Ammit

"What has become of Amun's fruitful land?" A soul-weary Ammit thought as she breached the top of the cliff and swooped down into the blood-stained valley. Ammit's heart wept at the horror before her. A once beautifully carpeted glen full of swaying blue-green grass, bright red poppies, and a cacophony of wildflowers. Was now riddled with mangled, disfigured bodies as far as the eye could see. Swallowing the lump of grief that arose at the view, Ammit scanned the scene for any signs of life.

"What would make some humans bring much pain and destruction upon their people?" Ammit thought. 100 years ago, the people of this land were peaceful and benevolent, but since there's been an energy shift. Where there were once councils, there were now kings. Some of these kings thrived by conquering those around them. The king of the neighboring valley was such a man. He came in "peace" but died in horror. The war he waged fumed for weeks until the previous eve when the last two combatants waved their white flags and deserted their dead to decay in the glen.

Circling the edges of the valley, Ammit let her wings softly graze the walls of the mountain as she searched for a place to land. Spotting an area close to the edge of the forests surrounding the glen, Ammit gracefully descended to land, gliding down like the softest of feathers, landing with the slightest of sounds. Careful not to land on an errant body part.

Looking around, she could see the carnage was much worse than she first thought. There were bodies positioned like bales of hay, one stacked on top of the next, some stacks five or six bodies deep. Disgusted by what lay before her feet, Ammit gently tiptoed through the gruesome scene, thankful for her immense height and ability to walk fully upright on her hind legs. She was frozen in horror when she came to the bodies of children mutilated and on display for those passing. Thankful that the children's souls needed no guide, she quickly burned their remains and continued her search.

Holding back her tears. Ammit spent the next few hours gracefully furling and unfurling her reflective iridescent wings over countless lifeless bodies. Searching for souls deserving of an eternity living in paradise. Unfortunately, the last soul she had sent to the west was among the first she searched. She hadn't found another deserving soul since then. That realization truly saddened her.

Since reaching her maturity and being established into the "Dragons of Amun." Ammit has spent her life guiding her land's newly departed souls to their paradise or, if found undeserving of respite, to their eternal doom. Reincarnated life. There was a time when Ammit's days were filled with the joy of covering only the most aged souls with her love-light-emitting wings. Sending them west to their paradise and allowing new souls to be born.

Ammit had learned so much from those aged souls during those early years. She felt a familial kinship with many of them. As if they shared the same memories. The same timeline. She often thought herself feeling a sense of joy as she sent them on their journeys west. Like she was sending an old friend back home. She hadn't felt that sense of pleasure in many years.

Since the shift, the souls she's conveyed west were only thankful for the end of their suffering without much joy to share. These souls drained her, unlike the souls of old, who were food for her soul. Those old souls taught her about love, sacrifice, and commitment.

Yet, she always felt like something was missing. Ammit often found herself spying on the many villages in her territory at night. Always careful not to be seen, she would walk along the edges of the settlements, euphorically taking in the sights and smells of the human world. Staying for hours, enraptured by the scenes of families enjoying each other at the end of a productive day.

As a Dragon of Amun, Ammit was born into a solitary life. Born with life skills existing intrinsically within her. Yes, she knew of her parentage, but past conception and incubation. They were just that. Her parentage. So, these scenes of familial kinship often left Ammit with a sense of longing. For what? She did not know.

Today the only scenes and smells that assaulted her senses were that of death. Dejected, Ammit was seconds from giving up the search, leaving these undeserving souls to rot for another day, when she thought she heard the faint cry of a small child. Tilting her head to the left, she blocked out all sounds of nature that permeated the surroundings, honing in on that of the child. Sure enough, she heard the sound again, only this time it was followed by "Mama."

Careful not to get any human remains on her wings, Ammit deftly took off toward the noise. Within moments she spotted a small linen-clad child sitting on the back of what looked to be a sizeable four-legged beast. The animal was covered in fur, lying quietly on the decaying forest bed. Circling the glen one last time to ensure there were no living bodies around who could be the child's mother. Ammit, not so gracefully and tightly, landed between two large Acacia trees, feet away from the child and the Beast. The animal must have heard her, for it started viciously growling in Ammit's direction, showing teeth that could surely damage her toes.

Adjusting her scales to reflect the trees around her, Ammit slowly made her way toward the pair. From her vantage point, she could clearly see that the animal was guarding a small child of barely a year. Once closer, she dropped down to her haunches, belly crawling closer to them as the frothing Beast sniffed the air. For a second, she thought it would be safer for her limbs if she showed her true self to get the animal to heal, but she didn't want to frighten the child. She could see that it was already in much distress. Amun only knows how long they've been out here.

Ammit slowly stood and quickly stepped behind a large tree, doing something she knew was possible was never tried before. Willing her body to smooth out her iridescent scales to resemble the same smooth brown skin and mane of the child. Next, Ammit painfully folded her wings flat into her back and retracted her talons so that her extremities looked more like human hands and feet. Slowly Ammit became a female human. Thankfully dragons loved to adore themselves with swathes of fabrics and baubles, so she was able to quickly fashion the clothing of the female villagers she used to watch for herself.

Stepping out from behind the tree, Ammit slowly walked toward the crying child and clearly agitated Beast. Kneeling within feet of them, she extended her forearm toward the animal to sniff, which it did reluctantly. Within seconds the creature had calmed, allowing her to move closer toward the child, but when she went to pick it up, the Beast snapped its large teeth at her. Ammit quickly whacked the temporal lobe of the animal with her Khapesh as she leaped back. Instantly putting the large Beast to sleep, head slamming into the ground with its tongue hanging out.

***

A few hours later

"Tell me, sherit, what else do you like to eat?" Ammit laughingly asked the tiny puffy-haired female child. Who, with an enormous amount of drool, was gnawing on Ammit's tail as the newly introduced trio sat peacefully on a felled log in front of a freshly stocked fire. Not accustomed to being in human form, Ammit quickly switched into her natural state once the child and beast settled. Surprisingly neither was frightened by her change. Which was a relief for Ammit. She didn't think she could stay in human form for an extended period. That was the most uncomfortable she's been in her life. Looking over at the still-sleeping Beast, Ammit wondered if it ate meat or if it was like her and only ate eucalyptus leaves. "Tell me, sherit, does the beast eat meat like you?"

"Mamablabla" was the child's only response before it happily returned its attention to Ammit's tail.

"Interesting," Ammit responded, poking the roaring fire with the large branch she used as a stick. She didn't understand what the child said, but her manner of speaking tickled Ammit's senses. Looking at the size of the fire she had built, Ammit thought the next one should be considerably smaller. This one was large enough to roast a beast close to her size. Picking up the log and child and slumbering the animal, she moved them further back out of harm's way,  placing them all on the ground to continue their previous activities.

Remembering her times as a village spy, Ammit resumed her one-sided questioning, "Do you like to eat fish? I remember watching the village men fishing the river, bringing baskets full of fish back to their homes, and the woman preparing them in various ways. My favorite was smoked." Ammit remembered fondly, her large eyes lidded over in the serenest of poses, nostrils flared as she inhaled the scent of the fire.

The child looked up at her inquisitively. "Oh no, I didn't eat them. I only eat Acacia leaves, but I so loved the rich, woody smell of the smoked fish." Ammit answered with a sigh. "It's been a long time since I've smelled it. The river has changed course, the people of the villages have gone to other lands, and the once fertile valleys are turning to dust." Ammit says dejectedly. "This is the only fertile spot in the valley, but it's not accessible for humans." Ammit finishes, suddenly thankful for that fact.

Putting down her new favorite toy, the tiny little girl wobbly over to Ammit's bent legs patting her gently just above the calf of her right hind leg. Smiling down at the child, Ammit gently picked her up and lay the child on her leg, letting her wriggle around until she finally curled up to rest. The quick change in the child was astonishing. When Ammit first located her, she was a screaming mess, but within seconds of Ammit picking her up, she was calm and happy.  

Ammit knew that something terrible must have happened to the child's family. There's no other explanation for a young child to be left alone, but what was Ammit, a Dragon of Amun, to do with a human child? She lived a wholly solitary life, subsisting on the limited human contact she used to enjoy. Ammit's destiny as a Dragon of Amun was to guide souls to their westing, not through life but as she looked down at the sleeping child. She knew that she couldn't leave her only. The child could barely walk. How she survived this long, Amun only knows. Ammit decided then and there that the child would never be left to go through life alone. Like she was.

Two summers later

"May I ask that you stop jumping on Beast, Sherit?" Ammit asked the excitable little girl as Ammit prepared for them to start their day."I guess not," Ammit says in response to the child continuing her fun. Turning her attention back to the pot of grains she was cooking for the child.

Ammit was sure Beast would survive. He was the most loyal animal Ammit had ever seen. He never once tried to harm either of them. Despite their initial meeting, Ammit and Beast have become a team caring for Sherit. Even as Ammit stirred Sherit's breakfast. Beast was only a mere foot away, sleeping as the child used his head as a seat. "So, what shall we do today, Sherit?" Ammit asked the little girl, who moved to Beast's back, trying to wake him up with a cacophony of "Beast up, beast up, beast up."

Smiling at the scene, Ammit thought back on the last two summers since she found the child and Beast hidden in the forest. She's had to learn much in that short time. First, she had to get approval to raise a child from her Dragon of Amun elders. They all agreed this child needed to be protected based on the information Ammit had collected in the moon cycle since finding the child.

Next came learning human skills. Such as growing food and making baskets. Tasks Ammit learned by relying on memories of watching the old village's woman. She approached cooking and cloth weaving the same way, but the most challenging skill was building a shelter for them to live in. At first, Ammit didn't think they would require one since she had her, but since her home was a cold cave deep underground, the elders suggested something above ground. Human children needed the sun, and crops tended to fail without proper sunlight.

So, through trial and error, within 18 moons. Ammit erected a modest 2-level hardened earth and wood home. The outside was clay roofed home, white-washed with lime for energy conduction and rain purification. Within each wall were large, shuttered circular windows for even air flow and sunlight. The first floor consisted of a great room with a large table, benches taking pride in the middle, and a sizeable 4-pot clay stove against the back wall. On either side of the furnace were two alcoves that held their colorful bedding and personal items. The second floor only consisted of a large railed loft that looked out over the front of the great room and served as their storage space. To the loft's ladder's right was a hallway leading to an ornately carved copper door. This door opened to a cedar-lined wash/steam room with a copper tub in the middle.

This was the room Ammit was most proud of. It had taken Ammit some time to figure out the workings but relying on those Amun-given gifts. Figured it out she did. After digging into the ground for the home's supports, she realized her planned home sat directly above a hot spring. Ammit dug a whole large enough for a bucket, covered it with a wooden lid, and built a circular room above that. So, not only did the room stay steamy and warm, but Ammit could drop the bucket into the well and fill the tub whenever she wanted. The tub was large and piped for draining through the room's elevated floor. Since her introduction into human motherhood, she found that she often needed hot water to bathe the child, cook, or wash out clothing. So this room was a blessing to her.

"Should we fly around looking for human villages to find your people, or should we enjoy the day as it comes.?" Ammit resumed as if the happy little girl, roughly "petting" the animal's head, wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Edoy," The little girl screams as she sucks on her outer appendage.

Laughing at the little girl who was constantly sucking on that thing, Ammit removed the pot to cool before she parroted, "Doy it is!" Taking the little girl's free hand into her now human one, she helped her hope off Beast's back, then they cheerfully walked out into the woods to "Edoy" their day. Beast stayed behind to take a nap.

***

Five summers later

"Sherit! Sherit!" Ammit called out for the little girl. She had just come home from finishing her nightly search, only to find the child and Beast gone. "SHERIT" She yelled again, frantically searching the woods surrounding their home. She was rounding the lake when she spotted them 100 yards away, sitting on the rocky shore. Flying when a few steps would have sufficed. Ammit scooped the animal and the child in her arms. Cradling them as she zoomed towards their home with all her might. "How many times have I told you to stay close to the house? Beast, I'm ashamed of you! You're supposed to protect her while I'm gone, not lead her into danger!" Ammit lambasted the animal, who was leisurely enjoying the ride, letting the wind dry his wet fur, not hearing a sound. The child was not as calm and serene as her furry friend.

"I apologize, Mitmit, but Beast wanted to go for a swim, and well, it's hot, and no people ever come here, so I thought..."

"No, you didn't think, Sherit!" Ammit answers loudly, more harshly than she intended, "I'm sorry, Sherit, I did not mean to yell, but my light, you have to understand. This world is not safe for you. I have seen many things..."

"Yes, I know. You've told me many times about the day you found Beast and me in the woods. How the field was covered in death and..." Sherit says rudely, interrupting Ammit in only the way a child on the brink of young adulthood could.

"So, then you know!" Ammit says, interrupting her in the same way. Sherit's only response was to huff and puff as she curled up into Ammit's bent arm, ready for her mid-morning nap. "Great Amun, this child will be the reason I finally die!" Ammit thought as she took a little longer than usual to fly home.

***

Six summer later

"WHAT IS THIS?" Sherit shrieked from the doorway of the cooking room.

"What is what, Sherit?" Ammit asks as she absently stirs the hot pot, sitting on their clay oven. In the last few years, Ammit had taken to the habit of staying in human form and adapting to human ways while in the house with Beast and Sherit. She found it was easier for her and Sherit to relate to one another if she was more her size. In her dragon form, Ammit noticed Sherit would be a little more reluctant to be honest with her about how she felt about things. Not that she was afraid of Ammit, but Ammit could admit that she was a little more intimidating in dragon form. Not wanting to alienate the child, she decided to become more human.

"This! What is this?" Sherit squeals as she thrusts a bloody cloth into Ammit's face. Turning away from the stove, Ammit wiped her hand on her cooking garment and took Sherit's cloth into her hand. "Let me see," she says, bringing the fabric to her nose. "Where did you get this?" Ammit asks a visibly stricken Sherit.

"From my person!" Sherit cries. Ammit sniffed the cloth and then sniffed it again. "Ah, my light. You've entered into your womanhood!" she says happily to the terrified girl.

"WHAT? WHY?" Sherit cries as she dramatically throws herself into Ammit's chair by the stove, holding her body as if it weren't hers. "My head has been paining me all day. My insides feel like being cooked over a fire, and I want to cry!" Sherit exclaims through a veil of tears as she wrings her hands into her beautifully woven orange swathe. Quietly Beasts walks in from outside to silently watch the conversation.

Dropping down to sit on the floor, Ammit takes Sherit's hands into her, willing the girl to look into her eyes. "The why of it only Amun knows, my light, but I know this is not a punishment. You are among a long line of females who've entered womanhood the same way. Even my kind go through this at the time of maturity. It just means you are now able to create life if you so choose to. You are magic, my light. Embrace it!" Ammit says, kissing the sniffling young lady's hands, allowing the girl to curl into her lap. As much as Sherit tried to exert her independence, Ammit realized she was still more of a child than a woman.

Five summers later

"Mitmit, I know I saw a human on that ridge last eve," Sherit says as she points toward the opposite side of the glen.

"And I'm telling you that you must be mistaken!" Ammit sternly exclaims. Ammit was diligent in her nightly patrols. She would have seen the evidence of a human why before Sherit would have seen them. For Sherit to say otherwise was undermining her abilities.

"Mother, I am telling you what I saw, and I am certain I saw a human," Sherit says, stopping her bejeweled foot down. Angry that her mother refused to once again listen to her. 3 summers ago, she was sure she had seen a human male bathing at the end of the lake. Still, Ammit had said that was impossible because this part of the valley was inaccessible to humans. None could climb such heights. So, Sherit had dropped the thought from her mind, but now she had no doubts about what she saw. "MitMit..." Sherit starts to say imploringly when Ammit cuts her off.

"Are you trying to tell me that I, Ammit Dragon of Amun, have made a mistake for the first time in thousands of years?" Ammit asked the beautiful young lady, staring directly into the young woman's blue-black eyes with her glowing Amber ones.

Even though they were squared off like many loving mothers and daughters often are. The two women made a beautiful scene against snow-capped mountains, Acacia trees, and wildflowers. Ammit was wearing her customary Green swath, and Sherit her orange. Still, to this day, they paired their swathes with intricate bronze necklaces, bracelets, and woven bronze headpieces over their long skinny locs. In the years since her decision to mostly stay in human form, Ammit had decided to intertwine her long mane into locs for easier maintenance. She did the same to Sherit's hair after she begged Ammit for weeks. The outcome was beautiful, but the process was tedious. After doing her own, Ammit had no desire to do another, but Sherit was her light. Now both women had beautiful manes reaching down to their ankles. While in human form, Ammit's locs were gorgeous, but in her dragon form, those long, dark locs turned into sparkling iridescent ribbons that flowed down her tail. Leaving undulating trails of light in her wake. Sherit could watch her fly all night.

"No Mitmit of course not. I'm just telling you what I saw." Sherit answers bashfully. "You know I am not one for fanciful tales, but even Beast was alerted. He actually growled. I haven't heard him make a sound in moons," Sherit says, looking over at the animal, who lifted his head in response.

"See!" Sherit says, pointing at the dog.

"Awe, for all we know, he could be hearing things. He's the oldest 4 legged animals I've ever seen." Ammit said, waving him off and dismissing her daughter's concerns.

Neither she nor Sherit knew the exact age of the animal but based on the number of summers they've all been together, Beast was at least 19 years of age.

"Mother!" Sherit said annoyingly

"Ok, Ok. We'll patrol!" Ammit conceded. Reluctantly "May we eat first? It's been a long night," Ammit sluggishly asks, walking towards their home, keen for a bowl of stewed greens.

"Mitmit, I'm telling you there is evidence of humans in this valley. I've seen animal skins lying about and fish bones by the lake. You've said it yourself. No animal, other than humans, is capable of cleaning an animal of its flesh so easily." Sherit says as she circles around Ammit in that energetic way of youth.

"Please, child, I hear you. Let me eat, and then I'll be ready to patrol." Ammit pleaded as she pulled open the door to their home to find a tall, dark-skinned human male standing in the doorway. In the blink of an eye, she was Ammit, Dragon of Amun, ready to pull the man apart limb by limb. "HOW DARE YOU!" Ammit roared moments before the man folded like a piece of silk.

***

"Well, how was I to know he'd hit his head on the table?" Ammit queried as she paced the great room, occasionally stepping over a slumbering Beast and paying close attention to how Sherit mended the prone man's bloody forehead. "Use the mos..."

"Moss! Yes, I know Mitmit." Sherit said as she grabbed the moss that she had forgotten from the shelf as her mother's back was turned. After all the scraps her mother mended for her, one would think Sherit would remember.

"That's the wrong one," Ammit said as she poured herself a shell cup of water from the pitcher on the large mahogany table. "Use the white one," Ammit said absently as she poured a cup for Sherit, who rolled her eyes and switched out bowls.

"I hope he's not mine to guide west." Ammit thought as she sipped her water. She was more than worried about the man's bloody head. She never wanted Sherit to experience such things. She spent the last 19 summers shielding Sherit from the truth about her people and how she came to be in the woods. The newly for "Guild" within the Dragons of Amun had planned out how she would tell Sherit down to the last detail. The plan was to wait until her 21st summer, but the appearance of this human may ruin those plans. She wondered if they were making a mistake by healing him. She wondered how all of this would affect Sherit. She prayed this human was worthy.

***

A few suns later

"How long do you think he'll sleep?" Sherit asks Ammit as they knelt in front of the copper tub, dyeing the large swaths of cloth they've spent the last few moons weaving. Her eyes were supposed to be on the fabric, but she couldn't focus while the male human was sleeping on her mother's bedding. He was the first man she had ever seen. Until three moons ago, Beast and her mother were the only two beings she's ever remembered seeing. Still, something about this male was so familiar. He had the same skin as her, the same type of hair she once wore as a child. Ammit had cut a coil of Sherit's hair before entwining it. Sherit didn't understand why but his hair reminded her of that coil. That's where their comparisons ceased. She and even Ammit, in dragon or human form, were soft and curved. He was tall, broad, and not curved in the same way.

Sherit found him very interesting. Ammit had never described a human male to her before. Through observing nature, Sherit knew male and female animals had different reproductive parts. Still, she'd be the first to admit that she was shocked at her body's reaction to his. It not only surprised Sherit, but it also made her mother's eyes flare red. That didn't worry Sherit. Ammit's eyes often turned red lately. Sherit wondered if he were of "the people" Ammit would often talk about looking for. "I wonder what his people call him?" Sherit wondered before she looked back into the water, letting her thoughts wash away with water.

"I don't know my light. It has been three suns since the unfortunate accident. He should be awake by now." Ammit says suspiciously, wiping sweat from her brow, "but at least he's breathing, and his wound seems to be healing." Ammit capitulates, scrubbing the cloth harder than necessary as she looks through the washroom door at the man peacefully resting on her bedding. A sight that truly irritated her. As a dragon, Ammit didn't need much sleep but in human form. Ammit often found pleasure in lounging on her cotton-filled bedding, napping before she left for her nightly patrol, or snuggling up in the covers with Sherit as Beast slept at their feet while they planned their activities for the next day.

"Yeah, he is that." Sherit sighs, "How do you suppose he got here? I mean, you did say it was impossible." Sherit slyly asked, sided eyeing her mother, who looked as if she was ready to kill. When Ammit only rolled her eyes, she continued, "I'm just saying, mother. You, yourself, did say it was impossible, and I did tell you not three suns ago that I spotted a human at the top of the ridge, and well, here he is. A human mal..."

"ENOUGH!" Ammit admonishes, abruptly standing as she wipes her hands with a clean cloth, walks over to the door, and slams it shut. " Listen, child!" She says with her hands up in surrender. "I understand your point. I do, and I'm humbled to say I was wrong, but Sherit, this human being here, can not be a good thing." With her eyes boring into Sherit's, she asserts, "Not good at all!"

***

Photep could clearly hear everything the women were saying. He's been listening to them prattle on for the past three suns about him and other mundane things. Still, after feigning sleep, he was no closer to knowing the truth about these women. He had heard tales of the old king's infant daughter being lost during the last war. Some believed the child was dead, and others thought she hid in plain sight.

Photep himself thought she was dead until three summers ago. He was on a surveying assignment for the Guild's architect when he spied a young woman lounging on an old abandoned settlement lake's shores. It was believed that no one had lived on this land for centuries, yet here she was with a beast of a dog guarding her, living freely. Since that day, Photep has been trying to find out who she is. Every six moons, journeying up the treacherous mountain and down into the valley, hoping for a better look at the mysterious young woman. It had taken him three summers to get this close. That day he had felt as if he was on the verge of a great discovery. Until the Dragon of Amun appeared.