The Eye of Horus

Chapter 4

A familiar collage of images cascaded around me, tumbling, twisting, and curving until they all bled into one long sequence of colours and sounds. Pyramids, people, spices, dunes, sand, sand, and more sand. It was a symphony of senses led by an invisible conductor.

*  *  *

My head was on fire. I could feel the burning from behind my closed eyelids, but no matter how tightly I squeezed them, the fire refused to go away. I moved my arm to my face to check the damage only to find my hair still attached and my skin unmarred. Sort of.  

Gritty sand stuck to my face as I pulled it from the ground. Immediately, the fire went out. I groaned as a new problem arose: a pounding headache. Where was the Aspirin when you needed it?

I shakily got to my feet and, in the process of doing so, discovered what the burning was. When my hand came into contact with the ground, pain blossomed onto my palm. The sand! It was burning hot from sitting in the direct sun for so long. Ugh, just another reason why I hated coming to Egypt.

Wait... Egypt... My head was still fuzzy and suffering from overkill vertigo. When I looked around it hit me like a flying saucepan. We were in... Ancient Egypt. We were in Ancient Egypt! We... Roze! Where is she?

A rustle to my left answered my question. I scrambled over to where Roze was clutching her head being in the same predicament I was just in thirty seconds ago.

“Hey, you okay?” I handed her a bag of water. We’d changed water containers, considering Ancient Egyptians might think that water bottles were a bit strange.

Standing, I brushed the sand from my clothes. We were currently standing on the side of a dune in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.

“Well this is different than last time,” I said helpfully. Roze pointed towards the top of the dune. I caught her gist and we started climbing. It seemed that the building we had hid inside in two thousand-twelve was either not built yet, or was buried over time during sandstorms beneath the dune because there was no sign of the hard rock within a ten foot radius.

Combined with the scorching heat and the full might of the mid-afternoon sun beating down, by the time we reached the summit we were panting as if we’d just run a marathon, holding onto our knees to catch our breath. Sprawled out before us on the other side of the dune not one hundred yards away, was a fully intact, non-crumbling city made purely of limestone. Off to the side was the glimmering strip of Nile River that reflected the cloudless blue of the great ceiling.

I grinned at Roze who, in turn, grinned back. “Welcome back...” I paused for dramatic effect, “to Ancient Egypt!”

We decided to go into town to stock up on supplies in order to continue our journey to the grand city of Akhetaten. It was against our luck that Grandma would not be persuaded to go on a tour somewhere nearer the ancient city. Now we had to traverse across sandy dunes and miles of sand in order to reach it. It was going to take all day.

Luck came to our rescue in the slender form of a teenage girl.

As soon as I spotted her mane of wavy black hair and clothes that were identical to mine, I waved dramatically in greeting. When she reached us, Roze and I greeted her with a hug and kiss on the cheek.

“Well if it isn’t my favourite blood-relative. I was wondering when I would see you again. It’s nice to see both of you so soon.” Chione smiled happily at us,

“And if it isn’t my favourite grandmother. You’re still here?” I winked so she’d know I was joking.

“Yes, and it’s Great-Grandmother to you,” she replied with a nudge of her elbow.