MantidSwarm

My eyes were lying to me.  Perhaps it was the dust and dim light playing tricks on them.  Or, more likely, I was seeing things courtesy of my recent, ungraceful fall through the rotten wooden floor and eroded stonework.  Whatever the reason, there was no stopping the allure of this illusion before me.  My trembling hands seemed to move on their own, reaching for the shining idol laying abandoned on a  pile of rubble. The chilled weight of the statue in my hands forced reality into my shaken head.  This was the object our expedition had been scouring Central America for.  The legends had made it sound larger, grander than the modest object re