He was in shock and couldn't move for a second, then stumbled backward in fright. He tumbled down the stairs and hit his head on the ground before he heard a loud thudding sound from the sarcophagus.
There was no light anymore. The torch was also extinguished. It was the second time he had fallen that day. His whole body was aching. When he touched his head, he felt wetness. His head was bleeding. He didn't try to move, just lay on the ground. He stared into the darkness, thinking about what he saw; he was afraid to move. 'Did I just make a dead person come to life?'
He lay there for a while without moving or making any sound. When he heard footsteps approaching from the ground, and raised his head and looked around without seeing his direction. A while later, the voices got louder, and he also heard his name.
"Arsh! Arsh, where are you, my boy?" It was his dad's voice.
A few men with torches appeared where Arsh had entered the chamber.
"'I'm here! Just walk straight!'" he shouted with a hoarse voice. His voice echoed again, but people walked straight towards him. He was still lying on the ground.
When his father saw his son on the ground, he threw the torch from his hand and leaned over Arsh with concern in his eyes.
"'I'm okay, I just fell again,'" Arsh said with a smile on his face. The other men from his village also came near him.
There were also Professor Millway and his men. He was looking at the other men and the platform. He wanted to climb onto the platform but was a little hesitant to walk alone. He shouted with an impatient voice: "Stop stalling, go up now!"
Men from the village sent him angry looks but eventually two of them walked towards the stairs.
Arsh panicked for a second: What if they saw the girl? What if they saw the blood?
When he looked toward the platform, the lid of the sarcophagus was no longer floating in the air. Also, as he could see, there was no blood on the stairs. He stood up from where he had been lying with his father's help. There was really no sign of what he had seen before.
'Maybe it was a dream because I had hit my head. Also, some caves had gases that made people see things that weren't real… Archaeologists had always said to be careful about gases in caves… But it wasn't a cave.'
At the moment he felt something in his right hand. He was holding something. The dagger was still in his hands. So he was not dreaming. They were all real.
If the thing in the tomb is dangerous, what will happen to them? He looked at the men around him. He was ready to shout, "Don't go near the tomb!" but it was too late. Professor Millway was already near the tomb and looking at the carvings he just looked at. A second later a hysterical laugh echoed in the chamber.
"I found it… haha… I found it at last!"
Everyone looked at each other. It looked like they had reached the end of their job. Happiness showed on their faces; they slapped others' backs with a smile.
Only Arsh was not feeling alright, maybe because of the things that just happened, maybe because his body was not in its best condition. Maybe what would happen in the future made him uncomfortable.
A while later, the young archaeologist, Will, also came to the chamber. He also seemed excited but not hysterical like Professor Millway. They together started to research the area.
Arsh was better now. He had gotten over his daze a bit due to the shock of what he had just experienced. He and his father followed these men while they were searching the ground. Even though his father told him to go up and rest, he rejected that. He wanted to see what these people were searching for here.
Soon it was understood that nothing else was there besides the sarcophagus.
His father and others went to make preparations to take out the sarcophagus from the well. It was a difficult task. The well was narrow and the tomb was heavy, but the stairs were also a big problem. It would take time
There were normally 12 people with Arsh in his father's group. But when Arsh fell in the well a couple more people came to help. His father offered to Professor Millway to start next morning. Everyone was already tired and not in their best condition and the weather started to become cold. But he didn't accept the offer. He said he would let the guards from his team help them instead.
They started to plan how to move the tomb. While one group was widening the entrance and the tunnel, another was piling soil onto the stairs to create a ramp. The other group was preparing the scaffold that would help lift the sarcophagus up, while the guards had gone to the town to get the necessary materials and the animals that would carry it. This was a job that would take time.
When the others were dealing with this job Arsh was following Will. The villagers were concerned about him, so he took a simple job. There was nothing else except circular symbols on the walls and pillars. Will was taking his time and drawing them in his notebook with caution. But most of them were the same, so it didn't take much time for him to finish.
Later, Will sat down on the dusty floor and started to watch the others working. Arsh followed him and sat down on the ground. His whole body was still aching. He looked messed up with scratches and blood all over his body.
He hid the dagger in his clothes and didn't want to give it to others. He didn't want them to understand that he had tampered with the tomb, and they all looked extremely cautious about it. They had worked for this man before, but this was the first time he seemed this excited. He hoped that they wouldn't realize the missing dagger.
"You look pretty bad. Isn't it better if you go to the village?"
"No, it's okay. I will go when the job is finished. I can help with little errands."
Will was looking through the notebook in his hand while they talked. There were circles he had just noted, and also other symbols.
He asked Will, not in his native language, but in Symranese:
"What are these symbols?"
Will raised his head from the notebook and looked at Arsh in surprise. "Do you speak Symranese?"
"Yes, I can."
"How did you learn it?"
Arsh was a curious boy. He used to be friendly with adventurers, archaeologists, and merchant caravans. Thanks to them, he learned a lot about the outside world and their languages. He had the chance to read a lot of books they gave him or that he bought. He simply explained this to Will.
Will smiled while he adjusted his glasses.
"You must be a smart boy. You learned a language with limited resources."
"I learned it because it was fun and easy. I can speak a couple of languages. And one day I will travel to other countries, just like the adventurers."
"How many languages do you know?"
Will smiled again. He felt a sympathy for this young boy. He seemed smarter than the other natives who could only learn a couple of simple commands in Symranese. Mostly, they had to learn the Kurshaniese language to get work done.
"I can speak Symranese, Eldoranian, Thessaric, Kelieren, Urartian. Oh, and also, if it counts as Old Kurshaniese... but of course, I can't speak Kelieren or Urartian because we don't know how to pronounce them, but I can read and write them... What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You are joking… right?" the voice of the man filled with his bewilderment.
But Arsh didn't care; he was good at learning languages thanks to his grandfather. First, he learned Old Kurshaniese and Kelieren with him. Then, thanks to the books archaeologists gave him, he learned Urartian.
He learned the others from books and by speaking with foreigners. Eldoran was a country on the seaside like Symran. A lot of adventurers came from that country. And also, Thessaric was very similar to Symranese; they were coming from the same origin, so it was pretty easy to learn.