#Quick Archaeology Note: a white card is about the size of an insect card with basic info on the artifact that has a serial number and…

[rise-of-the-ancients]

For You, My Love…

A stone tablet was gently placed onto Terios’ table unexpectedly. With a grumbled sigh, Terios lowered his burger to his plate and crossed his arms to his chest. Weary eyes shifted upwards to see an eagerly waiting hedgehog batting her eyelashes and smiling warmly. AmyRose, Bygone Village’s only linguist anthropologist (and curator of the Bygone National History Museum), was always fascinated with the Ancient’s culture… specifically mythology and stories of love. Ever since Sonic dropped the ball and slipped Terios’ secret out to the others, the linguist had brought him many tablets and scrolls to decipher from the museum’s archives. Some, he admitted, were quite charming to review. It was nice to see that someone still cared for ancestral roots and voices from the past. Other made his blood boil and scoff at their existence. He had to remind himself not to bring biased perspective on their translations and meaning whenever he assisted her.

However, he was in no mood to assist Ms. Rose in the anthropology labs at the museum. He was not in the mood for translating tablets that consisted of flatbread recipes and witty jokes. Today was meant to be a period of tranquility and peace. All he wanted was a bit of peace and quiet from the others around him. Though he questioned if retreating to Meh Burger was the wisest option for solidarity, especially since Bygone Village was more active than usual. He should have expected such with all of red and pink heart-shaped decorations across the village square. It would also explain the reason for Amy’s very formal looking attire. Not that he cared much anyways. Perhaps he should’ve just stayed secluded in his cave on the outskirts of the village today.

“What is this,” he mumbled.

“The dress? Oh! Sticks, Percy, and I are doing a Gal-entines Day thing today since the boys have their own thing going on. Sonic asked me to pass the invitation to you since we ran into each other earlier. There’s nachos and video games and—“

Terios shook his head. “Not the dress,” he said in a lowered voice, “I meant the stone tablet.”

“Oh! Cliff gave me this while he was on a dig in Crater Lake,” AmyRose squealed. “I think that it’s a memoir. Stones that are polished and retouched with ochre paints appeared to be highly valued in Ancient culture. It’s been cared for immensely… even after the war over a thousand years ago! I know that you wanted to be left alone today, but this one is just too interesting to ignore. Do you think that you can help translate these glyphs for me? Please? Just something simple to note on a White Card?”

Terios drummed his fingers on his arms with a frown. “OMEGA is just as capable as—“

Just as he was about to finish his statement, Terios heard a cackle of laughter from behind. His eyes grew wide and his ears flattened as he listened to the cackling turn into screams. Terios shifted his eyes upwards to study the facial expressions of hedgehog next to him. Her once bright smile had turned into a sour grimace as she winced, sucking in her breath through clenched teeth as she watched the scene. Terios didn’t need to turn his behind his back to know what the situation was about.

“Step back,” he informed her as he reached for the stone.

As she opened her mouth to question his statement, the hedgehog let out a squeak as the table snapped in half. Terios, still seated, peered over the tablet to look at the remains of a once perfectly good table. Waddling from side to side in content, cyan colored eyes flickered open and observed it’s surroundings. After scanning the scene, the gray colored stone chirped in content to see Terios’ face. OMEGA. Of course OMEGA was getting in trouble when he wasn’t supposed to. Bringing him out in public to experience the new age of social development had seemed like an admirable idea at first. But seeing the rock golem’s head strive to cause chaos and purposefully run over people’s toes was causing some problems. He should have left him home, or at least in the care of the others. The mortals of this time period were not so used to mystical things as they once were a thousand years ago.

“TERIOS!” The rock golem’s head said gleefully. “GUESS-WHAT? MORTALS-IN-THIS-TIME-OF-AGE-ARE-EASIER-TO-SCARE. I-EMERGED-FROM-AN-INFANT’S-CRIB-AND-SCARED-A-LADY-WALRUS. SHE-SCREAMED-AND-THREW-ME-IN-THE-AIR!”

Terios shook his head and frowned as the rock golem cackled some more. “You know full well that you’re not supposed to be seen by the mortals. They’re too simple-minded to understand what you are.”

Amy cleared her throat and watched him hike his shoulders up. Most, not all mortals were ignorant and simple-minded. That was an understatement. He knew better.

“So…” Amy started, “do you think that you could translate real quick?”

Denying Amy once was a mistake that he vowed to never do again. He knew of the power that she contained when determined.

“Fine,” he mutter, “after this, I desire nothing more than to be alone.”

Terios turned the stone tablet to view on his lap and paused with his breath clenched between his teeth. Delicate relief carvings defined with ochre paint detailed a signature pen that he knew all too well. Even the score markings on the back, indicating an erased word, were a callback to a simpler, more loving time. As his eyes quickly skimmed the note on the tablet, Terios’ chest tightened as he read the final line, “for you, my love.” It was a poem that his soulmate had written to him many years ago. One that he had thought was lost as soon as the cold wars between the Ancients and Lyric began. Terios chuckled to himself with a faint smile. His fingers traced lightly over the ochre paints and faint etchings of the glyphs. It had been too long since he had seen the tablet. What a beautiful sign from the universe to show that their love for each other was still strong in spirit.

“That is classified information.” The hedgehog stood from the table and tucked the stone to his chest, “tell your antiquarian friend that I am pleased with the recovery. I will be apprehending this now.”

“W-Wait,” AmyRose stammered. She flung her arms around OMEGA—who had rocked back and forth for attention as he chirped a song—and trailed close behind the Titan. “Terios! You can’t take that! That belongs in a museum!”

“It belongs in my care. It was addressed to me.” Terios says as he tapped his clawed finger to the name scribbled towards the bottom.

“What do I tell Cliff? He’ll want to know what happened to the tablet.”

Terios turned on his heel and flashed her a cocky grin. “You’re very bright, Rose. You’ll think of something. Goodbye.”

And with that, Terios took his leave with the table held close to his chest. The ebony hedgehog studied the stone with care, running a finger over the engravings towards the bottom. “I love you too,” he cooed with a smile. “Always have, always will.”