The Footsteps

Year 1890

They enter a dark cave with only 3 torches in hand.

"Ow! Oops."

Two torches in hand.

"This is it," the tour guide says, " this is the tomb of Nefrititi."

"Is this where we're going to sleep?" Anubi asks the tour guide, leaving a shocking reaction on his friends' face.

"He-h-here? But there is sand all over the floor, and there are those bugs that eat you up!"

The tour guide chuckles, saying, "Sir, that was a long time ago, don't worry. There will be no bugs. And we have carpets, so you don't need to worry about the sand. It's getting dark, we should probably start sleeping, so that we can get up early for our dig."

Six hours later, Anubi sees the tour guide coming back from using the porta-potty.

"You're awake?" The tour guide asks.

Glancing over at his friend, who is snoring and mumbling out words no one understands, Anubi answers quietly, "Yes. I can't sleep."

He gets up, sits and leans toward the rough wall, while talking to the tour guide who is sitting exactly opposite to him.

"I've heard about this place. Nefritits' tomb. Not as the popular Queen that people know her to be, though. I've heard it's a unique culture, how they used to do rituals for the corpses of the dead."

"Yea. Mummification. It's the process of preserving the body after death by deliberately drying or embalming flesh. This typically involved removing moisture from a deceased body and using chemicals or natural preservatives, such as resin, to desiccate the flesh and organs."

"That's wild!"

"Do you want to hear something disgusting?"

"Sure!"

"It is known that the most elaborate method involved the removal of the brain and many of the internal organs first, especially the contents of the abdomen. The brain was typically removed using a curved metal implement , kind of like a tweezer, that was inserted through the nostrils, while the other organs were removed by hand after an incision was made along the stomach."

"Aw, that's gotta hurt!"

"They're corpses, Anubi. They would be dead."

"I'm just saying… hey what were those blue hieroglyphics people say that are written on her tomb?"

"Ah… those are believed to be the 'spirit' of the pharaoh or her, herself. It's just prophecies, nobody believes it."

The next morning, when they wake up, there is a huge riot.

"What's going on?!" Anubi asks, as someone accidentally runs over his arm.

The tour guide replies so faintly, he looks like he might have a blackout, "The-the- Nefrititi- missing- ."

"What?" Anubi scans the place, and then walks over to the tomb of the famous pharaoh, "She's gone! Oh no! What happened!"

As he looks around, he goes through a path where no one is looking and what he sees is not ordinary.

"Oh my god. It can't be. It's just a prophecy."

His friend finally catches his breath through all of the riot, and comes up to Anubi, "Woah… what is that?"

"Blue footprints."