Iato's Gift

'Iato… Iato wake up.' Iato heard Talrim's voice.

"What?" Iato asked and Talrim nodded towards the unmoving figure on a ledge just a bit lower than hers. It was the Pharaoh.

'He fell last night while you were asleep. I think he's hurt.' Talrim said flitting across to him. Iato stretched her arms and wings then flew across to him. She felt his pulse, fairly irregular. She slid her hand under his chest and he groaned. She felt a few broken ribs.

"Probably from all this heavy gold he has on." Iato said and began to strip him of his jewelry. She set the beautiful Nehkbet down and took off the bands on his waist and neck. She pulled off his earrings and set it all down in his robe. She wrapped it up and flew it back across the way, set it all down and went back over to him. The ledge she was on was larger and was under an overhang so when it started to rain her fire was fine. She figured that in this they wouldn't be able to move those stones so they'd sit around and she had heard Atem tell the others that he was going to sleep away from camp and not to bother him so she figured they'd listen to him. She lit a fire and then flew back across and carried him across. She gently laid him down on her soft silk mattress. He was amazingly light without all that metal. She sat down next him and looked at him a moment, brushing one of his bangs away from his eyes. He was going to be pretty sick, she pondered him a moment then realized this he had been sleeping out in the cold and wet. She flew up to the top of the abyss and flew over to his tent. She looked at his writing and copied it in a note that read that he was going to take a walk ahead and would not be back for several days so to wait for him. She knew that one of the men would be a priest who would read it and know what it said. Then something caught her eye. A thick book of papyrus and a quill, she picked it up and, leaving the note on his bed roll flew back down to the ledge.

"Talrim… can you fly down to the bottom of this and tell me if there is a stream down there?" Iato asked and the falcon nodded and flew to the bottom of the gorge. Iato turned back to the fire and put more wood on it, she had collected it the other day. She pulled a clay bowl out of her bag, it was large and made to carry and boil water in. She set it down and put a hand to his forehead. It was heated and sweaty to the touch. She sighed as Talrim appeared up on the ledge again

'There is a very deep valley there the water is fresh and pure… and there are herbs… and something I think you should see.' The falcon shook its wings and Iato followed it, carrying the bowl. Talrim showed her to a large growth of pure blood red lotuses.

"The Iato Lotus." Iato said to herself and lowered herself into the bed. "These rarely exist now days. The are important to anyone because they can heal any poison and even, if you get enough you can restore life to the dead." Iato whispered gathering as many as she could up into her skirt, flying up and putting them by the fire. She took this trip three times. The finally she decided to leave the rest there to bloom and grown more. She dipped the bowl into the water, filling it up to the brim then flying back up to the ledge. She dove back down with another bowl, larger this time, for the fire and dipped more water out of the stream.

"Thank you my friends of earth, I thank you for helping me. I will leave you now." She said and flew back up. She set the larger bowl in the fireplace and set some of the shimmering wraps like the ones around her own upper body into the heating water to heat them. She began to pull the petals off the flowers and put them in a jar. She put what was left in another smaller bowl and smashed them into a paste them dropped the pulp into the cool water. It turned the water red. Iato ran her hand across his chest, looking for what ribs were broken. She touched them and he groaned again, his eyes opened and he saw her.

"Don't panic, please don't… I'm here to help you." Iato said before he did anything, most people normal reactions were to scream the moment they saw her.

"What… am I doing here?" Atem asked her softly and tried to turn towards her but his ribs hurt too bad.

"You fell from the top and I found you. Y-your ribs a-are broken." Iato said, she was shaking out of fear of him. Now that she saw him sick and in pain he was just a normal human but she was scared of all people because she had been tortured as a little kid for being different. She had never understood why… if she was so helpful did everyone hate her? She had figured it out… she had wings and they didn't… Because she was so different she was hated. She was afraid of being hurt by another so she would heal them but stay as far away as possible from them.

"Where's my stuff?" Atem asked her and she pointed at his robe.

"I-it's all in th-there." Iato shook and wrapped her arms around her knees, pressing her back into the corner. It was getting cold and she was wet, she wanted to dry her clothes but he was there. But she figured he wasn't going to pay attention to her anyways so she slipped her skirt off and hung it on her staff. Atem noticed that the cloth that was wrapped around her upper body actually continued down around her waist and hips, down, wrapping between her legs and around her thighs. She un wrapped this and hung it out from the ceiling. She curved her wings around her, funneling the warmth of the fire towards her and her clothes.

"Why are you so scared of me?" Atem asked her curiously. He saw what she was doing and didn't look away as if she was some horrid beast that was so horribly ugly that it hurt his eyes. Instead he did something that surprised her. He kept looking at her as she huddled in the corner again, out of the firelight. She wrapped her wings around herself, Atem could see her back and the places where her wings came out. The skin there was patterned like feathers then slowly molded into her actual wing. Her smooth back was curved perfectly. She wrapped her arms around her legs.

"Please talk to me… why are you hiding from me?" Atem asked her.

"Because you do not need to lay eyes on one so hideous as myself." Iato told him turning away again.

"I don't think you're hideous. I don't think that at all… I'm just curious." Atem said seeing Talrim fly back up. Iato held out her arm and the bird landed.

'Just talk to him, it can't hurt anything.' Talrim said and Iato nodded. She turned around and pulled the bandages out of the bowl in the middle of the fire. They were still dry. She wrapped his chest up in the heated fabric and held it in place as she pulled a small lotus pin from her hair. She pinned the fabric together then stood up. The fabric that had been hung out to dry was dried. She wrapped it around herself again, wrapping her arms with loose ribbons of the fabric hanging down from her arms. She wrapped her left arm completely and to the top of the glove on her right. She wrapped her upper body then the rest of her to he hips and through her legs but not her thighs. She slipped her skirt on and put her belt back on with her bag and the swords.

"… are you going to hurt me like all the others? Why are you not afraid of me?" Iato asked him as she offered him a canteen of water. She took a piece of cloth, soaked it in the cold water and laid it on his forehead.

"What do you mean?" He asked her.

"All the other humans I have ever met were either scared of me or they tried to hurt me. When I was a small child I was beaten because I was so different." Iato said sitting down by his side.

"What is your name?" He asked her and she shook her head.

"I can't tell you that. But here you dropped this." Iato said and handed him the golden beetle.

"I know, I dropped it for you, you left me a feather and I dropped you a piece of gold." Atem said and pressed it back into her hand. She pulled the book out.

"What is this?" She asked looking through it, it seemed to be full of pictures.

"I like to doodle." Atem laughed but the pictures were beautifully drawn. Not like the ones that she had seen on the walls of temples. They showed the exact contours and shape of the body, the shadows that fell across them, the texture of their robes. One was an image of a girl, she was maybe 11. She was sitting in the grass, her big eyes looking up, her dress strap falling down her shoulder slightly. Some of the pictures had to be over 6 years old but the girl kept distracting her. She recognized her from some where.

"They're really good, who is that?" Iato asked pointing at the picture.

"That was my little sister. She died in the plagues… every one said I should look for this woman named Iato but… I never found her… she was supposed to be the greatest healer that ever existed but when we got to the place she was supposed to be she was gone. I wish that I could have found her earlier before she died." Atem said softly. Iato looked through the rest of the pictures and saw one of Talrim. She smiled.

"You're a very good artist." Iato said to him. She flipped to the next picture and it shocked her. Swirling black smoke surrounded a winged figure, the girl's wings were perfectly textured and sleekly drawn. Her hair hung over her shoulder, the tips curling in ringlets. Her hand was bent up to her chest, the other was out. The glove on her right hand was drawn perfectly, it was shadowed and creased in all the right places. Her eyes were closed, her lashes long and her eyebrows curved. Her lips were drawn full and luscious. The luster and shine of the girl's wings were depicted by small sparkles. Marking the place to the picture was a white feather, small diamond flecks were scattered across it and next to it was a tube of ink. The tip of the feather was sharp and had dried black ink. Iato raised her eyes to his face in amazement.

"You drew me?" She asked and he nodded.

"I think you're a good subject for a picture." Atem said. Talrim was even open winged and landing on her arm.

"You… you like me?" She asked him. He nodded.

"And now what I'd like to do is draw another that is if you don't mind." He asked her then coughed.

"Okay." Iato nodded and handed him the book and turned for a second to get the heated bowl in it was a strong medicine for colds. She dipped a small amount out and made him drink it.

"Euk… that's nasty." He said and made a face. Then he dipped the feather in the ink bottle and began to draw. She was sitting by his side, her legs folded under her. With both of her arms to one side of her and her head cocked curiously to one side. Her wings were displayed at a jaunty angle… she had a friend… the first friend she had ever had. A little while later he coughed again then turned the book around. It was again perfect. She loved his drawings. But then she noticed that there was only one page left in the book.

"There's no more." She said and then smiled at him. "Can I draw something?" Iato asked him and he nodded handing her the book and feather. She dipped the feather in the ink and began to draw. She drew him, sitting there in the fire light but what she did was that she cheated slightly and used magic to create it in color. She showed it to him and then he smiled back.

"You're good too… but how did you?" He asked her.

"I have a little friend that gives me special talents." She smiled.

"Hold on it's missing something." Atem said and began to draw. She couldn't see what he was doing because he kept turning it away from her. After sometime he handed her the book. Next to him in the firelight he had added her. Sitting by him so life like and perfect the picture was Iato thought that they would jump off the page, she ran her hand across his picture and it changed to the right colors. She took a small bottle out of her bag that was empty and much to his surprise she shook her wing, small particles fell into the bottle, filling it up. She put the stopper on it and handed it to him.

"Something to remember me by… put a few of those in your ink and use it. It will be like nothing you have ever seen. Like this." She said and pointed at the picture.

"Thank you but what do you mean?" He asked.

"I'm taking you back to your kind. I know we will meet again my Pharaoh." She said and he handed her the book, taking the ink and the feather.

"Here… take this… I want you to have it." He said and she nodded a silent thank you. She helped him back into his jewelry and she flew him back to his tent. "Good bye." Atem said to her at the tent flap, she handed him one more thing.

"This is called Iato Lotus, the petals will cure all poisons and disease and they will hasten your healing. Please use them well." She said then left. Another feather landing on the ground in front of him.

"Thank you… good bye." Atem said looking into the sky, 'I hope we do meet again my Guardian Angel.' He thought as she disappeared from sight.