Lion Head Mesa A Felicidade

“What waylays our punctual prince?” Between bites of fleshy fowl, Semer-wati grunted to his wife. Surely the man had been allotted considerable time to tend to his hemet and newborn child, and now he must return to Akashingo to resume his charge as Erpa-ha.

“Perhaps hem @Akhtar shall lead the Birth Rites,” he continued, an idea posed for @Toula while he tongued the sinews between teeth. Finishing the meal, a hand swept for his dark prince, drawing the cub upon two obsidian arms to press a tender nose against the fearsome crown.

“All the world shall know your name, @Khaemwaset,”  he promised his son.

bequeathed to his eyes now were the lineage of obsidian and gold. focusing cloudy lapis eyes first on mother, then father, the prince shouted as the latter swept him forward.
soft claws rose to tap the massive snout, as if in chastisement. a babbling sound not unlike laughter burbled forth. khaemwaset's kohled eyes blinked in interest at the divine face above himself.

quick cameo

Tucked into the plush belly of mama, a dream makes Neith’s pink nose quiver. In it she squeals with delight, her tiny body thrilling to life, tasting wind and sun and seeing all manner of unimaginable life!

A muffled duet of voices fill her ears. Sun and moon begin to sing.

she turned the spoken letter in her mind over and over, contemplative. I had considered it, if only to keep the Priest-Prince near to his wife, and near to her Hebsut! there are matters he must attend to in Muat-Riya while our Hebsut recovers—but I intend to summon him, temporarily, given the importance of their naming, and Akhtar himself having only just recovered, Toula wanted to be sure all went smoothly! she summoned the fellahin who recited the letter of their Erpa-Ha so they could both hear it again. 
and as they waited, she delighted in the way he spoke to their son, and how their son seemed to respond to him! ah! he knows it! she cooed to them both, delivering a kiss to both husband and babe. 
her little daughter dreamt, the noises of joy filling the room and her heart! Toula leaned into her husband, breathing him and their cubs in—this very moment one she herself had lived in before, in her own dreams. there was only brief surprise, to feel as though she had been exactly here before, but it was gone quickly, and warmth lingered in its place. all was as it should be, better even than the sweet haze found within the place of dreaming.

The letter, again. Semer-wati had exercised great patience. But the maids of Muat-riya would not forget who it was they served. No fellahin, hebsut or otherwise, would take precedence over their Gods.

Kem seemed to agree, the way he batted out his dominion. He was ready for the world to listen.

“So he does,” a grin spread across the father’s lips to match the breadth of his son’s ferocity, “the mightiness of Montu runs in his blood.” Ivories mouthed the pups’ strong paws, his prince spun from ambrosia and obsidian cradled proudly between his arms.

When Toula leaned in, he caught her lips with his own, deepening their kiss. He lived in these private hours with his family.

"What do you suppose she dreams of, Iset?" The man asked in a murmur, clearing his wife's cheek with his tongue as they gazed down upon their alabaster daughter.

it is your might, too! she exclaimed, seeing such within her husband. she remembered their dreaming together, and turned to look at the blue-eyed godling. Toula told herself she saw flecks of gold within them, and loved the boy more for it. 
she laughed in delighted surprise at her husbands ardor, and thought to match it by lingering in this embrace for a long moment. Toula, too, adored these precious moments. she sighed contentedly as she turned to look again to the others that slept. 
leaning further against him, Toula hummed happily in her throat as he groomed her. hmm… I think she dreams of… Toula imagined, closing her eyes and conjuring up her own latest dream: …of a morning soon to come, when she shall first be able to compare the golden warmth of Ra to the brilliance of your gaze. where her beautiful voice, next to her sister and her brothers, will join ours during hymns each morning to Him, 
Toula smiled. she thought of her girlhood; she thought of her father. I remember my girlhood. the Hemets and the Hem would greet Ra each day, as we do now—as soon as I could hear, I sang with them. one day, my father visited—he took me to bless the river. he sang a hymn I myself have dreamt of singing to them, she whispered, when our family blesses the river this year. a tradition she would see continued—a tradition she would build into more, so that the Gods all could see her gratitude for what They have brought her.

skippable! <3

their voices blended into honey and cinnamon. khaemwaset watched his father smile and heard his mother's joy.

a moment of formation, of witnessing man and wife adore one another as they cradled royal progeny in gleaming arms.

his paw lifted now for his mother, for the uraeus of pharaoh's golden godlight to turn itself upon him.

Three at her belly, kneading in their sleep. The father daydreamed alongside them, lured into his goddess’ idyllic reveries.

“We will take them to the serpent as soon as they can speak, meryt. They will sing with us at her shores, and all the world will listen,” he crooned, his pride vaunting. "They will sing for each major God, and in turn be enshrined in the hymns of our own people."

Toula was radiant. His children were strong. Rashepses' world was bright.

he awoke another dream within her with his words. how sweet it would be, this—for the world to see it’s leaders, all together in prayer blessing the lands! it felt right. yes, she breathed against their dreamers fur in answer, looking then to her son. 
how powerful we two are, my love—look at how our own dreams have come to life. I see you in them, she marveled, moving to kiss the tiny paw her little Godling offered to her. thank you, my sweet boy! she crooned to him. 
Toula sighed in contented happiness. what is your own fondest memory, with your father? she wondered, turning to look to her husband. she wondered what he most remembered within his own childhood in a warm light—she tried to picture him, as small as the cubs at her side!

On his lips grew a smile most serene, and as he witnessed the mutual reverence between mother and son, semer-wati was filled with a sense of religious awe such as he had scarcely known in the sanctuary of their manifold gods. A visual stroke upon each perfect form, his wife’s tender grace and Kem’s fierce richness, stamped as clearly upon his features as was Amun-Ra’s crown of sun. 

Close to his heart he bundled the other three, their varied shades of gold catching in the light and flashing bright like jewels against the king’s dark belly. Such enormous power was implicit in each as he pressed a nuzzle to their heads and a sent up a silent prayer of endless devotion. The God’s eyes were met intently with his Goddess's over the wealth of their brood and he feasted upon her great beauty, gleaming to him even more feminine in the days since their cubs’ birth.

“Pharaoh Shepsekare,” he named, smile broadening to think of his own father, “he is a stern King. Humorless. Nigh impossible to address after my mother’s death, but so content he was on my name day that the kingdom of Ta-senet in its entirety, from battlements to village, were treated to his laughter.” A rich baritone the mind could still recall with crystallized clarity.

“No man rules alone. It was the most important lesson to his sons,” he resumed, musing. A lesson the riverking would instill too within each of his own children. In ways Ta-senet seemed a separate lifetime than his existence here within Akashingo. His eyes remained uplifted as pleasant memories of boyhood circled back.

“He’d be quite taken with you, dear wife,” Rashepses' grin deepened. Perhaps too taken. Semer-wati was grateful the man was much too old and stubborn for desert travel.

“Tell me of your fondest memories with Pharaoh Ramesses," the man beckons, reaching first to kiss Kem's dark cheek, then pressing his lips to the silk of Toula's forehead.

she would like to meet his father, she thought. he had crafted for her so perfect a man—that was now her husband!—that she wondered where his faults might lie. as a father, she could imagine none. not as she watched her husband dote upon their brood! she found herself praying for the man, wishing him prosperity and a long life. as a King, though, as Rashepses described him… well, her husband was all that his own father lacked. Toula recounted all the mornings they two laughed together, and the nights, and the noons. but perhaps any humor had died with his wife—Toula could scarcely imagine finding joy in anything, should she lose Rashepses. her paws move to hold his own, gazing intently into his own golden eyes. 
not for a moment did Toula forget he had lost his mother. and she remembered, too, the palpable fear the day she had brought their four godlings earthside. she adjusted the way in which she lay, so that she might look to him, and touch him—her paw gently traced over his as he continued to tell his story, comforting, but deeply invested in his story as he shared it. 
Toula beamed by the end of it, and having not heard the laugh of his father before the rich and full sound of her husbands came to mind. even the thought of that sparked joy in her, that she laughed softly then. somehow, I find myself unsurprised that it is your name day that invoked so much joy in him, Toula admitted to him, pressing her nose to his cheek gently. it is a good lesson, she hummed, believing it—after all, she practiced it! she took heed of those she most trusted, and considered each thing that they said. 
his next words caused her to say, after a moment of thinking, should we invite him here, to meet our little Gods? do you wish for him to be involved?—Toula would see to it that the offer was extended! their cubs also stood to inherit Ta-senet… from desert to the riverlands could they come to claim! did he desire this for them? Toula would grant him his every dream, and rather than make it her own, she would share in this dream with him. 
her fondest memory! ah! there are so many, …hm, let me think, her gaze becomes distant as she moves through time in memories, leaning once more against her husband, comforted by his preening.

“In time, my sun,” a reticent smile shone upon the hardened maw as he pulled back to study her young face.

As his men from the riverlands pulled back into the South, there remained only he and his kingsguard from the people of Ta-senet. His heart would ache for the verdant earth and the good company of his bannermen, but bracing Toula in his arms, Semer-wati was not inclined to share her with the brutes of his native nome. Pharaoh Shepseskare was an honorable God, though a lustful one. Rashepses would bar the king’s eyes from his wife for as long as he could.

“Mm,” he drew, brushing the bridge of her nose with his jaw. “Pharaoh Ramesses. I feel I know him already…”

Indeed, he did.