The Mummy’s Great Escape

The door gave a long, sleepy groan. It slid inward just far enough to make a dark opening.

“Thank you,” Nefru said.

She squeezed through before the door could change its mind.

The passage beyond was narrow and cool. It smelled of dry earth and old wood. Nefru held one hand against the wall and took a careful step.

Her foot bumped something round.

A clay jar rolled across the floor and tapped the opposite wall.

Nefru caught it before it rolled away. The jar was empty, but a faint smell of cinnamon clung to its inside.

“That would be a fine smell for the outside world,” she said. “Perhaps the world smells like cinnamon.”

She carried the jar for a while, then tucked it into a corner beside a painted bird. It was too wide to carry through the maze.

The passage turned left, then right, then left again. Nefru tried to remember each turn. At the first corner, she placed a small line in the dust with her toe.

At the next corner, she made two lines.

At the third corner, she saw three lines - and stopped.

The floor was covered with fresh sand. Her marks had vanished.

“Oh,” Nefru murmured.

A thin stream of sand slid from a crack in the ceiling. It spread across the floor, soft and quick. Nefru watched her careful path disappear.

For a moment, she did not know which way she had come from.

The pyramid seemed to have become a puzzle with too many pieces.

Nefru took a slow breath. The cool air moved through her wrappings. She listened for the sound of the door, but the passages swallowed every noise.

“Left,” she guessed.

She walked left.

The passage grew lower. Nefru bent her head, then bent farther. Her cloth brushed the ceiling and sent dusty bits floating around her. They tickled her nose.

“Ah-choo!”

Her sneeze bounced from wall to wall.

A small lizard darted from behind a stone and hurried into a crack.

“Excuse me,” Nefru said. “I did not mean to disturb you.”

The lizard peeked out with one bright eye.

Nefru smiled and continued.

Soon she reached a place where three passages met. One sloped upward. One sloped down. One went straight ahead.

She chose the upward passage because she could feel a little warmth there.

The floor became rough beneath her feet. Sand pressed against her sandals. She climbed, slipped, and sat down with a gentle bump.

“Not that way,” she decided.

She tried the straight passage. It was wider, but a row of fallen stones blocked the middle. Nefru lifted one stone. It was heavy. She lifted another. It was heavier.

She rested her hands on her knees.

“I am not a beetle,” she said. “I cannot carry a whole hill.”

The downward passage was dark and still.

Nefru did not like the thought of going down. Yet the pyramid had no other path that she could use. She reached into a fold of her wrappings and found a tiny shell. Long ago, she had kept it because it made a pleasant clicking sound when turned in her fingers.

She placed the shell on the floor.

It slid gently down the slope.

Nefru followed.

The passage twisted beneath the pyramid. Here and there, small openings showed bits of stonework and painted walls. She saw a blue fish, a basket of dates, and a row of tiny golden stars. The pictures made her feel less alone.

At last, a pale square appeared ahead.

Moonlight.

Nefru hurried toward it, but a stone door stood between her and the bright opening. It was smaller than the first door, yet it looked even more stubborn. Sand had piled around its bottom edge.

Nefru pushed.

The door stayed still.

She pushed with both hands.

The door gave one tiny scrape and stopped.

Nefru sat back. Her fingers felt sore through the linen. She looked at the moonlight shining along the floor.

“I am very close,” she said. “But close is not the same as outside.”

She searched the floor. A loose stone lay near the wall. Nefru picked it up and brushed away the sand beneath it. A narrow wooden lever appeared.

She pulled it.

Nothing happened.

She pulled harder.

The lever snapped free and landed in her lap.

Nefru stared at it.

“That was not helpful,” she said.

A soft skitter came from the passage behind her. The little lizard had followed her. It ran past her feet, slipped beneath the stone door, and disappeared into the moonlight.

Nefru watched the place where it had gone.

If a lizard could fit beneath the door, perhaps air could fit there too.

She lay flat on the floor and peered at the gap. It was only as wide as two fingers, but cool night air brushed her face. It smelled of sand and dry grass.

Nefru smiled.

She gathered the loose sand from around the door and pushed it into the gap beneath the stone. She used her hands, then the broken lever, then the edge of one sandal. Little by little, the sand moved away.

The door lifted just enough for her fingertips.

Nefru pushed again.

This time, the stone door groaned and rose a little higher.

She pushed with her shoulder. The door scraped across the floor. Dust puffed around her, and Nefru closed her eyes.

“One more,” she whispered.

She pressed forward with all her strength.

The door opened wide enough for her to crawl through.

Nefru slid onto the cool sand outside.

For a moment, she did not move.

The night air touched her face. The moon painted the desert silver. Far away, a dune curved like a sleeping cat. The stars filled the sky from one edge to the other.

Nefru sat up.

She had imagined the outside world many times, but she had never imagined so much sky.

A breeze lifted the loose ends of her wrappings. It carried the smell of sand, grass, and something sweet she could not name.

Nefru stood.

Behind her, the pyramid rose in the moonlight, tall and quiet. Its stones held the warmth of the day. The little doorway waited at its base, open for now.

Nefru took one step away from it.

Then another.

Her feet sank into the soft sand. She turned toward the left, where the moon made a bright path over the dunes.

After three steps, she stopped.

The desert looked the same in every direction.

There was no road. No sign. No painted arrow. No helpful line of stones.

Nefru turned in a slow circle.

“Which way is the world?” she asked.

The wind brushed past her.

Nefru looked back at the pyramid. It was the only place she knew, but she had promised herself she would leave. She did not want to go back inside. She also did not want to wander until her feet were tired and her thoughts were mixed up.

She sat on a low dune and hugged her knees.

The moon shone above her. The sand felt cool beneath her hands.

“I escaped,” she said softly. “That is a good beginning.”

She opened her palm. The tiny shell was still there, dusty but safe. Nefru turned it over and listened to its quiet click.

Then she noticed a small line of footprints near the bottom of the dune. They were not hers. They led toward a patch of pale grass and vanished behind a mound of sand.

Nefru leaned closer.

A single bright feather rested beside the prints.

She picked it up. It was blue, just like the painted birds inside the pyramid.

Nefru tucked the feather into her wrappings.

She did not know where the footprints led. She did not know where the nearest town was, or whether the desert smelled like cinnamon anywhere at all.

But she knew she was outside.

Nefru made a small nest in the hollow between two dunes. She settled there beneath the moon, with the blue feather beside her and the pyramid at her back.

In the morning, she would choose a direction.

For tonight, she was free, and the open desert was wide enough for every new dream.

Nefru rested safely beneath the stars, learning that a brave journey can begin even before you know the way.

End of chapter one. 4 more chapters in the full book.