Weeeee! Well, now they're married... lesse.. What else happens, eh:Wonder wonder: It's the passage of time from the moment they left until... whenever I decided to stop it. n.n
Light the Flame
Chapter Seven
Nikoyaka Kanushimi
From the moment Yami and Teana left Kemet, all had been chaos. At least, for a little while. At first, everyone was on high alert, thinking the two lovers would return to the palace. After a few months, people began to come down from high alert. Time passed.
Four months. Six months. Eight months. Sometime in between there, Maia gave birth to her first child, a baby girl whom Jono randomly named "Misora". It wasn't until then that the first full blast of the passage of time had hit.
Cuddling her new baby, Maia remembered when she first told Teana she was pregnant. At the time, she had been only a month pregnant, maybe a little more.
Now, her daughter was a month old.
"It's amazing, isn't it," Maia said one night, rocking the crying baby to sleep. Jono looked up at her.
"What is?" he asked.
"How long it's been since they left. It's been nearly ten months. Almost a year." Jono sat up straight, his thoughts on them. How were they? Were they even still alive?
After awhile, people began to forget the Prince and the Servant Girl. More months, more seasons passed... Until they found themselves in the middle of spring once again. When this had all started.
It didn't occur to anyone until Asenath stepped outside one morning to find her mother's garden full and blooming. She half expected Yami to be sitting amongst them like he usually was, and recieved a bit of a shock when he wasn't.
It had been a full year.
Asenath stared at the plants, looking at the dark blues and violets that had been planted in honor of Yami's birth. She folded her arms and closed her eyes.
...By now, their sentences had been lifted... They could come home...
"Please," Asenath whispered to the wind, falling to her knees. "Please, Yami, come home..."
However, in Teana's homelands, Yami had barely noticed a years' passing. It didn't occur to him until Teana attacked him with an armful of white mitsukai flower blossoms one evening.
"It's spring!" she cried, throwing them over him. Yami laughed and fell onto a blanket, a large fire being lit for a party that night. Teana laughed and stuck a blossom in her hair.
"In a few more weeks, it will have been a year since our marriage," she said, sitting next to him. Yami took her hand.
"Really?"
"Yes. The end of spring..."
"...and the beginning of summer..." Yami finished for her, making her beam with pride. Yami closed his eyes.
...Spring...
He had a fleeting image of sitting in his mother's garden, a girl dressed in white sitting by his side-- asking about the flowers--
--Aklia--
"Hello! Are you in there?" Teana called, tapping his forehead. "You're spacing out again!" Yami, who had matured over the year from all the hard work he'd been doing, just smiled.
So spring passed. Summer came. Yami and Teana didn't give two thoughts about their sentences, or Kemet in general. And Kemet didn't give a thought about the two fugitives either.
Except Asenath.
She noticed how no one mentioned Yami on his birthday. And no one even so much had thought of him on the day he left...
Except for the fact she heard someone crying late that night...
So another six months. Then ten had passed. Then another year...
It had been two years since their departure.
Asenath, who was now almost twenty-three, leaned against a wall in the palace one spring morning. She noted dimly that spring meant something in her heart...
Her eyes widened.
She almost forgot Yami.
"Asenath!" A voice called from behind her as she stood against the wall. She turned slightly, letting Sekhem run up beside her. He recently turned twelve, and had been praised by everyone in the city lately. He was doing very well for all the years he had to make up; he was catching up to where Yami had been in training, and Yami had been training since he was very young.
"Good morning, Sekhem," Asenath said, patting his head in a degrading fashion. She still couldn't believe how tall he had gotten; he probably cleared Yami by a couple of inches already. (It wasn't that big of a shock; Yami had inherited his mother's height... Whereas Asenath and Sekhem were both towers, like their father.)
Sekhem frowned. He looked out at the courtyard and leaned on another portion of the wall. Asenath wondered what he wanted to say... He almost never said anything to her anymore...
"It's been two years," he said softly. Asenath turned to him. He had his head bowed, one hand over his face. Asenath grew concerned.
"Sekhem? Did you..." she trailed off as Sekhem lifted his head.
Tears streamed down either side of his face.
"As-senath... N-n-nefer-Asen!" he cried, flinging himself onto her. She gently wrapped her arms around his back. She rubbed his back gently as he cried into her shoulder.
"Sekhem, it will be alright…" She sniffed. "I miss him as well…" Sekhem breathed deeply, tears still rolling down his face.
"…He's p-probably dead," he muttered. "Dead, buried in the s-sand somewhere… I don't understand… I wished… I hoped… I prayed… why didn't it w-work?" He asked, looking up at his sister. Asenath closed her eyes. "I-I'm glad no one's h-here to se-see me like this..."
"Because, Sekhem. He hasn't died just yet." Sekhem blinked at her, his mouth falling open into a smile. Asenath smiled gently at him.
"Are you serious? How do you know?" She pulled her arms away from her brother and looked out at the courtyard once more.
"Because… He is miles away… forgotten his life here… However… he is still my brother, I am still his sister… and we still have a link… a bond… and I know… he's still alive out there, somewhere…" Sekhem looked up at her face, into her eyes.
"…You've seen his future…" he said slowly. "You should know where he is…" he crossed his arms. "Tell me."
"Can't," Asenath said lightly, turning away from the window. She grinned down at Sekhem. "Not until twenty-four hours before it happens, Little Brother." And once again, she patted his head and was gone.
Yami couldn't believe it. His fifteenth birthday had come and passed that winter… He was now sitting on his bed, looking down at his wife of two years. He couldn't believe how much he had changed. He actually wondered if his family would recognize him...
Teana was sleeping soundly, curled into a little ball. Yami pulled a blanket from the ground and threw it over her shoulders, covering her bare top. (Neither of them were wearing anything, actually.) Yami, sitting with the woven blanket to his waist, couldn't fall asleep. He looked down at the blanket, always amazed at the beautiful job Annuay and Scenna had down with their weaving. He glanced at Teana.
She, of course, had fallen asleep quickly, like she did all the time. Whenever she got the chance to sit down she'd feel tired. He smiled down at her. He pushed her hair over her shoulder so he could get a better view of her face. She was breathing very deeply and just sleeping, one hand beneath her face, the other lying before her.
Yami had very much wanted to make love to her before, long ago.
But now that he'd done it… and tonight was no exception…
Yami lay down, staring at the ceiling. His thoughts somehow fell upon his family in Kemet. He wondered.
How were they? Was Sekhem doing alright? Was Asenath? His mother and father? What about all the people appointed to him as priests? What would become of them? Would they become Sekhem's priests? Or would new ones be appointed?
Seto wouldn't like that idea very much… Yami laughed to himself. He shifted his arms so his hands were behind his head. He smiled.
His elbow hit the back of Teana's head. Opening her eyes groggily, she turned so she was on her back, yawning.
"Oh! I'm sorry. Did I wake you?" Yami asked, glancing at her. Teana shrugged.
"You're still awake?"
"I can't stop thinking about my family back in Kemet," Yami explained, returning his gaze to the ceiling. Teana looked from him to the ceiling as well.
"This is the first time you've mentioned them," she said softly. She smiled to herself. "I knew that there would be no way you could forget them..." Yami turned to her.
"You knew that?"
"Oh, yes. Everyone knew how much you adored and admired your family." She smiled at him. "I couldn't believe that you didn't miss them. I knew that was an act, Yami. I'm not foolish."
"I'm not saying you are," he said, brushing her hair out of her face. "I know you're not foolish. I just..."
Teana's hip bumped his and she shuffled closer.
"...I just miss them... a lot," he explained, looking at his hands before him. "There is no way I could forget or hate them. I love them so much..." he turned on his side to face her. Teana blinked. Yami sat up instead.
"It's..." he sighed. "They gave me a life." Teana nodded. "I mean... It's hard to explain. They cared for me. They... they created me, who I am, my personality, what I look like... From... From the moment I was conceived, I was suppose to be Pharaoh," he said, clenching his fists. "It's... such a strong, powerful, responsibility... I... don't know if I can do it... And I feel like I owe that to them..." Teana sat up as well, drawing the blanket up over her breasts.
"I understand," she said simply, smiling. "You think you owe them so much... Especially your mother and father... because they did create you." Yami closed his eyes.
"Do you know how many people in that city would give anything to be me? The Pharaoh's successor?" He sighed. "And I gave it away... I broke my mother's heart... My father is probably furious... My sister, my brother... I don't even--" Yami's eyes bulged.
Asenath!
"Yami? What is it?" Teana asked. Yami stared ahead, thinking hard.
Asenath and I have a link. A bond from the time we were both very young, when we were forced together... She knows when I'm sick and when I'm well... If I'm happy or sad... If I'm alive... or Dead... He clapped his hands together. Teana raised her eyebrows. If she knows all that about me, can I sense things about her? Maybe give me an idea of how my family is?
Teana watched with mild interest. Yami seemed to be running many things through his head. His face changed, his hands clenched into fists. Teana laid back and watched this silent fight with himself ensue beside her.
Can I…? I really hope I can, he wished silently. Just to be sure… He laid back, his eyes trained on the ceiling. I hope…
"Something's wrong, isn't it?" Teana asked softly. Yami shook his head.
"No… just wondering about something…" he said, smiling at her. He leaned over and gently kissed her forehead. Teana closed her eyes and fell back asleep, leaving Yami to wonder in silence.
The next morning, Teana could not concentrate on anything she did. She was aware of something in the back of her mind, something nagging her to go see her mother…
"Just go," Savannah said finally, after watching Teana fiddle with her hands for ten minutes straight. Teana shot a scared glance at Savannah.
"Are you sure…?" she asked tentatively. Savannah nodded, her short hair brushing against her cheeks. "She might ease your mind." Teana nodded, standing up. She glanced upwards into the fields were the horses were kept, then trudged down the dirt road, down to where her elderly mother was.
"Mama," she called, stepping around a couple of playing toddlers, "Something's wrong." Annuay looked up, pleasantly surprised.
"Really? What could be wrong, Teana?" she asked. Teana shifted her weight. She was sixteen; should she really be so edgy?
Teana sat down next to her mother on the ground. Annuay brushed Teana's hair away from her face, and slid her hand down her daughter's cheek affectionately.
"My dear," she said softly, "There is something troubling you. Tell me, what is it?" Teana took a breath, and sighed.
"I don't know, Mama. That's why I'm asking you." She looked her mother straight in the eye. "Can you… help me? At all?" Annuay glanced down at Teana's hands, which were folded in her lap, then looked at Teana. She had a suspicion…
"Teana, dear," she said softly. She stood up. "Could you step inside for a moment…?"
"It's been a long while," Jono said, shifting his shoulders. His legs swung as he sat on the courtyard wall, Tiet sitting beside him. Other militia men were lazing around, tired and hungry. It was dusk, and they had been there all day.
"Yeah," Tiet agreed. He tapped his fingers on his leg. He glanced at Jono, then leaned back.
"I hafta get home…" Jono complained. Tiet opened his eyes.
"Worried 'bout Maia an' Misora?" he asked. Jono nodded. He sighed and smiled lazily into the distance.
"Misora is crazy, getting into everything… It takes all of our energy just to keep her under control…" Tiet laughed. Jono arched his eyebrows. "Exactly…" Tiet stopped laughing as a thought occurred to him.
"Hey, Jono," he said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "D'ya 'tink that, maybe, by now… Teana's 'ad a child?" Jono blinked, then laid back on his palms. He sighed. "She's always talkin''bout wantin' one…"
"Well, she can't," Jono said, closing his eyes. Tiet turned to him. "Really?"
"Yes. It's sad… But, no matter how many times they do anything, or whatever, there is no way she can conceive a child."
"What if the gods decided to bless her?"
"With what she did? Hell no." Tiet shrugged, then closed his eyes.
"Won't stop them from having sex, if that's what you mean."
A shriek could be heard all throughout the little village. Yami and Sati both looked up, Yami subconsciously stroking Angel's nose.
"What was that?" Sati asked, shading his eyes to see better under the sun. Yami had gotten stronger from working with horses for two years, and was able to push himself up onto Angel's back using only his arms. Now that he was up higher, he could see farther. "See anything?"
"No..."
"I see something," Kenneth called, leading the horse he was brushing over. "I see Teana."
Sure enough, Teana was running as fast as she could, pushing people out of her way. She ran into the field and up the hill to where Yami was.
"Yami! Y-Yami!" she called, gasping for breath. She fell to her knees, her run catching up with her lungs. Yami dismounted the horse and ran over to Teana, putting his arms around her shoulders.
"Teana," he said softly, "what is it?" Teana lifted her head and opened her eyes, turning to him and grinning. She leaned in and kissed his lips softly, taking him by surprise. He reeled back, and then pulled away from her. "Teana!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm just so excited!" she squealed. She wrapped her arms around Yami's neck. Yami just watched her.
"Teana... Tell me what's so exciting," he asked, waiting for her answer. Teana closed her eyes and leaned against him, nuzzling his neck.
"I'm pregnant," she whispered in his ear. Yami gasped, not sure of how to react. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He pushed Teana away from him and faced her.
"W-what!" he asked in shock. Teana nodded. "You're..."
"What?" Kenneth asked, kneeling next to the couple. "What happened?" Teana turned to Kenneth and grinned.
"We're gonna have a baby!" she said happily, standing up. Kenneth was taken aback as well.
"W-what? You? Have a baby? B-but I thought--"
"Mama said so!" she cried, cutting off his sentence. Kenneth and Sati exchanged confused glances, and then looked back at Teana. Yami was still stunned, but his face was breaking into a smile.
"Oh... my God," he breathed, standing up. He placed his hand on Teana's shoulder. "I... don't believe it."
"Neither do I," Teana said, smiling boldly.
That night, Kenneth and Sati both approached their mother in her tent, wondering what was going on.
"Mama," Kenneth said as they stepped inside, "is it true?"
"Is what true?" Annuay asked, standing up as they approached.
"About Teana's baby. You--"
"--You didn't just make it up?" Sati finished, leaning forwards. Annuay chuckled and shook her head.
"Heavens, no. I wouldn't get Teana's hopes up and then break them. No, no, this is the real deal." Kenneth's jaw dropped while Sati spoke.
"But... we thought she--"
"Couldn't have children?" Annuay finished. She smiled. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it seems that, somehow, our dear Teana was able to conceive a child."
(Tee hee, that's the end of that chappy… Ooooh, I wonder what's gonna happen:Dies of anticipation: Are you people happy NOW? Maia FINALLY gave birth… O.O Hmmm… how will the next chap be, I wonder:Boogies down: Next Chap: I Think I Know You... Someone arrives in the place where they live…)
Shibby-One
