Windstalker: Awareness
K. M. Baginski
July 10th 1975 was the day young Everett Langan dared to meet his maker. From the rooftop of his Doğubeyazıt hotel, he held his breath to behold the looming snow-covered peaks of the sacred Ağrı Dağı (Mount Ararat) of Eastern Turkey. The majestic splendor of this marvel intensified as the consuming fog draped its base in the twilight, hoping to sway his heart. Gripping the straps of his backpack, he knew where his loyalty would always remain.
If he hadn’t known any better, he too would have fallen under its spell. That would be a betrayal he’d never forgive.
Why had Sadik invited him here? And why the hell did he accept?
Still, there he was facing that mountain for the first time; the mysterious mountain that was somehow responsible for taking his father, Robert, away from him exactly ten years earlier.
Maybe he accepted because George Sadik was all that was left of his father.
It wasn’t all Sadik’s fault.
Reaching into his pocket, he sighed. The picture he found inside was what had really led him to the bewitching place before him. Robert Langan stood so proud as he posed in front of what should have been, arguably, the greatest archaeological discovery in history.
In the background was an unearthed cave whose inner walls were laced with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and in his hand was some kind of angelic invocation coin, which Everett knew because it was written about in Robert’s log journals.
It was never found, however, among his possessions, nor was it replaced into the wall it was embedded within.
