Here's chapter seven! Hope you enjoy! Time to introduce the Predators to some… interesting human traditions in Ancient Egypt! Thanks for all of the reviews!
Chapter 7: Gods, Legends, and Traditions
Beneath the flickering candlelight, casting butter tones upon the faces of the large chamber's occupants, Neferti smiled. With a gentle inclination of raven tresses she bestowed upon her Pharaoh the honor of hybrid deemed conversation. A bemused dialect of mortal and divine.
If one could call it that.
Human and deity alike silently sized each other up, presently ensnared in the shared wonder of which first encounters are entitled. Neither group appeared particularly assured of their position to speak first.
Neferti hitched an eyebrow, eyes downcast but alert. Should she say something more? She was certain the Pharaoh had assumed his position to speak was first and foremost above hers, as was beset his role. Timidly, she fixed her gaze upon him, nibbling her lower lip. Her eyes asked in substitution for her voice.
Having been quite taken with the daunting stature of his pantheon guests, King Seti had nearly forgotten his place as a Royal figure, not to mention announced go-between. Amidst the stillness within the chamber, he caught a small motion out of the corner of his eye. Letting his gaze drop momentarily, he saw that Tuya's handmaiden had raised her head slightly, eyes questioningly fixed upon his face. He smiled inwardly at his unbecoming silence and nodded curtly, shaking off a mounted store of hesitance in the process.
"My...Lords." King Seti broke the silence. Respectfully, he inquired, "To what do we owe this honor of unsurpassable barriers?"
Grentouse paused to let his mask process the human's voice, for once associating the babble with distinguishable words, rather than bestial jabber. To add to his growing store of amazement, the proper flutter-lacking fluidity of the voice was polite. Yet it also, in a unique way, seemed commanding of dignity all the same.
More than a little amused, the leader of the Yautja hunting party answered.
"It appears you have caught my son's interest, as well as mine and that of my clan." By some rare occurrence and luck. Had Du'gret said they presumed him a 'God'?
He felt the corners of his mouth twisting towards amusement as awaited the next chain of 'words' from his lithe host.
"We are honored by your presence, my lords." Queen Tuya spoke softly, a bracelet-bedecked arm across her chest, slender fingertips rapping softly against her collarbone. The corners of her long eyes upturned with abashed happiness or wonder.
Not being able to think of a suitable reply at once, Grentouse responded with a nod. There were those words again. My lords. How strange their reverence felt. These previous creatures of prey alone.
Ru'shan wondered at the small beings' regard of the clan. What had distilled this reverence within them, that would issue such a title to his species? The larger size, perhaps? Although somewhat similar in limb structure, there was nothing of sorts to be comparable in regards to their faces. Or physical prowess.
Sentience? Was the communicative property taken into deep consideration among this species? There were many creatures in the universe that could vocalize their opinions. It didn't make them intelligent however. Perhaps these humanoids possessed more likeness in the ways of mental capability?
He witnessed another exchange of phrases between Grentouse and the regarded leader of the Oomans.
They would see.
The Oomans offered them rooms for the night, assuming that the "Gods" must be tried from their journey. The yautja agreed, not wanting to offend their hosts.
The room they were lead to was lavishly decorated and had large sleeping beds for each of them. The group was impressed; for all of the tales of how barbaric this species was, they didn't seem to be so.
The royal family left the Gods to their business, saying that servants would retrieve them at dawn.
As soon as the humans left, the Yautja burst out in excited chatter. Du'gret approached his father, "Interesting, aren't they?"
Grentouse could not deny his son's claim, "Indeed they are more… civilized than we had expected, but I must continue my observations, should I be able to judge them fairly."
Du'gret nodded and began to speak when Gek'lete shouted, "They even have a large bathing area in here!" Du'gret and Grentouse looked over to see a large pool of water; it seemed cool to the infra-red optics of the mask.
"Why don't you try it out," Hun'ette suggested, giving Gek'lete a shove, knocking him into the pool. The group laughed as Gek'lete surfaced sputtering and muttering curses. In anger, Gek'lete splashed the water, hoping to blast Hun'ett. Unfortunately, Hun'ett jumped out of the way, the wall of water instead hit Kat'rin who was lounging by the pool.
Hun'ette and Sen'tre burst out laughing and Gek'lete quickly moved out of range of the angry female. Kat'rin, turning on the two, grabbed them and threw them into the pool to join their retreating friend.
Du'gret smiled; Kat'rin was not one to put up with the antics of the other males. Ani'de looked at Du'gret and said, "Anubis? What sort of name is that?"
Du'gret shrugged, "They said it was the name of their god of the dead; perhaps when Neferti found me, she thought I died and came back to life. They will most likely give you names as well." Ani'de seemed excited at that notion. He glanced over to the tree males who were busy attacking each other in the pool.
"Do they have names for annoying, egotistical, idiots?" he asked.
Du'gret smiled and said, "Perhaps."
Neferti came at with the servants at dawn as she had promised.
Grentouse and Ru'shan were resting, Hun'ette and Sen'tre were sparring, unarmed, Kat'rin was sharpening her spear and Ani'de was coming over to investigate Neferti.
Gek'lete was still in the water, swimming for the fun of it. Neferti smiled and said, "I see we have Sobek among us." Du'gret tilted his head and Neferti added, "The god of the crocodiles and the Nile River must be pleased with the pool. We had it filled in case a god of water came with you." Du'gret made a note to tell Gek'lete his new "name".
Ani'de came over to Neferti and stared at her curiously. "This is my hunting companion, Ani'de. He had been anxious to meet you."
Neferti glanced between them and said, "Is this Horus?" Du'gret didn't know how to answer, but Neferti added, "Your cousin and comrade?" Although Du'gret and Ani'de were not related, he nodded.
Neferti glanced at the other Yautja, trying to figure out which god they were. Glancing at Hun'ett and Sen'tre she said, "What are they like?" She needed a hint to figure out who they were.
Gesturing to Hun'ette, Du'gret said, "He is the… risk taker. And he," pointing to Sen'tre, "is the smarter one. Surprisingly, they are good comrades."
Neferti smiled, figuring out who they were, "The risk taker is Khonsu, is he not? God of the moon, he always had a bit of a gambling problem. That is why the moon wanes." Ani'de laughed at Neferti's words; how true they were!
"The other is Thoth, god of wisdom, another god of the moon; he won the bets Khonsu placed and gained the moonlight Khonsu bet to add five days to our year; but you know that already." Du'gret and Ani'de looked at each other surprised. They guessed that they had just heard a tale of their gods.
Seeing their intrigue, Neferti said, "I could tell you of all the other legends we have about the gods; you could tell us if they are accurate." Suddenly, there was a loud yell and splash. It seemed Hun'ette had bothered Kat'rin again who promptly sent him flying into the water.
Neferti's eyes widened and she almost took a step back in fright, "Sekhmet," she murmured.
"What was that?" Du'gret asked.
"I see your female companion is Sekhmet, the goddess of war. I was not sure until now."
"And what is her tale?" Ani'de asked.
"When the humans went against the gods' laws, Sekhmet took the form of a lioness and hunted down all the wicked humans. Her counterpart is Hathor, the goddess of love, but it seems that she is staying as Sekhmet for the time being."
Du'gret and Ani'de gave each other looks of shock. Neferti just completely described Kat'rin personality. She could be kind and gentle, but it was not a wise idea to anger her; ever.
Kat'rin noticing the glances of the three decided to investigate the ooman female further. It seemed slightly nervous at her approach, but calmed considerably when she greeted her, putting her hand of the ooman's shoulder.
"Mi lady Sekhmet," the ooman said with a bow. Kat'rin glanced at Du'gret who just smiled and shrugged. Ani'de proceeded to tell Kat'rin her own legend and exactly what "gods" the others were. She even laughed when he told her about Hun'ette.
"You have no idea how correct you are," she told the ooman who smiled.
The yautja accepted a small tour of the palace and agreed to go out later and inspect the market. Hun'ette and Sen'tre said they were going to explore the palace more thoroughly, while the others watched the Pharaoh Seti try to teach Ramses the best way to handle a spear.
Ru'shan and Grentouse had each been given a name of a god. Ru'shan got the name Ra, mainly because his mask, instead of the usual silver/gray, was a golden color, reminding the Egyptians of their god of the sun. Grentouse receive the name Set, father of Anubis and god of warfare and chaos.
At the moment Ru'shan, seemingly enjoying himself, was try to correct Ramses posture so his strikes would be more controlled. And to Ramses delight, the god even told his father that his posture was not much better.
Suddenly, there came Yautja screams and Hun'ett and Sen'tre came running into the room frantically. All of the Yautja leapt to their feet brandishing their weapons.
Neferti seemed highly concerned, "My Lords, what happened?"
Hun'ett and Sen'tre however were behind everyone else and staring horrified at the door where two priests and a priestess stood, looking confused.
"Excuse me," Neferti said running out to the hall and talking to the three oomans. She seemed confused at first, then suspicious, then enraged.
"You tried to WHAT?!" she screamed at the priests who tried to explain their actions. After another angry scolding from Neferti, she turned back into the room, shutting the doors angrily.
"My Lords, you must accept our apology. Those idiots," she shouted the last word so the priests would hear it as they walked away, "did not know what they were doing."
"What did they do?" Du'gret asked, curious to know what had freaked the two Yautja out so badly.
"Well, a pet died; our cat. As cats are sacred to the goddess Bastet, their priestess and priests must shave their hair off in mourning. It seems your companions stumbled upon them and they assumed they wanted to take part in that particular ritual."
The whole room, with the exception of Hun'ett and Sen'tre, burst out laughing. Obviously, the priests had tried to lop the two students' dreadlocks off.
Once the laughter died down, Sen'tre asked, "What were they doing to the animal?"
"Oh," Neferti said, "They were mummifying it. Of course you would know all about that, where they take the organs out of the body, put them in jars, leaving the heart in the body of course, and drying it out with natron salt. However, I always found it fascinating how they removed the brain; you know, using the red hot poker, sticking it up the candidate's nose, swirling it around and ripping the brain out through the nostrils."
The Yautja were all about to be sick. "That's one point against them," Du'gret thought.
"Of course this process preserves the body for hundreds and thousands of years," Neferti added, "other wise the spirit would not make it to eternal paradise."
"Well, at least it's a somewhat decent reason," Du'gret thought, still feeling sick.
Hope you liked it! Please Review and chapter 8 will be coming soon!