Rick's Kryptonite

Familiarity & Uneasy Feelings

The group of us waded up the stream and onto the beach. Evy suggested that we go see if the market would fix us up with some more clothes and some equipment for me. I agreed so we rode, well I rode and they walked, into the small town near the river. Jonathan made the decision to see where he could rent some camels to take into Hamunaptra for the rest of the group. Once we started seeing vendors tents I slid off Hidalgo and let Rick take his harness leading him away from the group.  
        Once we got to the tents we were immediately flocked by older Egyptian women who wanted to help us beyond what was really needed. I was pulled away from Evy pretty quickly,  surrounded and immediately stripped of my now dry nightgown. They clothed me in a beautiful black see through dress, as much to my dismay. I heard Evy laughing in the stall next door. I enjoyed their touch and pampering, they surrounded my eyes with kohl and did my hair in a different style then I was used to but I loved the look of it, it was lovely, something I would never do for myself.
"Do you have any types of weapons?" I asked an elderly woman in ancient Egyptian. She walked away, as if she were on a mission. I looked after her figure wondering where she had gone and what she had planned.

"Only the best for Sekhmet." Another women said aloud. I was really lost. I had never told them my name and that was certainly not it. I shrugged it off for now, deciding it didn't matter at this point in time. Maybe later I would question it, but there was too much on my mind at the moment. I needed to get a saddle and nicer bridle for Hidalgo which meant I shouldn't spend a ton of money on weapons since I had saved my weapons bag from the ships wreckage. But I wanted a new one for my collection. The old women came back holding a beautiful golden dagger with some hieroglyphics on it that read the name that they had called me, "Sekhmet" I whispered feeling a little weird about it and a tad creeped out by how familiar it felt in my hands. However, I took the dagger gratefully and thanked the women in the tent. They had done a lot for me. They had put kohl on my eyes to make them pop, dressed me, and gave me a weapon. I tried to pay them with some money but they insisted that I keep my money. However, I left some money on the table because I would have felt bad about not paying them for all they had done. I quickly walked away and into another venders tent finding some lovely bridles and saddles for horses. I felt a presence near me and looked to my left to find Rick next to me,

"Hey." He said and looked at me. Staring actually was more what he was doing. "You look wonderful." He told me still staring with wide eyes.
"Thanks Rick..." I replied hiding my blush and looking around me at all the bridles that hung from the ceiling.
"I uh. I already bought you a saddle and bridle for uh...." He trailed off, staring at me like he was in a trance, I blushed more.
"Hidalgo." I filled in.
"Yeah." Rick said, he looked embarrassed but I smiled at him encouragingly.
"You didn't have to do that." I smiled and walked out of the venders tent excited to see my new horse all decked out. Rick followed behind me and I could feel his piercing gaze as we walked towards where Evy and Jonathan had been waiting for us. They smiled at me knowingly and brought Hidalgo into my view. He was dressed with a beautiful medium brown colored leather saddle and bridle with a silver bit. Handsomely, it fit him very well.
"Oh Rick it's beautiful!! Fits him perfectly!" I exclaimed, very happy spinning around and hugging him hard. I quickly ran back towards my beauty, hopping on his back waiting for the others to catch up.
        Finally, we were all set to go Rick and I led the way while my brother, sister and the warden trailed behind us. The warden started singing a terrible Egyptian song way out of tune. I filtered him out rather quickly and just focused on the long journey ahead of us. Evy was reading a book at one point while Jonathan looked bored as all hell. Rick and I made small talk while the warden did God knows what. Quickly, the day faded away. I had fallen asleep briefly, I heard Evy and Rick talking in hushed voices.
"You know, I know Joe well, she may not show it but I think she really fancies you. Mark my words I believe you will end up together." Evy told Rick sounding very sure of herself.
"I like the sound of that." Rick replied with a soft chuckle. They talked more about Egypt and what brought Evy and Jon out here and then the conversation faded. I woke up to the sunrise spilling into the sky.
"Morning sleepy head." Rick greeted me quietly. I wasn't quite sure if the conversation I had heard last night actually happened or not so I quickly forgot about it.
"Morning." I said looking around to see we were relatively close to Hamunaptra. Rick held us up, I quickly got down off Hidalgo and gave him some water while we waited for our grand entrance to the city.
"Good morning, my friend." I heard a familiar weasley voice greet us. There Beni was in all his glory with his herd of American men behind him.
"What the hell we doin'?" A fairly attractive man asked Beni sounding annoyed that they had stopped moving.
"Patience, my good brat'am. Patience." Beni chided.
"Remember our bet, O'Connell. First one to the city, 500 cash bucks. A hundred of them bucks is yours if you help us win that bet." The American continued talking to Beni and Rick. I looked at Rick out of the side of my eye while hopping back onto Hidalgo.
"What happened to only gambling with your life?" I asked Rick. He shrugged.
"I think I can win this one pretty easily." Rick whispered to me.
"Hey, O'Connell. Nice camel." Beni replied trying to throw us off. Rick smiled and pet his camel on the head.
"Get ready for it." Rick informed our crew.
"For what?" Evy asked.
"We're about to be shown the way.." I replied. Just as I had finished my sentence the dust started clearing and something in the wind changed, revealing the ruins of the once beautiful Hamunaptra.
"Here we go again." Rick said as the Americans all looked flabbergasted. Almost immediately everyone started galloping towards the city. Camels and horses were being pushed to their limits. I saw ahead of me Rick and Beni were getting into it. Beni was hitting Rick with his crop while Rick was just trying to get ahead of Beni. Eventually, Rick got fed up with Beni and grabbed him by his shirt and threw him from his camel.
"So long Beni." I heard him say and smiled a tad while pushing Hidalgo faster.
"Serves you right"  I heard my sister say. I ended up passing Rick with my sister behind me in tow. Hidalgo was holding back and I could feel it. I lessened my grip on his reins letting him have his head. He started galloping even faster. Evy was still very close to us. The city was drawing near. Evy's camel let out a weird grunt and we shared a look, all of a sudden Evy's camel took off towards the city. Hidalgo was right behind her.
"Woo!! GO JOE, GO EVY!! GO!!!" I heard Jonathan yell excited we had won the bet. Evy slowed down looking in awe at the city. I had no idea Hidalgo could run that fast! Eventually the others caught up. Both Jon and I scouted out a place to camp and put our supplies, while Evy, Rick and the warden went to find where she wanted to start digging and where to begin our journey into the City of the Dead. I sighed knowing we had a long road in front of us, however, an adventure would never be easy, I had an anxious feeling about the whole venture ever since we got here. Guess we'd see how things played out.