Hi everyone!
I'm looking for a story - almost certain it was posted on Gromet's - about an archaeologist getting enslaved while doing research on a desert.
Pretty sure the story was narrated from the archaeologist POV. The main character notices her assistant missing and then finds her being wrangled by a group of slavers that try to add her to a coffle.
Obviously she gets noticed, and captured.
The story was rather short, and it's been on my mind the last couple of weeks - trying to recall what the title is ;D Help would be much appreciated to ease my poor brain haha.
Coffle's not a particularly common phrase, so maybe there are few enough Sitesearch (https://www.google.com/search?q=site%253Awww.boundstories.net+coffle) results for you to find it?
True, it is not. The thing is I'm not entirely sure that the word was used in the story.
Not to mention I tried searching left and right with every word that comes to mind with no results :(
Hence, my last resort - hoping that someone else liked the story and remembers it 8)
If you're trying to identify it from memory, any of the following would be especially useful:
approximate year you read it,
whether there were camels or other desert beasts,
whether the archaeologist was excavating ruins,
and whether the ending involved escape, rescue, or acceptance of enslavement.
Space Waves (https://space-waves.co/)
Those details might be enough for me to do a more targeted search.
Quote from: hivefram on June 09, 2026, 10:50:29 AMIf you're trying to identify it from memory, any of the following would be especially useful:
approximate year you read it,
whether there were camels or other desert beasts,
whether the archaeologist was excavating ruins,
and whether the ending involved escape, rescue, or acceptance of enslavement.
Those details might be enough for me to do a more targeted search.
Thanks :)
Most likely more than 10 years ago.
Don't think there was a mention of any animals.
They were researching items they had found realizing it were all sorts of restraints.
The assistant of the archaeologist was I believe of Arabic descent and that was the main reason she was taken by the slavers. Once the archaeologist spotted them and was captured the slavers smeared her face with some paste to hide the fact that she was white to avoid suspicion and covered the rest in some sort of concealing robe.
There is no rescue, that's where the story ends.
QuoteThere is no rescue
If this is a
quote, then you will not find the story you are looking for in the Plaza.
(There's only one story containing this sentence ["Exhibition slave" by Outcast], which doesn't match your hints at all)
Might be
https://www.packagedstories.net/storiesek/emmasentombment.html
Seems at least close.
Quote from: black_falcon_2002 on June 21, 2026, 10:12:46 PMMight be
https://www.packagedstories.net/storiesek/emmasentombment.html
Seems at least close.
Thanks, but that is something completely different ;D