A puzzling Predicament By: Mia

[Mia Mida]

Hi there! I'm Mia it's nice to finally stop lurking here and actually start posting~ I hope you all enjoy this story!

The winds were whipping roughly as they found their site, the small team of archeologists grinned to each other; they had found their quarry. They were looking towards the tomb of Mamafohyu. The swirling sands and harsh heat surrounding them, the leader of the group smiled.

 

“It’s time to set up camp, gentlemen, we’ve found it.”

 

After a long few hours, they had set up a camp at the base of the large pyramid. The thing towering above them gave some shade as they set their tents up. The leader, Jackson, poured over his maps and tomes he had set up on the small table. 

 

“This is it… We just need to find a way inside and we will be able to see for ourselves what hides in this tomb!”

 

His guide spoke up from behind him, holding an odd artifact in his hand; the shiny golden cube had all sorts of different shapes on its sides, on one was a compass, the very same that led them here. 

 

“It is indeed exciting. We may even finally find the missing pieces for this artifact. Who knows what secrets it may yet hold for us, but I must urge caution. We must all be prepared to enter this place… possibly tomorrow or in the next few days after some research.”

 

Shooting a glare at the man as he went back to his maps, Jackson waved him off though he did reach back to grab the artifact right out of his friend's hand. He gave a curt reply and wove him off to keep setting up camp; Jackson had a lot of work to do. 

 

As the sun started setting, Jackson looked to the rest of his group a few hours later as they were winding down for the night, with their various night caps and sleeping tents set up. The fire extinguished after their meal of bread and soup, and soft snores came from them all. 

 

“You can wait until tomorrow my friend, But I… I waited years and years for this… So, no, I will see you there when you decide to get over your fear.”

 

Reaching down into his bag to grab a flashlight and a small flask of water, he held the artifact tightly, shining the light onto the golden cube. Heading directly towards where the needle pointed on the compass on top, he came to a very large sealed door. The smooth slabs of stone seemed imposing on their own as he dusted off the indentations on the side, reading aloud as he uncovered them.

 

“With the invite in hand and the stars aligned, this place will be yours if the pairing is true.”  

 

Shaking his head, he wiped more and more of the dusty stone away until he hit something he hadn’t noticed before, a large portion of the stone sticking out in the shape of a large star. His eyes widened as he looked to the cube in his hands and sure enough, one of the sides depicted a large star hole. He wondered if…

 

KACHUNK

 

The star shape fit perfectly in the cube, as the artifact started spinning the whole wall seemed to spring to life, slowly rising as the sandy dust fell around. Taking a few steps inside into the dusty tomb, he looked back as the door slid closed behind him. No going back he supposed.

As he walked through the dusty corridors, he progressed deeper and deeper until he came into a large chamber. Carved along the walls were many many different scratches and on the far side was a gigantic statue of a woman.

 

The golden plated woman stood tall, her body covered in jewels and gold baubles, the smooth golden goddess stood high over the room, easily dwarfing him. As he walked up towards it, the golden words etched into the tablet lit up.  

 

"Hello little traveler, welcome to my domain. I'd love to play a game with you, if you answer my riddle you’ll earn your prize."

 

As he watched the letters light up seemingly lit by molten gold as it moved down a line, he saw a riddle form on a far wall in much the same style of writing.

 

"If you were carefree and lived your life as a babe, though bigger, you would be as complete as me. Then you shall start it all again. It would come to be like this."

 

Underneath the words were quite a few symbols, a bunch of them seemingly out of place, nonsensical and abstract, besides one. 

 

Looking at his device, Jackson reached up, slipping the side around the only piece that would fit. The circle formation slid into place as it pulled from the wall slipping into the cube… 'coming full circle' he laughed a bit as the letter suddenly turned a bright green.

 

 The room started to shake and shift, it seemed to form and shift as the walls melted away, making the room even bigger, with a large pot filled with what looked like water boiling away as the fire beneath it started. Other large stone slabs along the walls seemed to light up as well.

 

As all this happened a deep purple light drew his attention towards the opposite wall. Another riddle, he noted, seeming to have more shapes jetting in and out of the walls, the lot of triangles spinning and moving as they shifted.

 

"You must find the one that fits, the one that led you here will get you through to your next puzzle."

 

The ‘riddle’ was hardly a challenge he thought and after slotting the appropriate shape into the side of his cube, as it fit snugly into the hole he realized another wall had lit up, a deep red coloration to these letters.

 

"A heart full of love, a lifetime of care, will all soon be yours if you pick the right square."

 

Blinking a bit as he grabbed the square, Jackson shook his head a bit. While standing there watching for anything else to change, he had heard a few things moving and shuffling in the walls.

 

Walking back to the center of the room, he stared at the visage before him, placing the block down on the ground before the pedestal. The whole thing seemed to shine as he set it down, each side glowing the same color as the riddles written when he picked it up. 

 

"There we are now, I've completed your puzzles, where is my prize?”
 

 

As he spoke, the room started quaking once again as the previous puzzle walls shifted and shook. He watched the room shift around him, noting that the path he came in from was now sealing shut with a wall. Thinking quickly and dropping his flashlight, Jackson ran towards it though unfortunately for him, just before he made it to the wall, it slid closed with a loud echoing thud. 

 

His flashlight that was dropped on the floor, seemingly on its own, clicked off. 

 

His breathing quickened as he fell to his knees, crawling on the ground trying to get back to where he remembered his light being. Feeling over the smooth dusty stones, he tried in vain to find the heavy flashlight. As his hand went to grasp it, he gasped as he felt something on his neck, a firm hand grasped him from behind, he yelped out in fear as he felt his body leave the floor being picked up and held against something soft.

Snap

 

With a click sound, many torches and sconces around the room lit up, it being even bigger than before as he noted the statue that stood prominently in the room was gone. Now that light flooded the room however, the flickering orange glow illuminated the creature holding him. The large golden woman from before!

 

He felt her warm body as he was held cradled in her arms, the soft golden fur covered her lion like body, her large headdress loomed over him as she spoke. 

 

“My my.. I didn’t think I’d find you playing in the dark. You brought your toy back here nice and safe didn’t you?”

 

He stammered and sputtered, all of his fear and shock getting caught in his throat as he was being carried. Looking back to the cube he had found, it appeared to be much less ancient than when he found it. The shiny gold block sat on the floor, the brightly colored shapes sticking out of it gently. 

 

“Making my baby’s block the key to freeing me from my prison was a risky move.. but you eventually figured it out, my little one. You did so well too… but what have you gotten up to over these past years, you look so much bigger… no worries though, Mommy is back and we will get you properly ready.”

 

As she started walking, Jackson struggled, his mind coming back to him as he whimpered a bit. Of all the things he thought he might find in this place, this was certainly not it! After walking into a new room, he gasped a bit, a seemingly gigantic nursery stood, soft silks and a large cradle sat in the center of the room.

 

The gigantic Sphynx was headed for another object however, as he found himself laid down on a large padded table covered in thick plushy silks. He felt himself sink into the material as he was laid down, his body still somewhat frozen as he watched the gigantic woman use her large claw-like nails to almost surgically remove his clothing, leaving him naked in the nearly freezing room. 

 

Taking her time as she changed him, she reached down under the large table grabbing thick piles of cloth. As he felt her soft furred hand grip his ankles and felt the cold air on his exposed bottom, he grimaced watching as the thick cloth was pulled between his legs and pinned together with large solid golden pins, the appearance of blocks of gold set upon the flooding white cloth around his waist. 

 

A similar headdress to her own was placed upon his head and as she settled on a large throne where her statue once stood, Jackson found himself lifted to her engorged breast, milk leaking out. As he opened his mouth as if to scream, his lips covered the exposed teat, finding himself either by magic or his own shocked psyche, drinking from the creature's breasts. She spoke softly.

 

 “My sweet sweet baby prince, you solved my riddles and gave me back my eternal life… your prize is more than any gold could ever bring you… a life of contentment and care… with me here safe in this place for all eternity…”

 

As much as they tried… Jackson’s team couldn’t open the door to the pyramid. They had no key, much less his affinity for translating hieroglyphics. They tried and prodded and poked at the door for a few days but after a week and a half they decided it was useless and packed up. 

 

As he stared back at the pyramid in the distance while riding the horses they rode in on, the guide simply smirked a small bit. He hoped that his friend got what he wanted in the end and that he was happy with his treasures down in those depths. The sands would claim that hidden place but the wails of the large infant desperate for escape from his predicament, some say, could be heard over the shifting sands for all eternity.

[Babypants]

And another archaeologist takes one for the team!  Ah, but did you know that China only began exporting silk late in the second century B.C. (2500 years after the pyramid age)?  For centuries, Rome had a massive balance of payments deficit, shipping vast quantities of gold coinage to India and China to pay for silk, rare gems, rare woods, and spices.  Arguably the greatest intelligence coup of all time occurred when Justinian was on the Byzantine throne (6th century A.D.), and a couple of monks smuggled silkworms out of China to Antioch in Syria.  Domestic production of silk promptly became a government monopoly!  Pinned diapers only came into being around 1800 (in England), but cloth had been used to swaddle infants for at least 1600 years at that point in time.  Given that the swaddling cloth was only changed at irregular intervals, I'll just leave the rest to your imagination!

[Mia Mida]

1 hour ago, Babypants said:

And another archaeologist takes one for the team!  Ah, but did you know that China only began exporting silk late in the second century B.C. (2500 years after the pyramid age)?  For centuries, Rome had a massive balance of payments deficit, shipping vast quantities of gold coinage to India and China to pay for silk, rare gems, rare woods, and spices.  Arguably the greatest intelligence coup of all time occurred when Justinian was on the Byzantine throne (6th century A.D.), and a couple of monks smuggled silkworms out of China to Antioch in Syria.  Domestic production of silk promptly became a government monopoly!  Pinned diapers only came into being around 1800 (in England), but cloth had been used to swaddle infants for at least 1600 years at that point in time.  Given that the swaddling cloth was only changed at irregular intervals, I'll just leave the rest to your imagination!

I love this~ thank you for sharing I didn't know that actually~ I love history facts like that and I'm so glad you like the story~