Chapter 9: Ancient Paintings
Bandit darted his flashlight back and forth as he slowly walked deeper into the pitch black tunnel. The sounds of water droplets echoed throughout the area he was in, causing Bandit to point the flashlight in the direction where the droplets were coming from.
"S-Steady old boy, you got this," He said to himself, trying to be confident.
He continued walking through the tunnel, his heart thumping in his chest as he tried searching for the aura that he'd seen before.
What was that thing saying to me? He thought to himself, walking slower. It didn't sound like unintelligible whispers, but rather, it was like... that thing was speaking in another language.
Bandit's feet stopped when that specific thought came to his mind.
A different language. One that he has not yet heard of, nor heard about. Just gibberish, the canines of the world would say. No, it wasn't. It was an old native language from long ago.
"Oh, My-" Bandit's sentence was cut off when he accidently slipped on the edge of a small hill. "NOT AGAIN!" Bandit shouted, rolling down the hill like a barrel.
His body came to a halt when he hit a smooth, brick wall that was right in front of him.
"Thank God that it was just a small hill..." He groaned out, feeling dizzy in the process. He got onto his feet and shook his entire body, trying to get the brown dirt out of his beautiful blue coat. When he stopped to look at the wall that he had tumbled into, he thought he could faint right then and there.
"Crikey..." Bandit said, pointing his flashlight at the wall and staring at the sight before him.
On the old, worn out, brick wall was a showcase of ancient, dried out paintings and one of them was a painting of two different canines standing beside each other. Bandit examined the paintings closely, but his eyes suddenly locked on a certain worn out black figure that was covered in dust.
"Who in the world-?" Bandit said, wiping the dust off and trying to make out who and what the figure was. The painting was barely visible, looking like it's been scratched off by another living being on purpose. His eyes then gazed on another figure who was right beside the black one. It was a clear, blue painting of a multi-colored canine with different shades of pink stars in their ears.
"Gee, i-it kinda looks like..." Bandit said as he thought to himself, trying to put the pieces together. The figure obviously had the beautiful blue coat that he and his daughter Bluey had, the right leg having the same color as either Chilli or Bingo's fur, the left had the color of Socks or Stripe's fur, and lastly, both arms were the same color as Muffin or Trixie's fur.
What had been out of place however, was the figure's long, fuzzy, multi-colored tail. The main part being the color blue while the end of the tail had multiple patterns, consisting of the following colors; dark blue, dark gray, tan, and light purple. The other end of the tail had the same exact tail pattern just like Socks, accompanied by a single orange spot that was in the same place like Bingo's tail.
"H-How could it be...?" Bandit stuttered under his breath as his eyes widened. When he started to wipe off the brown dust with his hand, the walls were revealed to have ancient writing right beside the blue, multi-colored figure. Bandit gasped, his heart racing faster with each wipe he took. When the dust settled, Bandit tried to read the carvings carefully. But he couldn't make out what it was saying.
Even for a professional Archaeologist like Bandit Heeler himself, he wasn't a very good translator. Though he could translate some languages like Japanese and Spanish. But for the writings on the walls however, it was like he was reading gibberish. Bandit had never seen such a complicated ancient language in his life, nor seen such beautiful worn out wall paintings.
Is this the reason why that aura wanted me to follow it? Bandit thought, pointing his flashlight in different directions. He reached into his suitcase and pulled out his phone, snapping pictures of the paintings and the ancient language.
"I do hope the boss will believe me when I show him this..." Bandit said under his breath, putting his phone back inside his suitcase.
When Bandit turned around to leave the cave, his eyes were greeted by the bright aura that was flying directly in his face. Without warning, the aura headbutted Bandit's forehead and he was out cold within seconds before his body hit the dusty ground with a thud.