I think I kinda understood why my big brother loved the sinking into the water so much. There was a peace underneath the waves that hardly anyone truly knew. The pressure wrapped around us like a really nice embrace from a momma or papa. Under the water I felt so much stronger than I had since leaving the island. Xavier always told me that the most jepei resided under the waves. I now knew what he made, any last sleepiness faded away as more and more of this underwater jepei was absorbed and for the first time I felt back to my full strength. I saw Emily stop for a moment and seem to roll her shoulders as she also took in all of this natural energy.
We swam at a slow and steady pace, mostly so me and Emily could get used to the weight of our air tanks, our equipment and used to truly swimming underwater. My eyes were as wide as dinner plates and they didn’t get any smaller. Not with all of the sights that filled my vision, the water was a bright blue with small hints of green. There had to be thousands of fish swimming below, above and around us. Probably confused on who we were and why we were in their home. I don’t think fish could be mean, but who knows maybe they were planning an attack against us. So I made sure to be extra nice to keep them from hurting us.
I listened carefully to Mr. Costa over our radio as he passed the time telling us about the local marine life. He and his wife were gonna be joining me and Emily down here today, and Emily told me that here their word was law. So I had to listen to them and their orders no matter what. I was kinda getting tired of having so many people to listen to on our mission, but I was the youngest so I guess that was fair.
“Where you two the ones that originally found this?” I asked once we passed a very big and scary looking great white shark. While Mr. Costa said we weren’t in danger of it attacking us, no one could truly predict a living animal.
Mrs. Costa moved up closer to me. Mr. Costa and Emily had taken the lead in this dive. “We did find it by accident while we were doing a dive on some of the wildlife here.” She pointed over to the left where that large shark was still padding away. “We were looking for that big guy over there. We hadn’t seen Gusto for a very long time and we wanted to make sure he was still okay.”
“You know that shark?”
Mr. Costa’s voice came through my headset. “We helped get him when he was injured in a poaching incident. He put on a hell of a fight for his life when he was a much smaller boy, it took two years but we finally got him ready to be released back into the water. We come and check on him every month to make sure he is okay. Gave us quite the scare when we couldn’t find the big guy for a while.”
“Where did he go?”
Mrs. Costa was the one to explain. “From what we figured out from the tracker we later put on him. He had swam down along the coast to Argentina’s waters to mate. Stayed there for a bit before coming back to his home.”
Mr. Costa took over once more. “It was than that we found this wreckage, we believe that during one of our heavy storms. It moved enough sand that this place was finally rediscovered. This is technically the 2nd true expedition down here.”
“That was where we found that the stone slab that was sadly taken from us.” Mrs. Costa added.
“And we are here to find the 2nd half of it.” I said with a newfound excitement.
“That is right,” Emily said. While she hadn’t been speaking much on the headset, she had been talking to me a lot in my head. A small technique that jepei users could use to connect their thoughts with each other. I normally only did it with Xaiver or my parents, but I made an exception for Emily. Or rather I wanted her to do it with me, but she seemed hesitant to do so.
I wander if my new big sister had really naughty thought? Just thinking about that always made me giggle.
We swam deep and deeper for another 30 or so minutes. I was getting a bit nervous the surface of the water seemed almost non-existent now. We had more advance equipment so we could go beyond the normal limits for diving. However it didn’t stop my mind from being a bit nervous at what would happen if we somehow ran out of air. Even with these flippers I was not the strongest swimmer in the world. So I don’t know if I could quickly swim to the surface in case of an emergency. However, we finally reached the sea floor where an army of crabs seemed to be living. I was no longer worried about any armies of fish, but now the idea of being pricked to death by crabs was a far more worse and painful death. Past this large group of crabs, I could see something starting to form in the distance.
We came to a stop as Mr. Costa held his hand up. “I don’t believe it.” Emily said in what sounded like pure disbelieve. I let go of Mrs. Costa’s hand and moved forward towards Emily to tread water beside her. I looked up at her and even thought I couldn’t only see her eyes, it was enough that I could tell she was both amazed and smiling. “It’s truly real.” She whispered in my head.
I turned out. “Whoa…” I whispered to truly take in what I was seeing. All around us looked like the wreckage of a very old and small city. A few stone houses that were either heavily cracked or caved in on themselves. They were longer than they were tall, a few openings that were probably doors and windows carved into them. From the sea floor, I could see a few markings on the ground like maybe pathways. Broken bits of woods stuck up from the sand in places, all looking very brown and dead. However, just beyond this small village, was a very very big tower that was laying on it’s side. The base of this tower was huge and looked to have been torn in half from what I could see. The tower itself, the part that was laying on it’s side had to be at least 1000 feet long and was broken into four smaller pieces some bigger than others. The most interesting thing to me about all of this, was the large amount of ancient jepei aura that flowing through the place. It felt the same as it did back in the dinner that got us all together in the first place. Just a bit weaker.
“Emily?” I turned back around to see Mrs. Costa had placed her hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
It took me a moment but I was surprised to heard that Emily seemed to be crying I think. When I swam up to look more in her face, I could see rivers of tears moving down her face. “I-I’m okay,” she replied blinking a few times as she couldn’t just take her mask off to wipe her face. “I-It’s just… something like this is important to me. I just need a moment.” Emily gently sank to the botttpm where we could walk and instead of standing on the seafloor, she dropped to her knees and held her hands together. “We can reconnect later, I promise.” That was all she said in my head before I felt her server the connection between us. As she lowered her head.
I think she was praying.
“Come on, Sarah.” Mr. Costa said. “How about, you and I get a closer look, and my wife will keep an eye on Emily for however long she needs.” He placed a webbed hand on my shoulder, and after a moment of hesitation I followed after the man. Emily was really strong, so I was sure that she was gonna catch up with us shortly.
I followed after Mr. Costa as we took our time in getting closer. A shiver went down my body as we entered the space where all of this od jepei aura was flowing. It was very very strong like being in the pressence of someone letting out their projection aura. However it also felt faint, and lonely. In class my teacher, Mr. Harris, had told us that sometime a jepei aura from a dead user can still remain for years on end until it finally it absorbed back into world. However, this one felt ancient, like my grandpa’s aura but even older than that. It felt like the aura back at the council chamber, but we were so far away and that shard of it’s gemstone was there.
Could just a shard of Behemoth’s gemstone be so powerful that it could remain here forever? Questions for later.
We eventually came to the base of this tower. It was humongous, my feet came to rest on top of it letting us walk on somewhat solid ground. The stone that made up this base couldn’t have been carried or dragged, and it was only half of it, deep ridges ran against the end of it indicating that there was another side. It had been violently ripped apart and I knew of no creature alive or dead that could truly pull apart stone so easily. Well that was a little lie if what we knew was true that it was probably truly the Behemoth when he walked the earth. However, there were a few other creatures that might have the strength to do so. Such as the dragons or one of the very rare dragon spirit users and maybe some other mystical creature might have been able to do it.
As we walked a top this this now moss covered stone. Mr. Costa was taking plenty of picture of the scene they wanted to document more information this time around than before. “Sarah,” I jumped as Unique’s voice filled my headset. “What is wrong with Emily?” Her voice was always so soft with hints of her Peru accent that she always tried to hide. “She muted her volume and is still on the ground.”
“She is okay… I think.” I responded. “When we got down here, she was overwhelmed at what we were seeing. She is doing that thing she usually does at bed time I think. Praying.”
“Ohhh,” Unique responded sounding more relieved.
“Why is she doing that?” I asked. “It’s not we are in danger or she needs something right now.”
“She isn’t praying cause she is scared or needs something, Sarah.” Unique explained with a fondness in her voice that she and Emily often shared when they talked about their religion. “She is probably giving thanks and praise, that we are allowed to one see something so ancient that has his hands on it. She wanted to see something like this for a very long time, she sad it might help others that don’t believe start to believe.”
I didn’t really understand, I turned around to look back at this large stone platform. I knew a bit about the story of this, both the one in the bible and the one that we jepei users called true as oddly enough, The Judiah Chistian faith and the story of jepei users go hand and hand in some ways. However, I didn’t really believe in their God.
Was there a God?
Probably.
I just didn’t think it was their God maybe, or maybe I was wrong. It was complicated how I felt about whoever was really the one that made the Heavens. Cause if he was supposed to be everyone’s daddy… why did he leave me alone to be hurt for so long?
I shook that thought out of my head right as Mr. Costa put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“Yes sir,” I answered, I don’t think he could see the smile I was giving him but it was still there. “Just lost in thought for a bit.” He motioned for me to follow him and we jumped off this stone base that was also about 20 feet high and down onto the sandy bottom of the ground. It was kinda dark and mysterious down here as we had a bit of dim light from the sun way above us. But anytime a cloud flew in front of it, the entire place would get a bit darker. We had been equipped with a few underwater flashlights on our gear but that only gave us a bit more.
We swam forward and on this side of the base. There was a long wall of text that had been written onto it. “Wow,” I mumbled as I looked at of these very old looking symbols and texts. I held up a shaky hand and after given permission, I ran my hand across the moss to get a bit of it out of the way. My eyes starting shining as this very old hebrew began to change into some english that I could read. “Praise be to the God of our fathers and forefathers. The Lord who took us from one to be at peace with another. Who let us hold onto this tower, as a reminder that all praise, honor and glory should be given to him. Long may Jireh reign, and long may his beast rest, for his job and done but our God’s will will be done on earth as it has been done in his Heavens.” Each group of texts said the same thing as this one, some were bigger, some sloppy like a kid made it.
I hit the channel for Emily hoping that she had turned her things back on to talk. “Sissy,” I began carefully. “What does Jireh mean?” I knew that it meant to see however, maybe there was another meaning in her religion.
There was a slight wait before I heard a soft sigh and than Emily’s delicate voice replied. “I-It has two meanings, on its own, the word Jireh means to see, however when you combine it with the word Jehovah Jireh, it means God will provide.” She took one more deep breath before adding. “I will be there shortly, little one, I am sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” I replied. I looked back at this wall of text. “Jireh means to see,” I told myself as I started to look at each of these rows of ancient text. It wasn’t until I came to one of the more sloppy ones that might have been written by a kid my age, did I find something much different. It was the same as the others but at the bottom it had a bit more. “Jireh made my father and his father before the first, and I will be the second, to watch over the relic that the Behemoth left him. An honor that my family will forever keep.”
“Wait a minute,” I said to myself. I took the receiver for the boat so far away and after a bit of static that hurt my ears. “Dr. Silva, that stone slab you had, do you have a picture of it with you at all?”
“I-I do,” she responded her voice sounding like a robot. “W-Why d-do you ask?”
“I need you to compare it to what I am looking at.” I said as I quickly moved a bit more moss out of the way, going quickly and gentle as I didn’t want to ruin something by accident. I than moved slowly across this row of text giving her a chance to compare one thing.
The handwriting.
Cause if I was right. I was very very very sure that this writing in the same as the person who wrote on the stone tablet. We had used a grandfather’s writing to bring us here, maybe a grandson’s writing was what was gonna bring us to where else we needed to be. Because they were protecting something, something that was left at this long since abandoned sight.
I waited on held breath until Dr. Silva came back on. “From what me and my team can tell right now from our first look. It is similar in nature if not the same handwriting.” I let out a small cheer, and while I couldn’t jump up and down properly underwater. I suppose stopping my feet slowly would be good enough for me. I gasped as someone wrapped an arm around me and gave me a squeeze. A hand came to rest on my gemstone as our thoughts were reconnected.
“Good work, Sarah.” Emily praised. “Well done.”
I beamed a bit more at that but than a new thought filled my head. “Mr. Costa where was the originally stone slab found?” I turned to find the man standing beside his wife.
“Follow us,” he said as he motioned us over and we began to swim more. Past the first of these large half pillars of stone, this one maybe 100 feet in size. “We found it in this one,” he explained once. I had read that the original tower was supposed to be 5433 cubits, according to some book called The Book of Jubilees. That was about 8150 feet tall. There had to be hundreds of other stone wreckages of this tower across the Atlantic ocean. Especially if what is now south america was truly torn from Africa by the Behemoth. Maybe that is why no one could find this at first, we had only explored three percent of the water.
I was sure Xaiver could explore all it one day.
We came to a stop in front of a broken piece of this tower, it was by far the smallest of all the of the pieces we have seen. However, what it much different was that whomever had lived her so long ago, had turned this piece into a kinda living space. Where part of the tower was open revealing the mostly hollow inside, it had been covered with long since decayed wood. Most of it already broken or looked like it would dissolve if I touched it. What was once a window had been turned into a door way, and I saw a bit of waterlogged cloth resting stuck under a rock.
As we swam inside I was very sure that whoever lived here had been the leaders of this area. It had some basic suppies, a few baskets that looked to be made with grass were floating against the ceiling. Others had already broken from being in the water so long. There were a few smaller rocks covered in sand and some sticks buried below the sand as well, a fire pit maybe. There was another stone slab about seven feet long and four feet wide that had been resting a top two other smaller rocks, I think it might have been a table. I could see stone bowls had fallen off it. As I shined my light on the walls I could see that they were decorated not in writing but in pictures. Picture that told a story. On a quick look, this seemed to tell about this people, how they stayed her. A saw an image of a man holding what looked to be a hammer. What looked to be them fighting some other people, and what looked to be them leaving this place and going somewhere else.
“They left,” I said. “This picture tells how they left here and went somewhere else.” I said in amazement.
“What do you mean?” Mrs. Costa asked as she swam towards me and the more light we had the more I could see this stone carving of what happened. “W-We didn’t even know this was here. She waved over Emily and Mr. Costa. “We need as much light on this and than we are gonna go from wall to wall and get as much pictures and videos as we can to bring back to the surface.” She explained in an excited voice. “How on earth did we miss this.”
“Amazing,” Mr. Costa said. “Young lady, you might have just helped us crack the code of what this place truly was. Cause some pictures are worth a thousand words.”
I smiled at his praise as my eyes were drawn back towards these pictures that had been drawn into the wall. A grandfather lead us here, a grandson’s writings were what brought us down here in the first part.
And I had a really good feeling that, maybe a daddy’s artwork, might led us.
The a part of the tower that was probably deep in the jungle.
Cause judging from this.
I think after playing like Princess Ariel for so long.
I think it’s time to play Tarzan in the jungle next.
194Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZOKqoFbSc
