Where was he to start? That was what Patrick was wondering. He felt that finding help from locals would be the first step. He then thought about the wilderness bands he knew of.
Some were concord-loving bands affected chiefly with agribusiness. Some were ambling bull-possessing bands, like the Somalis, lacking perdurable abodes. Some were huntsmen, favoring to be acknowledged as Lion-Men. Praxis commanded that each gentleman of them must annihilate a lion in assault, equipped only with just a pike and a buckler. Some were aggressive such as audacious behemoths that adored wearing clothes of all breeds, in contrast to accepted brief aboriginal habiliments. Some bands were diminutive of build, like the Pygmies, who abided deep in the greenwood and whose size was a wilderness conundrum.
Was there some wilderness band that could tell him where the old woman had taken Julie? Did they know who she was?
As if by magic, a tribesman appeared on the scene. He was a middle-aged man, about fifty-seven years of age. He was of average height, athletic and handsome. He was armed with a pike and a buckler, wearing a blue cloak, an ostrich-quilled headdress and had a distinguishing tribal mark on his upper body... If only Patrick could have identified it.
"From the look of you, friend, you are lost." Said the tribesman. "Lost your shirt and your trousers look like they've seen better days. Come now speak with old Zulu. I speak many languages but what is the point of speaking them if you won't speak back, what is your name?"
"Patrick Malone."
"Uh huh, now we are getting started, my friend." Said Zulu. "Now, how old are you?"
"Twenty."
"You are very young." Said Zulu. "From the looks of things I'd say you are lost. What happened?" Patrick told his story to Zulu and with his pike in hand, Zulu nodded understandingly. "And so the Vulture Woman has taken Julie!"
"You know her?" asked Patrick.
"My boy, she has been terrorizing everyone regardless of skin or hair color since my grandfather's time." Stated Zulu. "My tribe is descended from many, all of which have been enemies of one single cannibal tribe. They aren't cannibals anymore mind you, but they are still our enemies. She has been a thorn in the side of both our tribes. She killed my chief and the son of their chief because they mocked her goddess."
"Nekhbet?"
"Yes, that is the one. The vulture goddess of Egypt." Stated Zulu. "If she took Julie then it must be for some reason."
"Where? Where has she taken Julie?"
"Where? Ah, yes... Where?" Zulu handed his pike and buckler to Patrick and then placed his elbow in his left hand and held his chin in his right. "Lets see here, where does that old demon go. I know this and I just can't... Wait, I remember! Rozetta!"
"Rosetta?"
"Close, Patrick, but no. Rozetta is the lost city where the Vulture Woman calls home. It was founded by some settlers from Upper Egypt long ago."
"Do you know where Rozetta is, Zulu?" asked Patrick.
"I was there once when I was a young man." Replied Zulu. "I wish to avenge my chief, you wish to rescue Julie we both have a reason to go there. Come! I will take you there!"
Zulu brought Patrick to a lost dell dampened by a grand barricade. The fanes and bronzes of Ancient Egypt were there. As Zulu led Patrick into the dell, the latter stopped to look at a bust of an old pharaoh that might have been carved out of the solid bluff the day before. When they reached the end of the line of fanes and carved colossi the first real sign of ancient decay was sighted. As they continued walking, the sight of a castle came into view. Instead of going to the castle, they instead went to an atelier.
"Why have we come here?" asked Patrick, his eyes on a small sphinx in one corner.
"You are to wait here." Said Zulu. "I shall kill the Vulture Woman in her own bedchamber. You stay here!" And with that Zulu was gone.
Sighing, Patrick left the atelier. If he hadn't listened to his parents when they told him to stay then why would he listen to Zulu? He scouted the dell, coming to a barrier that seemed to have been built to keep the people who had settled in this place in and not taken into account other entrances. As he scouted the dell he found an ivory figure in the likeness of Julie. Could it have been placed there by the Vulture Woman?
Patrick counted his searching of a dell until he came to a grotto. Inside he could see a fane carved out of the grotto's solid limestone. As he ventured into the grotto he saw no bronzes on the outside of the fane and yet it looked very old. Inside the fane he found a statue in his own likeness but unlike the figure he had found in Julie's, this statue was very old. The statue was depicted wearing a baldric from which hung a blade, an anklet on the right ankle and a breechcloth as those of the First Nations tribes had worn once upon a time. There were no hieroglyphs beneath the statue and so there was no name.
This whole thing really left Patrick shaken. Was this just coincidence? Was this more than coincidence? He had no idea.
The statue was like that of an Egyptian god's but he wasn't a god. He was not a god. He was only a man and that was all he wanted to be. He wanted to be an ordinary person.
Leaning against a wall, Patrick found to his shock that he was leaning against a disguised doorway when he fell right through it. When he fell he hit his head on the floor and so as he rubbed the back of his head he found himself in what appeared to be a hallway. Walking down it he found it to lead to a barrow where there was a golden mummy case, four of them. Looking to a coffin on the right, he noticed apertures on the lid. Now why would there be apertures on the lid of a case coated with gold that was for carrying the dead? Taking a closer look at the gilded case he then realized what they were for.
Air holes!
Patrick ripped open the lid of the sarcophagus and inside he found Julie.