Disclaimer: I own known of the characters from the Mummy, they belong to them lucky people of Universal, or whatever it is. I can only claim rule over the characters you don't recognize.
Princess of the Nile
Chapter 4: The Healing Process
Emira woke as Ardeth set her on the floor in the tent and watched him as he called one of the healers in. Haji was one of the few Emira had grown up with, and his mouth dropped open in shock to see his friend sitting before him, bruised, pale and thin.
"Haji." Emira croaked, smiling slightly
"Emira?" Haji replied, finding his voice and dropping beside the young women, taking one hand to inspect her wrist "What happened?"
Emira shook her head slightly, showing she wished not to discuss it, and closed her eyes, feeling light-headed. She swayed slightly where she sat and Ardeth put a hand to her shoulder
"I will be back to check on you shortly." He said "I will tell the others we are staying here for the night." He strode from the tent as Emira tiredly opened her eyes.
"It's pointless asking me how I am." She croaked to Haji, gesturing at her battered appearance "But how are you?"
"I am well." He replied, moving his gaze from her wrist to the rest of her arm "I am married now, to Damathat." Emira smiled
"Thought you hated her." She whispered, making Haji grin
"You still remember that about me then?" he asked with mirth
"I remember you playing those tricks on her and the other girls." She replied
"I seem to remember you helping?" he shot at her, she shrugged, though it was with some difficulty
"I supervised." She said simply. Haji chuckled, moving to check her other arm
"You jumped in feet first and gave me a hand." He told her
"Maybe." She gave him a grin and then looked at her upper arm, there were several dirty strips of cloth wrapped around it, and Haji was peeling them off. The wound, a long gash, soon presented itself and she frowned to see it was still bleeding slightly
"Bugger it." She said softly in English. She stayed still and silent as Haji began to treat the wound, only moving when the tent flap was pulled up and Ardeth entered.
"We will be travelling back to the village early tomorrow." He said, dropping beside the woman and passing her his canteen "When was the last time you ate?"
"Scraps? Couple of days ago." She answered with a shrug after taking a swig from the canteen "A proper meal? A month, maybe a bit longer, it's hard to keep track."
Ardeth raised an eyebrow at her answer, she was speaking calmly, as if it were merely the weather she was on about, but her eyes still contained a certain amount of fear, and flickered from the faces of the men in front of her to the tent flap occasionally. He looked from her to Haji, the younger man was frowning slightly as he finished tidying up the wound on Emira's arm and then his eyes flicked to her bruised face, the frown deepening as he placed a hand on her chin to inspect the bruises
"They have not been kind to you, the men who had you." He said, it was a statement rather than a question, but Emira felt obliged to answer anyway
"I suppose, they damn well know how to give you a headache as well."
"You are safe now." Haji said, Emira grinned
"I'm being looked after by you and Ardeth, am I allowed to disagree?" she asked. Ardeth laughed, drawing the woman's attention back to him and he helped her stand
"Come." He said, "You need to eat."
Next Update: Unless I really can't work out my dates, it's the 11th March, and I swear not to check the date on the computer at 10:15 pm and realise I need to update this time :D