Kazumi: Second chapter; wow, I'm pumping these out really quickly. Just so you all know, I will be getting right back on the wagon of my other stories right after Christmas, so no worries. Got it? Anywho, DISCLAIMER! - THIS. IS. YU-GI-OH!!! And I own nothing from it, since the subject will finally be approached in this chapter.

'Text'- Thoughts

Text/Text/Text - Word emphasis

Can You Dig It?

My mouth felt like it was filled with cotton and my head just as groggy by the time our plane landed on a landing strip in the Cairo desert. I remember falling asleep while we were in the middle of crossing the Atlantic; the color difference was astounding. The endless blue that was the last thing I saw was so relaxing compared to the blistering tan that extended for miles outside my window. Right now it looked to be a few hours before the sunset, even though it was sure to be in the afternoon back home.

Time zones never cease to amaze me, or screw me over for that matter. Gods, I was so tired… I am going to sleep the second we hit camp, or before we reach it, I didn't care at this point.

"Jack," I lifted my head. My dad was standing beside my seat with his luggage in his hand. "We're here. You might want to gather your things."

"Sure thing," I yawned and stretched a bit before pulling my backpack out from under my seat and my suitcase from the compartment overhead. Following his out of the cabin, we headed towards the stairs. One thing I could say for private planes, I relished in the peace and quiet that it brought with it. No babies crying loudly, no idiots talking obnoxiously on their cell phones – nothing.

It was so awesome.

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked. "Is the dig site close to any cities?"

"No," my father laughed. "It really is in the middle of nowhere; pure luck that we found it really." We reached the top of the stairs and I was surprised to find someone already waiting for us at the bottom in a green jeep; an Egyptian with khaki shorts and a white tee. I held back an Archeologist joke, I knew a good few. "Kayle!" My dad called enthusiastically. He actually bounded down the stairs; I was shocked he didn't fall. Still, I followed him down the rest of the way and set my bags in the sand. "My friend, how have you been?" He said as he clasped the man's hand, shaking it fervently.

"I am well," the man, Kayle, replied with a heavily accented voice, but nonetheless just as happy. "I have been waiting for you Derrick. We've made so much progress already-" My dad stopped him with a hand before motioning in my direction.

"Introductions first." The other man laughed and nodded. "This is my eldest, Jack. Jack, this is Kayle David." I smiled and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Mr. David. Though it's pronounced 'Dah-veed' right? I know of someone with the same last name." I didn't mention who, I watch way too many crime shows to not know though.

"Very good Miss Kavanagh, your father sometimes forgets that," he grinned in return. I chuckled. "I'm pleased to have finally met you. You father speaks of you often." I chuckled a little. My dad always made a point of showing off his kids when we weren't around to stop him. Mr. David released my hand and made a motion towards the jeep behind him, a driver already at the wheel. I couldn't stop myself from grinning. We had our own driver, way too cool. "All right then. Shall we get going? I have much to fill you in on Professor Kavanagh."

"Sure." Picking up our bags, our little group filed into the jeep, our things in the back, and drove off into the desert on a small road.

No matter how desolate the desert looked to most, I found it to be the most interesting thing there. As my father and Mr. David talked, I gazed out the window at the rolling hills; with an astounded look on my face no doubt. I did that a lot back home too whenever I would go on a drive with my friends. I also took note that the air smelled a lot different here – dry, but with a strange scent to it. Anyway, it was nice, very relaxing. Not to mention the fact that the sun that was starting to slowly dip below the horizon was hypnotic as I have never seen it before. It was magic, pure and simple.

I can show you the woooorrrld… Shut up, I loved that movie as a kid.

At this rate I was going to go back to dreamland whether I liked it or not. I gave in after two minutes of trying. Letting out a sigh, I got in a good position with my head on the crook of my arm against the window and my legs pulled up onto the seat before I closed my eyes. The talking of my father and Mr. David lulled me to sleep soon after.

It didn't seem like a long time for someone to shake my arm to wake me. I groaned and rubbed the sleep from the corners of my eyes as I looked around.

And gasped.

It was like a scene right out of the movies, one action flick that I mentioned earlier in fact. There were several tents; some were for work, I could see the tables and objects on them; and the others, no doubt, were for sleeping in. People were everywhere; some of them native, and some of them Caucasian like my dad and I. There weren't a lot of them, but being a small dig site made the presence of people even more evident.

The site itself was positioned at the bottom of a valley with rocky outcrops around us with the exception of a break in the wall where I could see the desert beyond it; the only way in or out.

And the sunset… Hooooooly Mary Mother of God, it was incredible. Blues, violets, oranges, pinks, blood reds, magentas – ANY color you could possibly think of surrounded the even more enormous looking sun in the desert sky. I was sure that my mouth was hanging open from being blown stupid by the sunset by now. I gave a tittering sigh as I came out of my trance. Oh yeah, this was magic. You couldn't get this in the city, no question about it.

As I clambered out of the jeep, I grabbed my bags from the back and went to stand with my father as we waited for our guide. "Sleep well?" My dad asked.

"Yeah," I rubbed more sleep away. "I'll be fine in the morning, always have. Jet lag is just kicking my ass right now."

"True." He replied as the Egyptian joined us and walked us over to the dig site. My dad turned back to our guide, "Do you think we could postpone the tour until tomorrow Kayle? We have some sleep to catch up on."

"Of course Professor." I smirked at the title, reminding me of another Archeologist Professor – cough-IndianaJones-cough – as we made our way to what were presumably our tents. I was glad to get my own. I kick violently in my sleep at times and Carly has the bruises to prove it. She doesn't care though; she manages to get back at me for them.

Time for bed, thank GOD. I find out where they have water and washed up and brushed my teeth. Next I changed into my pajamas, a tank top and shorts. Not much but my bed, a thermal blanket and a comfortable sleeping bag and two pillows, make up for my lack of clothing. I'm glad I was prepared when bringing them; it's sort of cold here. Last but not least, I secured my tent. I refuse to have anything creepy crawly, well, crawl under my covers and get me while I'm sleeping. If I'm going to die here, which is always a possibility, then I'm not going to go while I'm sleeping. No way in hell. I checked around my tent, made sure it's in the ground properly, and then went inside and also made damn well sure that there isn't any way in with the exception of the opening that I double zipped; thank you double layer tents.

The blanket felt like heaven as I fell onto my sleeping bag and snuggled into it. I let out a large sigh and melted into the darkness behind my eyelids. I could hear my father talking to other people a ways away from where the tents are and I felt a small pang in my chest about being left out of the conversation. Oh well, I figured I'd ask him about it in the morning.

I was gone within three minutes.

I woke up gasping and sweating. My hands shook too, dammit. How many more days was this going to go on for? I barely remember the nightmare that did this to me and I knew that it was going to be gone from my memory by breakfast. Something about, I dunno, something really dark and evil.

Egypt had got to me. That meant my friends were, dare I say it, right. Curses…

When I was in grade school, Egypt really interested me. The culture drew me in, the mythical aspect especially. Greek and Roman mythology had their perks, but Egyptian legends were my favorite for the longest time. If I was getting nightmares so soon into the trip, I was going to blame it on the land for sure.

I groaned as I stretched my arms above my head and put on some proper clothing before heading outside.

So far, it's been three days since I arrived. I got over the jet lag quick enough. I HATE jet lag by the way, I get sick from it. On the first official day in the land of pyramids, Kayle gave us the formal, and quick, tour of the place. We saw some of the artifacts that they already found, looked at pictures from the dig site, and met the people involved, my father's friends; this included the native helpers.

For some reason, I got a funny feeling that some of the digger guys didn't want to be there. They started to mutter stuff in their language whenever they walked past the hole to the Underground. That's my name for the entrance to the not-so-hidden-anymore tunnel that they're bringing all the ancient swag from. Anyway, they looked like something was going to jump out at them. I'm still waiting for that ghostly wind to do that weird howling thing when all of us are eating dinner; no luck so far. All I know is that they know more than they're letting on. For once, I wish I knew Arabic.

On another note, the stuff that they're finding here is really cool. After the tour, I took to hanging around the tents where they put out the things they found for display. Most of it is pieces of stone that fell off of the walls of the tunnel. Lots and lots of drawing and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs; but even if I don't understand it, it's more satisfying than looking at it on TV or in a magazine. The other things are like pieces of metal works like bits and pieces of jewelry and other stuff.

They found a mummified cat down there. I stared at that for so long, it was kind of funny. It was like I was unconsciously waiting for it to come to life or something. Again, I blame television, Goosebumps for the cat instance.

After the tour, Kayle took my father and me on a small trip through the desert surrounding the camp. On camels. It was the funniest animal ride I ever went on. I was fine, hell I thought I would do worse riding a camel for the first time. I didn't though because my camel was a nice camel and I was able to mount without any trouble. I named him Jonathan.

I couldn't say that for my dad. In all of my experience, I've known my father to be a great animal person. They LOVE him to death for no particular reason at all. Not this time though. My dad got an asshole for a camel, and showed him first-hand how much of an asshole he was by spitting – right in my dad's face.

It smelled so BAD.

I was hysterically laughing while my dad threw up behind a dune. I have the most horrible sense of humor here, I just know it.

Following that incident, and my father getting a new camel, we continued on to an oasis about thirty minutes from where camp was. Which was cool, now I had a place to go when I was bored and in need of some serious quiet. Then we went back and had dinner. That night, I was finally able to get a decent look at the white speckled black oblivion that was the sky since I had missed it the night prior. It was breathtaking. I lay on the cold sand for the longest time just watching the stars twinkle.

It's not until you really get to the middle of nowhere to see how small you really are. It's a humble feeling and I missed getting it while not going on trips to nowhere with my dad.

On the second day, I met a traveling family when I went to the oasis and talked with them a bit. They knew limited English, but it was fun anyways. After that, I took to browsing the relics a LOT. I actually found something there that gave me just the weirdest, not to mention creepiest, sense of déjà vu. I was going amongst the display rows, seeing if there was anything insignificant that I might be able to take home, when I came across this wall piece with the Eye of Horus on it. I sort of paused when I came across it. It honestly looked just like the eye, but it wasn't. There was just something off about it that I knew was off about it and couldn't remember what the hell was off about it.

I got a headache at that point and left before I started angrily talking to myself.

One thing that I really liked was hearing stories from the diggers about curses and tales surrounding the area and their own personal experiences. At one point, I got curious and brought up the eye that I saw. Boy, did that ever launch a story. One of the workers told me that my father's people were here looking for artifacts linking to some nameless pharaoh who had to battle a terrible evil. Apparently, the eye was his symbol. He started to tell me about the guy when two of the other workers started getting on his case in Arabic. They all shut up after that.

Did that ever curb my curiosity. NOT.

That night, I had my first nightmare. I was glad I didn't wake up screaming. I bit my lower lip substantially though. It hurt like a bitch.

The two days following and I still wasn't bored yet. I was surprised I wasn't as bothered by the hot, dry weather as I thought I would be. Sometimes I stuck to myself, reading or riding around, but mostly I hung around with this one assistant, Jaleel. He was a few years older than I was, but still someone to pal around with. He was college taught and knows ancient Egyptian. Very cool. He's been teaching me a little bit of ancient Egyptian. I'm not that good yet, but it's nice to know another language.

Those meetings my father attended that I wished to be a part of? Yeah, not at all interesting. I tried sitting through one and it got sluggish quick, so I left. I'm ashamed to say that I thought it would be more like the first part of the first Jurassic Park than anything. Oh well.

I was however itching to go into the tunnel. The wall piece was really starting to grate on my nerves. No one but the workers and their bosses were going into the tunnel so far, and I was eager to get a piece of the action. Yesterday I asked my dad if we could take a tour inside. I almost knocked him over when he said, "yes," and, "let's go inside tomorrow."

Well, yesterday's tomorrow is now today, if that makes any sense. I'm up and raring to go. After I got dressed and grabbed my exploring/survivor's backpack we all met at the entrance. The party included me, my dad, Mr. David, Jaleel who came at my request, five other workers and two other professors whose names I think were Dr. Grey and Dr. Pulice.

Then we descended down into the darkness.

Kazumi: YAY! Second one done and out of the way. Third one is coming right NOW. No sweat. Please keep watching for the next chapter though! Ja ne minna-san!