Nibiru Returns

by Tod Eten

  ‘Toth has arrived’ Skyla said still looking at the sky.

  Aiden could now see that the object was descending and looked like it was going to land at the head of the valley.

  ‘Come’ Skyla said impatiently and Aiden followed her back up the valley.

  By the time Aiden and Skyla reached the top of the valley Aya and some of the others had already gathered looking up at the airship. Aiden could now see that the object was some sort of bullet shaped air balloon underneath which was attached a large basket that was big enough to carry a dozen people or more.

  ‘Hello, grab the ropes’ Toth called down to them leaning over the edge of the basket. Then a moment later four ropes came snaking down from basket. Hands grabbed hold of the ropes as the airship descended and gently settled on the ground. As soon as the basket landed Toth leapt out and walked towards the gathering crowd of onlookers.

  ‘Aya, you are as radiant as ever’ Toth smiled, ‘and Aiden how are you finding your new self?

  ‘You are a long way from the comforts of your home Toth’ Aya said giving Toth a hug, ‘don’t tell me the muses have kicked you out!’

  ‘Ah yes I miss them already’ Toth said a faraway look coming to his eyes. ‘But never mind I am here to save you all! Yes the great Toth will save you’ he said raising his voice theatrically spreading his hands out wide like a new messiah. ‘But first is that coffee that I can smell! I have not had coffee in a thousand and more years!’ Toth said sniffing and walked off in the direction of the smell.

  ‘So great Toth how is it that you are going to save us?’ Aya finally said as Toth started on his second cup of coffee.

  ‘Ah yes, well you remember how you told me about getting that key from Silenus’ Toth said looking at Aiden who nodded in reply. ‘Well when you left I remembered something about the key it was something I read once. What I remembered was that it was keys not key, there are more than one of them!’

  ‘You mean we need another key?’ Aiden exclaimed.

  ‘Two keys actually’ Toth said with an infuriating smile.

  ‘Where are these keys Toth?’ Aya now asked.

  ‘Yes well that took some time for me to find out you see I eventually found out that one of my students had translated an account by Shulgi, whom I am certain was the creator of Eden. So I guessed that within this translation I would find the answer to the location of the keys. My only concern was when I did eventually find this translation I saw that it had been written by a student of mine called Homer. A clever boy but his head was always full of monsters and heroes. He would tend to embellish his work with these monsters and such! Kept saying he wanted to make things more exciting. There was even a prophecy about bringing the three together to stop chaos. How many times I told him stick to the science it is facts we record only!'

  ‘Toth’ Aya interrupted ‘What did you find out?’

  ‘I’m glad Gagan isn’t here or we’d all be here forever’ Seth whispered in Aiden’s ear.

  ‘Yes what did I find out?’ Toth paused trying to gather his thoughts.

  ‘The keys remember Toth’ Aya encouraged him.

  ‘Yes the keys that’s right there is more than one you know, well of course you know I just told you! Yes there are two more keys that are hidden in temples much the same as the first one was and you will need to get them to find Eden. You see this is not Eden’ Toth said waving his arm around the valley. ‘This is a doorway to Eden which is’

  ‘A planet somewhere in the constellation of Orion’ Aiden said finishing Toth’s sentence for him.

  ‘Orion yes’ Toth said frowning, ‘but how did you’

  ‘Oh not me, it was Gagan who worked it out’ Aiden replied.

  ‘Gagan, what a clever human’ Toth said somewhat annoyed. ‘Ah but does he know where the other keys are?’ Toth said cheering up.

  ‘No none of us do’ Aya said now frowning.

  ‘Well I do!’ Toth said with a smug smile.

  ‘And!’ Aiden said staring at Toth rapidly losing his patience.

  ‘Well the first key, the Key of Fire is in Sela the Temple of rock and the second key, the Key of Air is in the temple of Solomon. You already have the key of the Earth.’

  ‘I have never heard of these places’ Aiden said looking at the others.

  ‘The Temple of Solomon was the first temple built in Jerusalem but it was destroyed thousands of years ago and now in its place there is the Dome of the Rock’ Aya answered him.

  ‘The temple is destroyed! Then this is all pointless’ Seth exclaimed.

  ‘Destroyed no no’ Toth shook his head. ‘In the early days we always built our temples inside the rock, much easier you see, we just cut a hole in the rock and we made a temple.’

  ‘So where is this temple them?’ Seth asked puzzled.

  ‘It is underneath of course.’ Toth smiled.

  ‘So why has no one else found it?’ Aiden asked.

  ‘Because the entrance is hidden, but do not worry I know where it is’ Toth grinned.

  ‘OK and what about this Sela Temple where is that?’ Aiden now asked.

  ‘It’s the temple at Petra’ Gagan answered out of breath as he slumped down beside them. ‘I’ve just run up the valley’ Gagan explained seeing the looks on their faces.

  ‘Yes Petra!’ Toth said looking at hard at Gagan.

  'So this second key is in the Temple at Petra!' Gagan repeated.

  'Underneath actually, the Temple you speak of is a modern temple that was built above it some time later!' Toth replied rather pompously.

  ‘Is that far from here?’ Seth interrupted.

  ‘Both Jerusalem and Petra are both nearby’ Toth answered.

  ‘Then I need to go there and get them’ Aiden said firmly.

  ‘There are just a few small problems’ Aya reminded Aiden. ‘We have various armies shooting at everything and anything. There are the Demos and their pets roaming around and finally the Anunnaki who are now out there as well. Not to mention how do we get there and back’ Aya said counting off the problems on her fingers.

  ‘To get there and back is no trouble, we can use my airship. But time is short the Anunnaki are gathering themselves and when they strike all will be lost’ Toth warned.

  ‘Then I will go now’ Aiden said.

  ‘And I am coming with you’ Aya said daring Aiden to say no.

  ‘You cannot come with me Aya your oath is to look after the people here’ Aiden said nodding towards the people in the valley.

  ‘My oath is also to you’ Aya said refusing to give an inch.

  ‘Our bound can never be broken Aya but your duty is to look after the people here before all else this is how it must be!’ Aiden said holding up his hand to stop Aya saying anything more.

  ‘Aya may not be going but I am coming with you’ Gagan said smiling.

  ‘And why is that?’ Aiden asked with raised eyebrows.

  ‘Well you can’t be in two places at once and Toth said time is short’ Gagan shrugged as if it was obvious.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Aiden said.

  ‘You have to get two keys and Petra is one direction’ Gagan pointed, ‘and Jerusalem is another’ and Gagan now pointed in another direction. ‘So it will be quicker if you go to one and I go to other.’

  Aiden thought over what Gagan had said and nodded his head in agreement ‘that does make sense.’

  ‘If the both of you think that you are going to do this alone you have another thing coming especially you Gagan you might be clever but you will trip over your own feet’ Aya said in determination.

  They argued for sometime about who should and should not go until it was eventually agreed that Gagnan would be accompanied by Hoshi, Seth and Li and that Aiden would be accompanied by Long only. They quickly made preparations for their journey and a short while later they were climbing aboard Toths airship.

  ‘Why will you not take some more help?’ Aya said her arms wrapped around Aiden.

  ‘I told you Aya Jerusalem is
the centre of this holy war that we have heard about. So it will be crawling with people and soldiers, the fewer of us there are the better our chances of not being seen’ Aiden replied.

  ‘But you will be careful I have only just found you’ Aya said burying her head in his chest to hide the tears in her eyes.

  ‘Aya’ Aiden said gently lifting her chin so that she was once more looking into his eyes. ‘I made an oath to Nimrod that I would look after you and that is what I intend to do’ and with that he kissed her.

  Toth’s airship was a simple enough craft the bullet shaped balloon dwarfed the sturdy basket that was attached beneath it, which Aiden and his friends now stood in. Attached to the outside of the basket, one on each side, there were two long cylinders that Toth said pushed the airship forwards. The basket itself was empty except for a small control panel at the front which had a number of levers that Toth now began pushing and pulling in response the airship lifted up off the ground. The craft rose quickly into the blue sky and Aiden and the others waved goodbye to their friends who remained below.

  ‘I still think that we should have waited till dark’ Seth said looking nervously around, not at all comfortable with the airship and their increasing height above the ground.

  ‘It will be fine, the Anunnaki are in the North and we are going South first‘ Toth said over his shoulder.

  ‘What about our soldiers then, if they see us they will shoot’ Seth said gripping tightly to the side of the basket.

  ‘I will follow the mountains only the goats will see us do not fear’ Toth laughed.

  Seth muttered something under his breath and sat down in the basket so he could no longer see how high they were.

  As Toth had promised he flew them south through the mountains and the only things that they saw were the few birds and animals that lived in those high places while high above them the planet Nibiru, which could now be seen clearly in the daylight looked down on them.

  ‘We are nearly there’ Toth called to them around mid afternoon and he started taking the airship down towards the ground.

  ‘Where is it?’ Gagan asked eagerly

  ‘Over there through that passage way’ Toth pointed ahead as he landed the airship. ‘I will pick you up from here in the morning’ Toth said as Gagan and his group climbed out of the basket.

  ‘Now be careful all of you and Gagan just get the key and get out of there, it is too dangerous to waste time sightseeing!’ Aiden ordered looking directly at Gagan who grinned back in reply.

  Gagan and his friends watched the airship take off once more quickly rising up into the clear blue skies.

  ‘OK lets go’ Gagan said and they set off towards the passageway that Toth had shown them.

  The passageway cut through the hills for a couple of hundred yards where it then opened out into a valley. They stopped in the shadows of the opening to the valley and took a look around for any signs of trouble.

  ‘Well it looks clear’ Seth said after a while.

  ‘Yes but where is this temple? All I can see is rock’ Hoshi said.

  ‘Well Toth said it was here!’ Gagan said trying to sound confident.

  ‘Do you think we should wait till dark!’ Hoshi suggested.

  ‘We may not find our way back in the dark and we still do not know where the temple is’ Gagan said frowning.

  ‘If we follow the edge of valley here and keep in the shadows we should remain hidden’ Li said.

  ‘Yes good idea’ Gagan agreed.

  The group set off with Li taking the lead as they made their way cautiously through shadows of valley edge using whatever cover they could find to hide their passage. Stopping every few yards to check for danger so they made their way slowly up the valley with still no sign of the famous Temple of Petra. Ahead of them they could see a large out crop of rock that would place them in full view of the whole valley when they tried to get around it.

  ‘What are we going to do about that’ Seth whispered urgently.

  ‘We will work something out when we get there’ Gagan said trying to remain positive.

  When they got to the rocky outcrop they could see that they had no option but to go round it as it was too high to climb over.

  ‘Well I guess we have to wait until dark now’ Seth whispered once more.

  ‘I think this place is deserted’ Li replied looking around the valley, ‘let me go take a look’ and with that she quietly made her way out and around the outcrop. The remaining three stayed hidden watching Li’s progress until she disappeared from view.

  The minutes passed by and soon the remaining three friends started to look at each other anxiously beginning to fear the worst. Finally to a collective sigh of relief Li appeared around the rocky out crop once more and signalled for them to follow. Still keeping low they quickly moved to where Li was waiting. As soon as they reached Li she indicated for them to follow and quickly set off again. As they moved around the outcrop a beautiful site came into view. There set into the face of the cliff before them and rising a hundred feet or more glowing pink in the late afternoon sun were the stunning remains of the Temple of Petra. The Columns and arch ways of the temple had been carved out of the very rock itself and in the middle a single entrance had been cut into the face of the cliff side. Without stopping to admire the view Li urged them all to follow her as she led them into the entrance of the Temple and soon they were all safely inside in its cool dark depths.

  ‘There is no one here’ Seth exclaimed stating the obvious.

  ‘There have been people here, I saw signs outside that many people were here not so long ago’ Li said looking out at the valley beyond the entrance.

  ‘You think they will come back?’ Gagan said looking at Li.

  ‘Let us be quick’ Li replied without answering.

  ‘So where is it?’ Seth asked.

  ‘Toth said that the room we are looking for is a small temple and it would be somewhere at the back of all this underneath this temple’ Gagan said taking his flash light out and lighting up the back of the large hall room they were in. ‘There’ Gagan said showing a passageway that led deeper into the hill.

  They followed the passageway which led into another smaller room which had more passageways leading from it.

  ‘Now where?’ Seth said looking around the room.

  ‘I don’t know I guess we will have to try each one’ Gagan replied.

  They followed the first passage which led to a dead end and retracing their path they then went down the second route. This passage led to several more rooms some of which had some ancient inscriptions and faded drawings as well as some modern graffiti, but nothing that looked like the ancient temple they were looking for. The third passageway was much the same as the second with a similar number of smaller rooms but nothing that fitted the description that Toth had given them as did the final passage when they tried that.

  ‘So what do we do now?’ Seth asked.

  Gagan looked at Hoshi who was as puzzled as he was, it’s got to be here somewhere’ Gagan said in frustration.

  ‘They believed in horoscopes then just like we do!’ Seth said to no one in particular.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Gagan asked.

  ‘See there on the wall that is a fish, pices right, There were other horoscope signs in the other rooms. You know a bull, a crab, a ram, a scorpion. They must have came here to get their star signs read’ Seth concluded.

  ‘Wait scorpion!’ Gagan said hurriedly, ‘where was that?’

  ‘It was in one of the rooms... down the second passageway I think’ Seth replied with a frown.

  ‘Where show me’ Gagan said already going back to the second passageway.

  They followed Seth who after a few attempts finally found the room he was looking for and using his flash light showed them the image of a scorpion that was carved into the wall.

  ‘The scorpion was used to represent the underworld’ Gagan said looking at the carving.

  ‘And look there below it, that i
s also another symbol for the underworld’ Hoshi now pointed out.

  ‘And the underworld always led into the earth’ Gagan said triumphantly.

  'Under the this temple is where the original temple is!' Hoshi exclaimed.

  'Yes exactly' Gagan grinned.

  The pair of them examined the wall for several minutes but could find nothing more.

  ‘I do not understand’ Gagan said.

  Li now looked at the wall and laid the palms of her hands flat against the surface of the rock and closing her eyes seemed to go into a trance.

  ‘There is something behind here’ Li said after a while opening her eyes once more. ‘Please can you all stand back.’

  The others did as she requested and Li once more closed her eyes deep in concentration the open palm of her hand a few inches away from the face of the wall. Then with the flat of her hand Li struck the wall with a dull thud. Nothing happened but Li was not finished. She once more struck the wall with a thud and this time a crack appeared, on the third blow the wall exploded inwards revealing a space beyond.

  ‘I told you she could break blocks’ Seth exclaimed pleased with himself.

  With their flashlights they looked into the opening that Li had created. Then Gagan wasting no time quickly went through the gap where he a few paces on he found a set of stairs cut into the rock leading down into the depths of the earth. At the bottom of the steps there was another passageway that led them into a small chamber that was covered in strange symbols and drawings, at the far end of the room was a crude stone alter. The room fitted Toth description exactly so they knew they had finally found the temple that they had been looking for!

  ‘Now we just need to find the key’ Seth said looking around the empty chamber.

  They looked around the room which again was covered with inscriptions. Behind the alter, which was a solid wall of stone there were twelve recesses in the wall each containing a stone ball. Above each was carved a single symbol representing one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac.