"Dr Jones, this is the village's oldest member, and he is the acting leader since both the king and his son are dead."
"Pleased to meet you sir. It is our hope to revive your king."
"I have lived many seasons, I have seen many men attempt to use this cloth to save many members of our tribe from our friend, Death, but Death is not so easily persuaded to allow those who have walked with him to return from his eternal home." he stopped and thought a moment. "Or maybe those who have gone to walk with Death do not wish to return from his home. Maybe to ask them to return is to disturb the peace that they have found."
"We understand many have tried, but has is ever been attempted by a priest of the Christian God?"
"No, I don't guess it has." the old man smirked. "Few of that god's followers have ever seen us or seen our temple, and the few who have, have not had the opportunity to tell anyone about it."
Disregarding his unease at the old man's foreboding implication about what the tribe did with outside intruders, Indy got back to the point. "I can understand your reluctance to disturb the natural order, sir. I have my own hesitance about this ritual and it's success, but your young king and several of your warriors died in that temple to guard the elder king's body and assure that we had the opportunity to revive him with the Shroud. Of course, this is your tribe, your people, and your decision and we will honor your wishes."
The old man sat. He was deep in thought for several minutes and then he used his staff to lift himself up.
"I am old. I cannot lead my people. I wait daily for my good friend Death. He has taken many of my friends on that last voyage to his home and to peace, but it has been my duty to stay here, with my people, to offer them guidance and wisdom that only comes from many seasons of life. My wisdom I will offer as long as Death delays our visit, it is how I assure my seat at the Great Feast, but I cannot lead, my leadership will not be of benefit to these people and I am too tired for such endeavors. Leadership, power, glory, honor, these are pursuits of the young. I am much too tired to lead. We will allow you to perform the ritual."
"Excellent. I appreciate your wisdom sir." Indy went on to explain the steps of the ritual and the expected timeframe before the king would awaken. He asked that the king be placed in a location where he could lay flat and be protected from the elements. The old man called some men over and told them what needed to be prepared, and the preparations were made.
Indy, Rick and Short Round found themselves in a small hut with only the elder king and the two guards that got him out of the temple. They had not left his side since protecting him inside the temple itself and Indy was confident that, if he did not wake up to give them new orders, they would likely die before leaving his side, so Indy hoped the ritual would work, as too many men had already died for the hope of the elder king being revived by the Shroud.
"Ok, Rick, you ready to do this?"
"Sure Indy, let's rock and roll!" Rick said with a belch as an exclamation point.
Rick placed the Shroud on the kings face.
"Ok, go ahead Rick, say the words."
Rick unfolded a piece of paper where Indy had written the Lord's prayer, "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name..." Rick read through the prayer three times.
"That's it?" he said when he was done.
"That's it."
"What do we do now Dr Jones?" Short Round asked.
"We wait and we hope this works." Indy replied.
--------
A man woke up, confused about where he was. The space he was in was light, but hazy. It did not seem to be inside or outside. There were no discernible features to the space. He looked down at his hands. They looked normal. He felt his face. It felt normal. "Where am I?" he thought. He struggled to remember where he had been before this place but he couldn't piece it together. It was like he was waking up from a dream, and he wanted to try and remember the dream before it floated away, but every time he thought he had a grasp on something, he couldn't quite grab it. He remembered nothing except this vague dream. He stood. He looked all around him. he felt like he should be nervous, but he didn't actually know if he should or shouldn't be in this place, or if he had ever been here, or where he was. The disorientation was unsettling, the lack of definition to the location was unnerving, but something was peaceful about the place and about just being here with no memories and no past.
The man thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, so he turned his head and strained his eyes to see it. Yes, there was definitely something there. He decided to move toward it. He began to walk. At first he was worried that it wasn't really there, that it was just something he had made up in his head, that he would never actually get any closer to it, but it definitely was there and he definitely was getting closer to it. As he approached, he realized it was a building and the closer he got the more he could make out. It was big and it was made of grey stone. it looked something like a temple, although not like one he had ever seen. He wondered if he had ever seen ANY temples for that matter.
He could see an entrance to the building, so he walked up the stairs to make his way inside. The doors were very large. They were wooden doors with iron hinges and iron rings to pull them open. He pulled one door. It made a loud creek that reverberated through the building. He froze. What if someone is inside? Am I supposed to be here?" He decided not to take any chances, since he had no memories, it would be better to be cautious and assume he was not permitted here than it would be to risk getting caught and who knows what else. He slid through the small opening he had made in the doors and quietly made his way inside. He was amazed when he entered. The building was huge, the ceilings were so high that they seemed to go up forever. There were staircases and doorways everywhere. As he looked around taking it all in, he suddenly heard voices. He rushed over to a wall and pressed himself against it, hoping not to be seen. Nobody came. He decided he needed to go find out where the voices were coming from and maybe who they belonged to, and if they were friendly and not enemies, they could possibly fill him in on what was going on.
Staying pressed against the wall, he inched his way toward a doorway where he could hear the voices were coming from. He wasn't sure what was going on. He heard what sounded like coordinates being read out, letters and numbers. He was shocked to hear that whoever was speaking, was doing so in the language he knew, although, he didn't really seem to have any reason for assuming they wouldn't know the same language as him, but he just knew, for whatever reason, that it was surprising.
All of a sudden, one of the men reading out coordinates got very angry. What was it he said? "Best two out of three?" Best two out of three what? And what was it he said right before that? Someone had sank his boat, or no, not his boat, he said, "you sank my battleship!" The man kept listening. It seemed that the voices in the room were involved in some competitive activity, or possibly several. At one point they seemed to be trying to determine who committed a murder, although the one whose battleship was sank also failed to determine who the murderer was, and then they were involved in some physical activity where they had to contort themselves to put their hands and feet in certain locations. The same man that kept failing, also failed at this, he fell and then finally seemed to decide to give the other two men what they had been asking for, he told them he would take them back, but "back to where?" the man wondered. He leaned further into the room to try and see who these voices belonged to. They were just around a corner from him. If he could just lean a little further in, he'd see them. he lost his footing, and tumbled down the stairs. He was sure they were going to hurt him.
"Dude, Death, who's your friend?"
"Yeah dude, he seems pretty excellent, rocking all that rad ceremonial gear!"
The two men helped him to his feet. He immediately went into a defensive position, assuming they would attack him.
"Don't worry dude, we won't hurt you, unless you want to get beat at Battleship like our buddy Death here!"
The two men raised their hands as if they were plucking some invisible strings, and for some reason that made no sense, weird loud music filled the air for a moment.
"Ah, sorry guys, this is my next appointment, I lost track of time having so much fun with you."
"You mean, losing to us, dude?"
"That is not important. Please, Bill, Ted, let me speak with my friend here for a moment and then I will bring you back."
"Ok, cool, Death, just don't take too long, we gotta get back before those totally heinous robot uses hurt the princesses!"
The one they called Death walked over to the man. He was tall. He wore a black robe and carried a reaping tool as a walking stick. He was pail and had no hair. The man was not afraid of the one called Death, although he felt he should be.
"Hello, King Arua, I am sure you have many questions, and I will be happy to answer them for you, but I must not take too long, as I have made a promise to my friends Bill and Ted to bring them back to life."
"Back to life?"
"Yes, I am sorry I was not there to great you when you awoke, but, King Arua, you have died and are in my home where I will determine, through a game of your choice, where you shall spend your eternity."
"What do you mean, where?"
"Well, where do your people go upon dying?"
"Those who died honorably go to the great feast, those who lived and died as cowards are thrown out with the dogs."
"And who do you think determines how you lived?"
The King thought. "Is it you?"
"Yes, King, it is I, Death, who decides."
"But, wouldn't it make more sense for you to look over my life to decide? Not to play a game?"
"I used to do all that, but it takes forever! Now I just play you at a game. If you lived well, you will play well, if you lived cowardly and selfishly, you will lose."
"But those two just beat you at many games, and they seem somewhat silly and ridiculous. They do not seem like great men."
"Oh no, King, do not let your assumptions deceive you, those two lived the most excellent of lives, and they not only lived bravely and unselfishly, but they will teach the entire world to care for each other, to be excellent to each other."
The King looked over and the two known as Bill and Ted were busy trying not to drop a vase that they had accidentally knocked off a pedestal. He was confused at how they could be so great, but he was in no position to argue.
"Why are hey dressed so strangely?"
"They are not from your time. Here in the afterlife my appointments come in different timing then how they enter and leave your world. I could explain it, but it's very complicated, and I'm really only telling you for the sake of avoiding a plot hole."
"oh, ok."
"So, I have to take these guys to Heaven, or as you know it, the Great Feast, where I have to ask to have them returned to life, which is going to be hugely embarrassing for me, but a deal is a deal!"
"Why would they want to leave the Great Feast?"
"See, King, this is why these men are so great. Nobody wants to leave the Great Feast, but they know that they must to save the future of humanity and to save their girlfriends from the evil robot dickwads who killed them. They are so selfless that they will give up a seat at the Great Feast to go back and help those they love and even those they do not even know yet."
The King was starting to realize that there was more to these two than he could see just by looking at them.
"So, hang out here, make yourself at home, I've got Netflix and pizza and a very comfy couch. You'll love it! When I get back, we'll play for your eternal destination!"
"I don't know what any of those things are, but ok."
"Oh man, I'll get my little buddy Casper to set it all up for you, you'll love it! Make sure to check out Ozark, we've actually got the latest season here before they get it on Earth, but I haven't watched it yet, so no spoilers!"
"umm, ok?"
Death walked back over to Bill and Ted. They spoke for a moment and prepared to leave. "Hey, see ya later King dude!" Ted said.
"Yeah, make sure to play Battleship against Death, he stinks!" Bill said. They both laughed.
"Psssh, I let you win!" Death protested playfully.
Then he looked at King Arua, "AND I WILL BE BACK TO DEAL WITH YOU SOON!" he intimidated.
King Arua was terrified.
"Death, dude, that's lame, don't scare the guy!"
"I'm sorry," Death said between laughs, "but if you can't have fun at work, what's the point, right?!"
And then they were all gone. King Arua sat at the a chair at the table. He was very tired. He began to does off. As he slept, he had a vision. In the vision he remembered his whole life, he also saw his son die to protect his body and he saw his people left without a king, and the old wise man of his village being burdened with leadership that he could not bare and would be ineffective at. He saw his temple destroyed and his people afraid. He saw three strangers, not from these lands, putting the holy cloth on his face and saying prayers over him. And, he knew that he could go back. He must just open his third eye and he would return.
He woke up with a jump from his vision. He had lived a long and difficult life, always with his vision on the Great Feast, and he saw how his son died, he knew his son would also be at the great feast. He did not desire to go back to earth, he wanted the reward for all his labor in life, he wanted to beat Death at a game and go to the Great Feast. Just as soon as he decided that's what he wanted, he knew that it was not time. If he was truly the kind of man to defeat Death in a competition, the kind that had lived "excellently" and not selfishly, he could not leave his people like this. He knew he must go back, and that the Great Feast would be waiting for him when his work was done. He sat back in his seat, preparing to open his third eye. He closed his eyes. Opened his garments, pulled out his dick and the eye on the tip winked open.