Tidbits #6

Unbroken Curse

Jayden and his archeology group found the burial site of a Medicine Woman from the 5th century. Strangely, Jayden also finds a crude leather book in his grandmother's secret room that was written in 426 by a Shaman.
His sister, Sofia, decodes the ancient runes, and they learn that a powerful curse cast sixteen hundred years ago destroyed the lives of their ancestors for centuries. If it remains unbroken, the curse will ruin the lives of future generations as well.
Dark memories of their childhood start to surface, and they’re stunned to realize the similarities between the tragedy of the family described in the Shaman’s book and theirs, sixteen hundred years later. They’re stunned by the conclusion that Jayden is in danger due to a family curse.
#books #reading #fantasy #magical #realism #Romantic #fiction

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Snippet from the book

Jayden, a handsome, young American archeologist worked in the third pit, alone, oblivious to the excitement just a few yards away. Although Helen wanted everyone to concentrate on the two holes, they’d found the artifacts in, Jayden convinced her to let him try the abandoned pit again. He pulled a crumpled handkerchief from his dusty overall pocket to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Phew! It’s already hotter in this hole than in the witch’s oven.” He mumbled under his breath while he pulled a hairband off his wrist and tied his shoulder-length, auburn hair into a man bun. I really need a haircut. He thought.

A few minutes later his chisel made a nerve-fraying sound as it touched metal in the ground. Energized by the thrill of the potential discovery, he began the painstaking work of carefully scraping the packed dirt around the rusty handle of an ancient sword. “Come on, beautiful! Show me your glorious body,” he whispered.

As he changed position and kneeled back down, he spotted a snake wiggling toward him from the dark corner of the ten feet wide hole. “Geeze!” he yelled and threw himself backward, not sure if the snake was poisonous or just an innocent garter snake that had fallen into the pit by accident. The moment his elbows hit the dirt and feet still up in the air, an arrow hit the exact spot he was kneeling on a second ago, with such force that the wide obsidian arrowhead nearly disappeared into the dirt with the shaft violently vibrating.

“What the hell!?” He cried out in fright and looked up. Six feet up at the mouth of the hole he saw his sister staring down at him, holding a recurve bow. She let out a furious scream and disappeared. “Sofia? When did you… how did you get here? Wait!” He yelled and scrambled to get to the stepladder as fast as he could. “Sofia! Wait!” he shouted as he climbed out of the hole.

The stout security guard woke to the high-pitched scream and jumped to his feet, feeling confused and stunned. “Hey! What are you doing there?” he yelled at the young girl running from the pit. She glared at the guard with a murderous expression on her face. Clenching her fists, she growled and ran toward the path between the thick bushes, and soon disappeared from sight. The guard grunted and stomped after her as fast as his heavy body could move.

Jayden, finally out of the hole, looked around frantically but didn’t see his sister anywhere. His teammates climbing out of the larger pit ran toward him and looked at him questioningly. “What happened?” one asked. “What’s going on?” others shouted.

“A woman just tried to kill me! She fired an arrow into my pit,” Jayden said running toward the narrow path. He couldn’t tell them his suspicions without proof about the woman being his sister.

His teammates followed, and they saw the small red car speeding down the dirt road and disappearing behind the bushes at the curve. Jayden fished his keys from his pocket and jumped into his beat-up Jeep.

“Comin’ with ya!” Rowan yelled and stuffed his large behind into the passenger seat.

“When did that woman get here?” Jayden questioned the guard.

“Uhm… I… I was in the tent putting away some tools when I heard the scream. By the time I got out of the tent, she was running toward the cars. I chased after her, but she was running so fast that I could only get a glimpse of her.” His eyes shifted from Jayden to the side mirror as he wiped the perspiration off his forehead.

“Where is your partner?”

“He drove to town to pick up the breakfast.”

“Oh, right!” Jayden shook his head. “But you shouldn’t have gone into the tent when everyone was in the holes.”

“I’m sorry, I apologize,” the guard mumbled feeling relieved that he hadn’t seen him sleeping on the job. “I couldn’t go after her because my partner gave me a ride this morning. I don’t have a car,” he added his excuse.

The Jeep accelerated as Jayden pressed the gas pedal harder. What the hell is going on? Did my sister just try to kill me? But how did she get here? She’s supposed to be in New York! Frantic thoughts chased each other in his mind while driving downhill like a madman. “Did you see her firing the arrow into the hole?” he asked the guard.

“No…” The guard hesitated, giving Jayden a side glance. “As I said, I was in the tent, but she carried a bow and had a leather quiver on her back,” Rowan speculated, holding onto dear life. His body was violently shaken by the speeding Jeep on the bumpy dirt road. “Man, you’re driving like a devil. Slow down!”

Jayden ignoring the guard’s protest, asked, “Did you see anyone else?”

“There was nobody else.” The guard braced himself holding onto the dashboard.

Suddenly, the Jeep jerked to the side, and it took all Jayden’s strength to hold onto the steering wheel. He stepped on the break slaloming between trees and bushes for a minute, finally, the Jeep stopped, crashing into a large tree. “Crap!” shouted, stepping out of the driver’s seat and inspected the blown tire and crushed front. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and called Helen. “I ran off the road and called the tow truck already, but could you send someone to take us back to the site?”

Helen sent one of the students to pick them up, and while they waited, Jayden called the towing company to take his Jeep to the repair shop. “I hope they can fix it,” he muttered.
“No worries, Joe at the shop can fix anything,” the guard said with a half-smile on his round face.

As soon as they got back to the dig site, Jayden spotted Helen standing by the largest pit. She called out, “Are you okay?”

Jayden nodded and walking to Helen he stood at the mouth of the hole and looked down. What he saw made him forget the attempt on his life and his crashed car. Scanning the half-unearthed skeletons of a horse and human, he stared at the smiling woman and feeling ecstatic, he shouted, “Helen, I can’t believe it! You’ve found a medicine woman!”

“Yes!” Helen replied, smiling at the young man. “Isn’t that exciting? Let’s go down and take a closer look.”

Both standing at the bottom of the pit, Helen called over to Jayden, “Come, look at the skull. Judging by her teeth, she must’ve been around forty when she was buried in full regalia. And her hand,” Helen pointed at the bones. “Look at that delicately carved falcon into her ring that looks like it was made of jade.”

Jayden took a sharp breath and bent down staring at the skeleton’s finger. Deep emotions constricting his throat, he whispered, “Helen, I need to talk to you, alone!”

“Okay,” Helen said, looking surprised. “Hey, people!” She called out. “All of you, go up and take a break.”

The student looked surprised but complied and climbed up on the stepladder, one by one.
“Helen, this is my ancestor!” Jayden whispered and turning his head he looked into Helen’s eyes.

“What? Oh, you mean in general like an ancestor of the Huns…”
​
“No.” Jayden sighed, straightening up. “I mean, my ancestor. The Turul bird with wide open wings holding a sword in its talons has been my family’s insignia since the 4th century when my ancestors were leaders of the Roaring Falcon Clan for generations. Look!” He extended his left hand and showed his gold signet ring to the astonished woman.

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Novela de suspenso sobre historia alternativa
Una maldición de malos actos incita una cadena ininterrumpida de maldad.
Una poderosa maldición lanzada hace mil seiscientos años destruyó la vida de sus ancestros durante siglos. Si no se rompe, la maldición también arruinará las vidas de las generaciones futuras.
La vida de Jayden está en peligro. Cuando encuentra un libro de cuero crudo en la habitación secreta de su abuela que fue escrito en 426 por un chaman, su hermana, Sofía, descifra las antiguas runas.
Aprenden sobre su maldición familiar y comienzan a surgir oscuros recuerdos de su infancia.
¿Es posible romper la antigua maldición y salvar a Jayden?