The Pharaoh

Chapter 3

"Scrub Heathen scrub!" Nyra ordered me as she seemingly floated around the small oasis I was currently bathing in.

"I have a name!" I finally snapped.

She stopped her walking and bent down till her face was near mine. "Scrub all that dirt off of you and maybe I'll think of exchanging Heathen for your given name," she said. I let out a puff of breath but did as she ordered.

The dirt was a problem. It was caked on me in layers. Every time I thought I had finally gotten it all off, Nyra would point out a huge clump of dirt somewhere else on my body.

"I don't even know how we're going to get your hair clean in time," she complained.

I continued to use my nails to free my skin as I replied, "Maybe if you did more than yell at me I'd be cleaned already."

"Zip it Heathen!" She demanded, "You're the reason you're this dirty in the first place. I know we live in the desert but there's really no explanation for being this disgusting. Seriously, when was the last time you bathed?"

I went quiet and my hands stopped. When was the last time I bathed? Before I woke up and Roy found me I was in a jungle. Before that some swamp that was by a small village.

"Well!" She yelled making me jump, "When was the last time you bothered to bathe?"

"I... I... can't remember," I admitted as I cast my eyes down at the now murky water I was in.

Her eyebrows raised and curiosity filled her intelligent eyes. She examined my face and sighed. She turned around and picked something up from some crevice between the many boulders that made up the pool of water. She turned back around and dropped a small decorated clay bottle into my hands.

I examined the brown lines that made up a picture of the Nile on the bottle then looked back up at Nyra. "What is this?" I asked.

"Soap," she answered, "You're finally clean enough for it to work."

I don't think that's how soap works. I'm pretty sure you can be as disgusting as possible and soap would help from the beginning. Maybe she just didn't want me to use all of it?

I took off the small bottlecap and looked inside. This is not soap. This is some weird-looking toothpaste. I opened my mouth to tell Nyra she was crazy but when I saw the look on her face I decided that wouldn't be wise. The demigod looked dead serious. She looked at me like I was some puzzle, and that scared me.

My eyes went back down to the bottled paste and I smeared it all over my body. It dried rather quickly and I had to scrap it off under the water. "Get your face too Heathen," Nyra ordered.

"Again, I have a name," I responded as I started to apply the paste to my face.

"Again, maybe once you're clean I'll bother to learn it," she repeated.

I rolled my eyes then went under the water and furiously scrubbed my face. I resurfaced once my lungs were burning for air. I blindly gulped in heavy breaths as I moved my wet hair out of my face. I kept my eyes closed in fear that some of that paste would get in my eyes.

Nimble fingers peeled off the remainder of the paste, which I allowed without complaint. Once the fingers went to my hair I opened my eyes. "Such beautiful hair. Let's get it clean... shall we?" Nyra told me.

I nodded and she picked up the bottle of "soap" before turning around again. She shuffled through and around the rocks and over the occasional blade of grass before she bent over and picked something up. She quickly returned to me and handed me a clay bottle with a painting of a tree on it. "What's this for?" I questioned.