Apollo Frias and his team were having their simple lunch. They caught some fish from the freezing small lake. They grilled the fish, adding some simple sauce they brought with them. While enjoying their fish, suddenly a kind of melodious music as well as lullaby was heard from somewhere far away.
At first, Apollo Frias tried to ignore it inasmuch as he thought he was merely daydreaming due to his hectic body circumstance. Later, it turned out that Olivio Clementius and Hansen Huang also heard the music of the lullaby. Heard and heard more obviously, it could be concluded that the lullaby music was played with violins.
"Is it just my imagination or is it really somebody is playing a kind of melodious lullaby somewhere far away from here?" asked Apollo Frias as though he had been talking to himself.
"I also hear it… It's a kind of melodious classical lullaby played somewhere quite far away from here, isn't it?" muttered Hansen Huang.
"Yeah, classical music played with violins…" uttered Olivio Clementius Lee.
Deddy Timmy, Simon Vallas and Xavier Ottoman tried really hard to put their concentration to the harmonious lullaby being talked about by their teammates.
Again some melodies were on their ears, flinging through the cold, icy and freezing wind, were spread by the silence and quietness in the middle of the snowy freezing mountains. The weather was quite good. There was a little wind. There wasn't any blizzard and the sun was shining warmly. So, it was easier for them to grab the melodious lullaby played with violins somewhere far away.
"Yeah… It's the sound of violins…" Xavier Ottoman raised up his eyebrows. He began to be seen being enthusiastic.
"C'mon… C'mon… Let's go and check what it actually is…" said Apollo Frias began to stand up and settle up his equipment. He didn't want to wait any longer.
All the five members followed their leader along the tracks on the icy freezing mountains. It took them hours and hours to find the source of the melodious lullaby.
"Such a lullaby in the afternoon time like this… It isn't really suitable, is it?" mumbled Xavier Ottoman.
"Yeah… The echo around these mountains makes it even more difficult to find the real source of that melodious lullaby… It's getting more and more complicated, isn't it?" continued Hansen Huang.
The echo among the mountains made the searching become a really uphill struggle for them. They kept searching and searching. The six men had been searching for almost four hours before finally they decided to stop at a particular spot in the middle of the valleys of the icy freezing mountains. On the spot inside the valleys, icy freezing wind was blowing hard enough.
"Then the music stops instantly like this…" grumbled Xavier Ottoman.
"Wait… I'm dead certain the melodious lullaby was from here. But why did it vanish and disappear so mysteriously?" grumbled Apollo Frias with his frowning forehead.
"Perhaps due to the echoes, the real source might be somewhere else around here – not exactly here actually…" said Deddy Timmy Sinulingga nonchalantly.
Then out of the blue the melodious lullaby was audible again. Now, it didn't come out from the spot where the six men were standing, but from somewhere else around there.
"It's from somewhere else around here, not exactly here, Apollo…" said Simon Vallas convincing his team leader.
"Don't get it wrong, Simon… It's exactly here… We're listening to the melodious lullaby sounding from somewhere else around here. But, from the echoes point of view, we can conclude that the real source of that melodious lullaby is from here, isn't it?"
Simon Vallas kept silent. The other four members kept staring at one another.
"Yeah, you're right, Apollo…" said Hansen Huang.
"We can start to search around here…" said Apollo Frias starting to take out his equipment.
The searching was begun. They brought along some complete and sophisticated equipment with them. Hours and hours passed by again. Hunger began to ask to be fulfilled. Thirst began to ask to be quenched. The time had almost reached six o'clock in the evening when suddenly Apollo Frias screamed in an exciting fashion.
"Hey… My device sounds really strange around here… I think there must be something inside the snow… Get your hoes and shovels ready please…"
Apollo Frias' five members approached him in excitement. They began to take out their hoes and shovels.
"Yeah… It sounds really strange… There must be something inside here around the radius of 100 meters…" said Xavier Ottoman.
Then, they began to dig and dig the thick layers of the snowy mountain. Digging and digging, deeper and even deeper, it was visible that perspiration was rolling down from their forehead, cheeks, and neck.
"What are you going to do with the artefacts we'll find?" asked Deddy Timmy.
"That depends on what kind of artefacts we can find here…" said Apollo Frias in his relaxing fashion.
"It sounds that you won't sell the Crudus violins if we find them here…" mumbled Olivio Clementius Lee hesitatingly.
Apollo Frias didn't reply anything. He just smiled faintly. He continued to dig even deeper and deeper until his hoe knocked something which was quite hard and solid inside.
"Oh, gosh… We'll be standing on the top of the world soon…" said Deddy Timmy excitedly.
"Wow… There might be many things buried by Crudus here, not only those two violins…" Hansen Huang also replied excitedly.
The six men lifted up a kind of a quaint old heavy box from the small icy snowy cave. When the box was opened, it turned out to be true that there were several musical instruments in the box – musical instruments which dated back from 1500s or 1400s.
"I think this is a ukulele, isn't it?" said Deddy Timmy holding a ukulele enthusiastically. He tried to strum the ukulele. A sound came out from the ukulele. He laughed heartily.
"I think this is an old trumpet… I blow it first to see whether it's still working or not…" said Hansen Huang trying to blow the old trumpet he had lifted up. A sound also came out from the old trumpet. He burst out in his laughter.
"Okay… Okay… Enough for the jokes… The most important thing is I also find these two Crudus violins… I can finally prove to all of you, can prove to the world that the myth or legend about Crudus and Evelyn is true after all."
"So, does that mean we can be at the top of the world at this moment?" asked Olivio Clementius Lee excitedly.
"Definitely… We're the six top archaeologists in the world at the moment…" replied Apollo Frias proudly. He was over the moon. He felt as though he had owned the whole universe.
"Yes, we win! We've got the prize!" shouted the six men in the middle of the valleys.
The six men's screaming was all over the valleys, flung through the ten different directions, brought along their hope, wish and future expectation.
***
two weeks after that…
The six men were gathering together again in a luxurious café in the central part of Jakarta city. Of course, today they gathered in the café after several days of media conference, several efforts to sell some of the musical instruments they had found in an exorbitant auction, and after several days of having fun in luxuries with the money they had earned.
"So, you've decided not to sell those two violins, haven't you? Why is that?" asked Hansen Huang in his unbelievable tone.
"They're too precious to be sold… I'll keep them in my museum together with my other precious collections," said Apollo Frias with his gazing sight through the glassy café windows.
"Have you ever tried to prove what is told in the legendary story?" asked Deddy Timmy curiously.
"Prove? Prove what? What do you mean?" Apollo Frias frowned his forehead.
"That the violins can merely produce sound when the two players playing them have love towards each other… Is that what you've told us that day?" continued Simon Vallas sipping his cocktail.
"Oh yeah… Not yet… Haven't got any opportunity though… You mean what's the difference when Columba and I play the violins with Queenie Qamra and I play the violins… Is that what you mean?" Apollo Frias smiled skeptically.
Apollo Frias' team members burst out in their laughter.
"Yeah, those two violins are quite mysterious though. Have you figured out what the melodious lullaby actually was?" asked Olivio Clementius Lee curiously.
"No idea… Until now, I've still got no idea who was playing music in the middle of the icy snowy freezing mountains…" continued Deddy Timmy Sinulingga.
"And, we got enough bravery to search for the source of the sound and finally found those mystical musical instruments…" mumbled Simon Vallas a bit fearful.
"Yeah… It's a kind of undescribed mystery actually…" concluded Apollo Frias.
For a while, the six archaeologists were drowning in their own peninsula of mind.
"Too pity you don't sell those violins… If you sold those violins away, we could get much more money than we've got now…" said Hansen Huang trying to emphasizing the words in his clause behind.
"I don't think so… Who can believe that those violins can merely produce sound if the two players playing them have got their love towards each other? Whoever will want to believe the imaginary myth like that, won't they? That's what you said, Hansen…" said Apollo Frias smiling bit cynically.
"Who cares about the legendary myth inside those two violins? Now, everybody cares about those violins' values. Whoever is keen on artefacts can see the unmeasurable values lying inside those two violins. We can earn a lot if we sell them to a rich as well as wealthy artefacts-collector…" Hansen Huang seemed to gash out his cigarette smoke in a kind of mysterious fashion.
"No… I still don't agree… I would like to keep them in my museum first… Perhaps that museum of mine can be opened to public. Whoever wants to take a look at those two violins and my other antique collections have to pay quite high. From that aspect, I think we can still earn quite a lot. Isn't it?" said Apollo Frias looking at Hansen Huang in his quite mysterious gaze.
"Alright… Alright… Whatever it is, it's good for the six of us… We're the top archaeologists in Indonesia and in the world right now. For quite several years ahead, we'll be standing on the top of the archaeology world, won't we?" said Xavier Ottoman to neutralize the tension between their team leader and one of the members.
"Yeah… Let's celebrate this… We'll be going to a hotel after this… I've talked to the manager… There will be pretty girls – all of those are still virgins – accompanying us tonight," said Simon Vallas raising his eyebrows up and down meaningfully.
"Sorry… I'm not joining… I've promised Columba to go home earlier tonight…" said Apollo Frias spontaneously.
Apollo Frias' team members seemed to taunt him a little bit.
"Wow… A kind of loyal and romantic husband…" said Olivio Clementius.
"What an adorable husband… Columba must be very proud of you…" continued Hansen Huang flatly.
"Yeah… She must be very delighted having such a romantic and adorable husband beside her…" said Simon Vallas keeping raising his eyebrows up and down.
"Don't tease me… Once you've found your lover, you'll be the same, Guys… I'm off now… See you tomorrow…" said Apollo Frias in his relaxing fashion.
"Take care…" said the team members to their leader.
Once Apollo Frias was walking towards the front door of the café, Hansen Huang was paying his sharp attention to Apollo Frias' back from behind. Olivio Clementius realized the stare coming out from his friend's eyes.
A kind of unanswerable question-marks kept gashing inside Olivio Clementius' strait of mind.