She stood at the top of the mound, gazing across the meadow, to the line of trees. A magnificent line of giant Cottonwoods, standing all in a row, these graceful grey sentinels held a quiet wisdom, she mused.

Under her feet encased a mystery she had yet to unravel.

Turning back towards her Range Rover, bending down she gathered up her finds, and made her way back.

The arrowheads, the animal bones, the small shard of pottery, all encased in a ziploc. To be cataloged, and put away in a box with the rest of the finds. Then to spend some infinite time, locked away under the corridors of the Museum of Civilization.

The carbon dating had been clear, far as she was concerned. Yet it would never see the light of day. If it did, it would ruin her.

Humans did not go back that far in North America, or so she had been taught. As everyone had. Humans migrated over the Bering Strait thought most, but other theories existed. Regardless of which set of theories one favoured, Homo Sapian Sapian, or any Humanoid, went only as far back as possibly, 40,000 years in the Americas.

Yet she knew they were all wrong. This mound, and others of its ilk, said otherwise. But the work had all been suppressed, and few knew the true origins of humans upon these shores.

What would not be going back in a ziploc baggy where the ancient bones she knew rested safely in the knapsack she carried, along with all the evidence that she hoped to one day be able to share with others. Yet not this day.

This is what she had come back for. She had re-buried the bones the week earlier, when the dig for the ministry had wrapped up. Sending that fragment off to Ben at the lab had been a risk, but a calculated one. Under the guise of “could you just check this out, a colleague at the University here is not sure of the antiquity of his finds from a dig last year in Turkey“. Yet something else had pulled her back, something she couldn’t quite explain.

A longing. A whispered pleading inside, to return. So she had. Why?, she asked herself, again.

She had intended to never return. Yet, she reasoned, she only took the couple of bits. Those, with the other data would be enough. Compelled. That was how she felt, she realized finally.

Fine, fine, blawdy fine !!!!

And turning back towards the line of trees, she trudged down the otherside of the mound, heading towards the Cottonwoods.

The day had proven hot, and the sun had beat down on her raven black hair as she crossed the grassy meadow. Upon entering the shelter of the trees, she felt the cool forest embrace her, sheltering her from the ravaging sun.

It was then she spoke the words, just as she had been taught. Seconds ticked by, and a suddenly before her grew a mist out of the forest floor. The undulating smoky air grew, and began to obscure the woods around her. As the air thickened, she began the chant again, raising her voice, louder and louder.

And then, she disappeared. **

Standing on the other side of the meadow a dark shape emerged from the trees, blinked his eyes twice, and uttering a curse under his breath, started running for the spot where she had disappeared.

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written for The Daily Prompt