Sphinx And The Cursed Mummy
A Long Road Ahead
it wasn't until later that night that Sphinx saw Tut again and it was only for a moment as he went to a sarcophagus that Imotep had brought for him to rest in. The one thing that seemed to be Tuts only real need was sleep or else he ended up passing out like he'd done before in the castle of Uruk. he figured this was just another side effect of him not being completely whole since the more jars he got the longer he could roam before passing out- the only difference between the times he slept in the castle of Uruk and now was that Tut began to dream once more and his nights were now fraught with the horrors of his birthday betrayal and the fear that he'd never return to normal.
Tut woke the next morning in a bit of a panic after his nightmare. It was only when he got out of his sarcophagus and took in his surroundings that he was finally able to calm himself, Tut sat on the lid of his sarcophagus as he rubbed his head
"It was only a dream, that day is over and now i'm ok", he said before looking at one of his mummified hands with a sad sigh before letting it fall into his lap 'or as ok as the undead can be', he thought to himself.
It took Tut a while to finally get up and moving that morning as he made his way out of the stone shrine and stepped out onto the warm sand outside he barely acknowledged anything until he heard laughing from the distant beach. Tut squinted in the light as he made out the figure of a laughing jackal like creature with Sphinx in front of him half curled up as his hands rested on his shaky knees while he panted with a small smirk on his face.
Tut wondered what on earth he'd been doing that could leave the strong adventurer panting and looking like he was about to fall over until he saw Sphinx's brown eyes dart over to him quickly killing any thoughts he'd had and before he knew it Sphinx was quickly swimming over to him from the beach.
"Good morning, you took longer than usual to get up today", he informed as he walked out of the water only to sit on the warm sand near Tut.
"didn't sleep well, huh?", sphinx asked practically making Tut jump out of his bandages
"how did you know that?!", he asked like a woman asking how someone knew the contents of her purse. Sphinx simply replied
"I have very good hearing and so does Imotep, he may be old but he's not deaf"
Tut visibly curled in on himself as he sat besides Sphinx on the soft sand, for a while he remained quiet and just looked out at the crystal blue water before replying,
"I keep having this nightmare and it just...keeps coming back", he explained causing Sphinx's eyes to flick over to him for a second before looking back to the ocean as he asked,
"What is it you dream of that makes you cry in your sleep?", Tut looked like he wanted to crawl in a hole and never come back out again. 'did he really hear me crying out in my sleep?', Tut wondered as humiliation sunk in.
"It's not important", he tried to say to kill the conversation
"If you don't talk about it how can I help you stop the dreams from coming back?", insisted Sphinx with a reassuring grin which caused Tut to cave in with a reluctant sigh before explaining
"Most nights it starts off the same; I'm leaving the sarcophagus after entering the one in the treasure room after a day of helping my aunt find old amulets and bringing them to the treasure room. Even though I was told not to touch the sarcophagus I still went through it. Then it all happens just like that day", Tut visibly tensed up as he sat on the sand with his hands clenched into fists,
"My brother having the guards seize me and dragging me off and the next thing I know I'm there: strapped down to that...that thing with my very life and spirit being sucked out of me.", Tut bowed his head as if he wanted to cry at the memory until he felt the calming touch of Sphinx's hand pressed against his bandaged shoulder urging him to push on with his tale.
Tut swallowed a lump in his throat before he continued, "some nights, if i'm lucky, that's where the dream ends and I just slip into nothingness after that...but most nights aren't so forgiving.", he let his face fall into his hands "I dream of myself going through the process of moving onto the next world but I can't get there, and when I try to come back all I return to is my family and kingdom crumbling before my very eyes with every manner of beast invading Luxor and...", he had to stop now as his voice broke leaving him unable to talk.
Sphinx rubbed the mummies back allowing him the time he needed to collect himself after recounting his horrific nightmare. "what will become of my home, my family, what will become of my fiancé? The kindom will crumble", Tut looked to Sphinx with fear visable on his face.
Sphinx sighed a little, "well we were just in Luxor yesterday and it didn't seem overrun by beasts to me, unless unruly kids running amok counts", he jested lightly earning a small chuckle from Tut.
"my point is this: you saw first-hand that everything was fine the kingdom still stands and everyone is safe from Set and his wrath. Now that we've entered a new era of peace everything should be fine", he tried to reassure
"but everythings not fine. Look at me, I'm neither living nor dead, my betrothed and I will never get married now and I cannot return to my thrown a corpse."
Sphinx could see the clear look of dispare on Tut's face and went to say something just as Bas-ket appeared making Sphinx wonder when exactly he'd run off. Bas-ket made a cute little chittering noise as he looked between Sphinx and Tut " Sphinx, I have a message for you from the mayor of Abydos", he said, before opening up a d presenting a piece of papyrus to Sphinx who quickly read over it before getting a small smirk on his face.
Sphinx looked at tut which made tut nervous for some unknown reason, before his nerves got the better of him he asked "What is it?", his voice just a little shakier than he would have liked. Sphinx held up the scrap of papyrus and asked,
"Want to go to a real party?", There was a huge festival being held in Abydos to celebrate, now that the city had finally returned to it's former glory, After finally managing to get rid of the electric eels plaguing the city's waters, coupled with the donations of monsters from sphinx, and the return of their prized jewels there was a lot to celebrate.
Tut was a little nervous about the whole thing a few days later as they got on a boat to go to Abydos. Sphinx had insisted on just teleporting there but Tut for some reason was very against the idea "Can't we just travel like normal for once?", to Sphinx this was all normal and at times he found it rather irritating as he tried to figure Tut out. Sphinx new traveling by ship would take longer, since he'd ridden to heliopolis that way when he'd first cime there. The trip easily could take a day depending on how favorable the tide was and for the life of him Sphinx wondered why he was so worried about traveling this way instead.
As the ship cast off from Heliopolis Sphinx saw Imhotep out of the corner of his eye waving them goodbye and gesturing something that he couldn't quite make out.
hours passed into their voyage and Tut laid in the shaded part of the ship with his back propped up by some pillows he'd brought along with him, by then the sky was dark, the waved calm, and the crisp night air was something that left Tut very relaxed. Tut looked off to the ocean and admired the dazzling glittering of dancing stars moving across its surface slowly, yes, this was much better than teleporting to their destination, for him at least. Meanwhile, Sphinx sat with his back propped up against the wooden mast as he fiddled with a pouch in his hand which looked as if it contained some form of stone, but it was hard to tell even when Sphinx ran his thumb over the surface of the stone, its soft brown pouch kept it a mystery.
Sphinx eventually sighed in resignation as he let his arm drop, still hanging in the air as it balanced on the one knee he had propped up, he turned to look at the water, his brow furrowed in contemplation and boredom. These long trips always left him bored with nothing more than his thoughts to entertain him and it was really starting to get the better of him.
Sphinx's ears perked a little at the sound of whimpering that was now all too familiar to him, and looked to where Tut laid against his pile of pillows. Tut was curled up, shivering, with his brow furrowed, and his teeth gritted as he fought through yet another nightmare. Sphinx saw the captain eying Tut with his head cocked to the side and sighed, "can you give him some privacy for a moment? I'll handle it.", he said before rising from his spot and walking over to sit by the restless mummy.
Tut was there, restrained against the obsidian black table struggling against his confines, He could hear the cries of his beloved and looked around trying to find Nefertiti, but found only darkness accompanied by Menes and his brother both smiling maniacally as they watched over the struggling Tut as he screamed, "NO! You won't kill me! Not this time!", This caused his brother to laugh in a bone chilling tone, before looking back at Tut with his eyes pitch black "Oh, dear brother, you're already dead", Tut looked down at himself and saw he was already mummified. Tut's heart sank as he was now released from the table which seemed to vanish around him leaving him sitting on his knees on the cold stone floor, his ears were filled with the sound of laughter as everything around him faded away leaving him in nothing but darkness. tut clutched his ears trying to stop the laughter from reaching them, but no matter what he did the laughter pierced his ears and dug its way into his head, "STOP! ENOUGH!" He cried out only to be mocked by the voices as the floor under him vanished leaving him falling into the darkness.
Tut was falling into the darkness before he fell into what felt like an ocean of darkness or maybe even tar as he struggled to keep above the water "ENOUGH! PLEASE!", He cried out into the nothingness "SPHINX!", he cried out, suddenly the darkness was filled with huge eyes all around him staring directly at him as the voices whispered the name. Tut didn't focus on this for long as he saw something begin to swim through the water around him, whatever it was, it was huge- large enough to swallow cities whole. The form in the water caused huge waves of the tar like water making Tut feel like he was going to drown in the darkness as the laughter continued, Tut tried desperately to get back above the water but before he did he looked to the depths below him and saw a familiar glow 'My canopic vase!', he thought before he began swimming down towards it as fast as he could- hope filling his heart. Just as Tut was about to reach the vase the creature swimming in the water darted by him and swallowed the vase along the way, With a long spiked tail disappearing into darkness being the only hint as to what this creature was. Tut quickly swam after it, swimming down further and further until he'd felt he was about to run out of air and suddenly he breached the surface.
Tut looked around in desperation as he caught his breath only to see the distant city of Luxor floating on the black waters surface. Tut could hear his people screaming as all manner of monsters invaded the city but he was terrified, coiled tightly around the city was a giant snake covered in spikes as it's body threatened to shatter Luxor to it's very foundations. Apep looked down at the glorious chaos as he reveled in the cries of agony and mourning as if it were the sweetest symphony to his ears. "NOOO! By Ra no!", He pleaded. The very mention of Ra caused Apep's head to snap up as he looked at Tut in the water
"Ahhh if it isn't the cursed one, I've heard of you and that little sssphinx", He hissed as his grasp on Luxor tightened. Tut was filled with horror as chills ran up and down his spine, as Apep moved his head closer; still keeping the rest of his body coiled around Luxor "I Heard what you did to Sssset. No small task, but know this; you're world will crumble, prince. I will take great glory in taking all that is precious to you in the night and as Ra rises he'll see your city and it's people swept off this wretched planet!" With that his coils tightened and shattered Luxor like it was a toothpick.
Tut's eyes snapped open as he shot up from where he laid "NOOO!" He was suddenly caught in an embrace but was caught in his frantic panic to get away "NO! NO!", he begged until he was pinned down, Sphinx hovered over him making sure he held him still, his eyes held no anger but instead held worry
"Tut, it's me. Calm down, you were just dreaming", he tried to reassure him. Sphinx's grip loosened as Tut stopped thrashing around before he pulled him up into a hug. Sphinx's strong arms grounded Tut in reality but the horrors of his dream left him wracked with tears "I-I s-saw it m-my home...g-gone"
"Shhh, it was just a dream Tut" he said as he rubbed his back trying to ease away all the tension that was there "you're here, with me.", he said softly as he held him in a tight embrace.
_
Authors note: This was a really fun chapter to write and I really enjoyed writing the nightmare sequence. I'm not very familiar with grammar so I apologize in advance if my punctuation isn't the best.
Enjoy!
