Egyptian Adventures

The Egyptian pyramid tour is boring. I mean, it’s really awesome that I’m in an Egyptian pyramid but we’ve been looking at this vase for the past hour. Plus from being in the back, I can hardly hear the tour guide explain what’s so special about it. From my view, it just looks like a dull, black vase that doesn’t even have any drawings on it. In comparison, all the artifacts surrounding us are legit jewels. I can’t help but be distracted by all the sparkling - why can’t we go see one of those? As though I sighed aloud in my boredom (perhaps I did), the tour guide stops talking and everyone starts to disperse. Finally!

I take off to admire this beautiful sapphire necklace, but a dark corridor behind the case catches my eye. At first I think it’s a maintenance area for the tour crew, but I don’t see any signs. Curiosity peaked, I walk into the shadows.

The corridor is longer than it seems, and I am about to turn back when I start to hear grumbling and scuffling further down. I walk further on and suddenly I am face to face with two fighting mummies. Not just your typical mummies, but warrior mummies. They are wearing full armor that I had seen displayed earlier in another exhibit, and are fighting each other with axes and swords. At first, I think:

OK - they must be rehearsing for the tour.

But then one of the warrior mummies chops off the other’s arm with his axe! But that doesn’t stop the now-armless mummy, because he takes his sword and drives it straight into the other’s chest. They both fall to the ground in a cloud of dust. What just happened? Were those real people? People don’t evaporate into dust though.

Truly freaked out, I start running back. I return to the main area, but everyone is gone. The tour left me! I scream,

Hello?! Is anyone here???

As I start looking for a glowing exit sign, I hear gears shifting within the walls - clicks and clacks echoing all around me. Little windows high above have opened up and start pouring in sand - lots of sand. The only image running through my head is Princess Jasmine drowning in the hourglass of sand. However, I doubt my Prince Aladdin is going to come save me. The sand is up to my ankles when I hear a weird humming noise. I look over and notice it’s coming from the black vase from earlier. I approach the vase and see it’s glowing through these weird inscriptions on the side - not inscriptions, a maze. Is this a map to get out of the pyramid? I place my finger at the start of the maze and it feels almost hot, but as I trace my finger throughout, it leaves a green glowing line behind it. I finish the maze and the vase suddenly gets too hot to hold. I put it back down carefully and suddenly I see a wall shifting on the other side of the room - it opened up a passage.

Thanks vase!!!

I run towards the passage and run until I no longer hear the falling sand behind me. It gets so dark that I have to start running my hands along the wall to feel my way, and that is when I feel a light switch. I flick it on, and I’m in a… house?

I’m actually in a living room with no sign of where I came from, but I look out the window and see a vast desert. Where am I? I look around this house, which is basically just this one room and there is nothing and no one here. I do notice a pair of gym shoes at the door. They happen to be my size and look a lot comfier than the sandals I decided to wear to this tour, so I slip them on. That is when I notice a school bus pulling up towards the house. Hesitant at first, I slowly walk outside. Maybe they can give me a ride back to civilization. Just my luck though because it starts driving away! I run towards it, yelling for them to stop, but the sand is impossible to run in. I am not even sure how the bus is managing to drive around.

Defeated, I turn around back to the house. But what is that?? On the side of the house, there are a couple of parked, floating scooters. They don’t look like scooters at all, but upside down mushrooms. Driven by instinct, I grab the stem of one and hop onto the cap. It starts to glide down the driveway immediately. This thing is not stable at all, but I eventually gain my balance and get the hang of it. In the midst of all that concentration in trying not to fall off my mushroom, I didn’t realize how far I had glided and the approaching waterfall, or rather, sandfall up ahead. The sand current has taken a hold of my mushroom, so there is no way I am escaping this. I crouch down and hug the stem right as I approach the edge, ready to brace the fall.
But I don’t fall over the edge. Instead, my beautiful, beautiful mushroom scooter slowly slides down the falling sand. I start laughing off my fear, but after almost losing my balance, I focus back on trying not to fall off this damn mushroom. I realize it’s a long way down, and of course, I can see nothing up ahead. Based on very recent past experiences, I have to ask myself,

What am I about to get myself into?