[hr][hr][center][img]http://fontmeme.com/embed.php?text=Deeper%20Than%20The%20Sands:%20Chapter%20One&name=prinp___.ttf&size=30&style_color=f7976a[/img][hr][youtube]https://youtu.be/u3JV5viddOw[/youtube][hr][@Pundii] [@Morose] [@FantasyChic] [@Nallore] [@Sigil] [@ONL][hr][/center][hr]
	The night was long and stifling in Cairo that evening. The hours ticking away like sands through the hourglass, drifting down lightly as if something was forcing their decent to slow to a crawl. crawling through the sands, suffocating but one could not wake enough to do anything to keep them from continuing. To stop the dreams, the nightmares, the visions that enveloped their minds. It was all too much and yet one could not writhe themselves free from the chains that bound them to their restless slumber. some might find solace in what they had dreamt, others would only find despair. All would find more questions than any answers that were provided. should they scream, it would not be heard. sound did not travel from the Sandman to the waking world.   

	[color=f7976a][b][i]Vera, Harry, & Aziza:[/i][/b][/color]  The sun had set and the moon had risen. The colors of the night one would normally think of where not there. There was no cool blues, no crisp whites, no blacks of nothingness. the light of this moon that hung over the vast desert was shades of yellow, of greens, and grays. It was warm, not cold. It held a humidity that threatened to choke but you breathed as your toes rested in the sands. There is silence but you are not alone. Looking to your left and to your right you see two others, you see each other. The three of you forming the corners of a triangle, in the center above you is the forth point, the moon there like a sparkling canary diamond. From the light of the moon a shadow comes, in gray and yellow and green. Slowly it moves, swift on feet that seem to hit in the air on a solid surface. Sprinting towards you. Four legs but a formless figure at first. It isn't until the sands shift and the light fades from blinding can you make out what it is. A cat sits there peering into your eyes. It doesn't matter which one you are, it is facing you some how and away from the others. Its green and yellow eyes piercing you. You are afraid and yet you feel as if you are home. 

	[color=f7976a][b][i]Haakon, Josephine, & Nora:[/i][/b][/color] There you stand in the waters of the Nile. A woman on each bank, a man in the center. It is you. You three. The rivers water is hot, sticky as the air. The sun is shining down, heating everything around you to a boil. It is stifling and painful, like your brands. Your clothing, no matter if it is just standing on the bank with your feet in the water and your toes in the silt or if you are waist deep, it is becoming soaked. The moisture creeping its way up the fabric, staining it in crimson. Dipping your hands in it, it pooling in your cupped hands, it runs red. Blood fills your hand and you try to move but you are held there. An unknown force keeping you from moving as the level of the Nile rises. Up the banks it crawls. To your knees or chest. To your chest or throat. Slowly it climbs. You fight but cannot move. Slowly, tormentingly so, it comes to your mouth, over it, to your nose. You can smell and taste the blood. See it as it coats your eyes until you are beneath the sticky hot burning liquid that bubbles around you like a demons cauldron. You scream, there are no words. It fills your lungs, you try to breath, you try not to breath. Until you are nearly suffocated, until you can hold it no longer. Then your eyes snap open and you are beneath the river of blood, you are breathing the crimson. You see each other. Between you, three sides of the pyramid, a seal is broken. 

	[color=f7976a][i][b]Reginald, Peter, Lauren, & William:[/b][/i][/color] In a valley of grass you four stand. Three around a risen dune, one at the top. The single female the pinnacle. The sun is high above you and you can hear the drums of war. Cries of death. The sound of flesh being pierced by metal and more. Turn and look. To one side men with the heads of lions fight scorpion like mutations. War, death. It surrounds you. You can do nothing, you cannot move but watch the slaughter or each side. Gods fighting Gods? Is that what you see? Two of the creatures, one Lion, one Scorpion, stand twice the height of the others. Facing off against the other. Sitting on a throne of reeds is another with the head of a Jackal, just watching. A cat curled up in his lap and a scale with a single feather on one side. He looks at you, all of you at once and one at a time it seems. You feel your heart pain, agonizing. Blood stains your chest. You see your own beating heart before you. It is hovering there, moving towards the scales. Will your heart weigh more than the feather?

	[color=f7976a][b][i]You all wake.[/i][/b][/color]

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[hr][h3][b][color=f7976a]October 4th, 1924 - 6:42 A.M. Local Time[/color][/b][/h3][hr][/center]
	
	The city streets have come alive as the sun rises. The air has yet to be warmed by the rising sun and it is comfortable. The winds sweep around the city as people rise and start their day. Some have yet to sleep from the night before. A Clerk finishes up his paper work and slips it into an envelope before rising from his place. He walks across the barracks to C.O.'s room and slides the envelope under the door before going to his own room to finally sleep just a few doors down. It has been a long night for him. 

	In one room a woman rises and she looks around frantically, what a dream has she had? Shaking her head to brush the cobwebs and the hangover away she reaches for the aspirin and takes several with a class of lukewarm water. Why had she dreamed what she had? Why did she see those two in her dream? Splashing her face with water she patted her face with a piece of linen. So many more questions. She needed to get to the museum, she needed to look at her books. Ringing the bell, she summoned the Steward. 

	In another room where the other guests are being given quarters doors down another rises. The woman pushes back her classic length hair and rushes to the window, throwing open the shutters to look at the sky. The sun was just breaking the horizon. That was a dream was it not? She was not sure. It frightened her but then again she found an odd comfort in it. Her fingers running over her pendant she thought of the man and woman she had seen in her dream. Why were they there? Perhaps it was time to leave, but how far did one have to run to escape their nightmares? Walking to the door she opened it to see the posted guard. Should she leave the room yet? If she did he would escort her. Shaking her head she told him she would wait for someone else from her group before she would head out for food. was she even hungry?

	Near the room of the Lord Major, a man rose in his own room. He felt as if he had just relived a war he never wanted to be part of. his leg twinged with the usual morning pain but he grabbed his cane either way and quickly cleaned and readied himself for the day before pushing out of his room. Glancing around and listening, there were no sounds of war. Small prayers were answered for now. Turning, he walked slowly towards the room of his uncle. The clerk had long since gone and therefor he did not see him anywhere. By this time the man was sleeping, perhaps more peacefully than many others that evening before. A sound knock on the door came rapping through it. [color=82ca9d]"Uncle? Are you awake? We need to speak,"[/color] he called out through the door before resting his hand down on top of the other which leaned on his cane.