Blackbird

Chapter 22: The Challenges

He took a sip from his drink and then placed the ancient text under the table lamp. But his mind was somewhere else-

"How did they even find me?", he wondered-

"I don't even own a phone!"

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the text. He hadn't seen anything quite like it. It was not ancient Hebrew or Turkish. Strange letters like those of Celtic runes written by hand on a papyrus adorned the entire piece which might have looked quite appealing before.

"Must be Akkadian or Sumerian!",thought Patrick as he typed in his login credentials into the laptop.

He had a secret server where he kept his entire journals about discoveries and findings. Pictures taken of old books and maps and even his dad's diaries were perfectly scanned and stored in it. This was his secret- his ultimate store of knowledge. He scrolled through the pictures one by one and looked into his dad's journals trying to match the writings. The script looked familiar but he couldn't remember where he had last seen it. He scrolled through many folders on the laptop until he found the one titled -

"An account of the ancient mesopotamian history and literature"

This was one of his dad's forgotten journal that he had painstakingly scanned and uploaded into his private server. He opened the scanned images one by one and read through the contents-

"The ancient land of Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq has been home to many mysterious civilizations dating back far more than modern academia currently suggests..."

- read Patrick curiously, he never had time to read these journals and he never imagined these would ever come in handy.He continued reading -

"Modern day mainstream scholars often do not bother to dig any further than the Akkadian or Sumerian cultures which existed around 4000 BCE and they are hardly to blame for there doesn't exist much evidence of such a pre historical civilization. Except for a few clay tablets and sculptures of the dieties worshipped by those people. I am talking about the Annunakis here - the dieties who were worshipped by the ancient people..

..."

He began to feel a strange kind of anxiety as he got closer to the mound. It was left unguarded with a single lightbulb hanging on a pole. He stopped for a brief moment and looked up towards the dark starlit sky. There was no moon that night and the constellations shone brightly.

"Hmm.. Orion….Oh! I get it now ..the constellation…. ", whispered Patrick to himself.

"Where is it? Ugh… " , he began to scan the night sky with his bare eyes.

After a minute of looking, he saw it right above his head. It was shaped like a belt- which is why it was known as Orion's belt.But Patrick had to find out how the constellation would lead him towards the gate.

"As in heaven, so on earth… hmm… heaven, earth… follow Orion… maybe I should find the pattern of Orion on land… but how? ", thought Patrick wondering if his assumptions were correct.

"Ah!What the hell? White stones!", exclaimed Patrick as he noticed some bizzare stones on the entrance of the mound.He began to run towards the excavation site.

"There it is… the stones are the markers on land… ", thought Patrick as he reached the entrance of the mound. Patrick had never seen anything like this ever. Small stones about the size of the human palm were lying perfectly arranged one after the other in a curved line like a road leading straight into the exacavated mound.

It was a bizzare sight to witness the stones lighted up dimly on the ground amidst the ruins. Patrick followed them but after five stones the trail ended.He kneeled down and began to remove the dirt with his hand trying to find the rest. Sure enough he found another buried under the layer of sand. He kept doing this until he found another and then another. He kept following the trail until he stood inside the mound. There were no more stones to uncover.

"Holy Christ! The text is indeed true… But what next?", thought Patrick as he looked around the site.

It was dark and silent inside the mound. The lightbulb was a few meters away in the entrance. He suddenly began to feel cold as light breeze began to blow.It was getting creepy but Patrick was excited to uncover the rest of the mystery.

He looked ahead and stretched his hand forward in the darkness trying to grab a pillar in front of him.He could barely see anything.

"Damn I should have brought my flashlight!", he thought, immediately regretting his decision of being there at this ungodly hour.

As his hand touched a pillar it felt warm. He raised his other hand behan to feel the ancient rock pillar. The warmth soothed him. He almost felt like hugging it!

Then he turned towards his right and then left- there were two other pillars around him but they felt colder. He then realised that he was deep inside the excavation zone where the giant pillars stood. Somehow he felt like moving ahead and then his hand touched another pillar behind the first one- this one felt warm too. Patrick looked upwards. In the darkness he could make out the height of the two pillars stretching almost 20 metres upwards.He then touched one with his right hand and the other with his left. Both of them felt warm -

"This must be the gateway… the pillars of the gate…", he thought.

"The name of the God… I need to say the name of the God… Jesus?… no… what was the name of the ancient God… Anki? Yes!" he thought trying to remember the text.He then placed his hands on the pillars again and began to whisper-

"This is it baby… come on show me what you got… ahem… Anki… Anki… Anki…", he uttered the name three times with his eyes closed and held his breath anticipating something miraculous to happen.

But nothing happened. He tried again and then again but the ancient pillars stood silently in the dark.

"Ugh! Bloody thing must be broken…", he removed his hands and kicked the ground with his right foot. Something cracked - like a clay pot. He looked down but could hardly make out what it was in the darkness. He touched it - it was indeed a clay pot- a small clay pot shattered on the ground.

"Oh dear! I have ruined an ancient artefact …", he felt like a criminal inside his heart, after all he loved ancient ruins even though he stole them, he never broke or destroyed a single piece. He began to look for pieces on the ground and then it him- that cold desert breeze but this time he felt different - calm and quiet.

He picked up the broken pieces of the pot and placed them in his hands. In the darkness he looked at them.He felt guilty as if he were a thief stealing from the graves of the ancient people. He drew a deep breath and thought about this entire mission-

What if there's really an ancient portal here? What would a greedy dog like Hans do with this level of power?Was he not equally guilty for helping him? He knew whatever mystery this place held- once Hans and his men lay their hands on it, the result would be bad, really bad. Hans could have the power to destroy or control the world. And even if there was nothing there it wouldn't matter because Hans would blow this place up to find what he's looking for.

"He will never find out the secret if this place, I won't let him know…", thought Patrick surprised at himself at this sudden change of heart. Something in the air made him realise the truth…

"Who's there?", a loud commanding voice yelled from behind. Patrick was startled and he quickly turned around.