I do not own TVD or TO or The Mummy
DarkAngelmi818 - I liked your comment about Elijah being part of the medjay and I think I might use it, maybe not as Ardeth Bey but definitely part of the medjay.
Serendipity. now - so glad I inspired you to watch it again. I inspired myself to do that to I rented both from the library to make a weekend of it. :)
There were few cities as old as this one. It had been alive and thriving so long that the stars had changed their positions since the cities birth. As everyone knows the longer something lives the more diverse it becomes until it swarms with every form of life.
The strange, mysterious, wonderful city was full of life; it ebbed and flowed like the waters of the Nile: ever flowing, but never changing.
Cairo
There were few places where one could realize their own insignificance; few places where one could lose themselves in the shadows of those that came before and be reminded of their own small place in the universe every time they stepped inside.
Standing on top of the ladder between the two of the towering bookshelves that made up the stacks, in the museum of antiquities, she was again reminded of how little she had done. She was often reminded of that fact while re-shelving the books.
The people recorded between the pages of the leather bound volumes had great adventures, made significant changes to their worlds, and gone down in history for their deeds. She had always been fascinated by these people and their stories.
As a child she had wished she could be one of them. She suspected that had more to do with the period in which they had lived though.
Growing up when she did had meant that she was often surrounded by the latest news from archeologists in Egypt; they had called themselves Egyptologists. The items and mummies that they found beneath the sand had inspired a lifelong love of history for her; she had devoted herself to the study of the discipline, as had her brother.
They were both exceptionally talented. They were both incredibly smart. They were both equally qualified.
There was no difference between them save one: it was a man's world.
Looking at the heavy books under her arm she was struck with the knowledge that it had always been a man's world.
Would she be doomed to live between these shelves forever while her brother was out in the field?
It wasn't so bad, working in the stacks, but it did get a tad boring from time to time. She was so bored she had started talking to the books as she shelved them.
"Tuthmosis?" A line appeared between her brows. "Now how did you get up here?" She was currently shelving all of the books beginning with 'O'.
She shook her head and sighed before looking to the shelf behind her. The tall ladder was leaning against the 'o's; she looked down once before shaking her head. She was nearly fifteen feet in the air, and it would have been silly to climb all the way down when the proper place for the book was right behind her.
She carefully put the stack of books on the shelf in front of her before taking a tight grip on the spine of the heavy volume. She took a deep breath and exhaled in a rush of air. Carefully she took hold of the top rung of the ladder and turned around to reach out for the far shelf.
Too far, she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes in concentration. She held tighter to the top of the ladder and stretched for the near shelf that was slowly getting closers.
She shifted her feet to maintain her balance and held to the ladder by her fingertips. She was nearly there. She was so close when it happened.
The ladder lifted from the shelf.
She yelped and dropped the book. As quick as an Egyptian asp her arms moved back to cling to the top of the ladder. The two-legged ladder stood straight in the air.
She held her breath and stilled every molecule in her body, fearful that the slightest movement would send her crashing to the floor.
How many bones would she break? Climbing down was clearly not an option.
Even staying completely still the ladder swayed precariously. She shut her eyes tight to combat the spinning room. That was when it happened; her balance was lost.
The ladder swung suddenly. She gripped the top and flexed the muscles in her legs to try and stay upright; it worked for several too short seconds before lurching forward.
She realized quickly that the only way she was going to stay upright was to use the ladder like stilts.
Honestly the next few seconds were a bit of a blur for her. All she knew was that one moment she was careening through the aisles and the next the ladder had come to a stop after crashing into the top of one of the main shelves.
She released the breath she hadn't known she was holding in a heavy sigh. The relief was short lived.
The fall was almost gentle as the shelf pitched away from her and crashed into the next.
As children she and her brother would play dominoes, but never had their games been quite to this scale. She could do nothing but watch as the shelves fell one after another until the final one banged into the wall.
"Oops," she ran her hands over her hair and busied her fingers by securing a few loose curls.
She pressed her lips into a line. Her cheeks heated with a heavy blush; it was all she could do to meet his eyes when he came into the room and stared in horror at the mess she had made.
"Look at this," he waved wildly to the books and papers. "Give me flies, frogs, locusts, anything but this!" His face slowly turned red. "Compared to you the other plagues were a joy!"
"I'm sorry," she jumped to her feet and started picking up books, "it was an accident."
"When Ramses destroyed Syria, it was an accident," Finn raked his hands through his brown hair before pointing to her. "You are a catastrophe. Why do I put up with you?"
She knew it was a rhetorical question but she couldn't resist answering.
"Well," her body simmered with anger, "you put up with me, because I can read and write in ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphs and hieratic, and I," she pointed to herself as the rage boiled over, "am the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library."
She could have sworn she heard him mutter 'who needs smart women' under his breath; a vein throbbed in her neck.
"I put up with you," he paced forwards until he was a foot from her face, "because your mother and father were our finest patrons, God rest their souls." He sighed deeply and waved to the floor. "Clean up this mess."
Elena closed her eyes and forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths so she wouldn't storm after him and lay punches in several very painful places.
Her eyes snapped open when she heard a noise. Spinning on her heel there was a beat of silence before it sounded again.
"Hello?" She called softly when she slid through the remaining stacks and into an adjoining room. Her voice grew quieter when she passed beneath a towering statue of an ancient god.
Torchlight flickered over the alabaster and onyx. Gold glittered in the fire light. It was dim save for the torches, and eerie. The sudden silence chilled her to the core.
There was a slow shuffle of feet over the stone floor. The muffled sound travelled over the plunder, statues and mummies from the Middle Kingdom.
She could barely breathe when her eyes darted from towering statue to towering statue. Which one was moving? Which one was coming for her?
She knew it was ridiculous, but the eyes of Horus and Anubis stared down at her with malevolence. Her heart thundered in her chest.
She snatched a torch from the wall and hurried down the aisle away from the approaching footsteps. She walked past a closed sarcophagus, cases full of ancient artifacts and another sarcophagus. Her breath caught in her throat; the sarcophagus was open.
She heard herself swallow around the lump in her throat and steeled her nerves. Logic told her someone must have opened it, but there was nobody else in the room; nobody but the giant statues, and she was pretty sure they couldn't move.
A bead of sweat trickled down her spine as she slowly leaned forward and peered into the ancient coffin.
Elena screamed when the decayed mummy sat straight up. The torch clattered to the floor as she backed into a glass case and held her heart.
Her wits slowly came back to her as her mind caught up with the image of her brother jumping from the coffin and laughing his ass off.
"You…" she stumbled forwards and smacked his upper arms.
"Please, do come up with something original," he shook with laughter and caught her hands.
"Have you no respect for the dead, Kol?" Elena glared up at him. She shivered when she felt the empty eyes of the mummy on her face.
"Of course I do," he sobered quickly and helped her gently push the body back in place. "I just thought you could use a laugh."
"Do I look like I'm laughing?" Elena's brows drew together in a stern expression.
Kol tilted his head and lifted his finger to point to the edge of her mouth. "Right there," he tapped her cheek, "you're starting to smile." His voice took on a lyric quality as his lips tipped upwards in a smirk. "Come on, Elena," his mouth fell into an exaggerated pout, "don't stay mad at me."
Elena crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow.
"I can make it up to you," he smiled brightly as the idea came to him.
"How exactly are you going to do that?" Elena struggled not to smile. Kol had always had an infectious grin; he had always made her smile when they were kids and she had been sad.
"By taking my darling baby sister to lunch of course," he smirked and offered her his arm. "Quickly now," his voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, "before the stick in the mud comes back."
"I'm working," she pointed out while taking his arm.
"Yes," Kol nodded solemnly, "but if I know you, you're overdue for a lunch break."
Elena rolled her eyes and followed him out into the brilliant afternoon sunlight.
"I thought you were on a dig," Elena pointed to Kol with her desert spoon and tilted her head. It was hardly a ladylike gesture but she didn't care much when it was her brother.
"I was," he picked up his glass and smirked around the rim, "now I'm not."
"What did you do?" She sighed.
"Nothing," he cut his hand through the air.
Elena cocked an eyebrow; she knew he was lying.
"Alright, fine," he sighed and lowered his glass, "I had a little disagreement with my supervisor on the correct handling of certain 'artifacts'."
"Ha," she scoffed and rolled her eyes, "artifacts sure. You're not fooling me with that innocent expression; you were fighting over a girl. Who was she?"
"The thing to remember is that: I was unaware at the time," Kol cleared his throat and stared at his glass; he never could hide anything from his sister.
"That doesn't sound good," Elena leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Who was she?"
"It was his niece," he shrugged.
"I think I can guess how this turned out," Elena shook her head, "spare me the details of how exactly you got yourself thrown off one of the biggest digs in history."
Kol chuckled and leaned back in his own chair. His finger tapped the table top.
"All that I will say is that it might have been worth it," his eyes twinkled mischievously. "You see, little sister…"
"You know I'm only nine minutes younger than you, right?" Elena rolled her eyes. Kol loved to rub in the fact that he was older than her.
"Nine minutes is nine minutes," he pointed to her, "I've got nine whole minutes of wisdom and life experience on you, but we're getting off topic." He looked around the half-filled restaurant and leaned forward to brace his elbows on the table. "As I was saying, baby sister, later that night I was drowning my sorrows and made an acquisition," he reached into his jacket pocket.
"Let me guess," she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "you've got a trinket you want me to take to the curator to try and…" she trailed off when he slapped a small box in her hand. "Where did you get this?" She immediately began looking at the trinket from every angle; it was unlike anything she had ever seen before.
"Down in Thebes," he waved in the general direction with a mischievous smile. "You've always been better with the hieroglyphs. Tell me: did I find something?" He raised his brows hopefully.
Elena mumbled under her breath as she translated the worn writing along the edges of the box. She bit her lip as she played with the various slats along the sides of the box; they shifted under her fingertips like a puzzle box. There was a soft click when she moved the last slat and the box unfolded itself in a nearly mechanical fashion.
The top of the box flew open into eight triangular pieces. Elena's eyes widened when they lit on a folded piece of golden papyrus. She lifted the heavy paper and unfolded it.
"Kol?"
"Yes?"
"I think you found something," she looked up from the ancient map.
I know Jonathan in the movies was a drunken fool who was mostly comic relief and I didn't want to do that with Kol, so there have been some changes. I thought I'd make him a tad inappropriate, but still a semi-good guy.
I struggled for a while to come up with the perfect character for the curator before landing on Finn. I feel like he's got that strict morality that will be important in the next chapter.
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
