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Marie wiped the sweat from her brow, and checked her reflection on the worn blade of her swiss army knife... hideous. She'd been at the dig site for almost 4 days, tired from the wear and tear of the schedule. It was rather early in the morning, but the sun was already in full view. "Disgusting." She muttered under her breath, with a gruff sigh, she headed down to the site.

Rumor of a tomb being uncovered had spread, such claims had yet to be proven; which lead to why she was there. She gave a small nod to one of the diggers as she trudged past. "Mornin." Pushing her way through the small crowd was most uncomfortable, especially in this heat. At last, she reached the cause of the ruckus. A crater-like hole lay before her, she could only imagine how big it was; in the middle of it sat what looked like a very old building...

"Well, well, what've we got here boys?" She called standing above the ladder that lead down into the pit, wincing as her voice echoed. No one was able to answer. With a dramatic roll of her eyes, she slid rather skillfully down the ladder, and landed perfectly. Odd markings covered the outer walls of the building, one in particular held her attention - it depicted a what looked like a human - cat hybrid holding an hourglass; the top half was empty.

Smith, a rather unpleasant little man who held the appearance of a rat and the body of a walrus waddled up to her. "We have not been able to translate those yet; several linguists are working on it as we speak, we should have something soon." Marie nodded and waved Smith away, she was much too interested in the construction of the building. It was a perfect triangle... large bricks stacked upon each other in such a way that baffled even her most intelligent workers. A large portion of one wall was missing, this was obviously a door way. It called to her, and she responded without hesitation and entered.

On either side of the entrance were torches, encased in stone. Much to her surprise they were already lit. Assuming one of her crew had done this previously, she proceeded without a second thought. The flame provided her with just enough light to see more markings on the walls. She ran her calloused fingers over them, they were carved, but oddly felt fresh. Gazing down the hall, she saw it lead to only one other doorway. Before this one sat two stone statues, they looked very much like cats, and reminded her of that carving with the hourglass she had seen outside. Upon closer inspection, she found one to be more feminine than the other. A small tingle ran down her spine, she felt as if the statues were staring back, waiting for her to make a move.

"Must be a lack of sleep." She told herself. The craftsmanship of the stone cats was nothing she had ever seen, the jewels inlaid in them were a whole other story. Still nervous about the piercing gaze of the statues, she stepped cautiously into the next room.

"I'll be damned..." She whispered in amazement. The next room seemed as if it were decorated for a king or queen, maybe both. Vases taller than her stood in each corner, the weird hybrid human-cats decorating them. A huge fountain took up the entire back wall, water still ran through it. In the center of the room, resting upon a stone bed covered in what looked like the finest material; laid two stone sarcophagus.

A voice came from behind, "I wouldn't open that on your own... human." It was a woman's voice, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She slowly turned to face her follower, she held a striking resemblance to the carving on the outside of the pyramid.

She bowed before Marie and spoke softly, "my kind is in danger, we need your help..."

-Written by Anatometal