The Road to Discovery

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M

Miss Flufferbutt

Guest
Original poster
Deep in the Sahara desert, the ancient pyramids of the Egyptian's ancestors hide. One pyramid has attracted the attention of a British archaeologist. She found another archaeologist to explore the pyramid, in search of some treasure or artifact she found allusions to in some dusty old tome that hadn't been touched in many years. She wanted to have just one other archaeologist as she wanted to keep the expedition fairly secret; who knew what they would discover down there? Today, they meet in person for the first time in a hotel in Cairo, where they will plan out their trip.


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Elizabeth took the elevator down from her room. The hotel had a nice lobby that she was to meet her partner in after breakfast. She looked at her watch. 11:45. Early, but she always preferred to be early. She sat at a small table, inconspicuously shoving one of the chairs to another table, leaving only one empty chair at the table. She smiled at her precaution, but she didn't want other company until her partner, a Mr. Hwang, showed up, for more than one reason. From her bag, she pulled out a light novel, which she promptly became engrossed in. In that same bag was several things important to their planning; a map of the area, a copy of the tome she found her information in, and other miscellaneous things. The rest of her belongings were still in her room, and would be until they left—hopefully tomorrow. Again, she thought about having such a small party; maybe she really should have hired one or two other helpers. But she had never discovered anything by herself, and didn't want to share the limelight too much. She checked her watch again. 11:55.
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Grabbing his morning coffee, the Korean man dashed out the door. 11:55. He got in his car, and drove away, barely exceeding the speedlimit. In the mirror, he checked for any loose strands of hair. None were found. 11:59. The polished black car skidded to a steady halt in front of the hotel. Ki Young admired the hotel's design for a few seconds until he shook his head violently as he returned to reality. It was like a ghost had slapped him from behind, startling him. He searched for the closest window. Using its reflection, he fixed his black tie and stepped in. 12:00.

The energetic countenance quickly shifted to a more confused state. He had never really seen his partner in person before, making it hard to find which woman he was supposed to be meeting up with. Several foreign women sat at different tables. The first one he saw was one with strawberry blonde hair. She seemed to be occupied with staring at herself in her pocket mirror. Ki Young went up to her and asked "Excuse me...Are you Ms. Tanner?" The woman eyed him from top to bottom and smiled suspiciously. "I can be if you want..." She stood up and touched his shoulders. Feeling an uneasy vibe, he backed away and bowed in apology. "Ah. Sorry...wrong person." However, the woman kept trying to cling onto his arm, causing the attention to turn towards them.
 
Elizabeth had returned to her novel for a few minutes, starting to get impatient. What could she say? It was one of her downfalls. She checked the door often, but ended up getting sucked into the novel, not getting pulled out until she noticed some kind of ruckus beginning to happen. She looked up, checked her watch—12:00 already—and took a look at the minor commotion with mild interest. A strawberry-blonde woman was hanging on an Asian man, seemingly unable to get the hint that he wanted to be let go. It was written all over his face. Poor guy, she thought, chucking. Then she took a long look at the man and put the pieces together. He's some kind of Asian, like Mr. Hwang, who is Korean. He had showed up at 12:00, like Mr. Hwang was supposed to... She packed her book away and gathered her bag. If this... woman... thought she would take her partner when she needed him, she was mistaken. She boldly strode up to the pair and tapped on the man's shoulder.

"Are you Mr. Hwang?" she asked, smiling politely, but inwardly laughing at the sharp look the other woman gave her.
 
His shoulders felt a gentle tap, making him turn around. Ki Young smiled back at the lady saying, "If I'm Mr. Hwang, then you must be Ms. Tanner, I presume?" He adjusted his glasses and took a closer look at the young woman. Her hazel eyes glistened in the sun while her hair curled naturally towards the end. Those pink lips of hers pulled the look in altogether. Simplicity never seemed so beautiful. He thought to himself, Damn...She's pretty...Without knowing, his cheeks turned slightly pink. Noticing his attention for this new woman, the woman clutching his arm, pulled him away from Elizabeth. "I found him first. Hands OFF." shouted the blonde woman. Ki Young just looked at the blonde. Never had he have been such a woman with such aggressiveness. Especially this one. He found her very similar to those stereotypical women on television, which as a little kid, scared him just a bit.
 
"Yes, I am. I would shake your hand, but..." she said, eyes flickering to the woman quickly and meaningfully. Elizabeth found her smile turning into a slight smirk as she tried not to laugh. It was obvious that she had to put effort into it. She noticed his cheeks color slightly, but mistook it for embarassment at being trapped in this crazy, possessive woman's grip. The woman noticed that his attention was being drawn from her and clung tighted, even pulling him away from her! She looked incredulously at the aggressive woman as she shouted at her, and then she lost it. She started laughing, right in the woman's face. The woman glared at her and said, "What are you laughing at?!" It took her a second or two to respond--this whole situation was just so absurd!--but when she got herself back together, she looked at the woman in amusement. "If you weren't smart enough to catch onto the fact that I called him by name, then I'll spell it out for you: Mr. Hwang is my business partner, and if you don't let go of him, I will be very upset," she warned, her tone patronizing and still smiling.
 
Stifling giggles could be heard from behind the counter. The blonde rapidly turned from shades of pink to tomato red. The only thing she had on her mind: embarrassment. Feeling indirectly insulted, she finally let go of Ki Young's arm and stormed out the room. Just before she opened the door, she glared back at Elizabeth and muttered, "You'll be more than upset once I'm done with you.." He looked at her questionably as she made her dramatic exit. Hopefully, he wouldn't meet anymore people like that. He turned back to Elizabeth and nervously scratched the back of his head. "Heh...um...shall we be getting on with business then?" With this, he took her hand and led her back to the table where she first sat. Surprisingly, her hand was really soft. A part of him wanted to hold on, but that would seem kind of strange. "Would you like me to buy you a drink of any sort?" Ki Young asked politely.
 
Finally, the woman let go and started to leave. Elizabeth waved at her, still smiling brightly. She snorted at the threat. "Yeah, and pigs fly," she retorted, but the woman had already left. She shrugged and turned to Ki Young. "That we shall, with no more... interruptions, hopefully," she answered and laughed."But it was amusing, you have to admit." She smiled at him, but was puzzled as he took her hand and led her to their table. Not that she objected too much; this time when she looked at him, she noticed his attractiveness. She smiled slightly to herself and took her seat. "I'm fine, thank you," she said, pulling a water bottle out of her bag. She tilted it as if toasting and set it on the table. "Have you had breakfast?" she asked. Might as well get the pleasantries out of the way early, right? Besides, she knew she couldn't work on an empty stomach, and who knew if Ki Young had eaten or not.
 
A quiet grumble from his stomach was released. The young man smiled nervously and replied, "Hehe...yea. I'm really slow on adjusting..." In fact, his eating schedule went in chaos along with his sleeping schedule, thanks to the change in time zones. Ki Young was informed about the exploration of the pyramid one or two days ago and had to leave immediately for some strange reason. He usually doesn't like traveling but this was too big of an opportunity to miss. The time difference from Seoul, South Korea and Cairo, Egypt is around seven whole hours. Seven. Hours. Mentally, it killed the poor man. He was the slowest to adjust in his band of cronies even as a kid. Ki Young took a sip of his cooled coffee.
 
Elizabeth laughed as she heard Ki Young's stomach growl. "There's a cafe nearby. Well, I call it a cafe, but it has real food, too," she offered, trying to remember exactly where the place was. She hadn't been to Cairo since the family vacation years ago, but she knew it was still in business; she had seen it on her way to the hotel when she first arrived. "Come on, it's just about a block away," she said. She picked up her bag and pushed her chair in, quickly scanning the area for anything she might have forgotten. It was frustrating, but she forgot small things often.
 
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