I don't own Rick,
Evy, Ardeth, etc. I'm not using this
for money. Yatsa, Yatsa, and Yatsa.
Akila and Jasmyne are
mine.
Life
-*-*-
Ardeth Bay,
leader of one of the twelve tribes of the Medjai, sat down onto the sands
beside his new wife to watch the stars.
For the first time in years, the man was actually on what could be
considered a vacation. In reality it
was his honeymoon – but time off was time off.
For once he didn't have to worry about the creature (which was safely buried
beneath the sands with Hamunaptra), treasure hunters, or even the immortal
Akila.
"Ardeth, do
you think we are really safe?" Jasmyne Bay asked in Arabic, looking carefully
at her love.
"I do. Both books are with
He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named in Hamunaptra.
Anyone who goes looking will take years to get to." He smiled at her,
mentally noting that such weren't really the facts, but he didn't want to upset
Jasmyne.
She smiled
back, her heart melting, "Do you remember when we were children? When we would come to this very spot and
wonder what life would give us?"
"I remember."
"I still
remember the time we vowed to never come back." She whispered, as Ardeth sighed
and pulled her into his embrace.
The memory
crept to the front of his mind. He
remembered that alright. What had
happened haunted all who had been there.
"I wish they
were still alive. Eshe and Gadiel would
have loved to see their matchmaking work out."
He kissed
the top of her hair carefully, "Jasmyne, I'm sure they know. They're watching us. Just like we promised. They watch us and help us."
She nodded,
and turned her gaze from the sky to his eyes, "I promised Eshe that if I ever
have a daughter, I'd name it after her."
"When did
you make that promise?"
Jasmyne
hadn't been expecting that question – even though it had been asked lovingly,
"When we vowed to never come back. You
were busy with the others, trying to save who you could. I knew trying to explain to you the
inevitable would just make you mad, so I just held her in my arms. I tried to keep her alive. She was my older sister; I didn't want to
lose her just yet. Eventually I knew
Allah wanted her more then I, and I gave up trying to keep her here. Her last words were a question. I couldn't deny her."
Ardeth
hugged her closer to him, "Our first daughter will be named Eshe. And Akila has asked to name the first two
boys."
"I know."
She smiled, returning her gaze to the skies, "She wants to name them Jibade and
Hasani."
"Why?"
She once
again looked back at him, "She's Akila.
She thinks for herself." She moved her body so her eyes were level with
his, "I know some other people like that."
"Really?"
He raised an eyebrow.
She nodded,
and pressed her lips to his. They both
enjoyed the passionate kiss, until unbidden thoughts of that faraway night
entered both of their minds.
Jasmyne
looked down at her feet, "I'm sorry.
It's just…"
"This was
what we were doing that night." He finished for her, rubbing her shoulders.
"I still
remember the blood and the horses and the men." She whispered, "When I first
broke our vow, it was just a few years ago, and I came up here. I swore I heard Yazmin and Tarek. It felt like it was that day. I could almost see Fshd, Asad, Farran,
Asianne, and Caliana playing in the sands, and you and Al'alim arguing about
who would make the better leader of our tribe."
"I came
last year." Ardeth started, "I saw Jada and Asfoureh, almost as if it were that
day all over again. They were fussing
over Acenath." He gasped, "I didn't realize how much I missed them." He
murmured, as two hot tears spilled down his cheeks.
Jasmyne
looked up and wiped them away, "They wouldn't want us to cry for them. They would want us to remember them as they
were. During the days when we were
here, in this spot, playing with the babies and going by the Egyptian names
Akila helped us pick."
He laughed,
"I almost forgot."
"What was
yours again?" She asked, smiling once again, "Mine was Ife-Nile. Eshe was Tabia."
"Akiiki. She wanted to call me Akil – I don't
remember why I disagreed. And Gadiel
became Abasi."
"Yazmin was
Lotus. Tarek was Baniti." Jasmyne went
on, "Jada and Asfoureh were Jamila and Ain.
Fshd was Dakarai."
"Asad
became Cheops, Farran became Garai, Asianne became OJufemi, and Caliana became
Habibah. Al'alim became Neb er tcher."
"And sweet baby Acenath was
Renenet." She finished for him. She
giggled, "I always thought it was a little odd that her name was already
Egyptian. I thought we should have made
it something like Ameerah or Fatinah."
"Ardeth? Jasmyne?" A voice suddenly interred into
their peace.
He sighed,
"Yes?"
Acenath, still very much
younger then her friends, walked over.
She was dressed as untraditionally as she could get while still somewhat
supporting her heritage. Her dark hair,
almost as black as the robes the Medjai wore, hung freely down her back to her
thighs, almost completely blending into the back of the black button
shirt. Her black pants hung loosely at
her waist, a testament to the disease no one could rid her of, and her feet
were the same as the immortal Akila's – never covered in socks or shoes despite
having both.
She stopped
in front of them and dropped to her knees, "Miss them too?" She asked, "I'm
sorry if I'm intruding on your honeymoon.
I just was thinking about them." She explained, looking to the couple.
Jasmyne
could see that Acenath hadn't been sleeping again, a trait from infancy, and
she had, in fact, been crying. Her
youthful face seemed to carry an air of age, while the blue eyes (something no
one could explain how she'd gotten) were still pink.
Ardeth
pulled Acenath closer to he and his wife, "You have to sleep, Ace."
"I can't."
She replied, leaning her head onto Jasmyne's shoulder.
"You have
to let go. It hurts, I know, they were
my family too. And I miss them everyday,
but you're killing yourself with this." He told her, emotions overpowering
him. He never understood why Acenath
remembered that night, she was only a year old when it happened, but she seemed
to be the only one with a full memory of what happened.
"I'm not
killing myself." She argued weakly.
Jasmyne
turned to face her young friend, "You do not eat. When you do, it comes back up because you want it to. You rarely sleep or try to even help with
the children. Renenet, all you ever do
is sit in the house with Akila asking about her history." She reverted to the
nickname.
"Don't call
me Renenet. She was the goddess of
fortune and we didn't get anything good." She countered, completely ignoring
the rest of what had been said, "Thank you though. I missed that name. I
love you both; you know that? I love
you both so much." She spoke, becoming misty-eyed.
"I love
you, too." Ardeth replied, laying a kiss on her cheek.
"As do I."
Jasmyne added, kissing her on the cheek as well.
It was
there that the trio fell asleep. And it
was there – where Acenath's life had begun – that she died, happily wrapped in
the arms of her two best friends.
-*-*-
Cassie Jamie
noahXfiles@aol.com
Life
By: Cassie Jamie