I placed the treasure in my underwear and fastening the string tightly. I grabbed some loose rocks and placed them in the lockbox to simulate the weight of the booty I’d stolen. I closed the lockbox and placed it back where I had picked it up from. Then, I broke off the glass key’s bow, sealing the box shut with glass.

I dove into the lake quickly and swam out from under the ridge. I hurriedly retreated behind the ridge again. Kuro’s outstretched hand argued with Dale who was communicating angrily with his hands. Hosu was completely invisible in water.

After a few seconds, Dale started to swim back to the cave. I noticed a creature I had seen before, who stomped the ground with his large ‘hooves’ to kick up sand and vacuum and bottom-feeders with his mouth. When it kicked up another sand cloud, I escaped into the storm.

I drifted through the haze of lake sand and then swam upward to get some air. I took in a deep inhale. I grabbed at my belly. It was still there. The prize. My stuff was where I left it on the shore. As I swam back, I felt a prickle in the back of my neck. The kind you get when you feel something’s eyes on you.

For a brief moment, I was in open waters. I got closer to the shore but on one of my breast strokes, I noticed a gigantic spiny dorsal fin dip under the water. I might have imagined it, if not for the fact that it rose above the surface again. It was so big it could have been used as a sail for a boat. The creature slalomed through the lake water toward me and dove again. Not good.

I… did not even want to look under the surface at what I was dealing with. I cast Stride and it increased my swimming speed as well. The humungous creature was able to glide through the water. Even with the added speed, it was gaining on me. As soon as I decided to speed up, it decided I was worth chasing. I dared not look back, lest it paralyze me with fear. Instead, I could tell it was moving fast, by the sound of the rushing water parting at the breach of its head. I forced my arms to move faster as I felt it’s slimy tongue lick my feet. I propelled myself one last time and the next thing my feet felt were sand. I ran up the shore and turned around. The fin swirled in circles. It’s massive body hid just underneath the surface. And very soon, it forgot about me and swam back to open waters.

I let out a deep breath of relief and rested my hands against my knees. That was when I noticed it wasn’t there. I pulled my skivvies out, as if something so cumbersome could have got lost in my underwear. I started to panic before I saw it was sitting half buried in the sand. I walked up to it and picked it up. It remained bone dry, protected by magic. I had done it. I had stolen the precious treasure.

“A book?” Ynec asked.

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I sipped my soup that the nice older couple had made for us, “Hmmmhmm.” I said.

“Why book?” Ynec asked.

“It’s not just any book,” I said, I opened the first page and pointed right at the title, “You can’t read that because its in Elvish, right?”

“Can’t read any language.”

“Okay, So most people coudn’t read this because it’s in Elvish. But I can. This is the word for Book. This is the word for Dead, and this inscription here insinuates possession. The title translates to ‘Book Of The Dead.’”

“Book Of The Dead?” Ynec repeated.

“That’s right. I have no clue what kind of stuff is in here, but if it’s something that a Sun Thrower might want, I can imagine it’s powerful.”

“Why?” Ynec asked.

“I don’t know why. But he wants it. That makes it valuable.”

“No, why you? How does this help goddess?” He asked.

“It doesn’t help my goddess. Not everything has to be about Anubis. This is for me. I don’t even want her knowing about this.”

Ynec’s eyes glanced left and then back to me. Like I didn’t know something he did. I let out a little scoff and said, “How did stalking the Sun Thrower go?”

“Went fine. Didn’t notice me. Sun Thrower went to shrine of Ra in other village, sat and prayed.”

I nodded my head. Didn’t give us a lot to go with.”

“He apologized for who he killed. Said that they were going to kill him.”

“Hmm. Makes sense I guess. Like an incident report.”

“Then went to lake. Rented boat and took it into lake. Then I found you.”

“Okay. So he apologized to the god. Didn’t mention anything about the book?”

Ynec shook his head. I looked at the book. Moswen, the nice old lady that let us stay at her house, came through the door and I quickly hid the book under my shield. She asked if we needed anything and brought us some blankets to make sure we were warm. I thanked her again and nudged Ynec to do the same. Moswen left us alone again.

“Look, Ynec. The reason I’m keeping this book and not sharing it with Anubis is because I have a dream. You got a dream, Ynec?”

Ynec turned his attention back to me, thought for a second and said, “Get food.”

“That’s not a dream. That’s necessary to survive. A dream is the thing that’s necessary to thrive. The owner of this book had a dream,” I held up the dark tome, “He wanted me to get this to ‘her.’”

“Who her?”

I opened the book and turned it beyond the title page. I pointed at an inscription in sloppy handwriting, “This says ‘To my darling Viper.’ Whoever this guy’s viper was probably wants this token back. Maybe they’ll pay in treasure. Maybe they'll do me a favor. This will help me with my dream of becoming Pharaoh.”

“I see.” Ynec said.

“Do you have a dream?” I asked, “Something you could survive without, but not live without.”

Ynec thought for some time and then said, “My father to forgive me.”

His answer struck me like a needle through the heart. I saw Ynec laying there wrapped in blankets and let out a deep sigh.

“Not good dream?” Ynec asked.

“It’s a great dream, buddy,” I said as I tried not to let my voice shake too much.

“Chacali say ‘Fox who chase hungry eat own tail.’ Doesn’t sound good in Tethran.”

“How do you say it in Chacali?” I asked.

Ynec yipped and gargled and snarled. I tried my best to repeat it but he laughed at my sorry attempt at the language. I laughed too.

I asked Ynec to sit there and tell me more about the Chacali language. He pointed at the moon and said ‘Grrrr.’ and when I said ‘Grrrr’ he said “no, more like ‘Grr’” and we sat there doing that for a while before we finally drifted to sleep.