Blackbird

Chapter 27 : Sacred Sirens

"Annunakis were Gods of the first civilization of the earth- this is what I've come to believe after my extensive research works. They helped to shape humanity's future- by teaching them about agriculture and crops, pottery and weapons, literature also seems to have propagated during that era as many cuneiform or clay tablets with curious writings have been discovered today- of course they are in a pretty bad shape but we can make out the important details necessary…Their accounts were recorded in the form of clay tablets and were held sacred by the later civilizations.People sang songs and wrote poems about these ancient beings but the records were lost in time. I believe that some ancient historians even knew the true language of these Gods and must have recorded in their cuneiform tablets…"

Patrick kept on reading and matching the samples of the scans with his papyrus. An hour later after an intense study he found out that the papyrus was not of that age and time but was merely an inspired work refering to the old ages- it was probably written during the middle ages by some unknown historian but it wasn't in any known language new or old! He reopened the scans again and continued reading-

"I call it 'the language of the Gods' because it cannot be spoken by any mere mortal- it can however be written down and understood or translated but can never be spoken in any human tongue…I have been fortunate enough to come by a peculiar looking tablet that was written in the same obscure language and have started to translate it… ", Patrick was intrigued and continued-

"I have made an attempt to reconstruct its vocabulary and grammar and made the following dictionary so that I can

continue to understand the ancient world…", Patrick opened the next scan and as soon as he did he saw pages and pages of weird scribbles and their corresponding meanings in English. He matched the scribbles with his papyrus. The words started to make sense. After an hour he made a crude translation of the language in the papyrus. It read:

"Here lies the gateway to anywhere and nowhere..."

-and then the rest was torn off. Then right below it were drawings of weird humanoid figures with elongated heads who seemed to worship in a circle around a portal looking structure that had a huge spiral in the middle. Patrick continued translating

the text beneath it, which had been smudged and torn in places-

"the true of heart shall pass,

with an offering of blood and sweat,

on the hand of the doorway he shall pour,

his true intentions and his soul...

Beware the greedy and evil ones,

for thou shall incur the wrath of Anki …

On a dark moonless night,

When one looks at the sky,

one shall find the passage …

white stones shall guide the way,

into the final place of the ancients…

The door leads to anywhere and nowhere,

to heaven or to hell…

Anyplace your heart desires,

and which your soul seeks truly…

Folow Orion in heaven,

Place thy hands on the gate,

Speak the lord's name thrice…

As in heaven, so on earth…"

He wondered why would anyone write such a poem- instructing exactly where to look and how to get there. Furthermore the Turkish word "Hoyuk" that was smudged out puzzled him too. The very existence of this word on an ancient text meant that someone in the modern world knew what this poem meant and had this text in his or her possession. Who knew that this old piece of ruin would hold so much mystery.

He drew a deep breath and rubbed his eyes and began to wonder what the text meant -

"The final place of the ancient must indicate one of the Tepes like the one here… but follow Orion? As in sky?", thought Patrick trying hard to make sense of the words.

He looked at his watch again- it was midnight-12 a.m. He wasn't feeling sleepy anymore, so he decided to take a walk outside.

"Is there really 'a gateway to anywhere'? But that would mean that there existed some kind of time portal in the ancient days…",

he kept thinking as he walked towards the excavated mound. He looked around, the entire camp was silent and the security guards were patrolling the perimeter. Hans' tent was dark -

"Old fox must be sleeping soundly now that I'm here to do his dirty work…", thought Patrick walking in the darkness towards the excavation site.

Far away he could here the howling of a wolf in the barren mountains.

He began to feel a strange kind of anxiety as he got closer to the mound. It was left unguarded with a single lightbulb hanging on a pole. He stopped for a brief moment and looked up towards the dark starlit sky. There was no moon that night and the constellations shone brightly.

"Hmm.. Orion….Oh! I get it now ..the constellation…. ", whispered Patrick to himself.

"Where is it? Ugh… " , he began to scan the night sky with his bare eyes.

After a minute of looking, he saw it right above his head. It was shaped like a belt- which is why it was known as Orion's belt.But Patrick had to find out how the constellation would lead him towards the gate.

"As in heaven, so on earth… hmm… heaven, earth… follow Orion… maybe I should find the pattern of Orion on land… but how? ", thought Patrick wondering if his assumptions were correct.

"Ah!What the hell? White stones!", exclaimed Patrick as he noticed some bizzare stones on the entrance of the mound.He began to run towards the excavation site.

"There it is… the stones are the markers on land… ", thought Patrick as he reached the entrance of the mound. Patrick had never seen anything like this ever. Small stones about the size of the human palm were lying perfectly arranged one after the other in a curved line like a road leading straight into the exacavated mound.

It was a bizzare sight to witness the stones lighted up dimly on the ground amidst the ruins. Patrick followed them but after five stones the trail ended.He kneeled down and began to remove the dirt with his hand trying to find the rest. Sure enough he found another buried under the layer of sand. He kept doing this until he found another and then another. He kept following the trail until he stood inside the mound. There were no more stones to uncover.

"Holy Christ! The text is indeed true… But what next?", thought Patrick as he looked around the site