Author's Notes: Ack, I'm so sorry this took so long! I've had so much school work, and of course I never seem to get any inspiration except when I should be doing something else!
*sighs* I know, Shadi doesn't act enough like a little kid. I'll try harder! I'm trying to set him up to be more like he was at the beginning of "Three-In-One Combo" than the end (and Ankh and Scale too, because they all changed you know!), but it may be a bit TOO early for that. I promise, I'll try to do better!
And I also know that the timeline's messed up, but then so are a lot of things… My excuse? It's a STORY! I can use my AMAZING author-like powers (ring a bell, Unrealistic? ^_^) to make things be the way I want them to be!
Heh, no, of course you don't like Shedsunefertum! Nobody does! He's mean, and you'll like him even less from now on. But to make it very clear, despite his abuse of the Items, he does NOT physically abuse Shadi at all. He's just very hard on him. But Shadi's going to be the guardian, so he has to be prepared. But I know, I still hate him too.
I'm not quite sure what little Shadi's hair looks like, but I'm working on that…
Yeah, the Ishtars live in some huge underground… place. The most obvious opening is a stone well in a patch of ruins.
I don't know if I'll have any of the other Item spirits talk to anyone… I might, though! And Shadi won't actually meet Ankh or Scale for a while yet… I've been thinking about their meeting since early in "Three-In-One Combo" though, so I know what will happen then.
And don't believe everything Shadi's father says about the Items and their spirits… I think it's obvious that he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about! I mean really, even if Ankhkare were a criminal, it would be for a very good reason! If anyone has any ideas why he was sealed into an Item, besides having a strong Ka/spirit and magic, I haven't been able to figure that out yet…
-
Millennial Inheritance
-
Shadi was bored with meditation, so he was idly humming a song in his head. He cracked his eyes open a bit to watch his father, as he often did. It was really quite fascinating. His father sat in the lotus position with the Ankh and Scales resting on his legs. He made the strangest faces as he clutched the two Items hard enough to squeeze juice out of them.
Finally the older man's eyes snapped open and he leaned in close to the Scales, shouting every curse Shadi had ever heard, and a few he hadn't.
"Father? Is something wrong?" Shadi asked, unsure whether he wanted to laugh or cringe, when his father had to pause for breath. He had always been told that meditation calmed the body, mind, and soul…
"These Set-spawned Items! The useless, brainless…" His eyes glazed over for a split second before snarling in rage and slamming the Ankh into the Scales with a clear ringing sound. He turned his glare on Shadi. "A guardian has to keep the Items' energy under control! If you ever want to do that, you have to have a spine!"
Shadi raised his eyebrows at this. Unfortunately, his father was in a rather bad mood. He shoved the Scales into his son's slightly startled hands. "Here, take it." He scowled at his son's slight wince and questioning look. "Take control of the Item. Dominate its energy. Force it back. Bend it to your will."
Shadi sat staring contemplatively at the Scales for a minute, unsure of exactly what to do or why. Then he looked up at his father rather expressionlessly. "They're angrier than usual."
Shadi's father's eyes flashed in rage. He snatched the Scales back and pounded them on the floot, grinding dust under them. His eyes looked unnaturally wide.
"Father, stop!" Shadi blurted out without thinking. "How can you treat the Millennium Items like that?"
"They're not plain gold, it won't even scratch them! But if you're so worried, why don't you go to the foothills and get more wax root to polish these gold-plated hunks of tin!" The Scales shook visibly, and Shedsunefertum gave them a vicious kick. He started yelling incoherently and kicking the Scales around the room. Then he whipped around to start screaming at the Ankh. Shadi quickly left with a slightly worried backward glance, knowing that he couldn't do anything else.
Shadi headed out of town, carrying a small cloth bag to bring the wax root home in. He headed towards the mountains. When he got to the foothills, he wandered around for a while, not very eager to return home just yet. So he kicked stones around in front of him, making them bounce off various surfaces and into holes, bushes, or other rocks. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't realize there was another person nearby until he heard a quiet sigh close to him.
Shadi jumped at the sound, and the other boy quickly turned to look at him. He was a few inches taller than Shadi, and wore rough off-white clothing like Shadi's. His head was shaved, except for a thin black ponytail in the back. He quickly rubbed his golden eyes on his sleeve, but Shadi could see that he had been crying.
"Wh… what are you doing here?" the other boy asked.
"Looking for wax root, I suppose," Shadi said. He frowned slightly at the taller boy.
"Oh! I'm sorry," the boy said, sniffling. "I hope I'm not in your way." He drew his knees up to his chest to take up less room and sighed, looking down.
Shadi nodded politely, but saw that something was upsetting the boy. "What's wrong, if you do not mind my asking?" he asked awkwardly, sure that he was supposed to ask, but unsure how to be sympathetic.
"My family doesn't want me anymore…" The other boy looked up, his eyes begging Shadi to listen. "They adopted me, and they were going to let me be their heir. And then m… my mother… my adopted mother had another baby today. It was a boy, so… his… father was glad to have a real heir, 'cause he really didn't like me much." He looked down again. "And then Mother died and he got so mad… He told me I had to take care of the baby because I wasn't good for anything else… But I don't want to! I just want to be the heir so they'll like me…" A despairing tear fell from his eye, but he quickly wiped it away. Then he looked up. "Oh… My name's Rishid. Who are you?"
"I am Shadi. May I… sit down?" Rishid quickly scooted over, and Shadi sat beside him on the rock. "Doesn't your adopted father care for you, though?" A pained look came over Rishid's face, so Shadi quickly shifted the subject. "My father cares for me, and I am his heir too, but he acts very strangely sometimes… He yells at inanimate objects all the time. And he tells me that they do not have minds, but I should not trust them. It is very confusing."
Rishid wiped his eyes and laughed shakily. "That sounds funny, but I guess it's not so great to live with. Did you come here because you wanted to run away too? You don't look like you're looking too hard for wax root."
"No, not exactly," Shadi said. "My father needed to be alone to ruin the artifacts we are supposed to be guarding." He rolled his eyes.
Rishid started laughing again, grateful to have something else to think about. "Hey, you're funny!"
Shadi blinked, but said nothing. He lived with his father all the time, so he found it annoying, but not funny.
"What does your mother think of that?" Rishid asked, when he stopped laughing.
"She did not like it at all," Shadi said, staring at a point on the horizon. "She went back to live with her parents on the other side of the Nile when I was very young."
Rishid's shoulders drooped sadly. "…Do you miss her?"
"I… do not remember very much of her…" Shadi said. He was silent for a moment, contemplating the question. "…But I do miss her…"
Rishid nodded sadly, and the two sat in silence for a while, Shadi staring off at the distant, shimmering heat of the desert and Rishid looking at his shoes and they both swung their legs back and forth, kicking the rock.
Finally Shadi sighed. "Have you by chance seen any wax root growing around here?"
"Oh. I think so. Over here, come on." The taller boy got off the rock and led Shadi to the other side of the hill. There was a huge boulder, and they found the plant Shadi sought growing in the rock's shadow.
"Thank you," Shadi said with a nod. He knelt down and began to carefully pull the pots out by the roots, brushing the dirt off before putting them into his bad. Rishid watched for a moment before bending down to help.
"…Thanks for listening to me," Rishid said when they were done, smiling slightly. "I guess I should go back home… I still want to be there more than anywhere else. Even if I'm not really wanted there myself."
"Do you often come here?" asked Shadi. "We might be able to meet again. I have never seen you in town."
Rishid looked away. "My family does not like its members to mingle with others. Even… ones who aren't really part of the family."
"Oh." Shadi was a bit disappointed. Shadi didn't normally like being around other people much, but it was nice to be able to be around people other than his father sometimes. He never really got to talk to people his own age. "Well goodbye then."
"Goodbye," Rishid said. With one last backward glance he walked away. Shadi stood watching him for a moment, but then he slowly made his way back to his own home.
When Shadi arrived, his father was not there. There was a note on the back of the door telling Shadi that he would be back in a while. As Shadi entered the large room with the tablet for the Millennium Items, he saw the Scales and Ankh still lying on the floor. They still gleamed, despite the dirt that covered them. Shadi picked them up and brushed them off. He set them on the tablet and went to get a mortar and pestle. He washed off the two Items and the plants he had gathered before carefully plucking off the roots to put in the stone bowl. Then he ground them up. Eventually he had a thick, gritty, waxy substance. He smeared some on both hands and began rubbing it all over the Scales.
As usual, Shadi felt a slight shock when he touched the Scales. This time it was even sharper than usual, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it. He rubbed the polish all over the Scales, into every crevice and every link of the chains that held the balances. He still felt anger from the Scales, but it lessened just a bit as they began to shine so much they almost glowed. Shadi took a cloth and rubbed off all the excess polish so they wouldn't be greasy. Then he carefully put them back and picked up the Ankh.
Shadi shivered at the sudden wave of apprehension and even fear from the second Item. "Calm down," he mumbled automatically, though he wasn't sure who he was talking to. He took some more of the polish and spread it over the Ankh, rubbing to make it shine. The fear lessened a little, but this normally warm, welcoming Item still felt cheerless to him. Shadi wasn't sure what to do. He took extra time getting the excess polish off, and then turned it over in his hands, staring at it. "What…"
Shadi heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He quickly put the Ankh back in the tablet. His father really didn't like him talking to the Items.
"Oh good, you're back! And you got the two weaker Items polished, I see. Good! Do the Tauk and the Puzzle next. And I want to be able to see my reflection in each Puzzle piece!"
"Yes, father…"
******************************************************************************************************
Late that night, the two voices met in the guardian's mind again.
//Master Shedsunefertum's asleep now… Are you… all right?//
\\By Osiris, it took him long enough! And you WOULD call him 'master'… Of course I am, he can't really hurt me, weakling!\\
//Oh.// The softer voice gave a shaky sigh of relief. //I know, but I was worried…//
\\You should be more worried about yourself, wimp! And stay out of it next time! You only make things worse!\\
//I was only trying to help. I hate it when he does that to you…//
\\Well don't! I don't want your help. Or need it. And when he turns on you, it's your own fault! Tch, it's a good thing his moldy-brained son came along to polish us, or you'd STILL be moping over all that!\\
//…I know. Thank you for trying to divert his attention, though…//
\\Shut up buzzard face. Just… go away!\\
//I just wanted to --//
\\NOW!\\
//…I'm sorry.//
\\…Pfft… Go get some sleep you whimpering fool. Maybe if you didn't spend every day and night worrying so much, you'd be more useful!\\
//…I will… You should too, though. You look tired.//
\\Mind your own business, worm. Get out.\\
//Goodnight.//
A door closed. There were soft footsteps, and another door opened and shut.
-
-
Endnotes: Ah, another chapter. Like I said before, new chapters will come slowly. Sorry about that!
Now I've seen Rishid as a child, but I'm not quite sure if I'm writing him well. But hopefully. And Shadi needed someone to run into. ^_^ I have one or two other fun exploits planned for him, but I really need your ideas too! …Though I'm sure you won't give me many, as usual!
*sighs* I know, Shadi doesn't act enough like a little kid. I'll try harder! I'm trying to set him up to be more like he was at the beginning of "Three-In-One Combo" than the end (and Ankh and Scale too, because they all changed you know!), but it may be a bit TOO early for that. I promise, I'll try to do better!
And I also know that the timeline's messed up, but then so are a lot of things… My excuse? It's a STORY! I can use my AMAZING author-like powers (ring a bell, Unrealistic? ^_^) to make things be the way I want them to be!
Heh, no, of course you don't like Shedsunefertum! Nobody does! He's mean, and you'll like him even less from now on. But to make it very clear, despite his abuse of the Items, he does NOT physically abuse Shadi at all. He's just very hard on him. But Shadi's going to be the guardian, so he has to be prepared. But I know, I still hate him too.
I'm not quite sure what little Shadi's hair looks like, but I'm working on that…
Yeah, the Ishtars live in some huge underground… place. The most obvious opening is a stone well in a patch of ruins.
I don't know if I'll have any of the other Item spirits talk to anyone… I might, though! And Shadi won't actually meet Ankh or Scale for a while yet… I've been thinking about their meeting since early in "Three-In-One Combo" though, so I know what will happen then.
And don't believe everything Shadi's father says about the Items and their spirits… I think it's obvious that he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about! I mean really, even if Ankhkare were a criminal, it would be for a very good reason! If anyone has any ideas why he was sealed into an Item, besides having a strong Ka/spirit and magic, I haven't been able to figure that out yet…
-
Millennial Inheritance
-
Shadi was bored with meditation, so he was idly humming a song in his head. He cracked his eyes open a bit to watch his father, as he often did. It was really quite fascinating. His father sat in the lotus position with the Ankh and Scales resting on his legs. He made the strangest faces as he clutched the two Items hard enough to squeeze juice out of them.
Finally the older man's eyes snapped open and he leaned in close to the Scales, shouting every curse Shadi had ever heard, and a few he hadn't.
"Father? Is something wrong?" Shadi asked, unsure whether he wanted to laugh or cringe, when his father had to pause for breath. He had always been told that meditation calmed the body, mind, and soul…
"These Set-spawned Items! The useless, brainless…" His eyes glazed over for a split second before snarling in rage and slamming the Ankh into the Scales with a clear ringing sound. He turned his glare on Shadi. "A guardian has to keep the Items' energy under control! If you ever want to do that, you have to have a spine!"
Shadi raised his eyebrows at this. Unfortunately, his father was in a rather bad mood. He shoved the Scales into his son's slightly startled hands. "Here, take it." He scowled at his son's slight wince and questioning look. "Take control of the Item. Dominate its energy. Force it back. Bend it to your will."
Shadi sat staring contemplatively at the Scales for a minute, unsure of exactly what to do or why. Then he looked up at his father rather expressionlessly. "They're angrier than usual."
Shadi's father's eyes flashed in rage. He snatched the Scales back and pounded them on the floot, grinding dust under them. His eyes looked unnaturally wide.
"Father, stop!" Shadi blurted out without thinking. "How can you treat the Millennium Items like that?"
"They're not plain gold, it won't even scratch them! But if you're so worried, why don't you go to the foothills and get more wax root to polish these gold-plated hunks of tin!" The Scales shook visibly, and Shedsunefertum gave them a vicious kick. He started yelling incoherently and kicking the Scales around the room. Then he whipped around to start screaming at the Ankh. Shadi quickly left with a slightly worried backward glance, knowing that he couldn't do anything else.
Shadi headed out of town, carrying a small cloth bag to bring the wax root home in. He headed towards the mountains. When he got to the foothills, he wandered around for a while, not very eager to return home just yet. So he kicked stones around in front of him, making them bounce off various surfaces and into holes, bushes, or other rocks. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't realize there was another person nearby until he heard a quiet sigh close to him.
Shadi jumped at the sound, and the other boy quickly turned to look at him. He was a few inches taller than Shadi, and wore rough off-white clothing like Shadi's. His head was shaved, except for a thin black ponytail in the back. He quickly rubbed his golden eyes on his sleeve, but Shadi could see that he had been crying.
"Wh… what are you doing here?" the other boy asked.
"Looking for wax root, I suppose," Shadi said. He frowned slightly at the taller boy.
"Oh! I'm sorry," the boy said, sniffling. "I hope I'm not in your way." He drew his knees up to his chest to take up less room and sighed, looking down.
Shadi nodded politely, but saw that something was upsetting the boy. "What's wrong, if you do not mind my asking?" he asked awkwardly, sure that he was supposed to ask, but unsure how to be sympathetic.
"My family doesn't want me anymore…" The other boy looked up, his eyes begging Shadi to listen. "They adopted me, and they were going to let me be their heir. And then m… my mother… my adopted mother had another baby today. It was a boy, so… his… father was glad to have a real heir, 'cause he really didn't like me much." He looked down again. "And then Mother died and he got so mad… He told me I had to take care of the baby because I wasn't good for anything else… But I don't want to! I just want to be the heir so they'll like me…" A despairing tear fell from his eye, but he quickly wiped it away. Then he looked up. "Oh… My name's Rishid. Who are you?"
"I am Shadi. May I… sit down?" Rishid quickly scooted over, and Shadi sat beside him on the rock. "Doesn't your adopted father care for you, though?" A pained look came over Rishid's face, so Shadi quickly shifted the subject. "My father cares for me, and I am his heir too, but he acts very strangely sometimes… He yells at inanimate objects all the time. And he tells me that they do not have minds, but I should not trust them. It is very confusing."
Rishid wiped his eyes and laughed shakily. "That sounds funny, but I guess it's not so great to live with. Did you come here because you wanted to run away too? You don't look like you're looking too hard for wax root."
"No, not exactly," Shadi said. "My father needed to be alone to ruin the artifacts we are supposed to be guarding." He rolled his eyes.
Rishid started laughing again, grateful to have something else to think about. "Hey, you're funny!"
Shadi blinked, but said nothing. He lived with his father all the time, so he found it annoying, but not funny.
"What does your mother think of that?" Rishid asked, when he stopped laughing.
"She did not like it at all," Shadi said, staring at a point on the horizon. "She went back to live with her parents on the other side of the Nile when I was very young."
Rishid's shoulders drooped sadly. "…Do you miss her?"
"I… do not remember very much of her…" Shadi said. He was silent for a moment, contemplating the question. "…But I do miss her…"
Rishid nodded sadly, and the two sat in silence for a while, Shadi staring off at the distant, shimmering heat of the desert and Rishid looking at his shoes and they both swung their legs back and forth, kicking the rock.
Finally Shadi sighed. "Have you by chance seen any wax root growing around here?"
"Oh. I think so. Over here, come on." The taller boy got off the rock and led Shadi to the other side of the hill. There was a huge boulder, and they found the plant Shadi sought growing in the rock's shadow.
"Thank you," Shadi said with a nod. He knelt down and began to carefully pull the pots out by the roots, brushing the dirt off before putting them into his bad. Rishid watched for a moment before bending down to help.
"…Thanks for listening to me," Rishid said when they were done, smiling slightly. "I guess I should go back home… I still want to be there more than anywhere else. Even if I'm not really wanted there myself."
"Do you often come here?" asked Shadi. "We might be able to meet again. I have never seen you in town."
Rishid looked away. "My family does not like its members to mingle with others. Even… ones who aren't really part of the family."
"Oh." Shadi was a bit disappointed. Shadi didn't normally like being around other people much, but it was nice to be able to be around people other than his father sometimes. He never really got to talk to people his own age. "Well goodbye then."
"Goodbye," Rishid said. With one last backward glance he walked away. Shadi stood watching him for a moment, but then he slowly made his way back to his own home.
When Shadi arrived, his father was not there. There was a note on the back of the door telling Shadi that he would be back in a while. As Shadi entered the large room with the tablet for the Millennium Items, he saw the Scales and Ankh still lying on the floor. They still gleamed, despite the dirt that covered them. Shadi picked them up and brushed them off. He set them on the tablet and went to get a mortar and pestle. He washed off the two Items and the plants he had gathered before carefully plucking off the roots to put in the stone bowl. Then he ground them up. Eventually he had a thick, gritty, waxy substance. He smeared some on both hands and began rubbing it all over the Scales.
As usual, Shadi felt a slight shock when he touched the Scales. This time it was even sharper than usual, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it. He rubbed the polish all over the Scales, into every crevice and every link of the chains that held the balances. He still felt anger from the Scales, but it lessened just a bit as they began to shine so much they almost glowed. Shadi took a cloth and rubbed off all the excess polish so they wouldn't be greasy. Then he carefully put them back and picked up the Ankh.
Shadi shivered at the sudden wave of apprehension and even fear from the second Item. "Calm down," he mumbled automatically, though he wasn't sure who he was talking to. He took some more of the polish and spread it over the Ankh, rubbing to make it shine. The fear lessened a little, but this normally warm, welcoming Item still felt cheerless to him. Shadi wasn't sure what to do. He took extra time getting the excess polish off, and then turned it over in his hands, staring at it. "What…"
Shadi heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He quickly put the Ankh back in the tablet. His father really didn't like him talking to the Items.
"Oh good, you're back! And you got the two weaker Items polished, I see. Good! Do the Tauk and the Puzzle next. And I want to be able to see my reflection in each Puzzle piece!"
"Yes, father…"
******************************************************************************************************
Late that night, the two voices met in the guardian's mind again.
//Master Shedsunefertum's asleep now… Are you… all right?//
\\By Osiris, it took him long enough! And you WOULD call him 'master'… Of course I am, he can't really hurt me, weakling!\\
//Oh.// The softer voice gave a shaky sigh of relief. //I know, but I was worried…//
\\You should be more worried about yourself, wimp! And stay out of it next time! You only make things worse!\\
//I was only trying to help. I hate it when he does that to you…//
\\Well don't! I don't want your help. Or need it. And when he turns on you, it's your own fault! Tch, it's a good thing his moldy-brained son came along to polish us, or you'd STILL be moping over all that!\\
//…I know. Thank you for trying to divert his attention, though…//
\\Shut up buzzard face. Just… go away!\\
//I just wanted to --//
\\NOW!\\
//…I'm sorry.//
\\…Pfft… Go get some sleep you whimpering fool. Maybe if you didn't spend every day and night worrying so much, you'd be more useful!\\
//…I will… You should too, though. You look tired.//
\\Mind your own business, worm. Get out.\\
//Goodnight.//
A door closed. There were soft footsteps, and another door opened and shut.
-
-
Endnotes: Ah, another chapter. Like I said before, new chapters will come slowly. Sorry about that!
Now I've seen Rishid as a child, but I'm not quite sure if I'm writing him well. But hopefully. And Shadi needed someone to run into. ^_^ I have one or two other fun exploits planned for him, but I really need your ideas too! …Though I'm sure you won't give me many, as usual!