The Blue Scales

Though Ostmont was in the middle of a desert, the early mornings were quite chilly. This was especially true for that short period of time where the sun hadn’t entirely began its ascent, where the temperature seemed to suddenly plummet and to leave everybody shivering.

Sophia stood in the lobby of Hotel Fuisine, reassured by staff that although they came back here at the end of their expedition, it wasn’t until a few weeks away at the least. One by one, a small crowd gathered around, wiping tired eyes. Though Sophia herself was exhausted, she didn’t feel tired exactly. If she were at home, she’d be waking up around this time to go for a swim - most likely with Elijah.

It wasn’t long until Jared stumbled in, standing beside her with just a smallish backpack slung across his shoulders and a murmured greeting. Dr. Booth - Alexander - joined the group not long after, directing everyone to two white vans that had parked in the taxi rank outside of the hotel.

Though it took a small army to load the luggage away, it didn’t take too much time before they were off on the road. Sophia sat in the chair closest to the window, with Jared at her side. She wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not, but he sat there with his eyes closed and earphones jammed firmly in his ears, listening to God-knows-what music.

As the landscape slowly melted from the urbanised industrial city of Ostmont to that of a sparse desert, Sophia felt some preliminary twinges in the pit of her stomach.

‘Oh God,’ she thought, ‘what on earth am I doing here?’

She stared out the window, into the red sands that stretched as far as the eye could see and comprehended in that moment that there was one reason that mermaids such as herself never strayed far from the water. Sophia pulled the amulet that her doctor, Dr. Treacle, had made for her before she left. With hope, it would allow her to go more than three days without swimming in a body of water. Generally speaking, if she didn’t swim her skin tended to itch as though she was having an allergic reaction.

‘An allergic reaction to the air,’ she sniggered quietly to herself.

Sophia pulled her gaze away from the sandy dunes outside her window, gazing around at the small bus that was full of people. People, presumably friends were sitting in pairs, chatting quietly amongst themselves as they talked everyday group politics or even about the upcoming trip. If Sophia strained herself, she could just make out the conversation of a red headed woman sitting four rows back. She was confessing her worries about the local fauna, snakes in particular, and her fear of potential snakes in the area.

When a snort that was louder than she expected escaped her, Sophia looked around wildly, hoping that no one, and she meant no one, would have heard it. Luck today was not on her side though, as she noticed that Jared had cracked open an eyelid. She could just see the amusement in his eyes, they were glittering, almost. Sophia held a long, slender finger to her lips, in a silent, universal shushing sound. Jared arched an eyebrow in her direction, and then, quietly he went back to ‘sleep’.

She watched him suspiciously for a few seconds, before settling back into her seat as she watched the landscape pass by again, listening to the gentle murmuring that surrounded her.

It wasn’t much longer before Sophia was startled awake, suddenly aware that they had reached their destination. Outside, it looked like a mini village, almost like the market in the small neutral zone on the Other side, the dimension where she was born. Khaki tents dotted the sand dunes as far as the eye could see, with humans bustling around, carrying rolls and bits of broken pottery. And not a Dr.op of water for as far as the eye could see.

She hoped that Dr. Treacle’s invention worked, because the last thing she wanted was an episode in the middle of this excursion, a bunch of humans surrounding her. The loud voice of Alex interrupted her thought pattern, who was currently answering questions about the camp and laying down the law of the site.

“Now, people, you’ll all be sharing tents with each other,” he stated. “No, you cannot choose who you share with, definitely not your boyfriend and you must sleep in your designated tent every single night.” Alex held the eyes of every single person on the bus. She noticed Jared’s flushed cheeks as Alex held his stare slightly longer than most. With that, he let everyone leave the bus, handing a sheet of paper to each person as they grabbed their gear.

Sophia hoisted the large pack onto her back, feeling the oppressive heat get to her already. She eyed the canteen attached to it, wondering if it was a good idea to start sculling the water down already. The did only have a limited supply, there wasn’t an excess in the middle of a desert, after all.

Against better judgement, she found the rim at her lips and a thin stream of water already in her mouth. Relief seemed to fill her at even that slight amount.

‘Zero hours without water an already struggling. Great.’ She thought as she twisted the lid again, this time putting the canteen inside the flap of her decidedly non-stylish pack. As she rearranged the straps over her shoulders again, she glanced down at the small piece of white paper.

Section C, Row 5, Tent 4.

Sophia looked around for a few seconds, slightly confused, but quickly found little markers that indicated all the numbers, and on closer inspection noticed that all the numbers were also written on the tents. She quickly found hers, marked appropriately as C.5.4, and unzipped the mosquito screen to step inside.

What she hadn’t realised outside of the tent, was that it was separated into three sections. Each was separated with both an opaque flap and a mosquito screen, affording each other privacy. A small box filled with ice sat in the first section, a cooler box, she guessed.

One of the flaps was rolled up, and looked empty inside. Sophia quickly chose that side, and then climbed inside, making sure to zip up behind her. A small bed was raised off the ground by a simple frame with a foam mattress. There were no sheets or pillow, and she quickly deduced that she would be rolling up one of her knit jumpers as a makeshift one. She could sleep on rocks - had done so before, but needed a pillow of sorts.

Sophia quickly realised there was nothing else of her to do besides roll out her sleeping bag onto the bed and shove the bag underneath. She quickly looked over herself, with her shorts and cotton long sleeved shirt. She was dubious that it was actually keep her cooler, like the team leader stated, but she was willing to try.

She had obviously understated the amount of activity going on when she got out the bus, because it was obvious that even people who looked like they were doing absolutely nothing were still undertaking some sort of small task. She could see an older man sitting out in the shade of a tent, his sunburnt face was scrunched up in frustration as his hand darted across a page. When she approached a little closer, she could see he was doing a stratigraphic Dr.awing. Sophia hoped to the high heavens that she may be able to skip that task. She wasn’t as artistic as many thought she was.

A large group had gathered in a small clearing, and she was able to recognise a couple of people - Jared, Dr. Booth and the girl who was scared of snakes. She supposed the fear of snakes was reasonable, but to her knowledge there wasn’t anything venomous in Ostmont. As she approached, she stood next to Jared, listening as he made some small talk with a bunch of guys. It was only a few more minutes that they had to wait until everyone had joined the group. She was apparently one of the last five to make it out.

“Okay guys, welcome to your potentially first ever dig.” Dr. Booth exclaimed, seemingly excited. “As they say, ‘you never forget your first’.” A few rumbles of laughter echoed throughout the group, short lived but highly amused.

“You’ve been chosen to join us on the Ostmont Project. In recent years, we’ve discovered a new ancient civilisation that appears to have been completely wiped from the history books. In fact, you’re part of the first university groups to come out here and assist. Now, whilst I know a fair bit about the place, we’re going to let you figure out some of it yourself. Follow me, guys!”

With a quick flourish of his hand, Alex scampered away to an open tent, with only three sides having been put up. Inside was a table with a variety of artefacts on it. Disposable gloves were passed around, and for a few seconds, all that could be heard was the snapping sound of latex as everyone struggled to put them on.

“Okay, so here we have a few artefacts for you all to examine. Split into pairs and choose one, then I’ll give you five minutes to discuss what you think it is, it’s origins, and it’s date. So go!”

Like it was a competition, everyone raced to the table, eager to grab an artefact and then align themselves with whoever took their fancy. Sophia hung back for a second, happy to examine any particular piece. Once she noticed that Jared had already gotten a partner - he had looked at her and shrugged apologetically - she decided to scout for a lone person. One of the last few left, she chose an older looking girl, her hair a mess of platinum blonde curls and wide, doll-like eyes. She was holding a pottery shard, with blue and black paint splattered about it.

“Hey, I’m Indigo,” the girl introduced herself. Sophia returned the gesture, before she turned to the piece of pottery sitting between them.

“Yeah, so, I’d say this is like Persian, yeah?” Indigo muttered, rotating the shard like it may give her other answers.

“Maybe, I’m actually not too good with pottery,” Sophia muttered sheepishly. After indicating that she’d like to have a look herself, she inspected the piece. The clay looked almost white, with thick, black lines that were sometimes coloured in with blue. She noticed the writing on it, one she definitely couldn’t read.

“I think you’re right,” Sophia agreed, giving the pottery back to Indigo.

“I think it’s weird that there’s Persian pottery here. I didn’t think the Persians ever reached Ostmont?”

“No, but it could be a trading route?” Sophia suggested.

“You could be right. How cool is this though? Look here,” Indigo pointed to a picture, “it’s a mermaid.”

“No way,” Sophia scoffed, though she did look closer. To her utter astonishment, a mermaid was painted on the picture, with a blue tail. Maybe it meant something else, did they have horoscopes that far back here? She tried to wrack her mind for an answer.

“Yes way! Anyways, I totally, like, think it’s 3rd century. BC maybe, yeah? The shape looks like it could be for wine, yeah?” Indigo seemed talkative enough to have a one sided conversation with herself, so Sophia just continued to grunt in the occasional agreement while pretending to look. She supposed she didn’t have to work about there being secret mermaid history here, because as far as she knew Ostmont never had an water activity on a scale large enough for a mermaid to ever consider coming here. Nope, her secret and that of the Folk’s was safe for another day.

“How did you go, girls?” Dr. Booth’s voice scared her. Indigo and Sophia gave their small demonstration of their supposed skills to him.

“What do you think?” Sophia asked him in return. Dr. Booth indicated that they hold it a little closer so he could see it himself, gesturing when they should rotate it due to his lack of gloves that he was wearing.

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. None of these have been properly examined yet, but I do know that is definitely a mythological creature. You’re probably right about it being a mermaid, actually. Good work girls. Please re-join the group when you’re ready,” he smiled at both of them, before wondering off to the next couple. Indigo took the small piece of pottery to put it back where she had found it, before returning to stand next to Sophia as she popped a piece of gum in her mouth.

“Okay guys,” Dr. Booth called out as he ushered the last of the group together, “you’ve all had some really good guesses. Now, can anyone guess what type of civilisation we’re looking at?”

The snake girl raised a hand, “Egyptian!”

“Greek!” Another shouted.

Indigo raised her hand, “Persian.”

Dr. Booth chuckled slightly as people began to murmur, not doubt questioning their own skills. “As you can see, we don’t really know. We’d suggest a lot of these items are may have been acquired by trade, but some of them seem to be modified in ways we’ve never seen. Now, we haven't had a chance to properly analyse the data. However, that’s what you’re all going to help us with!”

At Dr. Booth’s urging, everyone went to grab a roll of tools and join the others in the field. Sophia stared at the rolling sand dunes ahead, gulping nervously before stepping out into the boiling sun. This was going to be a long program.