Golden Valley

He moved into the fourth chamber. Everything was exactly the way they left it not more than six hours ago. The small excavator was parked near the far wall and drilling equipment was placed in a nearby corner of the chamber. They would be back here early in the morning to proceed with the digging. He continued towards the northeast corner of the chamber, where the alcove was discovered. Running the light along the wall, the beam came to rest on the small holding cell. Then he saw it. It was partially uncovered, but most of the object was still embedded into the chamber wall.

It was the medallion.

He'd seen it one place before this, as a drawing in a journal found by Gaft many years ago on a dig in the Netherlands. To the trained eye, it was an unmistakable piece of jewelry. The markings appeared to be identical to the drawing in the journal of the Viking captain, at least as far as he could tell from the exposed parts of it. The Viking Captain's name was Londer Kargdon and was a notorious Viking marauder in 10 AD. His plundering took him into Ireland where he came to this place to establish a mining operation. Kargdon never wrote in his journal what he was mining or how he was mining it. It was supposed that slaves were brought over in great Viking ships and left to populate the countryside when the heavy ships left, laden with Ireland's gift of the earth to be transported back to their homeland. None of this had ever been substantiated until one year ago when Yoshima and Gaft uncovered evidence of Kargdon's settlement. That discovery had placed them here at Ryakudatsu Suru.

It was late when they uncovered the small portion of the medallion. The pace had taken its toll on the team, so it was decided that the dig would continue early in the morning. Besides, as far as the team knew, the medallion was just another Bronze Age trinket.

He crouched down beside the medallion. As he was about to finish the job started earlier that night; he noticed something odd about the surrounding area in which the medallion was situated. The talk of the researchers had led him to believe that the area should have been unscathed, that they were holding off unearthing the find until tomorrow. However, there were obvious signs of gouging around the medallion. It was probably his imagination, he hadn't been sure of how much had been dug out and previously exposed. He began picking at it as fast as he could without damaging any parts. His swearing echoed through the chamber as he cursed himself for not being more prepared in the area of excavations. He prayed it would be unheard from outside. He continued to dig around the medallion until it was completely exposed. Gaft told Johnathan what to expect. He knew what it was supposed to look like. This had to be it!

Thousands of years without human touch and now he held the object of fortune in his own hands. He couldn't believe it. It was supposed to be a legend, a fable told to people throughout the ages, but here it was... he had to believe now didn't he? That didn't matter now. Whether or not he believed in the legends was not the issue. He had to get out. His top priority was to leave the camp unnoticed, and get the medallion safely into the hands of his employer. He rose to his feet and headed for the entrance to the chamber, but stopped suddenly as he saw the figure of someone standing nearby.