Lion Head Mesa black shuck

Mother wasn't here. Someone had come to the catacombs calling for her, and swept her away. She had tucked little Nazli here against @Zakariya without a word of explanation. It wasn't as if Nazli would have understood if Jawahir had told her anything, but -- it was the absence that stung so much.

She hugged her brother close, burrowing her nose against his back.

the queen had decreed that jawahir be supervised while nursing the royal trio. tavina had tried often to ensure that this individual was not herself.

she needed to be present for these children.

tavina felt it was high time that they had been introduced into proper society and light. they would be old enough to do small tasks and assure their own place in akashingo soon.

she brought the two a piece of soft meat and settled close to wait for jawahir.

Nazli roused when she heard something in the corridor; being a maze of paths, she could not discern with certainty who it was or where precisely they arrived from, until a piece of meat was laid near.

Her little nose fidgeted when she smelled it. She drew away from her sleeping brother and moved with the confidence of the ignorant through the dark, to where the warm body of the woman waited.

There, she grabbed for the meat and worked at it alone, not thinking that her brother might need it more - until it was gone, and Nazli was left to stare greedily up at the woman as if to plead for seconds.

nazli took what was offered and it was soon gone. tavina frowned, not at the girl but at herself for not bringing more. there was the wolfish thing to do, but she had recently eaten savory herbs that might not agree with nazli.

"has your mother told you about the sun?" she asked the little girl instead, prompting nazli closer with a tip of her muzzle. "or that one day you will see it?"

The child sniffed where the meat had been. She sniffed towards the woman and trailed awkwardly to her toes, only to fall upon them with nibbles, and little wanting sounds. Nazli stopped this when the woman spoke and pointed her nose up, up, up, only to tip backwards and flail as she rolled off her hip, letting out a tiny yapping whine. There was no semblance of understanding there within her.

nazli did not speak nor understand. tavina found it pathetic that these two were destined only for servitude before they even had a chance to live.

she made the decision immediately to apprentice one or both of them to herself. they must have a trade if they ever wanted to survive outside akashingo.

"Ra is the name of the sun god. he drives a great chariot across the sky. it burns like fire," she began, picking nazli up and nestling her between dark paws.

The woman's voice was kinder than the creature which had given birth to her; but she was there more frequently too, and was closer to a mother than Jawahir could ever be. Nazli was comfortable listening.

Raaaaa! R-a-a-ah! she parried Tavina's story with her little voice.

"yes. Ra." tavina smiled. the best thing for a servant to be was devout, or at least to carry this appearance. it would suit one well if they wanted to operate other things beneath the eye of their ruler.
"Amun is the name of the god for what we do not know, He Who Names Life." she cuddled nazli gently.

There was much that Nazli did not know. It felt a bit queer to have a name for this (amun), a bit of knowledge as title for what she had yet to learn. But she was glad for it.

She liked to hear Tavina speak; more importantly, the woman was receptive to Nazli's presence and gave positive feedback which the little one craved.

Ah-moon, she remarked softly, as if to pledge herself to the word. Reciting it again and again, ah moo, ah moo... moon, until a yawn came to interrupt her.

"Amun. Osiris. Iset. Nwt."

these were gods she did not worship. but these were gods that nazli must learn to obey.

the child yawned. tavina held her closer, repeating the names in a lulling voice.

the little one listened as best she could.
the names filled her head with ideas she could barely grasp. she slipped further from the real world and in to sleep, warm and happy against tavina.
if she were to dream, perhaps it was the sight of new gods that met her mind's eye. tavina's voice murmured distantly as nazli fell deeper and deeper, until she could only hear her own soft snoring.