One Night - Night at the Museum

Ten: Caught!

"We'll get you back down to your chums," Amelia assured them. "You won't get lost following Amelia Earhart!" She chuckled.

"Yeah, nope," said Larry, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Nat nudged him.

Voices and footsteps entering the hall made them duck behind a large fountain in the centre of the room. Amelia snuck around one side and Larry and Nat around the other. Armed guards entered the hall.

"Streltsy," said Nat.

"The what?" asked Larry.

"Streltsy," she repeated. "Ivan the Terrible's guards."

"Ivan the Terrible? Great."

They peered over the edge of the fountain. She noticed his arm around her shoulder first. "Oh, s-sorry." He quickly drew his arm away.

"Oh no, that's okay," she replied quickly. Both looked away and knelt there in now awkward silence.

Amelia eyed them. "Well well Mr. Daley, Miss Bentley." She smiled at them, a twinkle in her eye.

"Oh, n-no, it's not-" Both began, but Amelia cut in.

"Oh please stop beating your gums. You Mr. Daley haven't been able to take your cheaters of her chassis since the moment I happened upon you, and probably before that."

"I literally didn't understand one word of that."

Amelia only smiled. Moments later a gentle music lifted into the air. "Is it just me, or is there music in the air?" said Amelia. Then she looked up and grinned. "Well, it looks like I'm not the only one who's noticed!" The two looked up to see three small stone cupids flying around above them, singing and making music - romantic music.

"Shh, shhh!" Larry hissed, trying to quiet them. "You! Little flying angel things! Quiet! We're trying to hide!"

"They're cupids Mr. Daley, gods of love," explained Amelia, hinting.

"Great. Hey gods of love, will you shut up?!" If they kept this up, they'd give them away. "Please shut up! We're trying to hide!"

The guards began coming around the opposite side of the fountain, causing the trio to scoot around the side they were on. The cupids kept singing as they made their escape. The three took off out of the hall, Amelia leading the way. They rounded a corner - and right into a line of drawn swords.

"Ah, and you have been caught," said a heavy Russian accent, and a man in elaborate robes stepped forward.

"Ivan the Terrible!" Nat cried. He and the Streltsy stopped andstared. "First Tsar of Russia." Then she broke out into speaking Russian, the limited amount she knew, this earning her even more surprised looks from the others. Quickly though, she ran out of vocabulary. She turned back to English. "I know that you're not really terrible, it's just the result of a painful loss you suffered long ago."

A look of sadness flashed across the tsar's face, but then he stiffened again. "I do not know what you mean."

"I think you do. The death of your dearly beloved wife, perhaps." Now Ivan looked as though he were trying to keep his composure. "Anastasia."

That did it. The tsar collapsed blubbering onto a nearby bench, his startled guards now surrounding him and trying to be comforting. The trio made their escape.

"That was amazing," said Larry as they ran.

"Thanks. My family emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s, and my grandparents spoke Russian to us, so I can speak some. Guess it came in handy - sort of. But the Russian history did - Ivan's first wife Anastasia died when they were young, leaving him absolutely devastated. It's what triggered his 'terrible' state."

"First wife?"

"Yeah, he had seven."

"Seven?"

"Yeah."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, but Anastasia was still his beloved. It's kind of sweet in a way, who knew Ivan the Terrible could be so romantic?"

Turning another corner, they found themselves trapped yet again, this time by French guards.

"Very clever, Mademoiselle," came the voice of none other than Napoleon himself. "But your tricks shall not work on me. So if your boyfriend will kindly come with me-"

"Oh I'm not her boyfriend," Larry jumped in. Nat shook her head in agreement. "We're just-"

"Friends."

"Yeah, friends. Colleagues..."

Napoleon was nodding with a little grin on his face. He scooted over to Larry. "So are you friends but both scared of ruining your relationship by telling the other you want to be more than friends, that you like-like each other?" Nat heard this though.

"No," Larry said with a sheepish grin, shaking his head.

"No," agreed Nat, also shaking her head.

"Oh." Napoleon chuckled, his tone then changing dramatically when he held up his dagger to them. "Now, this way or you die."

--------------------------------

"Hello Mr. Daley, Miss Bentley. So nice to see you again," Kahmunrah said as Napoleon and his guards led Larry and Nat into the castle where the gate was. "Now if you don't mind, I shall take that from you." He plucked the tablet from Larry's hands, grinning maliciously. "Finally, finally! After three-thousand years-" As he spoke, he went over to the gate, securing the tablet in its place and touching the different symbols in a precise order. "-My evil army of the damned, my beautiful, beautiful army, shall be UNLEASHED!"

Everyone jumped, but nothing happened. Nothing. There was only silence, an awkward silence. Well that was anticlimactic.

Kahmunrah gave an embarrassed grin. "Now I'm afraid Mother and Father may have slightly altered the combination on me."

"Wow, I guess this whole 'unleashing-the-underworld' thing isn't really working out for you, huh?" said Larry. "I mean it just must be really frustrating for you cause you've waited thousands of years to come back from the dead and everything, and now you can't get it open." He pointed to the gate.

"Fear not, for I shall wait a thousand more if I must," said Kahmunrah determinedly.

"Good cause in a few hours you'll just be standing there in a frustrated position, frozen, and we'll walk out of here with our buddies and that'll be that. We've got all night."

"Hmm, all night? Well, he doesn't." Kahmunrah pointed to one of the guards who was holding a birdcage in his hands, in which was - Jed.

Larry's expression immediately changed. Nat gasped. Grinning, Kahmunrah went over, taking Jed from the birdcage and trapping him inside an hourglass, Jed screaming at him the whole time. "Oh I don't think he has all night at all Mr. Daley. I'd say he has a little over an hour." He stormed over to the gate and removed the tablet. "You were the guardian, you know all about this tablet. You're obviously much more clever than the rest of us. You may not know the combination, but I am going to give you exactly one hour to figure it out." He slammed the tablet against Larry's chest and into his hands. "If you don't I shall kill your friends," he threatened. "And please don't think about escaping, for I will be watching you."

"Look I don't even know how to begin to decipher this thing, really!" Larry cried.

"We'll do it!" cried Nat, grabbing onto the tablet.

Kahmunrah smiled smugly. "Tick tock then, your hour has begun."

"Hey," Jed told them, stopping them before they left. "You've got this partner, I know you do."

They fled.

(Thanks for reading! :) And I hope you liked the little part I added with Ivan - I wanted to add a little more backstory for Nat and I'm really interested in Ivan, I learned all about him in a couple of the history courses I took last year! Thanks again, and thank you guys so much for the 200+ reads - that's amazing!)