Previously:

At that time, nobody noticed the curse that was written on the walls in Ancient Egyptian; the curse that had been placed on the tomb over 3,000 years ago dictating that the shadow of death would descend upon whomever dared to disturb the rest of the king with swift wings…

Chapter 3: The Tablet

Moreover, starting from that night, the curse slowly began to lift its sigh. After the sarcophagus was removed from the tomb, the Valley of Kings was covered by a frightening silence. Unfortunately, this went unnoticed by those who had returned to the bustling city of modern Cairo, where everyone was abuzz with news of the recent discovery…

"Oh! There is also a beautiful Egyptian crown!" Professor Brown exclaimed as they were unpacking some of the artifacts that had been removed from the tomb and brought to Carol's school to be studied and examined. "Be careful not to damage it!"

"Professor, the thing hanging on the pharaoh's chest must be a protective charm! These are all beautiful jewels!" One of the forensic experts said excitedly.

"Do we know the name of this pharaoh yet, Professor Brown?" Bonnie asked curiously. They had given her a special pass to allow her to be there even though she wasn't a member of staff or a student since she was related to the Lidos.

"Several of the words are hard to make out, so we aren't sure yet." He replied.

"However, we know that he was about eighteen years old when he died." The forensic expert said.

"Looks like it." Professor Brown agreed.

"Eighteen years old!" Carol gasped, taken aback. "Then he was only two years older than me! Waa… he died so young!"

"Unfortunately, that's something that happened a lot back then." Bonnie said. In the ancient world, people often died early from disease or injuries that could easily be cured today. Most conditions were also exacerbated by lack of a sufficiently varied diet. Infection was a major killer. Most people didn't live past fifty.

"Yes." Professor Brown agreed. "There were always tragic deaths in the empire, such as being poisoned or murdered… Tomorrow, after taking off the mask, and performing some x-rays, we should know more details."

'Eh, so he was killed… at such a young age…' Carol thought sadly. How tragic…

"Oh, is that a bundle of flowers?" Bonnie asked, leaning over the open sarcophagus to get a better look, when she notice something extra tucked in next to the pharaoh's masked head. It's not that she was unsympathetic, it's just that she was used to being surrounded by death and hearing about things like this from a young age. It was all just a part of the circle of life as far as Bonnie was concerned.

"It is!" Carol said excitedly, immediately perking up. "Ah, Professor! There is a bundle of flowers inside!"

"Hehe! This is unusual!" The Professor said with a smile.

"Is it?" Bonnie asked, surprised. Ancient Egypt wasn't exactly her specialty, but she could have sworn she remembered hearing that they had also found the petals of blue water lilies in King Tut's innermost coffin… wasn't it because they were supposed to be a symbol of the sun god Ra and resurrection, since they opened and closed each day with the rising and setting of the sun?

"It must have been his lover who put the flowers in there to show her love toward the king as a farewell!" Carol said as she carefully removed the bouquet. "Jimmy, even though the color has faded, and the flowers have withered… The feelings of love remain even after a thousand years…" She said sweetly.

'Well, I guess it's okay if I let her think that a little while longer…' Bonnie thought with a fond smile. Carol was clearly enjoying herself imagining that little scenario… Her youngest cousin was such a romantic.

'Right now, Carol is thinking about the dead king…' Jimmy thought as he watched her cradle the dried flowers tenderly. "I won't lose to him." He said, moving in to plant a kiss on her check. Unfortunately for him, Carol ducked.

"You're joking again!" She said.

"I'm serious!" He insisted earnestly.

"Jimmy can't be king!" Carol said with a laugh.

"If we were in ancient times, I could also be a king…!" Jimmy retorted, though they all knew that was incredibly unlikely.

'Poor Jimmy…' Bonnie thought with a wry smile. Carol was a smart girl, but she seemed to be really slow when it came to picking up the intentions of most of the boys around her. It was no wonder her brothers were so over protective.

"Professor!" One of the other students called out from the next room. "The scripts on this clay tablet have faded! What are they, professor?"

"Where?" Professor Brown asked as he and the three teens tore themselves away from the mummy's side for a moment to see what the others were looking at. "Ah, these hieratic scripts are the words of a curse! They are used to protect the dead…"

"Well, those are always fun…" Bonnie remarked sarcastically.

"Let me see…" Carol said, taking the clay tablet so she could examine it for herself.

"Ah!" The forensic expert suddenly gasped in alarm when he turned to go back into the room with the mummy and saw that some shady characters had snuck in. As soon as they were discovered, the thieves booked it, grabbing the amulet off of the pharaoh's chest as they went. "The king's jewels and crown have been stolen!!" The forensics expert yelled.

"Eh!?" Bonnie and the others cried in alarm, startled, when he came running back into the room in a panic and slammed into Carol by mistake.

WHAM!

"Ah!" Carol exclaimed when the clay tablet let her hands and sailed up into the air. "The clay board!!"

CRASH!

The clay tablet hit the floor and shattered into numerous pieces. They all stared at it for a moment in shock. Not only had some important jewels just been stolen, but now they had broken one of the remaining artifacts…

"… Bummer." Bonnie said, sweat-dropping.

"Oh, no!" Carol cried, feeling tremendously guilty. "What are we going to do!? The clay board is broken!!"

"Don't cry, Carol!" Jimmy said earnestly. "It's not your fault! We all know it was just an accident!"

"Yeah, and maybe we can put it back together." Bonnie said. "For now, let's start by carefully collecting all the broken pieces, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Carol sniffed.

–∞–

Later that night, Bonnie lay awake in bed unable to sleep. So much had happened that day… After they had collected as many of the broken tablet's pieces as they could find, Rody had apparently decided it was past the girl's bed time, because he made them go home to try and get some rest. Carol had been so upset about breaking the tablet, they had decided to let her take it home with her to work on… But Nanny Marie wasn't having any of that. She promptly ushered the girls their pre-sleeping rituals and made them go to bed. Well, since she couldn't sleep anyway, and she figured the nanny would be asleep by now, Bonnie decided to get out of bed and go take another look at that tablet. It would be a nice surprise for Carol if she woke up and found it already (at least partially) fixed. However, upon sneaking into Carol's room to get the table's fragments, she discovered that she had already been beaten to the punch. Carol was already sitting at her desk, trying to piece it back together by lamplight.

"This piece doesn't belong here either…" Carol said, starting to fret. She was wrong again!

"Carol." Bonnie said softly, making her younger cousin nearly jump out of her skin in surprise.

"D-Don't do that!" Carol whisper-yelled indignantly. "You know I hate it when you do that creepy silent-stalking-through-the-shadows thing!!" Was Bonnie trying to give her a heart attack!?

"S-Sorry…" Bonnie replied a bit sheepishly. She hadn't meant to scare her like that. "I just thought I'd see if I could maybe help with that?"

"Eh? But you can't read Ancient Egyptian." Carol reminded her.

"No, but I am good at puzzles." Bonnie said confidently. She even used to help her parents with this sort of thing on occasion. "So I thought maybe I could help you match the shapes of the pieces that fit together." Kind of like an ancient jigsaw puzzle. "Then you can try reading it to check if it makes any sense."

"That's a great idea!" Carol said excitedly, perking up a little. Bonnie smiled and moved the hope chest at the foot of Carol's bed over to the desk to sit on while they worked.

—∞—

The next morning…

"Carol!" Rody called loudly as he entered the dark room, crossing swiftly to open up the curtains and let some sunlight in. "Get up! It's seven o'clock already!"

"What? I'm awake!" Bonnie gasped, snapping up into a sitting position so fast, that she nearly fell over. She must have nodded off while working. She noticed Carol was holding her head while leaning against the desk. Poor thing looked like she hadn't slept a wink.

"Oh, Bonnie! You're in here too?" Rody said, surprised. "Why are you both siting at the desk?"

"We were trying to put the pieces back together." Carol said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. Bonnie glanced at the desk and saw why. Aside from the pieces that she had helped her cousin arrange together, which formed the corners, top, sides, and bottom of the tablet, Carol hadn't been able to progress any further on her own once Bonnie fell asleep.

"Eh… Didn't you sleep last night?" Rody asked, concerned when he noticed the dark circles under his little sister's eyes.

"It's because I broke this!" Carol cried. "Considering it's an ancient relic, it means everything to me!"

"Don't worry, Carol!" Bonnie said, feeling guilty for falling asleep on her own, as she put an arm around Carol to comfort her. "We'll fix it. Just look how much we've already done. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know!"

"Yes, cheer up Carol!" Rody said. "Today, we're going to take off the cloth covering the king's mummy to investigate the cause of his death. You'll get to learn more about him. Isn't that exciting?"

Before Carol had a chance to answer, the telephone rang.

RRRING…!

"Hello?" Rody said, answering it. "Carol! You've got a phone call from America! It's Dad!" He told her excitedly.

'Phew! Saved by the phone…' Bonnie thought. That should cheer her up!They hadn't heard from her uncle in a while.

"Hello, Dad!" Carol said as she accepted the phone from her brother, still a little teary-eyed.

"How are you, my darling?" Her dad asked. She could hear the smile in his voice. "Since I have finished my work for the company, I will come to Egypt immediately! Your brother, Ryan, is coming too!"

"Eh? Dad is coming, for real!?" Carol asked excitedly, lighting up. "Brother Ryan is coming as well! That's great!"

"That really is great!" Bonnie said brightly when she heard Carol's remarks.

"Yeah!" Carol agreed with a smile. "Oh, did you also want to talk to Dad, Bonnie?"

"Miss Carol! Miss Bonnie! It's 8:30 already!" Mary called up to them in warning. It was time for them both to get dressed and hit the road, or they would be late for their first classes!

"Coming!" Bonnie called back. "Give them both my love, Carol!" Bonnie said as she rushed back to her room to get dressed.