Mysteries of Easter Island

[Minoas Stratis]

Out of Character:

Ok, this started as a common reply for Minoas' history of magic lesson but as always, your muse may play some tricks with you and conclude with what is following below. In the end I decided it would be a shame to stay only in history of magic class and decided to post it here as well. So enjoy and I hope you like it!

p.s. I haven't check it for any grammatically or vocabulary errors. Please bare with it.

Minoas was remembering that Professor Spenser had promised something special for next class if they were going to spend some time on their assignment. It was the type of assignments that they had to express their own opinions and such kind of homework was always well-welcomed by the gryffindor. He had a suspicion of what could be consisting today's class and he decided to appear in class, dressed with muggle clothes. When he read excitement on Professor Spenser's face he couldn't help but smile. His suspicions seemed to be correct.
For a person that loved travelling and was intrigued by the mystery that shrouded ancient civilizations, this was the best possible history of magic class. Minoas believed that after their visit to Mayan ruins there couldn't be something better to visit but a field trip at Easter Island proved him wrong. He eagerly left behind him the classroom and laid a hand on the mummy miniature to be sucked in a whirl of colors where the terms of space and time had no longer power.

He landed hard on treacherous terrain that was covered with grass. He stood up to face an open-wide space that had nothing more of a few, scattered rocks and a lot of gigantic, human heads made out of stone.
Looking around him, the only thing that caught from professor's words was that they had three hours on their disposal and Minoas wasn't going to miss a second. The familiar smell of brine reached his nostrils and Minoas turned to face behind him that his was pretty close to the sea. Not caring where the rest of his classmates will venture, he decided to visit the stone heads that were closer to the sea. After five minutes of walk, he was standing between a platform that was hosting six statues, around five meters, and the rough sea.
He looked up and noticed that one of the statues had some sort of cylinder hat, maybe representing some sort of casque or helmet.
"What that statue has on its head it's called pukau. It is said that represents the red feathers that only the chiefs were wearing." a voice told him from somewhere nearby. Astonished, Minoas searched for the source of the voice and his eyes met the presence of an old, native man, sitting on a rock nearby and peeling a local fruit.
"Sorry for startling you. I thought that you were wondering what was that." he smiled at Minoas and his face wrinkled more around his honest eyes that turned back to the fruit in his hands.

"It's alright. Thanks for sharing. I was always keen on learning more about this place. Well, and for other mysterious places like this." Minoas stated and had another look at the statues that were facing the sea. "I wonder, why the built them facing the ocean." he said and frowned slightly.
"This six are the only one that face the sea. The rest of them around the island are looking inland. They look like they are trying to avoid to look at the sea." the old man shared again some of his knowledge.
"Really?" gasped Minoas surprised to learn that. Immidiately the theory he had developed during last class had no longer reliable evidences.
"Yes. It's one of the many mysteries that are still dominant on this island." said the old man, finishing peeling the fruit. "Want some?" he offered to share the fruit with Minoas but the gryffindor declined politely.
"The statues are named Moai. Archeologists believe that the people that constructed them had almost died from starvation because they cut off all the trees to build ramps and transport the statues from the volcano." continued the old man and pointed at the mountain on the centre of the island. "Of course, none of them could explain how a bright civilization that was capable to create such magnificent works of art could condemn themselves to death by decimating the island's resources but I guess they had to find an explanation about the indigenous people habit of cannibalism." he added and Minoas could sense that the man in front of him, doubted that someone that was capable of building this statues, wouldn't be rational enough to think of first about their own well-being. Minoas mush have been looking really besotted by his narration because the old man smiled at him again before having a bite from his fruit.

"The stone platform that you see is called ahu. There are over three hundreds of them around the island and they say that they are burying sights." said the old man and Minoas looked at the platform beneath the statues, fascinated that perhaps underneath it there might be buried tribe chiefs.
"What about the eyes?" asked Minoas curiously as he noticed that some of the statues had big, almond-shaped, white eyes.
"Well the eyes were placed on the Moai after some sort of ceremony. It hasn't been identified why this ceremony was taking place and what was happening during this event." the old man added another layer of mystery to magnetize Minoas' attention. "The whites of the eyes were made of coral and the iris was made of obsidian or red scoria, both found in the caverns surrounding the volcano." he continued and threw the kernel of the fruit on the ground.
The sound of a cars' engine drew their attention. They were actually a couple of small trucks that stopped by the closest dirt road. Three men got out of the vehicles and walked closer to the sea. They probably wanted to see the view of the ocean. "Poor archeologists. They are struggling to discover the connection between the statues and the Tangata Manu." said the old man sympathetically, while his wise eyes followed the three men in the distance that stopped at the edge of a cliff.
"Tangata Manu? What's that?" asked Minoas once more unaware of the term that the man had used.
"Tangata Manu is also known as the Birdman cult, a frequent subject of the island's petroglyphs. Archeologists believe that the cult and the heads are closely connected. I wish them good luck on discovering the truth." the old man explained and Minoas looked at him suspiciously, realizing that maybe he knew something more about this connection.

The old man stood up and took his cane that was leaned against the rock. "For now, they have to figure out another mystery about some head statues." he tried to take the numbness out of his old legs with some awkwards jerks. Minoas focused his gray eyes on the archeologists in the distance. Were they investigating something about that right now next to the cliffs?
"Muggles. They always seem to be coming across with mysteries." the old man smiled and wrinkles carved all around his face. Surprised with what he had just heard, Minoas turned immidiately his attention on the old man but he was no longer standing close to him. He had disappeared or more possibly, he had apparated out of sight.
Minoas scratched his forehead and couldn't help but smile to himself. "Thank you!" he shouted to the wind as he felt that he had to thank the old man for the knowledge he had shared.
His gray eyes returned back to the busy archeologists and wandered towards the parked trucks. He looked at his watch and he had still enough time in his disposal. He had a look around him to make sure that no one was watching him and with a smirk, he slowly and stealthily reached the trucks. Another look at the archeologists that were examining a cyclical formation of some rocks and he jumped onto a truck's flatbed. He bit his lower lip when he heard voices growing closer. The archeologists must have been returning back to their trucks. Fortunately for him, among the excavation gear there was a tarp and he used it to cover himself, letting just a tiny opening enough to let him watch what was happening.

The trucks' engines roared and Minoas immidiately knew that he was going to get into big trouble if he was going to be spotted in the flatbed by these muggles. As the trucks started moving, he decided to keep his cool and enjoy the adventure. The ride was rather bumpy as the road was stony and he was colliding with the rest of the excavation gear every time the truck was coming across a puddle. The journey didn't last more than twenty minutes and the trucks stopped again. He watched carefully from beneath the tarp the archeologist getting out of the vehicles and walk away while talking about some petroglyphs. Minoas grasped the opportunity to leave his hideout and jump off the flatbed. He checked out the site from behind the cover of the trucks. There was a fenced structure, tarps and scaffoldings were keeping something out of sight while it was surrounded by many archeologists and other scientists. He watched as the three archeologists that got him there showed their IDs to get access to the site and he realized that it was going to be impossible to get there, even with a stolen ID.
Frowned, he scanned the surrounding area. There were a lot of scattered rocks, big enough to offer cover to him and behind the excavation site there was a rocky hill that was overshadowing whatever was kept secret behind the fenced structure.

Armed again with his stealth, he patiently navigated from rock to rock, checking out now and then if he had been spotted by the muggles. Relieved he reached the foot of the hill. Now his task was much easier since the archeologists had no sight of his whereabouts from their location. He climbed carefully the rocky hill not wanting to break a limb or become noticeable. The ascension wasn't easy but he was rewards. Using the cover of a bush near the top, now he could see what the archeologists were trying to keep hidden behind the fences.
Awestrucked, he saw a couple of the stone heads that had a whole body excavated out of the ground. It seemed that if not all of them, most of the statues on the island had the most of their part hidden underground and people were just able to see only their heads. This discovery gave him goosebumbs and felt his heartbeat pounding in his head. While watching carefully the unearthed torso of the statues, he noticed that it was covered with petroglyphs, mostly inscriptions but most notably a ‘ring and girdle’ design. Amazed, he quickly took out of his backpack his journal and with a piece of charcoal he started copying the symbols on one of the pages. When he finished, he studied the symbols he had sketched and tried to make some sense out of them. What looked like a ring and a girdle to him, might have a whole different meaning and representation on these statues.

He was far enough from the statues to be noticed but he could still hear some of the archeologists as the hill was throwing back their voices as echoes. His eyes locked on someone that mentioned that he had to return back to the town and Minoas knew that this was his chance. His shoved his journal back into his backpack and climbed down the hill as quickly as possible. He stumbled on a rock but he didn't stopped to see if he had hurt himself. He followed the specific archeologist from rock to rock until they reached his truck. As he got inside, Minoas approached the truck from behind and when the engine kicked over, he climped onto the flatbed making sure that the sound of the engine had masked his own noise. A crater this time was the perfect cover to keep him hidden from the driver's rear-view mirrors. The truck started moving and Minoas let a sigh of relief as they were leaving the excavation site. His jeans on his knee were dyed with blood. Probably he had tore his knee but that was nothing compared to his adventure. For the rest of the journey back to the island's town, he was looking puzzled at the symbols on his journey's pages. He had no clue what the 'ring and the girdle' were symbolizing but he was hoping that the books in Hogwarts' library were going to help him. He walked ten minutes from the town to the place where they had travelled with the portkey. Luckily, he was right on time for departure. Minoas really wanted to share with everyone what he had witnessed and experienced but the thought of a detention restrained him and decided to keep it for himself. The prtkey brought them back to the classroom but Minoas' mind was still left somewhere at Easter Island and the information of the old man.