A scarab buzzed into a dark empty room scattering dust on its wake. A red ray of sunlight entered from an unseen source. Where light passed gold came from dust and soon a sandstorm engulfed the chamber.

The scarlet insect landed on the chest of a sarcophagus and phased through.

On the dawn of the seventieth millennia since he was embalmed The Pharaoh stirred.

~~~

At the same time a dozen kilometres away.

“hurry up here gramps!”, shouted a feminine voice before coughing hoarsely.

“You ought to treat your elders with a little more respect young lady, my body is not what it once have been”, answered a dignified if slightly heaving voice.

“don’t you ‘young lady’ me, we wouldn’t have needed to run if your ‘respectable self’ didn’t try to take this amulet”, soon followed a whispered “respectable my ass”.

“Ay ay give your gramps some slack, I won’t drink booze before a trip ever again I swear” said Ernest, dropping the act. He went on climbing the creaky wooden ladder.

“sure sure” answered Harriet, helping him get on the rampart before looking around.

A sprawling city unfolded before her, houses stacked as high as a small mountain scattered between overgrown foliage and unrecognisable rubbles, cobblestone roads and alley zigzagging between building; making her feel like she was standing at the edge of a giant bowl of green noodle soup. The giant walls circling the city only reinforced this image in her head, chuckling a little at the thought of this grandiose ancient civilisation hearing what she thought of their prided capital.

At the centre of this magnificent dish stood a pyramid the size of a small town by itself, barren of any life as if the plant blanket of its city was undeserving of its body. Its harsh white stone starkly contrasted the warm greens and yellows of the capital. She imagined that if any of the snobby aristocrats of her hometown were turned into a building, they would feel at home next to this pyramid.

At its feet passed a river bed, a dozen men wide but now barely having a trickle of water.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ernest and her admired the landscape in silence.

“look at that”, she pointed. “there’s no water in the river anymore, I don’t know how we will make up for the jugs we lost in the walls”

“hi hi don’t worry little Harriet, I have more than one trick up my sleeve” and he revealed in one swooping motion an humming rectangular...thing ? She squinted her eyes at the thing and wondered how Ernest managed to hide an object the size of her head in his pockets, but more importantly “what does this do?”

“This my dear is a magical artifact that makes drinkable water”

“why then did you have me carry all those jugs of water you senile monkey!” shouted the young woman before breaking into a coughing fit.

“now now you need to calm down before your condition worsen” said the self-proclaimed gentleman, placing a sympathetic hand on her back.

“obviously physical labour builds character —Harriet glared murderously— buuut this artifact isn’t perfect, there is a catch” he leaned in and whispered conspiratorially ” this condenses ambient mana into water and as you know—“

“the Nil desert is a mana waste land so we cannot create water with this” completed Harriet.

“Exactly”

“why did you bring it out now then ?”

“do you see how the pyramid at the centre is in way better shape than the surrounding city ? Ambient mana likes to sip into manaless materials, the longer this goes on and the stronger this material is going to get.”

“So somehow there is mana around this pyramid, mana that we could use to get water ?” she asked hopefully, the soreness in her throat still present.

A sigh escaped her lips.

“Sorry having been so snappy gramps, I know you have experience in this. The last couple of days have been stressful but I shouldn’t take it out on you”

“Ah I don’t mind. Your father was so much worse than you, don’t even get me started” exclaimed Ernest, a big grin breaking out of his usual persona.

“however you are here to learn, realising your behaviour and asking for forgiveness is a step forward. If you are to adventure like your father and I, you will need to learn to be pleasant at all time. To people you meet on your way, as one wrong word can get you lynched by a mob; but most importantly to your crew, for they will have your back day and night” a sombre look passed his face “ when you have great danger in front of you, the last thing you want is a knife in the back.”

Harriet gulped and nodded.

~~~

Down in the ‘noodle soup’.

While slashing away at the branches in a more jungle-y part of the downtown they felt a deep rumble coming from the earth itself. Ernest tumbled and lost his hat. Harriet had never seen something like that in her whole life, she wondered if it was one of those earthquakes that had destroyed a town in her grandmother’s home country.

I sure hope it isn’t, I haven’t even gone out on my own.

In a logic defying vision, she saw a second sun rising from behind her. Its red hue so bright that the lazy noon sun disappear.

The rumble intensified.

Ernest and her crashed down.

Now bruised and terrified for her life she still couldn’t help to think that this looked an awful lot like a beautiful sunset.