Desert Umbra

Profane Infamy

I awoke to the smell of smoke, my eyes fluttered open to reveal a campfire that everyone had gathered around. I felt hot, too hot. My eyes wandered down to the blanket that covered my body, groaning I shifted my weight up to lift myself into a sitting position. My head throbbed from the movement, groaning I moved slower to ease the pain I was feeling.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, be careful Eris. You passed out when we were down in the chamber." Jon commented watching me carefully as I finally got into the position I wanted. My vision was a little blurry, I blinked a couple of times to try to get it to clear. I pushed the blanket covering me down and watched the flames as they flickered high into the air. Suddenly, I remembered what happened down in the chamber and went to reach for my backpack. It was within arm's reach near Jon's foot. I grabbed it and held it for a second closing my eyes, thankful that I still had the contents within.

"Are you feeling all right?" Evy asked, her shawl wrapped around her tightly as she shivered from the cool desert air. She watched me intently, my thoughts were running in circles whether I should let them see what I had found. When I needed the voice to help me make this decision, of course, she lie dormant.

"Yes... Yes, I suppose I wasn't hydrating enough." I told her, distracted. She nodded in response, I knew she did not believe me. She stared into my soul as if searching for my true answer. When she finally did break her gaze with me, she reached over to her right to grab me a canteen filled with some water. I smiled at her as I took the tin from her hand, thanking her silently taking a swig of water. Almost as an impulse, I reached into my backpack, my hand wrapping around the dagger. Just as I was about to pull it out to show Evy and Jon, Rick was sauntering up to where we were seated.

"Seems like our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today," Rick said as he approached the campsite, setting his rifle down on the blankets laid across the sand. He nodded to me as if to greet me from my slumber. I dropped my hold on the knife and removed my hand from the bag. I didn't know why I was wary of my brother knowing this information, but something told me that I needed to keep this secret for myself, for now. I had never been apprehensive of him knowing the darker aspects of my life, but now that he'd found someone else to take care of and put his love into I knew that my problems should come later.

"A few of their diggers were... Melted." He finished his thought, I knew this conversation was going to last, it captivated everyone's attention more than this dagger would. I hugged my pack to my chest feeling as if I needed to protect the object inside.

"What?" Evy asked in disbelief with Jon chorusing her with his question "How?" I feigned surprise as it seemed relatively likely. A lot of Egyptian burial grounds were set with traps to keep tomb robbers away. But melting did seem a bit off base for the rudimentary methods I'd read about.

"Salt acid, pressurized salt acid, some kind of ancient booby trap," Rick explained. Everyone breathed out at the same time in understanding.

"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jon snarked out as he poked the fire. An unexpected whoosh of wind breezed by threatening to put the fire out. Both Jon and Rick shared a glance at one another. I smirked knowing they were about to get on Evy's nerves.

"Oh for goodness sake you two," Evy exclaimed, unhappy with their antics.

"Don't believe in curses, huh?" Rick asked her his voice carried a pretentious flair, I couldn't say he was wrong in this instance, especially because of my circumstances when I was a child and even now.

"No, I don't. I believe if I can see it and I can touch it then it's real that's what I believe." Evy said her own opinions showing them brightly for him to see. I could tell she was happy with her choice. But she shouldn't be.