Desert Umbra

A Glimmering Dark

The city itself was stunning. Some might believe that it was dusty and decrepit, but this was history. It impressed me, with the sheer volume of all the architecture that surrounded us, built by hand. Rick and the others set up camp while I walked around acquainting myself with my surroundings. My hand traced the symbols that had been carved into the many pillars that were around us. I traced the deeply chiseled markings in the stone. They were so distinct that the years of sandstorms had no effect on them.

My neck was hot from the sun beating down from the sky, I rubbed it trying to cool myself down and remove some of the sweat that had accumulated. I wanted a cold canteen of water right about now. I snapped myself out of my inner thoughts,

"Here" I heard a voice whisper into my ear. I looked to my left, and down in the sand I noticed something glimmering, I stooped towards the ground brushing the glimmering item with my hand making sure not to burn myself on the grit. What I uncovered was interesting. A singular raw-cut garnet stone, I picked it up and as I held it, the stone turned black. I knew this item was special, but before I could think about it I stowed the jewel away.

There were so many different passageways, entries, and exits to be discovered. After Rick finished setting up camp, he moved on to making entry into the city with Evy directing his movements. As Hamunaptra was an underground city there was much work that needed to be done to get to where we needed to be. The Americans and our group had split off to different sides of the city so we wouldn't run into each other. Something told me that somehow we would see them soon anyway. Evy had a mirror about half her size that she was attempting to push into the ground. I started to make my way back to the group as the hieroglyphics were only yielding stories of how and why the city was built. Evy had already filled us in on that part when she was showing the curator the map. Jonathan came waltzing up to me before I could start to head back down the hill that divided us from the others. He waved me over to him,

"Does it say anything about the wealth of Egypt?" Jonathan asked me gesturing to the pillars and arches quoting his sister.

"No, Jon it's mostly about how it was built, however, it does say something about raising evil from the dead. You know, the normal warnings to keep tourists from disturbing the resting places of kings and queens of Egypt." I told him. He hung his head like a hurt puppy. But quickly that dissipated from his face and what replaced it made me want to walk away immediately. I spun on my heel attempting to get away before the conversation took off.

"So you and Henderson? Seems like you two were getting cozy when we were playing poker?" He said getting straight to the gossip like he always wanted, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

"No, no, no..." I laughed off the awkwardness that wanted to flood my body.

"Why not?? He seems like a decent guy, a bit aloof but decent." He prodded more. I hated when he did this. It wasn't often that he did, but it tended to happen on occasion.

"Jonathan he was flirting with me because I'm one of two females that are on this excursion... He doesn't really believe there's anything special about me." I told him.

"Well, I could say differently from the way he was staring at you during the poker game, he was hanging onto your every word," Jon argued with me looking at me with suggestive eyes.

"It doesn't matter Jon, I manipulated him into doing it. It's a helpful distraction, especially when playing poker." I told him, utterly annoyed now. I knew he was not going to let this go. I started to walk away. Suddenly, Evy's voice cut through Jon's voice, blocking him out.

"That's the statue of Anubis, its legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge Scholars that's where we'll find the secret compartment containing the golden book of Amun Ra." She looked around finding Jonathan walking towards the other mirror to the right of her. She started to direct him as I moved towards where Rick had tied off a rope to jump down into the city. He had left swiftly to talk to Evy. I tried not to eavesdrop on the conversation that they were having but it was hilarious to see my brother embarrassed and very hard to ignore.