<main>


    "Another outstanding mission, another artifact recovered. Just another day on the job. But boy, is it hot here." I thought to myself.


    Surprisingly, even underground, presumably under a great pyramid, the temperatures were still uncomfortable. We would all look like lobsters by the time we got home, but it was totally worth it.


    “How many undead does it take to stop the Order?” I heard Ethan boast. He’d taken his shirt off again, which was becoming a regular occurance even outside of the sweltering heat. He jumped between the heaps of recently desecrated mummies we had to put down in order to get the Eye of Horus.


    “Clearly more than what was buried here. Now quit goofing around.” Amelia, his sister, whacked him with the butt end of her spear, Gae Bolg.


    I smiled too. It had been such an exciting mission filled with cursed mummies, angry scarab swarms and trapped tunnels. The others would have called me a nerd if I said it out loud, but the whole thing had reminded me of Dungeons and Dragons.


    And here we were sitting around, panting and sweating from a job well done. It helped that the pay was amazing.


    Ethan swung his sword above his head with his shirt on the end, whooping and cheering, which made the rest of us laugh. All except Tadashi, who was sitting in the darkest part of the chamber, wiping the mess from his katanas, Muramasa and Masamune. He rarely spoke, but that made him efficient on missions that required stealth. Unlike Ethan who could be heard a block away.


    Ethan''s shirt flew off the end of his sword and landed on Tadashi’s head. The silence was deafening. The stoic boy slowly slid the shirt from his face, balling it up, and glaring at Ethan.


    <div>


    “Come on man, it wouldn’t kill you to smile or something.” Ethan shrugged.


    Tadashi whipped the balled shirt back at Ethan, nailing him in the face. He smiled briefly, but it was gone in a flash.


    “Now, now boys, save it for training room.” Amelia shook her head, still laughing, and then motioned to me. “Come on Ori, let’s go get the transportation ready. You boys can catch up.” She wagged her finger at the other two and proceeded to herd me back through the tunnels. Ethan shot me a panicked look, but I was already gone before I could protest.


    “Is it safe to leave the two of them back there?” I ask.


    “Oh yea,” She laughed. "I''m certain Tadashi won''t kill my brother, despite how obnoxious he can be.


    We walked down sandy hallways filled with ancient hieroglyphs and statues that were mostly worn away by time. I stopped to appreciate the hard work and enduring quality. I wondered if the people who had put these here would ever had suspected that people like us would see their work, thousands of years later. It was neat to ponder. Amelia smirked at me as she passed me.


    "Come on you dork, we gotta get going." She teased, swatting me playfully. I stared at her as she walked by. Amelia was always cheerful and confident. She had an aggressive, competetive nature that made me glad she was on our side. Her long raven colored hair was back in a bun, that had begun to unravel from all the fighting. I wondered how she had managed to still look so good after all of the mess. Looking down at my own stained white v-neck, I realize it might have had something to do with my own choice in clothes.


    We exited into the scorching sunlight just as it was starting to set. The night would get ridiculously cold and I wanted to be ready to go by then. I pulled our ride out of my pocket; a miniature sleigh made of red painted wood. I put it on the sand and backed up.


    “Merry Christmas!” I bellowed as deep as I could. Yes, we did in fact travel via Santa’s Sleigh. It popped up to full size with a full team of reindeer; minus Rudolph. Who knew?If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    The reindeer were all huff and spit because of the heat, stomping in protest. I patted Dasher on the flank and assured them that we’d be flying out of here soon. We had been permitted to take the sleigh from the Vault for missions, three hundred and sixty four days of the year, for obvious reasons.


    In the back of the sleigh, we’d already stored a decent haul. Aside from the Artifact we''d come here to get, the Eye of Horus, we had also managed to get our hands on a magic carpet, a particularly shiny ankh, and a magic lamp.


    “Erik is gonna be so jealous he didn’t get to come on this one.” I chuckled, looking over our tiny hoard of treasure.


    Amelia pulled our travel pack from the sleigh and reached inside. She tossed me a granola bar and a bottle of water. The former bounced off my head and the latter hit me in the chest. I have all the dexterity of a mud puddle. She moved to feed the reindeer next. You wouldn’t believe how particular they could be. Most of them were fine with apples and carrots, but Comet had this weird thing where he only ate cookies. He must have been getting spoiled at Christmas time.


    “I’m sure he''ll feel really bad about missing all this heat and the dusty old mummies. He''ll be so broken up that he had to stay back and train the new girl.” Amelia said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.


    Since Kalysta had arrived, Erik had been paying more attention to her than Amelia and well, lets just say Amelia had gotten used to being the only girl on the team.


    <div>


    <div>


    Comet snorted derisively as Amelia absently tried to stuff a carrot in his mouth. He stomped his hoof and looked at her with disdain. I had never seen a reindeer look so offended.


    “And I’m sure the new girl will be right there beside him when we get there. They''ve spent sooo much time alone together." She continued.


    “Amelia." I tried to warn her.


    “What? I’m just saying, he’s really taken a fancy to her. He hardly ever looked at me unless it was to give orders and I practically threw myself at him. Like, on top of him.” She kept trying to force the carrot into Comet''s mouth, and the reindeer was visibly perturbed.


    “Amelia, the reindeer.”


    “I thought maybe he was into one of you guys for the longest time. I mean, come on, look how hot I am. You''d date me right?” She flicked at the strands of her messy raven hair falling on her face.


    “Comet only likes…” I tried again, but she cut me off.


    “You’re like his best friend Ori, does he ever talk about me?” She wasn''t looking when Comet''s mouth reach passed the carrot for her hand.


    “The cookies!” I shouted, truly the worst warning of all time. She looked herself up and down, trying to decide if I was talking about her or not but it was too late…


    “Ow, you little shit!” She cried.


    I swear I saw the reindeer smirk after it bit her hand.


    “Here fat ass.” She stuffed a couple of cookies in Comet’s mouth and he chewed away happily. She looked at me astounded, like I hadn''t just been shouting at her.


    “To be honest Amelia, Erik doesn’t really open up to me about girls or stuff like that. I mean we talk, sure, but its mostly about training and Order stuff. Sometimes he talks about sports, but it’s kinda hard to keep up with that stuff when you have no interest. He knows I don''t really like that stuff, but its not like he want to listen to me talk about books and games...Sorry. I''m ranting." I prattle on too long and I lose her.


    “I was the only pair of tits in that damned place for months!” She let out a frustrated little shriek and Gae Bolg materialized in her hand. “Whoops…”


    We shared a laugh and I mimicked her shrieking like a little girl and called out to my own Artifact; Apollo’s Golden Bow. It appeared in my hands and I immediately fumbled it. The bow landed in the sand and I cringed, half expecting to be smited. I quickly dismissed it and Amelia and I continued to laugh.


    “I better not screw around with those. Could you imagine Apollo being in a great battle somewhere and all of a sudden some moron on Earth calls his bow away and then proceeds to drop it. I should be dead like four times over.” I shook my head. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard.


    “What’s all the screaming about?” Ethan called, rushing from the tunnels. He was a good brother like that, always rushing to his sister''s needs. But he wasn''t too sharp.


    <div>


    <div>


    “Umm, nothing.” Amelia and I looked at each other and laughed again. Ethan was still looking around for enemies that weren''t there. He saw us dismiss our weapons and calmed. Amelia and I climbed into the sleigh, waiting for the other two.


    Ethan kissed his blade, The Sword of Attila aka the Sword of Mars, aka a bunch of other things, cause every great warlord in history has owned the damn thing, before dismissing it as well. He then clamoured over the side of the sleigh instead of stepping over the low part. When Tadashi climbed in, he sat by the back rail, amongst the cargo.


    “You know you can sit up here with us right?” Ethan said, waving his arms dramatically. Tadashi pulled his bandana down over his eyes and slumped, trying to rest, or at least to ignore Ethan how turned back to us, to see Amelia staring at him.


    “Did I miss something?” Ethan narrowed his eyes, but smiled anyway cause he''d had to miss a joke. Amelia winked at me knowingly and then shook her head at her brother.


    "Boys." She sighed. I couldn''t help but chuckle, but I felt like I was missing something too. Did she know something that neither Ethan or I had picked up on? I shurgged and gathered up the reins, cracking them.


    “On Dasher, on Dancer, On Prancer and Vixen…” I called out, the only way to get the reindeer moving. I rolled my eyes as everyone started to laugh. I’m sure even Tadashi cracked a smile.


    “Every time guys, really?”


    </article>


    </main>