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Over the weeks of their tumultuous acquaintance, Rick O'Connell had learned a fair few things about Evelyn Carnahan. The young English librarian was beautiful, stubborn, passionate, and impetuous, and what she lacked in experience she more than made up for in research and enthusiasm. He wouldn't lie; he was definitely looking forward to finding out how far that zest for life and learning extended past her affinity for artifacts and hieroglyphics. But given how far she'd already wrenched his life off the expected course, he was pretty sure he'd end up following her lead there too. Wherever that might take them.
He wasn't sure what she saw in an American adventurer, soldier and vagabond to inspire her to look up at him with such warm eyes even in the middle of a spitting argument, not to mention curl up so trustingly against him when she finally crashed after a long day of translating under pressure and defeating homicidal mummies, but whatever it was, Rick planned to do his best to never give her a reason to change her mind.
He pressed a wondering kiss to the top of her head, breathing in the faint scent of vanilla still lingering in her hair beneath the sweat and dust of the day's exertion, and relaxed into the swaying gait of their stolen camel.
Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones on this voyage of discovery. Her brother Jonathan muttered something irritably under his breath, reminding Rick of his presence, then urged his own camel up to walk beside theirs. "Are you sure we're meant to be following our new friend? That sounded like a pretty conclusive farewell back there to me. And as happy as I am that he doesn't seem to be holding that whole 'unleashed a creature we have feared for more than three thousand years' incident against us anymore, I'd prefer not to risk giving him a reason to change his mind."
"I think he'd be surprised if we did anything else," Rick replied very dryly, "considering how long it would take to get back to Cairo by camel with just the three of us and our extremely limited supplies." The money left in his pockets would only go so far in the desert, and they could hardly hope to trade the bag of treasure they'd accidentally brought along without attracting far more notice than would be good for them.
Not to mention the questions he himself still had to ask. It had taken awhile, but Rick had finally realized where he'd seen those particular tattoos before, and he didn't just mean on the cliffs above Hamunaptra that first time. He didn't know if Ardeth Bay was aware of that past connection, but he had to have noticed how easily they'd fallen in at one another's shoulder while fighting the mummies, despite all the reasons they had to distrust one another, and how right it had felt to stand at his side. In Rick's opinion, that would be worth pursuing all on its own. The only complication he could foresee was how Evy would feel about it, however it fell out. But she was a modern enough woman that ... well, he had his hopes.
Jonathan didn't have to wait in suspense for long; by the time the horizon had begun to lighten again, Ardeth paused atop a dune with a view down into a wadi, where a scattering of black tents promised a refuge. He glanced back at them with a solemn expression, meeting gazes first with Rick and then with Evy, and then let his eyes drop to the bracer on Rick's wrist.
"There is a question I must ask before we go any further," he said. "One that will determine whether you and your companions will be treated as outside guests, or welcomed among the tribe. I had not thought to ask before ... but you survived the desert three years ago, and you followed rather than returning directly to your own people. It has reminded me of a tale told to me by my father, of an orphanage in Cairo many years ago."
Rick felt Jonathan and Evy's eyes on him in confusion; he wasn't much better informed himself, but did appreciate the confirmation. "That was your father, huh? Chatty guy." He reached for the bracer, untying the laces, then turned his bared wrist to show off the hidden tattoo. "He never told me what it meant when he slapped it on me. But he did say...."
"If I were to say to you, I'm a stranger traveling from the east, seeking that which is lost..." Ardeth interrupted him, tone anticipatory.
"Then I would reply that I am a stranger traveling from the west. It is I whom you seek," Rick replied, wryly. "Some help that was to me after my uncle took me back to America. I never saw any more of your people until after I joined the Legion and my garrison abandoned our post on a mad quest to find Hamunaptra."
"You are of the Medjai; you would always have returned to us," Ardeth replied, smirking back at him. "Perhaps the manner of it could have gone better – but if a chosen one is needed, then perhaps it was inevitable you should find us amidst the return of legends of old." His gaze returned to Evelyn then, lingering speculatively. "For wherever the Pharoah treads, however foolishly, their bodyguard must follow."
"Pharoah?" Jonathan sputtered in the background. "I thought all that Princess stuff was a misunderstanding. I know our mother was Egyptian, but that seems a bit excessive, don't you think?"
Evy seemed a little less thrown by the accusation; her expression grew vaguely distant, and Rick could have sworn shadows rose around her out of the lingering night, giving a brief impression of long hair ironed stick-straight, dramatic cat's eye makeup, and a metal circlet around her brow. Then the brilliant rays of the rising sun scattered the vision, leaving only the young enchanting scholar in the ancient queen's place. "Forget that, what do you mean by chosen one? I thought Rick was a stranger to you."
"It's kind of a long story, and I doubt I know all of it," Rick murmured to her, then nodded to Ardeth, "but I have a feeling we're about to find out the rest. If you think you might be up for another adventure."
Evy shifted against him, brow furrowed as she glanced between him and Medjai chieftain; then she reached for one of Rick's hands, clasping her own over it as she met Ardeth's gaze. "Always," she said, chin lifted in determination.
"Excellent." Ardeth's smirk transformed into a wide, brilliant smile, and Rick could hear Evy's breath catch the same way his did at the sight. "Then follow me."
Yeah, this was going to be an adventure all right. Rick turned their camel to follow him without a second thought.
("And what about me?" Jonathan objected again, trailing after them. But Rick remembered well enough who'd stolen the key from him to start the whole mess with Imhotep in the first place, and knew Evy's brother would undoubtedly find a new adventure of his own soon enough.)