A hue and cry from over in the region where the woman Lotus had been working earlier. From the region where they'd exhumed the skeleton.

I went over, something between a run and a fast walk - the ground was too uneven for a full out run, and the heat precluded this anyway. I may be only in my late thirties, but I've spent too many days bent over holes in the ground, and away from sites, I don't tend to exercize much.

I quickly set up my camera. A worker was already recording the exact location and positioning. I caught several shots from different angles.

Gold necklace. Not Chinese. Or, probably not. What was it? Whose was it? So many peoples had passed this way in the past!

Finally, I nodded, and the young worker who'd found it extracted it, and ran back to the tent where I knew Lotus was working hard. I stared down at the site. Could it be that that Asian woman whose skeleton had been taken from here, could it have been hers? I looked at the depth measurements, and thought it could be a match.

There had to be a tale. We'd never know what it was, but there had to be a tale. I bent over the spot, trying to read below what remained of the surface. Impossible. In the background, from Lotus' tent, I could hear exclamations but I could not catch the words.