Lion Head Mesa suviŋñiq

he had chased the sun and become like the transient men of his mothers stories.

chased it so far, and for so long, the dark was gone! it was only sunlight now; even when the moon was full the earth was warm.

there was no ice. there were no trees, either.

sometimes he thought he saw a bird soaring overhead and would stare, but the shape of it would shimmer and vanish.

the boy found solace in the shadows cast by stones. he panted openly, distressed by the needs of his body and his inability to satisfy himself.

and yet, he persisted.

the palaces awaited the conception of royal children. senmut had sent bandages and medicine for akhtar. he himself had devoted energy to fortifying their defenses.

and each hour he longed for nazli.

a sentry stooped, whispering to the prince, who stood and strode up, out of the mesa.

a man lingered on the far red border. senmut approached with slow steps, gradually growing larger before the panting stranger. "this is akashingo. i am senmut. who are you?"

he had died and gone to the land of dancing lights. that was the only answer to what he saw now, to what he felt. there was so much light here! it radiated through the soil, even. the rocks were livid red and gold.

the man that appeared looked to be made of the same: he moved as if struck from the limestone itself, his bearing tall, his figure radiant.

the boy would not let himself cower in the shadows; he had been alone for so long, and he was desperate. this might have been a falsehood he looked upon - part of the shimmering tricks.

agakiggruk, he answered. he could barely keep his eyes open.

Agakiggruk, said the boy.

She watched on high stones where the mesa towered and the red priest moved. She was tossed upon her back, flipping rocks into the air and batting her paws at pretty things she couldn't see. Glimmers of light in a dead burned sky and the imp rolled and rolled. Oh, she had been gone often, hadn't she? Between the space of travel, move. Move. Move. Move. Rolled and turned, twisted and moved, a permanent hunger for desire. Akashingo had been under fire.

She thrived off of it. Off of the thrumming of her heart and the sickening twist in her belly. Yet she only watched. Never engaged. Never involved. A little bird on a branch.

Another crawled to them with eyes that dragged to the earths pits.

Then, she flipped and turned and rolled. She rolled all the way to the edge, until she fell off and slid down the slope of that thin ledge, sliding down upon her side until she rose upon her feet at the end. A dead, alive smile lazily on her face. A code embedded in her that played endlessly. 

The sides of the two men were invaded by the cross of her shadow touching theirs. Agakiggruk. Agakiggruk. And in that pass, she touched eyes to Senmut with a fire that would devour him. 

One that was quickly taken away, and her eyes were then forward. Her path was not for them. She left them.

Taken again to the call of Ra's wrath to eat her. 

Cameo unless acknowledged!

legend was there, and with her eyes she scorched the prince.

senmut was hard-pressed to keep his attentions upon the downed scarlet man. he did not so much as attempt the guttural, clicking syllables.

"you will die without water. stand. walk with me."

a waiting fellahin signalled, the prince moving to support the stranger.

legend. he must speak with her soon.

everything was a haze. he thought that certainly he had run far enough from the everdark to have found the sun, that he would not become a hungry man.

he would be scorched, burned away to nothing. he would pass beneath the sun and through it.

a solid body was beside him.

he was being led, and he did not know where, but found it did not matter now.

good to fade or timeskip!

he would make do with what medicines and things he understood; water was given; food set beside; the man helped to a cool couch in a cooler room and left behind with a firm word that the prince should be notified when the stranger awoke.