?!"
"Because it doesn't make a lot of sense that's why." Lina muttered. "Where we are is right in the middle of the desert just north east of Uouoong, the capital city of Jhonwxa."
"No we're not! We are in the middle of a damned jungle! Not a desert! Why would you say such a stupid thing?!" Val growled even louder.
"Because it's the truth Val!" Filia yelled back. "That pyramid over there is Velnqxbosian. And in our present day time none of the pyramids are left standing. And seeing how we're where Velnqxbos is supposed to be it's safe to assume that we're not in the present but the past."
"But this is a jungle..."
"Velnqxbos was a jungle city. Jhonwxa was a jungle area ages ago. No one is even sure what caused the massive climate change in the area but we know that it did happen." Filia explained.
"That still doesn't make sense! How did we travel back in time?!"
"Um... that's probably my fault..." Lina admitted.
Everyone looked at Lina questioningly. Well not Zelgadis or the camels. Zelgadis knew what Lina meant and the camels didn't really care as they were camels after all.
"OHOHOHOHOHOH! And what did you do little girl?" Naga stood tall looking down at Lina in a haughty sort of a way.
"Don't you get all high and mighty with me boobs!" Lina glared at Naga angrily. "You don't even belong here so you have no right to look down at me!"
"How can I not? You are a short little shrimp after all!" Naga smirked evil while turning her nose up in the air. "Maybe when you grow up you'll grow some boobs of your own to match! OHOHOHOHOHOH!"
"I am full grown, I'm not a shrimp and THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THE SIZE OF MY CHEST!" Lina yelled while hitting Naga over the head with her shoe.
"Now now Professor Inverse I think it would be best if you didn't hit Miss Naga over the head with blunt objects." Xellos interfered getting between her and Naga.
Lina did as she was asked and stopped hitting Naga. She hit Xellos instead.
"OW! Zelgadis save me!" Xellos cried out while feebly trying to shield his head from blow of Lina's shoe.
"Never going to happen." Zelgadis shook his head.
"Why is us being here your fault Professor Inverse?" Filia wondered while ignoring Xellos' whining. His screams of pain were always music to her ears anyway.
"Well you know that altar stone I had in my hands... well the center reminded me of a button... so I pressed it... and now we're here..." Lina explained sheepishly.
"So what? That little stone sling shot us back in time?! That's crazy!" Val scoffed. And he was right to scoff it was ridiculous after all.
"And yet we're here." Filia sighed looking around.
"Really? We're really back in time?! OHOHOHOHOHOH! This is an adventure!" Naga exclaimed while clapping her hands excitedly.
"This is not an adventure Naga, this is a disaster!" Zelgadis sighed.
"Why? It's fun!"
"No you bubble head it's not!" Lina growled. "We have no idea what this land was like during this time. There could be all kinds of dangerous things ready to kill us here. We have no idea how the native people will respond to strange foreigners invading their land. And to top it all off we're in the past! Anything we do here could drastically alter the future. It could be something as simple as accidently stepping on a bug and poof! No more human kind!"
"OHOHOHOHOHOH! Aren't you being a little dramatic?"
"She's not really." Zelgadis interjected. "But Lina you do realize this is a golden opportunity we have here."
Lina raised an eyebrow while unconsciously swatting away an offending insect buzzing near her ear. She had just talked about how killing a bug could have catastrophic results but yet there she was still swatting away. "What are you talking about Zel?"
"Zel? She calls you Zel?" Xellos picked up on the nickname with obvious glee.
"Can it idiot!" Lina smacked him with her shoe again.
"Ahem. Well we are in the past and just a stone's throw away from one of the most mysterious cities of all time. Everything that people know about Velnqxbos is based on very little evidence and a lot of guessing. Think about all the things we could learn about the Velnqxbosian people! This is better than just uncovering an ancient text or a precious relic! We don't have to guess about what happened in the past we actually get to see history!" Zelgadis exclaimed his eyes afire with childlike excitement.
"Really? Zelgadis Greywars I'm shocked to hear you say such a thing!" Lina shook her head. "You're supposed to be the level-headed one. You know damned well how dangerous and stupid it is to stay here. If we do anything or let the natives see us we could destroy the future. You would risk it just for what? A childhood time travel fantasy? Who are you and what have you done with my Zel?!" Truthfully Lina would have jumped at the chance to see history but it was just too irresponsible.
Zelgadis lowered his head in shame. She was right of course but he still got a jolt of satisfaction when Lina referred to him as 'her Zel'. "Alright Lina you win. Staying here is dangerous and irresponsible. Plus it would be cheating getting all the answers. We're archeologists. We study the past and make discoveries by piecing together puzzles time has left behind."
"Good. Glad we're clear on that."
"You know there is another possibility we're not considering." Xellos piped up with a finger in the air.
Lina glared at him. She knew she didn't want to hear what Zelgadis' annoying assistant had to say as it was likely to be as tedious as the man speaking it. "What Xellos?!"
"Maybe we're not trespassing in time but fulfilling a timeline of events that are supposed to happen. Perhaps we were always meant to come here and by doing nothing at all we actually cause the downfall of the future that we are meaning to avoid. History may have observed six mysterious foreigners and five camels visiting the people of Velnqxbos but it was never recorded because of whatever caused the city's demise."
"This is a jungle land and camels are desert creatures... are camels even indigenous to here?" Val wondered somewhat ignoring what Xellos was saying.
"No they were brought here with immigrants well after this area became desert land." Filia explained.
"You're not listening to me! We could be the reason why the city of Velnqxbos became lost!"
Lina frowned. She didn't like that idea one bit. "We cause the death and destruction of Velnqxbos? So that's your plan? Go in, obverse and then cause drop a bomb on them?!"
"Well no... I don't think we should try and kill everyone. But if history has us accidently causing the downfall of Velnqxbos then that is a fate we shouldn't avoid." Xellos countered.
"No. We're not doing that. We're going to avoid any contact with anything here and getting the hell back to our own time! And that's final!" Lina declared.
"Awww... But I wanted an adventure..." Naga mumbled in disappointment.
"Can it boobs!" Lina growled.
"I agree with Professor Inverse in the fact that it would be very irresponsible to stay here any longer than we need to be but I do have one question." Filia piped up looking worried. "How exactly are we going to get back to our time?"
"Obviously Filia we'll use that stone again. Duh!" Val rolled his eyes at his sister.
Lina looked to Zelgadis for help but she knew there was nothing he could do to help her on this one. "I agree using the stone would be the best thing to try... but I don't have the stone."
"What do you mean you don't have the stone?! What did you lose it?! You just had it a moment ago!"
"Yes when we were in our time. When we showed up here the stone wasn't in my hand anymore." Lina explained.
"So where the hell is the stone?!"
"Well if I was to venture a guess... then I would say the altar stone is probably back in its altar." Zelgadis said with a sigh as he looked over at the pyramid poking over the trees.
"Looks like we're going to Velnqxbos after all!" Xellos smiled.
Lina rolled her eyes. She had a very bad feelings about this.