Here's the next installment of Shifting Sands!
Hope you enjoy, sorry it took a while to get put up!
"Rimal! Come on or we'll be late!" called Ardeth. Rimal stumbled out of the tent still putting on a shoe.
"Coming! Ma'a salama Farah!" she called into the tent. Good-bye.
"Alla ysalmak!" was her response.
Rimal smiled and caught up to Ardeth who was waiting for her further down the camp. She smiled brightly at him before covering her face and walked with him towards the horses. The two of them were scouting out Hamunaptra, partially because as a Medjai that was Ardeth's job but also to see if they could find any clues as to how Rimal had appeared there.
She has been living with the tribe for nearly a year now and had fit in quite well. Although they'd visited Hamunaptra before in that time and found nothing they still searched in case the shifting sands revealed any thing new. She also came with him on all of his patrols, whereas before he had usually done them alone now she always accompanied him, it felt nice to not be alone so much of the time any more.
They rode towards Hamunaptra in silence, sometimes Ardeth wondered whether she'd become so used to living with the tribe that she'd forgotten she was still missing the memories of most of her life. Except when they came to Hamunaptra she hadn't mentioned her missing memories at all, maybe her mind had replaced the missing memories with fake ones to seem like she had always been with them and it was only when she went to Hamunaptra where he'd found her that she remembered.
"Ah! Ardeth look!" she cried pointing forwards to where Hamunaptra was, he looked forward and his eyes widened in shock.
"What in the name of Allah is going on?" he whispered. They both dismounted and hid behind the rim of a sand dune and watched. It looked as if a very large dig site was being set up where Hamunaptra was. They watched as lights and tents were set up and looked at all the trucks and cars showing the sheer amount of people there.
"What on earth could they be doing?" asked Rimal curiously. Ardeth shook his head.
"What ever they're doing does not bode well," he said. "If they are digging at Hamunaptra they might be looking for the book or even Imhotep." Rimal cringed and went back to looking at the dig site.
"So what are we going to do?" She peered at a car approaching the site. "We'll need to infiltrate it some how, even if it's just to find out what they're doing." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.
"You are not going down there, saghir wahed," he said sternly. "It's too dangerous." She mock glared at him and pouted.
"And you can go? That's not fair!" she complained. "And don't call me that!"
"I'm the leader of the tribe," he sighed. "It's my duty to make sure no harm comes to my people."
"But I'm not one of your people," she said a little sadly. This time he scowled and hit her over the head lightly.
"You're close enough to me that I consider you one," he scolded. "I won't let any thing happen to you, not before I keep my promise to you and not after either."
She looked slightly startled and then turned back to watch the dig site, she never been more thankful to have her face covered so he couldn't see her blush.
"So what will you do?" she asked softly. He sat back on his heels for a minute to think.
"I will go into the camp as a digger," he said slowly. "That way I will be able to get around without it looking suspicious and be able to find out what's going on." She nodded and then turned to face him, she looked him straight in the eye.
"Very well, but do not think I will just leave you there," she growled. "I will be here watching to make sure nothing happens, as you are leader of the tribe it is the tribes duty to make sure nothing bad befalls their leader."
Rimal watched cautiously as Ardeth once again entered the dig site at Hamunaptra, so far no one had suspected anything and no one was giving him any trouble. He had gathered that they were looking for the book definitely and possibly Imhotep as well since one of the people in charge, a man called Baltus Hafez, kept mentioning about finding their lord. To their knowledge Imhotep was the only mummy at Hamunaptra that fit that description.
One day Ardeth had come back looking very disturbed, a woman had joined the group named Meela Nais and a man named Lock-Nah. Ardeth apparently knew Lock-Nah although she didn't know what their history was, Lock-Nah seemed to hate the Medjai though. It was Meela who really disturbed Ardeth, she seemed to know things no person alive should, certain details that should have been impossible unless they'd been alive at the time Imhotep had been killed.
What got to Rimal was that when these things were mentioned she felt something, almost as if her mind was trying to tell her something, that maybe she should know these things as well and that confused her.
Why on earth should she remember things from over three thousand years ago?
She sat and waited within the shelter of the sand dune, Ardeth was only on the morning shift today so she wouldn't have to wait all day at least. She sighed and removed the veil from her face breathing in deeply. She couldn't explain why she felt so at home in the desert, Ardeth said she'd probably spent all of her life in it even if she couldn't remember. What had he said… the body remembers what the mind forgets. She was sure this was true, she had no memory of being able to fight yet it was obvious she could. She grinned remembering how they'd found that out.
~~**Flashback start**~~
"Rimal hurry up!" called Ardeth. "We're supposed to be patrolling!" Rimal winced and hurried to catch up.
"Sorry Ardeth," she huffed. "Farah kept fusing over me."
He rolled his eyes and sighed. Farah and Badra hadn't liked the idea of Rimal coming out on patrols with him, they were worried that something would happen to her if they were attacked since it was unknown if she could fight. They'd argued with him so much that this was to be her first patrol, a whole two weeks after he'd decided she could come with him.
"My sisters just worry about you," he said. "They don't want you to get hurt." She tilted her head and looked at him confused.
"And what makes you so sure that I won't?" she asked. "You must be fairly sure since you argued so much for me to come."
"It's not likely that we'll get attacked," he explained. "Besides I'll be here if anything does happen, no harm will come to you."
A few hours later and she felt like swearing at the complete irony of the situation. Go figure that they would be attacked by bandits and outnumbered ten to one; this was definitely sod's law.
She glared briefly at Ardeth for saying they wouldn't be attacked earlier, didn't he know that was tempting fate and with the odds as they were he wouldn't be able to protect her from all of them. She sighed and then blinked in surprise when she realised her body had sunk into a fighting stance of its own accord. She eyed the bandits warily and glanced at Ardeth to see that he'd drawn his sword, she was the only one without a weapon... well she'd have to do something about that. She stood her ground as the bandits charged, Ardeth moved so that they were standing back to back and didn't have to worry about an attack from behind.
She turned her glare towards the bandits and shocked everyone when she lashed out punching one of them in the face and breaking his nose. Ardeth used their shock to take down three of them with his sword, Rimal next lashed out with her foot catching one of the bandits in the chest and knocking the wind out of him making him drop his sword. She grabbed the weapon and felt her body fall in to a natural pattern of sweeps and cuts, she was rather amazed that she could fight like this. With both of them having a sword the bandits were defeated in no time, Ardeth cleaned his sword before sheathing it.
"Well… I guess the body remembers what the mind forgets," he said looking at her amused. "It would appear you're quite capable of taking care of yourself saghir wahed." She scowled at him for the name.
"I'm not saghir wahed!" she protested as he chuckled and ruffled her hair.
"Of course not," he laughed. "Come, we shall spar so that we know what exactly you are capable of."
~~**Flashback end**~~
She smiled in remembrance, that had been the first time he'd called her saghir wahed and she'd complained every time since. Sometimes she called him kaaed sheik, which meant leader, she mainly did it because it annoyed him though. She sighed and drank from her canteen, looking at the position of the sun she realised Ardeth would be finished soon and they could go back to the tribe.
Rimal sighed heavily and began to sing:
"Shalom, shalom may peace be with you,
Through all your days,
In all that you do may peace be with you,
Shalom, shalom,
Shalom, shalom may peace be with you,
Shalom, shalom."
She stopped as she heard foot steps approaching and tensed until she saw Ardeth come over the top of the sand dune. She smiled and waved to him cheerfully.
"As-salam alaykum!" she cried. He waved back.
"Wa alaykum e-salam," he replied smiling slightly. She noticed that he didn't seem particularly happy so decided something must have happened in the night when he had not been at the dig.
"Has something happened?" she asked anxiously. He nodded.
"They have found the book of the dead," he said seriously. She gasped and bit her lip.
This did not bode well, if they found Imhotep now they would be able to bring him back to life again. She looked at him worriedly, she knew he had always taken Imhotep as his burden and that to stop him was his responsibility but that didn't mean he had to do it alone.
"So what are they doing now?" she asked. "Are they searching for Imhotep?" Ardeth nodded gravely.
"Aiwa, now that they have found the book their efforts have doubled to find him," he said. "At the rate they're going it won't be long before they find him." Rimal stomped her foot in frustration.
"Is there nothing we can do?" she hissed. "Can't we do anything to stop them finding him?" He shook his head.
"La, since we don't know where he's buried either and they are constantly at work we can't try find him before them," he explained. "There isn't the time and we wouldn't be able to without it looking suspicious." She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath.
"So we're just suppose to let them find him?" she cried. He nodded sadly.
"For now that's all we can do." She scowled at his response.
"So what, we're just going to have to kill him again?" Rimal sulked. "We're actually going to wait for them to find him? Once they do they're not going to let him out of their sight!" Ardeth sighed heavily and massaged his temples.
"I'm afraid at the moment we have no choice," he said wearily.
The Arabic is mostly the same as in the last chapter the only new ones are:
Kaaed Sheik: leader
Saghir wahed: little one (rough translation for this one)
Someone please tell if I got the song wrong i only vaguely remember it.
Please review!
