Journey to the Past

1. The Terrible Accident

When Emilia accompanies her father on a archeological trip to Egypt a near fatal accident occurs. Learning that her father is missing in the chaos Emilia wakes up - to find herself in 18th dynasty of Egypt. Inevitably, Emilia finds herself face to face with King Tutankhamun, and their lives intertwine as Emilia fights for her father's life in the middle of an Egyptian war. With usurpers round every corner vying for tutankhamun's throne, in helping him Emilia finds herself becoming closer with the young pharaoh, as he fights to keep his place on the throne.

Authors note: Apologies if there is any terminology that is incorrect in this novel. I am no expert on Ancient Egypt, just an admirer.

The hot sun beat down upon the vast sands of Luxor in Egypt. A jeep pulled up to the cliffs overlooking the valley of the kings.
"Come on Emilia!" He called excitedly.
My father, a tall slightly built man with dark hair and a permanently tan complexion, had experienced Egypt's merciless heat for some years, and although this wasn't my first visit to the valley of the kings, my pale skin courtesy of my mother tended to suffer.
I wiped the slight gleam of sweat from the back of my neck with my linen scarf and grimaced. I looked forward to my trips to this sacred land fire every year, and every year I forgot how hot it was. I pull the scarf over my head, shielding my hair and face, and tucked a few stray chestnut coloured strands under the scarf. I'd always stubbornly kept my hair long, despite my mother's pleas for me to cut it. It was thick and shiny, a dark chestnut brown like my fathers that contrasted wonderfully with my complexion, and the sapphire blue of my eyes.
I had no problem attracting the attention of boys, but then they would find out about me and my family. I was what you would call 'kooky' or 'odd' for having a deep interest in ancient Egypt, and that is where their infatuation with me ended.
Oh it wasn't my interest and self proclaimed Egyptologist status that put men off, it was the fact my life revolved around ancient Egyptian artefacts and research, like my father. 
"You're young!" My father proclaimed, "You should be full of energy!" He laughed heartily, the excitement of being back at the tombs of the pharaoh's was evident on his face, and I couldn't help but smile as I huffed.
"Yeah, but not in forty degrees heat!" I replied, I willed myself into a short sprint to lessen the distance between us. As I caught up to him my breath seemed to catch as I looked upon the tombs built into the cliff sides, they always amazed me no matter how many times I'd seen it.
By the time we had made our way down the path to the centre of the maze of tombs there was a small group of other archaeologists waiting for us. I recognised a lot of them as friends of my dads who he worked with a lot on excavations.
One of the men waved at us as we approached, and I recognised him as Sam, a young archaeologist from Australia.
"Hi Richard, we're just waiting for the green light to go down now." He told us. "Hi Emilia, it's been a while!" He said tentatively.
It was a bit of an open secret that Sam liked me, we had almost grown up together when Sam's own father was here with my own dad. Sam's father had been a nice man with kind crinkly eyes when he smiled. He had died in a freak boating accident a few years back, and I remember being wrecked beyond belief. But Sam still travelled, believing it was his father's wishes he would explore and travel the world.
"Hi Sam!" I replied brightly, hoping things weren't too awkward between us.
I was a naturally flirtatious girl which often happened naturally, but never unintentionally intending it to lead anyone on.
"Seems like a big team today, what's going on?" I wondered aloud.
We were at the junction of land between tombs KV64 and further on KV62, the tomb of the famous pharaoh, Tutankhamun.
"I wanted it to be a surprise," I turned back to my dad who was brimming with excitement.
"Remember we found the burial storage chamber a few years ago?" He asked.
I remembered the small chamber possibly belonging to Tutankhamun's family burial items and how amazed I was we were still finding pieces of history about the famous pharaoh.
"Yes I remember! Why, has something else been discovered?" I dared to hope, hardly keeping the anticipation from my voice.
I had countless books about the ancient Egyptians and their pharaoh kings, but there was one king of the past I had accumulated the most from my collection, the young king Tutankhamun.
"We hope so. They are digging below the level of the burial storage chamber, I'm hoping there is another tomb down there, perhaps more royal members of the 18th dynasty." My dad replied with his eyebrows raised. "Or at the very least, maybe some artefacts of your favourite man from history."
I shuffled my feet and gave my dad a playful shove on the arm.
"Well, have they managed to reach anything yet?" No sooner had I finished my question had a excavator popped their head up from the shaft entrance.
"We have managed to dig a corridor across from the tomb, and leading to KV62, Tutankhamun's tomb. This looks promising!"
Me and my dad looked at each other in unison, excitement and trepidation in our faces.
"Let's go!" One of the party exclaimed, leading the rest of the party to patiently file in to the entrance of the passageway.
"I think Emilia should go first. This will be her first new discovery." Said an older lady I recognised as Julia, an old friend of my mom's from Pittsburgh. She could be quite stern looking at times, but was really a kind hearted woman.
Although I had been down to tombs if this depth before I still was a bit nervous of being so far underground. I looked up to see the light fading as I began my decent into the burial chamber, then across the newly dug out corridor. The other party soon joined me, shining the torches on their phones over the walls and floor, hoping to glimpse something magnificent.
I made my way down the dark passage, my dad soon catching up to me so we walked shoulder to shoulder.
"This is amazing!" I whispered, my eyes searching the old ruins. "Thank you dad." I said  emotionally.
He smiled back at me, "We're part of the history books now, kiddo!" He grinned and I matched it, pausing as a glint of something on the ground caught my attention.
I traced the top of the objects smooth service, recognising the shape immediately.
"Hey dad look!" I whispered, carefully sweeping the dirt from the back of the scarab. It glinted gold in the torch light and was inscribed with hieroglyphics.
I saw my dad just go round the bend of the tunnel, and huffed in annoyance, how could he miss this beautiful object in plain sight? I made to catch up to him when a deep rumble echoed through the chamber and suddenly, plumes of dirt filled the passage, making me cough and wheeze as my eyes watered.
"Oh no - oh God, dad?! Dad!" I could hear shouting from behind me, but when I turned I could not see the others. I wanted to run but I didn't know how far in we'd travelled and looked in horror as rocks came tumbling in and sealing off any escape in front or behind me, preventing me reaching my father who might be in trouble. I clutched the scarab tighter in my hands as I began to sob, this was was it.
I would die at nineteen how many metres under the ground.
I breathed out a shaky cry of help, then everything went dark.
—
When I opened my eyes I immediately went to shut them, the bright light invading my sensitive eyes. My first thought was that I had died and made it to the afterlife, the traumatic scenes of being trapped by rocks in that tunnel still fresh in my mind. I looked desperately around to see my father and my jaw dropped.
I was no longer surrounded by plain stone walls but the interior of a beautiful palace.
Gold leaf paint covered the walls and ceiling, and beautiful tile floors of terracotta and teal covered the floor. There were gold busts and status of kings, animals and what I recognised as the Egyptian deities featured throughout the room. Woven tapestries hung on the walls showing great battle scenes, and I thought for a moment I had made it through the passageway into a forgotten tomb, and that the search party had dragged me here after they found me missing.
That thought was quickly diminished however, when a man flanked by two guards rushed in, the guards brandishing spears. I scrambled to get onto my feet, my legs screaming in protest but I was too frightened to fully register the pain.
"Who are you? How did you get into the palace?" The man, who had heavy eye make up and a shaved head looked at me expectantly.
There was an alarming thought that entered my mind but I quickly shut it down. It was all an elaborate re enactment, this wasn't real.
"I'm Emilia, I'm from -" I almost choked on my words as they died on my lips. That wasn't my own voice, I bought my hand to my throat. It sounded like my voice but it was making strange sounds, a language I never knew but I guessed what it was.
I could only sit there dumbfounded as the man eyed me skeptically.
"We will see what our pharaoh king, Tutankhamun will make of this." He snarled, motioning to the guards who roughly lifted me by the arms and dragged me away.