Chapter Fifteen

Never before could Constance remember falling asleep on her feet, but as they continued their rising and falling path at first over dunes, and now over a more rocky and scrub-riddled plain, the pain in her body throbbed with every step, her eyes kept falling shut.  Every now and again two large strong hands would set her right in her path, waking her as they did so, and every time it was Ardeth, guiding her carefully along.   The group was silent, their steps the only sound to fill each other's ears, that or the heavy coughing required to rid the unveiled travellers' throats of the unending dust about them.   As her eyes were closed most of the time, Connie didn't notice the glow that was now dominating the eastern sky, nor the slowed pace that the group had begun to take.    Those hands were back on her shoulders, and now they stilled her.   She found herself jerking awake, half-lidded eyes looking to the man next to her.

"What are we doing?" she asked, voice rough from the dust.  She looked down, surprised to see the dark robes around her, momentarily forgetting she'd been given them to wear.

"Stopping for a time," Ardeth said.  He knelt, trying in vain to clear a spot in the sand of rock and debris from the increasingly hard terrain around them.  In front of them was a boulder, cragged and rough to touch.  It was about the size of a small car, and would provide some shade until midday.   Rick came to a stop next to Ardeth, watching him for a moment before kneeling down next to him.  Evelyn stood next to Connie, putting an arm around her gently, a worried frown on her features.   Rick regarded his wife for a moment before looking back to Ardeth.

"Are you sure this is the best idea?" he asked.  "We're gonna fry out here."

"We will 'fry'," said Ardeth, using the colloquialism cautiously, "But it is better that we sleep and keep cool."

"How are we going to do that?"

Ardeth eyed Rick before removing the thicker robe around the last layers of his clothing - his black pants, boots and flimsy dark cotton shirt.  He flapped the robe out wide, and lifted it in the darkness. "This will serve as shade."  He looked to Rick.  "Do you have your knife on you?"

Rick nodded, pulling out his knife and flicking it into place.  He handed it to Ardeth, who wedged the knife in a crag in the rock, snagging the corner of his robe between the blade and the rock and keeping it in place.  He lifted a large stone from the ground and pulling the other side of the length of fabric, he attempted to fix it into place.

Constance sat against the uncomfortable boulder wall, weariness making her eyelids feel as heavy as lead.   Evelyn held her hand.   "Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm tired," rasped Constance.  "Hungry, too.   The trance took a lot out of me."

"I have some food," Ardeth said.  He crawled under the cramped make-shift tent the boulder and the robe made, crouching next to Connie.   She wasn't quite sure how to react to him, her heart thumping strangely.  She'd never seen him without his robes, in clothes that were very western.  The balloon shirt and well fitted pants, his hair wild and free of his turban, made him look very much like a pirate, or an Arabian prince from the tales of old.   He deftly untied the leather pouch of food from his belt.  "Bread and dried meats."  He looked to Rick.  "It is dawn... we should try to find something more to eat before it gets too hot."

Jonathan looked to Ardeth with a puzzled frown, the material from the robe hanging about his head oddly.  "There's nothing to eat in the desert is there?"

Rick smiled.  "Oh, there's plenty of snakes."

"And bugs," Ardeth said, a mischievous gleam in his eyes.  Jonathan shuddered, and despite the direness of their situation, Ardeth found it in himself to let loose a chuckle, patting Jonathan on the shoulder. Constance didn't hear much of it.   She lay against Evelyn, blonde hair covering her face, dead to the world as sleep overwhelmed her.

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When Constance woke, it wasn't the soft slight body of her best friend that she lay against.   The familiar scent of sandalwood and musk filled her lungs, the firm wide form of Ardeth underneath her face.  She looked to what her face rested on, and realised it was his arm.  She rolled over, her body not complaining too much as she moved.  Thank God, she thought.  Perhaps she was getting used to all this hardship.  As she settled again, she faced him.  He had lain down behind her, letting her use his bicep as a pillow and his body as a rest.   Now his face was only a couple of inches away from hers, his long dark lashes resting against his high coffee-toned cheeks.  She gazed at the tattoos there, now able to examine them freely.

They really were quite beautiful, and as much as she tried to imagine his face without them, it seemed wrong.

A blush raged her own cheeks as, in the midst of her intent gazing, those dark brown eyes opened slowly.  She shifted back a bit, her breath suddenly short.   His hand wrapped around her upper arm, and she huffed.  "Ardeth... are you taking liberties with me?"

He frowned, hurt splashing his eyes.  "No..."

She looked him up and down, as much was possible in their cramped conditions.  "Then why do you lie against me like this?"

He looked thoroughly confused now.  "You asked for me."

"I did?"

He nodded.  "Evelyn was laying you down on the ground... you asked for me."

Now she looked irritated.  "I am sure I wouldn't have asked for you to lie with me so closely!"

"No, you didn't," Ardeth conceded.

Connie felt herself getting quite annoyed.  "Then why did you?"

"I didn't."

"Then-"

"You lay against me yourself, Constance."

She sat up, folding her arms, the robe that sheltered them hanging about her.  "Now really, Mr. Bay, I would think that if I did all this in my sleep that you would prevent me from embarrassing myself!"

Ardeth propped himself up on his elbow, looking rather tired and harried.  "If we had the room to worry over such things, then yes, I would have."  He frowned a little, embarrassment seeping into his features.  "It didn't help that I was asleep also, and that we both ended up in that... position... by accident."

Constance blushed, looking down.  "I'm sorry."

His hand ran up her arm, squeezing her shoulder.  "You have nothing to be sorry for, ya hilwai."

She met his eyes, her stomach swimming and tingling warmly.  She had no idea what those words meant, but they made her blush anyway.  Perhaps it was the tone of his voice or the way he looked at her when he said them.  Her breaths felt hot, her skin burning underneath where he held her.  She blinked, her throat tight.  "W-"  A dent formed in her brow as she stuttered.  "What does that mean?"

"It is an endearment," he said. "I will tell you some day.  For now, get some rest."

Connie looked down at the space before her, a yearning swelling inside of her.  She tilted her head, running her fingers through the sand and grit underneath her.    "Uh... erm... may I..."  She blushed, and motioned to where she'd been sleeping.

Ardeth simply smiled, laying back down and offering her his arm.  Connie shifted back beside him, perhaps a little awkwardly, and slowly, she lowered her head to his arm, watching him as she did so.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked her.

She nodded, giving a breathless "Yes."   He smiled again, laying his head on his shoulder, eyes following Connie as she lay timidly against him.  She tried to sleep, tried to fall into unconsciousness like she did before, but the hard sand underneath her and the warmth of Ardeth next to her made it all a little impossible.  She couldn't help but take pleasure in the exotic scent of the oils he wore, in the way his hair tumbled down over his neck and the delightful colour of the tanned skin it failed to cover.   She spent the following and increasingly warm hours drifting between the edges of sleep and complete awareness doing just that.

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Rick O'Connell looked to the skin, bones and guts that used to be a snake - an asp to be precise (which had to be very carefully caught).   He'd not eaten much of it, relegating the best of the meat to Evelyn and Connie.  Not that they touched it too much.   Ardeth insisted that they ate as much as they could stomach, that the meats had vital fluids in them that would help the girls against dehydration.  Connie clutched the bag of dried meat and bread that Ardeth had offered her and eyed him warily, but after a little coaxing, she bit back her pride and swallowed the raw meat.

Both Rick and Ardeth had the joy of devouring some of the larger insects to be found, as well as some of the less tasty parts of the snake.  All looked thoroughly miserable, and Ardeth found himself charged with not only helping them survive, but helping them stay sane with his often timely words of wisdom.  Rick concentrated on looking after Evelyn and Jonathan.   Evelyn was fairing much better than Constance in the given situation, her darker complexion and her past experiences in the Egyptian deserts aiding her resilience, as well as her Egyptian blood.  Jonathan was similarly attuned, but being the sort of man he was, was much more vocal about his discomfort than his sister. The real point of concern was water.   Food they had in abundance, but without water they were in deep trouble.   They had the contents of Ardeth's water skin, and no more.   If worse came to worse, they could try to milk the snakes they killed of blood.   Ardeth assured them that by rationing the water they had it could last about three days, so it would not come to that too soon.

During the morning hours they slept, hiding under Ardeth's robes that were propped up by the boulder they'd settled at.  They didn't move from it, as Ardeth thought that moving too far from Amarna would be unwise.   They had to be positive Izzy would find them, and he wouldn't if they strayed too far from Amarna. It was the third day when the conditions began to get to Jonathan.   Constance slept not only during the day, but during the night as well.  The heat plagued her, even as she slept, her pale skin raging red when the sun climbed high in the sky.   Ardeth watched over her, giving her a little more water than the rest of them.  No one minded, everyone was equally worried for the fair-haired woman.   Late that day, when the sun had begun to descend in the sky again, Jonathan was the first to wake.

He looked to the rest of the group.  Evelyn was curled up with Rick, the both of them close and wrapped up in each other.  Constance was laid out next to Ardeth, the both of them looking much more tentative and uneasy even in their sleep with the arrangement, but Jonathan had a feeling that that wouldn't last too long.  He sighed, crawling out from underneath the shelter of the boulder.   The sun wasn't very high anymore, and he guessed it would have been about four in the afternoon.   There was an anxiety, a stress in his heart, the twisting ache of hope that was so easily beginning to crash into desperation.  He missed having a decent night's sleep, a decent cooked meal, fresh clothes and the sight of water.  Oh... how dry he felt.  His mouth felt furry, and it was all compounded by the dust that found its way into every orifice of the body.  It was up his nose, in his ears, down his pants.  There was a stirring at the camp, and from behind the boulder staggered a worn looking Rick O'Connell.  He adjusted his pants, ran a shaky hand through his dust-matted hair, and sighed.

"Mornin' Jonathan."

Jonathan winced in the afternoon light.  "Afternoon."

Rick looked about himself and sighed.  "Oh yeah..."  With a definite slouch in his usually impeccable posture, Rick pointed to the rocks that were strewn about them in the desert.  "Time for breakfast I guess."

Jonathan gritted his teeth darkly.  "Afternoon tea."

Rick nodded, waving a hand.  "That, too."

Jonathan gazed out into the desert, valiantly ignoring Rick scrabbling around the rocks for his meal.  He didn't want to see the proud man degraded so far as to be crawling for his meal.  Rick let out a gasp, and there was a pitiful screech.

"Got it!"

Rick stood, holding up a limp but rather fat asp.  "There we go..."

Jonathan just stared at Rick, but Rick ticked a brow.

"If I can find some more of these, we won't have to eat bugs."

Something within Jonathan snapped.  He let out a whimper, and looking about him, he wailed.  Grabbing the longest and sharpest rock he could find, he fell to the ground, digging madly, dragging it along and trying to make a dent in the hard compact ground.   He grunted, sweat beading on his brow, the stone scraping away the lighter top surface and revealing the darker, more compact dirt beneath.  Rick walked over, a confused frown on his face.

"Jon?"

Jonathan let out a growl, hacking away with the stone.  "I am NOT eating snakes for the rest of my God-forsaken life!!"

There was a flurry of hurried steps, and glancing up, Jonathan saw a panicked Ardeth race towards him.

"Jonathan!  Stop what you are doing!"

Jonathan looked up.  "Why?"

"You mustn’t exert yourself in this sun, you will dehydrate."

Jonathan snorted. "I'd rather death come quickly if I'm to have snakes and..."  He paused, face twisting in disgust, "Scarab beetles as my last meals!"

Ardeth shook his head, turning away.  "You are being selfish.  All of us are to watch you suffer, because you spent yourself in an act of desperation that we cannot remedy."

Rick tilted his head, examining the marks Jonathan had made in the sand.  "He's... he's made the letter H... or is it I?"

"I!" cried Jonathan.  "To be followed by Z, another Z and finally a Y!   If we're stuck out here long enough, I'll add 'Where the hell are you?' just for effect!"

Ardeth looked down at the ground, then to Jonathan.  "Actually... that is a good idea."

Rick nodded.  "Very good.  Jonathan - get in the shade.  We'll finish this at dusk."

Rick and Ardeth caught another snake and a handful of beetles, and somehow convinced the maddened Jonathan to come back into the shade till sundown.  Perhaps the heat was the more convincing of influences but never-the-less, as soon as it was gone, Jonathan was back out there with his rock, digging and hacking at the sand to create huge letters.   Thankfully the moon was full enough to cast a little light on the scene (though not as much as Jonathan would have hoped).   As a result, one Z ran a little into the next, and the letters curled about an invisible pivot point that was where Jonathan had obviously been sitting.   Either way, it clearly said 'IZZY', in six foot letters.

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Hello From Sunny Hamunaptra – Chapter 16