A Long Journey Home

[morgynleri]

Title: A Long Journey Home
Word Count:
Status: In progress

Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: PG13

Commentary: Any.

Notes: Watched The Mummy again. Watched most of The Mummy Returns. Remembered why I watch them at all. *sighs* Yummy Ardeth. Rick and Evy aren't too bad, either. Imhotep and Anck-su-namen are good looking, but they have issues they need to deal with. So does the level of cultural accuracy... Anyway. Read, if you're interested. Enjoy, I hope.

Note 2: Will be updating this post until I work on something else to post, so...

Note 3: Wherever there are italicized words in quotations, these are words translated from a language the POV character doesn't understand.. ie. Sale'ah's language for Ardeth, pretty much anything anyone else is speaking for Sale'ah, in the beginning, at least. Subtitles, as it were.


A Long Journey Home
The first thing Sale'ah noticed as she roused was the heat. Dry, like the deserts she once called home, before the demons had come to torment them. Welcome as a journey back to her own world would be, if she had the chance to but achieve it.

A chance she doubted she would, if this world held as little technology as her own. Prying open eyes that felt glued shut, she struggled out of the chair that had sheltered her as the stolen pod had crashed through the atmosphere.

Sunlight poured through a gash in the hull, sand trickling through it, driven by a gentle breeze. Sale'ah raised her hands, tilting her head back as she murmured a heart-felt thanks to the gods for delivering her from her masters onto a world so fine. Even if she died here, she had seen open sky once more, a sight she barely remembered, held so long in the metal cage of the ships.

Humming, Sale'ah gathered the items she had managed to steal on her way to the pod. A wide swath of fabric that once hung across her master's sleeping alcove, a carry-bag of water that held as much of her ration of water as could be spared over the last month, and the tiny carving her mother had pressed into her hands when the masters stole her away. Her personal protector, sent by the gods to guide her to her path.

She climbed from the wreck of the pod, wriggling through the half-buried hatch, spitting on it once she stood on the shifting sands that had cushioned her fall to earth. "Gods be blessed, you have served your purpose. May your masters find nothing more of you than of me."

Wrapping the fabric around her head to hide her skin from the blazing sun, she turned to walk from the wreckage, her shadow a small pool of inky black in front of her as she trekked over the sands. Gods be praised, she could only hope the demons never found her here.

~ ~~ ~

Ardeth looked out over the desert with a faint frown on his face. A star had been seen crashing to the earth three nights before, close to the sunken ruins of Hamunaptra. Brighter than anyone could recall a falling star being in the past, perhaps an omen of some ill tidings. Ill tidings or no, he knew something waited in the desert, ever since the star had fallen. Something or someone.

A glint caught his eyes, and his frown deepened as he nudged his horse forward, his gaze drawn towards movement on the dunes, a figure sliding down the near side of one in an akward motion that spoke of someone unaccustomed to the desert, or parched from lack of water. He nudged his horse into a gallop, approaching the figure quickly.

The figure, a woman, let out a frightened yelp, dropping to the sand to cower there with upraised hands. Delicate hands, fine-boned and pale, with slender wrists bared by the sleeves of the strange jacket she wore. A scarf wound around her head, hiding her face, even as the rest of her clothing hugged curves that no woman of the desert would reveal.

"Who are you?" Ardeth reined his horse to a stop, imposing himself between her and the sun so she could look up at him. He met the gaze of a pair of fearful and confused brown eyes, peering up at him from between layers of veil. "Where did you come from?"

She shook her head, a chaotic babble of sounds coming from her, dropping her gaze once more to study the sands at the feet of his horse. Or rather, the hooves of his horse, reaching out to touch the dainty hoof nearest her, the mare snorting and shifting slightly under him. The woman drew her hand back, still crouching in the sand, her manner reminding him much of a beaten dog.

"I will not hurt you." Ardeth switched languages from Arabic to English, hoping she might understand that language.

Again, she showed no sign of understanding what he said, and Ardeth let out a soft sigh, sliding from his horse with the hope that she might feel more comfortable with him on the ground. She flinched when he reached out to pull her to her feet, fear momentarily flaring before it gave way to surprise. As if she'd expected violence, or anger from him, not kindness.

"What is your name?" He fell back into the comfortable cadance of Arabic once more, even though she didn't understand.

She looked down, her hands at her sides curling briefly into fists, as if trying to bring emotions under control. The silence stretched out for a long moment before she let out a soft sigh, and brought a hand up to touch her chest. "Sale'ah."

Ardeth met her gaze as she looked up again, an inquiring light in her eyes. "Ardeth Bey. Where do you come from, Sale'ah?" He gestured to the desert around them, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Sale'ah tilted her head slightly, keeping her tone quiet as she spoke, looking up as she pointed towards the sky. "I come a long distance. That is what you ask?"

Ardeth felt a chill go down his spine despite the blazing sun. Perhaps the fireball streaking across the sky the night before hadn't been a falling star, but if not, what had it been, to bring this woman, who spoke no language he'd heard spoken, to the desert?

Scene 3

Comments

[ladybeth.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting even though I wasn't quite sure I got it.

I love the mummy trilogy. I hear there is a possible 3rd Mummy movie in the works. Not sure how they are going to work that in.

[morgynleri]

That's just the opening scene... I have a second scene in progress, but it's not quite done yet... working with the characters from the Mummy is a bit more work than with some of the other fandoms I play in, probably because I play more often in other fandoms, and take them a wee bit more seriously.

I never have been able just to work with the characters present in the movies, or just the world they set up, either, and Sale'ah is yet another attempt at working with one aspect of the movie, one character, and not worrying about the rest...

I'm also not quite sure when I'm setting this - whether in between the movies, or after the second one. I'll figure it out at some point, eventually, I suppose.

As for Sale'ah herself... she's going to prove more than a little strange over the course of the story - I mean, beside the fact that the opening sequence should establish she's not human. And part of that weirdness is what inspired the title - her people are far longer lived than humans, though the genetics are compatible, and she's going to live long enough to get herself back home... and as I'm doing this as a romance, she's also going to outlive Ardeth by quite a bit.

And I'm thinking as I'm typing, trying to put the framework around the story together in my head, so if I ramble a lot, that's just me thinking out loud.

It's not going to be a typical "fall madly in love, get married and have kids" type of romance, either. More of a "marry the girl so she's protected, and can keep her honor, and hope she bears sons, and fall in love later". Because I don't want to play the familiar Western-style romance with Ardeth, because it doesn't suit him, not really.

Anyway, I'll update this again as I get more, since I don't have anything else that's fit for posting as yet.

[ladybeth.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting too, and its good that it doesn't go the usual route. I don't think Ardeth would have time with all his running around trying to keep the world safe to do it the usual way.

I'm assuming she looks like regular humans to pass as one.

I would put this before the second movie and give it a chance to get to know Sale'ah before bringing in Ardeth and any other characters you might want to bring in.

I think the thing that makes the mummy so hard to write (for me at least) is that it is very character driven yet at the same time not. Your given a background but not much of one for many of the characters so it focuses on thier present predicament. I think the most background given for a character was Imhotep. And maybe Rick, although his was half answers.

[morgynleri]

*nods* That well may be it. That, and I don't try very often to work on Mummy fic.

I'm introducing Ardeth fairly quickly into the story, but if I set it before the second movie, he would have other matters to attend to that would leave Sale'ah to explore the Med'jai camp, and for us to get into her head... mm... I think I like that idea.

We get the most for Imhotep, and some for Rick, and some for Anck-su-anmun's past incarnation, and same for Evy's past incarnation, but precious little about the current lives... and none for Jonathan or Ardeth. Which leaves those wide open for people to play with, and there's nothing really said about what happens between the movies, except that it's clear Rick and Evy got married, and had a kid.

Ah, and if you noticed, I did update last night, so there's a scene between Ardeth and Sale'ah to read...

[ladybeth.livejournal.com]

True. And it would be interesting to find out what her thoughts are about the whole situation. Would she be called in at the end with the rest of the Med'jai to fight the armies of Anubis? I'm thinking probably not the women but you never know.

There are a couple fics where Rick's past life became the private Med-jai of Evie's past life. I haven't read a complete one yet so I don't know they plan to get that one out but I thought it was an interesting idea, that Rick and Evie could have had a different (or perhaps not so different) relationship in that past life. And it would make sense with what Ardeth says about Rick being destined to protect her.

Drat. Now I'm going to have to rewatch the movies and figure out the facts about all that again.

Sadly, I haven't had internet connection at home since Monday night so I haven't been able to do anything online since early yesterday morning when I was at my grandma's. I'll have to read it.

Have you ever seen the original B/W Mummy?

[ladybeth.livejournal.com]

Ok, I read it and it sounds good. Thank you for not making her speak English right away. It sometimse irks me when people do that. Sometimes it can be excused (like in Stargate, some aliens were taken from earth from England during the dark ages so they would have spoken an old form of English) but alot of times it just doesn't make sense.