The Mummy Returns
Dear Nadir,
I'm bringing a friend to meet you. I think you'll like him, he has Erik's arrogance. I wouldn't want to see the two of them together in the same room. Speaking of Erik, he'd probably kill me right now. I ran into a bit of trouble with a stalactite a few days ago. Van fixed the worst of it, but I'm still scraped up and stiff in one leg.
Hey that new Mummy movie finally came out. A week early too. I think I've seen it about half a dozen times by now. ILM again in the FX department. Not as good as the first one, it had a lot of the same stuff that worked so well in the first one, sort of gives it the appearance of a cheep knock off. And yes it does get better the more often you see it.
Anyway I spent another winter in Egypt, running from bugs, saving the world, the usual. Scarabs are still on the top of my list of bugs I don't like, but scorpions are getting up there, especially the giant kind with human parts attached (like a centaur, not what you're probably thinking). Long story, some 5,000 years actually. I went back to visit Rick and Eve. It was getting towards exams at school and I needed the break. They have a kid now, of course you probably already know that. Alex is really nice, his Egyptian is better than mine, and you know how I am with languages. He has his mother's grace though.
Once again Rick and Eve were exploring a tomb, 'desecrating' was Rick's word, and after seeing the mess they left I'd have to agree. They did find something very interesting though. It was a gold bracelet in the form of a scorpion. Apparently it used to belong to a Scorpion King who had conquered Egypt around 3037 B. C. Eve told me that for the most part he's considered to be a myth, I sure hope he stays that way. As the story has it, every 5,000 years this Scorpion kind rises again to do Anubis' bidding and conquer the world. I'm sure you will have no trouble with the math in this instance.
Since I was sort of in the middle of exams I had to leave shortly after they discovered the bracelet. Although all that water was definitely a deterrent to staying too. Who ever opens the chest that holds the bracelet will drink from the Nile, as the curse goes. We seem to find a lot of cursed chests in Egypt. When I returned I found Eve in the process of being kidnapped by the curator of the British Museum. Not being one to turn down a good stress relieving fight I jumped right in. Too bad they succeeded in taking Eve away, Rick wasn't too happy about that. Fortunately Alex recognized the museum curator as being the leader of the kidnapers so we decided to start looking there. That and Bay (visiting from Egypt) mentioned that some lady was trying to resurrect the Mummy we had fought last time I was in Egypt. In a way I think they may have had the right idea, who better to fight a myth than another myth? We found Eve, and the Mummy and a few other friends from the last trip to Egypt (mostly of the dead sort). I seem to spend a great deal of time running when I visit with Rick and Eve.
After a violent remodeling of the British Museum, Bay's first bus ride, and the dismemberment of the afore mentioned friends, Alex was kidnapped by the curator and his followers. The reason they switched target was because Alex had put on the bracelet of Anubis, which wakes up the Scorpion King. Apparently putting the bracelet on triggers a chain reaction that leads the wearer from Karnak to the Ahm Shere Oasis, the home grounds of the Scorpion dude. Unfortunately it also sucks the wearer dry after seven days unless they have reached the Pyramid temple at the center of the Oasis. Since you have to go there to wake up the Scorpion King and the curator guy seemed interested in helping our Mummy friend do just that and Rick and Eve wanted Alex back and Bay and his friends had to stop both the Mummy and the Scorpion King, we found ourselves once again flying across Egypt. This time our pilot was a friend and partner in crime of Rick's, who flies dirigible (great for studding, a must during exams, big, roomy, quiet and not as windy as a bi-plane).
The problem was that once we reached Karnak we didn't know where to go from there. Alex had taken care of that, he built this really cool sand castle of an island temple, our next destination. At the next place we found another sand castle courtesy of Alex. He left us successive castles at each of the other destinations we stopped. We traveled up the Nile (yes that would be south) in this manor until we were well into the Blue Nile.
Of course at about this time the Mummy did that wall with the face thing, only this time it was with water. Mechanical things and water don't mix too well either by the way. Fortunately we were within sight of the Oasis when the dirigible went down. I had the misfortune of being washed over board in all the excitement, but I did miss the crash landing. I'm not sure what exactly happened to them until we met up again several hours later, I sort of found myself in my Speech 101 class and found myself in the middle of one of the most boring, pointless lectures I've ever heard. I don't remember exactly what it was about since there was still a lot of water in my ears. Not ten minutes into the lecture Alex came barreling into the classroom. I caught his attention and within a few minutes he was followed by Anck-su-namun the Mummy's girlfriend (did I mention that the Mummy managed to bring her soul back and put it in her reincarnated body? See I told you it works. Oh and Eve was Nefertiti in a past life) followed by the Mummy, boy oh boy does he look good in cloths, maybe something in a turtleneck, definitely black. I don't think I'll tell you all the details of the classmate who almost lost a head, or getting hit by Anck-su-namun. The final result was that I carried Alex, damp as I was, into the Oasis.
Now that was an adventure in its self. The place looked like a cross between a botanical garden and a tropical rain forest. In the center was a huge gold pyramid with a sparkly thing on top. Too bad the beauty was marred by a number of bodies in various stages of decomposition ranging in time period from Roman centurions to Napoleon's troops. Some in hanging cages, others skewered on spears, some only heads. One of the more gruesome sights I've seen. By this time Alex had fallen back in the procession of troops, I'd finished my philosophical discussion with the Mummy, it was unnerving Alex anyway. I guess he still sees things in terms of black and white.
It was about this time, well after sunset, that the pigmy things began to attack. Not that I'm complaining or anything but those things were scary. They reminded me too much of the raptors from site B of which I have written to you of. The way they moved through the low brush, went for the neck, killed viscously, at least they weren't as smart. I'm still having a bit of trouble sleeping, I hate that, and during exams too. Perhaps I should go back to the House, I always did sleep better there. Regardless. Rick and Bay found us in a rather daring rescue. Bay had to leave as soon as Alex was safe because one of the bad guys had shot Horus, his falcon whom we had been using as a messenger bird to the army of Mad-jai and they had to be told of our location, so he missed our mad dash for the temple. Alex had to get there before sun up or he was going to suffer a rather unfortunate death. Rick got him there on time and the bracelet came off Alex's wrist.
I won't tell you about Eve's death, only that Anck-su-namun stabbed her and Jonathan, yes Jonathan, and Alex managed to save her. While this was happening Rick was hunting down the Mummy and his love whom he blamed for Eve's death. The Mummy was working on waking the Scorpion King, he'd told Anck-su-namun that he had to fight the King (the Scorpion one not Elvis) on his own. You should have seen Jonathan fighting Anck-su-namun, he did get in a few good punches though. Finally Eve stepped in and called the Pharaoh's ex-mistress out. This is where the past life thing really comes into play. The Egyptians have/had (I can never remember) an elaborate form of fighting with weapons. It's a lot like the Asian martial arts and both Eve and Anck-su-namun, in their past lives, were top notch students. Now that was a fight worth seeing again, and again, and again… Moving on. Rick found the Mummy guy about the same time the Scorpion King woke up. They may have fought each other briefly before that. This where I saw the half man half scorpion person. Now I know why he's called the Scorpion King. Eve says he may have been a whole person once upon a time. The Mummy managed to save himself by claiming to be a servant and that Rick was the enemy. I'm sure you can guess what happened after that, it involved a great deal of running.
Meanwhile Jonathan, Alex, and I were trying to figure out how to extend the spear of Osiris, the best way to kill the Scorpion King. You see it's a sort of scepter that telescopes out into a spear or javelin. Did they have javelins back then? Once it was opened, mostly a matter of following the directions inscribed around the top, Rick convinced Jonathan to throw it at the Scorpion King. The spear was summarily intercepted by the Mummy. Who ever kills the Scorpion King takes control of his army (a large number of jackal shaped warriors made from the sands and given life. Not that hard to kill really, you just have to behead them.), who threw it again at the Scorpion King catching him by surprise, he hadn't been paying us much attention. It would have killed him too, if Rick hadn't caught it in mid flight. It seems Rick is some sort of special Mad-jai who is destined for great things. Instead of throwing it, he was way too close anyway, Rick just skewered the Scorpion King and ordered him and his army off to Hell. Unfortunately they were in one of the worst positions possible, right over an endless pit with all these people in it, so not cool. When the Scorpion King dusted, both Rick and the Mummy fell in the pit, though they managed to catch on to the edge. That was when the whole place started to cave in on us. I'm sensing a definite theme here. Masonry coming down, stalactites coming loose and all that. Eve braved a brigade of falling stalactites to pull Rick out of the pit, but when Imhotep called to Anck-su-namun she panicked and fled down a passage way that led to a whole lot of scorpions. I heard her screams as I followed Eve through the rain of rocks (nice alliteration isn't it? Sorry just finished an English exam). It was fairly obvious to anyone watching that the Mummy was in love with Anck-su-namun, he pretty much gave up when she ran. As you know, death and I, we don't get a long too well. I gave him something to live for. But it was his choice.
You know how when your pulling a person out of water (or a canyon) you're suppose to get as close to the ground as possible? Well what they don't tell you is that if there are rocks falling from the ceiling you shouldn't lay out flat, you make a nice target like that. At least it was only one stalactite. The bad part is that right about then everything started to get sucked into the pyramid. So up we climbed to the very tippy-top to avoid all the plants and trees and wild life being pulled in toward us. A lot like being in the center of a tornado, apparently. Lucky for us Rick's friend with the dirigible came sailing by at that point and we all made it to safety. Even Jonathan who insisted on taking the big sparkly gem off the top of the pyramid.
So that's how I come to be writing to you, again from Egypt, this time from a dirigible. Oh you'd never recognized it from the Junk we flew in on, it's all gold and sparkly now. I have my last exam tomorrow and we'll probably stop by after that.
Love,
Sac