‘A-ha!’ I cried out, as my mind made sense of my surroundings. I stopped and examined what I had hit, tearing at the vegetation that had grown up around it.
‘A statue?’ Giles panted behind me, his excitement getting the better of his exhaustion.
‘Not just any statue,’ I grinned. ‘She-gorah herself.’
‘She-gorah?’ Giles frowned. ‘I don’t remember her name from your texts.’
‘I wasn’t sure she existed, even as a myth,’ I breathed. ‘The earliest I could date her introduction to the culture was a good three-hundred years after the fall of Cheltenham.’
‘Fascinating,’ Giles winced.
‘What was that?’ I frowned.
‘What was what?’
‘You,’ my frown deepened. ‘You winced again.’
‘I don’t know that I—’
‘You’re wincing right now!’ I pointed. ‘Is it your feet again?’
‘I’m sorry, Professor,’ Giles said, dropping to a nearby rock and lifting his feet in the air. ‘They hurt so bad.’
Silently cursing the university for saddling me with a flat-footed librarian’s assistant of an expedition partner, I let out a deep sigh.
‘It’s your shoes, you know,’ I pointed. ‘If you want comfort, you need orthotics with arch support to help with foot pain.’
‘Orthotics?’ Giles frowned.
‘Have you never been to a podiatrist?’ I frowned, dredging up the echo of a memory.
‘Yes,’ Giles sighed. ‘I have but I didn’t pay any attention.’
‘I shouldn’t have had to teach you the word orthotics just now’
‘I was too busy thinking about our research,’ Giles said, with a pained grin I couldn’t be certain was due to his feet. ‘I just realised something.’
‘Oh?’
‘A full fifty per cent of the current inhabitants of this place have issues with arch support.’
I snorted, surprised by his observation.
‘I guess you’re right,’ I chuckled. ‘It appears to be one of the more common foot conditions local to Cheltenham.’
‘Best you watch out, Professor,’ Giles grinned. ‘It could be coming for you next.’
‘Oh, dear boy, that won’t be the case.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because,’ I said, rising to my feet. ‘I brought the right boots for this particular exhibition.’