charming tears from a crocodile ☥

maybe @Merneith? <3

---

 this place was so vastly different. khaemwaset held up his arm as golden grains flew by his heavy-lidded eyes. he strayed now from their contingent, exploring water set in stone squares and the lillypads lapping there; further below the duned cliffs was an aperture of shaded space.

 he came here to find reprieve from the eye of Ra; he lay down upon outflung bedding and closed his gilt gaze.

 for a time. for a time. the crown prince had much to think of and found his mind whirled too fast for a single conceptualization.

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 It felt unlike her lionhearted part to seclude himself. For the first time it was not brother who worried for sister, but the inverse. The sun commences its golden prowl, hot upon her shoulders as Merneith steals down along the spill of water. Heat-haze blinking from her eyes, there she finds him, melding with shadow, an other-worldliness shifting the underlit silhouette.

 She is drawn to his side, a paw encircling his own, kissing what she can reach of his silken cheek. He is so beautiful, lying there with his dark fur changing colors, each strand seeming to catch a different teal hue.

 “Khaem— are we dead?” She asks, as if in a dream.

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the wind rises like an exhale.

with it, there's a blend on the air; frankincense, honey, conifers, and a touch of anise.

it passes by, but in the direction it had come from...
 

 

something within the dune.

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 she watched their children, grooming the furs of her daughter while Den rested alongside his father. it was a peaceful moment, but when a new scent came in on the wind Toula rose and said, “@Rashepses,” even as she moved toward their children in the distance.
 if the owner of the scent was a threat, Rashepses would teach his sons how to protect their family this day!

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 Rashepses saw. Saw, and found it curious— this affection blooming between Kem and Shes. The royal children had not yet been advised of their pairings, but they were old enough now to learn the roles they would play in the court of Akashingo.

 But thoughts were disrupted. The King moved to answer Pharaoh’s call swiftly while a pair of mazoi took up positions before Den and Satakhetem. He smelled it too, a new scent on the dusted horizon, and readied himself to meet it.

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 she was calming to him; khaemwaset shuts his eyes and nods. "yes. i think surely we must be, neith. do you remember what senmut said, of the afterlife?" holding tighter and tighter to her paw as he leans his chin upon her shoulder.
 now came a sound! as as if summoned, their divine mother and father. he rises to greet them as a proper prince, bowing in polite recognition of their conduit to godhood. "are we dead?" came his modulated voice aloud, and a glance belongs to neith as he boldly utters aloud her poignant question for them both. in many ways he was still young, pronounced even now as he spoke in ignorance of the gathering tension around he and his loved faces.

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 “What did he say?” She could not recall— not when she’d been trying so hard to make her heart as resolute as stone. But Neith was moved deeply, even more so when she could no longer smell the amaranth in her brother’s furs. Her lips part with another question but no longer is there time to ask it! Khaem whisks to his paws and Neith emerges shortly after, blinking sharply into the light. Mother and father had moved swiftly to guard them, for someone approached on their sands.

 The amiirad buffs her fur and tilts her chin beneath the sun, emulating her mother’s elegant stance. But she presses closely to Khaem, wishing they’d had a moment— a single one to make sense of all this.

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 she was both Bastet and Tawaret, standing before her children, prepared to protect as They would! it was to Them she prayed, and she watched her husband stride toward the scent the Gods had delivered within the wind! she admired the power in each and every step, pantheric and fierce.
 an ear cupped toward her son as he spoke. and then she looked to him, gaze softening—oh! her poor children! of course they would not know, and Toula felt terribly that she had not comforted them immediately! she drew around them in a protective circle—saw at last the true blessings she had been given, no longer what and who she lacked!
 her turquoise eyes passed over the face of each cub as she answered, “We are resurrected. death has come and gone. your father and I have forged the path into this life for our people—but our Brothers and Sisters might see it fit to create another, as to prolong the journey of those not yet with us. for some that will be a gift—they may reunite, briefly, with loved ones in the Land of the Reeds!—and for others, a test…” and some might find their hearts and souls devoured by Ammit, never to be seen again in any life. “be it sooner or later, the worthy shall return to us. for We shall build altars for Khonsu for those not yet among us to follow, once we move on from here,”
 Toula is quiet now, listening for any questions. she also listens for her husband, but hears no indication of danger.

was asked to skip!

---

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 The much more substantial risk of foreign blood seemed to subside, now Semer-wati turned to his moon and sun with slitted eyes. Had they not prepared their sons and daughters for the yoke of themselves, and the heft of their divine responsibilities? His wife spoke, who always knew best how to comfort their children.

 “Osiris delivered his children to this land, amiir; amiirad, along with Our most loyal attendants to serve us, and to rebuild the kingdom of Akashingo.”

 Attentions returned to the sun-claimed horizon. He would not mourn the mesa, where his wife’s flock held secret scorn in their hearts. Water had washed the filth from their people. Here they would begin anew; here Rashepses would rise as the Gods ordained him to.

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 whatever lurked upon those sands had seen fit to go away. his eyes blinked and he turned them back to merneith. but mother spoke, and then father also. fierce pharaoh! akashingo had been reborn, and they with it, and they to this place. beside his sister did the boy grow upright and tense, consumed by the ardency offered by the one who had borne him.
 and father; he confirmed this as khaemwaset gazed steadily at the man with admiration stark upon his face.
 pharaoh recaptured him once more. "we will leave?" and he forgot for a moment that which senmut had said, what he wished to say; he held fast to merneith in surrender to their speaking parents and the wisdom given.
 "i wish that an altar be built to Horus also, that His eye guide our people back to our kingdom," he said at length, the first semi-edict uttered by the prince who meant to be heir.

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 Even the divine have worries, as Neith reflects on how Akashingo had been riven and shaken. But her family is determined, and their daughter was certain they would lead the nation back to its former glories.

 “I will craft amulets of Iset’s protection to comfort those in mourning,” for the goddess’ recitation spells inspired great hope. Her face warms, having great faith in her family’s remedy, and enlivened that there was some way she could do her part to nourish Akashingo.

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