Time Maze

In a Time Far, Far away

Although Tyson had seen the portal's appearance as a relief at first, as soon as they went through it, he wasn't sure if that was the best thing that could have happened to them. One glance around their new surroundings was enough to tell Tyson that they had gone further back in time and place than they had ever gone before, which was terrifying in its own right. However, what was worse was that Tyson wasn't as familiar with that part of ancient history as he would have liked.

"Dude, are you wearing make-up?" Marcus exclaimed, laughing seconds after they found themselves on the other side of the portal. "Haha, and the clothing you are wearing is so ridiculous!"

"Marcus, you are wearing exactly the same clothing. The knee-length shirts and loincloths are common enough in Ancient Egypt, I think," Tyson said.

He could barely finish his sentence as Marcus was laughing in an uncontrollably loud way that they couldn't afford at that moment.

"Shh, we need to be careful. I barely know anything about Ancient Egypt," Tyson said, pulling Marcus behind the nearby figure that was decorated with a vast range of hieroglyphs.

To Tyson's surprise, they could actually read the hieroglyphs, but that didn't help him much in figuring out where and when exactly they were.

"But, dude, we look ridiculous. We look like chicks," Marcus said, lowering his voice to an amused whisper with occasional snorts.

"That was the fashion at the time. It was normal for both men and women to wear make-up," Tyson quickly explained.

He couldn't help but wish that Marcus would already go past it and focus on more important things, such as survival.

"That's weird," Marcus said, still quietly snickering every time he saw Tyson's face turn towards him.

"Maybe, but that's the least of our worries. I have no idea where we are or when. What's worse, I don't remember much about Ancient Egypt. I was usually more into more recent history," Tyson said, trying to organize all the knowledge he did have into one cohesive whole.

However, that was far more difficult because it felt like he was drawing the information from a deep well in his mind with the data he needed at the bottom. Furthermore, he wasn't sure how much of it was from history books and how much from books and movies.

At least Marcus could finally go past their appearances and be more clearheaded than before. Or at least that was what Tyson hoped Marcus's sudden silence meant.

"So, what do we do?" Marcus asked, doing his best to maintain the business-like tone that he believed worked well for the occasion.

"The same as always, I guess," Tyson said, his thoughts interrupted by all the visual stimuli that the place they were in was full of.

"You do realize that my memory has been wiped. Unless the usual means being lost in the same-ish year but in a different place or helping people that we shouldn't be helping, I have no idea what you are talking about," Marcus said, hoping that his honesty wouldn't end up antagonizing Tyson, who seemed overwhelmed as it was.

"Oh, right, right," Tyson said, having forgotten that Marcus worked with half of his memories of the Maze, which he wasn't sure was a good or a bad thing. "Well, generally, we try to lay low, not draw attention to ourselves as we figure out where or when we are. Once we know that, I can usually tell which places we should avoid and when. So, we do our best to stay out of trouble."

"And how are we doing so far?" Marcus asked hopefully.

Tyson remembered all the mistakes they made, all the danger they had been in, and it showed on his face. Thus, he chose to go with a limited truth.