Chapter: Growing Up

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…..Year; 1900: …..

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When she was four years old, she remembered her tiny hand being held by her ten year old older brother, standing in the foyer of an orphanage in Cairo, Egypt due to their mother's passing away, and there was no father in their life.

The orphanage housed about ten other kids that mostly got abandoned or their families couldn't give them the life they should have.

When days passed, she remembered how her older brother, Rick got snatched out of their bedroom in the early morning and then returned a couple hours later with bandage wrapped around his right wrist. When they snatched her next, she remembered the way that Rick yelled at them and even tried to fight them off, but they shoved him aside.

She remembered how she stared up at the orphanage owner and a few unknown faces, wondering what they were going to do to her. They started to ink a brand in her skin on her upper left shoulder. Tears welled up in her pale green eyes and she cried for her older brother.

The shouts of Rick were heard, but then a grunt and then nothing. When they stop branding her shoulder, she was put back in the room that Rick and her shared. She saw that Rick was knocked out on his bed. She had crawled into his bed and hugged him, keeping herself press as close as possible to him.

Then a couple of years passed.

When she was eight, Rick was fourteen, she was adopted.

That day had been the worst. Rick was her only family member and a very protective older brother. He tried to fight tooth and nail against everyone that held him back so he could reach her, but in the end, she was taken away in tears.

All she had with her was a small suitcase with a few belongings. Her precious items were a picture of Rick and her when she was five and he was eleven. The other item was a gold bracelet that Rick stole off a stand and gave to her. It had an emerald gem in it.

When she was adopted, she remained in Cairo, but she didn't have to roam around anymore or be treated with disrespect. Instead, her adoptive guardian made sure that she went through schooling and he even trained her how to defend herself.

Her new adoptive guardian was known as Dr. Terence Bey. He was the Curator for the Cairo Museum of Antiquities. It was a place that she came to enjoy spending time in, and she learned all about Ancient Egypt. She even helped Dr. Bey around the place.

At the age of thirteen, she found out that Dr. Bey had a secret.

One night she snapped awake to go to the kitchen to get herself a glass of water. She did not pay any attention to her surrounding as she walked into the kitchen. She didn't realize that Dr. Bey had guests over.

"Althea, what are you doing up?"

Startle, she dropped the glass of water to whirl around to see Dr. Bey at the table with two men dressed in certain type of garbs. Garbs that made these men appear to be warriors of some sort that came from the desert. Garbs that were long black robes with gray sash around their waist to hold the robes together. They had black headdress wrapped around their heads and a cloth to go across their lower face, to protect from desert winds. What made her to stare was the facial tattoos of what appeared to be hieroglyphics across their forehead and cheeks. They also carried weapons.

"Getting water." Althea replied quickly, bowing her head.

"So this is the little one you took under your wing?"

A sigh escaped from Terence as he nodded.

"Yes, this is Althea O'Connell."

"Do not be harsh on the little one, Terence."

Althea lifted her head a little to peek through her long thick eyelashes at the man that spoke to Dr. Bey in a low mellow tone. When the man made eye contact with Althea, she gone wide eyes and bowed her head again, staring down at her bare feet.

A chuckle escaped the man.

"She has beautiful eyes. Never have I seen such pale green eyes before."

"Yes, yes, her eyes are unique. She's a rare gem." Terence whispered causing Althea to look up to stare at her adoptive guardian with widen pale green eyes.

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….. Couple Years Later: …..

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That particular night was where Althea learned that those men in the kitchen were known as Medjai and Dr. Bey was one of them.

After Althea learned about who those men were, she began to research about the Medjai. At times, she managed to get some historical information about the Medjai out of Dr. Bey. He was a contact for the Medjai from within the city, since he was a part of the Medjai too. Therefore, he had answers to her questions.

Althea had learned that the Medjai were warriors that devoted themselves to be protectors and guards of the City of the Dead, Hamunaptra and kept trespassers from entering. They kept a close watch on the city because they do not need anyone to steal treasures, but also, they prevented any rise of evil that might come from there. That made Althea to ask Dr. Bey about the evil and he gave her the story about the High Priest Imhotep. The Medjai made sure that the High Priest will not raise from the dead in the near future.

All the historical information was interesting to Althea. She continued to further gain knowledge about her surroundings and what Dr. Bey was involved in.

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At nineteen, Althea had met the Carnahan siblings.

There was the eldest boy, Jonathan and the younger sister, Evelyn. Their father was Howard Carnahan, who was an explorer and adventurer that had fallen in love with an Egyptian woman and they had Jonathan and Evelyn. From there, Howard explored Egypt while the children stayed behind. Both Evelyn and Althea made acquaintance with one another to become good friends.

Soon enough, Evelyn became an employer for Dr. Bey at the museum that Howard would donate anything he found on his expeditions.

As Althea and Evelyn became good friends, Althea took notice of how Jonathan, Evelyn's older brother, always got into trouble. Yet it had Althea to think about her older brother, Rick and wonder where he was.

Throughout the years, she tried to go back to the orphanage, but Dr. Bey always kept her away from there.

Finally one day, Evy and she had gone to the market, and snuck by the orphanage. Althea asked the new owner about records on Richard O'Connell. She received the news that Rick had run away from the orphanage at sixteen. That made Althea upset as he left without saying goodbye to her.

That same day she returned back home and Dr. Bey questioned her about why she was quieter than her usual smiling self.

"Just thinking of what the past was like once upon a time." Althea replied then left the room to leave a curious and confused Dr. Bey in his chair, behind his desk.

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….. Year; 1924: …..

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Years flew by and at the age of twenty-eight was when Althea met a new Medjai face on a stormy night.

It had been thundering outside, no rain. Lightning had been flashing throughout the warm and muggy night sky. The lightning lit up its surroundings with a bluish white glow.

There had been a cast of a shadow that past her bedroom window that made Althea to get up out of bed with a candlestick in her hands. She held it in front of her as if she carried a sword.

She passed the study room where Dr. Bey was observing some ancient scrolls, not even realizing what was about to happen.

Althea entered the kitchen with only the lightning flashing outside as her light. She hid behind the ice box as she watched the back door open and someone crept in slowly, shutting the door softly to make no sound.

When they turned around that was when Althea struck.

Throwing her arms down with the candlestick, the person reacted quickly and dodged out of the way. She swung again, but this time they caught the candlestick and yanked it out of her hands, tossing it behind them.

It clacker across the tiles floors and rolled underneath the wooden kitchen block island.

That made Althea to go into hand-to-hand combat, something that she was good at more than fighting with a sword.

Quickly, she swung her leg out to kick them into the ribs area, but they blocked her leg with their forearms. They staggered a bit then fell back into the wall when she slammed her foot into their stomach.

Seeing her coming at them with a punch, they soon blocked her punch and broke her momentum apart to then shove her back. The person then went onto the offensive, swinging making her to block with her forearms and duck down to tackle them into the mid-section.

Though whoever this person was, Althea could feel that they were solid muscle and tall. For she soon felt arms wrapped around her and lifted her off her feet, throwing her to the side of them. She slammed onto her back with a groan, but quickly did a backwards roll when they tried to step on her.

Getting onto her feet, she whirled around on her left foot to kick them across the head, but they blocked then quickly grabbed her foot. She hopped around until she jumped up and kicked out with her other foot across their face.

Landing back onto her feet in a low crouch, Althea stood up in time for them to swing out with a backhand. She backbend into the kitchen counter behind her where she bumped into the pot of flour. Reaching behind her, she opened the top of the flour pot and tossed it forward into the person's face causing them to spit and cough at the flour coating them.

Althea charged them once again and tackle the person to the floor. They began rolling around until Althea found herself on the bottom when the person got the upper hand by their strength. They were pressing their forearm into her chest to hold her down while leaning close to stare her down.

Before either could say anything, the lights to the kitchen turned on.

"What in the world are you two doing?"

Standing in the doorway of the kitchen was a wide eyes Dr. Bey. His mouth dropped as he stared at the two figures tangled up with one another on the kitchen floor with flour all over them and the floor.

"I'm attacking the intruder." Althea bent her head back to stare at Dr. Bey upside down.

"Intruder? Althea this is Ardeth Bay. He's a Medjai and also the new chieftain."

That got Althea to go wide eyes and mouth to drop now. She lower her head back slowly to stare up at the man that she attacked. Seeing the familiar black robes, the weapons and when he pulled the scarf from around his face, she saw the tattoos on his forehead and cheeks.

"Oh shoot."

"Indeed." Ardeth replied with amusement in his eyes.

That emotion threw Althea off as she didn't think that Ardeth would be amused by her. That he should be angry instead since she attacked him and covered him in flour.

"Let me go get something to clean you two up." Dr. Bey mumbled.

Pushing off Althea, Ardeth helped her up into an upright position.

Althea kept her head bowed in embarrassment for her actions toward Ardeth.

"You fight well. You move and recover fast."

Her eyes flicker up to see that Ardeth tilted his head a bit to the side to make her look up and not bow her head. Lifting her head up, she stared into his dark brown eyes. For Althea to say that Ardeth wasn't attractive would be a huge lie. For the Medjai before her was a handsome man that appeared to be around her age, or a few years older.

Althea took in the sight of the Medjai in front of her to see the usual attire that they wore. Tattoos that were on Ardeth's forehead and cheeks. His skin was naturally tan, but the amount of time spent out patrolling the Sahara desert and protecting the City added more. Then his dark brown eyes reminded Althea of chocolate. Dark brown almost shoulder length wavy hair and a matching dark goatee that fit him appearance perfectly. He was a good height of six feet one or two inches and he was slender yet built in muscles from training and fighting.

"Dr. Bey didn't just teach me how to read, write and make discoveries." Althea replied in a soft tone, her hands clasped in front of her.

"No, I could see that." Ardeth said with a peak of interest in his dark eyes as he had never fought a woman before.

They stood in silence until Althea cleared her throat then bowed her head to him.

"I'm going to return to bed. Dr. Bey will be with you shortly to help clean the flour off you. If you excuse me, but also, I am sorry for attacking you." Althea told him quickly as she felt her face flustering up again as she felt Ardeth eyes still on her.

The man made her nervous, not only because he good looking, but he was a Medjai chieftain. One that she had fought against until stopped.

A hand came around her wrist before she could make it out of the kitchen.

"Wait."

She waited with her back turned to him.

"Can you look at me?"

Slowly, Althea turned her body halfway to stare down at his hand that held her wrist then back up at him. He soon let go of her wrist making her to already miss the warmth of his skin and the feeling it sent tingling throughout her body.

"So it is true? Your eyes are unique."

"Is my eyes talked about?"

"My father was here a few times and one time he mentioned about a little girl that Dr. Bey took in. A girl with pale green eyes that reminded him of the lightest color emerald stone, almost the color of a jade stone. Eyes that stare right through. I believe him now." Ardeth explained lowly as his eyes searched her own to take them in then he refocused to staring at her as a whole.

His explanation got her to fluster up as he spoken in a way of admiring. As if knowing how he spoke and why he held her up, Ardeth cheeks appeared to begin turning a light pink.

"Here you go." Dr. Bey came in with a bowl of water and a couple clothes.

When he set it onto the table and turned to face the two young adults, he eyed between the two as he saw how they stared at one another.

"Did I miss or interrupt something?"

"Nope. Goodnight." Althea said immediately, waving then speed walked out of the kitchen and out of sight.

Once she was gone, Ardeth cleared his throat and turned to face Dr. Bey with a small smirk.

"How about that water?"

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Hi Everyone,

So, the final result on the POLL was an Ardeth/OC story for the Mummy/The Mummy returns. So here it is.

I apologize ahead of time if there is/was information wrong.

I also apologize for the couple time hops. I just wanted to get through the years and showed what was going on throughout those years in small summaries.

Also, as a heads up, the story will change to RATED M when Chapter 12 is posted.

Disclaimer for this chapter and future chapters: I do not own anything about 'The Mummy/The Mummy Returns' Series. However, I do own my original character, Althea.

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Enjoy the Story!

Thank You!