Chapter 10
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December 27, 3053 B.C
Middle of the nowhere in Egypt
"You're crazy" I said after hearing her genius idea to stop Sekhmet.
"Do you have a better plan?" she haughtily remarked, squeezing my chest harder as I eased the horse down the dune.
We have been travelling since sunrise and now the the sun was setting down to the west. The sky was slowly fading from orange to indigo; so was the temperature with the winds picking up and bringing grains of sand into my eyes. And as I was rubbing my the princess decided to jump off the moving horse.
"What are you doing?"I screamed at her, dismounting off the horse and trying to catch up with her as she scrambled around, looking at the ground as if she were looking for precious gems.
She looked further into the forest moving towards the trunks and inspecting them up and down before moving to another until she called out, "Found it!"
She displayed a reddish brown wingless insect that moved impatiently and fruitlessly to get away, "My gods, I cannot believe I actually found one." She smiled excited as if I had a reason to show her joy for a bug.
"You know since the mating season is not till the season of shemu*." She said slowly as if were a toddler.
"It will help us because it's a bug?
"It's not just any bug, it is a kermes.*" She exasperated a sigh, lowering the bug. "What do you even learn when preparing to be a god?"
"Not this obviously"
"This little 'bug' makes red dye, which will make make the beer look red." She then noticed something behind me pushing me out of the way. "Perfect"
Precisely right next to the tree behind me was a clay jar, where she practically skipped towards enjoying that everything she needed was here. But of course like I heard from one of my many lessons with Thoth, nothing can ever be so easy in life, especially of a mortal. Her scream could be heard from miles away as she dropped the jar to the floor along with her precious bug, jumping behind me moving me forward to be its victim.
"Kill it just get it away"
"It's just a snake Kamilah"
"No its not its a el-ṭorîsha* ,Apophis creature, enemy of Ra and I carry the essence of Ra so it's not just a snake, can you just make it go away"
I observed it, considering it for a moment as it side winded towards us, its small body with light grey, pinkish, yellow hues matched that of the sand. It's eyes observing us with its horns above it. I wondered if it would be terrible if it did attack Kamilah. Mentally I shook my mead for even considering such a temptation that was pure evil. Like that of my father. In those moments of distraction it attacked striking at my heel but I struck it head seconds before it could inject it poisonous venom in me. It's dead black eyes stare up, looking at me as I felt Kamilah shake behind me, so I kicked it towards the bushes so that its presence would no longer bother us.
"Hey it's okay, it's dead." I said turning to comfort her in the best way I could, since I had never had had to before today. She was no longer shaking, but looked up at me with fear still in her eyes. For the first time today also, I understood how a few seconds could determine whether a person would live or die.
"Come on, let's look for the bugs okay." I said putting my hand on her shoulder as I seen other mortals do to others. She looked at my hand before meeting my eyes once more, this time the fear in them vanished and the corner of her mouth lifted upwards.
"Thank you."
"Come on."
We looked through the trees and in between the bushes , but she stayed closer to me just incase. Within a few minutes I had found a few of the kermes, but then she told me they were of no use.
"Get the girls, the males are of no use." She pointed out.
"Gee thanks" I answered sarcastically, letting go of the 'boys'.
We kept on looking, with Kamilah carrying the jar on her hip. By an hour, it was full of them. As we edged further out of the forest, I sniffed something up, I picked up my pace heading further north, until I came upon the bodies.
The sight was disturbing that was for sure. Sekhmets victims had no mercy in their last moments in this life. Her desperation for blood, had caused the dismemberment of the innocent mortals who had been here. There were at least all whole families of four, with parents scattered away from the remains of their children. How would they be able to reach the afterlife with a proper burial. When Kamilah approached and saw the atrocious sight she covered her mouth, but I heard her words of 'By the gods'
Then we heard a small whimper from behind a boulder, I signaled her to stay behind as I slowly approached it. As I began to circle it I was jumped. A man with a knife lunged at me screaming at the others behind the boulder to run. He pushed me to floor and brought his knife to my neck. I rolled us over so I was in the upper hand, punching him in the face. I was about to do it again, when my arm was pulled back.
"Anubis stop!" Kamilah screamed as she pulled me off of him.
The man gripped his jaw, as woman in a white dress rushed towards him. That is when acknowledge who the others were from behind the boulder. It was a family, larger than average families of five, there were eight. The man was in mid-twenties his head razor cut and eyes were smudged with kohl. Of course his nose was also bloody, but that didn't matter. The rest were women ranging from the old age of forty* to as young as a baby which was being held by a women Kamilah's age.
"I am so sorry about that." The woman said when helping the man. "We just thought it was the goddess."
"Well you thought wrong." I remarked.
"You did not have to see your brother be torn into pieces or hear your nephews endless cries." He answered, looking away from whom I presumed was his wife. "So it was more of a precaution."
"I am sorry for your loss, but we need to be on our way to the city." Kamilah said, still holding onto my arm as if I were to do something wrong.
"If you go there you will only end up like them." The oldest of the group remarked.
"Well we are going anyways, but just before we go do you know where the cities production of beer is."
"Are you seriously going out there to drink your problems away will not help you avoid that crazy deity."
"Abasi you cannot be saying that about the gods."
"I don't care." Abasi snapped. "Thanks to that goddess I have lost two of my children and now my nieces are orphans." She pointed to the girl and the baby in her arms.
"We have a plan, we just need to know where it is." She pleaded looking at all of them.
"I own it." The man said. "But first I need to know what this plan before I even consider giving you the way"
And so we did explain, well at least Kamilah did. Why we had the kermes. Why we needed all the beer. What I did was watch their expressions as it sunk in on our non-foolproof plan. The wife of the plan was the first one to react.
"We'll help you."
"Whoa wait." He said pulling her away from facing us "Jabari no what about the children."
"I will not sit out here knowing that others are suffering and dying and not doing anything about it Ishaq." She remarked looking straight in the eyes of her husband. They seemed to have an internal conversation with one another and by the way Jabari smiled triumphantly, I did not even have to ask.
"We would love to help you guys." He said through his teeth.
They led us back to Memphis, by southeast side so that we walked through the edge of the Nile. There was no light left in the sky besides that of the white moon. We waded across the water, avoiding going deeper in the water in case of an alligator* were nearby. When we were able to approach the city, it was dark no fires were lit in that area but from afar they could see fires that were set in the the southern part of the city and the cries of people echoed in the night.
I could sense the deaths as well just like I could with the wind coming from the north. It was all around how each life left their bodies or who only had a few seconds left. I felt the five year old girl give a scream as jar that she was hiding behind was thrown away or that of the 20 year old man being clawed at. I gave a shaky breath as I tried to control these sensations that all of sudden was attacking me. Then I felt someone slide their hand in my hand squeezing, I slightly turned to face Kamilah.
"Are you okay?" Her violet eyes gleamed up at me, worry showing through them.
"Yeah" I whispered back, squeezing her hand back to reassure her too.
Ishaq opened his warehouse doors as quietly as possible, signaling for us to follow. we hurriedly shuffled through the courtyard towards the back and there it was, hundreds of jars filled with beer. Immediately they all got to work. When Kamilah was about to open the jar, I stopped her, just to see whether or not powers that were beginning to show were really what I thought.
It turned out I was right when she removed the lid, all the bugs were dead. She looked at me but said nothing as they proceeded with the plan as they crushed the red bugs into pulp and the liquid left was poured into each of the jars of beer*. We all looked at the work and stood there for a second contemplating what was to happen next.
"So now what?" Asabi asked.
"We bring her here." I answered. "Well I do."
I looked at all of them, none of them knew that I was a god, besides Kamilah. They were all risking their lives so they could help the daughter of the man who had been the cause of this. A god who could of cared less in the beginning and now we're trusting us with their. Oh gods.
The children stayed inside while the adults began to carry out the jars. I said goodbye to all of them and began to head south to attract the predator towards the house. As I turned the corner, I was stopped by Kamilah.
"Anubis" She said finally catching up to me.
"Yeah."
"About earlier, I know how you felt at least kind of."
"About what?" I asked looking back, as I heard the screams getting closer.
"Look what I'm trying to say is that I know that you are a god and that you may not know what you represent or what.." she pushed her hair back, as if wondering what to say next. "But I know that when we entered the city you felt the lives of everyone or with the jars of the kermes."
"Kamilah we don't have time for this"
"I know but it does matter okay from what I can see you are god of death and this can be used as an advantage, she is not the only powerful one out there okay? Remember that."
And with that I left knowing now that I was god of death for sure. That I was not just a god wandering with a title with no purpose. I was Anubis son of Set and Nephthys,god of death and keeper of its ways. And tonight I am going to prove it to others.
*.*.*
Kermes is a insect that makes red dye and is still used today.
Shemu was the season of harvest of ancient Egypt , so it was the river Nile would flood the fields.
El-ṭorîsha is also known as the horned viper and is considered as an image of the devil or of chaos(Apophis) by egyptian of the ancient times and today.
The average age in ancient Egypt was actually that of 40, which is why they would marry and start families at a young.
Alligators are actually nocturnal animals so they are most likely to eat someone around that time.
Beer was something so common to drink in ancient Egypt, that it was drunk from an early age and was like us nowadays drinking juice or soda. Wine was not common as it was not produced until a few centuries later.
*.*.*
Lady Ahminrah: December 21st,happy fictional birthday for me! Even though in reality we're in June.I didn't expect Ra to kiss didn't see that you update soon,the story is so amazing done!
Happy fictional birthday to you Lady Ahminrah! And thank you for your review, it means a lot! As to Ra kissing Zia it was not supposed to be expected.
As for this chapter please review guys and if any of you have questions I will gladly answer them.
-JOZINGEL
