Pawns of the Gods
Chapter 4: Home
Mummy fanfic by Katie Sullivan
Anck-su-Namun slowly came awake. She was in the most relaxed,
contented state she could ever remember being in. The sweet smell of fresh lotus
blossoms teased her nose. A soft pillow cradled her cheek, and fine linen sheets lay
lightly across the rest of her body. Jayzi was snuggled in her arms, her breath slow
and soft in her sleep. Even before she opened her eyes, she felt Imhotep's presence
beside her. He, too, appeared to be asleep, with a blissfully peaceful expression on
his handsome face. The scroll Amon-Ra had given him was on the bedside table next to
a priceless statuette of Hathor. Anck-su-Namun blinked to clear the haze of slumber
from her vision and looked around. She and her family were in a large bed made of
the finest Egyptian acacia, in a large room furnished with polished marble.
She managed to sit up a little without waking her daughter or husband,
and stared around her in wonder. One wall was missing, and through the row of marble
columns she could see the Nile flowing past, bordered by thickets of reeds. There
was no mistaking the river that was as much a part of her as her own limbs. A
fishing boat was drifting by, its nets dipped low in the life-giving waters. There
was no outboard motor, no rotating radar antenna on the top...this was all one hundred
percent authentic ancient Egyptian.
Her clothes, too, had changed. She wore a gauzy white gown and
gold bangles, and as she blinked she realized she had kohl around her eyes.
It was real. She has visited it so many times her dreams, plagued
by a homesickness for her own era, devouring books about it and daydreaming, but never
imagining she could return to the time period which, even after two reincarnations, she
had always considered her own. And yet...the sights, the smells, the feeling...it
was real.
Imhotep stirred, and she turned to him with a smile. Just as he
opened his eyes, she lightly kissed his forehead. "Wake up, my love.
We're here!"
"Hmm?" he said groggily.
"We're here! Our times, again!"
He rubbed at his eyes, smearing the kohl that now lined them, and sat
up. He stared around the room in open-mouthed wonder, taking in the furnishings and
the riverfront view before stopping to read the hieroglyphics on the marble columns.
"Home of Imhotep, Grand Vizier to the Glorious Pharaoh Djoser, Head Architect
of the Two Kingdoms, Physician with No Equal, and his wife Anck-su-Namun, Royal Instructor
of Dance and Combat...?" He turned to her, his mouth still hanging open.
"We...we're here!"
"More than that, my love," she said, leaning close.
"We're home." They confirmed the marvelous truth with a
kiss.
~~The End~~
