- Ekhos, Egypt, 3827BC

"What is Ra's name is it?!" Ramses asked his fellow guard Amen. He was referring to the odd object that he had found at the gates to the village.

"Shush, don't curse in the gods' name, they'll hear you and curse our village!" Amen replied frantically. Ramses was a guardian of Ekhos. Though hardly a mighty soldier of the Pharaoh's army, or a well-armed guard of the city of Abydos, he was formidable with a spear and had protected his village from many hungry predators.

Ramses yawned. It had been a long day, and longer still since he'd had any action. Still, it was a rather easy job, and it gained you more food. But this was something new. The object was stone, and looked like it had been carved by a master craftsman. It was in the shape of a tall woman, and wore an intricate gown that extended to the floor. It had two strange appendages protruding from its' back, textured in a way Ramses had never seen before; it was certainly unlike anything he'd seen before. The appendages started at the object's 'shoulders' and ran down to almost touch the floor. The arms of the stone shape were crossed over its' face like it was trying to cover its' expressions. The point of the object was a total mystery. Was this what the pharaoh looked like? A new god the high priests of Egypt had discovered?

"It must be some sort of statue. But it's nothing like what I've seen the carvers of Abydos cut out of the rock." Ramses said.

"It's a mystery for another day, Ramses." Amen told him. "We've got to get to the shrine before noon, for this 'trial of the sun' that the priest claims is going to happen."

"Well, help me pull this thing inside the gates. We can take another look at it later." Ramses replied. The two guards grabbed the object at both sides and heftily dragged it through the gates, placing it by the inside wall before turning and walking away towards the shrine. If they'd have looked back they would have seen that the strangely shaped stone had moved its' hands away from its' eyes and was now watching them retreat.

The whole village had turned up at the shrine for the 'big event', rumoured to be able to be seen all across Egypt. The priest stationed in Ekhos had been told by a messenger that the high priest of the Pharaoh had given instructions to the whole of the Egyptian Empire for the priests to look to the stars. Once the priest, Hotep, had done so, he'd noticed the path of Khonsu, the moon, was leading it towards Ra, the sun. They'd guessed that this was the day the treacherous moon god would cover Ra, allowing Apophis to bring all manner of evils onto the land. He'd warned the guards to be ready for the incident, and summoned them along with everybody else to the shrine to witness the event, and band together to beat back the invaders from the Duat. Now the loyal inhabitants of Ekhos had gathered at the shrine to witness their god's battle with evil, and to chant prayers to help him overcome it. The time was now. They could see the moon disk of Khonsu about to collide with Ra. Everyone became very still and quiet, then began chanting a poem distributed amongst them by Hotep's servants. The chanting began soft, then became louder and louder. Then, the illumination across the dry landscape of Egypt began to dim, and Khonsu's disk slid across in front of the sun. This caused quite an effect amongst the people; some began to shake uncontrollably and stammer in their prayers, some began to weep silent tears of fear for their deity. The sunlight became darker and darker, and the normally blinding light of the sun was slowly filtered out by the now-black circle that was the moon. The people of Ekhos were mesmerised, chanting frantically to try and rescue Ra from Apophis' clutches. And as their eyes were on the eclipsing moon, they did not see the vicious predator that had been brought into their village begin to do its' work.

The Assassin crushed its' first victims head in its' claws and dropped his body to the ground in a split second. It straightened up and looked around at its' future victims. Time was of the essence; it could be trapped for months if anybody noticed it moving around. Darting from pillar to pillar at the shrine it would pick out a victim of the 50 people here. Some it would drag out of sight and break with its' bare hands, others it would take from behind, vanishing them with a touch and embracing the swift injection of potential time energy into its' form. Again and again men, women and children would fall at its' hands. Children were the best for displacing through the ages; they had the most days left to live, providing the Assassin with a feast, while aged humans it would simply shatter with its' stony hands. It worked with such precision, such velocity, that its' victims would not even give a shout in recognition of their passing, simply crumple to the floor immediately. This was good, the Assassin decided. If they made one single noise then it would be discovered, and then it would not feed for a very long time. 23 it had taken already, and so engrossed in the petty astronomical anomaly these puny creatures were that they had not noticed the people next to them disappear. But they would all have their turn…

Hatshepsut was standing next to her mother, holding her hand, when she detected movement in the corner of her eye. Turning her head away from the now almost completely covered sun, she saw, to her horror, many people lying dead on the ground, their heads broken open or twisted at an awkward angle. She gasped, and tugged her mother's hand. Hatshepsut's mother ignored her, but gave the back of her hand a slap when she persisted. Hatshepsut stood up and began to run away, unknowingly leaving behind a conspicuous set of footprints in the sand.

The Assassin had only a few victims left now. It turned, and spotted the shape of a young female human running away from a larger female, evidently her parent. A twisted smile crossed the stone face of the Assassin, and it decided it would have some fun with this one, that had evaded its' deception. It breezed around the shrine, vanishing one person, snapping the neck of the bearded man praying at the altar, and lastly pulling the head off the female the small human had fled from. Blood flowing over its' feet, the Assassin reasoned, something psychopathic predators do not do often. The brain of this particular human be useful for luring this minute female to her death.

Hatshepsut ran, and kept running. Whatever had killed those people was still there, and so she had to run to the most fortified place: the palace of the Pharaoh. Of course, the Pharaoh lived in Abydos, but when he would take an annual tour of his empire he would need a place of accommodation. So he had arranged for the best stonemasons in the area to carve him a place to stay when he visited the area. Unlike the wooden huts that the inhabitants of Ekhos lived in, the palace was made from solid sandstone, and was a durable place to hide when one was besieged. Hatshepsut had been shown the palace when she was much younger, and could remember it vaguely. At least, she knew how to get in. All of a sudden, she heard her mother call out to her in a voice straddled with pain She skidded to a halt and glanced behind her, and saw a mysterious site. At the base of the path leading to the palace was a statue of a woman, pointing up at her, with strange growth on its' back that branched out behind it. The statue certainly hadn't been there before, and her mother was nowhere to be seen. Hatshepsut blinked to see whether she was hallucinating, and to her shock found that within the space of that single blink the statue had moved about a metre closer to her. She yelped, and sprinted faster than she had ever done before away from the village. After about half a minute the palace came into view. Looking behind her, she saw the statue was now about 10 metres behind her. She turned her body around and ran backwards up to the palace. Once she got there she spared a glance forward to open the heavy stone door, the cost of which was the statue moving ever closer to her. She pulled the door open and closed it behind her, and then paused for breath. Suddenly, Hatshepsut was startled back into action when she heard a loud pounding on the door. It sounded like the statue was trying to break through the sandstone column separating her from it. She turned and ran up the corridor. She came to a room full of strange square panels of shiny material. She looked at one of them and was shocked to see herself look back! Then, she remembered that the Pharaoh had ordered these special panels in which one could see themselves to be moved here from his own palace. But, she noticed something else. There was nowhere left to run. The room had no exits except the one she had come through. She turned to run back down, only to see the statue advancing on her through the passageway. She screamed and ran back into the room, then looked back to see it had followed her into the centre. She dived to the side and huddled up in a ball, ready to receive her fate. Nothing happened. She slowly uncoiled herself and turned around, expecting to see the statue looming over her, but saw that it had not moved! She stood up and walked in front of it. The statue hadn't moved a bit since it had entered the room. But why not? After a few moments, Hatshepsut decided she could ponder on it later, for now she could finally have a good look at it. It was as tall as a man, and the strange things on its' back were textured in a way that she did not recognise. She looked up into its' serene face, its' blank eyes. Its' eyes...they were somewhat mesmerising. There was something about them that made her want to stand here forever just watching them, just staring...and this she did, for so long she didn't notice herself counting down…

So lusting for potential energy the Assassin had been that it hadn't noticed its' mistake, but not inside its' mind it was roaring, screaming, throwing a metaphorical tantrum. It had let its' rationality die again, and now it had wandered into a room full of mirrors, one of the most dangerous places a member of its' kind could ever find itself. It was staring at an exact reflection of itself. It was trapped forever now, for a replica of itself would appear eventually, and then the two predators would be left staring at each other until they both crumbled into dust. At least, this was the Assassin's fate, until the girl stepped in front of it. Now she was staring up into its' eyes, almost hypnotised. How fitting it was that the very thing the Assassin had lost its' life trying to destroy would now be destroyed itself. As the minutes passed the Assassin saw the tiny replica of itself appear in the human's eyes, growing larger and larger until it lanced upwards in size, filling the space occupied by her and replacing her. The Assassin could feel some satisfaction, knowing it had fallen its' final enemy, and with that thought it' consciousness drifted off into eternity, waiting for the day it would perhaps be rescued from the prison of itself.