I don't own Indiana Jones.

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Path to Fortune and Glory.

He had translated dozens of things during the course of his life, done things which had changed his life in ways he had not imagined; one of the biggest life lessons he'd ever had was the sight of the suffering of the Great War, and the feelings of deep sympathy he had for how the German representatives during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, especially when they had arrived after their train deliberately took them to show them the worst of the damage caused by the war.

Indy had fought in the war. He had been attacked by Germans, he had helped in the plan to destroy that massive gun in Africa, but when he had seen the German representatives and listened to the talk about how the Germans were going to be bled dry by the Treaty by a bloodthirsty Europe while America did nothing since Wilson wanted the League of Nations, which in Indy's mind was a sound idea since it would unite the world in a way nobody could imagine possible, but when he had met those representatives and helped that younger one, Indy hadn't felt any kind of malice towards them.

But the Sankara Stones were a kettle of fish he hadn't expected when he arrived in India. Indy still didn't know if the Holy Man's words about how fate and Shiva had crashed them here had some basis in reality, but he doubted it. China was close to India, relatively speaking, from the air. Lao's men would have known that, and they would have chosen the most logical place to crash so they could find a way home. But the moment Indy had seen the state of the village and the land outside of the walls, he had been horrified, but his concerns had only grown when he had learnt the sacred stone in the shrine which protected the Indian village was taken, stolen.

The stone was a Sankara Stone. In Indian culture it was one of the most sacred items they had; anyone would have had the motive of stealing it, but hearing how a fire had been started after the land had suffered from the absence of the stone such as the rivers drying up to sand and dust, and the animals dying off, and it had required all of the men to fight only for them to return and discover all of their children were gone… Indy didn't know what was worse, the fact someone had come up with a plan to steal a sacred stone and the children of the village, or the fact they had some long term plan he didn't have a foggiest about.

The good news was the village had given him a lead. And he had a good idea who it was.

While he knew that Pankot Palace had a dark history to it, he would never have expected any Maharajah in their right mind to move into that part of the country and restoring the place even if the Thuggee had been destroyed long ago by the British.

Or so history claimed.

Indy would be enormously surprised if some other group with the same hold the Thuggee had hadn't somehow survived and persevered over the decades since the British had wiped them out, but he had to accept that possibility. It wasn't unusual for evil cults worshipping dark gods or goddesses to survive in some shape or form, but the implication one such pocket had grown strong enough to attack a village, and steal the children was something that worried Indy.

But while he had been thinking about what their next move was going to be - leaning towards the long journey to the Palace where he hoped to find some answers to his questions - Indy and the village was surprised when a young boy, likely one of the children snatched from the village before, appeared.

Indy had seen many instances of brutality, but he had been horrified when he had seen how malnourished and exhausted the boy was, but he had been whipped badly, half or barely healed scars on his back while his legs were manacled. He was a brave boy, somehow managing to survive and get out and come here, hoping for some kind of aid. Who knew how long he had been on the move, wandering through the country, to return to his home village?

Indy had no idea what the boy had endured, but he had to say the kid was lucky, but the young boy had passed off a piece of scroll to him. Indy had enough knowledge of Indian mythology and legends to know what he held in his hands.

Someone at Pankot Palace was after the lost Sankara Stones.

He had left the village and made his way to a hill some way from the village. He had needed a place to think about the piece of scroll the injured boy who had somehow managed to escape from Pankot Palace and plan his next move. Getting to the palace was not going to be a problem; Shorty wouldn't mind - the young Chinese orphan would jump at the chance to really come with him all the way to Pankot - even if some of his advice was a bit annoying, but Willie might be an issue; the actress and singer was a liability, but he didn't really want to leave her in the village, not unless he wanted her to make some unintentional mistake with the village. The woman was so ignorant of the way the world worked, believing it was all clubs, cocktails, and crap like that, but Indy's mind was more fixed on what he knew of the Palace and Pankot province and making plans as he did so.

He was getting into his stride when he heard the sound of panting and he barely looked up when Shorty appeared.

"You know" pant "the little boy" wheeze "escaped from" pant "evil palace. Many other children, still there. What do we do, Doctor Jones?" Shorty asked.

Indy stood up and touched the boys' shoulder.

"What do you think?"

"I think that somebody believes the good luck rock from this village is one of the lost Sankara Stones," Indy replied.

"What is Sankara?" Shorty didn't know anything about Indian mythology but Indy wasn't worried about that, he was more than happy to talk about the story well enough.

But right now he was thinking about what such a find would mean; if he could return one of the Stones to the village after discovering what was going on in Pankot, he might manage to take one of them back to the university…

If Indy did that…

"Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory."

He didn't normally dwell on things like that; he had become an archaeologist for the thrill and the desire for knowledge, but he would like nothing more than to make a great discovery. A Sankara stone would be just the thing.