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The pitter-patter of raindrops falling through the trees to the ground echoed through the forest, the sound of the tropical birds and the monkeys made the whole forest seem like nothing but a dream. A tall tanned man with long black hair and blue tribal tattoos covering his face and muscular torso was running through the forest, wearing a small, white, octagonal stone with the word Vita carved into the middle and a small triangular hole carved into the bottom left side, around his neck. It looked like some kind of protective charm. As the man ran, he tripped and tumbled down a steep hill before he reached a narrow path along a cliff. He stood up and started to run again, like a young, frightened gazelle running from a bolting cheetah. He tripped on the tangling roots of an enormous tree and the stone flew away from his body into a seemingly bottomless chasm. He leapt up, quick as a bolt of lightning, and jumped into the endless abyss, reaching for the stone as he fell. His hands found only empty space as he plummeted into nothingness, accepting that he would die for the precious stone.
Dr. Jared Ramsey was a history professor at Oxford, he was fairly tall; roughly 6"2', had short, dark brown hair, green eyes and a permanent 5 o'clock shadow. He always wore a white shirt, a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, dark brown trousers and a red bow-tie. He had just finished his last lecture of the day and was about to make his way to his homely cottage in the countryside, when an old man, wearing a navy blue robe, with long grey hair and a thin beard, ran up to him and shouted, "When your father bit the dust, you hid it away to let it rust. With a key you must find, what your father left behind."
He then ran into the distance and vanished behind a bus passing by.
"Well that was strange," he said with a confused look on his face.
After his extremely strange experience, he drove home in his green 4x4. When he arrived home he thought about what the man had said. "When your father bit the dust, you hid it away to let it rust. With a key you must find, what your father left behind?" he thought to himself, "What could he possibly he mean by that?"
Then he realised, the small metal box his father left him when he died. This was the only thing his father left him, being the middle child and only son of 5, he was always treated like a slave which is why the box his father left him was absolute rubbish, however, for as long as his mother was alive, he was not aloud to sell the box, as instructed by the will.
He walked up his spiral staircase all the way to his dusty attic, opened the old, oak door and looked around the cobweb filled room. He looked at the big set of shelves, containing all sorts of old relics and books from his days as a child, and found the metal box. The box was originally clean and polished, but was now a dull grey colour. The embossed pattern of a triquetra was still visible on the rusted lid. It had a small golden lock that, unlike the rest of the box, was still glistening. "With a key you must find? What key?" he said aloud before realising that nobody was around to hear him. He couldn't think of any keys that his father had ever had nor talked about before he died.
Then he felt some markings on the bottom of the box, so he turned the box upside down and noticed that the markings were an engraved map. "Maybe this map leads to the key," he thought, the first point on the map was a local cemetery. It was getting dark, and he was tired, after the confusing day he just had who wouldn't be. "It's Saturday tomorrow," he mumbled, "I'll go then seeing as I don't have to go to work." He walked up to his bedroom, collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.
The next day he woke up and had a shower. After his shower he opened the bathroom door letting out a big cloud of steam before he walked to his bedroom to get dressed. As it was not a working day and he was going to a cemetery in the middle of the summer, he decided to wear a green tank top, beige cargo shorts, revealing his muscular arms and legs, and a beige trilby hat with a light brown ribbon around it's base. He grabbed a bottle of water from his tall fridge, an energy bar from a cupboard and a pair of sunglasses off the cherry wood coffee table, before walking out the front door and getting into his big car.
It was a short drive to the cemetery, even with all the traffic, so he was there by about 8:50am; being a teacher he often woke up around 6:00am, and today was no exception. When he arrived at the cemetery he walked up to the large, open, cast-iron gate. It was now very light outside and extremely hot. He walked around the cemetery looking for some kind of clue to what he was looking for. After a couple of hours he still had no luck but just as he was about to give up he saw a huge mausoleum. "That's odd?" he thought, "What's a mausoleum of this size doing in this kind of cemetery?" Then he noticed the symbol just above the door. It was the same symbol as on the box lid. He approached the great, stone structure with caution, and pushed at the solid metal door. It wouldn't budge. He looked closely at the door and saw a symbol that looked like the box, he touched the symbol and it disappeared into the door. Then a larger rectangle appeared from the left of the door. It was a drawer that looked slightly larger his father's box, just enough room for it to fit. He placed the box into the rectangular drawer and it slid back in, the door slowly dragged itself open and revealed a large dark room. Then, as if from nowhere, a torch caught fire, illuminating the room with a dim glow.
"This day just keeps getting weirder." He continued into the immense, cold, stone room and the door closed behind him. Then, with a flash of light, the metal box appeared on the huge stone tablet in the middle of the room, blowing out the torch, and began to shimmer in the darkness. "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!" As he said that, the box lid flew off, revealing what was inside, a key and a small, red, octagonal stone with a and the word "Ignis" engraved into the middle of it. The stone itself was made of a red gemstone like ruby or garnet and had a small triangular hole at the top.
“Wow!” was all Jared could say at this point, he had never seen anything so magnificently beautiful. The stone began to glow and the map revealed a new destination. “There's more? If so I'm going to need some help,” he thought to himself, “now who would be best for this?” Then he thought that if anyone was going to help it would be one of his sisters. “But which one?” he wondered.
It was getting late, so he made his way back home. On the way he called his eldest sister, Jenna, as her and Jared got on the best out of all the sisters; that and the fact that the other three had gotten married and moved out of the town that they had all grown up in. They were the only ones left there. Even their mother had moved to London.
“Hello? Jenna? Are you there?” Jared asked.
“Yea, I'm here. What's up?” replied Jenna.
“It's about dad.”
“What about him?”
“You know how he left you lot a bunch of stuff and all I got was a cruddy box?”
“Yea.”
“Well it turns out, that box is more than just a box.”
“What'd you mean?”
“Well first this crazy dude ran up to me yelling something about dad and the box, then I found the box in my attic, then it led me to a mausoleum and now it's open and the stone inside it is glowing.”
“Jared I don't have time for your nonsense stories. I'm gonna be late for my night shift at the museum.”
“THIS ISN'T NONSENCE!!! But you working at the museum tonight is perfect. I'll meet you there in an hour.”
“But...” before Jenna could reply Jared had hung up and was on his way to the museum.
As he pulled up to the colossal, stone building and stepped out of his large truck. He walked up the extravagant staircase to see his sister waiting for him at the stupendous entrance. He traipsed towards his sister and his sister greeted him with a frightened look in her eyes.
“What's wrong?” he asked.
“It's the museum. One of the exhibitions has started to act … strangely.”
?
??What do you mean?”
“Come in, I'll show you.”
Jenna continued into the museum and Jared followed.
When they had reached the Air and Space exhibition Jared realised what Jenna meant by strangely. The planets had started to move around the sun, but not in the way that they should. This part of the exhibition was not supposed to move. The sun seemed to stay stationary but the rest of the display had rearranged itself into this order: Venus, Asteroid Belt, Neptune, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury, Pluto, Mars, Earth. Jared thought to take note of the order in case it became relevant to the box and the old man's rhyme.
Below the Sun appeared a large scroll. It was old and worn; much like the box left by their father. Jenna walked forwards and picked it up.
“This makes no scene whatsoever. It's written in gibberish,” she states.
“What are you on about?”
“Look. The writing, it is a bunch of random letters.”
“Yea. But look. They're not completely random. See, it is in some kind of a sequence. I couldn’t tell you what kind of a sequence but it's in one nevertheless.”
“Well can you read it?”
“No. But I think I may know someone who can.”
“Who?”
“An old friend.”
“What are we going to do about this?”
“I have no idea. Maybe we should just leave