Chapter 4: Dust of History
The flight back to Zootopia from the Yucatan Peninsula was thankfully uneventful for the most part, with only an occasional strong wind and some turbulence during their approach to Zootopia due to an unforeseen case of strong wind and cloudy sky. However, for the most part, they were safe and sound in their return. Angie checked the clock and the time was now 18:45, dusk has fallen and the evening was coming rapidly. Thankfully for her and Logan, their escorts were already waiting for them at the airport, a convoy of 3 black SUVs, all of which were heavily armored with tinted glasses and manned by jackals dressed in SWAT like uniforms. Angie and Logan, along with Earl were driven from the airport back to the city's Museum of Natural History in relative calm.
At that time, Anubis, Patron of the Dead was inside the museum's curator office, not to work on clerical duties and handle other strenuous tasks but rather to meditate. He sat cross legged with two large bowls of incense burning on either sides of him, on the floor, there was a carpet that he brought with him from Ewegypt to aid his meditation. He floated into the air with his eyes closed and silently, he remains there when Angie opens the door into the office. "We're back." She said and Anubis opens his eyes, his meditation ceased and he stood up from where he sat and turned around to meet them. "We got the Paw of Midas here, maybe this is the source of the El Dorado legend that Conquistadors went after." She handed the Paw to Anubis who in turn inspect it by flipping it around to see the various intricate details on the paw.
"I seem to recall that Midas washed his paws of this curse by Bachus. This isn't the original Paw of Midas but rather something else that inherited the name." He mused out loud in thought as he put the paw on the table, the paw then levitated to avoid turning the furniture into gold. Anubis sat down on the curator's chair and offer his visitors a seat as well.
Logan and Earl both entered the room, but it appeared Logan had gone back into his flesh and fur appearance. He was wearing a real shirt with a comic book designed print on the front showing a massive green bipedal reptile ripping apart a building. The comic font of the print of his shirt spelled out "reptzilla" on it. As for his pants he was wearing a pair of medium fit blue jeans.
Behind him though Earl entered bearing much of a family like appearance to Logan being his uncle. Earl seemed to have a smile on his face unlike the others. It seems it was hard to take Earl out of a good mood. "So. This is what you guys do all the time? A secret museum place, and a secret service assistance squad? I gotta admit the SUVs you guys got are nice." Earl's face then looked over to Anubis and his eyes both widened slightly. "Oh damn. You weren't kidding when you guys said he's a black jackal." Earl said taking in Anubis's odd appearance.
Logan signed out and scratched his tired face. "Sorry Anubis. This is my uncle Earl. He's kinda been with me since I can remember. He's on my dad's side." Logan said with a shrug.
Anubis sighed out but made no sudden shock at Earl as he casually writes down on a page of his old book. "I see that his piloting skill helps you travel quickly, effectively and safely from one part of the world to another." He put the book into the shelf to his left and ran his finger on the shelf to look for an appropriate book on the Golden Paw of Midas. "Mundh mataa kunt tiara?" Anubis asked in Arabic, at first, it would confuse Earl but thankfully Angie was there to translate his words, "How long have you been a pilot?"
Earl made a sly chuckle. "Well since I've been designing some of the darn things. Test pilot, engineer. Name someone who both can design a plane and then pilot that same design. I've been flying now for about 20 years. Follow the air aviation laws, and all that jazz. Never once had a slip up. Or even with foreign affairs. I've been everywhere though. I've been meaning to take a trip to Ewegypt to see the last 8th wonder, but I guess I'm looking at one now." Earl said as joke.
"Oh trust me Mr. Lupis, you'll see more than just the world's wonder, you'll about to see history, rewritten in some parts." Anubis replied as he pulled out a book from its shelf and brought it to the table, he opens the pages and flipped through certain segments until he stopped at a page that said "Asia Minor's Kingdoms". At that section he ran his finger down the index page before stopping at the one stated to be "Paw of Midas". "I am Anubis, Patron of the Dead and your Guardian in the Afterlife." He said in a casual almost like he has been doing this for so long he has grown accustomed to it. "I'm sure that Angie and your nephew hasn't said much about me haven't they?" He asked Earl.
Earl looked back at Logan and Angie, and shrugged. "To be fair to yah nah, but I shoulda figured somthin' was up after the news in Ewegypt a while back. Didn't know it was you guys guys till much later. Funny it seems you guys have been real busy gettin' into a lot of trouble." Earl said now looking at Logan. Still he didn't' say it in an angry manner, but still held a much positive attitude.
Logn nodded slightly and sighed. "Yeah. How we keep getting into these situations is crazy. First it all started with me chasing Charlie after that event went down, and before I knew the poor guy. And ever since its been me getting nanited, and then going to Ewegypt to find not only aliens exist, but gods!" Logan said rubbing his head finding it was aching due to how much he was processing still.
Earl once again chuckled and patted Logan on the shoulder. "Yeah, well for a robot you're alright. Might need to get the gears turning here." Earl said as he gave Logan a noogie. The two of them laughed, but Earl found Logan wasn't made of fur as before, and his hand was rubbing much of the liquid metal on top of Logan's head. Earl lifted his hand away, and sighed a bit. "You know you've been through a lot? The two of yah. I guess you're gonna need a bit of my help around with these crazy trips. Aint' leaving now." Earl said while trying to keep a straight face seeing Logan's liquid metal go back into place.
"I'm glad that you take things well Earl, otherwise, I don't know who else would help us." Said Angie as she hugged Earl in briefly, patting his back before letting go. "So Anubis, you mentioned that this Paw isn't the real one from the original Midas. How come?" She asked cocking her head to the right hand side.
"There is a reason for that, you see, Bacchus told me that he let Midas be freed of the curse but his daughter will be a monument to her father's sin. For all eternity and his kingdom shall be nothing but dusts and a footnote in history." Said Anubis as he handed to them a depiction of what appeared to be a tomb, a mausoleum to be exact tugged away in the forest and hilly terrain of Asia Minor. A tagline at the bottom of it said "Mausoleum of Marigold", Angie understood right away that the name is of Midas's daughter in some myths but how come the Mausoleum has never been discovered before is beyond her. "How come this place hasn't been discovered before by archaeologists? I mean it's not like you can just erase a structure and say it never existed." She inquired.
Anubis sighed out and handed to them a depiction of Bacchus, or Dionysus in Ancient Growlleek mythologies. The depiction was on a claw plate dated back to around 450 BC. "Dionysus had the place concealed by an earthquake, shattering the top of the structure to make sure that the place will not be discovered by anyone else, after all if the top structure can't be made out then it's impossible to know the place has ever existed. But there's another cause for it." He quietly handed pulled out a floor plan for the Mausoleum, a copy of it instead of the original but it was sufficient enough of evidence for them to understand, the top structure was meant to be a camouflage for the underground areas of a tomb that is an influence of both Egyptian, Eastern Assyrians and Greek designs all in one complex tomb for his daughter. "This is the reason. The only way to access it is to obtain a key, but the key itself is lost now and no one knows where it maybe." He sat down disappointingly.
Earl seemed to be intrigued by these turns of events as indicated by him scratched his beard pattern on his muzzle. "So basically we got ourselves a messed up temple an earthquake one really long time ago caused to be basically inaccessible, and not only that the place has a golden statue that can turn people into gold. Honestly that last part with the medusa spell, but gold is scary enough. Shouldn't this be in some kinda… i dunno. Secret society area 51 basement sealed away by 'top men' in a crate that blend in with a million other crates containing weird shit?" Earl asked.
"Supposed that you find it and have deep connection to trust that it is safe. But my job isn't to store it, we need to destroy it. You see, if you can generate insurmountable wealth out of nothing, what's to say that one's enemies can't do the same in due time? The only way to end this curse of Midas's Golden touch is to return this Golden Paw to the tomb. But further steps has to be researched in order to fully understand the complexity of the situation." Said Anubis as he began to write some letters, Earl and Logan would notice right away that the address he place isn't for anyone on this mortal realm, it simply stated to be "To: Olympus". "Dionysus casted this curse, so I'll have to get in touch with him to understand how to end it." The archive downstairs is updating at the moment, perhaps you can find some answers down there."
Angie nodded to Anubis as she glanced over at Logan, "Come on Logan, I think we can find something there while Anubis is busy." She hastens him to come with her.
Logan stood up and looked to Earl nodding to him. "Yeah I'm coming. Uncle stay here, and maybe tell Anubis about some crazy stories you have. I know you got a lot of them for us at dinner." Logan said as he moved over with Angie. Earl looked over to Anubis, and cleared his throat. "Okay lemme tell yah bout this one time the Cubans nearly shot me out the air after i stole a box of cigars. You'll love this one." Earl exclaimed.
Anubis of course made a surprised expression on his face as he listens carefully to Earl's story of his adventures and hair raising trips. While then, Angie and Logan went down the staircase to the ground floor of the museum, they took a left turn from where they were and headed into the archive. A room with bookshelves and boxes full of file folders on various subjects, these were priceless artifacts to Angie, material treasure is one thing but having records of their history and culture is saving the world from amnesia. She found the place to be staffed with various mammals, all of whom were dressed in Toga as if they were in the Library of Alexandria. There were leopards, tigers, lions, jackals, wolves, buffaloes and other species. "Xéreis pou o fákelos gia o táfos tis kóris tou Mída eínai?" Angie asked in Greek to a tan timber wolf in toga, on his toga's left shoulder was a button with a Spartan symbol on it indicating his origin.
He pointed them to a section with a category board that said "Tombs" for them to start searching before replying with "Στον θάνατο, πηγαίνετε έτσι." Angie nodded to him and followed where his finger pointed to. The dry and terse answer was true to Spartan's virtue of Laconic speeches, what struck Logan by surprise is the Spartan's wolf lack of aggression when speaking but rather a dull tongue but witty nonetheless.
Logan not only found all of this confusing, and just how many stereotypes were just shattered, but he was confused on the languages Angie and the the wolf spoke. Logan knew Angie could speak in different dialect, but just how many made his head ache more. "Wait- what just? Angie!" Logan shouted trying to keep up with the knowledge he lacked. He ran up to her and shook his head out. "Wait that guy was a Spartan! Not an Ewegyptian. I saw the patch on him. I have so many questions. Is this like a place where time is stopped and people from across time can come into to have tea and crumpets?" Logan stammered confused.
She shrugged to him but remains honestly perplexed just as much as he was. "Well if I know anything about Anubis, I would say he brought the souls of the dead with him to the living as soldiers. That Spartan wolf was probably one of the archivist for him. I think." She awkwardly glanced back at the wolf that was in toga, seeing him putting the scrolls onto the shelves of the archive. She browse through the shelves, looking at the scrolls and Roman scriptures until she came across a book, authored by one "Gaius Equus" with a title written in Latin as "Sepulchrum Zoey". "This is it. Tomb of Marigold, Zoey in some other myth in Greek since the name was a Greek name." She pulled the book out of its shelf and opened it by a desk with a lamp shined on its pages. "According to this book, there was a key forged in melted gold for Midas to open the tomb whenever he wants to visit it to pay respect and mourn his daughter's passing." She pointed to the Latin writing in the book that said "Midae maesto navibus iubet dare aditum ad cudendum pendulum filia monumentum." She then found a depiction of the key, a pendulum made of gold that has depictions of Midas sculpted on its surface with his daughter petrified into a golden statue, neither living nor dead. "It's also said that the Pendulum was sealed away inside Midas's tomb, since its discovery by the Bisontine Empire but no one knows how to open it, except that they need a scripture to pass through some riddles. That scripture is missing however..." She concluded but one thing remains unclear to her, Gaius Equus, the author knows so much in his book but how did he know so much is beyond her.
Logan himself sighed out, and rested his head on his arms much like he did at school in the past when he needed to think on his life, and his future careers. Only now his life was as a robot, and one dedicated to stopping deity forces from taking over. "That's so weird how this author knows so much, and how everything is connected again. I want to help, but I don't have that much of a historical knowledge like you and uncle Earl do…" Logan said in a sigh. He raised himself up an looked back at the book with a less than happy look. He seemed shaken that this was Apep at it again. "What gives with this snake? Why is he so evil, and where did he come from?" Logan grumbled feeling now an urge to both cringe at Apep's sight, and to slug a punch into the serpent's face.
"Well you're not going to leave me out in the cold alone, aren't you?" She remarked while digging into the information on the author, one of the depiction in his book was strangely enough the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople with its majestic dome rising up to be the beacon of the capital city's greatest structure. "Maybe you should play Total Claw Grand Strategy series. They'll give you some information on the history of the world in a quick way." She suggested playfully while looking at the depiction of Hagia Sophia, at first glance there was nothing special about it, in fact there seems to be no meaning behind it at all other than a strangely placed depiction with a caption at the bottom that said "Semita ut Lydii arripientes". "Doesn't make much sense here now, does it?" She thought out loud while looking at the symbol drawn on the river behind the Hagia Sophia, it was an Omega symbol of Greek. Truly, the mystery was thickening.
Logan pointed to the omega symbol and squinted to it. "What's up with this picture though? The river and the symbol thing here. That kinda seems to be out of place to me at least. Just one of the symbols over a river. And what about that phrase?" Logan said pointing the cation again trying to piece these meaning together. He began to ponder on if the symbol may have to do with the key they needed.
"It says 'The pathway to Lydia', the name of Midas's kingdom in Asia minor. But I can't seem to understand why does an Omega symbol is drawn over a river like that." She closed the book and kept it in her backpack as she found their source of information on the Paw of Midas's myth. "Let's head back to Anubis, maybe he knows where to start considering he had the time to keep notes of all the events of the past." She suggested to Logan as they went out of the archive.
Logan followed her out of the archives and sighed out. "Man I was hoping it would be a bit easier if you could have figure out the symbol thing." Logan grumbled. He looked around the archives again and smirked. "Don't suppose you have a library card of the deity realm." Logan chuckled.
She chuckled along with him as they climb the stairs. "I suppose Anubis already made one for me. But oh well the guy is mysterious to us in a lot of ways." They arrived back at Anubis's office, finding him to be still talking to Earl with a bottle of Whisker Loch Lomond unbuttoned for their refreshment. "So how are things going Anubis?"
"Doing well, Earl and I had a splendid time with each other, also I came to a conclusion on where you should depart to next." He chuckled half jokingly while pouring a glass of whisker for Earl. "Considering that the Magister Militum's destination was Tingis, it would be wise for you to come there and pay the place a visit to see if there's any clues to pick up. By now, the place is called Catsablanca." He held up his own glass of Whisker and took a sip from it to relax himself. "Here's looking at you kit." He quoted, clearly he isn't behind in pop culture as well judging by his quote of Humphrey Beargarde's performance. "There is a Latin quarter in the city, one that's been built by the Legion of the Magister Militum when they fled the Empire. It's still there but has seen some influences from the Moorish population and Islamic conversion over the years." He gave them some photos of the old Latin quarter of the city with stone churches that would morphed into Orthodox churches and other Roman Bisontine styled architect like apartments and pavements along the line of Constantinople's pavement during its days.
Earl took the photos and nodded knowing this the next possible region to explore. He chuckled while taking a sip of the whisker. "Right, and like Catsablanca this place should have a ton of nightclubs. Someone in those should have something we could use. Maybe one of those churches for example got turned into one of those. Anything is possible at this point. I'm getting free liquor from the undead deity. Anyways i should get us a passport reservation for some airspace there, i got some skill making negotiation, and I got some contacts to help us out." Earl said putting his drink down. Something said though he was to be the designated flyer.
"Good then do it Earl. I have some contacts in Catsablanca who can offer you guys shelter in the city, just don't expect five stars hotel expenses. For now I will need to convene with Kukulkan." He looked at the two younger wolves in the room and gestured for them to leave for something, rest perhaps would be the best thought by this point. Angie nodded to Anubis and showed Logan and Earl down to the lower floors where the hideout was to rest. Anubis however remains in his room, he opened the window and felt the wind blowing against his face, he closed his eyes and sighed out while his ears fluttered in the direction of the wind was blowing. "You can come in now Kukulkan." Said Anubis as the wind blew into the room with a ghostly apparition of Kukulkan flying into the room and reconstituted into a plumed serpent with seductive voice.
"What makesssss you ssssssso interesssssted in the Golden Paw of Midasssss? Sssssssshouldn't you be asssssssking Bacchusssssss for that?" He asked Anubis while coiling his tail and lower mid-section on the chair as if he was sitting.
"Bacchus's answer will come in due time but first right now I need to know who is the opposition to the mortals I send out." He glanced at the Mayan serpent with a glass of Bordeaux offered to him. "I suppose that you have his name, profile and modus operandi, yes?"
"Asssssss a matter of fact, I do. Hissss name isssssss Hector Gonzalessssss de Granada. Descended from a long line of arisssstocratic family, of Sssssspain, the Conquissssstador issssss out to find what his clan dessssssire, money to continue their Inquisition against us." Said Kukulkan as his breath and wind blew out an image of a weasel dressed in dark combat suits with a serpent badge on his right arm. The weasel apparently had a scar on its right eye and his mouth was holding a toothpick.
"So...an Old World religious nutcase who is worshipping someone other than a lamb wanting to destroy us. Brilliant. Now we know who he is, what will he do other than the obvious?" Anubis continues asking while sitting down next to Kukulkan.
"I have reasonssssss to believe that he will be looking for waysssss follow and obtain the Paw of Midasssss from the mortals under your command." He hissed at Anubis though the sound was a more friendly and cautious one than actual malicious intention.
"I'll keep that in mind. Thank you Kukulkan, I'll be sure to keep that in mind and thwart his plan whenever possible. Care to stay for some rest?" He offered the serpent but the Mayan serpent shook his head out at Anubis's offer.
"No, I'm afraid not. I musssst keep an eye out on Hector before he could do any harmssssss. I shall keep in touch with you though. Goodbye Anubisssssss." He flew out of the window and into the night sky leaving Anubis alone in his office, he closed the window and locked it up then pulled the curtain over it. He exited the curator office and switched off the light to head down to the hideout for rest after a long and strenuous day.
Logan saw that Earl was watching pawball on the tv provided in the hide out ,but had to sigh. "Look uncle Earl i know you take stuff… Not as seriously as others do, but I don't get how you are so relaxed. I can't sleep." Logan said anxious still about the coming days on the next hunt for artifacts.
Earl shrugged. "Maybe let your battery die out a bit, and see if that helps yah." Earl said. Logan however cringed, and moved his tail between his legs. "Yeah let's not talk about how charging works since its a pain in the ass. Not saying if this is a literal thing either…" Logan said. Earl made a more anxious look, and sighed. "Well i know you're gettin' used to the robo-body still, but I'm sure you're finding a way to work around it all. I mean you kick ass in the police force. The thing with the robot a while back, and the fact I can see you on the tv every so often tell me you're strong for any changes. Besides that you got me lookin' after yah, and Angie. Whatever happens next it can be dealt with right Angie?" Earl asked.
"Yeah I think we can handle it since we've already dealt with a backstabbing mentor in Ewegypt." Said Angie as she nodded to Logan and Earl, she then helped Logan unbuckle his armor plates to reveal the reactor built into his chest cavity. One of the guards technicians in the room then attached the cable into the reactor and fired up a generator supplied by Helga Von Hindenbear's corporation. The sputtering sound of the navy blue generator was followed by the humming sound coming from Logan's chest cavity where his reactor was powering up while his HUD shows him his energy was being replendish gradually from 35% and rising.
Logan made a much needed sigh of relief seeing the charging process taking a much more practical step towards Logan becoming more integrated with his body. "God this is so much better than getting pegged in the-* Logan stopped his rant looking at Earl's disheartened face. "Jeez… It even hurts me to see you like this kid... " Earls said feeling a bit more full of sympathy for his nephew. "You're a real trooper though. You were when you graduated police academy, and when you were tussling around as a kiddo." Earl said. It seemed though seeing that same child now grown up in a robotic body was tough on his eyes.
"The poor Logan got dragged into something he has no idea of, you can say collateral damage." Said Anubis as he enters the hideout and sat down next to Earl with a photo of Hector Gonzales and an attached dossier of the Weasel. "I have some intel on the subject that is hunting the Paw of Midas and will stop at nothing to obtain it. He has criminal ties everywhere with an empire so influential it reaches the Vatican. Be on alert." Said Anubis.
Earl took the photo and huffed out. "Boy you don't even know where treasure hunting has got this old dog. Dont worry. I heard this guy is distracted by shiny objects, and the slightest high pitch sound drive him nuts. Gotta know these things when you travel like me." Earl boasted. Looking at the picture of Hector Earl huffed out. "Not easy to look at either."
"No obviously not. I can wish you luck for this trip to Catsablanca, I'll be traveling to Mount Olympus to meet the Hellenic Pantheons and convene with them about the Dionysus curse." He patted Earl on his back before proceeding into his chamber in the hideout to rest.