The Sun Hawk
It had been a week since I landed in the pond of Amon. He'd been treating me well (aside from the few comments that I had stolen his bed), but often avoided any of my curious questions. There was only one thing I was sick of: grapes. I picked up a perfectly ripe grape, biting into its supple skin with irritation.
'Don't you have any other fruit to eat?' Amon looked at me, hurt. He'd explained many times that grapes were his favourite and most humans loved to be given grapes.
'I don't understand your distaste for them.' He picked one up and bit into it. 'These are perfect grapes.'
I rolled back onto my cushion, kicking my healing leg out towards his foot and bumping it roughly. He frowned and moved it aside, giving me the room I wanted. I'd demanded something softer than a rock and Amon obliged, creating a dozen pillows and the soft mattress we both sprawled across. It was round and filled the middle of the gazebo nicely. I'd demanded we spin it so that when we laid down, we looked out at the pond. He agreed quite happily. I knew he would since he spent most of his time standing there looking at it.
'I've told you already, I don't mind grapes. I just mind eating them every. Single. Day.'
I used my good arm—the one not tightly strapped to my chest—to reach over and pick another one up. The food had been quite good, so I really shouldn't be complaining. Amon often created fresh fruit and bread for dinner, with lentils and beans or fresh vegetables. My favourite was when he created this dessert he named "tiger nut balls". I tried extremely hard not to laugh when he said it but couldn't. He didn't understand the joke when I explained it to him. They were made from some ancient tiger nut chopped up with dates, honey and spices. Whatever they were, they were delicious, but he didn't take requests. He just created what he wanted when he wanted.
I say created because that's exactly what he did. He created. From nothing. It shocked me more than I wanted to admit when I first saw it. I'd said I was hungry and then he'd held his hand towards me, grapes magically dangling between his fingers. I'd enjoyed those grapes. He didn't explain his powers to me—as I said, he avoided all my questions—but he wasn't afraid to show them to me, either.
He often made good use of his creation ability. But mainly for food. I wanted to ask for clothes (more specifically, underwear) but I'd somehow convinced myself that asking for those would be counter-intuitive to the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I had to experience life as an Ancient Egyptian would. Well, except for the fact that I had a helpful god. Still.
It was so hot, yet I'd gradually been getting used to it. Don't get me wrong, it still sucked, and I drank what felt like fifteen litres of water a day, but I'd been growing more acclimated to it as each day passed.
'What fruit do you like then?' He rolled over onto his side, resting his head in his hand as he looked at me. 'What does a human like these days? It seems grapes aren't in high demand.'
'I like strawberries. But humans like all different fruits. It depends on who you ask.'
'Strawberries?' He furrowed his brow. 'What are they?'
'You- you don't know what strawberries are?' I looked at him and then decided I wouldn't do that, as his tempting skin lay bare, asking to be touched.
'No. I didn't know humans had made new fruit.' I wanted to say we hadn't, but I didn't even know where strawberries came from. Did we make them? Were they natural? Even modern carrots were nothing like their originals...so maybe we had made strawberries.
I watched as an ibis bird walked across the water before asking, 'When was the last time you had contact with a human...apart from me?'
Amon rolled onto his back and looked at the ceiling. I wanted to run my hand over his short buzz-cut hair but kept it planted firmly by my side.
'Maybe three thousand, four thousand years?'
'Well, see. There's your problem.' I shook my head and sat up slowly, knowing my ribcage wasn't fully healed even if it didn't hurt much anymore.
'I don't have a problem.' He sat up as well and moved the pillows around my back so I could sit more comfortably.
I shuffled into my new upright position. 'No, you do. Humans have changed a lot. We're advanced now.'
'Is that why you look so different?'
He leant forward, his face mere inches from mine. I held my breath. Amon had given me some suspicious teeth-cleaning powder and some weird chewy thing I was meant to spit out, which I think was a mouthwash, but they weren't exactly as high-quality as the Colgate I used at home. I felt smelly. My mouth felt smelly. And my legs were the hairiest they'd ever been. Yet Amon was a god, perfect in every sense.
'Different? Is that good or bad?'
'Neither,' he replied, lifting a hand. I closed my eyes as his fingers gently ran along my eyelids, down my nose, and off my cupid's bow before he leant back. 'Just different from the humans I saw.'
I took in a shuddery breath, 'Oh...well, I'm not Egyptian.' Oh my god, my heart was going to beat out of my chest.
'You're not from Egypt?'
'I'm Korean. Half-Korean, to be exact.' I took a deep, slow breath and decided to inhale five grapes as if that would help me relax.
He picked up a golden chalice from next to him and took a sip of his wine. I'd never seen him drink anything else. Red wine in a golden chalice was his preference, it seemed. I asked for a lot of water, but he never drank any.
'Korean? What is this?'
'Its...a country. Different to Egypt. That's why I don't look the same.' He nodded his head.
'And how did you get to Egypt?'
'By a plane.'
'Plane?'
'It's...a big thing that flies. It carries humans around the world.'
He looked impressed. 'I didn't know humans had mastered the sky.'
I scoffed slightly at his odd wording but decided not to mention it. Explaining the whole of human history seemed like a daunting task I didn't want to begin, so letting him think we mastered the sky was the easiest option. We sat in silence for a while, as we usually did. He didn't normally ask questions about my life, and he never answered the ones I had about his. It was nice to talk to him about something other than food or my health. Too nice. It was almost dangerous, especially with him lazing about shirtless all the time. Maybe I should never have asked for these pillows.
A hoarse screech cut through my thoughts and a large hawk flew into the gazebo. I screamed and knocked the large platter of grapes over as its large claws aimed straight towards us. My quick movements sent a shiver of pain through my arm and I bumped into Amon's elbow, who spilt red wine across his abdomen. The hawk planted itself firmly on Amon's head, its claws pinching at his skin but not breaking it. It bent down and pecked at Amon's nose.
'Oh my god, oh my god. What do I do?' I didn't move, not wanting to freak the thing out. 'Should I whack it?' I picked up the heavy golden platter, brandishing it like a bat.
'I was wondering where you'd been,' a voice said. 'To think you'd picked up a human.'
I jerked my head to the left to spot a sun-kissed man. His skin was lighter than Amon's naturally darker skin tone. He had hundreds, if not thousands of freckles across his skin. His hair was longer than Amon's, hanging around his shoulders in a straight bob, and was a blinding blonde. He shone brighter than the sun.
'Re,' Amon muttered, picking his chalice up off his chest and brushing droplets of red wine from his skin. 'What are you doing here?'
'Since when do you not appreciate my visits?' Re replied smoothly, bending down to pick up a stray grape at his feet. He bit into it seductively as he stared at me.
Re...my mind began racing through the possibilities. The shrine had been devoted to Amon-Re, so we'd always thought they had been the same god. But originally Amon and Re were two very distinct sun gods. Does that mean they shared the shrine? Or the duties? Or did humans simply combine them into one unknowingly? Or did Amon and Re decide to become one god to humans? The scholar in me wanted to grab my notebook and write a thousand theories, begin a thesis, and find evidence. But the human in me sat frozen in shock, looking between the two gods before me.
'Since forever.' Amon stood up and the hawk flew from his head to land on Re's shoulder. I slowly lowered the golden platter, deciding I didn't need it for self-defence after all. 'And I didn't pick her up, she came to me.'
'That's misleading,' I countered, grabbing the arm Amon leant out for me and pulling myself up, with a lot of his help.
Re watched the interaction with a comical expression and I realised how casual I was acting with a god. But then I remembered I'd been here alone with Amon for twenty-four hours a day for a week with nothing to do but 'heal', so of course I was going to be a bit casual around him.
'I didn't come to you on purpose. I fell through the ground.'
'You fell?' Re looked interested as he sauntered closer.
He was taller than Amon. Leaner, too. Everything about him seemed lighter. By all accounts, Re looked more like a sun god than Amon ever could. But I still wasn't 100% sure that Amon was ever meant to be a sun god. Sure, that's what he started as, according to the history of Ancient Egyptians we'd found so far, but why did a small-time, local sun god evolve into the King of Gods? I could find out for myself if Amon ever answered a question about himself. Re stopped in front of me, holding his face close like Amon had minutes earlier.
'You're one of those modern humans, aren't you?'
'You know modern humans?' I asked as Amon moved away, using a damp cloth to wipe his chest down. Oh, how I wanted to volunteer to remove that sticky wine. Maybe with something other than a cloth.
Re chuckled and his hawk made a weird screeching noise like it, too, was laughing. 'I'm not like Amon. I do leave my realm now and then.' He took a step back and appraised me. 'Humans are just so interesting, you see. I can't get enough of them.'
'Right.' I looked away, shuffling in one spot. Re was quite overbearing compared to the soft-spoken Amon, who simply flitted around like a ghost, only really being there when I seemed to need something. Re demanded attention, sparkled for it, even, and I wasn't sure what to do.
'Etta doesn't seem to like you,' Amon remarked, picking up his chalice and sipping from it as though it hadn't been empty seconds ago.
'Etta?' Re hummed. I took a step back, edging towards my safe haven: the stone bed. It had been mine from the moment I'd woken here, and it felt like the only thing I had any sort of claim to. 'So, Amon.' Re turned away from me and looked at Amon, his eyes dragging across the mattress on the ground.
I relaxed now that his attention wasn't on me, but then the embarrassment hit. I felt scandalous—like I'd been caught doing something wrong with Amon. But I hadn't. We were simply laying down, sharing grapes. On a mattress. Together. There was nothing, nothing, wrong with that at all. It was innocent. Mainly. I mean, my mind wasn't that innocent, but my body had been. The lingering gaze Re gave the mattress made me think that it maybe wasn't innocent in the eyes of someone else.
'Would you care to explain why you have this human, Etta, here?' My name rolled off his tongue like a melted piece of butter. I liked it, but it made me feel like I shouldn't be there. As though this was their place, and I was an unwanted guest.
I guess I was.
'She was hurt, and she asked for help.' Begged was more like it. 'She'll go home once she heals.'
Re's eyes flitted to me and I decided I'd just wrap myself in the small blanket and hide on the bed, waiting for the unwanted guest (Re, not myself) to leave.
'I've heard that before.' Re scoffed and took Amon's chalice, taking a sip himself. 'Can't you make it beer?' Amon shook his head and picked up the grapes. Re looked in the cup and grinned, taking a deep gulp. 'So, you picked her up and healed her?'
The hawk screeched angrily, flapping its wings. I cringed away from it. Its claws were so long and tough they looked like they could gouge my eye out. And then eat it. Amon threw something at the hawk, and it screeched happily, swallowing what looked like a piece of red meat quickly.
'Well, she looks different anyway,' Re said, placing the cup on the chest of drawers to his left.
'Are you simply here to poke at old wounds, or do you have something to say?'
'Hathor has requested an audience with the King.' Re ambled over to Amon's chair and sat in it.
'Hathor has?' Amon seemed to groan, but it was so quiet I wasn't sure I'd even heard it.
Re shrugged. The hawk on his shoulder rode the movement like a wave. I looked at my hands and played with my nails as though I didn't care what they were talking about when in truth I was listening and caring a whole lot. This was incredible! Salma would die if she could see or hear just a minute of what I had. I wanted to remember as much as possible so that I could tell her all about it, tell the world about it.
'Oh, the pain of being The King,' Re mocked, holding his hand to his heart in a very human gesture. 'You have to listen to the woes of your followers once every thousand years.'
Amon mumbled something and moved to his usual position, standing at the front of the gazebo and looking out across the water, his arms by his side. After a minute of silence, he nodded his head.
'Alright, tell Hathor I'll see her in the King's realm.'
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