The man, who is still staring at them, starts walking towards Valentina. She shuts up. Oops, I think I made it mad, she thought to herself. She wants to run, but she won’t allow it. She may be scared but she isn’t going to let some geezer ruin this whole expedition. The man draws closer and closer to Valentina, his steps deafening in their silence. Suddenly, he stops, mere inches from where she stands. Time sits still as Valentina prepares herself for what is to come.

    His left hand reaches out to her as the tattoos along his arm start to glow. Valentina freezes up. She feels something in her head speaking to her, talking in a language so ancient that it doesn’t exist in recorded history. It’s almost as if their minds are being linked. Before she could make sense of all the noise, the link severs. She can hear Alfonso shouting at them, pointing the taser at the old man. As Valentina regains her senses, the old man takes a few steps back, carefully. He opens his mouth once more.

    His voice, loud and coarse, baffles the two spelunkers, as he says something neither of them expected.

    “What day is it?”

    Silence. What is she supposed to respond to that? Valentina’s brain goes into overdrive thinking up a response. Suddenly a snap could be heard behind her and two metal prongs whiz pass her head. And into the old man.

    The man’s muscles seize up and he falls limp onto the floor.

    Alfonso may have just tased the king.

==========

    ‘What just happened?’ He thinks to himself. ‘My heart felt like it was going to stop!’ He flinches as he starts to regain his consciousness. His head is groggy, and his muscles are numb, but he isn’t sure whether it’s from being underground for so long or from being electrocuted. He awakens on the ground, face in the dirt. He feels like a mangled chew toy. He can’t see, move, or feel anything besides the welcome warmth of the sun on his back. In the distance he can hear two voices shouting at each other, one man and one woman. Must be the two he saw underground. As his body starts to recover from the numbness, he realizes he still can’t move his legs or his arms. He can sense them now so he should be able to move them. He shuffles in place a bit more before feeling something rub against his wrist. Those bastards! They tied me up after electrocuting me! He’d shout in protest, but he’s been gagged with a rather large, and absolutely putrid, piece of cloth as well, not that he has the energy to do so.

    It seems his movements are noticed by his captors, as their voices stopped while he was struggling on his own. He feels a pair of hands grab him by the arms and slowly lift him to his knees, before removing his blindfold. The sun blinds him for a bit before his vision adjusts. Ah, now that’s a familiar sight.

    He sees the beautiful amber sky, stretched as far as the eye can see, with massive clouds scattered throughout its splendour. The sunset blessing the skyline with an orange hue. The horizon is lined with snow-tipped mountains, with a great green ocean of flora spanning from there to cliffs he kneels atop of. In the distance, flying between the mountains, he sees a majestic sight. A dragon, circling one of the peaks. Must be hunting for griffins, he thinks to himself. The cool autumn breeze brushes his face as he takes it all in. He feels like he could look at this this sight forever, if it weren’t for the two figures now blocking his vision.

    They are young, incredibly young compared to the old man. Their light-brown skin glow in the sunlight. The boy is noticeably shorter compared to the girl, especially when considering his boots’ soles are an inch thick. He wears a well-worn t-shirt with a picture of an old camera. He is also wearing navy blue jeans that’s torn at the knee, both chosen knowing that it’ll likely get dirty on his trip.

    The girl, on the other hand, is wearing a pair of large, round glasses, framing her bright orange eyes perfectly. She wears a white jacket with an emblem on the breast pocket, an open book with the letters ‘AHM’ written on it. A seemingly poor decision as it is now covered in dirt and dust. Otherwise, she also came prepared, with a plain, ratty, red t-shirt accompanied by a pair of cargo shorts. Her long, black, hair is tied in a ponytail, as it waves softly in the mountain breeze.

    The young man crouches down in front of the old man to inspect his face, bringing his blue eyes in full view. Or rather, one blue eye, “Dang, one of his eyes really is all white,” The young lady smacks him at the back of the head, “Ow! What was that for!”

    “C’mon, man!” She says in a hushed voice.

    “Right, right.” He turns back to the tied up old man before him, “Sorry about tasing you back then. I, uh, thought you were a zombie… Or a mummy…” The old man muffles something in return, they can tell that he is furious, but the gag repressed any protest. “Oh! Right, sorry, forgot about the gag.”

    When he removes the cloth, the old man spits and coughs before retorting, “If you were really sorry, then…” He looks like he’s about to throw up. “Then why must you tie me up?” He starts coughing again, “What on earth did you put in my mouth?”

    “My socks” The young man gestures to his mismatched footwear.

    The old man’s horrified expression isn’t enough to show how disgusted he is at the reveal. He can feel himself passing out again.

    “Hey!” The woman snaps her fingers in front of him. “Now that that’s over with, I’ve got a lot of questions for you buddy, and you better answer ‘em or you’re gonna get a taste of these knuckles!” She waves her fist in front of him.

    The old man shakes his head and stays silent, staring at the two rude younglings before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Before I do,” He looks back at the girl with a defiant look. “How about you give me your names first. Wouldn’t be right to asking questions without introducing yourselves first, hmm?”

    The boy scoffed at the old man, “Now why would we do that? For all we know, your spooky mummy magic could curse us as soon as you know our name!” He crosses his arms and gives a smug look. He’s read plenty of books, he knows how these things go. “How about you give yours first, old-timer.”

    The girl on the other hand, is not amused. “My name is Doctor Valentina Menendez, just call me Val,” she says proudly while puffing out her chest. “I am a junior researcher at the Arcanmir Heritage Museum.” She shows him a lanyard with her credentials as proof. “The dumbass behind me is Alfonso, my brother.” She points to her brother, who’s staring at her in disbelief. “How’s that? Good enough for ya?”

    “Mmm…” The old man looks at the ID closely. So far, she speaks the truth, even noticing that the AHM on her jacket is the same emblem as the one on the card. He inspects the card further before pondering at the date on the bottom of the card. Suddenly, his eyes widen, he looks like he’s seen a ghost. His eyes fixate on the number ‘2099’. How can this be? That can’t be true! It barely even felt like a week!

    Has he really been underground for that long?

    “Uh… You alright over there?”

    Silence. A painfully long five second later, he replies in a low and angry voice “What sort of jest is this?” He looks back at Valentina, his eyes filled with rage, “You think this is supposed to be funny?!”

    “Huh?” Her eyebrows furrow in defiance, “That should be my line! Who the hell are you? And what the hell were you doing in that crypt?”

    “I was buried in there!” He retorts with his own question, “What do you think you’re doing with false credentials?”

    Alfonso butts in, “Uh guys?” But his words were drowned out by their shouting. “Ah, this isn’t gonna be good.”

    “False?!” Something in her snapped, “Listen here, buddy, I used a crap-ton of money in equipment, came all the way out in the middle of nowhere, dug a hole by the side of some mountain—,”

    “Actually, Trevor dug it—,”

    “Walked through a dark and filthy cave, lifted up metric buttload of limestone, just to uncover you!” She points a finger straight into the old man’s face. “I was supposed to find an ancient king, instead I find some homeless guy using a crypt as a bed!” She catches her breath and calms herself down. “If anyone is a fake here, it’s you.”

    Suddenly, a strange feeling starts to burn through the siblings’ nerves. They’ve felt it before, it’s the same feeling when they were underground.

    “A fake king?” The old man chuckles, “Ah, Indeed? You were looking for a king?” He begins laughing, “Hah! Then you need not look any further!” A ripping noise can be heard as the rope binding his arms and legs tear apart and explode with great force. He reveals his arms, presenting the glowing tattoos to the dumbfounded youngsters. He hoists himself up with some difficulty, still aching since waking up, and glares at them with his pure white eye, “You wanted to know my name, yes? My name is King Einar Arcanmir, First High King of the Kingdom Arcanmir, Grand Mage of the Dragon’s Tower, and you will bow down to—,”

    A familiar whizzing noise cuts him off as two metal prongs embed themselves into his chest, and his muscles seize up. He’s been tased, again.

    Alfonso put his hands in the air, “It wasn’t me this time!” Indeed, he turns around to see Valentina holding the taser. He points at her with an open palm to show his disdain at his sister’s hypocrisy. “What was that?”

    “He was getting on my nerves.” Probably literally too, as she can’t shake that strange feeling off of her. What was that about being Grand Mage? What is this strange feeling? His tattoos were glowing, does this mean he really is a magician? And does this mean he really is the king?

    “Uh, ground control to Val, you read me?” He waves his hand in front of her, bringing her back from her stupor, “So what was that about being a king? Is he who you’re looking for?”

    Valentina takes a long look at the old man, who’s fallen unconscious again. She doesn’t want to believe it, but she can’t help but think about everything she just witnessed. “Of course not, he’s supposed to be dead.”

    “Val, you saw what he can do! He was floating! He was glowing! He blew apart the ropes tying him down like it was nothing, Val! That guy is clearly a—” Valentina shushes him with a hand wave of dismissal.

    She admits, nothing that happened so far makes any kind of sense. Unless… Valentina takes out a small notebook filled with bookmarks from her sling bag, and rifles through them. She writes everything she knows about the old king in there, in the hopes that it might help her uncover his whereabouts, “There might be something here.”

    Alfonso looks over her shoulder, “What’cha lookin’ for?”

    She keeps flipping through the pages until she spots the word ‘Obsession’. “Here…”

    She takes her time reading, leaving Alfonso in the dark, “Hey, if there’s something interesting, I wanna know too,” But her face is buried too far into the notebook to hear him.

    All of a sudden, Valentina starts to chuckle, “Ah, Alfie, I think we found something very, very interesting.”