This all started when I got a break on the journal. At the time, I found myself spending more and more time on it, it was like a piece of food stuck in between my teeth or a tickle you just can't scratch. At first I wrote it off as curiosity getting the best of me, then it was just something I couldn't let go of. It's funny the things I claimed this was looking back on it.

Anyways, the journal led to Brazil. I found a archaeologist that had just located ruins that was very similar to the ones described in the journal. I contacted her and got her interested because of the journal. We agreed to meet and a day later I was on a plane.

Prof. Maria Pounds was a Brazilian/American Citizen. Her dad was some stock broker that fell for her mom while on vacation. While he was married and couldn't bring himself to leave his wife, he did ensure that Maria was taken care of. This included education in good school in America. She was vastly different than what I expected as she had the look of someone that preferred to be outside than in a college classroom.

After we exchanged pleasantries (where the above information came out), we got to work. She looked over the journal and then started pulling pictures out from her dig. As the time passed she got more and more animated, until she excitedly looked up and said, "They were there! They really were there!"

"Where exactly is this where that you are talking about?"

The "they" I am referring to is the explorers in a journal I found over six months ago. It was a story of Spanish explorers that stumbled upon a temple where a summoning ritual was being performed. They didn't like it and their solution was to kill everyone and then burn everything.

In all of my other searching, this seemed like the starting point or close enough to one. And the fact that I might had found the site, well lets just say that the call of the dagger was in full effect. Although I didn't understand that part then. I only knew I had to go there.

I couldn't really tell you exactly where we went from there. We took a boat on the river and after a day I had no clue exactly where we were. Eventually, the boat stopped and we got into a smaller boat. After more travel, we started walking. There was six of us, and we all got to carry our own share of the equipment.

Eventually the jungle opened up to a clearing, once a city was there. Now all that was left was the rubble of everything but a temple. That was blackened and half collapsed. It appeared that her team had mostly worked on the edges of the city.

There was a small tent city set up there and a man that seemed to be in charge headed towards us. He was an older man, and by the way the other four men with us acted he was the real boss at the site.

He greeted us, and after some discussion he asked to see the journal. I watched again as I saw the excitement build, but then it was replaced with something else. I would come to understand the look at that of pure greed. When he finished he called out to his men, and the dig moved.

They were now working on getting into the temple.

The temple had fallen in on itself over the years, and it took a few days to dig into the still standing lower level. Along the way down many remains were recovered, some in European style armor shells rusted and falling apart. As they went down, the feeling of dread grew. Also was the desire to fight.

It was during this time that the man first showed up. He spoke with the lead on the dig first, than Pounds. Finally, he approached me.

"I hear that you have something I would be interested in. I would pay greatly for it." The smile he put on was greasy, and just looking at him made me feel dirty.

Without hearing it said, I knew he was talking about the dagger. The thought just surfaced and it was the right thought. Out of reflex I just simply replied, "I don't think I can help you."

He face went blank and he stared for a few minutes, then smiled again. Only this time it had a underlining malice to it. "I believe you can and you will, one way or another."

With that he turned and walked away.

Who are these guys really working for?

Kolya wrote:Who are these guys really working for?

I am not sure I really want to know the answer to that. As for his attitude, he was quite capable of backing it up.

Sorry for the slow posting, the display on the laptop died and it only just got back from repairs. As much as I like working on PC's, I prefer to use the warranty when I can. Fixing laptops are a pain, half the time you break something else in the processes of repairing the original issue.

Sorry about the time away again. After a LCD display went out, two motherboards fried, and a backup laptop just went up in flames I figured out the cause of my recent computer woes. It won't be a problem for anyone else now.

To pick up the tale, it was that night that the problems began. At first we thought it was just wild animals getting brave. Two of the workers disappeared from the outskirts of the camp, only the be found the next morning mauled by something. They started arming sentries to protect the camp.

Two days later we opened up the lower levels, which had survived the damage intact, and it was that night that two armed sentries disappeared without a trace (or a sound). The word around the camp was natives made angry, but I started to get suspisious. I started carrying my gun at all times along with a shotgun then, and so did a lot of other people with the ability. In fact, just about everyone found a weapon or stayed near a friend that did.

The worst started the day we were to enter the lower levels, if I didn't have wounds to prove it happened I would be tempted to claim I went temporarily mad again.

"Anyone else now" huh? What was the problem? And was it linked to this joker that wanted the dagger?

If it was related to the dagger, it was far weaker than what is normally sent. I think this was just something that wandered into the wrong home looking to stir up headaches.

To continue where I left off. As we worked our way up to where the hole was opened to the lower levels, it was around noon. We figured that the natural light would help as it shined down on us, at least in the initial chamber we entered.

The first two team members started down the ropes when the light dimmed. I don't think anyone paid any attention to it at first because we just thought a cloud had passed in front of the sun. Then it got darker, and the noise of the birds got louder.

I don't know where they came from, but there was thousands of them and they attacked without mercy. We could hear the screams below, along with the gun fire that did little to stop the attacking birds. It seemed that for every bird killed two more appeared.

Those of us preparing to enter the temple was lucky. Most of us, including the two doctors and myself, were able to get down the ropes before the swarm reached us. But even then, the last two people didn't make it. One fell into the hole, face clawed and chewed up, and the other just screamed from above.

From the looks of the guy that fell down the hole, I would have to agree. Death by bird is not very pretty.

Once the daylight return and the noise died down, we decided to attempt to look above. We wanted to see if anyone else was alive. As the volunteer got about halfway up the rope, the line was cut. The second line followed after it. Me and one of the others sighted our weapons at the opening, but no one came to it nor was there any other sound.

The drop itself was about 30 feet, so we had no way to get to the roof. After 15 minutes of shouting, we realized no one would be coming to our aid anytime soon. Silence settled on us as we each realized that there was a good chance that we were going to die there.

The room we were in was about 30 x 30. Our lanterns lit it up fairly well, although there were still dark spots in abundance. We saw that there was a passageway leading deeper into the ruins, but after the events that just happened we were all a little hesitant to proceed.

Our minds were made up however when the snakes started finding their way into the other side of the chamber.

I am not sure how so many snakes were gathered together, but I know that I did not care for them or the fact they were apparently eager to attack. I would almost say much like the birds, that they were being controlled somehow because their behavior was so unlike their nature.

That is a moot point now however, we started down the corridor. One of the assistants was afraid of snakes and went faster than the rest of us. We heard a cut off scream. We found the head that was removed from the body first. The body was under the giant blade that had been triggered. Our progress became slower then.

We felt ourselves being led downwards underneath the temple. Our hope was that we would find our way out quickly. In the end some of us did just that, as death is generally seen as the quickest way to escape from troubles in this world. Those of that stayed longer would find our escape eventually, I guess it is a forgone conclusion since I am alive writing this today. However, at least for me there are times I wonder if death was the more merciful escape.

The passages underneath turned into a maze. We found ourselves unable to make headway once we entered and within a few hours had no idea where we were in the place. I think this was the intent of the designers since everything was made to look like everything else.

It was when we were completely lost that the first of the creatures crept out of the darkness. I had seen it's like before and reacted without hesitation. The dagger cut it many times before it went down.

When the second one appeared, everyone else quickly realized what I knew. Bullets would not stop the creatures advance, and all we could do was run from them. But then, that was what they wanted.

More of us fell behind and died as exhaustion overtook them. I can only hope it was quick for them. Those of us left, just focused on getting away. Occassionally I would hack past one of the creatures with the dagger but mostly it was a blind flight.

It ended in a large room with a seemingly bottomless pit in the middle of it. Almost as soon as we entered the doorways were blocked with the crreatures. Standing across the pit from us was the little man with his evil grin.

My continuation of this story has been delayed for a multitude of reasons, personal and otherwise, for this I apologize. In a way it has given me the time to find best how to describe what follows, since I was unsure how to proceed before.

Those of us still alive at that time fought fiercely to escape, but quickly found that escape was impossible. By the end of the skirmish there was only two of us alive, me and the doctor. She was badly hurt and the knife was the sole reason I wasn't. I didn't want to see her die. I had grown fond of her during the time we were together, and so when I was offered the chance to save her I found myself divided.

In the end, her life was simply worth more than the knife. I turned it over, but only after taking advantage of the situation to cut bastard's hand off. Looking back now, that was a mistake.

What follows is fragmented in my memory. Even now I am unsure of the reality of what happened. I distinctly remember being hit with a force from him. I also can vividly remember falling into the pit and believing I was dead. But then there was a flash of light, the odd sensation of being in two places at once, blackness, and water. All of these are mixed together.

If you are wanting a sane story with a happy ending, I would advise you stop reading now. I am afraid what I am about to say will make everyone believe I am even more crazy than I have sounded before. But where I was not was in the pit in South America. Where I found myself I still am not sure, but when I managed to get to the surface of the well I was in the landscape had changed.

To be honest, I am not exactly sure. The thing was smoldering when i was hit by the blast. I was too busy trying to think of some smart ass thing to say to see the attack coming. After that, like I said it got strange and I am not sure how to describe what I think happened without sounding insane.

Also I apologize for my slow postings, these days I am spending a lot of time away from civilization and technology. It is one of the rules of the cleansing I am doing. I have a lot of bad karma in my life that I need to atone for.

south merka'll do at to a fella. yall take care darknyht. i read at natasha en latin merka too. yall werken tagether gin?

Scotty wrote:south merka'll do at to a fella. yall take care darknyht. i read at natasha en latin merka too. yall werken tagether gin?

I don't think their paths intersected this time. A lot of her time was actually spent in Cuba, el caribe, and along the Spanish Main.

I am not in South America anymore, that is part of the weirdness that happened. When it was all over, I was found two months later on an indian reservation in the Southwest US. I can't explain how that works, but apparently it does, especially the part that felt like two years.

The tribe's resident mystic tells me I walked the worlds between and within the world, and that is part of the reason for the cleansing. I would call them crazy if it was not for the things they found with me and the scars I have from some of the fights I remember.

I might have heard about you. I hear lots of stories though. I'd like to hear yours. If you are there when I get back home, I'd even make the trip to see you. I work with the Zuni and other Native Americans nearby in Arizona along the New Mexico border. Sounds like you're in good hands. Stay as long as you can. You'll only benefit from an extended stay there.

Yea probably as "Man without Brains". In truth though I was in bad shape when I was found so I am grateful for their help. However, I find myself with more questions than answers here, so I am probably heading home soon.

The biggest one is why my friend was insisting that he just saw me a week ago in Ohio. I haven't left here since arriving and before that I definately was not in Ohio.

Given that you're not just recovering anymore and since there seems to be two of you then you probably want to get to work on that and leave as soon as possible. On the other hand, we need to ensure we get the proper DK, rather than some evil alternative DK. We already got one douche GhostSpider on the loose... we don't need another.

Anecdotaly or whatever, I saw a girl that looked exactly like Natasha at the food market buying some fish. Now if that girl had walked over to me and started talking shop, then I would have freaked out.

And it sounds like your friend had more than a fleeting glimpse.

So it sounds like you're correct to be freaked out.

As always, DarKnyht, let me know if there's anything we do for you.