"Wait." Chadrick darted between two team members flirting at the water station. He followed after Grand, who he was beginning to suspect was suffering from a mild stroke. Did he just declare that he found a key and now was off to see his grandson? And that they were going to save mermaids?
"I said: wait! You're going to do what? Did you say mermaids?"
Grand put two strong hands under Lir, picked him up and placed him gently in the truck. He cast an order over his shoulder, "Make yourself useful, Chadrick. Grab the chair."
Chadrick looked down at the strange wheelchair. Its arms and wheels were in the shape of leaves with crystals imbedded here and there, and it had a triton's spear carved into the seat back.
"How do you fold this thing?" Chadrick said.
"Easy," Grand said as he moved to the driver's seat. "Just say 'Envolu' and tap a handlebar.
"Like magic?" Chadrick mumbled. Fully convinced Grand had completely lost his marbles, he repeated the words anyway, "Envolu."
Surprisingly, the chair, without any apparent electronic or mechanical parts, squeezed flat and fell sideways. With am amazed expression, Chadrick lifted the fantastic device and heaved it into the hovertruck's bed.
"There," Chadrick said.
A burst of wind grabbed Lir's derby hat and flung it a few feet away from the hovertruck. Chadrick bounded after it, picked it up and dusted a few shoots of grass off it. He handed back to Lir, who took it with a weak smile.
"Ok," Chadrick tapped the side of the hovertruck. "Do you need anything else for your trip—Wait! Why am I helping you?!" He scrambled around to the driver side.
"Shall we?" Grand pointed his question to Lir.
Lir closed his eyes and opened them again, "It's been ten years. Time to go home."
"First, my grandsons. Will they be in for a shock." Grand Lyons closed the hovertruck's door and then nodded to Chadrick. A harness responded to the presence of a body and unspooled itself. "Good day, sir." He nodded an empty salutation to Chadrick and the gathering crowd, and then pressed the power ON symbol. An electromagnetic buzz came from the hovertruck. It began to lift.
Chadrick gazed at his own stunned reflection in the hovertruck window. The scene was fizzling away like a bad wifi signal. He looked down to two empty hands.
What is happening right now? Chadrick thought. All he knew was the artifact that would make him wildly rich currently sat in the cab of a crazy project leader's hovertruck.
"You can't leave!" He leapt to the hovertruck, grabbed the door handle, and yanked it open. The hovertruck pitched to the left, forcing Grand to prop one hand on the roof while gripping the steering column.
"Are you mad?" Grand howled.
"The artifact. You've got the artifact!"
"I cannot waste my time in parlay with you, sir. Now let go before you pitch the hover over! Nikolas needs the key to take us home! Save the Merfolk! I said good day, sir!" He wrenched the car door away.
The hovertruck kicked a foot, and then twenty into the air.
"Hey … HEY! The grant? You have the artifact! What am I to tell the endowment board?" He punched the air. "Crazy old man!"
The hovertruck stopped fifty feet up and Grand Lyons's voice echoed throughout the site. "Oh, and if you see three monstrous creatures, they're Sheriff's trackers. They've been hunting us down these past ten years. Rumor has it they were spotted about three miles from the dig this morning. If they appear looking for me … run for your lives!"
He rolled up his window, pointed the hovertruck northward, and launched into the clouds.
"Told you that guy was a nut," Someone sneered from the growing crowd.
"Monstrous creatures … ?" Chadrick said slowly as he saw the last glimpse of the hovertruck disappear into a puff of cloud. "What did he say about monsters?"
A llama cried from the outer perimeter. Its bottom lip lolled back and forth as it galloped past.
Cliiiiink, tiiiiink. Cliiiiiink, tiiiiink came the sound of chains banging. Three shadows emerged from the jungle.
Chadrick wobbled to his feet. "Now wha—?" His voice trailed off. Finally understanding Grand's warning, he screamed, "Monstrous creatures!"
What he saw next utterly convinced him that it was time to retire from archaeology and accept his brother Samwell's open invitation to start a line of clothing apparel for small dogs. That is, if he could manage to survive the next five minutes.