Being fortunate enough to have a plane able to land and take off vertically, when they arrived over the site their pilot asked Maelyn to help them pick a place to land that wasn't part of their dig site. As she looked out at the surrounding terrain, she told the Pilot, "Right over there Cassie. That flat place between this palace and that cave where it looks like the lava pooled up after flooding the palace before flowing over to cover that cave."
"Am I gonna have to worry about it caving in or being too hot to land?" Cassie asked, "If it was grass or dirt I could land us in a heartbeat. But this is my first time landing on an old lava flow and I don't want to be the first one to start the dig by sinking the plane into a bunch of whatever they call that ash stuff."
"It's called thermos." Maelyn informed her, "And this isn't it. Thermos would look like black dirt. Kinda like how the southern US has bunches of that red dirt. This is solid basalt from a lava flow so, even if it's hollow and only an inch thick, with it only being five hundred years old it will hold the weight of one plane. We wouldn't have to worry about it caving in if we had a bigger plane or if we had a second plane come in and try to land there."
"Well, sorry to say this," Cassie told her as she maneuvered the plane into a landing position, "But if this is gonna cave in with a second plane on it, this is going to be one of the ONLY times I will be glad to not have any company and be able to laze around in this plane while y'all do your digging."
"I'm not offended Cass." Maelyn told her with a laugh, "But you're little worry wart butt doesn't have to freak out about that basalt collapsing. It would only collapse IF it was hollow. I never said that it WAS hollow!."
"Sorry ma'am," Cassie informed her, "But in my line of work they teach us to hope for the best but plan for the worst. That way we're prepared for whatever gets thrown at us and can get everybody to safety."
"Well I've always gone by the mindset of 'expect the unexpected.'" Maelyn informed her, and ended in sadness, "Like with my first project I was documenting all of Anne McCaffrey's writings and her history and all. Well, I was going through her house that she named as Dragonhold to document how she had lived when I accidentally bumped into a shelf with all of her known books on it and it knocked a book off of the top of the bookcase that she had never finished because she had placed it up there to look up the answer a question her son had about a character he was writing about that was in one of her other books and she forgot to grab it and then ended up dying of a stroke that night."
"I remember hearing about that!" Cassie exclaimed, "I remember how there was a group of her fans that thought you should be listed as a co-author but you told them not to."
"Yeah." When I realized what it was I immediately took it to her son Todd so he could finish it but he didn't want to. He told me he wanted it to remain unfinished because she hadn't finished sharing all of her ideas for the dragons of Pern. I finally talked him into finishing it by telling him he could have the dragon that book was about fly away never to be seen again at the end to symbolize Anne passing away so unexpectedly. He liked the idea and wrote those last couple of chapters that book needed and me giving him that idea was my only contribution to the book so I didn't feel entitled to be listed as an author. I also didn't consider myself to be anywhere near the class of writer she was since the only thing I had ever written was my reports and essays I needed to get my degree. And I told the publisher that I agreed with Todd that the royalties from that book should go towards helping new authors spreading their wings instead of to us. When he got the publisher to agree to it he then started an annual writing seminar for new authors at her Dragonhold estate."
"Well boss," Cassie announced, "Now it's your turn to write about dragons by reporting about what you find in the palace of a kingdom they say was ruled by dragons back in the dark ages because we just touched down and you can all debark after the two minutes it takes for them jet engines to finish powering down and stop blowing around any of that THERMOS that's laying around."
"Thank you Cassie." Maelyn told her then teased, "It makes me feel good seeing when I am able to teach people stuff."
"Oh!" Cassie scoffed, "Get your behind out my plane and go play in the dirt like you always do you grown up little kid!"
Seeing somebody come running up to the plane as they were all getting ready to grab the equipment and get set up, Maelyn walked down the boarding ramp and went to greet the runner. As he got close enough to slow down and walk the remaining distance, the runner gasped out, "Madam Khadim! We were expecting you at the airport! Why did you fly there and land next to the palace?! Wouldn't you want to start the day letting us show you to the rooms that we have set aside at our finest hotel just for you and your colleagues?"
Smiling Maelyn asked him, "Sir, what is your name?"
Bowing down while arching his arms to look like a bird, the runner replied, "I am SO sorry ma'am! My name is Mikael Tahia and it is my family's duties to welcome all of our Altinyn's visitors"
Bowing down and mimicking his gesture with the arms, she told him, "My name is Maelyn Khadim and I am here to uncover and study your kingdom's palace and nearby cave as we have been asked to do by your Prime Minister. I will tell the ones desiring a bed of your offer, but most of us will be staying in a set of tents we had brought so we can remain in close proximity to the dig since we like digging until we're falling asleep standing up."
"Yes ma'am." Mikael informed her, "We will gladly accommodate just the ones that desire and will keep some of the other rooms available if needed. Right now, however, I need for you to accompany me to see Mister Alwuzar before we can permit you to unload your plane."
Growling in frustration, Maelyn grumbled, "Figures. The way you congress was bickering about every little detail of this dig, I'm not surprised that your Prime Minister has to do this. And probably just to appease those in your Congress that were against us even being here. But, lead on I guess. Might as well find out what weird rules this dig is gonna bring."
"Ma'am," Mikael cautioned her, "while I am truly sorry for having to make you meet with Mister Alwuzar personally before you can get started, I must advise you to not express your thoughts so freely when we get to Congress because, like you said, there are some that don't want you here. Also, Mister Alwuzar likes to demonstrate his power and would use such honest thoughts against you to restrict your team even further. So please be careful of what you say when in his presence."
"Thank you Mikael." Maelyn told him, I appreciate that you were willing to give me such an honest forewarning. Oftentimes those that I interact with on these digs in these foreign countries will pretend not to hear me, knowing how it will affect me and my crew's ability to conduct our project."
"No. Thank you Miss Khadim." Mikael told her, "It is now often that I get to greet someone who is as honest and unassuming as you. Most of the foreigners I meet regard our Kingdom as unworthy of being our own kingdom and that we should be made a part of one of our neighboring countries if not several of them."
She continued to talk to Mikael as they walked over to the Prime Minister's office building. When they finally walked up to the entranceway, Mikael quietly warned Maelyn, "Anton is a bit of prick with a touchy ego so be sure to bow down low enough to almost touch the floor with your nose. And when you spread your arms don't arch them. Spread them flat and straight out to your side. Thay way you appear submissive to him. If you do that his ego will be more willing to work with you and allow your crew more flexibility instead of being all strict and going as far as making them ask to make every more before even breathing hard. Also, I would recommend asking for his grandson to escort you inside the palace. Abkul is young and just had his eighteenth birthday but he is very knowledgeable about our country and is way more open and honest than Anton or his father Ezeek who is less like Anton but is still difficult to deal with most days."
"Thanks for letting me know about this Mikael." Maelyn thanked him, "I would probably ended up getting the whole crew kicked off the site if I had gone in there not knowing this."
"My pleasure miss Maelyn." Mikael told her, "I am looking forward to being able to talk with you further while you are here."
Entering the building and Mikael escorting her into the Prime Minister's office, he lead her into the room and then gestured to her for her to do the same as he bowed down and spread his arms in greeting as he announced, "Our most magnificent Prime Minister Anton Alwuzar, I present to you Madam Maelyn Khadim who has arrived to help uncover the palace of our Queen!"
Bowing in return with just a dip of his head and arching his arms into high arches in a show of dominance, Anton then greeted her with, "Welcome to Altinyn miss Khadim. Having seen you attending the Congressional session where they approved your petition to uncover and research the palace, I trust that you are aware of the rules and stipulations in place while you are conducting this project?"
"Yes sir." Maelyn acknowledged, "We are to have one of your staff observing each pair of researchers while we are uncovering areas outside of the palace and, when we finally are able to open the palace, only me and my student Joseph Tanyn will be allowed inside and only with you, your son, or someone in your family that you designate with us to approve and observe whenever we attempt to touch anything of importance inside the palace. Any other stipulations that I missed?"
"Do not forget that you must all be sure to wear gloves," Anton directed her, "when touching ANY object found outside of the palace and especially sure when handling any object located INSIDE the palace.!"
"Ah! Yes!" Maelyn expressed in surprise, "I forgot to mention that part but I made sure to let my team know it's requirement before he lifted off. Anything else I may have forgotten? Cause I would hate to start off on the wrong foot by making a stupid mistake that I should have known of beforehand?"
"I believe that we have covered them all." Anton replied, "I look forward to seeing what all you uncover and find at the palace. And I truly can't wait to hold that fabled crystal dragon that I will be able to use to finally raise up our next ruler to the throne! Now Tahia, please escort Miss Khadim back to her crew and assist them in setting up in their rooms and setting up their equipment at the palace."
"Yes Sir!" Mikael responded and gladly escorted Maelyn back to her plane to start the dig.