Lion Head Mesa Stones

Siptah was hauling stones from the river, alone. He was almost four months old now, and stronger than before thanks to his training. So far, he had managed to bring up four stones, bringing his total to five. They were large, heavy things that would serve as a good base for Satsu's tomb. He shed silent tears for his mother as he worked.

She spotted the young prince at his work from a distance, herself on an ambling walk through the mesa. As she drew closer, she noticed the dark tracks of tears over his cheeks, but said nothing of them, not wanting to overwhelm or shame him with pity.

Instead, she flashed a smile and began to wade into the water, looking for a stone of similar size to add to the tomb.

Hello, Lilitu greeted warmly. She stopped, then. Sorry, I should have asked first—would you like some help, or at least some company? 

If he wanted to be alone, she'd leave him be.

Siptah had been too focused on his work to notice the female's approach, so her greeting startled him, causing to drop a rather large stone squarely on his paw. "OUCH!" the Prince shouted, jerking his paw from the rock to examine it. It was scraped and bleeding, but it didn't look terrible.

Cursing under his breath, Siptah also hastily wiped away his tears, then finally looked to the woman. "Uh... hi. Help would be nice. Could you help me move this one? It's really heavy," he moved back to the stone he'd injured himself on. At the end of this, his blood, sweat, and tears would all be a part of his mother's tomb. It was worth every moment, every scrape and cut.

Oh! Lilitu exclaimed as he dropped the stone. She winced at the sight of blood, but to his credit, the princeling carried on, and she hastened to his aid. The two of them worked at rolling it out of the creek to rest with the others.

Once upon the shore again, she took a more motherly approach. Let me see your paw, she requested gently, nodding at the appendage in question. Open wounds and dirt and water don't mix. We can patch it up with moss if it seems bad.

One thing she'd learned over the seasons—moss. Nature's Band-Aid.

The Prince had seen the female before, and knew she was some sort of Princess. He didn't quite know her, though so he examined her intently as she inspected his injured paw. "It's not bad," Siptah insisted swiftly, giving it a look himself. Blood oozed steadily from a relatively shallow but wide cut on his paw pad, and he shot the Princess a furtive look. "...okay, maybe we could find some moss." It wouldn't do to expose to wound to everything on the ground. Looking back up at her, he grinned nervously, tail wagging softly. "Hey, so, what's your name?"

While she searched for moss in the shallows, he asked her name. Lilitu, she responded with a smile, finally nosing out some greenery in a place where the sun shone brightest. Moss bloomed there; she knew that, at least. Wriggling it free, she carried it to him and began to layer it over his cut, gently so as not to hurt him too much.

It'll cling to you, Lilitu explained—or, at least, she hoped it would. And your name. . .?

She felt bad. She ought to know the Pharaoh's kids, and she had some idea, but she didn't want to get it wrong. She'd rather hear it from him. She finished plastering the cut and stepped back, grinning. That's better, she remarked. Now rest for a little bit. It'll help stop the bleeding and the cut will begin to heal.

She sat down beside him. I'm sorry about your mom, she said, voice filled with sympathy. I lost my mom, too. It sucks.

Oh my god I didn't realize how long you'd been waiting, I'm sorry!

Siptah watched Lilitu search for moss, then watched even more carefully as she began to wrap it about his paw. It stung and felt weird at first, but when he put his weight on it, he found the moss cushioned his paw pad. He grinned up at her, then said, "I'm Siptah. Shouldn't you know that?" His tone was joking — he really didn't mind if she didn't know his name, since he hadn't know hers, either.

The Prince's joking demeanor fell as Lilitu expressed her sympathy, and he nodded, almost absentmindedly. "Yeah, I... It's hard." He didn't know what else to say about it. Some petulant part of him wanted to ask if her mother had also been killed in cold blood, but... he was better than that.

Siptah sighed softly. He looked down to his paw, then at Lilitu. "So... you're a Princess, right? Are you like... a healer Princess?"