Patricia Langstrom, Doctoral Fellow from Monmouth University, studying to be a forensic Anthropologist, and Archeologist, was barely five foot tall. Her long red hair was in a ponytail, and her small frame was fit after years of running, exercising, and making ready to embark on a career of archeological/anthropological digs in far away, exotic locations.
When her fiancée died in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban, and she finally reined in the emotions of her loss, she found the subject for her final dissertation. Somewhere in the Buriram Province, a 300 meter long "Reclining Buddha" sat waiting to be found.
The last text she'd gotten from Neal said he was looking at something there that she would really be interested in. He also began to tell her something else... when the text abruptly ended.
She finally had everything in hand, and the team was formed. Just after they arrived at the site, and she found an anomaly inside one of the ancient cloisters used by the monks centuries ago, Taliban attacked and killed everyone... but her.
After finding her way into the darkness, and being essentially buried alive, she found what many had been looking for. Dead tired from running, hiding, and with the adrenaline of the moment finally draining from her small body, she laid down to sleep before beginning her investigation of the site, as well as seeing if there was some way to extricate herself from the darkness of the massive chamber.
She woke outside, close to a road that had been destroyed in an avalanche. At the other end of the road was an ancient citadel. Skeletons lay everywhere, the main citadel all but destroyed, and the defenders left to rot. She found a book that told most of the story, but her mind wanted more. All she wanted was to return to the cavern, make her investigation, and find her way home... but this possible medieval structure, set, as far as she knew, in Afghanistan, piqued her curiosity.
She wasn't aware that she had been whisked to another world, and another time. Once she was made aware of the facts, she was offered a choice. Return home, make her dissertation, and live without knowing why the citadel was in ruins. Or stay in this world, travel back in time, find the clues to what happened here centuries before... and find a way to stop it.
She made her choice...
R.L. Pool is twice retired, US Army and Metrology Technician for the US Army. He lives on top of a mountain in Central Texas where he writes Fantasy for his young relatives, and sips coffee on his front porch.
