There was a very loud drip of water coming from somewhere in the ruin of the temple. It made an echoed water drop sound every second it felt, which increased Arias’ anxiety. They both put on their goggles that gave them night vision, which wasn’t super fancy like the one some soldiers had in the never ending space war, which ironically did eventually end. The goggles with Arias and Solomon essentially just let their eyes adjust to low light easier than in absence of the goggles. They both walked deeper in thinking that there might not be anything in there until they got to a 8 foot drop off that looked like it went deeper into the landscape. Solomon went down first and gave Arias help coming down in the drop.

  “Oh wow, look at this” Solomon said as they poked out of a small opening that opened into what seemed to be like a massive chamber. It honestly looked like a colosseum of sorts, but there looked like there was a pond with a small island in the middle of the pond. They began to walk down the steps toward the pond that had flowers that looked similar to orchids but they were glowing a low blue light. The two of them reached the edge of the pond close enough to see the island in the middle of the pond. It had a giant sarcophagus standing straight up with two giant limestone tablets with engraving from an old language that Arias couldn't make out just yet being so far away. Then without warning a red energy bullet whizzed past the side of Solomon's head.

  “Oh shit!” Solomon said as he whipped his head in the direction of where the bullets came from.

  On the top of where the Colosseum sloped there were two pairs of bright glowing red eyes floating across in the darkness making no sound.

  “Well they caught up to us” Arias said with a scrunched up face.

  Arias pulled out his energy knife and handed it to Solomon

  “The only way to make these Wraiths go away is if we can take the red goggles off of them…they’re wraiths so they can’t be hit with anything physically. To the best of our knowledge among the monks is that the Red Goggles tie them to our plane of reality and once the goggles are removed and destroyed then they aren’t tied to the plane anymore.”

  “Sounds simple enough” Solomon said as he was ducking behind a rock getting hit with energy bullets left and right.

  “The hard part is that the wraiths will not let you get near them, so we have to outsmart them somehow.”

  “That one is wearing my jacket!” Solomon screamed at the robbers

  The wraiths bounced down a little closer to the two of them putting more pressure on them like cornered animals. Arias looked to the side of him and noticed some reeds that were often used for straws. He grabbed two of them and broke them in half and handed one to Solomon.

  “And…what am I supposed to do with this?”

  “No time follow my lead”

  Arias jumped into the pond using the reed as a breathing device. Solomon jumped behind and they began to walk under the water and with their goggles they could see pretty well with how clear the water was.

  Solomon took this time to use his gift of speaking to others through brain waves by saying to arias

  “Fuck you, this water is freezing”

  Arias’ face moved as though he wanted to smile and laugh but couldn’t due to the breathing apparatus in his mouth. They stayed submerged in the water for a long while before they could see the red goggles floating along the bank of the pond. Arias waited for them to slow down, it wasn’t common knowledge but the Wraiths could not cross water and couldn’t see them in the water. Arias waited for the one wearing Solomons jacket to draw near to the edge of the water and he leaped up out of the water and snapped the goggles off of the wraith and Solomon jumped out of the water and ran up to the other wraith and snapped the goggles off the other wraith. Arias smashed the red goggles with a nearby rock, Arias screamed at Solomon to do the same but Solomon wasn’t fast enough. The red goggles in Solomon's hand began to move with a force of that of Arias’ cruiser and it nearly pulled Solomon to the top of the Colosseum. Solomon finally let go as he watched the red goggles fly out of the entrance. Solomon ran down the steps back down to where Arias was, with his body dripping wet from being submerged for what felt like an entire afternoon.

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  “What was that?”

  “Well, the red goggles are able to go back to where they were made, kind of like resetting your communications tablet to original settings. They fly back to Desert Planet where I assume the church of the engulfed makes them and enslaves the wraiths”

  “You assume?”

  “Yeah because no one has actually made it to the Desert planet to record any research on whatever those creeps are doing in there.”

  “Oh…” Solomon began to shiver with how cold he was. Arias took the jacket and the satchel that fell off the wraith. Arias put the jacket on Solomon to help him start warming up and threw the bag of all of his belongings to his side.

  “T..thanks” Solomon said shivering.

  “We’ll rest here tonight and we’ll go to examine that Tomb, Coffin looking thing tomorrow…I’m pretty sure that’s where the relic is but I’m just too tired to try and swim there tonight”

  “Good idea” Solomon said with how ready he was to just rest. Arias pulled out a similar square thing to what the wraiths had earlier but his was a little different, it lit a blue flame and Arias and Solomon took turns that night being on watch. Until enough time had passed to feel like they got a full rest.

  _______

  Solomon and Arias jumped into the pond the next morning and started swimming toward the Island in the middle of the pond. The water was freezing and crystal clear. Which seemed very odd to Arias since he could only assume that it was standing water. Once they got onto the shore of the little island they began to make their way toward the giant Sarcophagus and giant limestone tablets. Arias put on his blue goggles and the writing on the Limestone glowed a bright green after he had put them on and the Sarcophagus had similar writing on the top of it.

  “Well…here goes nothing,” Arias said as he tried to move the top of Sarcophagus to the side. He gestured to Solomon to help him and then the process went over smoothly. Once the lid slid over and fell onto the left it revealed the contents…which to both of their surprise it wasn’t a Sarcophagus but it was a bookshelf. Solomon looked on the shelves and the only thing in there was a jar caked with dust. Solomon grabbed it and began to look it over. He took the corner of his jacket and began to run the thick dust off of it. The jar lit a bright blue like the flowers around the island and revealed an undead human fetus. Solomon already creeped out looked into the jar. The fetus’ eyes opened and Solomon screamed and dropped the jar. The Jar landed straight up into the soft earth and shined as bright as the sun and blinded both Solomon and Arias. “WHY DID YOU DROP ME” a voice echoed in the mind of both of them as the laid still waiting for their vision to come back. “Wh…what…what?” Solomon said

  “WHY DID YOU DROP ME” a piercing monotone voice scratched the inside of both of their ear drums.

  “Um excuse me…we are so sorry for dropping you..our names are Arias and Solomon…who are you?”

  The light faded to a more manageable level and both Arias and Solomon could make out that the jar was now floating about 5 feet off the ground. The eyes of the baby shined a silky yellow and there was no expression. It looked like it was submerged in a blue liquid. Solomon looked toward Arias hoping he’d have some sort of matter of fact response as to what was in front of them but Arias shrugged and had no idea what the hell that thing was.

  “My name is Howard. I was sent here 3000 years ago to rest here”

  “Okay…but…what are you?” Arias said.

  “I am Howard,” Howard said.

  Solomon and Arias exchanged glances.

  “I have been borned. May I join you?” Howard said in his very adult, very monotone sounding voice that he telepathically sent to both Arias and Solomon.

  “I think we should let him go with us…he’s got to be the relic”

  “Oh yeah! He has to be, that’s what the ancient writings meant by the relic spoke for itself…”

  “Relic? I know I’m 3 millennia old, but I don’t look a day over 3 months” Howard said again…in a plain monotone even though he was trying to crack a joke. Solomon and Arias began to walk towards the shore and Howard levitated behind them until Solomon and Arias went to the shore where they presumed they’d have to swim to the other side. Until some weird force lifted them off their feet and Howard floated with them to the other side of the where they could walk out of the colosseum.

  “Wow, what the hell” Solomon said out loud

  “What? Howard understands that you can also move organic matter with your mind, I just have a lot more practice with it” Howard said

  “How the hell would you know that?” Solomon said while squinting his eyes in disbelief.

  “I can read the inside of your mind like a book, and I know when someone shares any gift that I possess.”

  The three of them began the climb out of the Tomb. Howard floated out behind Arias and Solomon but when the light hit his jar he let out scream that rattled in the head of Solomon and Arias that brought them to their knees.

  “WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE SPARROW WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT OUTSIDE. WASN’T THE SUN IN THE BIG NOTHING SUPPOSED TO BE BURNT OUT BY NOW?” Howard floated into the shade of the opening of the Tomb.

  “Uh…no?” Arias said

  “I’m not going if it’s going to be bright” Howard said

  “Well…what if I covered your jar?”

  “No I want to see everything”

  “Do you want goggles?”

  “Yes. Yes I do.”

  Arias realizing he had no idea how he was going to honor this request pulled out his spare pair of sun goggles and he tied them to the jar.

  “Ahhh much better” as Howard floated out of the entrance of the temple again ready to join the Adventure that lies ahead.

  Arias and Solomon headed towards the Cruiser and they all piled with Howard placing himself neatly on Solomon's lap.

  The cruiser lifted off and the party was on their way to Masart to enjoy a much needed reprieve.