"Sister, be gentle… please…"
"Stay still Zarah, I am tying it up!" Zainah said sternly, binding her sister's arm wound with a rag cloth. It was a minor wound, nothing life threatening at a glance, but it still worried her. "Does it hurt? Did the mummy bite you earlier?"
Zarah shook her head.
Zainah sighed, looking at her little sister with a pained heart. She was worried. Worried about everything—their future, present, and even past.
She sniffed, hiding her own vulnerabilities.
They were currently in a dimly lit part of the Tomb, but Zainah could still vaguely make out her sister's appearance. Zarah was barely fourteen, the childishness not yet gone from her bubbly face, and now here she was—raiding a dangerous Tomb with her useless big sister. The one thing Zainah could offer her now was a fearless facade.
She couldn't be Zainah the cowardly thief today.
"If the mummies bite you, you have to burn the bitten area and cauterize it immediately," she said, her soft voice echoing through the dark tomb. "Or you might get an infection, Zarah. A very, very deadly one that will make you stay here forever. This is very serious. So tell—"
"Calm down, sis! I told you it was just a sharp rock, nothing else." Zarah chuckled and took out a small box from her pockets, a firebox she called it. Some also called it a matchbox. Zainah preferred the latter.
"I am not afraid of burning a wound now that we are in such a place," Zarah looked at her. "I am not a coward, alright?"
Zainah stared back with a pained gaze once more. This girl, when had she grown up so much?
They had lived as thieves in a god-forsaken city for years, and had stolen so much that both of them were good at their craft. Most people would end up counting the money for them after getting robbed. She was, had been, proud of that little skill.
But even good thieves get caught, and to run from the authorities chasing her after a failed heist, Zainah hadn't had any other way than running into a dangerous Tomb. Zarah, who coincidentally met up with her on the way, had followed her into the place. And already, the little girl had been wounded.
Guilt bubbled within the big sister.
I was the one who got caught, she had no reason to follow me…
She slapped her own face, startling Zainah.
Focus on the solution, not the problem, she told herself.
To leave the Tomb, they had to find a Tomb Heart, eat it, and become Tomb Raiders. But Zainah knew how difficult such a thing was—a Tomb Heart was always protected by a Guardian monster and two normal humans could never fight such a thing.
In fact, even the weaker monsters, the mummies, littered around the Tomb were enough to kill them.
There must be a way…
Zainah stood up and looked around once again, suppressing her complex emotions. She had to try, at least help her sister survive. She couldn't give up.
Looking at Zarah, she said: "If we get a torch from somewhere, we could light it. Then, at least the mummies won't dare come at us anymore. The match sticks in the box are too few, but a torch will be brighter and will last longer." She paused. "According to what I heard from the bars, Tombs usually do have those laying around."
Fire was the greatest deterrent for those aberrants. They dreaded it. Acquiring it first before anything else made much sense.
Zarah also stood up, and surprisingly, she took Zainah's hand. "Hehe, your face is full of guilt, you know Sis?"
Her big sister froze.
"It's dark, how can you see my face?" she replied, choked with anger. "And what do you think I will feel if not guilt after I ended up here with you."
Zarah tightened her grip over her sister's fingers, it was warm. "If I got caught, you'd have also followed me in. It's the same thing, isn't it?" Then, she walked two steps ahead and leveled a gaze at her big sister's beautiful green eyes. "Just think of it, this is not such a bad thing."
"What?" Zainah asked, her anger threatening to explode.
"Think of it, sis. If we leave as Tomb Raiders from this place, we no longer have to be thieves. We can pay away the authorities, buy a home for ourselves, and eat good food for the rest of our lives!" Zarah snorted cutely. "I've always wanted to try it anyway. Other humans have survived the Tombs before, why can't we also survive and become Tomb Raiders?
"A Guardian? We will beat it to death! Then, we will eat the Tomb Heart, too!"
Zainah didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Rarely did normal humans enter Tombs to walk out as Tomb Raiders. Usually, other Tomb Raiders sold some Tomb Hearts in the outside world and made normal people into more Tomb Raiders, letting them eat it without needing to survive their First Tomb by themselves.
Tomb Hearts were terribly expensive, of course, so people like Zainah had no way of affording it. Her only way of ever attaining one was to either steal one—which was impossible due to how guarded they were—or to enter a Tomb and hunt for one.
However, those who could afford one entered their First Tomb already strong, and the more Tomb Hearts they absorbed, the stronger they became. It was a worthy investment for anyone who had the money. And for the poor, even thieves, those were just distant dreams.
The rich will grow richer while the poor will stay poor.
Don't you know that, too, Zarah? Zainah wondered. All those stories of people who entered the Tomb as normal humans to return as Raiders are either myths or a story about Axiom Holders.
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many thieves in the world. They would all become Tomb Raiders.
"Don't underestimate the dangers of this place, we won't survive if we do!" Zainah warned, sighing. "We are not nobles. We don't have some Axiom to rely on if something bad comes—we only have our feeble bodies and our minds to escape this place. Have I not told you…"
"I know, I know. A thief has to always keep her eyes open. I've heard it a million times at this point."
Zarah leaned against the wall, ready to light another match to get some lighting going on. To get a picture of their immediate surroundings—
Suddenly, the wall behind the little girl began to creak. She jumped forward in fright.
"Zarah!" Her sister pulled her away and faced the wall.
Everything was silent for a spell.
Zarah immediately took the firebox and burned a match.
Fwoosh!
In the yellow flame's illumination, a weird image came to their sight. The earlier brick-like walls now had something embedded in them, vaguely resembling a coffin made of gold. An alien, man-shaped lid reflected the flame.
They knew what was going to happen now.
Another mummy.
"This one might be well preserved. Those will be much faster than the decayed ones," Zainah said anxiously as the coffin's door began to tremble. "Run!"
Zarah nodded and turned, ready.
Zainah's complexion changed—she froze.
Filled with apprehension, Zarah paused in her run and looked back at Zainah.
Zainah only wore a tight camo tank top and simple form-fitting cargo pants, revealing the tanned but beautiful skin near her belly and arm. She was a beautiful woman, one who all able men would fall head over heels for if she didn't hide her beauty so much usually. But now, her skin was covered in a bright crimson tattoo of a flower from belly to arms and she was frozen where she stood.
Bright red lines appeared even in her eyes.
"Big sis!"
Zainah forced herself to say: "Zarah… Run!"
The lid slowly opened and from within fell golden ornaments and coins in abundance with a clatter. A rotten hand covered in bandages moved out, grabbed the coffin's sides, and a creature slowly walked out. It was horror itself.
Swish!
In a second, Zarah was standing before her sister, a burning match stick facing the mummy.
"Don't come closer!" she shouted.
The match died and the mummy waved its hands, smacking away the firebox from her hand. It had been such a tactically sound move that Zarah was too stunned to react. Meanwhile, the surroundings were still alight due to the brightness of the crimson flower tattoo on her sister's figure.
The mummy growled, took hold of Zarah's hand, and threw her into the coffin behind itself.
Then, it aptly closed the coffin with a kick. A second later, the coffin vanished into the wall.
Zainah screamed even as her body was frozen in place, filled with panic.
The mummy took a deep breath, touching the wall as if to see how firm it was. Then, it turned and looked into her eyes, and for once, she felt as if she could see a clear glint of intelligence burning inside its rotten eyes.
"The mark of the crimson flower," it said, voice raspy.