Prologue:
Come to me my love. I pine for your sweet embrace. Hmm, never will I say those words! I am no ditzy love stricken girl like every other female around here. Girls like the ones out there, outside of our alabaster walls. They will titter and giggle behind their delicate perfumed hands with painted nails. They will also lie on their backs if they have the chance to. I think of this grumpily, while lying on my lover seat, overlooking the royal courtyard with a large lily pond and other plant life growing within. The reason why, is that I, princess Neferbennu, second daughter and third born to Queen Mukamutara of Mutara and Pharaoh Amenemhet of the twelfth dynasty. Next in line to be married off to some pretty boy that is full of himself, just like my sister's husband. "Humph! Pretty boy." I mutter.
"Mistress, it's time to get ready." My faithful body servant Merit addressed. I looked over my shoulder and seen the plump and buxom woman in a yellow sheath standing behind my couch. I turned my attention back to the garden and sighed.
"I don't wish to see him," I said sitting up. "I don't want to get married either."
"I know you don't, little eagle," she sighed taking a seat beside me. I looked down into my palms and then Merit's plump hand slipped into them and grasped them tightly. "But it will make your parents happy to see you married off to a handsome nobleman or aristocrat. Or even a successor!"
"But I don't want that Merit!" I shouted shooting up. Merit looked at me quizzically and watched me. "I want to travel across the world. See the grand cities! Go to Pompeii, the stone step gardens in Mesopotamia. I want adventure Merit. Not to be married off and become queen of a measly piece of land in a different country." I leaned over my balcony and extended my hand to the land that was presented before us. Merit, began to laugh heartily, which made me sink back on to my couch and put my head in my hands. "I know. I won't be able see such a thing in my entire life," I muttered to myself. I then shot up and stamped out of my room with Merit calling after me. "Why do I even bother?"
"Bother what?" I heard my older but twin brother say from behind me.
"None of your business Akhom." I retort as I descended the steps. Akhom caught up to me and then stopped abruptly in front of me.
"C'mon sis. You can tell me. I'm the only one that doesn't blurt anything out to anyone," It's true. My twin, my brother Akhom was the only one who I could really talk to and relate to. We were always close since birth. Everyone says that we are one person when we are together. Sometimes I wish that I had a sister for a twin and a brother as a twin for him. But we know that nothing is better than us two. Akhom is the only man that I will ever love. "And you know that." He held out his hand and I took it. When he closed his fingers around mine, he pulled me down the stairs, pass the garden, through the atrium, and to the Per Medjat where we could be alone to talk. Luckily the viziers were gone today until sunset. So we crept up to the private study and shut the doors behind us. When we made sure that everyone was gone, I rested in father's mahogany wood chair and Akhom sat on the floor. "So tell me."
"It's nothing," I mumbled, placing my chin in my palm. "I just told Merit that I don't want to marry a vain and conceited pretty boy from another kingdom or court. That I want to travel the world." I smoothed the place mat on father's desk which was a map of our kingdom of Thebes.
"Oh sis. You're the only girl that I know that would only want to travel around the world other than to marry some eligible nobleman."
"Your damn right. I bet you would like to do the same?" I inquired. Akhom shook his head, which puzzled me a little. "You don't? Why not?"
"Because. I do wanna lead this kingdom one day," he answered. "I'm the first born son of pharaoh so of course I would have to marry. And I wouldn't mind either." I stared at my brother. His bronze skin glowed like the object in the sun light that crept from the window. He was tall and well built like our father. Beautiful emerald green eyes that twinkle like the gem itself. His head shaved to show he is a grown man and his skin smooth as silk. Wearing a simple long white kilt with a gold and red pectoral lay on his muscled chest. My brother is a handsome boy for the age of fifteen. "I'm also surprised that father isn't pairing us up to keep the bloodline pure."
"Same. That would be a little, disgusting." I scrunched my nose and giggled as I fumbled a feather plumed pen in my fingers.
"That would be," he agreed with a chuckle as he stood and walked to the desk. "But," he started and leaned on the desk, his fists propping up his chest as he leaned on the desk. "I wouldn't mind marrying you, Bennu. I mean. I would have to marry a complete stranger that is possibly a whore that loves to do nothing but to drink and lie on her back. No, I would marry my twin sister that I known all my life that is beautiful as Hathor herself." I smiled and shook my head at my brother's choice of flattering words.
"You are truly a flirt dear Akhom. But even you I would not marry." I said getting up and walked around the desk to the door.
"And why is that Bennu?" his eyes followed me to the door.
"Because," I started as I opened the doors and then looked over my shoulder at him. "Even though I love you with all my ka. Neither would I marry you. Your just not my type." I teased and left. I felt better as I walked out of the Per Medjat. Talking with Akhom always cheered me up. As I walked proudly and happily back to my room, I happened to come upon the small temple of Thoth that we have near the royal atrium. I decided to take a peak and see if anyone was in here. For some reason the palace seemed like it was disserted today. The viziers were gone, mother, father I haven't seen for two days, and I didn't even see priests that would hurriedly pass through, throughout the hours. No one in sight. As I enter the room where the great ibis head god of truth and wisdom stood towering over me. Gifts surround at his large feet. As I enter, the smell of sage wafts past my nose. That's odd? They usually don't burn sage here? I thought as I proceed to toward the statue. Then I focused my sight on a boy that stood at the foot of Thoth. He had long onyx wavy hair that fell to the middle of his back, a gold diadem perched on top of his head. He wore a knee length white and yellow kilt with a lapis and ruby red sequined belt that wrapped around his waist. Lapis blue and gold bands clasped around his forearms, wrists, and ankles.
"How dare you!" he angrily began. "How dare you desert me father!" he yells lowly. I hid behind a pillar and watch and listen with interest. "How dare you abandon your first born for a pretty little homo of a son!" he hissed. "I was supposed to success you, not him!" He then lifted his hand to his neck and jerked something off. He opened his hand and there lay a silver pendant. "Forget that you even had a second son. Burn in hell!" He then threw the pendant at Thoth.
"Hey!" I holler, appearing from out behind the pillar. He turns abruptly and his face changed from a grimacing anger to an earth shattering fear. "How dare you, desecrate the god of wisdom and truth!" I hollered pointing my finger to him. He grins. That sets me ablaze and I then start to approach him. He grins and then white mist forms around him. He then looks up, leaps into the air and his arms turn into wings. Wings! Alabaster white wings that expanded twelve to fourteen feet wide. Then darted up into the air and through the skyline, leaving a lingering gust of wind that blew my braids back with a clatter of my beads. I fell to the marble floor and shielded myself from the gust of dust and sand. When it died down, I sat up and looked up. He was gone. Did I see what I just seen? I thought drastically, trying to sum things up. I look to my side and see the necklace he threw at the statue. I picked it up and studied it. It was a lapis lazuli crescent moon with a silver back. "Can't be. It could be an offering that was thrown around from-," my words trailed off when I noticed a glittering white object beside me. It was a feather. I slowly reached for it and picked up with my index finger and thumb. It was pure white with gold dust at the tips. I then looked around with my peripheral vision and noticed that the whole room was covered in white stuff. I then focused, and it was feathers scattered all around the temple floor. White and gold dusted feathers everywhere! It wasn't a dream. It wasn't one of my crazed fantasies.
It was real….