The smell of delicious hot chocolate wafted into Cairo's bedroom as he woke up, and he instantly knew something was wrong. His uncle seemed to be home, but Cairo knew for a fact, that his uncle never drank hot chocolate in the morning, unless he was really depressed because according to his uncle, chocolate was the one thing that really soothed his nerves. Cairo got dressed quickly, and made his way down to the living room, but his uncle was not there. He looked everywhere in the house, but still couldn't find him. Feeling confused, he went back upstairs. Maybe, his uncle had some important work to do, and might have left early.
But as he passed by his uncle's study, he heard something inside the room. He stopped by, and stood there to listen. It felt like some sort of chanting. Cairo listened closely. He couldn't understand the language, but it was definitely his uncle's voice. He knew it was wrong to listen at doors, but somehow, he got rooted to the spot. The language that Mr. Adams used in his chanting sounded fascinating and literally felt like flowing into his ears. Then, the chanting ceased gently and there was complete silence for a couple of minutes. Then, Cairo heard his uncle give out a gentle whoop of pleasure.
Cairo could stand it no longer, he peeped through the keyhole, and saw his uncle bent on his desk, with his back to him. He seemed to be looking at some sort of old paper. Probably some old document, Cairo thought. His uncle was kneeling so intently at the old paper, that Cairo had to resist his own urge to open the door. But looking at his uncle, Cairo felt as if something was odd. Perhaps, he felt so because his uncle looked unnaturally excited, or maybe because Cairo felt like a crook, peeping through a keyhole of a door. Either way, Cairo decided not to disturb his uncle, and was just about leave, when it struck him-
He had been able to see his uncle's study so clearly from the keyhole, as he was personally in the room! His eyes seemed to have become sharper. Cairo blinked his eyes several times, and looked through the keyhole again, he could still see the whole study quite clearly. My eyesight must have become sharper ever since I wore that amulet, thought Cairo.
Then, suddenly, Mr. Adams put the papers and a few books from the shelf into an old suitcase and came to open the door. Cairo didn't have enough time to rush off and his uncle crashed into him outside the room.
"S-sorry uncle", said Cairo who had gone all red at being caught peeping through the door. But Mr. Adams seemed not to hear Cairo speak. His eyes were twinkling with excitement. He just gripped Cairo firmly on the shoulders and said, "Cairo, I might need to go away for a few days. Do not worry, I will send someone to look after you while I am gone"
"But.." started Cairo, but his uncle cut across him.
"Don't worry, I will be back before you know it. If my mission is a success, then my discovery would be the greatest discovery in the history of discoveries." And with that, he simply left, leaving behind a completely bewildered Cairo. His uncle's behavior had been peculiar. He sounded like the whole world depended upon this success, but then, he always did sound like that…
Cairo kind of wished he could have accompanied his uncle on his journey, because, by the looks of it, his uncle was off on quite a thrilling adventure.
He went downstairs and was greeted by Parker. Parker was Uncle Adam's butler. He was a withering middle-aged man, who always wore a black suit, complete with a black tie, and a white shirt beneath it. His eyes were gray and even his skin was becoming pale because of lack of sunlight. All of this, including his balding white hair, gave him a permanent look of one of those black and white cartoons from the Disney pictures.
Cairo ate a quick meal and decided to go out for a walk. He walked down to Mill Cottage, the house of a close friend of Cairo's. He decided to take the amulet with him, and give Kevin a short peek into his discovery. Kevin, like him, had a great interest in history. Moreover, Kevin's father was an expert in ancient symbols and might be able to help Cairo identify the symbols on the amulet.
On the way, Cairo couldn't help but feel as if someone was following him, but he shrugged the feeling off. He reached Mill Cottage and rang the bell. The door was answered by a pleasant faced woman, with curly blond hair, deep green eyes and a warm smile.
"Good Morning, Mrs. Ducket" said Cairo.
"Oh–It's good to see you Cairo, my dear " replied Mrs. Dennis, opening the door wide for him "I wondered what happened to you. Haven't seen you for a while. Been busy, I suppose?"
Cairo nodded. "Is Kevin here?"
"Yes, he is upstairs–doing his holiday homework, I'll just go and call him…"
"No need, Mrs. Ducket. I will meet him in his room" said Cairo. He thanked her, and climbed the stairs. He opened the first door on the landing and entered. It was a very tiny room, with a four poster bed in one corner, a little Television in another corner, and a large desk in another. On it sat a lean, muscular boy, with dark unkempt hair. He grinned at the sight of his friend.
"I thought you were dead!?" said Kevin.
This was the typical way Kevin greeted those friends who he hadn't met for less than three consecutive days.
"Nah" said Cairo casually "Uncle has been keeping me so busy with some work, that I wouldn't have had time to die"
"Same here, but my work is much more boring… I have to write a composition on global warming– make a chart of the periodic table, and write a diary for these holidays. Seriously!? A diary!? When I've not even been to any special place… how do they expect me to write a whole page for every day of the holidays. I bet all the moons of Jupiter, that the teacher won't even read my assignment" said Kevin looking grumpily at the several books spread across on the table. Unlike Cairo, Kevin had to go to a normal boarding school for his studies like all normal boys.
"Just invent some stuff" suggested Cairo.
"Easy for you to say. All you need to do is to read the various wars that have happened in the world, or make a chart of astrology… it must be fun–right?"
"Hardly–I mean reading about history if fun, but astrology, and symbols–nope… I would rather have your science. Either way, I can help you if you want" said Cairo.
"Yes please!" replied Kevin instantly, like a lion pouncing on its prey.
Soon Cairo was not only writing an imaginary twelve days in Kevin's Diary, but also copying nearly half the elements into the periodic table.
They worked in silence for nearly two hours, and when they finished, they were completely exhausted. Then they decided to go play carom, but got bored with it fairly fast.
However normal Kevin acted, Cairo knew him well enough to know that he was up to something. It was the way Kevin's eye twinkled whenever he was excited, or was suppressing something that aroused suspicion in Cairo.
"What's up? You seem to be hiding something" asked Cairo.
"Not at all," replied Kevin with a slightly mocking face. Cairo knew that expression too well to not notice. Kevin often used this face to make Cairo force him to say something, and make a dramatic effect. This time, however, Cairo had a different trick up his sleeve. He pulled out the amulet from his pocket and dangled it in his fingers right at Kevin's eye level, as if hypnotizing him.
Kevin froze.
For a mad second, Cairo actually thought he had hypnotized Kevin with the unknown powers of the amulet. But slowly, Kevin seemed to come back to himself.
"So that's what the horse was carrying" he murmured stupidly.
"What?" asked Cairo, cautiously.
Kevin looked Cairo full in the face. He had 'understanding' etched all over his face. The expression on his face looked as if he had just realized the cure of cancer lay in toothpaste! He burst into speech.
"Yesterday night, I was up until 5 am, writing an essay for my homework(Mom said I won't be going out of the house till I finished my holiday homework). I think I must have been sleepy, but suddenly, as I looked through the window… I saw a bright white animal pass by the house. It was wearing an extremely shiny, blue colored something on its head. But I was far away from it, so I couldn't see the whole thing properly. Naturally, I was curious. I crept outside to look at it, but it was already moving up Greencrest hill. "
"Then?" asked Cairo.
Kevin looked embarrassed.
"Umm… you know how much I hate that hill–bugs and–bees and all" said Kevin.
Cairo rolled his eyes. Anyone(with the exception of Cairo, Mrs. Ducket and Mr. Ducket) who would first look at Kevin, would be easily misjudged by his physique. They might think him to be anything but a person who has a severe phobia of bugs.
When Kevin was about five years old, he had accidently hit a honeybee nest with his rubber ball, and the whole thing had toppled(angry bees included) right on his face. Those bees had stung him so badly that it left Kevin in a forever horror for bees. Another time, during the night, an unknown grasshopper had leapt straight on Kevin's face by mistake. Startled, Kevin had lost his footing and nearly fell into the well near the cottage. Several similar incidents also contributed to his great phobia of bugs.
"Well, did you do anything after that?" asked Cairo.
"Yea, I went back to my room and used my field glasses to find that animal. I saw it very clearly(why didn't I think of using field glasses before?). It was a beautiful horse, and it was wearing an amulet around its neck which looked exactly like the one you showed me right now!"
Cairo gasped as he remembered the 'something' white that had passed by his window the previous night.
"Did you see where the horse went?" asked Cairo.
"No, because he soon went out of sight"
Cairo sighed. "Why didn't you just follow it!? There are hardly any insects on the hill, and even if you see one, it is not going to eat you!!"
"I really doubt that.. but hey I can make a good round off estimation that our horse went to the cave" replied Kevin.
"Sorry?"
"Oh come off it! You forgot so soon? The caves we camped in during the Spring holidays!"
"Oh those caves! But how can you say that the horse went there?"
"I told you, it's just an estimation. Moreover, a great white stallion can't just disappear into thin air! There is no other place on this hill where it can hide except those caves."
"Good, so let me just rush back home and get my bicycle, and we can search for it together" said Cairo getting up. He hated wasting time and was bored because he had nothing to do. But Kevin blocked the doorway.
"Not so fast, Mr. Hide-your-secrets... I have told you my story, now it is time for you to tell my how you managed to get your hands on that amulet." said Kevin.
Cairo had no objection. He narrated everything that happened yesterday night; from the eerie strangled cry, to the glowing sapphire in the amulet and to the estimated value of the amulet. The only thing that he didn't tell Kevin was the strange vision he had had when he wore the amulet. Cairo thought that Kevin might think that he was nuts, and won't believe him if he said that the amulet held some sort of power.
Kevin whistled softly. He asked Cairo to let him handle the amulet, but as soon as his palms touched the metal, he yelped and leapt back, dropping the amulet on the floor. The place where the amulet had touched him, had gone all red and scaly. The amulet had burned him.
"Oh that damned thing!" he said, looking murderously at the amulet. "I will be back in a minute... gotta put something on this burn" he said to Cairo, and rushed off.
At this point, Cairo was sure of the amulet's magical powers and somehow, he felt elated. Cairo tore a page from the newspaper on the table, and slowly and carefully, slid it underneath the amulet and picked it up. He poked his finger slightly at the amulet, and to his surprise, it was not hot, just comfortably warm. He took it in his hands and turned it in his hands, so as to see the front side. His mouth slightly fell open. He was dumbfounded. The blue sapphire had no longer blue, instead, it now had a nasty shade of deep red, exactly the color of blood. Something inside the gem suddenly turned into the brightest white color and took a miniature shape of a bow.
Kevin had returned. He saw his friend gawping at the amulet, and was shocked to find that it had not burned him. "Are you-are you all right?" he asked.
Cairo said nothing, he just turned towards Kevin and showed him the amulet. Kevin's mouth fell open and he managed to stutter 'wow'.
After this, Cairo decided it was best to tell Kevin about the vision he had seen, because he was sure that even Kevin would have to accept that this amulet was no ordinary artifact. But to his surprise, as he finished telling him the tale, Kevin instantly said that he had always known that there was something magical about the gem. Cairo asked him why he thought so.
"It was the eerie way the white stallion walked alone in the forest with an amulet around its neck. I mean, how many people put precious things around their horses? But more than that, I had a funny feeling that the horse was not a horse at all, just a figure of smoke and yet it looked so realistic" said Kevin.
"Well I guess we can clearly say that there existed a horse all right, because it dropped its amulet by my window." said Cairo.
"What if the thing I saw was a ghost of a long dead horse, that wanted you to have the amulet as a souvenir, because, well, maybe you were its owner in your last birth or something" suggested Kevin.
Cairo thought it sounded a bit too far-fetched, but either way, it did not fail to send a shiver down its spine.
"You know, somehow, I don't think I will be able to sleep today unless I find out whether that horse actually existed. So lets better get to the bottom of this mystery" said Cairo, getting up.
"Wait, I will come with you, let me just grab my bicycle." said Kevin and he rushed downstairs to fetch it. Cairo pocketed the amulet once more and followed him, but Mrs. Ducket stopped them midway.
"Where are you going?" she asked sternly. "Let me remind you that you are not to leave the house until you finish your homework!"
"But I finished It Mom!" replied Kevin earnestly. "You can asked Cairo, He saw me do the work!"
Cairo confirmed that he had indeed seen Kevin finish his work, and soon they were on their way back to Cairo's place.
"Excuse me?" said Cairo, panting a little, as he walked faster to keep up with Kevin's speed. "I didn't see you do any work... I did most of your work!"
Kevin grinned. "Ah! Sorry Cairo, I forgot to give you your credits. Anyways, wanna see who reaches first?" and with that, he pedalled furiously up the slope, without listening to Cairo's protests. Cairo decided to pick up speed, and he too sprinted towards home.
By the time he reached, Kevin was already at the doorstep, sipping a bit of lemonade made by Parker. Parker offered Cairo some lemonade, and Cairo accepted it gratefully. The cool lemonade was very refreshing. Then, Cairo and Kevin bid goodbye to Parker as he had to go down to the town for some urgent work, and they themselves went to the big shed in the backyard to get Cairo's cycle. But as they reached the shed, they heard a low growling sound coming from inside the shed. Thinking it was some poor dog that had got inside by mistake and gotten locked, Cairo pulled open the door.
Two pairs of yellow dilated eyes, looked at them through the dark. Kevin mumbled something and stumbled on the grass as he tried to get back. Suddenly, in a blur of movement, the owner of those four eyes leapt into daylight. Yes, it was a dog all right, except for the fact that it was ten foot tall, had slightly purple fur, sword-like claws, and three heads that looked very much like wanting to devour both Kevin and Cairo.