fiction - brigits_flame - erudition

[hwango]

Soft yellow lantern light washed over the figures carved from the wall, the shadows they cast pooling under each form as Dr. Carson drew close, then draining away as he carried the light deeper into the room. Many of the shapes were barely decipherable due to the coral and barnacles that had accumulated over the centuries, but Carson could still detect an obvious pattern – here an octopus, over there a shark, and all along this one wall a vast school of fish, each one so intricately carved that he could still discern individual scales and gills.

“This proves nothing,” Dr. Carson said.

“Oh, come on, Ted,” said Oswald. “Just look around and then try to tell me that everything doesn’t positively scream ‘Atlantis.’”

“I’ll grant you that there is an obvious and powerful aquatic theme about the place. Nevertheless, I see no evidence to suggest that this is …that place that you mention. Nor that there ever was any such place,” Dr. Carson hastened to add.

“Say it with me, Ted – ‘Atlantis.’ Come on, you can do it.”

“No. It’s a well-established fact that just uttering the name causes one’s reputation as a respected archaeologist to wither and die,” said Dr. Carson.

“Oh yes? And where does that leave me?”

“Please, Oswald, we both know that your own…unique approach to the discipline has left you with your own special reputation.”

“Aha! Now I’ve got you. If you admit to my reputation for encountering things that might previously have been considered fantastic, then how can you dismiss the possibility that I’ve found a place that is widely considered to be imaginary?”

Dr. Carson found this argument harder to dismiss than he would have liked. It was true, after all, that in his time with Oswald he had encountered any number of things that he would not have otherwise believed existed. Often, however, he would find himself wishing that they did not exist, or at least that they only existed very far away.

Dr. Carson’s colleagues would often ask him why he continued to associate with the man despite the ridiculous number of deadly and improbable obstacles the man encountered.

The truth was that, when all was said and done, and all of the zombies had all been killed and the curse had been lifted and the bronze clockwork robot’s spring had finally wound down and the various antidotes had been administered and the rescue team had finally managed to dislodge the giant boulder that had fallen to block the entrance to the tunnel – once all of that sort of nonsense was done with – then the expedition would invariably produce the most astonishing discoveries and artifacts. Granted, sometimes a discovery was something along the lines of “in addition to producing lovely pottery, this ancient civilization also excelled at the manufacture of rotating knives and poisoned arrow booby traps,” and the associated artifacts were all sharp and covered with poison. But it was still knowledge, and that’s what really mattered.

And if there was one thing that Oswald and Dr. Carson truly had in common, it was that neither of them thought there were any such things as Things Man Was Not Meant to Know…despite the evidence to the contrary that they always managed to encounter.

“Might we not already have encountered our quota of impossible nonsense this time?” Dr. Carson asked hopefully. “I mean, in all my years in this profession and in all of the expeditions of which I have been a part, do you know that this is only one during which I have been attacked by a giant squid?”

“That just proves you need to get out more.”

“Look, all I’m willing to concede,” said Dr. Carson, “is that we’re standing in the stone ruins of some sort of structure on a tiny speck of land recently brought above the surface of the ocean by recent geologic events. And again, I’ll grant you there’s a strong aquatic theme present. That doesn’t change the fact that there’s no reputable historical evidence that there ever was such a place as…that place.”

“Ted, I would argue that we are, in fact, surrounded by that previously elusive evidence. Sitting not three feet from you is a rocking sea horse carved out of coral. That opening in the wall contains what appears to be a fragment of some kind of transparent seashell that might have served as a window in place of glass. This was clearly an advanced civilization with strong ties to the sea, and it appears that the place sank into the ocean. If it’s not Atlantis, then when we do eventually find Atlantis, it’s going to be hard for it not to be overshadowed by this place. ”

“You know, I still remember the days when you were a legitimate scientist. I think there were about three of them,” Dr. Carson said absently, most of his attention focused on an intriguing bit of carving.

Oswald did not immediately reply to this particular barb, and when Dr. Carson turned to discover why that might be, he caught a last glimpse of his colleague disappearing into the next chamber. He rolled his eyes in mock despair. It was so like Oswald to ignore something amazing sitting right in front of him on the off chance that there was something even more amazing still left to be found. Well, he was welcome to whatever it was. There was plenty left to be done in this room. Plenty of nice, safe, calming work. Notes to be taken. Artifacts to be poked at with tiny brushes. That sort of thing. Serious archaeology.

“Ted, come see what I’ve found! I think it’s an altar!” called Oswald from not far away. Dr. Carson was running towards the sound before the last echoes finished bouncing.

“Oswald, don’t you dare – you know they always save the truly spectacular traps for altars!” Dr. Carson shouted as he ran.

Dr. Carson made it only halfway across the room before the floor tipped under him several degrees. He froze in mid-step, and a tiny trickle of water wormed its way around his boot.

“Did I do that, or did you?” Dr. Carson called out. “I thought this place was stable…you did check to make sure the site was stable, didn’t you?” Even as he said the words, he realized how absurd an idea that was. “Of course you didn’t.”

Dr. Carson took a few cautious steps. The floor did not tilt any further, and nothing fell out of the ceiling onto him. Both absences were pleasant surprises. “Oswald?” he shouted. “Are you alright?”

“Ted, I think I’ve found a library!” came the reply, Oswald’s voice muffled by further distance. Dr. Carson cursed the unfairness of it all. When he caught up to Oswald, he’d have to choose between studying the library or strangling Oswald, and he’d probably end up choosing the library. There was no justice.

When Dr. Carson finally caught up to Oswald, he found him eagerly pulling stone tablets off of stone shelves, grinning at them, and then replacing them before moving onto the next. Dr. Carson wondered why he wasn’t taking the time to even attempt to read any of them until he got a good look at one himself. They were covered with what was clearly writing, but it wasn’t an alphabet that he recognized.

“This is wonderful!” Oswald practically squealed with delight. “It completely makes up for the place not actually being Atlantis!”

Dr. Carson raised a quizzical eyebrow at this. “Oh? And what’s made you change your tune on that score?”

“Well, I know there are a lot of conflicting stories about the place, but I think they all tend to agree that it was built and inhabited by…um…people.” Oswald gestured with the tablet he was holding, and Dr. Carson’s attention was directed to the far wall.

At first, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be seeing. It seemed like more of the same sort of carvings from the previous rooms. Better preserved, perhaps, and with fewer obscuring bits of coral and such, but essentially the same. Lots of octopi, some fish…

Oh. No people. And that particular carving of an octopus had been depicted holding what looked distressingly like a hammer and chisel, and…

“You’re suggesting that this building was never above water before now, aren’t you?”

“That would be my guess, yes.”

Dr. Carson was already mourning his professional reputation. He liked it better when it had been Atlantis.

Comments

[hwango.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain that the scenario I'm picturing with the distracting hat and elephant is not how things actually happened. But if it is how things happened, then I can see how it would have been distracting. Anyway, no need to search - I'm sure it will be wonderful even without accessories.

I'm glad you like the story, too. = )