Light

CHAPTER 4- HOW MUCH ANCIENT?

Ael'a came closer to the structure and put her hand on it. as she looked closely and examined the texture with her hand, she realized that it was ice? wait, ice? "the whole structure is made of ice?" she thought aloud and heard a "huh?" from Zover who was also doing the same thing nearby.

before Ael'a could say anything else, she heard a loud clunk sound coming. she looked toward the direction of the sound and nearly screeched at Zover. who was already moving on to the next tool to better hit or break the ice with. "stop, Zover, what do you think are doing?" she yelled as loud as her lungs could allow her. as much as she respected Zover, she was not going to allow an over educated pilot to damage the ancient structure. 

"what?" snapped Zover at Ael'a, who was now  carefully examining the damage that he had done. "we need to study it carefully Zover, we can not risk any kind of damage here." Ael'a sighed. "i know, and i am not doing any kind of damage, i am just... breaking the ice." Zover said, thoughtfully scratching his head. "what do you mean?" Ael'a asked, now a little bit frustrated. 

"what? you can't see, i thought you were a student of ancient studies!" Zover said half sarcastically. " this whole structure is covered in ice, the blackness that you see is ice, years of ice layered and somehow has turned black," he said, ready to hit the ice again."if we want to see the real metal or whatever these structures are made of, we need to penetrate through the ice", he finished while hitting the ice again. 

Ael'a was scanning the structure and was amazed at how quickly Zover had figured it out. it was not exactly hard to figure out, but still for an over educated pilot, it was not half bad either. Ael'a looked around and noticed everyone had started to hit the ice, with whatever tool they could get their hands on. "should not have admired for that long", she cursed herself and picked up a tool, and with a grunt joined the others.

After a long and tiring labor and many drills and tools later, the crew was finally getting close to something. whole crew was working on one spot as to not damage the structure unnecessarily. the decision was made after considering that the structures as big as they were, would still be weak. so, it was better to find one spot and start drilling there. every crew was working at assigned spots.

 on top of the tiring labor, the freezing storms were making things worse. but still, people worked on, for the hope was warmer than the bone chilling weather. 

Ael'a stopped to catch her breath for a while, when she heard a loud crashing sound. she looked toward the direction of the sound and noticed something shining. shining? wait! that is not possible. curious she made her way toward the light and noticed Zover, who was already there."what! how? he was just standing here." she looked around and saw that everyone was practically running toward the source of the light. 

As she got closer, a crowd was already there, jamming her way. still, she pushed here and there and somehow made it to the front, and was immediately overwhelmed by a bright light.  Velthunians were born in darkness, hence their eyes were naturally adapted to see very well in the dark. Sure, they had lightS but only small hand held torches and those too only in the need of emergency. nothing this bright and..warm? it was warm. the light that Ael'a was standing in front of was warm and somehow soothing. no Velthunian had ever experienced such kind of warmness and light. 

Ael'a and Zover and basically any Velthunian within reach of the light had closed their eyes. after standing with eyes closed and taking in the warm feeling, Ael'a finally opened her eyes carefully. her black eyes adjusting automatically, she looked at the wall which was now in front of her. the ice had been penetrated and beneath it was a wall. a wall made of some strange metal, which was illuminating its own bright yellow light.

"But, how is it possible?" Ael'a looked at Zover, who was also fascinated by what he was seeing. "I don't know Ael'a, but i am just thinking," he looked at Ael'a, her Blue hair shining in the light and her eyes twinkling. Zover took a deep breath and looked at the wall again,"that just how much different and ancient were the people, who lived here?"