And...then a quarantine happened and caused the first update in...6-ish years.

03/2020


Chapter 55: Best Party Exit

So if I know how to do something, it's how to go to a party.

Normally. In a normal time where-in, there's a DJ, usually some sort of fun lighting choices, maybe decorations, maybe fun party food, and party alcohol. Boy and girls talk to other boys and girls, usually everyone ends up shouting to hear anything, someone makes an idiot of themselves, and everyone goes home to sleep it off and try to remember all the things they did and said the night before.

That was a pretty standard way to go to a party from what I knew. Throw in some extra drunken escapades for some people (I hadn't ever had one, but boy had I seen some fun ones from other people) and often a scandalous affair/hook-up (again, only had I witnessed these and these were sometimes hilarious and other times disturbing). The richness or location of the party and its inhabitants didn't seem to change this general formula where the party was in NYC or in someone's parent's house when they were gone for a night or a weekend. All that really changed was how expensive the DJ/decorations/clothes/food/liquor was, and how likely it was to be talked about on talk shows and tabloids the next day.

Now however, I was going to go to what was basically a party without any and all of that. Oh I'm sure there will be food, alcohol, fancy clothes, some form of entertainment, and surely someone would still be hooking-up or trying to. But it was going to be different, nothing like what I knew.

And I know I "went" to a party before, back in Hattsua and the other night when I did the dancing, but this was still different. This time I didn't have something to do to keep me focused and working, and I literally knew one person here, and we didn't even like each other much. I also had no way to make much small talk with people. How's your day been? Weather is hot, like always I'm sure. Did you like that new movie Jennifer Gardner was in? Oh by the way, did you know I'm from the future and have no idea how I got here?

Sure, I was way looking forward to all of that.

But ok, I kinda was. I'm very bored here. I used to go on jets, go everywhere, talk to everyone, and work all the time. Now I do nothing. I'm very bored and unused to all of this sitting around trying to feel like maybe I can be useful.

So when one of the servants showed me to the party and left me at the open doorway with a slight bow to me before waiting silently to see if I needed anything else, I took a deep breath, and then walked in. This would be weird I'm sure; at least until I got into a rhythm and got used to it, but it would be something to do and probably still familiar to what I knew and was good at back home.

Besides, it would be something to do that didn't involve me being chased, sick, fighting someone, or finding dead bodies.

PLEASE let it not involve me getting chased, sick, fighting, or finding something better left on CSI.


Ramses noticed when Kiara stepped into the room in the middle of the banquet. He noticed that she looked around for a moment, seeming unsure of herself, then headed towards the refreshment table. She grabbed what appeared to be a goblet of water and piece of bread which she nibbled on as she began to slowly walk through the room.

For a moment, he wondered if he ought to go walk with her; introduce her to people, give her someone to talk to. But then she drifted into a group of women and stood by them for a moment, listening to their chatter and seemed to introduce herself and begin a conversation. Ramses knew quite a bit about the noblewomen of Egypt, and he could easily tell that these women were confused, but intrigued by the foreigner.

Honestly he was confused and intrigued by her as well. Somehow it did not surprise him that Kiara would be able to work herself into groups of people here. She seemed to have quite the knack for working her way into places she didn't seem to fit in. Like an old general's house, an orphanage in the slums of town, and perhaps most exciting, a mayor's bedchamber. She was not always subtle with her approach, and she caused trouble and needed assistance more often than not, but she had quite the gift for getting involved in things.

She also had a knack for getting into trouble, trouble that he had to resolve.

With that thought in mind, Ramses glanced around the room and took special notice of the many glances and stares leveled at the brown-haired stranger. Not all present were guarded their glances, and it was obvious that many quite conversations were being held about her. Whispers of Kiara's trip to the town and orphanage had begun to circulate, and rumors of a brown-haired goddess in Hattusa performing miracles had started to reach Egyptian soil and ears.

Ramses took a drink of his wine and continued to make idle conversation with the portly man at his elbow. The conversation was something mundane about prize horses and breeding, but Ramses was keeping an eye on the room and hoping the men he had sent out to gather up certain intelligences would be back soon. He had fulfilled his assigned task here, and he had a vague sense of time running out.

Who it was running out for was the question. As well as what the time running out might mean for that person.


So maybe I'd worried a bit much. Maybe I was a worrywart at heart or something. It's not like this was so hard. Really, grab some food, and mingle a bit with different groups. Listen to the conversation a minute to see what would be the best thing to say or not, and then add small talk. It's not too hard. High school never ends; it's not really that hard to find something to talk about, and with women you can always rely on gossip. I mean, even if you don't know exactly who you're talking about, it's not hard to figure out how to interject a witty comment about the shallowness of certain women chasing some men and the predictableness of men to lose their minds when pretty women are involved.

Ok, so maybe it's all highly stereotypical, and I should be a better person and not say bad things. Stay quiet if you can't say nice things and all, but honestly, society and social circles are often built on gossiping about other people. It's how life moves on, and you can bet that someone is talking about you just as much as you're talking about them.

As always it's hard to tell time for certain here, but I'm pretty sure well over an hour had passed when the three women I was currently chatting with abruptly turned the conversation to the "Great General User Ramses." Like they literally kept referring to him as that; no wonder he had a big head. Not only were they suddenly talking about him, I noticed that they were all three staring really hard at something past my shoulder.

Three guesses as to who they were staring at. And the first two guesses don't count.

I glanced behind myself just to confirm what I already knew, and sure enough General was not too far away chatting up two other men who looked just as spine-straight military as General himself did sometimes. I wondered briefly if it was an official conversation that meant trouble, or if they were all just comparing epic war stories and trying to decide who was the most epic.

Just as I was glancing at him, he looked up though, and glanced at me. Then he gave me that really annoying smirk of his and turned away. I scowled slightly, but hid it before turning back around.

Only to see the three women staring at me with obvious jealousy, curiosity, and questioning gazes. Oh, a cat fight was a coming.

"I believe you were traveling with the General Ramses were you not? My my, what a fortunate lady." One of the women said not even trying to veil her jealousy. Oh please honey, have him.

"Yes, he was stationed in Hattsua where I currently reside. He rather graciously agreed to let me accompany him here so that I might have an opportunity to see such a beautiful city." Gracious my ass. Journeying with General was anything but a pleasant, relaxing, site-seeing trip.

"I must admit, I find myself curious. What is he like as a…travel partner?" one of the other women asked. Her brow was raised, and the smirk on her lips made it pretty damn obvious, she didn't want to know about General as a travel partner. Ew, how would I know? Why would I want to?

"He is very reserved I believe. We did not interact much, and on the occasions we did, he did not share many details of himself or his life. We are really just acquaintances actually." Deflect deflect. Honestly, I had no want to be in the conversation, and I really didn't want people to start assuming that General had brought me on this trip to get me alone on a boat. EW. And as if I would let him.

"Well I suppose many men seem quite reserved; until the right woman is his traveling companion, of course." The woman replied with a bigger smirk. The other two women twittered little laughs in response, and I forced a big fake smile. The way she looked me up and down a second later then giggled again seemed to be her deciding that I was not even close to the 'right woman' to be someone's 'traveling companion.'

"That's certainly true. Hopefully you and a companion may take to traveling soon, it might be good for you to do some traveling while you can still enjoy it." I said with a large smile. "Please excuse me." And then I made a rather hurried, but graceful retreat as the women gasped and stuttered behind me. Score for me!

Once I left the group of grown-up gossip girls I wandered back to the refreshment table for more snacks. I wasn't sure I wanted to dive right back into mindless gossip with a new group of people yet, and I was beginning to get hungry anyway.

While I was browsing the selection of wonderfully prepared foods—or I assume it was all wonderfully prepared, I still don't know what most of the food here is—a rather rounder gentleman came up beside me with a half-full plate and the obvious intention to add more to it.

"Have you tried the dates this evening? They are especially sweet this harvest." he said holding up a small brownish fruit in front of me before putting it and a few more on his plate.

"I don't believe I have. They're sweet?" they looked like large raisins. Or prunes maybe.

"Why yes! Very delicious! As are these figs!" he smiled very brightly and placed some of the figs on his plate as well.

Over the next several minutes, the rather friendly gentleman showed me what many of the delicious offerings on the table were called and how to eat each of them. I can't say I liked everything he had me try, but it was nice to talk to someone who was genuinely only interested in talking about something as simple and positive as good food. He also didn't ask me any prying personal questions, and in fact didn't seem to really care about me as a person at all. Which in this case, didn't really bother me.

He'd introduced himself to me as Mudad, and after showing me all of the foods he thought were important, we strolled over to the large balcony and looked out over the city.

It was beautiful, and I thought about the various things I had seen here in the few short days I'd been visiting. "Is all of Egypt like this, Mudad?"

"Well of course not; why some cities are much larger and some are very small. And of course being a harbor town gives us something more unique than many." he answered while still happily munching away.

Hm, I suppose that made sense. After all, New York and California were different from each other and from other places in the US.

What about the people? I wonder. Are they very different here? And not in the, "Southern = Nice" way and "New Yorkers = Rude" way that people stereotypically think about people from different locations. Stereotypes have a weird way of being both true and fake anyway so why bother with those too much. But I wonder if the stories they told me yesterday, the songs the children know are very different from the children's songs in Thebes or Memphis. I wonder if they are eager for more songs and stories, or if they hold the ones they know close in an effort not to lose or corrupt them.

I also kinda wonder why I'm spending so much time wondering about it. Maybe it's this nice breezy air out on the balcony, or wanting to think of something besides inane gossip. Maybe it's because I want to think of something besides Raku watching me carefully as he asked: "Why are you here?" and me not having a real answer yesterday.

Maybe when we got back to Hattsua it was time to throw more pressure at whatever wisemen or sorcerers they have to see about getting me home again. There had to be a way to re-fill the well or at least figure out why it dried and left me here.


Ramses was listening to the men who were in charge of military operations in this city when he spotted one of his aides across the room. He frowned, knowing that this aide was clever enough to only be seen when he wanted to be, so there must be something important he had learned. Ramses gave a slight nod in the aide's direction, and waited for the man to make his way over.

"Rumors are gaining weight and meaning to people with powerful ears." The aide whispered. Ramses had turned away from his conversation companions and leaned slightly towards the aide for privacy. Now he frowned a bit more; this did not sound promising.

"There is talk of how beneficial it would be to have our own goddess here in Egypt. How beneficial to have her on the arm. They are coming to give their invitations tonight."

Only through habit of not letting his emotions shown too strongly while in uncertain social circles kept Ramses from scowling outright. The aide was very good; not only did he have the information Ramses had been most looking for, but he was able to pass it on quickly in just a few sentences. Which was important since it seemed time was now against him.

Damn, the woman was trouble.

"Have whatever can be brought to the ship in the next hour taken immediately from our rooms and sent to the docks. Have everything else arranged to follow back to Hattsua as soon as possible." And with that he turned away to begin his own preparations, trusting the aide to slip through the crowd to their rooms within the manor to follow Ramses's orders.

Now he had to find the woman.

It took close to ten minutes before he found her on the balcony talking to one of the lesser nobles. Although perhaps "talking" was too strong a word for the noble's prattling on while Kiara seemed to be staring out over the town blankly. It was anyone's guess whether she was deep in thought, or not thinking at all as she stood there. Ramses could almost never tell when it came to her.

"Excuse me sir, Lady Kiara, a moment of your time, please." Kiara jumped slightly when Ramses spoke from her side. He placed an arm loosely around her waist and a hand on her elbow pulling her gently but firmly away.

"What—let go—" she started making angry sounds, no doubt about to begin one of her angry tirades at him, but he kept walking quickly towards the door. Hopefully not too many other party goers noticed their quick retreat, but he had bigger problems than the potential gossip.

"We are heading to the docks now. It's time to go back to Hattsua." Ramses said with a slight shake on the woman's arm to cut off her words.

Kiara looked at him dumbly for a moment with her mouth open, no doubt wanting to cause a scene. "Is there a reason we have to go now, and with you man-handling me?"

"There is a reason we are leaving at this moment, and if you hurry along to the ship I will tell it to you." This was hardly the time to stop and talk. There wasn't much time left if his aide was correct.

Kiara huffed and pulled herself forcibly from his grip. They were almost to the front of the manor by now and since she kept walking beside him at his quicker pace he allowed it. She also seemed clever enough to know that now was not the time for questions as she stayed quiet.

Ramses didn't wait to send a servant for a chariot; he went directly to the stables and found the horse he had been using during his stay. The stable-hand appeared looking very confused as Ramses raised his hand to smooth over the long neck of the horse he had chosen. "I need this horse tacked immediately."

"Ye- yes sir!" the boy almost tripped over himself as he turned to get the tack and necessary gear for the horse and began to ready it for riding.

Ramses waited hiding his impatience to be gone already as the boy prepared the horse, and Kiara stood still surprisingly quiet just behind Ramses's shoulder. She had her arms crossed and a heavy frown, but at least she wasn't demanding answers and making a scene.

Once the horse was ready, Ramses pulled himself up into the saddle and with an eyebrow raised, he reached down towards Kiara. She huffed at him again, but accepted his hand and joined him on the horse. This time she seated herself behind him and loosely wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Will you be needing anything else sir? Any bags for your trip?" the stable hand asked looking nervous about the suddenness of everything. Or perhaps he was able to feel the tension in Ramses himself which was also loosely reflecting in Kiara.

"No." Ramses pulled a few gold pieces from a bag casually hidden within his clothes at his side and tossed it to the boy before nudging the horse forward.

As soon as they were clear of the stables, he pressed the horse a bit faster. Once they were clear of the courtyard and manor gates, he pushed the horse to a gallop directly for the docks.

"I assume our luggage will be joining us there?" Kiara shouted to him. He didn't bother to answer in words, but he did take a few seconds to smirk at her over his shoulder which caused her to huff again. "Of course you know, they say "assuming" makes an ass of you and me and you are certainly a big—"

The rest of her sentence was lost as the horse skidded sharply to the side for a step which caused Kiara to almost lose her balance and need to grab more tightly onto his waist. Accidents happen.

Once they were to the docks, and Ramses immediately had the crew meant to operate their boat in motion. Luckily they had already been planning to ship out within the next two days, so many preparations for the trip were already made. Everything else was able to be done quickly in the next two hours with the help of some extra coin to ease the way.

Finally, everything the ship was ready, what was easily packed for their luggage had arrived, the crew was on board and they had enough provisions to get them to another town in a few days. Ramses joined Kiara who stood at the railing of the boat as they watched the docks and shore slip away. He gave a quiet sigh of relief. While this entire quick departure had a headache threatening him, he would gladly take this discomfort over dealing with the political headache he would have had to deal with if they had stayed.

Ah, Kiara could cause problems no matter where she was.

"So what evil was chasing us that we had to run out of there like bats out of hell?"

As well as her problem causing, half of what she said was nonsense. He could understand her meaning, but not why she said anything the way she did. Sometimes at least, it was amusing.

"Do you remember the conversation we had last time we were on this boat?" he asked her.

"Uh, can you be more specific? I know we don't talk a lot, but it's not like I remember everything we talk about. I'm not obsessed or anything—"

"The particular conversation about you, and the rather amusing rumors surrounding you?"

She paused for a moment, looking at him before looking back out at the town. "The goddess rumors? Yes I remember that conversation, cause as far as I'm concerned, you made most of it up to insult me."

He laughed lightly. That was a fair point; he hadn't made the rumors up, but he'd certainly brought them to her attention to cause her embarrassment. "It seems your presence during this trip has only strengthened the rumors and ideas around you. You have somehow convinced many people that you are divine. Which may be your greatest trick to date."

"Trick?! I'm not trying to trick people! I know I'm awesome, but why do you have to attach weird labels to it? Can't people just do awesome but normal things without being talked about around here?" Kiara was flushed red now, seeming with both embarrassment and anger, and she was fully turned away from the railing to direct all of her fast flying emotions at him.

"As laughable as I find it all, some people put a lot of stock in such ideas and rumors." Ramses did find the entire idea laughable, especially if it was in regards to Kiara.

"Well, I mean they've been calling Yuri a goddess forever haven't they? Maybe they just really want a new one to gossip about."

Yuri. He kept himself from scowling. "There have been praises for the Hittite Queen as a goddess and accomplished queen for many years now. So perhaps there is precedent for new rumors." He agreed with what was a fair point; if the Hittite hadn't been such a remarkable woman and also praised as a goddess then any new such rumors would probably have never gained traction.

After his statement, he thought a strange look of sadness passed swiftly over Kiara's face. It was almost like sympathy, but then she was red and angry again, and he was sure he imagined the moment. What had she to feel sorry about? "The rumors attaching themselves to you is most likely due to your strange habit of always being weird the problems are, and getting yourself noticed." he finished.

"That still doesn't explain why we had to run away from a perfectly boring party."

"I have good reason to believe that before the end of the night, we would have received some invitations from various important figures in nearby regions."

"Invitations? To what, more boring parties?"

"It would probably involve boring parties, but I trust you are not so ignorant as to not know what happens to politically powerful women here?"

Kiara became even redder before becoming alarmingly pale. She stepped back toward the railing and placed hands that trembled slightly on the rail for balance. "Women with titles and money are sold off, excuse me, married off." She blew out a breath, shaking her head. "I would just say no."

"It is not so easy."

"Then I'd tell them to bugger off and go to hell." At least she was getting her color back as she became angry again.

"And you would have started an international incident, making yourself, your Royal hosts, and your esteemed military and noble guide look poorly."

Kiara didn't say anything for a moment. "I'm not some goddess you know. I just fell in some pond and ended up here."

"I am fully aware of how average you are, Kiara. But appearances and public opinion are strong forces to sway against." She shrugged, either agreeing or conceding the point. Remarkably she didn't even seem insulted about his calling her average. Or perhaps she did agree with him on that as well. He was becoming more and more convinced however, that there was nothing just "average" about Kiara. He did not think he would ever tell her that however.

She certainly had a way of doing things he never anticipated, which she proved when she suddenly moved away from the railing, and stepped very close to him. In shock, he stayed still as she reached up and the golden necklace he wore with both hands—then she yanked it down. Fumbling, in an effort to catch his balance, both of his hands caught her hips, and he turned his head to shout at her. Before he could, she reached up on her toes and pressed her lips lightly to his cheek.

"Thank you, for getting me out of there."

And then with red on her own cheeks, Kiara let go of his necklace and quickly stepped away moving towards the entrance to below deck.

He almost didn't know what to think or do, but "If you truly wish to show thanks with a kiss then I can suggest where to place a better one."

Surprisingly she laughed, instead of becoming angry at the taunt. "Goodnight General Ramses. You can mock me some more in the morning." And she disappeared below.

Well. He had thought he would receive gratitude from the woman, but he had not expected it to be given that way. She was forever doing things to surprise him.

Of course, this meant he had a lot of new ways to tease her. The journey back to Hattsua looked much more promising now.


Author's note:

So...no real excuses. I've always had the idea for this story in mind, but I was too lazy and honestly a little embarrassed to finish it. I used to think I was a great writer, but this whole thing is a huge mess. The writing definitely improved a little from the beginning to now, but it's still not great, and the writing does suffer from so much time between updates. All the time elapsed effects the flow and definitely my memory for the finer details in the manga's story as well as my own.

I plan to finish this within the next few weeks so that I've finally given it a resolution, but I do apologize for what's probably a broken writing style and if I miss and details. Thank you to any one who has the patience to get through this whole messy thing; you deserve a medal.