"I'm hungry," Princess Addie said. "Do you think we can eat lunch without spilling?"

"No!" Prince Liam said with a big laugh, but he brought out his Magic Box anyway.

They were sitting on a two-person saddle-box on a two-hump camel. The camel moved both left feet at one time, then both right feet, which made the saddle-box rock back and forth like a wild and crazy cradle.

Liam sang, "Magic Box, what kind of food won't be messy, sloppy, or rude?" He opened the box. "Rolls and cheese sticks!" he said, and handed one of each to Addie.

They munched on lunch while the camel plodded up one sand dune and down another.

"I see a sphinx!" Addie said, and pointed at a huge statue of a lion lying on its belly.

"It has a man's face!" Liam said. "And it's wearing one of those pharuh, pharee—"

"Pharaoh," said Addie.

"A Pharaoh hat thing with stripy cloth hanging down on both sides of his face. Do people still wear those here in Egypt?"

"No, that's a very very old style from long ago. These days, everyone wears straw hats like ours. Look! There's a pyramid over there!"

"That big triangle place?" Liam asked.

"Yes! A pharoah must be buried under there. A king from long long ago." Princess Addie looked at the ancient map that they had found in an old vase from Egypt. "Now we go to the river and follow it upstream. I wonder if we'll see crocodiles or hippos, like someone drew on the map. What is this other picture? It looks like a whale, in the river. Hah!" She shook her head and rolled up the map.

Hours later, riding along the river, they came to a dry streambed. "This is it," Addie said, and turned the camel to go up the gully. "Watch out for a big stone that looks like this camel's dad."

"There it is!" Liam pointed.

Addie told the camel to let them off. It grumbled like most camels do and kneeled down in the sand.

"Thank you!" Addie said as they climbed down. She spread out the camel's lunch: grass, wheat, and oats.

Together the prince and princess followed the map. Liam brought his Magic Box. He put it in his backpack.

Before long they found the entrance to a hidden tunnel. "Are there spiders?" Liam asked.

"Probably. Take this palm leaf and sweep them away."

"There's worse than spiders in there," squeaked a lizard sitting on a rock. It had violet spots on its back and tail.

"Oh oh," said Addie. "Scorpions?"

"Whatcha got in your box?" squeaked the lizard. "Something juicy, something sweet? I smell melons. I want some!"

"What's in there that's worse than spiders?" Liam asked.

"Not telling unless I get those melons I'm smelling. Open the box!"

"Your name isn't Violet, is it?" Addie asked.

"Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"Let's go," Addie told Liam. She left her hat behind, turned on her flashlight and crawled into the tunnel.

"You'll be sorry!" the violet-spotted lizard called after them, and it echoed down the tunnel: Sorry, sorry, sorry!

"Will we be sorry?" Liam asked.

"I'm not sorry to leave that lizard behind."

Something scurried past. "Not left behind," the lizard hissed. "I want what's in your box!"

"You don't even know what's in there!" Addie said.

The lizard squeaked, "And you don't know what's ahead!"

The tunnel opened up into a large dark room. Addie shone her light around. Paintings on the wall showed a pharaoh sitting on a throne, and guards standing beside him, and other people in a parade.

A table stood against the wall, under the paintings. It held many empty dishes and bowls made of silver or gold.

In the middle of the room, the flashlight lit up a large stone box with carvings all over it.

"Addie, Addie, what's that?" Liam asked, his voice shaking.

Beyond the stone box, a blue light shone. Three figures appeared. They looked like the guards in the wall paintings, come to life! But they were wispy like fog.

"Ha ha, I told you!" the lizard squeaked from the shadows.

"Who disturbs the rest of King Poppa?" rumbled one of the ghost guards. "Whoever tries to rob his tomb will meet a rather nasty doom! Beware, thieves!"

"When you're done with these trespassers," the lizard hissed, "leave me their Magic Box."

"We didn't come to rob," Prince Liam said. "We came to give a gift."

"When your King Poppa was buried here," Princess Addie said, "you left him lots of food, right? We figured he must be out of food by now so we brought him some melons."

"I knew it, I knew it!" squeaked the lizard. "Gimme!"

The ghost guards didn't move, didn't speak, so Addie and Liam went to the table of empty dishes. Liam sang, "Magic Box, please make it swift! Some melons for the pharoah's gift." He took out slices of cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon and placed them on the dishes.

The ghost guards nodded and began to fade.

The violet-spotted lizard climbed up the table leg onto the table. "Mine, mine, all mine!" it squeaked.

A ghostly hand tipped a pot over on top of the lizard. "Whoever tries to rob this tomb will meet a rather nasty doom! Beware, thief!"

"No, no, no! I'm sorry!" squeaked the lizard in the pot, which rattled around on the table as it tried to get out.

Addie saw how close to the edge of the table the pot was scooting. "That nasty doom won't last very long," she said. "Come on!"

Liam tucked his Magic Box in his backpack, then they crawled back into the tunnel. The ground suddenly trembled.

"Oh no!" Addie cried. "It's an earthquake!"

"We'll get trapped!" Liam yelled.

Just then the tunnel cracked wide open.

"Oh, there you are!" said Daddy, pulling the couch away from the wall. "You weren't in your Magic Box. I didn't know where to look until I heard something scrabbling like a lizard back there! I've cut up a watermelon. Who wants some?"

"I do!" Addie said.

"I do!" Liam said.

"I do!" came a little squeak from under the couch.

Addie and Liam looked at each other. "Clean up!" they whispered together, and swooped everything back into place. Into Mommy's Magic Box went two straw hats, a flashlight, and a carved wooden lizard.

~ more tales to come, maybe... ~