A Past and Future Pharaoh

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Original Beta: WhiteSwan

Current Beta: Me

A/N: Another barely 4 pager now more solid as a 4 pager, though I snipped a bit of chapter 41's opening to fit it here.

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The sun was high by the time the caravan that had picked him up had stopped in the capital of the country. He had been dropped off and left to fend for himself, not that he doubted his ability. He would survive, for his mother's sake. The dust was high as the crowds moved along from one tent to another. Hawkers selling their wares were shouting from all sides, while the willing stood looking over the offerings, picking what pleased their eye. Fine clothes, pottery, foods; however, all paled though compared to the grand palace that loomed above, beyond the markets. The thought that he stood before the palace of the Living God himself was humbling.

He walked further into the city, looking around and growing excited as he pushed his focus away from his loss. Everything looked as he had dreamed of the capital, the colors, and the glass that shimmered with the light of Ra. He stood there soaking in the awe of his countries capital, a grandness fitting of a Living God himself. He slowly began to fully enter the city wary of being in anyone's way as he looked about.

"Maha."

It was odd how that name was able to distract him from his fascination with the surrounding city like a nudge. Across from him there was a small child blindly walking along calling out that one name like a cheetah cub. There was something oddly fascinating about the sight that he found himself following the child. He was eventually rewarded with the sight of the boy stopping, pulling up the front of his hood and calling out the name again before giving a visual scan of the area. From there he picked a direction and resumed his walk as though he did not think anyone would run him over.

Set calmly made his way in front of the child before standing in the child's way waiting to see how the child would respond. It was odd that he would be walking like that, covered from head to toe with a cloak so big that he couldn't see out of it, the hood dropping so far over his face. It was rather adorable and made Set wish more that his father had not died before giving Set a little brother. Though dying for the honor of the Pharaoh was a great and noble cause, he still wished he had a little sibling.

The small child bumped right into his legs proving that he was going to get himself hurt at the rate he was going. Before he could really think of what to say to the small boy, said child was back on his feet and making his way in another direction. But the flash of the sun off the gold on the boy's wrist tipped him off about one thing. The child was a noble, someone of high birth, and seeing that he was alone he was probably not supposed to be out wandering by himself. Perhaps 'Maha' wasn't an older brother rather a caretaker hired by the family. Regardless the child was alone and bound to get hurt sooner or later, so he quietly stepped once more in the child's way to get his attention.

The boy walked right back into his legs before quietly pushing himself back up and pulling up the hood. He saw a pair of legs in front of him and opted to a new direction apparently as he stated "Not Maha," and carried on. So he bent down, trying to pull up the hood so he could get a look at this boy only to have those tiny hands grab the hood and hold it down.

"Look kid, you're not going to find anyone if you're dressed like this, you can't even see where you're going."

"Maha say 'no', Maha say 'no'," the boy repeated himself, his tiny fists tightening on the hood of his cloak as he stood there. Set sighed to himself shaking his head, unable to believe how silly the boy looked while trying to find his Maha.

"Fine, how about I help you look for him?" he asked.

"Help?" The boy seemed to ponder this thought for a moment before he suddenly exploded with a firm "Help!" And stuck his hand out as though he expected to be led by the hand.

Set shook his head before kneeling down to pick the boy up carrying the small child as the boy squawked in surprise. The boy wiggled his way around so he was comfortably situated at Set hip as though he was used to being carried around. All the better for Set as far as he was concerned, "what does Maha look like?" After all he had to know what he was looking for if he was going to help.

"Maha is Maha," The little boy replied simply enough, apparently believing that by that alone Set would know what this person looked like. In fact repeated attempts at asking that question got him the same patient answer from the little boy. This was going to be a long hunt, Set decided as they walked along close to the city square.

"So how did you get lost from Maha?" He asked, he already having discovered that some words were just too big to be understood by the little boy.

"Maha me pot." Talk about narrowing down a statement to it's bare essentials. The boy repeated it several times in answer to Set's requests for clarification. By then Set had realized that when the boy repeated himself automatically it meant he was putting more emphasis on his words. He thought on it then put the boy's odd behavior together and finally figured it out. The boy meant that this Maha put the child in a pot to begin with. Ok change of tactics then.

"Why would Maha put you in a pot?" he asked as the boy peeked out from under his hood to look around.

"Maha hard." The child answered with a small demonstration as he tensed up. So the person had gotten tense, perhaps the reason the boy was put in the pot was for protection. Set thought about it trying to trace back the boy's actions. But in the end what was the point? The boy couldn't see with the hood on, he wouldn't know how to tell where he had been in the first place and probably didn't know how to reach that area again. Suddenly the small bundle of child began to climb down struggling to break free of Set's hold to reach the earth below. Curious Set released the child gently onto the floor his expression thoughtful as the boy suddenly stuck up his hand. "Ahum. Me Ahum."

The small boy had stuck his hand out and was apparently trying to do introductions, so the boy just realized they hadn't introduced themselves to each other yet. "Set. My name is Set. Nice to meet you Ahum." he replied.

But the boy shook his head and lifting up his hood a bit he began trying to write it on the ground, but after the first symbol he slowly stopped and scuffed it away. "No tell name."

"But you already told me you're name... I may have mispronounced it but..." Set began calmly, though baffled.

"Forget." the boy's reply was rather easy with that answer as he interrupted Set.

Set wasn't going to say anything further on the odd rule about the name, wondering if the kid thought himself the Prince of Egypt. But what could he do? The boy was lost and needed to get home sooner or later, and now he had to worry about the boy's caretaker. He gathered the small boy back up and began walking towards the higher end homes, perhaps it would be wiser to start closer to where the nobles lived? He walked deeper into the city, checking to see if they looked to be looking for a child. Ra's light was bearing down on them as it reached it's peak, while his stomach growled in growing hunger.

They moved along through the busy streets until a sound attracted Set's attention, a sound that went against the casual conversations of a busy market. The little boy peeked out from under his hood as Set stopped and tried to focus on the sound. No, he could now tell what that sound was, the sound of a group of boys, but not the sound of a game. Something more along the lines of...

He finally broke from the crowd and in the distance he could see what had caught his ears. A group of boys surrounding something, he felt compelled to approach. But the closer he got the more he realized what he was watching. Between the legs of the boys there was another person being beaten up. At least eight or so boys were ringed around one guy on the ground beating at him for who knew what. He couldn't believe that this sort of thing happened in the presence of the Pharaoh's own palace. There was a row of large pots that, after a quick check, he found a clean dry one. Even as the boy sought to pull up the hood to his cloak, Set put him in a pot that held some hand lengths of wheat before he went to deal with the bullies.

"Ooooh Nuuuu..." he heard the boy complain behind him as Set left.

"What's going on here?" He demanded as he walked up to the group, it may not have been his own village but still!

One of the boys looked back sizing him up before nudging the boy next to him. Soon all the boys were looking at him the guy they were picking on left in the dirt. The sun shone itself proudly, not a cloud in the sky to produce a single bit of shade. What now? He was clearly alone, the boy on the ground would be helpless against this group. Set had some street smarts for someone who may not have been from the streets itself... But he respected those streets and learned enough to survive on his own, thus he had an aura of calm and self assurance where perhaps the boy on the ground didn't.

So the boys themselves didn't know how to handle this newcomer. As he made his way to the guy on the ground, he heard a small, childish 'Omph', something that told him that there was a kid who didn't know how to sit still. Then again, being put in... It clicked then in Set's mind, the boy had been put in a 'pot', one that had been moved... "Maha?" he called out looking for a reaction. A reaction that he predictably got from the boy on the ground. It made sense then, Maha must have realized that he was about to be in a fight and put the child in a pot to keep the boy safe. Someone, not knowing the boy in there, moved the pot itself to a new location, and the boy was released into an unfamiliar part of the city.

"Maha! Home now?" the boy clearly could not see what was going on right in front of him. He toddled towards where he had last seen the group, clearly this boy was not used to being in any type of danger.

"You mean this guy really does look after you?" One, presumably the leader asked walking up to the smaller child. He placed one hand on the boy so the child couldn't keep going forward, but at least he was being gentle about it.

"Umph..." Wow apparently the boy construed that as an affirmative answer. "Maha mine, papa say!"

"Then why is he wearing gold?" one of the other kids called out curious.

"Maha look pwetty."

'Oh sweet Isis...' Set mentally groaned, the boy was just too much. The child was clearly being honest about why, but that was just 'not' something to say!

The circle began to break up the boy nearest the child playfully yanked down the hood of the robe. The kid sounded pretty put out by the move, but at the moment Set's new concern was the guy at his feet. Outside of rousing up at the sound of his name, Maha had done nothing, but lay at his feet. No further interest in the world around him, which couldn't have been good. He knelt down his eyes focused on Maha, there was an occasional spasm of movement from the boy...

That wasn't enough, he needed the guy to be alive, since Set was pretty damn sure he didn't want his first day in the capital to be dealing with a corpse. Instead he gently began checking Maha for a pulse, trying to find some sign that... that all the boys around him had hit the ground and were bowing? That wasn't right...

"Tha Wight! Maha Mine!" Set slowly turned his head towards the sound of the voice. "You hurt Maha! Maha Mine! You bad!"

The little boy had apparently dropped a crown of gold onto the ground and was currently in the process of trying to, blindly, put it back on his head. In frustration the boy tossed the hood off his head with some effort and began working on the crown again. Suddenly it made perfect sense why the boy had been hiding so deeply in his cloak. With hair like 'that' who would 'not' know he was the prince? Galloping on the heels of that thought came one more... That the Prince of Egypt, himself, had told Set his divine name. Even if he mispronounced it and probably would have misspelled it.

The Prince of Egypt, was standing before him, his eyes an out of place color of purple, his hair an odd mix of all the colors of the sunset it seemed. Proud that he had gotten all the boys to bow to him, the little Prince started walking again straight towards them. That was the last he saw of the Prince before he opted to bow before the royal prince...

"You will be the death of me..." Kaiba said looking up at the ceiling as he snapped awake, his eyes opening at the same time that the sound of a book snapped shut. He found himself almost casually noting the ceiling, noted the smooth texture of this modern man made shield from the outside world. Even then the odd sound of a book opening and shutting continued onward to his right. For a moment all he could do was lay there and try to banish those long ago feelings. The freedom, the self assuring feeling that didn't come from an endless battle to keep his life afloat. If he just lived his life according to the principles of Ma'at than in the end it would balance fairly.

If he just lived according to those measures his reward would be a peaceful afterlife. Instead everything turned to ash in his hands, regardless of how hard he reached for it. He just was never strong enough to hold what he held dear. Life had become a never ending countdown his childhood filled with all the things that could give happiness, parents, toys, food and clothes. With each passing year a question of what would be the new thing he would lose forever.

Every day was nothing but a battle against the forces of the universe seeking to strip him of everything he held dear. Regardless of traitorous 'family' members, Gozoboro, corporate rivals, everyday was an unending battle. Perhaps in the end that was the 'real' reason that he let Mokuba stay at Kaiba Mansion. If he started the process of separation now, severed their bond slowly in tolerable measures he wouldn't feel as bad when Mokuba left.

Now he was fighting just to get his wits about him and stay awake as the beat of the book opening and closing was lulling him to sleep. With every clap of the mysterious book a swirl of seemingly bright glitter burst into his line of sight. Akin to a dandelion that had just suddenly been puffed on sending its seeds flying free into the air. Carried by the currents of the breath and then adopted into the winds of nature to carry it further.

They drifted above him, swirling about as delicate pinpricks of light, or stars far distant from the earth. Bringing to mind the idea of what it must be like to fall into the endless depths of space. Stars speeding past him their light twinkling as they disappeared past his line of sight. It was hypnotizing to see the way they moved, lulling his mind into a comfy muzzled state. So easy to fall asleep and just let the world pass him by for a little while longer.

Save... that book. Why would there be a book opening and closing in the room with him when he was alone? And while the past him would have just accepted things as they were despite the oddity, Kaiba could no longer be that trusting. No matter how beautiful the air before his face looked, how pained his body was or desperate he needed rest. He forced himself to turn his head to find the source of the books' sound.

"I should have expected it to be you..."