Treasure Hunters: Part Seven

     Brushing away a few cobwebs from the opening, the Acara boldly stepped over the threshold and into the unknown of the Pyramid.

     The entrance was dark and narrow, with only enough space for the adventurers to travel in a single line, one behind the other.

     "Stay close," she called out to the others. "If you fall behind, you won't be able to see where you're going!"

     She held the flaming torch high above her as she led the way down the passageway, throwing its light onto the sandstone walls on either side of them and illuminating the ancient pictures and hieroglyphs that had been carved onto the walls.

     "This is most extraordinary!" Peregrine whispered, in awe, as he touched a paw out to the story being told on the walls.

     There were pictures of Desert Neopets working, playing, fighting off their enemies with large spears. It was the story of their lives.

     Saffy didn't think it was particularly interesting and was eager to set off on her search again, so she impatiently gestured to the Neopets behind her to keep walking, as it looked like Peregrine could have stayed and marvelled at the carvings all day.

     A little further down the corridor, they came across a fork in their path. One path led up a set of stone steps; the other slanted down in the opposite direction.

      They took the path that slanted down, having to duck their heads slightly as the ceiling of this passage was a lot lower than the one they had entered from.

     They walked past huge statues of Desert Neopets, which made Archie shiver with dread.

     "They're so creepy!" he exclaimed, picking up his pace in attempts to get further away from them. It was times like these that he regretted being the last to enter the Pyramid... there was no-one behind him to watch his back.

     "Stop being silly, Archie! They're just statues," Saffy chided, from her position in front.

     "I'm not being silly. They are creepy. Their eyes seem to follow you wherever you go!" he replied in defiance, as an eerie chill ran up his spine.

     He quickly turned away from their spooky, moving eyes and almost stepped on Peregrine's heel in his haste to hurry things up.

     "Look, the passage is opening out," Saffy called. "It looks like some sort of burial chamber."

     Archie couldn't have been more grateful. Now they didn't have to walk in single file anymore.

     "The entrance to the underground catacombs must be somewhere in this chamber," Peregrine stated, looking around.

     The chamber seemed to be a dead end – there were no other passages leading off from it and as far as they could tell, there didn't seem to be any doors.

     The treasure hunters searched high and low for the entrance – they even brushed their fingers along the dirty floor to check for hidden trapdoors, but they found nothing.

     "Well, that's that then!" Archie pronounced, cheerfully. "There's nothing here. We might as well go home."

     "I don't understand," Peregrine murmured, baffled. "The hieroglyphs clearly state that the entrance to the subterranean tunnels are in this Pyramid. So it should be here."

     "We've looked everywhere..." Saffy started to say, before her eyes landed on something that they hadn't searched – something that they hadn't even thought to search, out of respect.

     "Except there," she finished, pointing to the black and gold painted sarcophagus that was stood against the back wall.

     "Oh no," Archie mumbled.

     "No, no, no. I hate mummies!" he whined, turning away as his cousin walked towards it.

     He heard the click of an opening and the creak of the door swinging out, but he wouldn't turn around. He was determined that whilst he was here he would not look at a single, mummified Neopet.

     "You can turn around, Archie. It's empty," Saffy called to him.

     With that Archie turned around to see that it was indeed empty. Instead of a cloth-wrapped body inside the sarcophagus, there was a set of steps, leading underground.

     The tomb was a fake – it was built into the wall to hide the fact that it was the entrance to the underground tunnels; very sneaky.

     "Come on Archie! Stop gawking at it and get a move on. We don't know how long it's going to take to find the treasure, so the less time we spend hanging about, the quicker we'll be out of here."

     Archie made an effort to scramble through the entrance before Peregrine, so he wouldn't be stuck at the back of the trio again, but he needn't have worried, as the tunnels below ground were much wider that they had been in the Pyramid and there was plenty of room for all three to walk side by side.

     "Okay, so where do we go from here?" the Gelert asked, looking from Saffy to the Yurble holding the map in his hands.

     Saffy who had always been good at reading maps, took it from Peregrine and studied it for a few minutes.

     "Well, I think we're here," she explained, pointing out a spot on the map to the others.

     "This squiggle here looks like the path up ahead. See the way it winds? And if I'm right there should be an archway around that corner. Let's go and see!" she ordered, bossily, as she strutted off down the corridor.

     The two Neopets left behind, followed suit and by the time they had rounded the corner, Saffy was standing in front of a stone arch, and looking rather smug.

     "See? I was right. Now we need to keep heading west until we meet a crossroads and then take the path that leads north-east. Do you still have your compass, Peregrine?"

     "I do indeed," he replied, bringing the navigational instrument out of his satchel.

     "Good, we might need it. Let's go then!"

     They had been walking for around twenty minutes when Archie started to feel like something wasn't quite right.

     He kept getting a prickly sensation on the back of his neck, and the distinct impression that he was being watched.

     Occasionally, when his companions were silent, he thought he heard an odd rustling sound, but when he voiced his concerns, his cousin brushed him off automatically.

     "You're being paranoid, Archie," she told him, indifferently. "I haven't heard a thing and neither has Peregrine. It's all in your imagination, Archie."

     Archie pulled a face behind her back, certain that it wasn't 'in his imagination' as she said, but it was useless to argue with her. Saffy was a most stubborn Acara, who always thought that she was right, no matter what – and she was obstinate enough to argue it until the proof against her was right in front of her nose.

     A little further along he had to call out for the others to stop whilst he re-tied his sandal strap that had come undone, but the pair of them were deep in conversation and they didn't appear to hear him.

     Groaning in frustration, Archie knelt down to tie it again quickly, because he couldn't keep walking with a floppy sandal, and just as he finished re-tying it, he heard someone fall into step beside him.

     At first, he thought it was Saffy come back to hurry him up, but as he glanced sideways to tell her he would be two seconds, he caught a glance at the foot next to him, and he took a sharp intake of breath.

     That foot was not Saffy's.

     The foot had no skin; bones stood in the place where fleshy toes should have been, peeking out of a leather sandal and adjoined to a foot wrapped in bandages.

     Gulping loudly, he slowly lifted his head and raised his eyes to a cloth-wrapped leg, a hip bone, a ribcage, skeletal hands which were clenched menacingly, its bandaged neck which was encircled with a large, chunky, gold necklace and finally, its head.

     It had the face of a Techo, but not like any Archie had ever seen. Its face was grey-blue in colour, with narrow, malevolent eyes that seemed to bore into Archie. He wore an ancient Qasalan, copper-toned helmet, and a thin sneer, which exposed a multitude of yellowing teeth.

     The creature tilted its head to one side, as though examining him and it looked so intimidating that this was what set Archie off.

     "ARRRGGHHH!!!" he screamed, at the top of his lungs.

     His scream must have caught the mummy off guard, as Archie was able to get to his feet and take off running at top speed, without the creature moving towards him.

     He didn't look back to see if the mummy was following, he just ran as fast as his legs would carry him.

     "Archie, what the...?" Saffy questioned, as he caught up with them, but the Gelert wasted no time in explaining. He merely yelled, "MUMMY!" and fled past them as fast as he could.

     The two remaining Neopets looked at each other in bewilderment, but their expressions soon changed to shock and fear, as they turned to see the scary looking mummy, fast approaching. It had given chase.

     Neither Peregrine nor Saffy stopped to ask questions; they both realised that the only thing to do was run, which was precisely what they did.

     "Archie!" Saffy called, sprinting after him. "Where are you going?"

     For the Gelert had headed off in completely the wrong direction and was now running east – the opposite direction of the treasure.

     "Archie, you're going the wrong way!" Saffy called after him, in frustration.

     Archie was too frightened to turn back though, so he just kept on going. There was nothing the other two could do but follow him, as the mummy was gaining speed and seemed to be closing the gap between them.

     Following Archie round a corner, Saffy found herself in a corridor filled with doors. There were hundreds of them, all with a set of hieroglyphs written above them.

     Archie looked back for a split second and saw that the mummy was getting perilously close to them. He screamed out to his friends, "IN HERE!" and pulled open the nearest door.

     Saffy was right behind him and it was a good thing she was too, because the room that her cousin was about to enter, wasn't a room at all, but an opening into a bottomless pit. Logic told her of course, that it wasn't really bottomless, but it was far too dark to see anything at the end of the long, steep drop.

     Archie teetered on the edge, his face full of panic as he realised what he'd walked into, but Saffy, who had quick reflexes, grabbed him sharply by the backpack and dragged him back out into the corridor.

     Peregrine had opened another door nearby and was holding it open for them.

     "Quick!" he called, making fervent, hasty gestures with his hands.

     Saffy pushed Archie forward (who was trembling from shock at the near miss he'd just had) and into the room, and was mere steps away from it herself, when she felt a bony hand clutch at her back, pulling her backwards.

     She shrieked and kicked out at the mummy, who clung on more tightly, delighted to have caught its prey.

     She thought for certain that she was a goner; Peregrine however, came to her aid with his faithful chisel; banging away at the creatures' arms until Saffy could pull herself free.

     The minute she escaped, she grabbed the Yurble's hand and the two made a dash into the room, slamming the door closed behind them.

     Saffy sank to her knees, exhausted and out of breath.

     "Thanks, Peregrine. You saved my life out there!" she said gratefully, once her voice had returned to her.

     The Yurble just nodded, his breath to heavy and ragged to speak; that was the most exercise he'd had in years.

     Archie was sitting in the corner looking slightly abashed.

     "Sorry I didn't come to help, Saffy," he mumbled, looking at his feet. "I just... hate mummies!" he added, with a shudder.

     Saffy brushed off his apology with bravado, saying she was sure she could have taken him, but she really wasn't sure if she believed that herself.

     The room they had locked themselves in, looked like a storage space, but the only thing it seemed to be storing was scrolls. Peregrine was almost beside himself.

     "If I'm not mistaken," he pronounced softly, "we are currently in the tomb of a thousand doors. There are many different traps within its rooms, like the one you just saw out there... but we're safe in here," he finished, carefully unravelling a scroll and whispering to himself, "simply marvellous!"

      ***

     Meanwhile, the Thieves guild was lost in the maze of tunnels underground.

     "Geb, you were sssupposed to follow them!" Gorgon hissed angrily at the Camouflage Ruki.

     "I gave you one job to do... ONE JOB, and you couldn't even do that right!"

     "My humblest apologies, sir," the Ruki stammered, bowing low.

     "I did my best, I really did. But by the time I'd reached the Pyramids, they'd already disappeared. I did find the entrance to the catacombs, though," he added, hopefully, as though that might make up for his mistake in losing them.

     "Yesss, and what good does that do usss if we don't have the map? Without that map, we will never find the treasure! And we won't have the map until we find thossse Neopetsss!" he roared with an angry strike of his tail that whipped the air furiously.

     Geb shrank back from his leader in fright, certain that he would be punished for this.

     "Sir..." a Stealthy Blumaroo interrupted cautiously, worried that he too would be berated by the fearsome leader.

     "What?" he growled, rounding on the Blumaroo in a swirl of dark cloaks.

     "I hear something..." he whispered, leaning his head to hear more easily.

     "It sounds like... screaming," he added, pointing in the direction the sound was coming from.

     The thieves stood silently, each listening intently, until the sound of Archie's cries reached them.

     They were slightly muted and far away, but they clearly belonged to the Gelert who travelled with the annoying Acara.

     A slow smirk started to spread across the Hissi's face, as he turned to address the Ruki who had let him down.

     "Fortunately for you, they have given themssselvesss away and let usss know exactly where they are. Unfortunately... we don't need you anymore. Get out of my sssight!"

     The Ruki darted off, glad to have been let off rather easily; his camouflage colouring melding into the tones of the background until he disappeared completely.

      "Now," the Hissi said, his eyes narrowing dangerously, "we ssshall deal with thossse Neopetsss. We will take their map and find the treasure ourssselvesss! And pity thossse foolsss who try to ssstand in our way!" he finished, to a crowd of motivated cheers, who followed their slithering leader in the direction of the treasure hunters.

To be continued...