The Adventurer & The Librarian

Chapter 1: William

Cairo, Egypt, 1926

William Carnahan was a librarian working at Cairo's Museum of Antiquities.  Or rather, he was working on raising himself to archeologist and Egyptologist.  He felt he was quite experienced in both fields, although he'd hardly done any actual field work.  That's what the Bembridge scholars told him, at least.

"As if fighting in a bloody war wasn't experience enough," William thought to himself as he sorted through books to put on the shelves, reading the names out loud.

"Sacred Stones, Sculpture and Aesthetics, Socrates, Seth, volume one, volume two and volume three."  He gripped another book in his hand, a confused look on his face as he examined the spine.  "T...Tuthmosis?  What are you doing here?" he asked himself.

He managed to find the T section behind him.  "Ah, there you are," he said, leaning over on the ladder while palming the book.  "I'm going to put you where you belong."

He reached further, his arm not quite long enough.  The ladder creaked slowly as he continued, but then the ladder jerked up and William dropped the book in order to balance himself. 

"Oh dear," he mumbled, the ladder teetering a little.  "Bloody hell..."

He eventually got the ladder and himself to hold still, looking down at the floor just barely.  "Alright...good," he said with a sigh of relief.  "Now-"

The ladder wobbled a bit and William tried to rebalance, but all he ended up doing was shift to the right and slam into the book shelf with a shout.  The shelf leaned and hit the next one, and a domino effect occurred around the room.  Loud bangs echoed throughout the library and William quickly scrambled out of harm's way, the last shelf colliding onto the first one that fell.  William took his glasses off his face with a shocked expression.

"Oops," he muttered softly, brushing his wild brown locks back to adjust his hair.

"What...how," Dr. Bey Walker in and looked around in flabbergasted shock at the mess William had made.  The librarian's blue eyes widened and he looked down, embarrassed at himself as he waited for Dr. Bey to start yelling.  "Oh, look at this!" Dr. Bey snarled, storming his way over to William while making exaggerated arm motions.  "Sons of the pharaohs!  Give me frogs!  Flies!  Locusts!  Anything but you!" he pointed.  "Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!"

"It was an accident," William sighed, bowing his head even further.

Dr. Bey rolled his eyes.  "My boy, when Ramses destroyed Syria, that was an accident.  You are a catastrophe!  Look at my library!  Why do I put up with you?!"

William narrowed his eyes in offense, looking at his boss.  "Well, you put up with me because I can read and write ancient Egyptian," he smirked.  "And I can decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic, and, well," William continued with a sharp shrug, "heh, I am the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalog this library, that's why!"

Dr. Bey had a look of disgust on his face, his fists resting on his hips as he stared at William.  "I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons.  That's why!"  The man sighed with a shake of his head.  "Allah rest their souls."

William bowed his head again, feeling even more irritated.  Dr. Bey was an ornery old bastard.  "Now," Dr. Bey continued while waving his finger about.  "I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes, straighten up this meshiver!"

William's boss turned and walked off with an angry expression, causing William to give the "two finger salute" before his attention was brought towards a clanking noise.  William made his way through the library to another room that was full of Egyptian statues and artifacts.  More noises were heard and he grabbed a torch before walking in further, trying to relieve the nervousness in his gut.

"Abdul?" William called out.  "Mohammed?  Bob?" No answer...except the sound of a thunk in a lidless sarcophagus.  William made his way over, ready to beat someone in the head with his torch.  "What the-"

The mummy in the sarcophagus suddenly sat up. William yelled and immediately knocked its head off with the torch.  Laughter followed and a pair of human legs came rising up.  William took some deep breaths before growling at the man sitting up, who was still laughing.

"Look what you made me do!" William snapped.  "Have you no respect for the dead?!"

The man continued laughing as William went to go find the mummy's head.  "Of course I do.  But sometimes..." the man raised the mummy's arm up and slammed it down, resting his own arm across the dead man's shoulders.  "I'd rather like to join them."

William scowled as he found the head and came back to the mummy and his ridiculous brother Jonathon.  "Well, I wish you would do it sooner rather than later," the librarian grumbled as he tried to put the head back on...failing miserably, of course, so he just dropped the head back into the sarcophagus.  "Before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours!  Now get out!"

Jonathon pouted before attempting to climb out of the sarcophagus.  "My dear, gullible baby brother, I'll have you..." Jonathon stumbled but William caught him.  "Know...that at this," Jonathon drunkenly slunk against the sarcophagus but William was there to pick him up, "precise moment my career is on a high note!"

"High note, ha!" William snapped bemusedly.  "I don't have time for your drunken antics now, I've just made a bit of a mess in the library and...the Bembridge scholars have rejected my application form again," he said dejectedly, sitting down at the foot of a statue. "They say I don't have enough experience in the field."

William sighed and rubbed his face as Jonathon came over, his hands in his trouser pockets as he smiled down at his brother.  "You'll always have me, old boy," Jonathon grinned.

William glanced at his brother, smirking a little before looking away.  "Oh, hush up," he chuckled.

Jonathon smiled more brightly.  "Besides, I have just the thing," he said, turning and rooting around in the sarcophagus, "to cheer you up."

William rolled his eyes with a big smile.  "Not another worthless trinket.  If I have to take one more piece of junk to the curator to try and..." he paused when his brother gave him an octagon shaped object.  "...sell for you..." William grasped the object, his expression going from amused to intrigued, and started examining it.  "Where did you get this?" he asked softly.

"On a dig down in, uh, Thebes," Jonathon replied excitedly.  "My whole life, I've never found anything, Will.  Please tell me I've found something."

There was a button on the object, William realized, and the top of the object looked like...he pressed the button and the object opened to reveal an old folded paper.  "Jonathon..." William said with a smirk.

"Yes?" Jonathon replied, looking at the paper in shock.

William grasped the paper and pulled it out, an expression of awe on his face.  "I think you've found something."