Disclaimer: The characters of Ardeth Bay, Evelyn O’Connell, Rick O’Connell and Jonathan Carnahan belong to Stephen Sommers and Universal Studios. No infringement intended. All other characters belong to the author.
Rated: PG-13 (currently)
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Chapter 1: It BeginsHuman journeys do not begin and end in singularly identifiable events, like a stage play, with neatly divided, structured acts leading to tidy conclusions. Instead, they flow like rivers, existing both before and after the events used to define human life. Is it as if people wade into the water, into the liquid flow of time, and melt away into it, becoming at once part of the river and of everyone and everything else within the current.
Like a river, sand also flows. Wind is its master, sculpting the desert like a moody lover. Something entirely different was molding the sands lying over the buried city of Hamunaptra. Something far below the surface. Nine years had past since the sacred city sank into the desert, yet the Medjai maintained their 3000 year old vigil over the site. It remained the burial place of the great pharaoh Seti I: his body and vast treasure lie undisturbed in their chambers. The great king rested. The legend of his treasure, however, would not rest. As long as foolish men continued to seek it, the Medjai would continue to guard it.
Great evil had risen twice in Hamunaptra, and some of the Medjai believed it could again. The elders of the twelve tribes believed the creature, Imhotep, lied buried with his unholy mistress Ahnk Su Namun, at Ahm Shere, yet none could explain the movements of the sand over the ancient city.
So he watched.
A dark figure on a moonless night rode his horse to a cliff overlooking Hamunaptra. He watched for hours as the sand shifted in the wind and seemed to glow with a light from within. He watched shapes of long-destroyed obelisks and temples form from blowing sand. He watched them look to be solid and new as the day they were raised over Seti’s kingdom, then watched them dissolve again into dust. He watched…and a cold feeling in his soul grew.
He knew, too, a jackal stalked his people. A sickness afflicted those who had ventured into Hamunaptra. A strange sickness none of their healers could cure or explain. Some had died, and some lingered in a strange half-dead state. It was not an illness of this world, they said. Some said it was a curse.
Perhaps…This he did not know…yet.
His tall black mare stirred restlessly beneath him, pawing the earth with a forefoot. She was young and desired to return to the safety of her herd. Her rider stroked her neck “We will not return home for some time, little one”, he turned her away from the city and headed across the desert to Cairo.
He knew one thing for certain: there would be more death before there were answers.
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The Tomb of Seth – Chapter 2