Blackbird

Chapter 5 : The Language of the Gods

It was night time now, Patrick looked at his watch - 8 pm. He was very tired due to his journey and the heat. At his request Hans has given him a laptop with an internet connection and a table fan for the heat. A guard also brought in some cheese burgers and a diet coke. 

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..

..."

- Patrick was intrigued when he read the word "Annunaki" and so he kept reading. 

"The Epic Of Gilgamesh- an old poem belonging to that era mentions about these ancient people and their dieties..."

"Annunakis were Gods of the first civilization of the earth- this is what I've come to believe after my extensive research works. They helped to shape humanity's future- by teaching them about agriculture and crops, pottery and weapons, literature also seems to have propagated during that era as many cuneiform or clay tablets with curious writings have been discovered today- of course they are in a pretty bad shape but we can make out the important details necessary…Their accounts were recorded in the form of clay tablets and were held sacred by the later civilizations.People sang songs and wrote poems about these ancient beings but the records were lost in time. I believe that some ancient historians even knew the true language of these Gods and must have recorded in their cuneiform tablets…"

Patrick kept on reading and matching the samples of the scans with his papyrus. An hour later after an intense study he found out that the papyrus was not of that age and time but was merely an inspired work refering to the old ages- it was probably written during the middle ages by some unknown historian but it wasn't in any known language new or old! He reopened the scans again and continued reading-

"I call it 'the language of the Gods' because it cannot be spoken by any mere mortal- it can however be written down and understood or translated but can never be spoken in any human tongue…I have been fortunate enough to come by a peculiar looking tablet that was written in the same obscure language and have started to translate it… ", Patrick was intrigued and continued-

"I have made an attempt to reconstruct its vocabulary and grammar and made the following dictionary so that I can 

continue to understand the ancient world…", Patrick opened the next scan and as soon as he did he saw pages and pages of weird scribbles and their corresponding meanings in English. He matched the scribbles with his papyrus. The words started to make sense. After an hour he made a crude translation of the language in the papyrus. It read:  

"Here lies the gateway to anywhere and nowhere..."

-and then the rest was torn off. Then right below it were drawings of weird humanoid figures with elongated heads who seemed to worship in a circle around a portal looking structure that had a huge spiral in the middle. Patrick continued translating the text beneath it, which had been smudged and torn in places-

"the true of heart shall pass,

with an offering of blood and sweat,

on the hand of the doorway he shall pour,

his true intentions and his soul...

Beware the greedy and evil ones,

for thou shall incur the wrath of Anki …

On a dark moonless night,

When one looks at the sky,

one shall find the passage …

white stones shall guide the way,

into the final place of the ancients…

The door leads to anywhere and nowhere,

to heaven or to hell…

Anyplace your heart desires,

and which your soul seeks truly…

Folow Orion in heaven,

Place thy hands on the gate,

Speak the lord's name thrice…

As in heaven, so on earth…"

He wondered why would anyone write such a poem- instructing exactly where to look and how to get there. Furthermore the Turkish word "Hoyuk" that was smudged out puzzled him too. The very existence of this word on an ancient text meant that someone in the modern world knew what this poem meant and had this text in his or her possession. Who knew that this old piece of ruin would hold so much mystery.

He drew a deep breath and rubbed his eyes and began to wonder what the text meant -

"The final place of the ancient must indicate one of the Tepes like the one here… but follow Orion? As in sky?", thought Patrick trying hard to make sense of the words.

He looked at his watch again- it was midnight-12 a.m. He wasn't feeling sleepy anymore, so he decided to take a walk outside.

"Is there really 'a gateway to anywhere'? But that would mean that there existed some kind of time portal in the ancient days…", 

he kept thinking as he walked towards the excavated mound. He looked around, the entire camp was silent and the security guards were patrolling the perimeter. Hans' tent was dark - 

"Old fox must be sleeping soundly now that I'm here to do his dirty work…", thought Patrick walking in the darkness towards the excavation site.

Far away he could here the howling of a wolf in the barren mountains. 

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.

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