Some Kind of Wonderful- Part Two by: Enemyoffun Charlie Sandsmark and his mother, Helena, travel around the world from one archaeological dig to another, looking for evidence of the ancient Amazonian culture. So far they have found nothing, until Charlie discovers something wonderful about himself on a small island in the Aegean Sea.

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Author's Note: Here's Chapter 2, things are going a bit slow at the moment but they will pick up soon. Pay careful attention to a new character I introduce in this chapter and you may recognize a Wonder Woman alum.I'd like to thank DC Comics for their wonderful characters and djkauf for the wonderful editing.

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Chapter Two:

“Hey kiddo, how ya feeling?”

I opened my eyes, blinking to clear away the blurriness of just waking up. At first, I only saw a shape sitting next to my side but slowly that fuzzy shape started to form into a person. A familiar person. First, her long dark hair came into view, then her smiling face and finally the rest of her. My heart skipped a beat. It was Donna, my mother’s TA. While she wasn’t working at the museum, Mom taught a few graduate courses at Northwestern. Most of her museum pay was done through grants, so the teaching job brought in some much needed cash for the two of us. Donna was my Mom’s right hand. She often didn’t go anywhere without her. But yesterday she had to stay behind to deal with some research. Yesterday... was it even a new day?

Donna smiled. “I heard you had a busy day?”

I smiled and nodded then looked down at my hand. It was wrapped properly. I looked around the room; it was white and sterile. I could smell floor cleaner somewhere and there was a big window behind Donna shining a lot of light into the room. I was clearly in a doctor’s office. But as to how I got here, I was drawing a blank. I remember getting attacked by the peacock, Mom being nasty about it and then helping Costas load the boat. I also remember getting on the boat too but much after that was fuzzy. I think I might have passed out at some point on our way back to the mainland.

“I’m doing better I think” I said, my words still slurred by whatever drug cocktail they gave me for my pain.

Donna smiled then ruffled my hair. “You had your Mom worried there, kiddo.”

Yeah, like that would ever happen. I blushed a little when she touched my head, turning away so she wouldn’t notice. In case you haven’t noticed, I have the biggest crush on Donna imaginable. I held out hope that she might feel the same about me too. We were only a few years apart---ok she was twenty-four---but it was still possible, right? Before becoming Mom’s TA, she was one of my mother’s top students. Even before she started going on expeditions with us, I used to see her buzzing around my mother. Mom had that affect on a lot of her students, especially the female ones. They hung on her every word like she was some kind of religious zealot. I think a lot of young, impressionable women liked to hear that men aren’t always better than women.

Donna was different though. She didn’t seem like all the other “groupies” my mother seemed to gather. I think my mother noticed that too. After her course of studies was over with, my mother asked Donna to be her TA. I think it had something to do with her academic record, which at a 4.0 made Donna something special indeed. It definitely made her special to me. I liked smart girls even if most of them wouldn’t give me the time of day. I’m no moron but I can’t remember the last time I had an A in anything. I was a straight B student who, --- according to my mother---could excel at anything if I would put my mind to it. The way I figure it my mind is already full. Besides, I get a better education with her than anything they’d teach me in boring public school.

“Are you going to the island with us this time?”

My heart was beating faster. Please say yes. It was so hot there she was bound to wear a bikini. I would give anything to see Donna traipsing around in a bikini even if it was just the top and a pair of shorts. Unfortunately, for me, she frowned.

“Afraid not kiddo. Your Mom has me doing more research.”

Damn it. I wasn’t about to give up. “Can’t someone from the local university here do that?”

She smiled. “Your mother doesn’t trust anyone else.”

That was a fact. My mother was extremely passionate about what she was doing but unfortunately for her no one else was. She was given a grant finally but she really impressed the hell out the Wayne Foundation to get it---yeah that Wayne. The boss man himself wasn’t there but she was so charming that she probably could have charmed Wayne too. Not that she needed to. Mom had a steady boyfriend but the two of them weren’t all that serious. Jason was cool though. I’ll talk more about him later though. Anyway, as far as other academics in the field, mom didn’t trust them. Especially students. She said if she didn’t teach them then she didn’t know them. So when it came to research---research she was too busy to do herself---she left it all to Donna.

“I can talk her into it if you really want to come,” I said, a little more excitedly than I would have wanted.

Can you say desperate?

She smiled. “That’s sweet kiddo” She ruffled my hair again. “But I hear there’s a vicious peacock on the island.”

We had a laugh. Then she wanted to know everything that happened, apparently my mother seemed a bit too distracted to tell her the story. So I told her the whole thing. I’ve known Donna for about a year now and the two of us get along really well. As much as I have a crush on her, she’s more like a big sister than anything else. I think she sees me as a little brother too. That’s why she calls me kiddo all the time. How do I know---because she told me once? Well not about the kiddo thing but about me being like a little brother to her. So when the two of us talked it was like two siblings instead of something more. After I was done sharing my disastrous adventure, she filled me in on the boredom of library research. That was one of the things that she and I had in common. We both detested hanging out in moldy old libraries doing research. But she seemed to think it was a part of the whole assistant thing. Besides, she wanted to make a good impression on my mother. I offered to put in a good word but she wouldn’t allow it. That’s Donna for you; she likes to get by on her own merits. I respect her for that.

After our talk---twenty minutes later---the doctor came into the room. I didn’t catch his name, like it mattered much anyway. He read my chart, checked my vitals and told me I was all set. It turns out that I passed out on the boat---like I thought---Costas carried me to the nearest clinic. How embarrassing is that, after all I am a sixteen-year-old boy. After the doctor stitched up my hand---ten stitches by the way---they gave me something to help me with the pain and I spent the night. I wonder how much that set mom back. She hated it when something unforeseen showed up to screw with her plans. Now that I had a clean bill of health, I was ready to go.

Mom was in the hall waiting, reading a magazine. She looked out of place in the plastic back chair and unconcerned for my well-being. She wasn’t a cold person, just one who was easily annoyed by things. I mentioned that my grandparents raised me but I think I might need to elaborate a bit. You see it wasn’t that they raised me it was almost like I was a second child. My mother was in her sophomore year of college when she got pregnant---it was unexpected and unplanned---suffice to say my grandparents talked her out of an abortion. Thank the Gods for that one. It wasn’t that Mom didn’t want to be a mother but she had her whole life ahead of her to get married and have kids one day. So after I was born, Mom hit the gym to get back her girly figure and two months later, went right back to school.

Growing up, my grandparents were like my parents. My mom was around but she was busy. First with college---which I don’t really remember much---then with Grad School. I vaguely remember going to her graduation for that. Then Mom went to get her PhD. My early childhood memories of my mother were of her always on the go, barely around to even kiss me on the forehead. But as I got older, she started to come around more. I think my mother liked the idea of me starting to be to do things on my own. Some call it Hands Off Parenting. My Mom called it being too busy. So when she started taking her trips, my grandfather forced her to bring me along. Eventually her love for me---or lack thereof---grew into a mild affection. I’m not sure if she ever truly loved me but it was enough.

When I walked out of the room, she looked up from the chair. “Are you all done now?”

I nodded. “I have a prescription I need filled.”

I handed her the slip of paper as she stood up, dropping the magazine on the chair. We didn’t say anything else to one another. From the clinic, we went to a local apothecary. Mom had my script filled then the two of us went straight to the docks. Costas was waiting for us. He asked me if I was all right, I showed him my wrapped hand and filled him in on the juicy details. Mom seemed disinterested.

It was a quiet two-hour ride out to the little island.

It was hot again.

That was the first thing I noticed when I stepped off the boat. The other thing I noticed was how large the island was today. Yesterday it seemed so small but today it looked larger. I think maybe it was because yesterday when we arrived the thing was shrouded in fog. Now the fog was gone and everything looked so much different. The local fishermen actually called the island Paradeisénio Nisá­, which in English actually means “Paradise Island” which I thought, was pretty damn funny considering all of them were afraid to set foot on it. Yesterday morning I asked Costas why they called it a paradise if they were afraid to step foot on it and he said it was one of the few islands out there that had such lush vegetation. The island was found back in the 1600s by explorers, but ever since then it’s been seen as a bad place to go for men. No one really knows why other than the fact that men go there and either come back in hysterics or don’ t come back at all.

According to him, I was the first man to step foot on that island in over a hundred years. If you believe that kind of thing. So here, I was for the second day in a row, stepping foot on Paradise Island, forbidden to men on pain of death.

“Hand me that bag.”

I reached into the boat and got the backpack my mother asked for. It was her workbag, the one that she kept all her tools in. Costas helped me unload the rest of the stuff, staying in the boat the entire time. I think he thought the deadly island was going to turn his body to stone if he stepped foot on it. It took us about ten minutes to completely unload the boat then he set off. My mother didn’t tell him a time to pick us up though. But I could see by our things---which doubled in size since yesterday---that we might actually be spending the night.

“We’re staying then?”

She nodded. “We only have a few more days left of this trip; I want to make the most of it.” She pointed to the pile. “So why don’t you start pitching the tents and I’ll see what I can do about wrangling up some wood for a fire.”

I nodded. As much as my mother thought camping was a guy thing, she’d been on several trips with her father when she was younger. Back when she was a girl and didn’t know any better apparently. So while she wandered off to look for some good wood, I started on the tents. It was kinda difficult to do it with one hand but I managed. I put up her tent first and then started on mine, making sure they were far enough apart so I didn’t have to be too close to her. My mother snored and in a place like this with no one else around I was bound to hear it real well. Halfway through erecting my tent, my stomach started to hurt and I had to quit. I’d been having stomach problems on and off for the past few days, ever since we started poking around on Crete. I thought it was something bad I’d eaten but now I was pretty sure I was coming down with a stomach bug.

I waited for the pain to pass then continued with the tent. I got it up ten minutes later just in time to help my mother with the wood and building a decent campfire. My grandfather taught me as well as her. It didn’t take the two of us long. It helped that she wasn’t talking to me too. I think she was still kinda pissed about yesterday. But she couldn’t have expected me to sit on the damn beach all day while she played in the sand. Even with the PSP---which she still refused to give me---I would have gotten bored out of my mind. But I don’t think she sees that. All she sees is herself, having a good time and doesn’t really care about my own suffering.

“Are we done?” She nodded.

I poked the burning embers a bit then went over to my lawn chair. Today I brought a book, it wasn’t the same thing as a game but at least it’d keep me from boring myself to death. It was some mass market paperback I picked up in Athens, the latest Stephen King. I wasn’t really interested in it but it was something to do while I wasted away. The fact that it was in Greek didn’t faze me in the least. So I kicked back and started to read. Soon I lost myself in the narrative, consumed by King’s pop culture references and fast prose. After an hour, I was nearly two thirds of my way through. Which amazed the hell out of me considering the book was really boring.

My mother sighed. I looked up from my book. She was sitting in the sand, a look of defeat on her face. She wiped her sweaty brow, spreading sand across her forehead. She took off her gloves and set down her little trowel.

“I think I might have to go to the far side of the island” I nodded. “Can I trust you to sit here and not get into too much trouble?”

I glanced at the jungle then at my hand. “I’m not going in there any time soon.”

My mother gathered her things; it didn’t take her very long. Then she got up, slinging her pack on her shoulder. But before doing so, she took out my PSP reluctantly. She held it out to me. “I’m giving this back to you but only because I can’t stand watching you read that trash.”

I hastily took the offered handheld. “You’re a life saver, Mom”

She grumbled. “I should be back by nightfall.”

I nodded, clicking on the game. She was gone after that, didn’t even bother to say good-bye. Me, I was too absorbed in the game to really notice. Because I didn’t really save it yesterday I had to start the whole section over again but that was ok because I’d already played through the game two times before. I only had a handful of games, most of them pretty similar to God of War. There was just something about hacking and slashing my way through hordes of enemies that gave me a thrill. One time after one of mother’s classes,---while I was outside waiting for her---Donna caught me playing and told me she had a thing for games just like the ones I played. That kinda floored me, her being a girly girl and all. Then she ruined it and said that it was empowering to bash senseless men into the ground. As cute as she was there was no way I’d ever want to date a feminist chick---I get too much of that with Mom.

I lost track of time. Sometimes that happens. Before I knew it, my neck was getting stiff and my fingers all cramped up from mashing buttons. My body finally forced me to stop. When I saved the game and set it aside, I looked at my watch and groaned. Three hours had passed since I started playing. I hated it when I lost track of that much time. I groaned then stretched as I climbed out of the chair. I bumbled over to the cooler, flipped the lid and grabbed a coke. Caffeinated drinks were another one of my mother’s pet peeves. She hated the idea of me putting that much caffeine into my system all the time. I tried to quit drinking it once but I didn’t last the day. You wouldn’t think it was so damn addicting but it is a drug.

I popped the tab on the can and wandered back over to my chair. As I sat down, I heard it again. It was the loud meowing sound. I stopped midway, my butt hanging over the chair. A shiver went up my spine. It was that damn peacock again. I shook my head, trying to ignore it. I sat in the chair and looked around for my book but it was gone. I cursed, wondering if my mother took it without me noticing. I looked around the chair just to be sure I didn’t put it underneath or something. But it wasn’t there. I set the coke can in the sand and cursed. You’ve gotta be kidding me. I got out of the chair and wandered over to her tent---I vaguely saw her going that way before she left.

I unzipped the door and peered inside. My mother’s duffel was in there as well as her sleeping bag. But I couldn’t see my book anywhere. I sighed; she wasn’t that malicious anyway. She didn’t believe in censorship though she did bitch about female authors being given the short end of the stick on things. I closed up her tent and checked mine but the only thing in there was my backpack and my own sleeping bag. I cursed, closing it up and looking around. Maybe I didn’t look hard enough so I wandered back to my chair. As I got closer, I heard the peacock call again. I snapped to the jungle and that’s when I saw it: there was a trail of paper leading from my chair to the edge of the tree line. I cursed. You’ve got to be kidding me.

I ran to the closest one and snatched it up. Sure enough, I was right; it was a page from my book. Son of a bitch. I ran to the next one then the next. I continued collecting pages until I was at the edge of the jungle. The book was over seven hundred pages long, so there was bound to be a lot more scattered about with a real good chance of them being inside. I peered through the foliage and sure enough, there was a paper trail leading deeper into the dark green abyss. I bit my lip. One part of me wanted to turn back and just forget the damn thing---it was a boring book anyway. But another part of me wanted to know how the stupid thing was smart enough to grab my book and tear out the pages like that. For I was clearly dealing with a super intelligent beast here.

I bit my lip, still debating what to do. It didn’t take me long to decide. Clutching the pages I already gathered, I ran back to my tent to get my pack. Once I had it securely on my shoulder, I snuck into Mom’s tent. I noticed when I looked before that she left the machete. I snatched it up and then made my way back to the jungle. This time I was going to be a little more prepared for what lie ahead. I took a couple good swings, cutting a clear path through the foliage. Then I took out my flashlight and followed the page trail. With the light in one hand and knife in the other, I felt like Indiana Jones or something.

I followed the trail for a while, wondering how some stupid bird could have pulled something like this off. Strangely enough, all I found were the pages, there weren’t even footprints. At least not, bird ones. I finally came upon a pair of familiar looking prints. I didn’t have to place my foot alongside one to compare because I knew they were mine. Unless there was some other sixteen year old guy with size ten feet traipsing around in here which was highly unlikely. The paper trail meandered further into the jungle, following along the same trail that I went yesterday. That sent a shivering chill up my spine. Did this bird know that those were my footprints?

I continued to follow the trail, making sure to keep my eyes and ears open. But it was hard to concentrate on anyone thing. The only noise was the buzzing of the insects all around me, and the sweltering heat was driving me nuts. On top of that there was that eerie chill running down my back for the creepiness of this whole thing and the pain in my gut. My stomach virus was acting up again. It annoyed me that they didn’t give something for it at the clinic then again they probably didn’t know about it. I told my Mom about it but she didn’t seem to think it was anything too serious. That ticked me off. Every time I got sick, my grandmother doted on me like I was six years old.

I didn’t pick up anymore pages, there were too many to do it anyway. I’d have been here all night picking the damn things up. Instead, I followed them and my previous footprints, finally coming to the spot of my fateful encounter yesterday. I stopped and shined the light about. It was here that the stupid bird viciously attacked me. I shined my light on the tree root I fell over to get away from it. Then I shined the light all around me, wondering if it was lying in wait to ambush me. Actually, I hadn’t seen nor heard the damn thing in some time now. But maybe that was all a part of its plan. Maybe it’s testing me. I know that sounds crazy but how else can you describe something like this.

Maybe I’m just imagining all this deviousness too. After all, it’s just a bird. A smart one, yes, but there’s no way he’s setting up an ambush. I laughed off the thought and took one very cautious step further, one-step further than I’d ever gone before. I sighed with relief, confident that there was going to be no attack. After that, I took a couple more steps then continued further into the dense foliage. As I walked, the vegetation around me started to grow thicker and I had to resort to using the machete again. At first it was only a little but soon I was using it every chance I got. I stopped paying attention to the trail of pages and more on the thick growth all around me. I’d swing, cut and step then repeat. I kept doing this over and over, wondering if I was ever going to stop.

Then it happened. I came upon a strange looking tree. It was covered completely in vines, most of which were hanging over the path I wanted to take. I swung at the tree trunk, hoping to cut them away at the source but something happened. Instead of the blade slicing away greenery, it hit something solid with a reverberating clang. The blade snapped back a bit, startling the hell out of me. I dropped the machete, my arm throbbing from the recoil.

I cursed, rubbing my arm then bent to pick up the blade. It was stuck straight up in the ground where I dragged it. I grabbed the handle and gave it a good tug. As soon as I did so, I got my first real look at the tree trunk the blade bounced off of. What I saw made me gasp. I dropped the knife again and reached out for the trunk, brushing my fingertips along the bark. But it wasn’t bark; it was stone. No better than stone, it was marble. I started pulling away at the vines, some of them breaking away easily in my hands. It wasn’t a bit of marble; it was a lot of it. I stopped tugging at the vines and shined my light up and down the length of the “tree”. I know knew it wasn’t a tree at all, more like a column. From the looks of it an extremely tall column. I shined my light up; it had to go ten or fifteen feet up at least. I cursed. This couldn’t be happening but I knew what I was seeing. I quickly snapped my light to the other side of the path I tried to make. There was another trunk there, about the same size and width of the hidden column. I tore away some of the vines there as well and sure enough it was a second column.

I dropped the light, stunned at what I’d just found.

It was crazy but there was no denying it. I think I just found a lost Greek structure, possibly something of really great importance. The worst part of it was my mother was right all along and now I knew there was going to be no living with her after this. I couldn’t think about that now, I needed to see if I was right before I jumped to any more conclusions. I started hacking away more vines and overgrowth bushes, hoping to find more columns.

There was more than two.

After finding the first two columns, I continued hacking myself a path only to find several more columns. They were lined in a row, in identical pairs, one on each side. What’s more the further I walked the more there were and there was something else. I noticed there was something off with the ground too. So after about ten or fifteen feet I stopped to take a look. I rapped my knuckles on it and sure enough, it didn’t feel like any ground I’d ever walked ob before. So I concentrated on one part of it and tore away the covering grass and dirt. Underneath was a rounded stone, like a cobble. Further investigating found more, lots more. The implication floored me.

Not only were there columns but there appeared to be a road as well. An ancient road that I was currently walking on.

After walking along the road for a few more feet, I stopped and shrugged off my pack. Mom and I each had a pair of long range radios in case something bad happened when she went off by herself. They were top of the line, one of the only few pieces of tech---besides the sat phone---that she always carried with her. I set my pack before me and rifled inside, finding my little radio and whipping it out. I thumbed through to the proper channel, knowing that my mother kept her’s clipped to her belt and on all the time.

I paged her. “Mom, are you there?”

I could barely keep the excitement out of my voice.

A few seconds later, her voice came back. “I’m kinda busy, Charlie, is it important?”

“Out of curiosity what were you expecting to find here?”

I heard her sigh. “I don’t have time for this.”

I groaned. Typical Mom. “Humor me.”

She sighed again. “Maybe some pot shards, possibly some sort of written language, maybe some arrowheads buried in the sand.”

I bit my lip. “What about marble columns and cobble streets.”

“Yeah, sure, but the odds of finding something like that are astronomical.”

I laughed. “What if there was a dense jungle that was covering it so no onee saw it?”

There was a momentary pause. “Charlie, where are you?”

“I think I might have found your lost city of the Amazons?”

Right before clicking off my mother told me to stay put and not to touch a thing.

Yeah like was ever going to happen. I found this place, I had first dibs. Besides as soon as she got here she’d send me back to camp after scolding me for disobeying her again then I’d never get a chance to go poking around here again. So instead of sitting tight, I continued along the hidden road, discovering more and more as I went along. It wasn’t just columns anymore. There were statues too, all the same size and all made of bronze. Well at least they were at one time, now they were greened with age and covered in jungle growth. I did notice one interesting theme about all of the statues though; all of them were naked women holding weapons. There was one holding a spear high above her head and another one with sword and shield. One of the coolest one was actually of two figures, a woman spearing a man in the chest as he lie at her feet. That one was pretty wicked.

What amazed me most as I shined my light and hacked more vegetation away was how perfectly preserved these statues were. It was like walking into a time capsule. Each one of them looked brand new, save for a little wear and tear from the jungle. I don’t think there was a single one of them that looked too badly damaged, except one that looked like it’d been toppled over. Maybe that stupid peacock did that.

I continued to hack my way along until suddenly the place opened up. What was once close quarters spilled away. I hacked at a wall of veg in front of me and was surprised when I took it all down in one swing. When it was gone, I was looking at a large clearing, larger than anything I thought was possible on an island of this size. What was more was how much stuff was actually in the clearing. I could see the cobble road a lot more clearly now as it wound its way around the center of the clearing in a circle, in the center of which was a fountain. I shined my light at that, amazed at how much of the fountain’s structure was still there. In fact, my light actually glinted off something there. There’s no way it could be water? Too shocked to think about it, I sent my light around the rest of the area. There were more bronze statues turned green but these ones were not warriors, they were women in togas. At first, they meant little to me until I noticed one had an owl on her shoulder and another was holding a bow. I smacked my head and my mouth dropped open. These weren’t any insignificant statues; they were representations of the Goddesses. The one with the owl was Athena and the one with the bow was Artemis. I shined my light on the other statues too, there had to be twelve of them at least. I only didn’t recognize one or two.

Strangely the only one absent was Hera. But it didn’t take me long to find her.

I shined my light away from the fountain and onto the focal point of the whole clearing. It was a temple and I’m not talking about temple ruins either. I’m talking about full-fledged temple, big and glorious. It took up most of the clearing actually. On either side of it there were branching paths though so possibly more places to explore. But I was more interested in the temple itself at the moment. It looked like a Mini-Parthenon but I’m sure that wasn’t the best description seeing as the Parthenon was meant to worship Athena. There was no doubt who this temple was for. It was plain as day what with the two bronze peacock statues on either side of the stone steps like two silent guardians protecting their Mistress’s sacred sanctum.

I took a deep breath and slowly walked toward it. I followed the winding path around the fountain then walked right up to the base of the steps. As I got close to the two aged bronze peacocks, I gulped. They were gigantic, bigger than those lions at the New York Library that’s for sure. I tried not to look at them as I slowly walked up the steps, half expecting them to crumble at my feet but they didn’t. Instead, they were remarkably solid as I walked up them. I counted as I went, there were only six. When I got to the top, I walked like a boy possessed. I passed by two of the largest, thickest columns I’d ever seen into the biggest space I’d ever imagined. It was ginormous, the focal point being the largest statue I’d ever seen.

It was definitely Hera. I’d seen this particular statue over and over again in books and sometimes in museums. But never so large and never in what looked like solid gold. It was a standing form of the Goddess, draped in a toga with a diadem on her head and two things in her hands. There was a scepter in one hand and in the other was a pomegranate. Sometimes she’s depicted with a libation bowl as well. But I’d never seen a statue this big before and never this close. I wanted to walk over and touch it but feared I’d get struck down by the Gods. So instead, I stood there and stared for the longest time, shining my light on her beautiful bronze face.

Finally, I tore myself away and shined the light around the rest of the room. There were more statues, most of them of warrior women again. I didn’t know any of them but one did catch my eye. I would have almost missed it if not for a glint of light. I snapped the light back and the glowing glint from earlier turned out to be something around the statue’s waist. Curious I delved up enough courage to take a closer look. It was strange that I missed the statue before but it was out of the way. It was different than the others too---besides Hera---it was the only one in the room that wasn’t a fierce warrior.
I finally approached it, stopping in front to admire it.

It was a queenly, regal woman, standing erect and at attention. There was something very kind and welcoming about her face. It was familiar too, like out of a dream. I should have known this woman but for some reason her name escaped me. I couldn’t help but stare at her though because she was so beautiful. A part of me wanted to reach up and kiss her lips but I fought that urge. Instead, my attention was drawn to her waist and the thing that caught my attention earlier. It was a belt, thick like a corset and wide. It looked like one of those wrestling belts those jackasses won on WWE. But this one actually looked to be made of real gold.

Something came over me then. I’m not sure what or why but I had to touch it. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own as I reached out for it. The tips of my fingers just brushed it when I was overwhelmed with a fit of dizziness. I stumbled backwards, dropping my light and staggering. I staggered until my back rested on the base of the Hera statue. I fought to stay conscious but in the end, my dizziness won the fight and I passed out.