The Treasure Hunter and The Mirror
Chapter 1

Walter Zuniga was trying to replace his place in the universe. He was young, dashing, often called handsome by females that met him (which often lead to exciting at the time, but they were nothing more than just trysts.) He was the exemplary example of the phrase tall dark and handsome. Yet, he felt so distant in the world.

It didn’t help he had no idea about his childhood. Where was he from? Where did he grow up? These questions always circled his mind, he had no real answer to this. The earliest thing he remembers was waking up in a strange abandoned laboratory. He had no idea who he was, where he was nor how, he got there. All he had was these dog tags on a chain that read:

“WALTER XAVIER YANEZ ZUNIGA”

This of course he assumed was his name.

On the other side of the dog tag was the number:

“18127334419”

Walter had no idea what that meant. He spent several days in the laboratory before escaping when he finally did escape, he found himself on a totally alien planet. The planet where if you traveled too far into the wrong side of the planet you would get either frozen to death because of the side of the planet that was always in darkness or burned to death because of the side of the planet that was always facing the sun.

He found that there was a thriving civilization in this medium zone of the planet. The planet was quite huge that this medium zone was in fact bigger than most planets he had seen since. He of course had no idea if this was his home planet or not, though he did replace that the dominant race known as The Fakirs did look a lot like he did or at least he looked like them. So, he was able to fit in as a stray child as he grew up on the planet.

Eventually Walter decided to leave this planet, the planet was ruled by an oppressive empire lead by a Prince Xavier Yanez Zuniga, who Walter assumed his two middle names were named after. He left the planet some years ago now and Walter was still trying to replace a place to fit in in the universe. He made a living so far as a treasure hunter. He found out early on that he had a knack of replaceing treasures.

It all had started when he somehow found a legendary dagger. The Dagger had been lost in time for hundreds of years. He found out that it belonged to Albatross Zuniga the first emperor of the Zuniga Dynasty that began some 12000 years ago or some such thing like that. Walter sold it for a whopping 27,000,000 galactic credits to a treasure collector.

Since then Walter had been looking for treasures. He soon became known to replace treasures and was often employed to replace ancient treasures. Although he had fun looking for these treasures, it was not exactly the life he was looking for.

Walter downed another shot of Firenze, a type of hard liquor that had this spicy kick to it, Walter coughed after he had swallowed the liquid. It had burned his tonsils, it was enough to cause him to cough. While Walter coughed someone sat next to him.

“Walter, the treasure hunter I presume,” a voice said next to him.

Walter turned towards who talked to him. He didn’t expect to see a woman sitting next to him. She was quite a good-looking woman. She had black hair, tan skin and a bust that would make any female jealous, and she apparently did not mind showing it off as she wore something that showed a lot of cleavage. Walter haphazardly stared at her cleavage before he looked at the woman.

“Yes?” Walter said.

“My employer wishes to send you to replace a legendary treasure.” The woman said she leaned in on the bar counter to expose a bit more of her cleavage that Walter could not help but look at.

“Sorry toots, but I am not doing treasure hunting right now,” Walter said.

This was partially true, it was mostly because his last haul had gotten him enough credits to have him set for at least a decade, even if he spent it all on booze for 10 years, he would not run out of it.

“He is willing to pay any price,” the woman said she leaned back and crossed her legs. Despite being a bit heavier looking that girls Walter would have a tryst with this woman had great legs, he could not help to stare at when she crossed them.

“What’s he looking for?” Walter hiccupped.

“The Zerkalo Aaenna,” the woman said pulling a small device from the inner part of her bust, Walter could not help but look at her bust again as she did.

The woman put the device on the bar counter and pressed on it. It projected a strange looking thing. It looked like a mirror to Walter. It had a glass in the center of this frame. The frame was strange itself it had all these strange looking markings on it, but nothing looked special about it.

“What’s so special about it?” Walter said looking at the mirror.

“It’s not a regular mirror,” The woman said as she leaned in. Walter felt himself flush a bit as she leaned in on him. “Legend says it is a gateway to another dimension.”

“I see how much he is willing to pay?” Walter said.

“Well he said that he will give you one billion galactic credits.” The woman said. Walter’s eyes bulged when she said this.

“ONE BILLION?!” Walter said almost in glee.

“That’s right,” the woman said she leaned in and put her hand on his chest. “And he said he’ll throw me in as an agreement perk.”

“Deal,” Walter gulped.

“I knew you would agree.” The woman said she grabbed him, and they headed out.