Lion Head Mesa [wp] claw & skin

while servants fell into thorns and doctors were pursued by bees, khusobek had found himself a very different sort of diversion.

deep inside the voidlike bowels of the mesa, he had been idly sorting the earth for no reason but boredom. the inky soil shifted, and spilled out upon his paws, and there was the glinting of deep blue in the semi-light.

sapphires, a ransom of them, cradled now in one roughened paw. greed sparked in khusobek's eyes. he began to replace them, to cover them, all but three.