EAGLE THAT SOARS

Suddenly, all the gauges pegged to their max.  The gyro purred like two thousand violins.  What sweet music to my ears!  Now to disconnect the generator--If she still ran after that, all systems were go.  Immediately I closed the switch.  A high frequency so penetrating pierced my ears, echoing inside my brain.  I fell to my knees in intense physical pain.  Hysterically I tried to cover them and escape this torture.  As quickly as the sound attacked my senses, it disappeared.  Slowly I stood up, regaining my composure.  With a slight lump in my throat, I felt substantially weakened.  Awestruck by the sight now before my eyes, everything felt different.  My hair began to stand on end.  Electrical charges began to rhythmically dance all over the gyro housing.  It reminded me of Saint Elmo’s Fire.  I felt hypnotized.  At this point I plainly just didn’t have the courage to even care.  With the Power Plant continuing to race faster and faster, I realized I couldn’t control it.  It now seemed irrelevant; I had overlooked that possibility.

I stood motionless, astonished, yet calm as I watched Saint Elmo’s Fire slowly turn into a constant, brilliant blue haze; it grew tentacles that surrounded the entire gyro housing.  Unrelenting, they continued to engulf each and every part of the gyro.  Brighter and brighter they grew until my eyes burned, their acrobatic gesture coming increasingly and terrifyingly closer.  Quickly, I glanced at the rpm gauge: 86,000 and still climbing.  She produced so much energy that the other gauges were of no further use.  The windows began to explode, one by one.  I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw it move.  Yes!  It did!  She was slowly rising up off the floor, hovering like a dancing blue teardrop.  Like a bullet she headed straight up at indefinable speed, leaving me behind in the debris that was my home.

We followed him down the path back towards the cave.  We continued at a rather quick pace when we finally reached the spot.  Cliff and I immediately understood why Lewis was so excited about his discovery.

“I was holding on to that boulder for my life when this wall exploded in front of me.  Here look at this!  It’s smooth on both sides!”  Lewis picked up a portion of the fallen stone and handed us the piece.  We inspected the rock closely, each of us glancing at the new opening.  I could feel my own inner curiosity run rampant and then leap into hyper.  Lewis had discovered an ancient burial site of some kind.

We entered, surveying the remarkable sight before us.  Directly in front of us stood two rather large white marble slabs resting on clear crystal pillars.  Each one had a crystal canopy that covered the remains of some ancient traveler.  The visible remains of the deceased were bits and pieces of cloth and bones.  The skulls appeared to be almost a third larger than ours.  Suddenly, a cracking noise burst forward and each of us turned to head out the entrance.  The canopies crumpled and fell aside, without disturbing the remains.  Carefully, Cliff picked up a piece of the cloth still in a large enough piece to be handled.  After each of us touched it, he placed it back as the head fell to the side and then broke as it hit the floor.

“Look!”  Cliff exclaimed.  “A gold chain.”

We gathered closer as he slowly removed it, exposing a fairly large amulet on the end.  The amulet was round with an image of an eagle with a human face that stared back at us.