Perduto Città

Concept by Navale Written by Nami and Navale

The sun beat down gently on the small Wyoming town, warming the roofs of the humble buildings. Main Street sloughed the cover of night as store owners and homemakers opened windows and doors to let the morning sunlight in. Dogs barked merrily and birds chirped serenely from their perches in the trees, proving that life would commence peacefully in the town once again, as it had for years.

The town's old library was no exception. Standing at the far end of Main Street, away from the business centre, the stone building was the only occupied structure for a half a block. It stood proud and wise at over a hundred years old; a great American structure, as far as Wyoming went. And that was just fine for the slightly eccentric college grads that lived in the large and worn building.

The library hadn't been frequented since the town had built a new one twenty years earlier, and the two girls, who were new to the town, had pounced on the abandoned building immediately. It was still stocked with remnants of old books that no one had thought worthy of relocating to the newer library on the other end of the district. It was a simple paradise for a simple pair like themselves.

The ones who dwelt in the old building were considerably less than neat, and it showed in the stacks of papers, maps and books that littered the three-roomed building. No place was safe from the mess, including the office, where one of the girls slept, face resting atop the cluttered desk. Her oversized shirt sat in folds around her arms, the long sleeves pushed up in her chaotic sleep. Dark hazel brown hair surrounded her face in complete disarray, much like the home in general.

Stacks of old papers surrounded her, supporting precariously piled books that threatened to fall at the slightest touch. Worn maps were scattered about, hanging dangerously over the edge of the old French desk. However, the girl had no interest in touching the books or the maps. In fact, she had little interest in doing anything but finishing her rather adventurously thrilling spy-themed dream. Her roommate, however, had different ideas.

The large wooden door floated open, revealing a second girl dressed in an off-white tank and grey capris, covered by a frilly pink apron. Her black hair sat neatly combed around her face, falling just past her chin in soft layers. She was balancing a full tray in one hand, and was using her other hand to hold the heavy old door open. For a brief moment, she was silent. Her violet eyes traveled around the room, taking in the piles of dust- covered papers and stacks of maps and books that littered the floor, ceiling-high shelves, and desk in the small office. Then the moment passed.

"Breakfast!" she smiled, and called out louder than was really necessary.

The sleeping girl's jungle green eyes flew open and she jumped in surprise, reaching out with her hand, reaching for something that had most likely been there in her dream and had failed to follow her into the real world. Unfortunately, she did hit something. One of the precarious stacks of leather bound literature. The volumes fell with a clatter, startling the newly awake girl into descending from her chair and onto the hard wooden floor, surrounded by fallen books. A pile of papers sitting near where the books had been swayed, and both girls held their breaths, pleading mentally with the manuscripts not to fall. They both sighed in relief as the papers settled, only a page or two having been disturbed into sliding innocently to the desktop.

"Raine." The brown haired girl groaned, rubbing her head. ".I am in the same room as you. You don't have to shout."

"Sorry, Hazel." Raine said sheepishly, though a mischievous smile glinted across her face. "I brought you breakfast!"

"Sounds good." Hazel said, reaching for the desk and pulling herself off the ground. "What is it?"

"Cake and tea!" Cried Raine, cheerfully. Hazel had to fight to keep from falling again.

"Ah, Raine, I don't want to sound critical or anything, but. can you make anything besides cake?"

"Oh, sure." Raine said, setting down the tray and handing her friend a cup of tea. "I can bake cookies and brownies and cinnamon bread and--"

"Ah, forget it." Hazel cut her off, waving her hands to emphasize the words. "Never mind, Raine. Your baking is good, but I'm not quite in the mood for cake.. again. If it's OK with you I'll fix myself something later." A look of disagreement passed briefly over Raine's features as she looked at the cake. It was gone in an instant, however, replaced by her radiant and constant smile.

"More for me! Yay!" replied Raine, and she dug into the still-warm spice cake using the extra fork she had brought just in case Hazel had this reaction.

"You know," she said, her mouth full of cake, "this place is a mess. We really should clean it up." Hazel nodded in agreement and sipped her tea cautiously, looking around the room. A pile of old world maps sat chaotically in the corner, smudged with pencil marks made by the aspiring explorers. Nearby, on the tall wooden shelves that covered the walls sat hundreds of leather bound books, all piled half-hazardly as if someone had thrown them there. Some of the books were worn and dirty, slowly deteriorating, while a few were newer volumes, the leather still shining. Many of the titles contained the words 'history', 'ancient', and 'mystery', such as the volume on the floor next to Raine. She picked up the slightly worn book cautiously, setting it on the already cluttered desk.

"We haven't gotten anywhere with that adventure in a while, eh?" sighed Hazel, reaching for the book Raine had just set nearby. She picked it up, holding it close and examining the old dust covered leather binding.

"Corana: An Ancient Mystery." Raine read the title, setting her fork down on the cake-crumb covered plate. She let her everyday smile take over her face as she reached and adjusted the teetering maps beside the desk. Each one of them was a land map of the different areas of Finland, tracing the possible locations of where Corana may have been. Many of the maps had several large red X's across them, indicating a failure to find any clues towards the temple's whereabouts. Unfortunately, the girls didn't have the connections to travel to Finland for research, so most of their findings had been through the many dilapidated books that piled the room.

Raine walked with purpose over to the bookcases that covered the wall as Hazel began to pick up the books that had fallen in her waking. She set her hand on the dusty shelf, looking over the messy pile of literature that she was about to organize. It was amazing to see the many chronicles that had been left behind, some of them great literary pieces such as The Illiad and The Odyssey. Volumes upon volumes of history books had been deserted by the town, replaced by newer versions and computer programs in the new library.

The girls had been lucky to even come by the old library, for the town had been ready to tear it down, books and all. However, the two history enthusiasts were fresh out of college with money to spare and had managed to convince the mayor that the building was a historic landmark. The mayor had agreed, labeling the two young grads as the caretakers and handing them the deed for a fair price.

Indeed, they had come upon quite a find. The old library was full of historical information to feed their curiosity. After all, both the girls had majored in ancient civilizations and languages. The old building was their calling; a place where they could conduct the research that they hoped would one day make them famous, or at least earn them the adventure they so dearly wished for.

Hazel looked over at Raine and a smile crossed her face. The dark haired girl was working with determination, pulling the books out of their messy dust-covered hideouts and placing them neatly on the shelves in a row. Her violet eyes glinted with purpose as she blew the dust off the shelf, causing it to collect around her face and force a sneeze. Hazel laughed to herself.

They had known each other since kindergarten, and had spent most of their elementary lives digging in the sandbox for lost treasures, or diving in the pool in search of Atlantis. They were born adventurers who had grown in appearance but kept their childhood dreams. Many children changed their minds over and over as to what they wanted to be when the grew up, but Raine and Hazel had held steady in their convictions, always telling their parents that together they would be great explorers who would discover a lost city, or perhaps evidence to the earliest life on earth. Their parents had laughed, telling them that they would find something else someday like every child did. But they were wrong. For there they were, 24 years old, recently out of college, living in an old library with the same dreams of finding something that would change their lives. Unfortunately, nothing had happened so far. Their research on Corana was waning, and the resources that gave them clues on its whereabouts were vague and hard to come by. Part of their dream was dying.

"Hey Raine, lemme help you with that. Those shelves are too huge for one person to clean all alone." Said Hazel, leaving the desk and walking over to the shelves where Raine continued to organize.

"Alright! I've already done this shelf, but that one is a little high up. Do you think you could climb up there and toss down the books so I can put them down here with the rest?" asked Raine, pointing up at a shelf about ten feet off the ground. The shelf only had three books on it, but they were treasures all the same.

"Of course." Replied Hazel, grabbing onto the dusty shelves and climbing up to rescue the books. "This shelf?" she asked, pointing.

"Yup! That one!" cheered Raine, walking over to the next shelf and beginning to organize it. "Just be careful!"

Hazel sighed, reaching for the first book. It was one of the newer ones with the leather still shining. She tossed it down, cringing at the loud thunk it made as it hit the wooden floor. She tossed the second one down more carefully, smiling as she noted that it was one of the older history books they loved so much. Reaching for the third book she paused, confused.

"Hey Raine, this one isn't a book! It's a journal of some sort! A manuscript perhaps." stated Hazel, holding it up so Raine could see the worn leather cover, tied together over many hand written pages.

"Really!?" cried Raine, running over to the bookcase that Hazel was on. "Ooh ooh! What does it say!?"

Hazel turned the cover open cautiously, looking inside at the smudged pages.

"Hey! This is a research document!" cried Hazel, once again holding it out excitedly so Raine could see. Unfortunately, this time she leaned a little too far, giving the dusty shelf a chance to force her off the side of it and to the ground below.

"Hazel!" Raine shouted, running to her friend's side. She had managed to fall on the wooden floor without landing on any scattered books or papers, but in her fall she had broken a few of the rotting floorboards.

"Owwww." whined Hazel, rubbing her side. Raine held out her hand for Hazel to take, pulling her up off the floor and onto her feet.

"Are you okay!?" asked Raine, pulling a few splinters out of Hazel's long messy braid.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just another clumsy moment from the Queen of mistaaaAAAHHHHH!" Hazel cried out as she fell again, her foot caught in the hole she had just made in her tumble onto the floor. Luckily Raine was standing close enough to catch her friend easily as she tumbled towards the ground. This time, however, something caught her eye.

"Hey Hazel, move your foot!" The other girl looked at her, exasperated.

"I just tried that. It didn't work. I thought we'd covered that?"

"I mean move it out of the hole, silly! I think you may have found something!"

Hazel obediently and willingly extracted her foot from the self-made tear in the floor as Raine crouched beside the hole eagerly, pulling up the broken floorboards.

"Raine? Why, may I ask, are you ripping apart the poor old floor?" asked Hazel, trying desperately in her curiosity to look around her friend to get a look, not having any luck.

"For THIS!" Raine held up a stack of aged papers and a thick old manila envelope. Across the front of the envelope, in a seemingly ancient English script, was one word: "Aegypta".