•Southern China: Somewhere near Hong Kong•
"Thanks for letting me come along on this archelogical dig, professor."
a jeep is seen driving across a grassy and dirt area, several pits having been dug out and wooden ladders having been placed leaning against
Several archeologists and workers were coming and going, chatting about things, though what exactly those were were unknown as they sped by.
"Its no problem, alex." Jackie said.
The man, named Alex, looked around, seeing several old tablets and other artifacts being dug up, dusted off and otherwise cleaned or even being put back together.
"What have we found so far?" Alex asked.
"Normal things so far. I heard a professor this morning say that we may be close to discovering something huge." Jackie answered, the jeep taking a sharp turn.
The turn made the smaller males messy brown hair go in front of his eyes, and it took him a couple of minutes to fix it.
It was just lucky his glasses didnt fly off, or he'd be as blind as a bat without them, plus, his prescription was VERY specific, and not many eye doctors or even companies could work with it.
That, and it was very expensive to pay for them.
So he always took good care of them as a result.
The jeep soon came to a slow stop, and all three of them got out, walking towards a giant pit several layers deep with workers and archeologists milling about it, artifacts strewn about the dirt and even in small baskets.
They both stopped at the edge of the pit, looking down into it.
"Woah.."
"Yes, its very deep, in fact-"
"Mr. Chan! We have found something! I think you need to come see this!"
Both Alex and Jackie climbed down several ladders and were soon at the bottom of the pit, where several workers seemed to be trying to pry something open.
"Is that a door?"
"It looks like a stone door, wonder what its doing buried here?"
"Maybe someone was trying to hide something? It would be the best place."
A loud shifting sound echoed around, as the stone door was lifted and opened, revealing a staircase leading down into pitch black darkness.
"Well, what are we waiting for?"
Alex grabbed a respirator and a flashlight from a nearby bag, before starting to head down into the passage.
"Wait for me!"
Jackie did the same, and soon caught up with him, noticing the passage was made out of some kind of strange stone brick.
"You need to be careful, who knows what could be down here."
"Sorry."
"Its alright, just think before you act next time."
Alex was impulsive to a fault, while that usually wasn't a bad thing per say, but it got in the way sometimes.
They continued down the stairs, till they opened up to a seemingly large room, but it was impossible to see much of anything as it was entirely pitch black minus the light coming from their flashlights.
"This room seems big."
"It does, but its pitch black in here."
"Hmm..i think i have an idea."
Alex dug through his pockets, pulling out a metal lighter, which he pushed on the button a few times till a small flame flickered to life.
He then walked over to the wall, and placed the lighter into a sort of small bowl filled with gunpowder, which instantlt ignited and sent a spark down a path, lighting several torches along the walls till the room was lit up like a christmas tree, everything being bathed in an orangish glow.
"There, much better."
"Uh..Alex.."
"Wh-WHOA."
The room was like an archeologist's dream, old vases with scrolls inside them littered the floor, even though some were broken, tapestries hung on the walls covered from likely centuries of dust as well as other assorted treasures from dynasty's past.
"This is incredible, professor.."
"Definitely, but i'll go get the crew down here with some tools and to help carry this stuff out, just stay put till i get back."
Alex gave a thumbs up as Jackie went back up the stairs, his footsteps becoming quieter, till the room became silent, and yet, something didn't feel right.
Upon setting his eye's onto the back wall of the room, the hair's on the back of his neck stood up on end, so he set the lighter back into his pocket and walked to the wall, but didn't see anything particularly off about it.
It felt solid, but just to be sure, he knocked against it like one would a door, till he hit a spot that wasn't solid, in fact, it felt hollow on the other side.
"What could be behind this wall?"
He took a small step back, his foot stepping on a small brick which caused the walk to spin around and dump him out into another pitch black room.
He got up and dusted himself off, before running back over to the wall and began to bang his fists against it, trying to make as much noise as possible.
"Alex?"
He heard Jackie walk around abit, so he pounded harder on the wall to get his attention, hoping he could hear it.
He let out a sigh of relief as he heard Jackie drop his tools and ran over to the wall, hearing him place his hands against it.
"Alex, is that you back there, you aren't hurt are you?"
"Yeah im ok, don't worry, but i think i found a hidden room!"
"Can you get out?"
Alex tried pushing on the wall, but it didn't budge an inch, course he wasn't that strong to begin with but that was something for another time.
"Not from this side. I'll take a look around, see if i find another way."
Jackie really had no other ideas, he couldn't deny alex was right, maybe there was another way out.
"Ok, just be careful, we'll work to get this wall open."
"Alright, i'll be careful."
He picked up his flashlight and flicked the switch, the light coming on which illuminated his feet.
"At least it's working, but that doesn't make me feel any less stupid."
He walked around, using the flashlight to see where he was going to make sure he didnt trip over anything.
His flashlight stopped on something hanging on the far wall, which took him a moment to actually tell what it was due to the respirator's lens being abit foggy.
"A statue? Why would it back here?"
Once he got closer to it, he noticed it was of a dragon, mostly likely an eastern dragon of some sort, given the area they were in.
Still, something felt off. What that was, the man couldn't tell, but it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
Like on ghost hunting show's that would come on television, though he doubted this place was haunted.
"I've never seen something like this before.."
He placed his hand onto the surface, yet reeled it away not a moment later out of reflex.
It felt warm to the touch.
'No..that can't be possible.'
He had to test it, even if he was scared out of his wits.
He placed it against it again, though it felt cold, almost like ice.
"What the..? H-how? Am i hallucinating?"
Before he could put that question into thoughts, he heard a loud cracking and then turned around to see the wall crack and shatter into pieces, as several workers holding tools, both powered and not, and ran over to them.
After making sure he was ok, the man showed the crew and jackie what he discovered, they got to work to safely remove it and then after getting clearance, and paying the workers, had it put onto a plane and had it on its way back to the United States.
Something still ate at Alex though, in the back of his mind, almost like an itch he couldn't scratch. He wanted to ignore it, but found he couldn't.
"So, whats the plan, professor?"
"I'll have it dropped by my Uncle's Antique shop, at least until we can find a museum that will take it."
"But for now, lets get some sleep, we do have a long flight ahead of us."
He couldn't argue with sleep, since he felt absolutely exhausted, having not gotten much sleep lately.
"Yea..i was just hallucinating from lack of sleep, that's all that was.."
He said that quietly enough that no one else heard it as he closed his eyes and fell into slumber.
In the hold of the plane, amongst the boxes and other cargo too large to be with the passengers, the statue's eye's glowed red for a few moments before turning back to normal.