The Ninth Prince of Anubis

The Ninth Prince

Present Day

Kei Tsukishima grunted heavily as he held onto a rope, which was currently keeping him suspended in the air, as he lowered himself slowly into a sandy cavern. For months he had been searching in the blasting heat of Egypt for a long forgotten tomb, specifically one that belonged to the ninth Prince of Anubis. Through the years of research Kei had conducted, he discovered the Prince had been buried alive to placate his people. So of course, like any other historian, he became curious and wanted to learn more.

He had come alone, not that it bothered him. It allowed his movements to be freer and unchallenged.

Unclipping a carabiner from the main rope Kei swung briefly before landing on a relatively stable bolder, tilting his head all the way back he looked up to the hole he had climbed into. Thirty feet up at least.

Kei sometimes questioned the motives he took such as this, climbing into a crumbling abyss alone in hopes of finding something that might not exist. That's a point, what if this Prince didn't exist? The entirety of this was based off a myth concealed within ancient broken hieroglyphs.

It had been around five years ago that Kei had stumbled across a broken shrine in the Valley of the Kings, what had confused him was how the scrolls containing said hieroglyphs had been discovered. They had been sealed inside a wall deep inside the shrine of Anubis, as the stone was crumbling with age corners of the parchment peaked through. Kei had taken a day carefully removing the scrolls, upon holding them he had a strong urge to know more. Perhaps it was the dulled writing on the wall that spoke of Anubis appearing in nine different forms over time, or even how the myth was left unfinished.

Misplacing a foot, Kei slipped down the bolder and landed heavily on the cold floor below. Grunting slightly from the impact, he got up and dusted down his grazed knees. Kei was suddenly glad he opted for wearing contacts under his goggles, pulling them off Kei brushed off what sand he could from what parts weren't covered by the goggles. Strapping them onto his belt Kei took out his flashlight and turned it on.

A dull light shone over the pit, to his surprise Kei realized he had lowered himself into what would've been a grand entrance to a tomb. The crumbling pillars supported an opening framed by two carved Anubis statues, they knelt on one knee as their shoulders supported a long intricately made beam of sandstone. It curved up into a sharp point, looking closer at the stone Kei noticed the figures etched into the pillars were skeletons. As the dust from around Kei's feet settled, so did an eerie tension that wound down his throat. 

A breath was stolen from him as he stared in wonder at the sight before him, however, he cursed himself for not bringing a camera. Kei kept his torch at eye level as he skipped over the broken debris, his boots making a soft thud over the ground as he treaded carefully. If only his colleagues at the office could see this, he would take the moment to rub it into their smug faces and prove there was something.

Stepping under the daunting arch Kei tilted his head back, the whole structure seemed to sway, it was so high up. Kei dragged a hand over the stone as he walked deeper into the tomb, the tunnel declined into a small stone wall at the end.

"...This can't be all," Kei muttered as he placed the torch on the ground, the wall suddenly became clearer in the strong light. His eyes danced across the hieroglyphics, tracing his fingers over the wall he read them slowly.

"He who lived nine times... heartless and cursed... remains as ash until the light..," Kei brushed away the sand resting in the grooves of the pictograms, "The light guides him away from... deaths hands." Kei smiled; this was tomb he had been looking for. He had really found it.

But that's when the light flickered, suddenly the temperature dropped. Kei brought his hands close to his chest as he turned on his heel slowly, the scraping of sand against stone echoed down the long tunnel. Kei's fingers scrapped over the flashlight as he bent down to pick it up, he recoiled quickly when the flashlight suddenly spun in a circle.