Many years ago, in the land of Egypt, there lived a man named Neferkaptah. Neferkaptah was a farmer, as his father was before him, his grandfather, and his great grandfather. Neferkaptah had a wife, Mi-Aset, and with her, he bore a son named Mer-Ib. The fields were plentiful in the time of Ramesses the Great, yet Neferkaptah was not to be satisfied so easily.
Our tale begins with that fateful journey to the marketplace, where Neferkaptah's life would forever change.
Neferkaptah waded through street shops with their excitable owners, musicians in the midst of their trance-like music, and beggars, famished and ravaged from the Egyptian heat. His wife, Mi-Aset broke away from Neferkaptah to wander the clothing shops, feeling the different textures before her, dyed in the richest colors Egypt had to offer. Mer-Ib, being only five years old, waited impatiently at the shop's entrance, but forever keeping a watchful eye on his father, who seemed all too familiar with the scene around him.
For Neferkaptah had become bored with his monotonous life. He longed for greatness and dignity; something only the wealthy could afford. Farming no longer appealed to him, and his wife's beauty had started to pale in comparison to the noble woman's.
If only there were something...
Neferkaptah cursed at the old pedler who had just bumped into him. The old man stumbled along, hunched grotesquely over an old walking stick, his haggard face nearly hidden by a tattered cowl. The old man humbly apologized, not wishing to incur the anger of a man so strikingly tall. He cowered under the glare of Neferkaptah, whose blood seemed to boil at the slightest infringement of his space.
"I do not wish the wrath of Neferkaptah upon me, kind sir."
At this remark, Neferkaptah's face had turned from a glare, to that of the utmost surprise. The old man began to walk away, when Neferkaptah clasped his shoulder, forcibly turning the man around to face him.
"Surely we have not met stranger, and yet you know me by name. How is this so?"
A small smile crept upon the old man's withered face. "Ah, the destiny of Great Neferkaptah is not one to be taken lightly. I have been sent to give you a message, oh worthy one."
Neferkaptah's face contorted in confusion. "How is it you can see my very own destiny? And what of this message for which you speak of?"
Again the man smiled, this time showing a mouth, devoid of most teeth. "I knew the High Priest of Ptah once, and he bestowed upon me the power to see one's destiny. And yours, Great Neferkaptah, is one of utmost importance. I implore you, take careful heed of my words."
Neferkaptah was entranced by this mysterious man, and so he listened with an attentive ear and mind.
"You are bound for greatness Neferkaptah, but not without it's sacrifices. Are you willing to sacrifice, Neferkaptah?"
Neferkaptah nodded diligently.
"Then you will succeed in your destiny. You must take you and your family up the Nile near Koptos. There you will dig until you find a cave. Inside this cave is a gold sarcophagus. And in this sarcophagus you shall find what you have long yearned for."
Neferkaptah was shocked, but intrigued. "What is in this gold sarcophagus, wise one?"
The old man laughed. "It is not for me to tell, but for you to discover Neferkaptah."
A sudden commotion of a thief being captured behind him, caught Neferkaptah's attention. But upon turning around to face the man once more, Neferkaptah could find nothing.
~~~
And so Neferkaptah did as the old man had commanded. Overcoming his wife's protests and his son's jubilant nature, Neferkaptah packed the family's most precious possessions, and sailed down the Nile towards Koptos.
When they finally reached their destination, Neferkaptah set up tent for his wife and child, and left to start digging for the mysterious cave.
After 20 days and nights of looking for the fabled cave, Neferkaptah was at last victorious. Entering the dimly lit cave, Neferkaptah was greeted with emptiness. There was nothing contained in the depths of the cave, not even a hieroglyph. But off in the distance, Neferkaptah saw a glint of something.
Racing towards it, he found what he had sought. It was indeed a sarcophagus made of the purest gold, blinding to merely look upon it. His heart pounding within him, Neferkaptah hefted the lid off the sarcophagus.
And there, before his very eyes, lay something so magnificent, it was often deemed a myth.
It was the Book of Thoth.
Neferkaptah took the sacred book into his hands and opened the never before seen object. Swelling with anticipation, Neferkaptah let his eyes dance over the finely carved hieroglyphs, and slowly, methodically, began to read.
~~~
But unbeknownst to Neferkaptah, the god Thoth raged like a captive beast. Infuriated that Neferkaptah had discovered the book, Thoth began a to instill a series of curses against the man who could gain the powers of the gods themselves.
~~~
And gain he did. Instantly after reading the sacred scrolls, Neferkaptah felt a power never known to him before, course through his body. He laughed, and as he did so, the tone of his voice deepened considerably. Neferkaptah then thought of a plan to keep the power in his body for all eternity.
Reasoning that reading the words would merely escape him after a time, he devised that he must digest the words completely.
And so Neferkaptah copied a reading down, and after doing so, crushed the papyrus and dried ink into a cup of water. Greedily, he drank the cup down, and felt a surge of power so strong, his body felt as though it might explode.
Unfortunately for us, it did not.
~~~
Innocently playing by the Nile's edge, Mer-Ib and his mother were unaware of the dangers that lay before them.
For Thoth had convinced the crocodile god Sobek to assist him in his vengeance against Neferkaptah and all his kin.
With a speed so swift Mi-Aset nearly missed witnessing, Sobek rose from the waters suddenly and swallowed the boy Mer-Ib whole, and after digesting the boy's flesh, spit out his bones into a pile before his very mother.
Mi-Aset's shrieks were so terrifying, so all-encompassing, that Neferkaptah was shaken from his power-inducing trance. He raced to the surface, and upon doing so, made the grisly discovery.
Mi-Aset could not comfort herself, so deep was her loss. Shaking with grief, she continued to shriek until Neferkaptah shook her from the depths of her horror.
Neferkaptah raged within himself. Screaming at Mi-Aset, he demanded to know what took place, what terrible death had stalked his son.
But when Mi-Aset looked into his eyes, she no longer saw her husband. She saw a figment of what once was, and was now a powerful demon. Mi-Aset grew terrified.
Neferkaptah could not contain his anger. He accused Mi-Aset of killing his son, of doing so in jealousy. Mi-Aset was too scared to respond, instead silently crying in front of this demon in her husband's form.
At last, his rage too great to overcome, Neferkaptah produced a dagger, and wielded it at his wife. Mi-Aset screamed in shock, but could not escape Neferkaptah's range. He stabbed her repeatedly, and when he was sure that she could not live, he left her, and scooped up the bones of his dead son, carrying them off towards the depths of the cave.
But Mi-Aset still had life in her. Sensing death was imminent, Mi-Aset prayed to the cat-goddess Bast for vengeance.
~~~
Neferkaptah set about the grim task of bringing his dead son back to life. Reading from the Book of Thoth, Neferkaptah chanted the spell that would bring his son back to life.
But so little did Neferkaptah know about the incantation, that he did not realize it would only bring the bones to life, not that which was his son. The bones collected themselves, and began to rise. Neferkaptah could not speak, so great was his surprise. The bones began to walk about, a horrific dance macabre.
Enrapt with his gruesome creation, that Neferkaptah did not see his wife behind him.
Hearing footsteps suddenly, Neferkaptah spun around, and saw his wife, covered in blood, but walking towards him no less.
Her once-alive son skipped towards his near-lifeless mother who stared in horror at what her husband had brought back. Mi-Aset touched her son's freshly skinned skull, and the little bones disintegrated, as though made of dust.
Neferkaptah could not believe his eyes.
"How did you come about these powers, oh wife? And how is it you still stand?"
Mi-Aset sadly faced her husband. "My time is near Neferkaptah. And so is yours."
She touched the face of her demonic husband, who shrieked in pain.
"For the blood of Bast now flows in my veins. And she has deemed you unworthy of your new-found powers."
Neferkaptah's flesh was rotting before Mi-Aset's very eyes, but he was not yet dead.
For Neferkaptah's powers meant eternal life. But Mi-Aset's powers rendered him immobile, a living mummy.
And when Neferkaptah could no longer find the strength to scream, Mi-Aset let go. She placed him in the gold sarcophagus, and draining her last little bit of life, she placed the Book of Thoth into an iron box and sealed it tightly, then tossed it into the Nile.
And so she collapsed, dead, on top of the sarcophagus which contained her mummified husband.
By Bast's will, Mi-Aset's body was given immortality by means of transforming her into that of a stone cat, to forever watch over the sarcophagus in assurance that Neferkaptah would never escape again. For if he did, he would bring about the end of humanity in his near-godlike state.
And so Mi-Aset remained, perched upon the gold sarcophagus for all eternity.
That is, until now.