Sophia had spent the last hour making sure that they all had everything recorded in their notebooks. By everything, she went everything; from the size and style of the chest, to the exact color and weight of it. She wanted everything to be perfect for the presentation that she was going to have. She finished up the last of the rounds, making sure everyone had all the same information before she headed back to the middle of the deck. Brushing away the bangs that fell in front of her face, she pulled the rest of her hair into a messy bun on the top of her head. She spotted Adrian, who was holding a crowbar, and frowned a bit.<br/><br/>"What's wrong," he asked, tilting his head slightly.<br/><br/>"You'll ruin it, I know you will," she said with a slight pout.<br/><br/>He rolled his eyes and looked down at the chest. "Do you see the size of that lock? There's no other way around opening the thing."<br/><br/>Sophia shook her head as she knelt down in front of the chest for the umpteenth time today. Slender fingers delicately held up the lock that was around the size of her palm. She traced over the designs, pursing her lips together. "No, no, I need you to break the lock from here," she said, pointing at the area she wanted broken. "If you can't open it like that, then I guess we could try picking the lock." She looked at Adrian, who was rather annoyed but she was the boss and things would be going the way she wanted.<br/><br/>"And if those don't work, we'll do it my way," Adrian grumbled while he started trying to fit the hook of the crowbar into the small bend in the lock.<br/><br/>Sophia watched for a while, though she soon found herself lost in thought. She crossed her arms over her chest and placed her chin in the grasp of her hand. Her green eyes stared intently at the chest, though she wasn't truly paying attention. Her mind had taken her somewhere else. What exactly would they find in the chest? It seemed to be well preserved, hardly ruined by the vicious currents of the ocean. She would study the depictions of the chest when she had it alone in her cabin. There had to be an important message on there. If only she could speak and read Atlantean. Of course, Greek had formed from the language, which later transformed into other languages. However, no one had ever taken the time to actually think that Atlantis had its own language. From what she had seen on the chest, she could recognize a few words but other than that, she knew nothing.<br/><br/>She suddenly felt this crippling fear in her chest. What if this chest had nothing in it? What if it had already been looted or it was a false chest. She knew that many rulers had decoy chests to hide their treasures then again finding a decoy was good enough. Deep down, she wanted to find more than a decoy chest. She gripped her chin a bit harder, the more she thought about it the more she felt like failure was looming over her shoulders. She couldn't feel like this, she had made a huge discovery! Her father and grandfather would be proud if they were standing with her. So she should be proud as well, but the need to find written proof was so necessary. Anyone could label this chest off as belonging to the Ancient Greeks but not Atlanteans. If she had the documents that told tales of Atlantis, written by Atlanteans themselves, then she could-BANG!<br/><br/>The sound of something breaking caused her to come back to reality. She jumped and panic contorted her face. What if they broke the chest?! She managed to push away the crew that had gathered around while she was lost in thought. Adrian looked at her with a bright grin, in his hand the now broken lock. The breath left her as she stared at the lock then back at Adrian. Her eyes moved to the chest, it was waiting to be opened. "What are you waiting for? This is your baby, you open it," Adrian said while nudging her closer to the chest. She glanced over at him and to the others of her crew, they beamed happily at her. She looked down at the chest, kneeling down before it. Her hands touched the side of the top, before she tried lifting it. "Son of a bitch," she wheezed out, before the lid slowly began to rise. "I need help."<br/><br/>Adrian and two other men came to her aid, all grunting as the four of them lifted the lid of the chest. When it was completely off, Sophia looked down into the chest. It seemed as if some water had leaked inside but there was hardly any kind of damage done to the goods. Shock finally settled in as she continued to look into the chest. With trembling hands, she slowly began to pull out the treasures that were at the top. "Oh...my....God," she breathed out, turning around the gold and precious jewels in her hands. She felt Adrian crouch down beside her, digging in as well, pulling out a short dagger, sheathed in silver, gold, and emeralds. The blade glistening in the sun, inscriptions and designs etched into the blade.<br/><br/>"Is this what you were looking for," he asked, as he continued to lay out the treasures.<br/><br/>"No," Sophia said. "Well yes, but I was hoping for some sort of journal or scroll; something that has handwriting by the people of Atlantis."<br/><br/>Once they had moved all the treasures out of the chest, Sophia reached down into the chest, feeling the soft material that lined the chest. This must have helped to keep everything dry. She almost felt a little disappointed that there was only treasure. That wasn't what her job was about, she didn't care about the riches found while excavating. She cared about the history that would be uncovered there was something about it that made this job so worth it. Her fingers bumped across something at the bottom of the chest. She pressed down; it was hidden beneath the lining. Unhooking a pocket knife from her hip, she carefully cut a slit in the lining. Wiggling her fingers into the cut, she froze. It was hard, slightly won and felt like the texture of leather. She pulled her hand away, staring down into the chest.<br/><br/>"What is it?" Adrian asked, noticing how strange she began to act.<br/><br/>She was almost afraid to reach back into the chest; she felt her heart flutter in her throat. It was pounding in her eyes. Reaching back into the chest, she took hold of the object, wiggling out from the incision she had made. In the light, a bound journal was within her hands. In gold, there was something written in Atlantean, the paper was stained but in decent condition. She placed the journal in her lap, staring down at it with wide eyes. Everyone around her feel silent, she could hear the sound of her heavy breathing. Was this really happening? She was going to hyperventilate, she knew it.<br/><br/>"You did it FiFi," Adrian breathed out in awe.<br/><br/>"I-I...w-we did it," she said in a slow voice, looking over at Adrian. A huge smile brightened her face. "We did it, Adrian!! Everyone we did it!!!" She exclaimed while pulling her companion into a tight hug, giving him a celebratory kiss on the cheek. The crew let out a roar of excitement, giving each other hugs and slaps on the back. Sophia pulled away from Adrian, holding the journal in her shaking hands. She couldn't believe that this was happening. How long had her family waited? Fifty years of waiting and here it was, in her hands. Her breathing hitched as she felt her emotions overwhelm her. Tears began to fall from her eyes and she covered her face as she cried. She was too happy to care that she was crying in front of her crew.<br/><br/>She had finally found all the proof that was would need.<br/><br/>------<br/><br/>"This is not good." A feminine voice whispered harshly.<br/><br/>"Of course it is not." The reply was as equally rough.<br/><br/>"Should we tell father?" A tall redheaded woman asked, her body covered by an ivory chiton, falling to her ankles.<br/><br/>"Unlikely," replied a redhead male, his body covered in a matching chiton falling to his knees. "The woman cannot read Atlantean, there's no need to worry for now."<br/><br/>"What about the Guardian?"<br/><br/>"He should be able to take care of it," the male muttered, twirling a laurel leaf in his fingers. "Fear not, my sister, Atlantis will remain at the bottom of the sea, where it belongs."<br/><br/>The woman giggled at the cruelty in her brother's tone as she decided to play with the deer in the forest within her temple.<br/><br/>------<br/><br/>They had spent the last few minutes cleaning up the deck, preparing to head back to Crete for the evening. Tomorrow, she would go back to Athens and start putting together things for her press conference. Sophia let out a breath as she moved to the lower deck of the ship, heading to her cabin. Today had been going a lot better than she expected. She thanked everyone how had stuck around for this moment and she suddenly felt exhausted. The weight of the situation was being lifted from her shoulders. She had finally found it, one of the journals of Atlantis. This time, she wouldn't let this out of her sight. If it disappeared now, she wouldn't know what she would do.<br/><br/>Her life would be over.<br/><br/>Opening the door to her room, Sophia set the journal on the nightstand beside her bed. She let out a heavy breathe once more, spinning around before falling onto her small bed. The bed groaned from her graceless fall and she rubbed her face in the covers. She felt exhausted yet so full of energy at the same time. She glanced over at the journal laying on her nightstand. What was written in there? She was dying to know but then again she knew that she wouldn't leave her room until she completely read the entire journal. Well, reading a few pages couldn't hurt right? She rolled over on her stomach, laying the journal out before her. She took in a deep breath before opening the book. Green eyes danced around the page as she tried to understand the language before her. She would have to translate it later.<br/><br/>For now, she would just look.