Animal Instincts

Chapter VI: By the Light of the Red Desert Moon

(I apologize in advance for any misused facts of the mythology in the chapter, but this is fan-fiction; as such I have bent it some to fit my story)

The days began to come to normality; even as Loki began to endure his heat while about with strict tethers to Tom. The feline didn't mind so much; knowing he was being spoiled to death by his human and then treated to him when they returned to their hotel in the evening. His body practically sinking to the touches Tom would bestow on him and to watch as the smirk threatened to become a permanent fixture to his face as his blood-red eyes were so alive with lust and desire.

Tom had truly come to accept Loki as another part of Harry; so to him, tending to Loki was a roundabout way of pleasing his bonded.

Harry had communed later after the first bath; that he had found out from the feline's information he could access; that Loki should only have a few more days left of the heat. Then it would quell for a few months, before the second yearly one would begin sometime in March.

Arctic Snow-Tigers; they apparently had heat only twice a year and it only lasted a week or up to a week and half, but that was why their birth rates were so low compared to other felines. Meaning; that for Harry and himself if Harry retained Loki as a shift or animagus form...Harry would be at his most fertile for male pregnancy in June or March due to the heat cycle effects being carried over to his human body. The successful chance for conception would be higher in these two months while the cycle was on-going than out of the ten others.

Tom gently rubbed his sleepy head as he walked in the open desert amid the vast stars and red moon tonight; it was perfect for the ritual. Loki's heat had ended in the early hours of the morning today and he easily drank the potion Tom made to cleanse his impurities from the former accident. He hadn't expected it to cause Loki pain; the poor cat basically limp now in his arms and half-asleep.

Tom walked steadily as he came to the small oasis outside of the city; one that no one near here dared to go to. Locals claimed it was a cursed place, but Tom went and his breath caught; he knew it was not cursed...no, it was perfect for the ritual to restore his mate.

He gently laid Loki on the very soft blanket fabric of fine egyptian cotton dyed in rare Tyrian purple as he learned of to do by his readings; the color was once only ever used by those of the royal house in ancient egypt, or those of equally high status. Or it had been one, until some time after Egypt had become one of the Roman Provinces.

But Tom was using it; hoping to invoke his intentions to his magic.

It was laid over the large smooth rock in the middle of the shallow pool of water. Raising his hand and invocating the warding barriers to protect himself if Loki panicked and to keep him there. Before he then walked around the pentagram that he had drawn in chalk around the rock; lighting the three small tallow candles, igniting the unscented incense for purity, and laying the offerings he made to them to beseech them to help

Three large bolts of the same Tyrian purple cloth laid behind Loki; to keep his back comfortable. An expensive amulet of a Cat-Head to aid his pleas
And three small bowls containing new raw, and fresh fruit while a fourth held small cuts of meat and a goblet full of red wine.

He then walked and began placing three small figurines at integral points alongside his candles.

One was of the Goddess Bastet; goddess of cats, guardian and protector against evil and misfortune. She was a Daughter of Ra, also sometimes called as Amun-Ra; the creator god of all Egyptian people, and beloved by the people.

One was to Ma'at; goddess of justice, truth, balance, and harmony. Depicted as sitting upon her heels while wearing an ostrich plume; ancient Egyptian culture was surrounded by a central and focal need for harmony both in life and in death.