Chapter Text
“So remind me why we’re here again?”
He didn't like this place, it was dark and cold and he hated heights. Heck the only reason why he even came down here was to accompany Ashley cause she supposedly got an idea for their project.
Though Tyler couldn't guess what it was because 1. She exclaimed eureka like Einstein if he were still alive during a cartoon movie they were watching and 2. She still had yet to explain what her idea was.
Leave it to him to fall in love with a mad scientist, for all he knew they could be wandering through the mines for nothing especially since they were passing through an illegal area.
And due to the fact sometimes Ashley would change her mind about materials that were to be used often.
“We’re here because we need relics” Ash then continued climbing down the cavern. “I figured since this is an area where archaeologists often visit we could find what we need here.”
Tyler then took his turn to climb down the cliff and landed next to her. “Yes but what exactly is your idea anyhow? I mean I understand we need relics that much I can guess but what exactly do we need the relics for?”
He followed her until they entered a tunnel and walked over to one of the cave walls. When Ash shone the light on the wall the relics embedded within it glittered, she then proceeded to look through her bag for the pickaxe she had brought.
“We need them because I was thinking of running some experiments on them.” Ash then starts swinging the pickaxe and hitting the wall. “My idea is what if we could figure out how to use them besides just to power our stuff? What if we could do something else with it?”
Tyler watched her for a bit while thinking about it. “Like making some form of gadget with it?”
Ash gives him a blank look until she sweat drops with an awkward smile while holding a finger up. “Um not exactly what i was thinking but to be honest i'm not sure what to make yet to be honest.” she admits. “To be honest, the first few experiments are probably gonna be mostly based on the fact that whether or not it’ll be safe to even mess with them that way in the first place.”
Tyler looked at her in confusion while taking any relics he was handed from her, he then packed them up in the spare bag he was told to bring. “So your idea is to mess with the relics until you somehow magically come up with something that will amaze the teachers?” he teased.
Tyler was joking of course, he knew that Ash would figure it out. And from how she worded it she already had an idea, she just needed to take the proper precautions in order to make sure it’d work.
“By the way how many more do we need?” Tyler said as he continued packing up anymore relics he was handed. “Not to put you in a rush or anything but it’s freaking cold down here!”
Ash hit the wall a few more times not noticing that it was starting to crumble before answering.
“Don’t worry, I'm almost done. I just need a few mor-“ Ash’s words turned into a shout of surprise. Before Tyler knew it the wall that Ash had just been picking at had just then crumbled into a hole which she instantly disappeared through.
Everything soon fell silent. And for a good solid minute Tyler was convinced his mad scientist had just been killed in a rock slide.
“CRAP!” If you had asked for Tyler’s point of view in that moment this would probably be the one and only time he was thankful Ashley was such a potty mouth.
He then exhaled a breath that he hadn’t realized he was holding. “You alright down there?”
“Yeah.” Ash then stood up and started brushing herself off while checking herself over, she seemed to be mostly ok despite her knee being scraped .“I messed up my knee but I'll live.”
“Alright, I’ll get a rope and work on heading down there.” Tyler then started to get to work searching for what he needed. “Just hang on tight, I'll be down there soon with the med kit.”
“Just tell me what you see down there, alright?”
“Alright sounds good.” she responded. “Take your time though it’s not that bad.”
Ash then took out the flashlight she had on her and turned it on. she shone the light around while examining her surroundings.
“Ok…… so the ground seems to be pretty stable.” Tyler was trying to find the med kit when he heard Ashley talking. “Alright, that’s good to know. Don't have to worry about the thing breaking once I get down there.”
She then noticed that wherever she was also had walls. Walls with….pictures? No ... .wait, those looked like hieroglyphs! Ash then walked over to get a closer look.
Tyler had gotten the rope ready and was soon climbing down, he had the med kit with him as well. When he got down from the rope he started looking around when he noticed that Ash was no longer near the area he last saw her.
“Hey Ty? I think I found something..” ah there she is…looking at some cravings on the wall?
“What are those? Are they cave paintings or something?” While he knew a thing or two about archaeology he wasn't the expert when it came to this stuff, Ash was the one who knew more about this stuff than him. With some luck she might be able to translate whatever these carvings were saying after she read them.
“Not sure to be honest might need to take a picture and then work on translating when we get back.” Or maybe not… at least not yet. “And it’s actually hieroglyphs, an inscription for something.”
Ash studied them for a bit more before answering. “So far from what I can tell it appears to be talking about something related to that civilization that Mr. Burns always rambles on about.”
Tyler just shook his head. “You know he only does that because he used to be an archaeologist himself right?”
“Yeah because the civilization was the one to create the relics and so far no-one knows too much about them.” Ash then turned to him after taking out her phone and taking a picture of the inscription. “For all we know aliens could have made them.” she joked.
“If we’re lucky maybe since the wall crumbled and we entered this new cavern by accident we might be able to find some of those jeweled relics. I want to also run some experiments on those ones too.”
Tyler rolled his eyes but with a smile. “Alright, but first let’s get that knee patched up, eh?”
“Ah! Right! Forgot about that, first that then the relics.”
After Tyler quickly got Ashley fixed up, they then started looking around the cavern. As they were searching Tyler soon stumbled upon something….. Actually in all honesty he almost tripped over it. He managed to catch himself before falling over whatever it was that he tripped on.
When he looked back to figure out what it was he saw a strange golden…table? sticking up out of the ground, it appeared whatever it was had not been treated kindly by the passing of the ages nor the weather itself. Especially since they lived in East Haddam, a place where earthquakes were somewhat common. The thing was all cracked and crumbling, it looked like it was about to fall apart.
Tyler wasn't sure if it would be of any interest to Ash but he decided to call her over anyway. “Hey Ash! There’s something over here!”
“What is it?” She had come running over with some relics in her hands when she heard Tyler call her.
“Not sure actually, it kinda looks like a table to be honest.” Tyler then pointed to the thing to show Ash what he was talking about.
“Oh! That looks like it could be a pedestal or something, though I can't say for sure it looks like nature’s just about fully reclaimed it.”
Tyler then noticed the relics that Ash was carrying. “Oh hey you found some more relics, do you have enough or do you need more?”
“Nope I got enough, though check these out.” Ash then handed one to him. Tyler only had a glance at them when he almost instantly saw the difference. “Hey, these are silver unlike the others!”
“Yep, interestingly enough I didn't even have to dig deep for them! They were literally just laying on the ground.” Ash then started putting them in her bag with Tyler watching on in interest. “You're still going to use them?” she nodded. “Yep, while I may not use them in our project, I still want to study them. Y’know because they're different I want to figure out why that is. ”
“Ah alright then.” Tyler then tossed the silver relic back to her. “Anyhow ready to go? I think we stayed here longer than we should have, plus you got enough relics too.”
“Almost i wanna check that pedestal out first from the looks of it, it’s got some writings or something on the sides of it.” Ash then brought the pickaxe back out and started getting to work.
“Alright, then we're done right?” Tyler asked while crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “Yep.” she responded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~one hour later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Are you having any trouble over there?” Ash had been working on the pedestal for almost a full hour now and so far it still appeared as if they had just started. Tyler knew it would take some time but they had a pickaxe that should make the job go by somewhat quicker right?
“Yeah, sorry about that, I'm having a hard time trying to not just uncover it but to also keep the text somewhat readable.” Ash explained she then continued on while hitting the rock around the pedestal trying to not hit the pedestal itself.
“The writing reaches all the way around the pedestal from the looks of it, plus the fact the rock is pretty much melded to the pedestal ... .which means that I ain't going to be able to read or translate what's on here anytime soon.”
“Dang, that bad eh?” Tyler then walked over to get a closer look.
Ash then started brushing more of the dirt away from the pedestal.
“Want some help?” Tyler then got down on his knees and started brushing the dirt away too.
“Yes and thank you.” Ash then noticed a glimmer of something.
Ash then started to dig a bit through the crumbled rocks and dirt, soon she managed to dig up an orb shaped relic.
“I think I just found another relic.” She then handed Tyler the strange relic. “What kind of relic is this?” He examined the relic, while it was an orb. It was much different than any of the other orb relics he had seen before. While most of them were gold, this one was silver, the symbols were different and in the center was a pale green jewel.
“Not sure.” Ash then put the silver relics in her bag. “I take it, you want to bring this one back too?” Tyler questioned as he held the relic out to her.
“Yep, while it may not look much it might have clues that might give an explanation for what this place was supposed to be. Plus it’s pretty strange that it was so close to the pedestal it’s almost as if it’s supposed to be a part of the pedestal itself somehow.”
Ash then took it and also put it in the bag. She zipped the bag up and slipped it over her shoulders.
“I might need to run some more tests, but I think it could be pretty interesting exploring the history behind this place.”
“So if I’m guessing right ... .If the tests go well, not only will you use these relics in the project but you might add in the history too if we're able to do so?”
Tyler knew that there was a good chance she would.
“Yep, after all could score us some extra credit!”