While the dust particles fell to the ground around the damadged altar, two woman and one man where approaching it slowly.
"Ey, did your mother never teach you how to clean propperly, or did you not listen." Belle said while trying to make fun of this situation.
Redrick looked towards her direction with a annoyed face. "I am sure that I clean better than you do, those spider webs that you tend to collect in your guild are a prime example of how clean you are."
Redrick shook his head and continued "I have a whole church to clean you know, it will never be finished when I do it alone, so I only focus on what's actually important. This statue of a forgotten god isn't something I would call 'important'. But hey if you ever have time, you are very welcome to clean it. I also have a few other things you might want to clean".
*crackkkk boom*
Another piece of the altar fell wich caused the dust cloud to grow again.
" I think you only have to clean this thing one more time" Belle said with a smile
Lamia walked a bit closer to Redrick with a sorry face. " I dont think your altar will be salvageable. I apologise for causing this disturbance."
"Oh I don't mind it. That old thing was only there because its a bother to remove."
Redrick waved his hands to get some dust out of his face.
"I wouldn't mind getting some help cleaning this".
Belle looked outside. She saw that it was getting close to noon, wich made her smile. "Oh god it's already this late, I need to leave for a meeting. I really wish I could have helped you with this but I have some responsibilities that take first place."
She moved towards the door before Redrick nor Lamia could respond. "Well I'll check up on you guys soon enough, good luck". She said while waving. After that the door shut and silence followed.
Both Lamia and Redrick were amazed by Belle's theatrics.
"Is she always behaving like this towards you?" Lamia genuinely asked.
"Sadly enough yes, yes she tends to be like this." Redrick said while walking closer to the altar. The dust cloud had faded and now the damage was fully displayed.
The sun statue on top was completely broken, this was also true for the symbol on the front of the altar. Broken pieces were lying around.
Redrick got a big empty barrel and started putting pieces in it. Lamia soon followed doing the same thing.
"It is a shame, I did like the looks of the statue on top. It looked very welcoming." Lamia said.
"Me and my siblings always played games around that statue. We made it our king or our god, wich we had to protect at all cost." The young man said while putting a big piece of rubble in the now almost full barrel.
Lamia's expression changed, but Redrick was to busy to notice it. "So you had some good memories with it. I apologise again for breaking it."
Redrick shook his head. "It's fine, really. That thing doesn't hold memories, it's me who holds them. That altar was just some stone and marble that filled some space. It has no value to me anymore."
Redrick took another big piece of rubble and started to lift it, he than noticed somthing. There was a big opening in the base of the altar, something on the inside was shining.
The young man dropped everything and put his face towards the hole. Lamia who now noticed that Redrick found something, came a bit closer to him.
"What are you looking at." She asked.
"I dont know, its to dark inside to see. Somthing is shinning, so maybe some coins".
Priests were well known to take money from their believers. Most of the time they used the money towards the church, or their subjects, but there also were individuals who hid money for themselves.
*crackkk*
Redrick had given a hard kick to the side with the hole on it, this made it crumble down completely. Some dust fell but this was instantly dispersed.
The two looked in the hollow inside and saw a big chest with a broken lock on it. The chest was very well made with gold trinkets all over it. It was of medium size and gave an royal expression. What made it stand out even more was on top of the chest. The lid was painted with an image of the sun high in the sky. On the ground was a pyramid that pointed towards the great fiery diety. The last thing that was noticeable, was a human form that stood on top of the pyramid with the sun deity behind its head.
Lamia gasped. "God, that somthing like that can be found in such a remote place. And in such good condition to".
Redrick looked towards Lamia with questions all over his face. "You know what this is."
Lamia moved the chest out of the opening, onto the stone floor the were standing on. "No I have no clue what this chest is on itself, but the painting on top of it is depicting a story of the olden ages. Most historical findings of the olden age are drawings, paintings or books, and all of these findings can make you a fortune. The best part is that this painting is in great condition."
Redrick got a big smile on his face. " That, that is good to know."
The young man was fantasising about what he could do with a fortune, but the incoming enrolment that had a place in the back of his mind brought him back.
"Why would someone pay a fortune for something like this?"
Lamia took some time to reply, while looking around the chest. " Well most buy it because its rare, others buy it because they like the looks, but only a few buy it to learn from it."
"What are they trying to learn from it? Its only a chest or an painting."
Lamia now looked towards Redrick with a face of concern. "How do you not know this. The things you can learn from these items are immeasurable. It gives us information about how people used to live, how the world looked, what their culture was but most importantly, how they got their strength. The olden age was filled with heroes, disasters, monsters and Demi gods. It could be that everything was made up or that we misinterpreted everything, but everything could be true to."
"Hey, my adoptive parents tried their best teaching me. History of a lost era is not something they deemed worthy." Redrick said defending himself.
He than looked back towards the chest. " but I see that you have some experience miss Serpentine, have you ever witnessed an item like this?"
"Not myself. I have only read about them in books with descriptions about these items. None of them had a description of the sun god, so this findings is very interesting."
Redrick now sat down, he waited for his archeology friend to finish. "Ah so its safe to asume that you dont know what this scene is trying to portray"
Lamia now finished sat down next to him.
"I only have speculations. The figure on top of the pyramid could be an offering to the sun god, it could also be a challenger. I think that figuring out who that person is, is the key to understand this story."
Redrick nodded.
"Well opening the chest could help us, no?"
This is what the boy was wanting for. He really wanted to know what was on the inside of this fancy looking chest.
'I wouldn't minds a magical sword'
Lamia looked a bit bewildered, she had forgotten what the item she was checking out was.
"Well it's your house, I mean your church. You can open it."
Redrik didn't need to hear anything else. He stood up, walked towards the chest and took the broken lock of.
"Here we go than"
*creak*
The chest opend slowely with a abnormal creaking sound, a sudden heath wave followed when it was completely open.
Redrick retracted his face to dodge the sudden temperature change but it didn't really matter. The inside of the chest was filled with a red cloth with gold insignia on it. In the middle was an empty form. It was probably a book that was suposed to be put there.
Redrick looked left and right, to see if there was anything else. There was nothing except for the red cloth wich used to incase an item.
A frown started to form on his face.
'Lucky me, the insides are empty'
"What did you find?" Lamia asked.
"Nothing. I think that a book used to be stored in it, but it's gone now."
Lamia looked confused.
"How is that possible, the chest was locked and hidden inside a stone and marble altar, and the item is gone. Someone wouldn't hide this chest so well and lock it without something important inside, right?"
"No that doesn't make sense at all, that would be ..." Redrick than realised that he forgot somthing.
'Wait where did that heatwave come from?'
He went back and looked at the chest. There was nothing, except for the red cloth.
'Maybe it's underneath this thing'
The young man grabbed the cloth and suddenly everything started to fade. His head started spinning and sweat came down his forehead.
'What is happening?'