universe entire with-you
It didn’t matter to her. The sentiment was the same whatever the word order, and very welcome too.
She smiled at him as she chewed at her own portion then wiped creamed spinach off her fingers on the piece of naan in her bowl so she could sign without flinging bits of food. “Out of the way is my favorite way to go,” she said generally. She had learned some of her most interesting archeological lessons by straying off the beaten path and doing something a little, or a lot, inconvenient. “I’ll take you up on that, Elias. Thank you."
Neither of them could imagine, though, in just what condition she would finally make the journey to Bogano.
They had only just begun to dig the next morning when the silence of the desert was broken by an organic exclamation.
“Aaa!”
Efret looked over at where Elias was working. She pointed out a patch of darker soil in front of her with the point of her trowel. “Here. Baked earth.” She placed her tool down to one side and wiped the pads of two fingers over the patch. After looking at them, she turned them to face him. Her skin was smeared with grey clay. “It’s an indicator this probably was a hearth,” she signed after allowing him a moment to inspect it.
“Keep an eye out for associated features.”
They uncovered nothing of the sort by lunchtime. However, Efret didn't seem disappointed, electing to spend her break studying a sample of the baked earth under her electron scanning microscope while nibbling on a handful of cashews. “Quite the lucky break,” she commented as she adjusted the slide with one hand. “There are very fine grains of charcoal mixed with the fire-altered loam.” She scooted back in her chair then angled the display screen towards Elias so he could see it easier. Thin hexagons were stacked haphazardly throughout the screen. “The tiny black dots on the faces. I’ll try to isolate some for carbon dating.”
Her smile widened, gaining a slightly mischievous quality like a toddler who should be lying down for a nap but had her own plans. “At a later date. For now, I’m getting back to digging.”
Elias would find the next feature about a half hour later: a circle in the ground about 15 cm in diameter infilled with small pebbles.
"A posthole?" she asked rhetorically, having glimpsed the find from over his shoulder. Shifting on her knees, she came to sit at his side then extended a hand out to touch the feature. Another echo was immediately evident to her. "This was a grubhut," she said without looking at him and instead looking up at the Force's reconstruction of the building visible to only her. "We're getting warmer."
Warmer in terms of the one discovery she was after maybe, but chilled air fell over the desert again as the sun lowered, lowered, lowered in the sky and finally set. She broke from work to warm another prepared meal, serving it to Elias and herself though she only took one bite before gathering up a couple lanterns. She set them near to where she then continued to dig.
Out here in her element, she could be a bad example of how to take care of oneself in the field.