Time Maze

The Power of Food, the Weakness of Mind

When they could already see the marketplace in the distance, Tyson realized that he wasn't entirely sure how people bought and sold things in Ancient Egypt. It wasn't likely that they used any type of money he was familiar with, and that was enough to have him worried.

"What's up?" Marcus asked, returning to Tyson's suddenly motionless figure. "Why did you stop?"

"I am not sure how people buy and sell things here," Tyson said. "We should proceed slowly and see if we can figure it out by watching what others are doing."

"Don't we just have some money that magically appeared in our pockets when we came here?" Marcus asked, trying to locate the pockets in his odd attire.

"Marcus, we don't even have pockets, to begin with," Tyson said patiently. "Besides, as far as I remember, they didn't use any money at that time."

"If not, what did they do?" Marcus asked impatiently, giving up on finding any pockets on clothing that clearly had none.

"I don't remember. That's why I said we should just observe for now," Tyson said, looking around to see if people carried any purses or anything like that with them.

For a moment, it occurred to him that some type of coins could have been used. Yet, that didn't seem to be the case upon closer observation of what people did once they entered the marketplace. What Tyson did notice was a woman giving the seller a duck who, in return, gave her some metal contraption that Tyson didn't recognize.

"Fine," Marcus said in a tone that made it clear that it was anything but fine.

However, to appease his friend, Tyson observed the marketplace more closely instead of wasting his time trying to reason with Marcus. He knew that if he figured out how to get his friend some food, his mood would instantly improve.

Noticing a few more trades, Tyson was pretty sure that he could understand the system under which the place worked. The problem was that he couldn't think of anything they had that he could exchange for some food.

"Can we go there and get some fresh bread?" Marcus asked, pointing at a three-sided structure with a table that stood to their left, as the decorative bracelets on his arm jingled loudly.

Next to it, on the ground, were some mats with a wide selection of fruits and vegetables. Tyson couldn't see any meat that could satiate the carnivore that Marcus was, but he thought it might be a good start.

"Sure, but I am still not sure with what I can purchase it," Tyson said when it suddenly dawned on him. "Marcus, quick! Give me your hand!"

Marcus was utterly confused, but he did as he was told without paying too much attention to what his friend was trying to do. All he knew was that he was ready to do anything just to get some delicious food.

"What is it?" Marcus asked as Tyson kept staring at his arm and then proceeded to turn his hand up and down. "You are acting weird."

"I think we can use these to trade for food," Tyson said, pointing at the bracelets that adorned Marcus's hands as well as the enormous rings that dotted his fingers.

"Huh, I didn't even notice that," Marcus said, staring at his arms in wonder. "Dude, how could I miss seeing that I am wearing jewelry?"

"I think we are still a bit dazed from traveling so far into the past," Tyson said, having no idea if distance did actually matter. "Either way, it doesn't matter as you are about to get some food."

Marcus's confused expression was quickly substituted with a bright and overly chipper one at the mention of food. It was as if he was already imagining devouring it and couldn't care less that he looked like a chick.

"Will there be any meat?" Marcus asked hopefully.

"I am not sure. I don't see any meat here. Maybe it's in a different part of the market," Tyson said, hoping that was true. "Still, we better have a bite to eat now, and if we run into some meat, I am sure you will have some room left to eat that as well."

"True," Marcus said, smiling brightly.

Tyson proceeded to the stall with one of Marcus's rings only to notice that he also had a lot of jewelry on his person. Thus, they could at least afford to buy whatever it was they needed.

He managed to come to an agreement with the bread seller rather quickly, getting more than one loaf of bread for the sparkling jewelry he had to offer. Furthermore, he used one of his own rings to buy some fruit, many of which was unfamiliar to him.

"Come on, dude, it took you forever to buy that," Marcus said the moment Tyson finished shopping, and they moved to the side to partake in their newly-bought food.

"You are being overdramatic, as always. But here you are," Tyson said, giving Marcus a loaf of bread and some of the delicious-looking fruit.

"Mmm, this tastes good," Marcus managed to mumble between two bites of bread.

Having appeased the beast, Tyson relaxed, sliding down the nearby wall so that he could have his meal in peace as well. He hoped that the treats would keep Marcus occupied for a while.

However, that wasn't what happened.

A group of people, whom Tyson assumed to be slaves, passed by them carrying a large lamb on a stick, closely followed by others who carried rows of pigeons, ducks, and other birds that Tyson couldn't really recognize. What he did see was the lust in Marcus's eyes as he started moving slowly after the meat.

It was as if the smell of food had him hypnotized, carrying him on without his conscious will to go. The sight would have been funny if it wasn't worrisome as there was only one place Tyson could think of where that much food could be heading.

"Marcus, stop! Wait up!" Tyson yelled, desperately grabbing for his friend, but it was too late. "Remember what we said about drawing attention to ourselves!"

However, Marcus was too far gone into his food frenzy to hear anything. Thus, all Tyson could do was run after him like a faithful dog trotting behind his owner.

"Please, God, let it be any other place but the one I fear," Tyson mumbled a quiet prayer as he ran after his friend dodging people and cattle to the best of his abilities.

Without thinking about it, Marcus entered one of the small boats that the servants went into. But more importantly, where they put the delicious food that he saw earlier. Tyson, on his part, couldn't do anything but scramble to get inside at the last minute and ignore the strange looks people were giving him.

"Marcus," Tyson whispered, trying to locate his friend in the mess of people and goods.

When there was no reply, Tyson started carefully examining his surroundings. Luckily, he was just in time to stop Marcus from breaking off a mutton leg.

"No," Tyson said, slapping Marcus's hand away, which finally managed to break his trance-like behavior.

"What?" Marcus said, disoriented. "Who? Why?"

"Shh, you already got us into enough trouble. Now stay quiet, and let's just see where this gets us," Tyson said, seeing no other option but to see things through.

What they saw had Tyson both fascinated and terrified. They were approaching an island on which stood a spectacular palace. Its beauty was unparalleled to anything they had seen until that moment. Thus, Tyson couldn't help but conclude it must be the one place they shouldn't have visited, Cleopatra's palace.

"Oh, no..." Tyson whispered as the possibilities of everything that could go wrong spun around his head.

"What's up?" Marcus asked.

"I need you to promise me that you won't do anything stupid, okay?" Tyson said, already having predicted the many stupid things that Marcus could potentially do. "Remember no helping hot chicks and all that?"

"Yes, I remember. Don't worry, dude. I promise," Marcus said solemnly. "No helping hot babes."

Tyson hoped that would stay true even when they laid their eyes on Cleopatra in all her glory, but he wasn't sure that would be the case. Anyway, they had no choice but to face the music. Tyson just hoped it wouldn't end up killing them.