"Sa Machine Ailée" et autres histoires

[Este]

J'adore la suite anglaise !

[Sandentwins]

Chapter 16: Measures

The locals called this mountain the Smoking Shield. It was an extinct volcano that stood at the heart of the Yucatan as well as many legends, for it was rumored to hide a treasure deep within. It used to be surrounded by a thick and lush jungle, but the most of it has been cut down over the years, making it accessible by car. The land around it was covered in shallow grooves and canyons, still giving the crew some difficulty with entering the area; above-ground photos showed the earth looking like a shattered plate, that time had put back together like it could.

To be here was maybe one of the least likely things Tina would have thought to experience. And yet she was following the team that was entering the mountain, going through a cave carved by a dried out underground river. It was dark in here, and even the caving lights couldn't chase away all these shadows. Every little step echoed tenfold in this cave, every motion in the dark revealed a bat or a rat running away. The walls were humid, the ground slippery, and it smelled of stone dust everywhere they turned. But all the same, her heart was racing.

“This is so exciting!”, she whispered to Leon. “Just imagine what lies down there!”

“Nasty rats, that's what lie.”

She ignored him, as the rock under her fingers started to show traces of memories. This place has been inhabited, there have been people here! And they were coming close!

“The volcano had erupted at some point.”, explained the head of the team. “Most of these galleries have collapsed, and access to the inner chambers has been cut off. But through patient work, we've managed to open a way to the stronghold.”

Dynamite, the stones whispered. Explosions, fire, machines.

“I don't know why Professor Diaspro allowed you children to come with us. But it's got to be important that you see this.”

“Hear that, Tina? We're important. So important that we've got helmets on.”

“Everyone has a helmet on, we're in a cave. You're lucky to be included.”

She bonked him on the helm with a sound thunk. He pulled his tongue at her, since it didn't even hurt.

They turned into another gallery, and the walls changed shape. They weren't rough stone anymore, but mortar and carved bricks. Most were cracked and broken from the collapse, but their shape was unmistakable: this place has been inhabited. But that didn't make sense: who would choose to live in the heart of a volcano? The further they went in, the more she could smell something strange in the air, and feel the heat rising. They've got to be pretty deep underground already. All this dust was getting to her head like an old book's smell, and in her state of excited daze, she could feel the walls and even the air sound out with energy.

“What's in the stronghold?”, she asked after a time of walking.

“Most likely a ritual chamber. This place was a temple built into the mountain, and a well-defended one at that.”

“That smells of treasure.”, Leon commented. “Or old books.”

The gallery started to get wider. Once most of the team had crossed through the tight spaces between rocks, Tina felt it already easier to breathe. After a few more steps, they reached a wide chamber, one so tall that even with the ceiling caved in, she could feel the top of the mountain right above.

This place was littered with fallen rocks, debris and remains of what would have been constructions. But they weren't statues or altars; they looked even stranger than that.

“Are those...machines?”, Leon asked.

“It looks like so.”

Most were broken, torn to shreds by the collapse, but there was no mistaking their parts. Coils, panels, what looked like screens; what was all of this doing here?

As Tina was busy getting down to the lower level, he scooted away from the group, and got close to a broken console. Glancing around quickly, he pressed a random button, but obviously nothing happened. He giggled, and kept pressing them, making little “beep boop” sounds for the fun of it.

“Beep beep. Look at me, I'm doing rocket science.”

He snorted, but quickly got disinterested in the lack of reaction. And it seemed that everyone was disinterested in him, too; they were all busy over some carvings. Ugh, was everyone deciding to be boring today? The Mayans could have been astronauts, and these people were more interested in wall gibberish! He rolled his eyes, and kept going around fallen rocks, careful not to slip.

The light of his helm suddenly reflected into his eyes.
[…]

Read the rest not here https://archiveofourown.org/works/23790 ... s/58150660

[Este]

C'est toujours super !

[Sandentwins]

The cavity was getting larger, and he could stand without too much trouble. His face was beading with sweat, his heart beating fast. He turned off his caving light to ease the immersion, and found that there was some light coming from below. So he walked closer, crawled down to the source of the heat, and that's where he found it.

It looked...weird, to say the least. But even “weird” felt too weak a word to describe the contraption in front of him. It was shaped like a giant hourglass, made of glass and steel, with a big tube protruding from it. It was somehow active, shining a fake-looking blue light and radiating so much heat that he thought he'd pass out. Yet no foreign smell was telling of toxic gas, and his skin wasn't melting; still, he kept on his guard as he came closer, tiptoeing down the cavity. The stone all around the device had molten, still bearing signs of its liquid state, like butter grazed with a lighter flame. Yet the device didn't seem especially dangerous.

He tried to touch to it, and the glass tube hurt his fingers. He quickly withdrew his hand, finding with disappointment that nothing had happened. No vision, no feeling of anything, none of the cool stuff Tina could do. He huffed, feeling it to be a failure of his part as a lion prince. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he met more sudden warmth: the piece of glass he picked up earlier was getting all warm and glowy. He brought it closer to the hourglass, and it shone a bit brighter, like it was reacting to it.

There was no doubt. Whatever this device was, it ought to be bound to the legend somehow. Everything here ought to make sense. He knew it. He could feel it.

“Maybe we don't realize how close we are.”, he whispered to himself.

[Este]

J'aime bien la belle image !

[Sandentwins]

Chapter 17: Darkness

By the time they came back to the site, evening had fallen. The sun was setting behind the hills on the horizon, and the air was starting to rapidly cool down in that fashion of the desert climate. The darkness of the otherwise empty area was chased away with electric lights, and the peace of the Mayan ruins troubled with the meddling presence of humans. It seems that there was still work to be done after sundown; yet that didn't quite reassure Tina.

If they were to act during the night, Esteban would be asleep. The Golden Condor would be unable to fly. And she had reasons to believe Diaspro's team would be keeping a watch on the two of them, if only out of common sense. Since night was falling, they've been instructed to stay at the camp until accommodations could be made for them. And so, under the light of a flickering yellow bulb, she was sitting and waiting.

She wasn't sure whether to trust him. After all, how did he know about the Condor? How did he find out about her? Wasn't he questioning where their parents were, what they were doing so far from home? Even if his story about the priests of the City and their descendants made sense, it didn't ease her wariness by much, if at all. Was it wrong of her to think it strange?

She did distrust Joey at first, too. The guy wasn't very reputable, and had shown an interest in the two of them that was normal to find weird; but he's helped them, and been good to them. And he didn't ask about Killa or the Condor, accepting it altogether along as his fate as helper. Either he's been showing a lot of trust, either he's been doing a lot of meth, but in any case he's helped them.

Diaspro, on the other hand, was a strange case. She's tried to ask him questions, to know more about what he and his team knew, but he's been awfully evasive. Always busy with something, it was like he's brought them here for no reason. If he found time to email her twice, why didn't he simply tell her then what she needed to know? Why bothering with getting them here at all costs, if he didn't even meet them in person?

Did he simply want to show them around? Show the ruins, the mountain, and the pretty landscapes of the Yucatan? She doubted it: no one could ever be so nice. Not to them. Not to her. There <i>had</i> to be something under all of this, and she'd find it.

She couldn't get to rest, not with her troubled state of mind. So she decided to have a little walk around the camp, under the innocent guise of wanting to clear her head. The air was chilly, and she tightened her jacket a little around her shoulders as she walked.

The hunt for samples has been great, as she could see. The team she's been with today had brought back some pieces of machinery from the Smoking Shield stronghold, and they were trying to examine them. Others were going over maps and prints, as if planning their next expedition; some were idling around, showing Tina a less exciting side of the life of an archeologist. They were speaking in tongues, hunched over tables, almost whispering to one another like secret agents. Intriguing.

She tried to find Professor Diaspro, but as always, he was busy with stuff she didn't understand. It would be logical that a university professor wouldn't have much break time, even during a business trip; yet if he's found time to call for her, he'll find some to answer her questions. And she was very keen on asking them all.

When she came to his tent, she found it empty. She knocked like she could beforehand, and waited outside for a good ten seconds before coming in, only to have her hopes let down once again. Bothersome, really; but what did she expect?

Oh, well. Guess she'd have to help herself to answers, then.
[...]

Read the rest at bruh https://archiveofourown.org/works/23790 ... s/58403857

[Este]

Bravo ! Continue !

[Sandentwins]

Chapter 18: Protection

“You can open your eyes now.”

It took Tina a good moment to do so. She was still trembling, everything feeling dark and uncertain. Her feet hadn't touched the ground, and yet she couldn't feel the speed of the fall anymore. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes, and was met with the darkness of a cave; light still shone from above, and it was quite a height too. Did they really fall all this way?

The light was getting away, as they were still falling. She looked below, and saw the ground coming closer, yet it was so slow she barely felt it. Had time slowed down somehow? What was going on?

“I...I don't understand.”, she mumbled, confused as all heck. “What's happening? Why aren't we falling?”

“We are.”, Leon answered, still holding her hand tight. “But the City's protecting us.”

Their feet touched to the ground after some seconds, delicately put down by some force that had slowed down their fall.

“Protecting us?”, she repeated, confused. “Why?”

“Because we're meant to be here. If this place was expecting us, why would it try to harm us?”

He let go of her hand, and looked around. They've fallen at the bottom of the crevice, so far down that the light barely came to them. Yet from there, she could see Esteban's glowing silhouette looking down the depths.

“Are you alright!?”, he called.

“I think so!”

Slowly, his light descended the crevice, slithering between the shadows until it came to them. She blinked at his arrival, but could see the illuminated path ahead of them.

“That was quite a fall! How will you get back up?”

“Everything in time.”, Leon replied. “I guess you're coming with us?”

“I...I don't like being so far away from the Condor. It's still hurt, and you don't have a vessel to carry me in.”

“What's the worst that could happen to it, where it is? Here.”

He held up the piece of glass.

“That's compatible with Mu tech, right? You could use it.”

Esteban touched to it, dubious, and the light of his fingers refracted all over the cave walls. The rock was shimmering in parts, like it was covered in glitter; there were flecks of gold incrusted all over the cracked stone.

“I suppose it will do. Now, we have to find a way out...”

“We could go forward this way.”, Tina suggested. “That's basically the only path.”

“You heard the witch. Let's go.”

And so, the three of them set forward, Esteban lighting up the path.
[…]

Read the rest at https://archiveofourown.org/works/23790 ... s/58515694


J'aime bien ce chapitre car y'en a un qui meurt.

[Este]

Celui-là est un de mes préférés !

[Sandentwins]

Celui-là est un de mes préférés !

Ça fait plaisir. Hésite pas à préciser, car les retours du public sont importants. C'est quoi que tu préfères, l'action ? Les personnages ?