SOME THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO…..
The cool breeze brought little comfort to the young man and his partner. He held her shoulders gently and glanced up at the starry sky with pleading eyes. Silently he begged for that salvation from the violence that was rushing their way. They had been running from Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s assassins since the sun had descended from the sky, behind the large sandy hills. Nepra knew that they would not rest until he and the frail woman next to him were dead.
The citizens had closed up their market shops long ago and had gone home leaving the pathways vacant and much easier for Pha and his group to hear what direction their sandaled feet were scurrying. He knew they could not rest again, not with the shadows about to turn into five ready guards.
“Aneksi we have to keep moving.” He lightly, but firmly began to shove her forward.
Aneksi looked into her companion’s icy blue eyes and found what was left of her strength to pick up her feet again.
“She’s coming tonight, Nepra.” She said faintly as she clutched at her stomach with her free hand and grasped tightly to Nepra’s with her other. The sharp pains surging in her abdomen were almost too much to bear.
“She cannot come here! We’ll make it. I won’t let them harm you two.” Nepra spoke with such gravity that he almost believed he really did have the might to stop anything coming after the two most precise beings in his life, but he knew better. He did not have any such power other then what his physical body could provide as a shield. He felt stinging sensations coming from the sides of his eyes as the realization hit him so hard it shook his soul. He was not capable of keeping his love secure.
Their current situation was his entire fault. Putting all the blame on his own was so easy for him to do. Aneksi was Tutankhamun’s and yet he ignored every commandment that made her just. He had looked at her, had touched her, talked to her, and worst of all had fallen in love with her and had lain with her, several times shamelessly.
Nevertheless, her beauty made it easy for him to want to bask in her presence. She was the most astounding woman he had ever seen. Her bronze skin glowed without a single flaw. It was soft, smooth against the stroke of his fingertips. Her voice was melodic and he loved whenever she spoke to him. She had an oval face with noticeable cheekbones. Dimples would appear at the corners of her mouth whenever she could not hide her stern expression and smiled. She had eyes that changed with the light, going from dark soil brown to russet when the shine of the sun or the radiance of a fire drew to her face. With her appealing eyes, she also had remarkable straight silvery-white strands of hair that trailed far beyond her shoulders. Her nose was small, with a distinctive point at the tip and her lips full and tasteful.
She had the body of a goddess, a long graceful neck, broad shoulders, lavish breasts coupled with medium umber nipples. Her waist and hips once small were now much wider do to pregnancy, but her new form did nothing to deter the overwhelming desires Nepra had for her every time he looked her way. He believed he was in love at first sight. She had captured him with her peering eyes.
His first transgression was in fact his wondering eyes. He had been a somewhat important warrior for King Torrance of the Trinity Kingdom near the Mediterranean Sea off the island of Balearic. He had shown his courage well during battle and had won the favor from his commander, Andrew.
Rumors of his bravery came to Torrance’s ears and he sent word to gather, young Nepra up. Nepra’s humbleness only made the King more interested in him. He enjoyed Nepra’s personality and quickly asked him if he would like to venture to Egypt.
There was no longer a large battle going on and Torrance claimed he was now interested in making an alliance with someone close off shore. Africa’s Egypt was the best place. Trade would be easy and Torrance was fascinated with how Pharaoh Akhenaten boldly demanded the change in his people’s religion and his nephew Tutankhamun, who was now on the throne, was determined to keep his uncle‘s declarations permanent. ’A man that can go against hundreds of years of faith has to be foolish or perhaps it’s a sign.’ Torrance told Nepra. Nepra had nodded and accepted his King’s orders to help set up a small settlement near the royal city.
His only duty was to witness the agreement with Pharaoh. All he had to do was stand by as Andrew watched Pharaoh stamp his kingdom’s symbol onto the cloth parchments. The documents granted Pharaoh protection when he traveled along the Mediterranean, as long as King Torrance’s men were able to set up a small settlement inside of Pharaoh’s territory for supplies.
Pharaoh was a thin man, but how he stayed so fitting was hard for Nepra to understand. They had met with him four times after only a week’s period, yet every time they had seen him he was eating, hearty meals. In front of him then were various fruits and a whole hen. Perhaps the exercise from his wives was what kept his weight gain at bay.
Along his side were six women, four barely dressed in see through, thin cream colored linens and the other two exposed their nakedness intrepidly. Before they had reached Pharaoh’s shores, Nepra’s commanders had briefed him on the rules of his queens. His commanders had expressed the exotic looks of the African women. Dark complexion, large hanging breasts that were often exposed, most thin and bare footed. They often smelled of perspiration or grain. Their eyes large and dark like the soil of the Earth, lips plump and flared noses.
From what he heard, Nepra did not expect to find the females attractive. He was looking forward to returning home to marry his fourth cousin, Sara. They warned him never take his eyes off the Pharaoh. Wandering eyes changed the atmosphere of business into suspicious tension and Nepra had done well until the fourth and final meeting.
Pharaoh had smiled at this final engagement and he planned a large gathering to honor the new proposal. His grin becoming even wider as his seventh queen suddenly appeared from the crowd and sat directly behind him. She reached over his shoulder and placed a gold goblet full of wine in front of him.
She appeared vexed with her stern face, but her narrowed eyes and straight lined mouth did not give Nepra quick enough time to turn from her. His eyes had watched her the entire time she had walked up and had sat down behind her husband. He was spellbound from that very moment. He had never seen a woman walk with such erotic precision.
Her small hips swayed hypnotically, causing the thin cream linen skirt that trailed farther out on the floor to dance with her body’s clutch. Accompanying her neck were several gold and jade beaded necklaces. Their colors seemed to blend well with her radiant skin. They may have hid her nipples, but Nepra could clearly see how perfectly shaped her bosom was. She had her snowy locks of hair bundled back with golden wing-like pins, but a few of her strands had escaped the hold and had swayed with her necklaces until she had took her place.
Nepra could feel rushing warmth enter his chest and wash into his stomach. He darted his eyes briefly when the other women surrounding Tutankhamun snarled at her presence and moved in closer to their king. Nepra realized that it had to be some form of ranking. The woman behind the Pharaoh was the lower of all the rest of his wives. Before the wife to Tutankhamun’s left side could move all the way over, Nepra was able to see the flash of dark brown eyes flood over into a reddish-brown tent. She had felt him looking at her.
The volume of the slurred mutter suddenly was too loud to ignore. His ears were ringing when he shook his head lightly and looked back at Tutankhamun. With Tutankhamun’s eyes narrowed, he still had a smile, and Nepra noticed that the other men around him were now also glaring his way.
They had stopped talking with Pharaoh because Pharaoh had stopped talking to them… to watch Nepra’s disrespectful eyes.
Tutankhamun abruptly pointed directly at Nepra and opened his mouth, but no sound left him.
Andrew quickly stepped forward and got to his knees in front of the Almighty Tutankhamun.
“Get down with me, you idiot!” Andrew snarled at Nepra.
Nepra then too got to his knees in front of Tutankhamun. The other men in his troop stepped back, but then got onto their knees as well.
“I am sorry, Most Powerful One. This youngster did not mean to be such a disgrace in your presence. By the Gods, please forgive us.” Andrew spoke slowly in Tutankhamun’s tongue with his head still looking towards the marble ground.
Pharaoh Tutankhamun nodded his head in the negative and snarled out his dissatisfaction. He kept his finger pointed out at Nepra as he began to speak back to Andrew slowly in their language for the first time during their entire visit, surprising everyone of his prefect punctuation and understanding.
“Young or old, respect is to be given. Shame for your lack of teachings. You know my customs; my wives are not to be gawked at, least of them, Aneksi. Your Gods, do not matter in Ra’s world! He controls all gods, but if I forgive you, Ra will. What is your name?”
Tutankhamun asked Nepra intensely.
Nepra was still surprised at how well Tutankhamun had spoken in his own language that he took a moment too long to respond.
“You will speak, monkey!” Tutankhamun’s voice roared out.
“Nepra.” Nepra answered with a tone hinting to his own annoyance.
“Humph…tell me, Nepra, what do you think of Aneksi?” Tutankhamun asked him in his own tongue.
Andrew translated for Nepra and Nepra started to answer, by looking up. Tutankhamun quickly reached down and slapped him forcibly on his jaw.
“Keep your eyes to my feet, Nepra.” Pharaoh scowled.
Nepra was not pleased with the sudden change of events, but he knew he had brought it on himself. He was not going to ruin the important alliance over a mere glance at a naked queen. Aneksi had taken his breath away, but Nepra believed there was a first time for everything. He decided to go straight into his apology then admit to the Pharaoh how appealing his lovely stern faced wife looked.
“Pharaoh Tutankhamun, I apologize to you, and to your Almighty Sun God for the disrespectful antics I’ve done. Please forgive me….” Nepra almost pleaded for forgiveness. He knew the power Tutankhamun possessed; worst would be his fate if King Torrance heard of his disapproving manners.
At his words, Tutankhamun waved his hand into the air. Each of the six women rose up. They planted a kiss on Tutankhamun’s left cheek and then descended toward the gathering in the next room. Aneksi, stayed behind him.
“There are reasons I do not allow other males to glance at my mistresses, Nepra. Aneksi is young and displeasing. Her way of thinking is far beyond what she is. She does not yet know her place. Her unruly behavior will keep her hidden from all. Behind me is where she will stand. There is no need to give her courage with the studying of your lingering gaze.” Andrew translated for Tutankhamun.
Andrew rose to his feet and nodded towards Pharaoh. Everyone else slowly followed suit.
Nepra looked into Tutankhamun’s eyes and apologized once more. When Tutankhamun closed his eyes and returned his nod to accept it, the pair of russet eyes were on Nepra, again.
He never understood why Tutankhamun kept such a strong control over Aneksi and treated her so badly. When Nepra asked Aneksi about it, she revealed to him that she had a gift. “The gift of the world.” was her exact worlds. Nepra had chuckled not fully understanding the gravity of her explanation. She slapped him then, hard, making him become instantly angered and he in turn raised his hand to strike her back, but one look into her serious eyes and his hand remained in mid air.
“She passed the winds, the rains, and the power of the sun to me. The power of the Goddess is felt within me.” Aneksi whispered as she lifted her hand up and placed it into his, “Why she gave them to me I do not know, it was Hebony’s turn.”
Nepra knew Hebony was her cousin. They were very close and even possessed similar features, but even Hebony’s good looks could not quite compare to Aneksi.
“Who gave you these gifts?”
“Sometimes I feel that it is a curse. Kifi made me hold her hands to receive them on her deathbed. She looked past Hebony, her own daughter, and right before Bubu screamed out of her womb, she told me to come to her, closer. She ordered my palms and she passed the power to me and then her body lay still.” Aneksi whispered and then she closed her eyes. Remembering Kifi was painful still.
Nepra suddenly felt the hair on his neck standing on end. His body lifted into the air as if he were weightless. He looked wide-eyed at Aneksi, but her eyes were not of the ones he fell in love with. They were open, hauntingly white without pupils. Once bound with her favorite winged combs, her cloud-colored hair now flowed about her head.
“Who…who are you?” Nepra asked with shaking lips as she then brought them back down to the stone floor within his quarters.
“Don’t be afraid of me.” Aneksi spoke boldly as she now gripped his hand tightly.
Nepra had swallowed hard. He did not know where his voice went; perhaps it was stuck within his throat. He could not think of a single word to describe what he was feeling. Was she a witch?
“You are frightened, confused, calm your heart. Breathe and I will take care of your emotions.” Aneksi reassured him as she knelt before him, holding his waist, tugging him to join her on the floor.
How did she know what he was feeling? How was she able to read him so clearly. Could her strange eyes actually still see?
“I’ve seen this happen before in my dreams. My mother is guiding me to her. She wants me to return to the skies with the Goddess.”
“I don’t understand.” Nepra was calming down as he looked back at Aneksi’s familiar face.
Aneksi sighed she had a lot to explain, “Pharaoh is wrong in his teachings. Ra may in fact be the Sun God, but he does not rule this planet. He is not our creator. The Goddess Paniwi allows Ra’s rays to shine down upon us; she controls him, the waters flow, the soft green hills, the tall mountains. She is the highest, the one Egypt should worship.”
“If this is true then why doesn’t Tutankhamun preach it?” Nepra asked with a hint of humor. He had been there for nearly a year and he still found the Egyptians beliefs senseless.
“He is a man. Pharaoh is not willing to accept what Akhenaten tried to teach him. Akhenaten knew the truth because after his father died, Kifi, Akhenaten’s mother revealed to him her powers. She told him how her own mother gave her the gift and that it was to pass down to the first girl born and so forth. Kifi told Akhenaten that the many gods Egypt worshiped were not in the correct order, that in fact the Goddess Paniwi was the ruler of this planet.
Tutankhamun only listened to how Akhenaten described the Sun God Ra and he molded Akhenaten’s teachings to his own likings when he took the throne. He mistreats me because he knows the truth and he knows that I posses the gift now. I speak out against him. A queen’s place is behind Pharaoh. A woman‘s place is always behind a man. Only Akhenaten allowed his highest wife to stand beside him and that is why he and Nefertiti are dead. Tutankhamun made sure of that.”
PRESENT DAY…….
Ororo was having a hard time arranging the fresh flowers into the large antic vase on the center table in the foyer of her home. A sigh escaped through her lips as she tried her best to ease her nerves. A few things had been on her mind that she felt shouldn’t have been. After grabbing another long stemmed red rose to hastily a sudden sting of pain was created at a fingertip.
“Ouch.” She muttered under her breath, releasing the flower. It feel to the flower just as quickly as Ororo brought her cut finger to her lips.
“Cousin, watch what you’re doing.”
Ororo turned towards the cheery familiar voice of Ebony Monson. She tried to plaster a smile in the mist of grimacing over the pain of the rose’s throne.
“Oughta be more careful with them things.”
At hearing the accompanying voice of Logan Howlett, Ororo nodded her head and turned away. An embarrassing blush, she could feel along her cheeks. She picked the next flower up, watching, and being more careful this time as she placed it slowly into the vase.
“Going out?” Ororo asked noticing how strange her voice came out.
Ebony took a quick notice to it as well, but with a tilt of her pretty head she began beaming with delight. Indeed, she was going out.
“ You don’t mind me wearing this do you?” Ebony asked as a graceful hand came up to caress at the soft cotton of the lavender cashmere sweater.
Ororo turned almost painfully back to her cousin. She smiled genuinely, at how the light purple complimented Ebony’s honey brown skin as it did her when she wore it. Ebony was a very pretty young woman. Both of them nearly passing for twins when they walked side by side, if it weren’t for Ororo’s un-denying luminous white locks of wavy hair and fuller lips. Their body types the same, tall and slender, easily sliding bountiful hips into a size seven tall jeans, soft sun kissed smooth brown skin, and interesting flashing eyes. Family ties were clearly identified.
“You really don’t mind. I saw that ugly face you just made.” Ebony laughed as she and Logan both walked farther into the foyer, obviously headed out now, “I’m not going to keep it I promise.”
“Oh, I know that much.” Ororo grinned back, “It looks better on me, and so do those pants. You sneak.”
Ebony gasped from being caught, “Goodness nothing ever passes by you, girl. I’ll give’em back too.”
“Mm hmm.” Ororo rolled her eyes.
She felt that if she kept her interaction with Ebony she wouldn’t have to face the other feelings that had been making her feel shameful for over a month now. Ororo could feel more then just one set of eyes on her and she forced herself not to meet that other gaze.
“All right, well we gotta bounce. Don’t wanna be late for the movie.” She tugged on Logan’s muscular forearm. He didn’t come right away, but instead backed out of the grip, walking in the opposite direction.
The feel of his body heat mingling with her own so suddenly made her tiny neck hairs stand on end.
“Ya dropped this, Ro.” Hearing his husky voice addressing her yet again made her tingle and she knew her heart was beating a million beats per second all the while she was chiding herself. ‘That’s Ebony’s boyfriend‘-and-‘The is soooo high school!’ were the thoughts screaming through her head.
The feel of the silky petals caressing her hand made her jump like she’d seen a ghost. She snatched the flower from him, poking her tender finger yet again. Damn!
She brought her finger back up to her lips again, this time the flower falling onto the table.
“Thanks.” She nearly huffed finding her eyes not being able to turn away from Logan’s haunting gray eyes.
“Un-huh.” He grinned at her, studying her face a little too long for comfort.
They stood there a little too long, before he finally blinked and turned back to Ebony.
How long they’d stayed transfixed was baffling to Ororo and yet, even more baffling was how Ebony never seemed to notice a thing.
“I’ll tell you if the movie’s any good, cuz!” She screamed right before the door slammed shut.
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