Cairo, Egypt

A tall, dark haired woman walked into the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities looking for someone in particular. It didn't take long to find who she was looking for…all she had to do was follow the soft voice that echoed through the museum from the library within.

"Sacred Stones. Sculpture and Aesthetics. Socrates, Seth, volume one, volume two and volume three…" The woman spoke to herself, as she placed books back into their specific places on the shelf, balancing on the ladder and appeared unaware of the other woman's approach.

"You keep talking to yourself, and you'll scare people away. Or you already have." The smooth English accent flowed out of the woman's mouth and brought a smile to the younger woman's face. The woman looked down and spied her older sister. They looked very similar, though her sister's skin was slightly more tanned due to spending most of her time out in the sun and her dark brunette curls stopped at the middle of her back. Her eyes were a light hazel and she stood taller than Evy at 5'7 and she was slightly more curvy.

"Lillian, what are you doing here? I thought you didn't come back from your adventures for another week?" Evy questioned., eyeing her sister with mild speculation. Lillian shrugged.

"We had to return. The leader of the expedition shattered both of his legs as we climbed Mount Sinai. He fell and tumbled down the cliff until I managed to catch him. So I thought I'd come and annoy you and the curator. I know how much he loves me." Lillian said, sarcastically.

And that is where people start noticing the differences between the two Carnahan sisters. Lily is sarcastic, stubborn and has the longest fuse attached to her temper. You could try to rile her up for days and not get a rise out of her, unless you did something drastic like blackening her family name or reputation. Evy is sweet, kind, but has a very short temper. Lillian loves adventures that involve her using her guns and throwing knife, whereas Evy loves reading about other people's adventures in the Ancient Egyptian texts she's always got her nose buried in. But both girls knew almost all there was to know about Ancient and Modern-day Egypt.

"That is rotten luck. I hope the man is alright," Evy replied, turning her attention back to the books in her hand that still had to be put away. "I'll be down with you in a minute. I only have to put back…T-Tuthmosis?"

Lillian rolled her eyes at her sister, and Evie scowled at her, having caught her.

"What are you doing here?" Evy muttered to herself, as her sister walked away and headed towards the Egyptian history section, with the knowledge that Evy would take forever to place that final book in its correct place. Anyway, she wanted to brush up on her knowledge of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. "T, T, T, T, T, ah T. I'm going to put you where you belong."

Evy leaned back as she stared at the opposite book cabinet, where the T's were, her arm reaching towards it with the book in her hand. She almost had it, and she was grunting with the effort it took, but as she stretched a little bit further, the ladder moved away from the shelf and Evy squealed in surprise. She was now balancing the ladder on just two legs. The book on Tuthmosis had fallen to the floor in her startled moment, but now she couldn't care less. This was not the moment for her love of ancient books and the care of the aforementioned ancient books to cloud her mind.

"Help." She whispered, as though any noise louder than that whisper would startle the ladder and sent her falling to her immediate death.

Lillian was flicking through a text describing the significance of hieroglyphs, when she heard a loud groan and an accompanying shriek. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what had frightened her younger sister, when the bookcase almost collapsed on top of her. She dived immediately, her heart racing in her chest, and landed into a forward roll to get further out of the way of the surprise book shower. She rose to her feet, and watched as the rest of the book cases fell, one by one. As the very last one fell with a loud thud, Lillian reared onto her sister.

"Oops." Evy whispered, but Lillian caught it, and was fuming.

"Care to explain why I was almost crushed by a giant book case?" Lillian hissed quietly, though she wasn't sure why. The curator must have heard all of that commotion.

Evy opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by the monosyllabic stuttering of a very, very stunned curator.

"What-How-I…Look at this!" He said, gaping at the destruction of the room as he walked over a fallen bookcase. Then he narrowed his focus to a very bashful Evy, and a very uncaring Lillian. He wondered, for a brief moment, when she had arrived, but shook the thought away and strode towards the Carnahan sisters. "Sons of pharaohs! Give me frogs, flies, locusts…anything but you!"

He jabbed a finger in Evy's direction, and the younger Carnahan had to hold her sister's hand to stop her from moving forward and hitting the angry old man.

"Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!" The curator exclaimed.

"I am so very sorry. It was an accident." Evy apologised in her soft voice, and Lillian rolled her eyes. She knew that the curator wouldn't accept her apology…on the surface at least.

"When Ramses destroyed Syria, that was an accident. You…are a catastrophe! Look at my library! Why do I put up with you?" He questioned, and Lillian was almost certain he meant it rhetorically, so she answered anyway.

"You put up with her because she can read and write Ancient Egyptian and she can decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic and she's the only person within a thousand miles - except me, but you couldn't find a bone in my body that cares- who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library, that's why."

"I put up with her - and by extension, you - because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why," He paused, and continued in a softer voice as he noticed how the sisters cringed at the mention of their deceased parents. "Allah rest their souls. I don't care how you do it, I don't care how long it takes. Straighten up this meshiver!"

With that last order, he turned on his heel and practically stomped back to his office with both the Carnahan's staring at his back.

"I hate that man." Lillian said, as soon as he was out of hearing range. Evy was about to open her mouth to berate her sister for saying such a thing, when they heard another thud. This time it came from outside the library. Lillian instantly walked towards it, and Evy sighed, following her. She didn't like how Lillian seemed to just gravitate towards danger without even thinking it through first.

The two sisters headed towards the room that held all the larger artefacts and sarcophaguses.

"Hello?" Evy called out. When no one answered, Lilly pulled out her golden Egyptian switchblade. Her brother, Jonathon, had given it to her for her birthday last year. He probably thought she wouldn't notice the fact the name engraved on the casing wasn't hers (She was pretty sure her name was not 'Michael') but she loved it anyway, in spite of the fact he'd robbed it from some poor bloke. Evy raised an eyebrow at her older sister, but moved forward anyway, but not before grabbing one of the lit torches first.

"Abdul? Mohammed? Bob?" Evy questioned, making Lillian roll her eyes.

"Evy, these people are dead. They aren't really capable of engaging you in a conversation," Lillian muttered to her, as she heard a thump coming from one of the sarcophaguses. She looked over at Evy and they shared a confused glance, before the stepped towards the source of the noise. "Or at least they shouldn't be able to."

Evy leaned forward to inspect the mummy, when suddenly it sprung upright. Lillian realized, just seconds before she threw her knife, that it couldn't have moved by itself, so gripped the hilt of the knife tighter so she didn't toss it. Evy screamed however, and an all too familiar laugh came from within the sarcophagus. Lillian seethed silently as her brother sat up, his arm around the mummy as he chuckled his arse off, and Evy slapped his arm.

"Have you no respect for the dead?" Evy gasped, as Lillian carefully replaced the knife in her boot, before she straightened up and sighed. She couldn't stay mad at her brother. He was a lovable idiot.

"Of course I do! But sometimes I'd rather like to join them." Jonathon said, as he played with the mummy's arm.

"I could help you out with that, dear brother, if you would like?" Lillian asked, smiling at him in a way that made her brother gulp out of nervousness, especially when his eyes narrowed on the two pistols that were tucked into the shoulder holster she was wearing underneath her thin shirt. She never wore them over her shirt as she felt it got too hot with the shirt buttoned up, so she always wore the holsters over her vest instead.

"Well I wish you'd do it sooner rather than later before you ruin my career the way you've ruined yours. Now get out." Evy ordered their older brother. Evy always was the voice of reason in the Carnahan siblings, always the authority figure, because the other two were too reckless (Lillian) or too silly (Jonathon) to play that part.

"My dear sweet baby sisters…" Jonathon hiccupped, before continuing to stumble over his words as he climbed out of the sarcophagus. "I'll have you…know that at this precise moment my career is on a high note."

"'High note'. Ha! Jonathon, that could possibly be the funniest thing you've ever said." Lillian laughed at her brother. High note? Really?

"Jonathon, please, I'm really not in the mood for you. I've just made a mess of the library…and the Bembridge scholars rejected my application form again. They say I don't have enough experience in the field." Evy lamented, as she sat down on the base of a golden statue.

Lillian gave Jonathon a look, and together, they kneeled down on either side of their little sister and grinned at her.

"You'll always have us, old mum." Jonathon said.

"If Jonathon doesn't get murdered by someone he's swindled money from." Lillian teased him, as she took one of Evy's hands in her own. Evy smiled at them, glad she had their support if nobody else's.

"Besides, I have just the thing to cheer you up." Jonathon said, climbing to his feet, and walking back over to the sarcophagus. He lifted the mummy's leg, searching the sarcophagus for whatever would bring a smile to his little sister's face.

"Oh, no! Jonathon, not another worthless trinket!" Evy whined. Lillian rolled her eyes. One of these days, Jonathon might actually bring her something worthwhile and then she'd have to eat those words. Despite his many faults, Jonathon always came through with something eventually. "If I have to take one more piece of junk to the curator to try and…sell for you…"

Evy trailed off as both of the Carnahan sisters stared at the small box in Jonathon's outstretched hand. Evy took it and instantly her eyes scanned over it, trying to date it and work out where it could have come from.

"Where did you get this?" Lillian questioned, lifting her eyes briefly from the box to Jonathon.

"On a dig down in Thebes," Jonathon replied, and Lillian knew that his answer was the most unlikely but chose to accept it for now. "My whole life I've never found anything. Please tell me I've found something."

Lillian watched as her sister slightly squeezed the base, and the top opened into several little triangles, with a piece of folded papyrus in the hollow centre. Lillian carefully took it out, and looked at her brother and sister with a contained excitement. This felt like the beginning of something. She couldn't tell if it was good or bad, but it definitely spelled adventure.

"Jon." Evy said, staring at the aged papyrus in her sister's hand.

"Yes?"

"I think you found something."

"You definitely found something," Lillian corrected, as she gently opened the map and handed one side over to her sister so she could spread it out completely. They all stared at it and then each other with mystified expressions. Yes, Jonathon Carnahan had definitely found something.