Lion Head Mesa Anemone

forward dating wee bit to eye-opening, AW to mom, dad & sibs!

Existence is a dark field and in it Neith wants for nothing. Food, warmth and love are always within a stubby reach. She is cradled and bathed and sleeps off her perpetual bliss- up until this morning when the world changed.

It is so appropriate to color hope yellow, like the sunshine strands of her mother’s fur, which she first focuses upon. Her breaths rise quietly with the gravity of a brand new emotion.

Awe.

The dark had held him for so long. 

When the first beads of light struck his eyes, Den squealed in protest. Stubby puppy legs stretched out, jabbing into his sister's ribs. The light was mesmerizing. It poured in and illuminated the pale hairs along his nape and back. That same golden glitter fell across Neith. And Den noticed her for the first time - saw her. 

The young pup batted his eyes, testing the sensitivity of this new gift. 

And then he began to burrow his snout into Neith's side.

From womb to earth, a cradle of shadow and warmth. Bodies livid and writhing when awake. Everything tactile until the shift from one world to the next - in this instance, a bright world of hazy shapes as the light did competition with the dark.

The girl saw them for the first time; these blurry aureate figures. They hurt to look at - that was the takeaway from this; a mere glance burned shapes in to her vision.

There was one body that was easier to look at, and so Satakhetem's gaze found it's way to her shadowling brother, soothed by his presence. With a coo, she squeezes her new eyes tightly shut and folds herself against him.

khaemwaset beheld them each in turn.

his tiny chin was prideful, his small eyes fighting the natural squint against light. first pharaonic mother filled his gaze, as gilt and kohled as the tiny seed of divinity in the prince demanded.

there were smaller bodies here, a sister of rich milk and soft gold. a brother spun from ivory and sea-gem. and her.

unheard by the closed ears of the prideful young god, whispers of the unseen went on, and it was through their guiding that he lifted a miniscule arm to drape possessively.

night-sister, shard of obsidian. their hearts twined in beating and khaemwaset slept without a single bellow.

Toula found these days, her gaze shifted from her husband to the cubs at her side in equal measure. what sparked joy was not only the things that her divine children did, but her beloveds shared reactions with her—seeing all these brilliant firsts… all Toula knew and felt was love and bliss. the pains of birth were long forgotten. one day, she laughed with her husband and said, we must have a million of them! and though the words might be suggestive in their nature, in the moment it was said in earnest—these cubs, their perfect ones, were plainly adored. 
she could count each day and attach a memory to them with her babes. on the second day, @Khaemwaset bellowed just as loud as the first—and she discovered that his most demanding of screams meant he required sustenance, and on the third, she found that if there was perhaps some blood in it he was altogether quiet. he will be a mighty warrior, I think, she prophecized! we will consult the stars…
also on the third day, she learned one squalling sound from sweetling @Neith meant she was perhaps a little too chilly; Toula would have Rashepses come a little closer, and they two would drape around their babes, giving them plenty of space to breathe and a blanket of rich golds and midnights moonless black as their plumes were given. and the way that the mother perceived she sang when happiest, which could be a mere gurgle, had Toula prophecize again: I think that she will be the realms delight, and she peered upward to her husband, and then the sky—yes, they would need to summon an astronomer, an astrologist, for their children!
on the fifth day, she observed how @Den was so very mindful when choosing where to eat. close to his siblings, yes, but not fighting any needless battles—so wise already! she breathed, and as he unwittingly guided another sibling to a place to eat as he chartered his own course, he will make a grand ruler someday, she grinned at her husband as she daydreamed with him. 
the sixth, as she groomed @Satakhetem, she felt how soothed she was. something reborn and used to this pampering, she did not struggle against it at all. perfectly still—perfectly perfect. when her husband was not near, gone only to relieve himself but a good distance away as to not spoil the richness nor riches around them, she whispered, in a voice that could only be heard within the space they five existed in—no, she could not yet say it! but she did not think her father and her mother lived in the Land of Reeds any longer. when her husband returns, Toula strokes their little backs with her tongue and says, greatness reborn!
none could doubt her own power, her own divinity, in the four perfect things she had brought to Akashingo. and as each perfect day turned to the next, Toula found something wonderful in each one. sometimes it was her proclaiming it—and other times, though just as often, it was her husband. 
on this day, Toula opened her eyes and saw—
she saw herself! reflected in the murky gaze of each cub that looked, Toula gasped and sang to her husband, oh! our little Gods can look upon Their world now! and she drew her husband close to kiss him and then looked back to her perfect ones, the things each of them did. congratulations, my darlings! we love you so much, she breathed softly, warmly, against and above their perfect heads!

It was quite apparent in those early days how, after a rush of pride, the role of fatherhood for Rashepses was minor. It was Pharaoh’s body from which they nursed, her energy which they drained. Semer-wati kept them bathed and warmed, but it was always Toula’s intimate observations which drew deep feelings of ponderous mirth from the father.

His children were beautiful, each one had a luminous quality. Even in the small hours, their personalities were fiercely apparent. Rashepses delighted in resting a head upon his wife’s belly as he cradled her spine to his chest, and listening to the mother talk of their cubs. Leaders and warriors, lovers and prophets, were their brood.

“We shall begin now,” a kiss, lavished to her ribs, verged on passionate.

But it was the tiniest pair of lapis eyes which hushed him, and the following four pairs which engendered a laugh in his chest.

“Harek, Perfect Ones!” He reached a paw to stroke the head upon his golden prince as he explored his sister’s side, and admired his nightling pair’s embrace.

“Look, how they all love each other,” the man crooned to his wife.

The girl struggles to yoke her new eyes to their purpose and greet momma and papa in their infinite heights!

It is her brother of whom Neith becomes a conscious observer, an entity her same size and shape. As soon as her eyes fasten upon Den, an inward glee lights up her face. She wriggles around him, tiny squeals of amusement and trust coming from a being whose life knew no strife. Between nibbles at his cheek, Neith stares into his blue eyes and giggles, utterly smitten!

So young. 

The shift in his sister's demeanor impacted him. This sweet attention of her mouth on his cheek. And his eyes sharpened with more focus on her soft face and the blue of her eyes that were sweet and gentle and warm... and so loving. This shaped him. Without the knowledge of what it was, Den became addicted to it. To this attention and trust Neith offered. The prince basked in it with a soft squeak of pleasure. 

And with some surprise, he lifted his feeble little paw to her cheek. As though brushing his hand against something sacred and beautiful.

even the gentlest of his kisses always managed to awaken something in her! and had it not been for the newly opened eyes of their cubs to distract them both in this moment, …well, gentle reader, surely you know! 
she delighted at her husbands proclamation—yes, their perfect ones! truly so perfectly crafted, their little sweetlings with sparkling eyes. Toula could not help but kiss each of their faces softly, a smile that felt permanent upon her lips.
and indeed, she could see the way already they looked upon one another! and considered something, as she looked upon two perfect pairs. they truly do! look at the way they look upon one another, and her heart felt full to think that they had inherited both she and her husbands capacity for the feeling, and that they wielded it so openly toward one another. 
perhaps we should betroth them to one another, she considered, gaze turning to her husband, or would it be better, do you think, to see what other princes and princesses might be worthy of them? 
early, so early! though not really, not in their world—though beyond, and perhaps more than, that they both had lost parents, and it had been good fortune to bring the two of them together—Toula believed the luck would last all of their lifetimes, but would it not be a good idea to at least begin to dream of it? the marrying of siblings was also not so strange in their culture—in fact, it was quite common, and had her brother not gone that might have been the way of things for her. it had never been an unpleasant thought then, as she had loved him—though it was true she had never loved any in the ways that she loved Rashepses. 
ah, but perhaps they could wait! she was amenable. Toula moves to kiss him, now, and says with a smile, we need not think this over now, if you do not wish—I get ahead of myself, I think. perhaps we should wait for their first word! Toula laughs, having the self awareness at least to understand her own excitement!

Their godings grew quickly. Their infancy was the work of mere days, already they became wise beyond this corporal realm and the infantilism which dulled a mortal’s brood. Each brother clutched ardently to a sister of his choosing. A Queen to his Pharaoh. It could only be the prophetic work of their little Gods, whose veins coursed with his and Toula’s ichor. Their unalloyed blood, which would never be diluted with lesser deities.

“Osiris and Iset are sister and brother,” Semer-wati mused, receiving their will whilst leaning back to deepen the space of his neck for his wife to settle into.

Only divinities were privileged to do what was forbidden to members of ordinary families– to preserve the purity and symbolism of their blood.

“They will be wed.”

she looked to her husband with a knowing look and said, pleased with his response, We are, and, watching him, smiled with the belief that she knew what he might say. and she did! yes, this felt right—these, their firsts, were for one another before any other! 
Toula leaned against him, settling there. she felt that her mother and her father would be very happy, to see her as she was then. what shall be their wedding gifts? she hummed, daydreaming with a smile. we must explore the lands beyond, my love—so that we might offer them crowns, a playful consideration, though it did fall in line with their shared dream of conquest! a pretty idea of a wedding gift, but she looked to Rashepses for thoughts of his own. it was fun, to dream with him!

Positioning herself back within his arms, the king was unable to kiss her lips and so fiercely drew his mouth along her jaw, teasing the back of her ear with his teeth. In their union the fates had answered, and twice more would they stress the nature of their blood among Gods, who could not be bound by ordinary rules of mortality.

“Altars, my love,” his whisper thickened for her ear, “we will not wait to honor our children. The fellahin will begin construction on their temples today. Four, to be erected side-by-side, in the future likeness of our Gods.” Each morning their people would pray to the Red Sand Deities as they would to Ra. Semer-wati’s arms strengthened around his woman, pulling her deeper into him. All of this, it was their own creation, their own absolute bloodline, each child an extension of their power. His smile brushed over a flaxen ear-tip.

“Let us go see the four corners of the world we are to rule, meryt. The godlings will have their perfect headdresses.” Each tiny head was admired, flawless in their shape and color. Kem and Irtyu, Nebu and Shepsep. And his Toula, who’s still-full figure was enclosed with his own. Gently; intimately.

altars! yes, yes! she breathed! oh, it was an idea that sang to her worshipful heart! and were they two not Gods? already Their altars were built, that of Iset, of Osiris. 
and oh, he saw what she did! Toula held him in turn, her eyes closing as his lips drifted over the cusp of one ear. we shall begin these preparations at once, she spoke thickly, her mind at work—they should know sooner rather than later where might be best to stake their growing claim. but as she beheld him,
she thought of the two of them claiming one another again and again in each of these corners. before it was anyone else’s, the world was Theirs—Gods, yes, with the goodwill to share it. and how They provided! four perfect ones, little godlings, to give it to! Toula gently raises her palm to cup it against his cheek, adoringly, before she pulls him in for a long kiss. pain passes through her, and Toula withdraws only to hold him and the lives they had just brought to Akashingo. 
she lays down, the exhaustion of it all weighing on her closing eyes. and before she even knows it, she falls asleep against him, cradled lovingly in his arms as their young is kept safe and warm between them.