Pharaoh's Promise

Snakes

I pulled a coin from my pocket and scraped at the wall, the pliable material curling into my hand as I cut a trough away. "It's all gold," I said, pocketing the golden scoop of ice cream.

Mindful of each step, I inched closer to the sarcophagus. Chills twisted down my body when the grotesque depiction of a snake-headed figure came into view, arms crossing the chest. It looked Egyptian but...

"What the heck?"

I leaned closer to examine the symbols that wrapped around the ancient coffin and the scores of lines thereof circling around in succession.

314159265... My mind recalled the series from geometry... 358979.

"Egyptians didn't use our number system," I murmured. "Pie is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle," I said aloud, figuring it couldn't hurt if anyone was searching for me.

My eyes followed the tail of the snake down the side of the sarcophagus where it draped a corner in a zigzagging fashion. It was then that I noticed the relationship.

17720045...

"Numbers from the square root of Pi snaked down beside the tail, hidden like a code, woven in as if a permanent part of a tapestry."

31415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679...