Prompt: The Quicksand Queen (Part 1)

Summary: An archeologist gets in over their head exploring a new tomb, but strange magical jewels transformer her into a being made of quicksand with a powerful appetite. Prompt for Someone anonymous for October 2022. 

[Story Listing]

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Part 1

Alex Bennett had big dreams—to become a great archeologist, and to unearth some of the greatest mysteries that continued to elude mankind. When she proposed her idea for a digsite searching for the lost tomb of Queen Qelatai, a powerful and influential ruler from ancient times with an oft-mythicized penchant for terrible magic, Alex's plan didn't have a whole lot of support.

There were a lot of challenges to overcome. The region the tomb was buried under, the Andaroll Wastes, was dangerous territory. If one could think of the danger, it was there: scorching heat in the day, freezing temperature dips at night, a total scarcity of water and resources, save for the odd oasis, and that didn't account for pretty much every creature possessing some sort of potent venom... it was a remarkably inhospitable place, and a massive excavation was a terrible risk, even in the hands of an experienced archeologist... and Alex, certainly, lacked experience.

What she lacked in experience, she made up for in chutzpah and youthful energy. If she needed to prove herself in order to be taken seriously, and if she needed to earn worldwide fame and acclaim, she'd have to do it herself. So she boarded the first train eastwards with the intent to find the legendary tomb.

It was a long saga, fraught with peril, but in a massive oasis hidden under a protective barrier of mirages, she discovered the tomb, in the center of a stretch of land that stood in defiance of the harsh sun, as if protected by an otherworldly power. Half-buried under shifting sands, Alex brushed back her frizzy black hair as she did a double take at the sight of i t.

"At long last... the tomb of Queen Qelatai... I finally found it!" She laughed, a weight in her high-pitched voice lifting as months of unending searches had finally culminated in this... the ultimate triumph.

Alex brushed the sweat from her brow with the back of her arm. She wasted no time hurrying to the depths, feeling a second wind coming on as she rushed into the dark hallways of the tomb. After hurriedly sprinting down a flight of stairs, pausing to admire the elaborate stone carvings along the walls, she eventually made it to an impressive room, with sand surrounding a single stone altar.

As much as she wanted to examine the altar, she sensed danger. She tentatively pressed her foot against the sand. It seemed to be stable, packed well. With a nod, she stepped lightly across the sand and, before long, found herself in front of the stone altar. She admired the pillar that occupied the center of it, noting the gaps in the front. Was there something inside? It was as big as she was. Was this... some sort of sarcophagus to house the late queen!?

She poked and prodded the pillar, looking for an opening. As she pressed down on the stone panels, one of them slid into the pillar and, with a clink, activated a curious mechanism. She backed away as a large compartment in front of the sarcophagus opened up! And inside was...

...No one. Naught but sand.. Alex pouted for a moment—had a graverobbered beaten her to the tomb? It wasn't until she saw something shiny buried in the sand at the bottom, light from her torch reflecting, that her spirits lifted. She kneeled down to admire her findings...

...They were gems. Alex's first thought was that they were typical gemstones, signs of wealth, rubies, sapphires, emeralds... but upon closer examination, they were of a curious sort. They had an otherworldly glow to them, and they were lukewarm to the touch, even tucked away within the cool depths of a hidden temple.

"Remarkable..." She muttered to herself, her eyes sparkling with greed. If she could bring these back, along with a couple of other artifacts, perhaps some stone-waved vases, she could prove her theories! She could return with a team to excavate the place! She already witnessed one example of a hidden compartment, who knows how many more secrets lay within these walls? And if she hurried, she could make it to the nearest airstrip within a few days in time for the next monthly flight!

She hurriedly stuffed the gems into her knapsack, closing the flap. She turned to head back to the entrance hallway, eager to pick out a stone carving small enough to carry, yet detailed enough to attract the attention of sponsors.

But as she set her food down on the sand...

Kchunk. Blorp...

A hidden mechanism rattled to life, echoing around the room. And the sand shifted underneath her. The foot that she had placed all her weight on sunk into the sand and, in a matter of moments, she was knee-deep in sand! The sand bubbled ominously around her, pockets of air escaping as she collapsed to her knees.

"Q-quicksand!?" She sputtered, struggling to get free. The previously solid sand was loosened by pockets of air, and as it shifted away from the altar, it dragged Alex along with it, her body sinking deeper.

As her chest slipped underneath the cool sand, she struggled to try and get free. She knew some survival strategies for quicksand—discard extra weight, get into a back floating position, keep your head above water—but the sand was shifting too quickly underneath her! Her arms were already below, the sand weighing her down, imobilizing her. As she drifted helplessly away from solid land, her head dipped underneath.

Unbeknownst to her, the flap of her knapsack opened, and the gems spilled out into the sand. They disappeared under the sand, shifting unseen towards her. She let out panicked gasps of air, fine sand filling her lungs, knowing she was likely to die alone in this terrible cave...

But then she felt a strange warmth in her buxom. She had no idea what it was. She figured it was a heart attack or something, out of sheer panic. Her vision blurred, and she thought she was hallucinating. The sand was glowing around her in strange colours. She felt a warmth, followed by an eerie chill that penetrated her entire body. She felt dizzy, and she could feel the sand swirling around her as she was pulled deeper, deeper into some terrible abyss...

As colours flashed behind her eyelids, overwhelmed by sensations she didn't comprehend, she passed out, helplessness washing over her as she gave herself to resignation and fatigue as coldness gripped her body, and her heartbeat stopped. Unconscious, her body melted away, lost to the shifting sands.

The sands collected at the center of the room, seemingly shrinking into a smaller and smaller pile; what once could've filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool coalesced into a pile the size of a bus... then the size of a refrigerator... and finally, the size of a person.

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