No longer a member of the Tribe, Meridian's paws took her East, as the sun's rising. Pausing to glance around her, she let down her guard. The bottom of the mesa held a pristine, small waterfall, tinted with the color of the sky. She took a moment to admire the crystalline water, then bending down to lap at the cool refreshment.
“You are bold to return,” he spoke from where he waited in the shade, grinning like a lion, lips set in a beguiling curl to present the apex of his teeth, starkly white over obsidian fur. He allowed his eyes to rove broadly over her svelte form as she drank from the pool. Perhaps she wanted to be bold, and the oppressive heat invoked a thirst for amusement in her as it did him.
She was unsurprised when a voice cut through the silence. Without turning to face him, she lifted her head, confident in her reply. And you are bold to assume I tread around boundaries. Anywhere the sun shined on, she could follow.
The scent thickening the air told her he was one of the wolves from the pass.
He was sensed just out of sight where a holder of rock formed a cool surface but she would not shift to see him.
“There is good reason to respect them,” he ghosted with levity in his voice. It would be in her own favor to skirt Akashingo, though he made no elaboration because now the opposite had him pleased. He watched her in the sun where the light was blunt much like her tongue on the tips of his pointed ears.
“How does desert life suit, coyote?” He drew with a leisured ask.
Wolves. All about territories. Hmm... where the sun shines, I may follow. Her usual response to statements or questions of the type. I suppose your claim sees light... unless it is hidden by shadow. Like this whole goddamn place. It didn't bother her, as Meridian's very calling was to shine light to the illiterate and primitive. To his next question, the priestess simply scoffed. The wolf wouldn't fool her with his idle chatter.
She divulged a little and the riverprince would decide to offer the same.
“Ra,” he is named, “the sun God. We also follow where he shines,” his own eyes glittered in His holy color. Though with the coyote's dismissal there was little amusement that she shared and he would not long keep her from the meanderings that would pull her from this place, and his own back to the duties within the new kingdom.
Meridian appreciated the shared belief, more willing to yip out information. The sun. Simply the sun, but she was gentle in her correction. Different creatures had different names for the giver of light. No god can ever harness the power of the sun. For it is the sun alone. It was the only deity for the priestess to worship. Her interest in a conversation peaked.
The curves of her small face light now and the prince muses on the role of the deity for this wanderer of the sands.
“God is a name given to the power,” he explained of their belief, “It is the same sun,” whether called power, or Ra. He let his head shift curiously to one side, eyes stoking a fire in the coolness of his shade.
“Do you worship your sun?”
One must be careful of someone too eager to talk. But Meridian let down her guard. She was of noble blood, and didn't assume she would be harmed by a worshiper of the light.
Tis the only reason I am here. Both figuratively and literally. She had only left the Sundom to spread the faith.
Rashepses looked and appreciated the creature of faith, one who dedicated her time on this earth in worship of the God and in turn was favored by him, wearing even his color on her back.
“May Amun-Ra bless your travels, coyote,” he grinned again into her direction and settled back upon his roost. Her message was an important one: a higher power is to be worshiped.
She finally moved to see the other. His eyes were the radiant color of the sun, but it was his coat that surprised her. It was made purely of shadow. And yet Meridian felt no resentment towards the wolf. She had learned to recognize purity when she saw it, and there was a contrast between this creature of light, and the faithless of the oasis.
She dipped her head in thanks at his words. May the sun light your path-
The priestess motioned for him to reveal his name.
“Rashepses, sphinx of Akashingo.” When she at last turned to see him, he rose, descending from his keep to join with the girl in light, though a distance was still maintained. Now he could see the loveliness of her eyes; the paleness of her chest and how it moved down into her belly. The heat of sun blazed a trail up along his spine where the shadows had once cooled him.
“What is your name?”
Rashepses. A foreign name, as was Akashingo.
She answered the question honestly and with pride. Meridian Cactusbloom, of Radiant Mesa. She had never been to the capital of the Sundom, instead she had pledged as a missionary to her region. The tale of why she had left Blooming Cactus, her home outpost, was a long one, and for another occasion.
“We will meet again, Meridian Cactusbloom,” and he dipped his head in return, one harbinger of faith to another, eyes taking their last glance before his steps returned to the pass.
As the wolf he held no true power in this country. As the God, he owned it: every hill, every tree, every river and every grain of sand; the very sun that seared Merdidian’s back, poured into her eyes and out onto her tongue; the one she worshiped, was him.
Hope of an educated land came with those such as Rashepses. Meridian stood content, assuming she was not alone on the quest of spreading light. Uttering a final parting, she watched his for disappear.