Sweat stung the eyes of the archaeologist as she concentrated. She was attempting to tie a proper knot around the eye hook in front of her, but she was having some difficulty.
"Gah, there!" The archeologist took a step back and tugged on the rope three times to signal that the crate was ready to be hoisted up. She was currently standing in a roughly hewn hole that was only several feet wide, but it made up for its lack of width with it's great depth.
The young student winced as she looked up and watched the crate move upward. She hoped dearly that her knot would hold, but she supposed she wouldn't have much time to regret it if it didn't. She pulled off her glasses and wiped them on her dirt stained shirt.
Her name was Penny Mint. At five six, she was a small woman with sharp features and short, unkempt hair. Her face was so smudged with dirt that it was difficult to tell her gender through her thick working clothes, but beauty was the last thing on her mind as she watched the crate disappear out of the small circle of light at the top of the hole.
"Thank goodness," she breathed a sigh of relief as she took up her flashlight. She swept it slowly over the ground to see if she had missed any of her excavation materials, then nodded in satisfaction.
A few moments later, the rope was lowered back down, and she grabbed the end of it to tie a loop.
"Oh, what?" her voice echoed dully in the deep sepulchre as she realized that a loop had already been tied for her. She smiled wryly and slipped her booted foot into the loop before grabbing onto the rope with both hands and tugging it.
She ascended gracefully as she stuffed her flashlight in her waistband. A moment later, she broke through the exit and took a deep breath. The air outside was hot and slightly humid, but compared to the heat of the hole she'd just come from it felt cool and inviting.
A young man offered her a hand, which she took gratefully. Once she'd gotten her bearings, she dusted herself off and faced him with a grin, "Do you think I'm incapable of tying my own knot?" She asked as she signed with her hands.
The young man, who didn't look much older than the girl, signed back, "
I thought you might want the help, also my knots are better."
The young woman laughed, "Can't argue with you there, thanks for the help," she said without signing as she spoke directly to him.
Her partner nodded once. His name was Trenton Kai. He was tall and of average build with deeply tanned skin and soft features. The first thing that most people noticed when they met him however, was the fact that he was deaf. Though he wasn't mute, he preferred to sign, and Penny had never heard him speak for as long as she'd been working with him.
That fact suited her just fine. At her first year of university studies, she took sign language as a second language course. She hadn't thought she'd have much use for it at the time, but when she met Trenton it had come to her aid quickly. Like her, Trenton was working for the university as an intern archaeologist, and currently the two of them were on their last assignment. If they were able to find enough specimens, or important enough, then their excavation would guarantee them their degrees.
"
Find anything good?"
Trenton asked with his hands as he knelt in front of the crate he'd hauled up.
"
Yes, a few Keptic shards. This reinforces our theory that the people who lived here before the Magdrabda knew how to use them, at least on some level."
Penny signed without speaking. The two had been working together for nearly a month, and signing had become as natural as speaking for her.
Trenton dug through the box carefully and held up one of the artifacts with a smile. He set it down and chuckled soundlessly,
"I thought you were crazy for wanting to go down there, but you might have cinched this deal for us."
"Not gonna say I told you so," she mouthed deliberately to him with a small, smug smile.
He laughed once more,
"Come on, you look a wreck, let's go cool off."
She nodded in tired agreement as she covered her face from the early afternoon sun, "Good idea."
Fifteen minutes later, Penny found herself sitting in the shade beside her partner with a tall cup of flavored water. The weather was unseasonably warm for that time of year, and as Penny looked up at the sky she could see the most distant sun beginning to set. The landscape was an interesting mix of jungle and desert, and there was a certain beauty to it that she knew she was going to miss when it came time for them to leave.
Trenton sighed heavily and settled back against the tree they were sitting under.
She turned to him and signed with one hand,
"What's wrong?"
He offered her a weak smile and shrugged,
"Just thinking about my own mortality; tomorrow is my birthday."
"Oh, you didn't tell me that before," she said with a bit of surprise. "You're like, what, thirty two?"
Trenton glared at her with a smile,
"I'm turning thirty one."
She giggled nervously, "I'm sorry, it's just that you have such an air of maturity about you."
He chuckled,
"What about you, miss youth?"
"You're not supposed to ask a lady her age," Penny signed as she spoke with a slightly flirtatious smile.
"Oh yeah? I think you owe me this information after that crack. How old, twenty seven?"
It was her turn to laugh, "You're too kind. I'm twenty nine; this is my last year of twenties and then it's all downhill from there."
"You're not exactly encouraging me,"
he snickered.
"I really thought you were younger, it must be your air of immaturity."
