-1The Mummy Returns
Imhotep/OC
Occurs after Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun kiss. Imhotep gets away, and the king sees the smear of paint. Anck-Su-Namun kills herself in front of the king and by that time Imhotep is far away thanks to his priests. He has not yet tried to resurrect Anck-Su-Namun for fear that the king will find out and kill her again. For what is the use of being alive for a few moments if your only gunna die right after you're united again?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sweat beaded on her forehead, not only from the sweltering sun, but also from fear. She had stolen one of the horses from the palace. Something if she was caught would result in a loss of her hand. Night soon passed over the sky and she could settle. She had seen no one following her, so she was safe for the time being. Today's events had exhausted her and she slipped of the horse and staked the rope into the ground to stop the creature from wandering in the night. As she lay down, sleep overcame her and the girl passed out on the sand.
Sun and the ring of metal woke the young woman from her slumber. Opening her Nile blue eyes she automatically reached for the small dagger on her belt. The sheath was empty. The Pharaoh's Guards surrounded her with annoyed and slightly amused looks adorning their features.
"Looking for something Princess Nuri?" The captain asked her, whilst dangling her dagger from its hilt.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Seti the first, stormed in, anger emanating from his every pore. His favourite mistress, Anck-Su-Namun, had killed herself in front of him after he had found the paint on her skin smeared and now his favourite daughter had run from the palace. Nefertiri watched his outburst from the far end of the room. The daughter he had chosen to guard the Bracelet of Anubis. The one he felt would be the most help in this situation.
"Nefertiri, what do I do? I must cut her beautiful hands away for her thievery and disobedience or find some alternative way to watch her without taking up my people's time. She is too strong willed to be watched like a child," Seti hissed to his daughter.
"Marry her off then Father, choose someone you trust the most to be her husband. She would no longer be a trouble in the court and it would keep her busy," Nefertiri replied, she knew that the loss of a woman's hands would bring no honour to the family, but a marriage would.
"Yes, but who would I trust to care for her, I may need her skills as a seer for war may break out in the future. I do not trust any of the court, except for you and… Imhotep. Guards! Call my High Priest in," the king called out.
Moments later Imhotep was kneeling at King Seti's feet.
"What do you have need of me for, my Pharaoh?" Imhotep inquired.
"I believe it is time to find my daughter, Nuri, a husband. She is wilful and at times insolent and I can no longer spare guards to watch her," Seti declared as he stood up from his throne and walked around the spacious room.
Imhotep spoke out, "If you wish for me to find a suitable husband, it can be arrange-"
"A husband has already been found, do you find my daughter pleasing Imhotep?"
Realisation dawned on Imhotep's face. He was the husband. Had the king found out about Anck-Su-Namun? Was this his way of ensuring no advances would be made towards the king's mistress, without losing his favourite advisor?
The captain of the Pharaoh's guard came in to whisper something in Seti's ear. The king nodded and gestured to the door impatiently.
The doors opened again to reveal a tanned girl in peasant's clothes. Male peasants' clothes. Her wig had been removed and hair as dark as ebony had been braided down her back.
"Nuri! What have you to say for yourself? Is palace life not good enough for you? You ran away, stole clothes from a trader, and one of my horses! I had to risk my best guards to find you and bring you back!" the king's face was furious and his anger was evident in the loudness of his voice and the drops of spit that flew through the air.
Imhotep and Princess Nefertiri stood back and watched. The guards never took their eyes off Nuri for fear she would leap through a window and down on to the streets below. The girl herself only stood there and looked carefully at the floor, as though inspecting the decorative tiles underneath her. When the king stopped spraying his crowd with spittle and raging words, she looked up. Imhotep had never seen eyes like hers before. They were as dark blue as the Nile on a stormy day and full of anger.
"Father! What do I have to say for myself! Plenty! You have locked me up for most, if not all of my life in this palace. I run because that is the only way I will ever see the outside world, without all the perfume and ointments. You did not have to send your best guards after me, you could have sent your worst! But then I would have succeeded, and no one but you can get anywhere better in this world can they?" Nuri had taken a step forward towards her father as her anger hit in tidal waves.
The king tallied back, "You are too valuable to be lost, Nuri! If your powers are lost then Egypt will be without a guide! That is why I have decided for you to wed. You would be close by, but your husband will have the stress of watching over you!"
"To who? One of those fat prigs who stare at your women as if they are toys to be used and tossed? I would accept none of your noble men! Good luck to you to find a husband suitable for me!" With that Nuri stalked towards the doors.
"Enough! I have found a husband, you ungrateful child, and he is not among the noblemen. You are to be married within the week, Nuri. If you run gypsy daughter, hell will follow your heels and you will be returned. If that occurs it won't be to Imhotep that I marry you to, it will be to one of those Noble prigs, as you so nicely put it!" The king barked after her.
Nuri stopped short of the doors to turn and look at Imhotep. She knew of him, the handsome high priest. He was at every meeting her father held, he appeared during training fights, and her father trusted him beyond belief. He was better looking then any of the marriageable men in the court by far, muscled and tall. She had never planned on marriage like her sisters, she had planned on freedom and the chance to do what she wanted, not what others wanted of her. In Imhotep's deep brown eyes she saw her future self, a wife of the high priest, covered in jewels and children tugging at her skirt. Not the life she had planned.
With tears in her eyes she turned and fled to her rooms.
Nefertiri took a step forward as though to go after her sister, but a look from her father stalled that movement and she stood back in the shadows.
"Imhotep, be prepared for your wedding, you are the only one I trust with that girl," with a weary sigh the king turned a walked out of the room to set plans for Nuri's wedding. The guards followed him and left the chamber.
"I am sorry Imhotep, I know your love is for Anck-Su-Namun, but that love dared not flourish or you both would have died. Father needs you and Anck-Su-Namun was nothing but a snake in my father's court-" Nefertiri was interrupted.
"You may be a princess, Nefertiri, but I will not have you talk ill of the dead, especially Anck-Su-Namun!" Imhotep spoke hotly before leaving through the doors through which he had come.
Nefertiri watched him leave before running off in search of her rebellious younger sister.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
In her rooms, Nuri raged and ranted, throwing what ever happened to be there and breaking quite a few valuables. Her handmaidens had fled in fear as the Princess's anger grew to a storm. Exhaustion overcame her and she sat on the floor staring at the murals adorning the walls.
She whispered to herself, "I should have let them, I should have let them, I should have let them!"
"Should have let them what?" Nefertiri asked stepping carefully over the broken pottery and fallen flowers.
"Nothing, and why should you care? You sent me to this fate! Father always asks your opinion and then pretends it his own! Why did you?" Nuri snarled.
Brown met blue as Nefertiri calmly replied, "I thought it for the best, you need to be settled and if it takes a husband to tie you down…"
"Leave! You are no sister of mine, traitorous snake!" Nuri screamed and picked up a shard of pottery to fling at the retreating back of her sister. It smashed against the door and left Nuri weeping in the disaster that was her room.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Imhotep went about his duties without really thinking upon them. His mind was on the marriage tomorrow and his place in it. Husband to Nuri, the king's unruly daughter with eyes of the sky. The gem in her father's crown, and he was the unfortunate one sent to be the young woman's husband.