Attack from the sand

“Yes.” She said it with almost a bitter tone. “Here. This time. Your time.” She kept talking, voice harsh in some places and almost regretful in others. “I was told that I was taken from the palace when I was still a baby. Passed off as an orphan in another time and adopted to throw anyone looking for me off the trail. The girl I knew as my twin sister, my mother, my father.....all lies.” She paused, her frustration peaking at all the deceits her life had been. “My sister was the future me, just like Eric is the future you.” She still did not turn to him as she clenched her fists slightly in anger at the lies, eyes closed, shutting back the eminent tears.

“From the palace?” he asked out loud, the realization hitting him at once. His eyes widened in disbelief. “If that is true, then you are the missing princess!”

Sasaki nodded, still faced away from Takmet. “And oddly enough, it doesn’t take that much for me to believe it. It makes sense to me. Why I had a desire to go to Egypt since I was little, why I have these powers,” she paused, and in a softer voice continued, “....why I feel for you the way I do......” She turned to him, her face first, then the rest of her. Takmet took in the graceful movement in the second that it happened, realizing that the future girl he had first met had no such splendid maneuvers and that the woman he had seen riding the camel was returning slowly before his eyes.

“I know I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but I had to.” She stepped closer to him until the force of the curse let her proceed no farther. She winced as she looked away. “And now it makes my feelings twice as forbidden. By the spell and the custom here, because....” She didn’t finish.

Takmet let it out in a disbelieving sigh. “Seti is your brother. He may have to take you for himself, even though he already has several wives.” He looked up at the cloudless sky for several seconds, imploring the gods to stop playing games and release them from that vile curse. She needed a hug, for Osiris’ sake!

Sasaki turned away. “I cannot stand it,” she whispered.

“Sasaki--” Takmet stepped closer, getting as close as the curse allowed, which was by this time three feet and growing, yet he could still smell the scent of the oasis blossoms in her hair carried by the gentle breeze.

“That’s not my real name. I have no identity here and I wasn’t supposed to have one in the future either. No name...” Sasaki winced in response to his advancing movement.

“It does not matter. You are still the same person, even if you do not know your real name. You are simply...you, and that is why my feelings, I am sure, are the same when you met my other self in the future as they are at this moment. Just let me see your smile for now.”

Takmet saw her change again from the princess to the future girl as she turned around with a hesitantly growing smile. “I didn’t know you were such a romantic, Takmet,” Sasaki said softly.

“I did not know you were as much of a tease as my sister.”

Sasaki smiled. “From the way you talk around her that sounds like an insult.”

“Oh, no,” he said quickly. “From you I like it.” He smiled as he saw her grin appear again.

“We’d better get back or that sister of yours is gonna brew up some crazy ideas.” She smiled to herself.

“Indeed.” He was glad they had finally said what was on their minds. The tension was gone.

Takmet and Sasaki returned to where her friends and Rei waited, certain thoughts already forming in her mind about what those two could be doing, alone. Mandi had her back to them as they arrived from the spring, and Takmet noticed something for the first time. Her back had several scars, and they were too well placed to be from an accident.

When Mandi turned around and saw Takmet looking at her back, she said, “They’re from a year ago. I had a relationship that didn’t go very well.” She smiled dryly.

Takmet was abashed. That was horrible. He had thought for some reason that things would be better in the future concerning such disgusting events. Whoever had done that deserved to die an agonizing death.

Seeing that Takmet was getting worked up, Mandi added, “Don’t worry, Takmet. He got what he deserved.”

That didn’t help his outright frustrating anger. But he didn’t have time to get any more worked up because Chloe got his attention.

“Takmet! Think fast!” she yelled.

Takmet turned to her yell to find a good-sized globe of water zooming towards his face. It mysteriously stopped inches in font of it, hovering as if laughing at his reaction. He had backed up a couple steps and Sasaki had moved over to avoid the splashes that she thought would result from the eminent collision. Takmet’s eyes grew wide and darted from the globe back to Chloe. She smiled at his expression, then she made a little gesture with her finger, and the globe popped, soaking Takmet.

He sighed, the water slowly dripping from his hair as he held up his hands. “I surrender, Chloe,” he said.

Sasaki looked over at him and couldn’t help the giggles that escaped her. He looked so darn silly! She covered her mouth to try to muffle the giggles, but they only became louder as Ami burst out laughing, doubling over and kneeling to the sand. Mandi couldn’t help letting out a giggle or two of her own, and Chloe smiled in triumphant satisfaction. Even Rei rolled back in the air, stifling her laughter and pointing at him.

“That’s pretty funny,” she managed between giggles.

Takmet glared at her, but the sight of all of the girls laughing melted the glare into a look of sheer amusement. He shook his head hopelessly as Sasaki, Ami, and Rei continued to laugh uncontrollably, the other two girls having the decency to try and stifle their laughter.

“We had better get ready to leave,” Sasaki said as she recovered from the giggles enough to speak.

She started towards the camels, which had found some shade underneath an old arch a couple of yards away. She tried hard not to stumble from the laughter. Sasaki had no idea why it was so funny, but the expression on Takmet’s face was to die for.

Sasaki smiled at Takmet over her shoulder as she walked, seeing him already smiling back. Just then Takmet felt an alarm go off in his head and his smile instantly disappeared.

“Sasaki!” he yelled, just as a decaying hand exploded from the place she had landed her foot, grabbing her ankle and pulling her to the ground. She fell hard.

“What the hell?!” Sasaki exclaimed as she stared at the bodiless hand holding her to the ground. She snapped her head up as several more emerged from the sand, these extracting their whole bodies, shakily, but determined.

Mandi immediately threw her hands in Sasaki’s direction. The energy attack flew from her palms, vaporizing the clinging appendage from Sasaki’s ankle. “Thanks, Mandi, ” she said shortly as she quickly got up and backed into Rei.

“How are you enjoying your welcoming party, Princess?” Rei whispered over her shoulder. Sasaki started. How did she know? The high schooler didn’t have time to ask the genie to explain herself because Chloe cut in.

“What is this? Return of the zombies?” Chloe backed up to Sasaki. “You wouldn’t know how to fight mummies, would you?”

“Um, blow them away?” Sasaki answered, unsure.

“Sounds good enough to me,” Ami said.

“Just as I thought,” Chloe added.

Rei had no qualms about fighting the undead and she had vaporized several scores of them before Sasaki, Chloe, Ami, Mandi, and Takmet could join in. There seemed to be no end to the supply of these zombies, these things that withdrew themselves from the depths of the hot sand. No one doubted that this was the work of sorcery, for soon the whole of the desert that the group could see was dotted with the walking corpses.

Takmet decimated many of the walking dead, but more filled in their places. He could not keep them off of him or away from the group of novice magic workers. He wasn’t worried about Rei, he was worried about Sasaki’s friends. Sasaki he knew could take care of herself for now. “There are too many!” He shouted above the rattle of bones. “We will never get through.”

Despite Sasaki’s success in defeating several of these soldiers, some made it past her and attacked her friends, who now only had feeble magical attacks. The dead soldiers were dismantled easily enough, but their quantity and congestion caused the most trouble. Ami was the first to be lifted off her feet, kicking helplessly. She called out to Sasaki, but the clamor of squeaking joints and clacking bones covered her cries.

Chloe was taken from behind and hoisted atop the feeble arms of these walking dead, quickly being transported away from the experienced fighters. She, too, attempted to call out to Sasaki, but the speed with which she was captured prevented her voice from reaching her. Mandi was next.

She kicked at the delicate skeleton of the dead warrior, and the bone fragments flew. Mandi used her magic to blow away several assailants at one time, but more came from behind, and she was taken as well.

“Sasaki!!!” she cried before she was too far away to be drowned out by the noise.

Sasaki turned her head and saw Mandi be carried off. Then she realized Ami and Chloe were gone as well. They’re trying to separate us, she thought. That was the last straw for her. Sasaki stopped fighting, letting herself be surrounded by the decaying bodies.

Takmet yelled at her. “What in the name of Ra do you think you are doing?!” He sounded panicked as he kicked through another round of zombies.

“I won’t let them take my friends!” Sasaki yelled. She clenched her fists at her sides and concentrated like she had never concentrated, searching for a power within her that could utterly defeat these ghouls. The power found her first and covered her with a feeling of assurance and determination, utilizing the pathways and chambers of her soul to direct its energy. The words to a spell seemed locked away, like a distant memory, but this power opened the chamber in her soul that had long ago been shut to her, and the words found release. Sasaki tilted her head back and screamed arcane Egyptian words of prayer with all her might, Takmet and Rei understanding them for what they were. “In the name of Isis-wife to Osiris, god of the dead- remove thyself from this earthly plane and return to that plane from whence you came!”

Sasaki then whipped her arms out to her sides, snapping her head back, facing the cloudless sky. A rumble spread throughout the ranks of the zombies, then an explosion of energy was released from Sasaki’s rigid form. It moved like a ripple through the mass of walking dead, burning them into cinders. Takmet put his arms up in front of himself to take some of the force as he stood firmly on the ground, a great energy pushing its way through him and into the group of fragile enemies. The shock wave left little black piles of dust on the sand which were quickly blown away by desert breezes.

Sasaki had time to see that her friends were all right, though a little far away from her, before she passed out and collapsed to the ground. Takmet fell to his knees, the strain of keeping himself on the earth exhausting him for a moment. His head snapped up as Sasaki hit the sand.