by Kip Hartzell
“Jay,” John said, “Glad you came.”
“Sure, wouldn’t miss it. Why am I here?”
“You are the guest of honor,” Athene-A said, beaming with pride. “We want you to present the artifact to its place.” Athene-A brought the skull from behind her back, and handed it to him.
He reluctantly took it, and spun it around in his hand. “I have told you, these things have always creeped me out, right?”
The Atlanteans formed a circle around the circle of podiums. They lightly chanted an ancient poem, while Aidan, backed up by Hephaestus, sang their new history in a deep voice. Jay was coaxed to put the skull on one of the two remaining empty stands. He nervously moved toward the empty podium. He stopped and looked around at the many multi-colored, multi-shaped rocks, that thankfully for him, were all facing inward toward each other. He thought how it looked like his Grandfather’s collection, from the time he was a kid. The fear came back, but so did the curiosity and fascination of the hunt. He looked closer. He notices for the first time, that with the one skull he had, there was only one more left to find. He shifted the skull in his palm as he lifted it.
“What’s that?” he whispered to himself. He turned it over and examined the base of the rock. The chanting died down, and then stopped. He held it up to get some reflective light.
John move up next to him. “What is it, Jay?”
“There’s something carved on the bottom of this thing.” He tried to make it out, as more people squeezed in. “It reads, ‘alterum.’ Sounds Latin. I barely got through that class, too.”
John studied it for a translation. “It’s quite mangled...but it could be...one, or maybe it could mean-” he stopped. “Another, or second, perhaps one-of-two.”
“Oh, my God, Gramps, you crazy fox, you also found the last one.”
The End, For Now...