Was first posted online in 2003, so probably dates to that time. Original author's note follows.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't know yet. I just got a scene in my head like this one and decided to write it. Let's just wait and see if it goes anywhere. :)
Clap clap clap clap clap. The toddler's feet clapped against the tiled floor as he hurried down one hallway, then another, giggling all the way. In one hand, he held the sistrum rattle that he'd stolen from his mother, and his face bore a huge smile as he went, the small disks on the device rattling noisily. He made no effort to keep quiet, instead welcoming whoever might decide to come chasing after him.
Of course, since it was his watch, it was the palace guard. He came around the corner, looked both ways, then spotted the child running away, and came striding after him. His eyes flashed with annoyance; the child laughed even louder and ran even faster, making him scowl. He caught up when the child cornered himself, and reached down for him.
"You'd best cease this and come back to your room, else--"
The child whirled around and banged the sistrum against his arm, causing him to yelp with surprise and draw back. Another round of giggling ensued; the toddler darted underneath the guard's legs and hurried off again. The guard growled, wolf ears flicking, and followed.
"PRINCE IHI! If you don't cease this childish behavior and--!"
The child vanished. From behind a column, he could see the guard pause and blink in confusion, head cocking from left to right, and couldn't help but giggle again. The guard heard him and his scowl returned; he came close, ears still flicking.
"When your mother hears about this? She'll have a grand time taking that rattle back!"
The child stuck out his lip. He didn't feel like giving up his new prize. Instead he jumped out, brought the big rattle down on the guard's foot, and scurried off as a loud "OW!" echoed off the walls. Now the guard bared his teeth and came running after him, and for the first time Ihi felt a fear of being caught.
"IT IS A GOOD THING YOU KNOW HOW TO RUN QUICKLY!!"
Ihi made it down the length of the hallway, stopped just briefly, then darted left. His tiny sandals clapped frantically, the rattle clicking and clacking. It didn't seem like a good enough prize now, considering what he was having to do just to keep hold of it; in fact, it was weighing him down. He dropped it along the way, heard the guard slip on it and let out an exclamation not intended for young ears; that made him giggle anew and he rounded the corner.
He gasped and his heels dug into the floor when he saw the hall was occupied, the other guard standing at the end. He turned his head to look toward Ihi when something grabbed at his ankle and hauled him up and away so he dangled upside down. A moment later he found himself staring into the first guard's wolfish eyes, which narrowed at him, his teeth bared.
"Caught, at last."
Ihi gave his biggest smile and wriggled. The guard's eyes narrowed.
"I don't think so."
He lowered Ihi almost to the floor before hauling him up again and tucking the child under his arm as if he were a package. Ihi, realizing he truly was caught now, let his eyes well up and started whimpering.
"Oh no, you don't. You think that will work on me? I know you better than that, by now." He pulled Ihi out and held him up before him. "If you truly had something to cry about, you would not waste your tears so pointlessly!"
Ihi giggled and grabbed his nose. The guard snorted and jerked his head back with surprise, baring his teeth but too startled to snarl. He wrinkled his muzzle instead, which just made Ihi laugh.
"Demon spawn!"
"Ihi?" a voice echoed from an adjacent hallway. Both of them glanced in the same direction. "Ihi, are you about?"
The guard wrinkled his muzzle again and glared into Ihi's face. "You got lucky." Ihi just smiled and waved his arms when a third party arrived from around the corner, looking about him. He noticed the two standing nearby and smiled himself.
"So you're looking after him again. Are you having a fun time?"
"A delight," the wolf guard growled, in a voice that made it plain it hadn't been a delight in the least. The newcomer laughed and reached to take the child away from him.
"You know, Upuat, you're not really interested in raising children, are you."
"The whelp is not mine to raise. He is coddled. He steals and then runs away from his mother."
"He's two years old. What did you expect? Ah, I forget. You don't remember being two years old." When Upuat blinked at him he stuck out his tongue to indicate it had been a joke. Upuat gave him a disgusted look and turned away.
"If I were raising him, he would not be such a little demon."
"Two year olds are supposed to be demons. How Isdes ended up at all functional with you as his father is beyond me!"
"His mother raised him," Upuat said, and that made Anubis burst into laughter so hard that he had to wipe his eyes.
"Oh. I forgot! I won't do so again!" When Upuat's scowl just darkened further his laughter grew. "I'm sorry, Upuat. I'm not laughing at you, truly."
The wolf god grimaced. "Then let us find the whelp's mother so I may go back to what I am supposed to be doing. Which is guarding the palace! I can hardly do so with a little brat running about loose like a wild monkey!"
Anubis rolled his eyes but smiled and grasped Ihi to him. They started off down the hallway back toward the main part of the palace. "If you detest looking after him so much, Upu, how is it you always end up with this duty? You can't simply speak with Hathor and let her know you'd rather do something else?"
"You try speaking with your sister-in-law sometime, Lord, and let me know how easy it is. Once she is finished gnawing off your ears."
"I hadn't thought she was quite that bad..."
His voice faded as soon as they both heard a soft humming noise coming from behind them, and stopped. They turned to see what it might be. Nobody else was in the hallway; Upuat even poked at the wriggling Ihi to make certain it wasn't him. Anubis hefted the child and frowned.
"I think it's coming from down...do you see that? By the doorway, on the right."
Upuat squinted and then nodded shortly. "Light." He drew his sword. "None are supposed to be in this hall. The rooms are empty of guests."
"Maybe it's one of the others playing a joke."
"If so, then he must have either a lamp or a torch, and should a child be caught with either, he should be paddled."
Anubis's muzzle wrinkled. "Upu, I think you should speak with Thoth more often."
"Whoever it is, they are trespassing." He started toward the door. "And that is what it is my duty to do, to do away with trespassers. Not to babysit demonic little children!"
Anubis rolled his eyes again and followed. They walked slowly toward the doorway, from under which a pale blue glow was emanating. Their puzzled expressions grew the closer they got.
"I don't know of any lamps or torches that give off a blue light, do you, Upuat?"
"Not until now."
They glanced at each other, then back at the door. Anubis stepped toward it and placed his fingers upon the handle, gesturing at Upuat to be silent.
"I'll open it, and you can face whatever is in there. I know that's what you want to do, anyway."
Upuat poised his sword and nodded shortly. Anubis nodded in return, then slowly pulled upon the handle. Even Ihi remained silent as the door came open, the blue glow spilling out across the floor, flickering eerily. Upuat stepped up to the doorway and looked inside, then frowned. He entered the room, so Anubis followed, setting the toddler on the ground but keeping a tight hold of his hand.
Upuat already stood in the middle of the room. He turned to look back at Anubis.
"Look at this! I would be willing to bet Lord Thoth left it here somehow while staying the night. Have you ever seen such a thing? No wonder there is always such trouble around here, with him leaving things like this lying around!"
Anubis paused beside him to peer down at the object that had captured his attention. It was a little stone or crystal of some sort, sitting upon a table. It was also the source of the odd blue light, which seemed unusually bright and far reaching for such a small object.
Anubis frowned. "Thoth isn't usually that careless to just leave things lying about..."
"You should have told him that when he messed up that spell of his and trapped me in something similar to that thing." Upuat's muzzle wrinkled and he lifted his sword above the little stone. "Let me dispose of it before something else bad happens."
"No. Wait." Anubis placed his hand on the sword and gently pushed it away. He leaned closer to the stone and peered at it. "Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to do that. We don't know what it is, do we? I think we should take it to Thoth just in case. He would know what to do with it." He reached out and gingerly touched it with one finger.
Upuat made a face. "Suit yourself. I still say it would be best off destroyed."
Anubis rolled his eyes. "You think that about everything."
He picked up the little stone and held it in his hand, turning it this way and that. No light was refracting [sic] off of it; it cast all the light on its own. How odd. He'd seen plenty of odd things, but never anything like this...though for some reason...
"It feels familiar," he murmured aloud.
Upuat frowned and cocked an ear. "What do you mean, familiar?"
"I don't know...it just does." Anubis frowned as well. "As if I should know it from somewhere. I didn't even notice until I picked it up just now, but I feel almost like I've held it before...though it doesn't look familiar."
The wolf god growled and sheathed his sword. "I don't like the thought of playing around with it."
"I never said I was going to play--"
He gasped with surprise when the little stone suddenly disappeared from his hand. He and Upuat gawked when Ihi laughed and went running from the room, clasping the object to his chest. The child had been so quick they hadn't even noticed him jump up to reach it.
Upuat actually drew his sword again. "YOU LITTLE BRAT! COME BACK HERE WITH THAT!"
Anubis jumped ahead of him and pushed the sword out of the way. "I swear sometimes! You should never be allowed to babysit children because you would SCARE them all to death!"
"He has it coming to him!" Upuat insisted, even as Anubis bolted out the door and down the hallway after the toddler. He heard Upuat close on his heels and picked up his pace, determined to reach Ihi before the other god did; he knew Upuat would never hurt him, but the thought of seeing the child crying while Upuat bellowed was bad enough.
Ihi apparently hadn't even noticed the wolf god's yelling. He still toddled down the hallway, giggling the entire way. He ran oddly fast for such a young boy. Still, Anubis managed to catch up with him and ended up nearly tackling him, landing on his chest and catching the child under the arms. Ihi cried out in dismay as the little blue gem flew from his fingers, bouncing along the floor a few times to come to a stop against the wall.
Anubis let out his breath as Ihi wailed and waved his hands. He pushed himself up, keeping hold of the struggling toddler as he did so.
"I'll take him back to his regular nurse--and find Thoth while I'm at it--"
He blinked when Upuat rushed past, sword drawn. "To the Duat with that!" the wolf god snapped. "He could have gotten away with it--and then who knows what would have happened! This thing is better off GONE!"
"Wait--!" Anubis got out, just as the sword swung up into the air and down again, striking directly against the stone. As expected, a brilliant flare of blue light lit up the hall, and both gods shielded their eyes, Ihi crying out. Not as expected, however, was when the hallway vanished around them, stone and mudbrick disappearing into foggy mist. Anubis glanced underneath him and saw that even the floor was gone.
"What--?" Upuat gasped, glancing around himself in confusion. Anubis was just about to ask him the same thing, when the little stone flashed again, blinding him--he threw his arms over his head, hoping that whenever it ended, he would at least still be in one piece--wherever he ended up.
A sharp humming noise throbbed in his ears, making his teeth rattle; it seemed to go on forever, but he knew it was only a moment or so. The light was so bright it stung his skin. After a long while he felt it begin to fade, and the weird weightlessness that had overtaken his body began to fade along with it. By the time the noise and light disappeared he again felt a hard surface beneath him, and let out his breath in a shuddery sigh, feeling his ears. Well, everything still seemed to be where it belonged.
Except for him.
Anubis slightly lifted one arm, peering out over it. The first thing he saw was...grass? In confusion he lifted his head and dug his fingers into the...ground. They came up dirty. The tiled hallway with its carved walls and painted columns had gone, and...this place...with earth, and grass, and trees...had replaced it.
Anubis stared up into the odd leaves which rustled far over his head. They looked like nothing he'd ever seen in Kemet, coming to little points like stars. And they surrounded him, all over. Massive numbers of them.
"What in the Duat...?" Brow furrowing, he pushed himself to his feet and stood staring up into them for a few moments before wandering away, looking around himself.
"Upuat? Ihi?"
Nobody answered, except for a bird singing far off. Anubis walked slowly until the trees began to thin, then picked up his pace when he noticed something ahead. It looked to be a building or sculpture of some sort; perhaps he would find somebody there.
When he entered the clearing and saw what it was his confusion only grew.
It was no building, nor a sculpture, but instead an odd rock. He'd never seen one like it, and hadn't even known it was possible for a rock to be shaped in such a way by nature. It formed a large, jagged arch, lined at both ends by brush...and through the hole of the arch he could see a brilliant expanse of rainbow colors, stretching far off into the distance. His eyes widened in disbelief.
Water! What seemed like an endless spread of water!
"The sea...?" Anubis stared, bewildered. "Am I at the sea?" He looked around him, then took a step forward and peered down under the rock. The beach below was small and rocky...nothing at all like the swampy, sandy mass that was the Delta. If this was the Great Green Sea--and it seemed more blue than green--then it was certainly not at any point he had ever visited.
He stared at the lapping waters for a while, then approached the rock even closer. If there was a way down to the beach, perhaps he would be able to figure out where he was. Once he got his bearings he could locate Upuat and Ihi...he hated the thought of the child being off on his own in such a strange place. Hopefully Upuat knew where he was. But he couldn't do anything as long as he was lost.
He didn't see any obvious trail from here to the beach, so wandered to the side and started poking around in the bushes. The only way down was to climb. He wasn't afraid of heights, nor of climbing, but the terrain was very rough and he had no way of knowing how stable it was. Still, he had to try.
Anubis started picking his way down the bluff, grabbing hold of saplings and shrubs and roots when he could, wincing whenever he scraped a knee or elbow. Although he got sweaty rather fast, the temperature here was nowhere near what it was at home--in fact, he knew that if he hadn't been busy climbing, he probably would have been shivering with cold. Yet the sun was shining brightly. Even the sea wasn't this cold. But it was still too warm to be the desert at night...not that this place could be mistaken for desert.
Is anything here ever going to start to make sense?
His foot slipped and he gasped, grabbing hold of a root and sliding slightly down the slope before coming to an abrupt stop. He gritted his teeth and waited for the shifting sand and rocks to stop, then opened his eyes and peered downward.
The beach was closer, true, but not that much closer. And as for the slope beneath him, it wasn't really a slope anymore but a dropoff. There was no way but straight down into the treetops...and no way he could manage that, and still hope to survive.
Well, this doesn't look too promising...
A pebble fell from above, pattering against his head and making him yelp in surprise. He heard scuffling noises and his ears pricked when a voice came from further up the slope.
"Hello? Are you caught down there?"
Relief flooded through Anubis's breast. "Yes!" he called back. "It's steep--I don't see any way up or down."
"Hold on and I'll come down for you!"
Anubis did as he was told--not that he had any better ideas--and hung from the root while more noises came from over his head. After a few moments he spotted something moving, and turned his head to see what looked to be a rough rope sliding down past him.
"Grab hold and I'll try to pull you up!"
Anubis reached out one hand and scrabbled for the rope. He managed to get hold of it just as the root began to pull loose from the earth, and then watched as the piece of land he'd been dangling from broke away and tumbled out of his sight. He let out a shaky breath and started climbing up the rope, the better to reach the top even sooner. He felt it dragging beneath him and prepared a thank you in his head for whoever his savior was.
"Are you all right...?" the voice came, just as he saw the ledge above him and grabbed hold of it, pulling himself up and over. Then he heard a sharp gasp and lifted his head to see what was wrong.
His rescuer--a thin man wearing four tall feathers upon his head, two upright, two down--fell over as if sitting down, and scrabbled backwards away from him, eyes wide. The god stared back, panting softly.
For the first time ever, Anubis, the jackal god of Kemet, and Stick-In-The-Dirt, the medicine man of Manitou Island, sat and stared at each other in bewildered silence.
No comments:
Post a Comment