A/N: This is my second attempt at a fic in a ridiculously long time. I love the Prince of Egypt and I thought it would be interesting to tell the in-between parts of Moses and Tzipporah's budding courtship from the film. Anyway, I hope you like it, and I'll continue to update whenever I have the time. Most content (c) Dreamworks, SKG.


I remember, quite vividly, the very first time I saw him. Although it has been many years ago, my memory of him has not faded, and I can still hear the jeering of the crowds as I was led into Pharaoh's court that evening…

There had been a great feast, one to celebrate the promotion of the crown prince to Prince Regent and I was to be presented as an "exotic gift" from the royal priests of the temple of Ra as tribute to the prince's new honor. There were people lined everywhere, dressed in their finest attire. Even though the night was cool, the royal hall was warm from the heat of their bodies, and the fans of the palace servants only made the heat circulate through the room quicker. The blood in my veins pumped through me like the Nile during the rainy season as my heart beat faster and faster...

I had been captured after some Egyptian soldiers had threatened to steal some of my father's flock I was tending with my younger sisters one day. I told them to leave with a matter of force that they mistook for an invitation to water their camels from our well and take our day's supply of bread and milk, and that's when my temper got the best of me. The soldiers claimed that they were Pharaoh's guards and could do as they pleased, and I asked them what they were doing so far from Egypt if they were in Pharaoh's command. One of the men struck me for my insolence and then proceeded to tie me up and take four of my father's sheep along with him as the two left. My sisters immediately fled to fetch our father, but I was long gone by the time they came searching. I found out later that they were slave traders who were looking for some Hebrews that had escaped, but they found me instead and sold me to some priests for a ridiculous price. And that is how I came to find myself in Pharaoh's palace at the banquet for the prince.

My freedom was at stake, as was my dignity and my virtue, and I was not about to let them hand me over to some arrogant, spoiled prince to have his way with me later. Regardless of my attempts to resist my capture, I was thrown on the back of a camel and brought to the center of the alabaster-walled room to be paraded as the evening's main display, although I didn't go quietly. I tried to bite a servant who attempted to tie my hands behind my back, and they tied a cloth about my mouth so tightly that I felt I would choke. But even though they managed to bind me, this wasn't the end of my resistance. I was not an object or some man's piece of property, and I would prove them so. The more I tried, however, the tighter the ropes around my wrists became, wearing my flesh raw until it burned.

They pulled translucent red silk screens up around me as puffs of smoke snaked into the humid air. The camel squirmed in its place, and I nearly fell off its back, but the skinny priest made sure that I maintained my place. He had a stork-like face with a long hooked nose and beady eyes, a willowy frame and spindly legs. He looked at me with contempt, and I was all too happy to look at something else. I could still see blue silk dangling from marble posts carved by the hands of slaves over the rim of the silk screen, and linen draped the high ceilings, drawing the grandeur of the hall to its heart: the Pharaoh's throne. I heard the voice of the fat priest out in the open of the court, and then there were two voices, followed by the dimming of the lights and a series of awed responses from the crowd around them. It was starting...

In the next moment, the clouds of smoke became thicker and the silk screens fell to the floor, causing dust to rise and curl into the air. I felt a sharp tug at my wrists, and I resisted by pulling away. I resisted again and the rope was pulled once more, but harder. I jerked forward in a sudden motion, plummeting clumsily from the camel's back as its annoyed groan was accompanied by my own shriek. A roar of laughter erupted from onlookers as they mocked my moment of gracelessness. I caught my balance and the fat priest began to reel in my rope, pulling me in a game of tug-o-war as I refused to step forward. Another yank of the rope sent me reeling into the open as my feet slid across the cool marble floor and once again there was laughter.

All I could hear was the ringing of my ears and my beating heart as it threatened to burst through my chest. I was being made a spectacle of, degraded and humiliated, and with that realization, my blood began to boil. I looked up in fury at the faces all around me. Their snarls only added fuel to the fire burning in my heart.

And then I saw him.

There on the platform he stood proudly beside Pharaoh and his queen, and with his brother, the Prince. They descended to inspect me. I hesitated. He wore a wig in the common Egyptian style, gold plated jewels with the royal scarab insignia, a white linen wrap about his waist, and golden sandals. His features were regal and charismatic, although my mind was too consumed with hatred to realize how handsome he was. He had strong, broad shoulders and a lean muscular physique, bright eyes that glinted in the torch light, a noble profile, and a smile that would have been beautiful if it had not been marred by the smirk that mocked me with laughter. How I loathed him.

"We present to you a delicate desert flower," the fat priest remarked in his eloquent tone. Beneath it I detected cowardice.

The crowned prince was the first to approach me. His side knot dangled as he strode ever so gracefully towards me for an official inspection. I despised him even more so than his brother; his painted face was haughty and self-righteous, and I hated the way he looked at me.

"Let us inspect this desert flower," he said, taking my chin into his grasp.

Ha! So that's what I was? Some delicate, exotic ornament? I would show him how delicate I was. The gag that had been tied around my mouth was removed, and as the prince pinched my face in to purse my lips, I pulled from his grip and openly bit at his hand. He moved away before I could catch his flesh between my teeth, and I was lucky to not have been struck down for my outright insolence. But I didn't care.

"More like a desert cobra!" The crown prince laughed, nervously wringing the hand that was nearly bitten. The crowd and his brother jeered along with him as my fury and embarrassment steadily rose. Hot flashes coursed through my body as I stared indignantly at them both, summoning what little dignity I had left in me.

"Ha ha! Not much of a snake charmer, are you?" The younger prince said smugly, his arms folded over his chest.

The crown prince merely smirked back, a clever glint in his eye.

"That's why I… give her to you!" He blurted, shoving the younger prince in my direction.

"Ha! No, that's generous, but...," he stammered, struggling against his brother's grip on his shoulders.

He looked like a fool. They both did. And I was tired of the entire charade at my expense.

"I won't be given to anyone," I snapped venomously. I was not about to let them decide my fate. "Especially an arrogant, pampered palace brat!"

The crown prince, obviously quite amused at the display of my temper decided to toy with his younger brother. "Are you going to let her talk to you like that," he asked, twiddling his index finger at me from over his brother's gilded shoulder.

The younger prince immediately drew himself up to his full height with a look of indignation playing about his features. He was merely putting on a show. "You will show the proper respect for a prince of Egypt," he said in an authoritative tone – no doubt one he had learned from Pharaoh. He shoved his finger in my face, and I was half-tempted to bite it off. Instead, I spit in his face.

"I am showing you all the respect you deserve," I said, my voice rising so that all the court could hear. "NONE!"

At this point, I let my anger overcome me and I snatched the rope from the hands of the priests and began to whirl it above my head like a whip. I came dangerously close to hitting the prince in the face. Guards rushed at me, but they would not come close for the prince stopped them in their tracks. Looking back later, I found this strange.

"No! Wait!" He called before he dove to the marble floor. He caught the end of my rope and held it tight as I pulled against it, furiously struggling. I realize now that I really had seemed something of a snake, snapping and wriggling about. The rope cut even more into my raw skin and knew I would regret this later, but there was no turning back. "Be still," he said.

"Untie this rope!" I brashly demanded. I had no intentions of being still.

"Be still," he commanded again, contorting with the rope like a worm as I slung it about my head. That's exactly what I thought of him – a worm.

"Set me free!" I shouted.

"Be still!"

"Let me go!"

There was a moment of hesitation as the roar of the crowd's laughter crescendoed at our relay. The prince looked up at me from the ground as his look of distress suddenly dissolved into a coy smile that played about his lips. I knew something bad was about to happen, but I was too clouded with frustration to see. "As you wish," was all he had said before letting go of the rope that sent me hurling backwards into a small pool of water. The rope flew over my head as I fell on my side into the shallow bottom of the pool. Water splashed up around my face and into my mouth as I flopped clumsily about. My ears were filled with uproarious laughter from all around me as I struggled to lean up and I was glad that I could not see the court in front of me. My eyes laid to rest like daggers on the man before me. My bound wrists prevented me from making much of a graceful effort to compose myself, and I knew my attempts to walk out with any sort of dignity was gone. My clothes were completely soaked as was my hair, which had fallen out of place and spilled into wild curls that stuck up all over my head. I looked a complete fool.

"You there," chimed the crowned prince over the cackling of the court, "Have her dried up and sent to Prince Moses' chambers."

Immediately, I was helped up by a rotund man servant who draped me in an old dry cloth and proceeded to pull me out of the water. I slipped on the scummy surface below me, which elicited yet more laughter at my expense, but I managed to pull myself back up with the help of the servant. He then led me to a group of guards who began to escort me towards an exit and I watched as leery faces snickered at me from behind their ridiculous painted exteriors. I was fuming. I was wet, cold, tired and hungry, my wrists were raw and sore, and I had been mortified beyond any measure I had ever experienced. In a single day, my dignity and pride had been taken from me all in a few short moments, and now I was to be prisoner to a man whose intentions for me were unlikely to be good ones. What was to become of me? I had nowhere to turn, no one I knew, and no way to escape… But that didn't keep my hatred from subsiding.

As I left, sour and humiliated, I turned just in time to hear the announcement of Prince Moses' appointment as Royal Chief Architect. I watched with intensity as a ring was placed on his finger and the court cheered. It astounded me that such foul treatment was to be showered with praise and privilege, but then I remembered that the Egyptians were too proud to see beyond the extent of their noses, so compassion must be a forgotten concept. That great pride, I thought, would one day be their ruin. The man servant continued to usher me through the door, but I paused one last time to see the smug look on the prince's face as he ogled his new trinket. I wanted him to feel the resent I clearly displayed, to know my anger…

But to my surprise, when he looked back at me, all I found there was his regret.