#Hello! I am back, at last. Ngh! This story is taking longer and longer to write as I go on, which is not a good sign. However, I am all rested after Easter and filled with lots of chocolate. Did you know chocolate is a brain food? It is - it's filled with magnesium and stuff. Yes, it is. So now I should be brainier and able to write more stuff.
ha ha ha! Stop laughing Pablo!
Anyhoo, here is chapter four. It should be better than the others 'coz I recently got a book called 'When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Writer', and it's helping me iron out my writing flaws. If it hasn't worked then please tell me and I will scold myself. And for those of you who haven't yet encountered my little friend Pablo before, let me introduce you. Readers, this is Pablo the penguin who lives in my head. Pablo, these are the nice reading people that read my work. Pablo's crazy, by the way.
Disclaimer: Do I really have to go through this again? It's on all the other chapters: read them if you can't remember what I do and do not own.
Review replies: Me: Hi hi honey! I kind of did guess seeing as you were the only other person who bothered to write down the website address, but you know that already because I told you at school because I took so long to update this story. And I do feel wanted now. But Mara hasn't been reviewing lately. And she calls me lazy! Where was I? Oh, yeah. Thanks for saying you like the first chapter. Maybe one day you'll get round to ths one and read this reply to your lovely review. Of course you can have a cookie. You can have Mara's too 'coz she hasn't reviewed lately (but at least she is reading my story). Heh, I'm feeling mean. I say Hi back to all your strange friends whoever they were. Merry easter to you too (heh! that was ages ago) Luv ya!
Okay, chapter 4 will begin after this brief announcement: MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE ROCK!
It was a long and hard journey across the shimmering desert. With no horses or camels to bear them to their destination, Beth was becoming ever more doubtful that they would ever reach Nak Tahn. She dared not voice these doubts, for Ardeth was becoming grouchier by the second. All pleasant moods had been sucked out of him by the scorching sun. Unfortunately, Jimmy was not being so tactful as Beth.
"Hey, Medjai! How much longer is it until we get to the damn city?" he barked. Ardeth replied with a swift kick to the shins.
"I did not say you could talk." he sneered as Jimmy hopped around, cursing in over six different languages. Beth side-stepped around him and hurried to keep up with Ardeth's quickening pace.
"That was uncalled for." she gasped. The dusty air was getting to her throat.
"Wrong. It was very much called for."
"He asked a valid question. How long will it take to find Nak Tahn?
"You do not find Nak Tahn. It finds you."
Ardeth's cryptic words left Beth intrigued, but his icy tone was enough to warn her that he was done talking. She resigned herself to the silence once more and checked behind her to find that Jimmy was still hopping and cursing. She wondered why the heck she had ever agreed to work for him in the first place.
Night had finally fallen and wrapped it's cooling fingers around the reluctant trio. Ardeth had at first been keen to keep travelling throughout the night, but he quickly changed his mind when his boot thudded against a dog-rock buried in the sand. Though deeply confused, Beth was too exhausted to worry, and had lain down upon the ground as soon as she had gotten a fire going. Jimmy and Ardeth assumed she was asleep and left her alone whilst they glared at eachother from opposite sides of the fire.
However, Beth was not asleep. As tired as she was, sleep would not claim her. Instead she let her mind wander as freely as she wished she could. Her thoughts settled upon her family. Guilt stabbed at her soul as she realised how heartless she had been when she had left them behind at the mercy of the hijackers. What kind of hypocrite had she become? Had she not been outraged at Jimmy when he had done the same thing to her? Why didn't she go back for them instead of leaving them stranded in the desert? Questions flooded Beth's head as she became increasingly angry with herself and sleep edged further and further away.
The last hour before sunrise dragged on for Ardeth. He was weary from the journey from the train track, and he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep because Jimmy hadn't stopped watching him all night. A single yawn escaped from him just as the sun began to peek above the horizon, sending her orange glow streaming across the sky like spilled ink. Ardeth watched as the sun's rays choked the night sky and filled the land with light once more. Jimmy still watched Ardeth like a hawk, but if he had cared to look over his shoulder he would have witnessed the daily betrayal of one of Egypt's great secrets. He would have seen the lost city of Nak Tahn as it revealed itself against the backdrop of the rising sun, with its looming gates of granite and its looming tower made entirely of crumbling sandstone. Though more than half gone thanks to the harsh winds of time, it was still higher than Big Ben. Intact it would have rivalled even the Empire State building.
"Woah." Beth murmured. She got up from her resting place and stood next to Ardeth. Seeing Beth's face finally convinced Jimmy to turn around, and when he did he laughed. He laughed the same insane laughter that Beth had seen back at the office when she showed him the key. His laughter gave her the same uneasy feeling she had felt back then, and without knowing it her hand slipped defensively to her gun.
Meanwhile, back at the train... (a/n - sorry, always wanted to do that.)
"Where is she?" Jonathon demanded as he nervously hopped from one foot to another. His question went unanswered as the rest of his family chose to ignore him; they were all busy enoguh with their own problems. Eve was busy comforting Alex, although Alex needed no comforting, while Rick was busy trying to figure out the best way to get out of this situation. They all just left Jonathon to his panicking.
Rick glanced out of the window and watched the hijackers as they appeared to argue with one another. There were three that Rick could see as their arguement became more heated. The tall, lanky one was shouting at the other two and waving his arms frantically as if he were swatting a mosquito. He appeared to be the leader as his comrades simply hung their heads while he unleashed his wrath upon them. The fatter of the two seemed to be less than happy with how he was being treated and soon began shouting back at Lanky. Lanky responded by striking Fatty across the face, leaving the third hijacker to sit upon his horse in silence, flinching at his masters sudden violence. He was much smaller and far more timid than the others, like a mouse.
"What's going on?" Eve asked as she wrapped her arms around her husbands waist.
"They're argueing." he replied. He watched a few more seconds and saw, to his surprise, Lanky, Fatty and Mousy all ride off into the desert as if the very fires of Hell were behind them. Rick gently pulled away from Eve and peered out of the other window to see exactly where they were going, but could only see trails of dust rising up from the ground.
"Well," he said more to himself than anyone. "Hijack's over." Everyone sighed with relief and joined him in looking out of the window while they waited for Beth and Ardeth to reappear still.
"What are those tracks?" Joanthon asked after a few seconds.
"That's just the hijackers running off." Rick replied still deep in thought.
"No, I mean those tracks coming from this carriage. They look like footsteps."
Rick looked at where his brother-in-law was pointing and groaned when he realised that Beth wasn't coming back. "Come on everybody." He backed away from the window and headed to the door. "Let's go play 'Chase The Sister' one more time." And so they went to fetch some horses from the livestock carriage.
"What are you laughing at Jimmy?" Ardeth snapped. "We still have an hour's march to get there, and there are booby traps everywhere."
Jimmy's laughter died in his throat until it was no more than a pathetic squawk. He looked at Ardeth as if he had just landed in a spaceship. Then he sucked in a deep, abrupt breath and seemed to return to the real world again.
"Booby traps?" he said. Ardeth nodded impatiently. "Foolish Medjai! There are no booby traps. Nak Tahn wasn't built with grave robbers in mind. It wasn't hidden to keep it's dangers away from the human race. It was built to be found; it was built so that one day someone would come along and release its evil upon the Earth. Booby traps wouldn't exactly be appropriate, would they Ardeth?" Jimmy's voice suddenly went ice cold, and a wry smile danced upon his thin lips. He reached into his pocket and drew out a small handgun, then calmly pointed it at Ardeth. The uneasy feeling suddenly grew tenfold within Beth. She knew now that Jimmy wasn't possessed. Jimmy was reincarnated.
"Goodbye, Medjai scum." he said.
DUN DUN DUN! Heh heh, cliffhanger! Anyhoo, I have now finally finished this chapter (Woo hoo! I must have restarted it, like, 3 times!), so now you must all review me and make me a happy little bunny. Constructive critisisms, random outbursts or crazy ramblings, I don't care. Just don't bother flaming, 'coz there is really no point. Seriously, flaming is more pointless than having a royal family (oh dear, we're getting political).
Okay, anyone who has read my Three Ninja story will notice that I have taken it down because it really sucked and I need to start over on that one. I won't even bother apologising 'coz I know no one's gonna miss it. For the rest of you, hang on to your hats for the next chapter! Poop!
UPDATE: Here are replies to the nice encouraging reviews I got. I figured I wouldn't be mean and make you wait until i put the next chapter up. (See Mara, I am nice!) THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS, THEY KEEP ME GOING! (yeah, how many times have you heard that before?)
ZELINIA: Really? She has flaws? She's not a mary sue, she's just an OC? Cool! I have a non-marysue character! Whoop! Yeah, she spunky. How else could you stand to work for Jimmy for years on end? And I know they get left behind, but i missed writing about them so I made them follow them with horses, yay!
ZELINIA: AHHHHHH! I know exactly how you feel. I am torn between keeping him alive because he is just too yummy, and killing him off just to be different. Oh, the mental anguish! I will update as soon as my writing demons let me, which may or may not be that long depnding on how hard they work us at school this term (which will be pretty hard because we have our SATS coming up). Grrr - too little time.
blackmagic 111090: Yeah, jimmy is creepy. I don't like writing his character anymore because he scares me. But Eve is a reincarnation of Nefertiti and she doesn't want to take over the world. Besides, Jimmy isn't too bothered about world domination; he'd be happy with a nice big apocalypse.
movieluver: Thank you! You're too kind. I'm glad you like the story. I'm guessing they'll be a romance between Ardeth and Beth, but only if he lives long enough, or if she does for that matter. Oh, who knows what I will do next? Mwahaha! Ahem, yes. Of course I'll write more. I've got myself hooked now. Just watch this space o luver of movies...