Scars

Chapter 1- The General

"Your hands are very mighty, son. Why don't you practice to bludgeon? Your mighty blows will be deadly! Mace, ax, sword, whatever you want to begin with!"

He carefully folded the papyrus back to the scroll. With the lamp almost falling asleep, the room went dark. In his early days of Per Ankh, the school of life, this young bloke studied medicine since he was royalty. His father served as a high priest of reign of Mighty Maya and he would have to pick between following his father's footsteps or pursue something different. Not immensely interested in practising priesthood, he chose to study medicinal science which enraged his father. His anger was justified, for he served the court as hem-netjer but never became the hem-netjer-tepi, and therefore like any other father he manifested his son becoming the highest priest, hem-netjer-tepi.

He was sleepy earlier. But those thoughts kept bothering him. His words. "Your hands are very mighty!" he mumbled to himself as the faint moon light struck him through the satin curtain on his bedroom window. "What makes him think so?" He thought. His mind just couldn't rest. His sole purpose of pursuing medicine was to keep himself free from any expectations and lead an independent life, but this gave him a whole different level of identity crisis.

He barely slept that night.

It was way before the moon could even leave, that he was taking a bath. His head continually echoing the same words, again and again.

"Sekhmet" He read "the daughter of Ra, the sun God. The untamed warrior and a ruthless killer: the one before whom the thunders tremble. The one that could make the Nile turn red."
The story seemed interesting enough for him to continue reading. As the sun slowly rose, he bowed mentally as he read through the book.

"Ra looked down upon the earth and his already burning, raging spirit was fuelled further as he saw the sheer disobedience of the principles of Ma'at: the seven principles that ensured the life is lead lawfully. These seven principles were Truth, Justice, Harmony, Balance, Order, Propriety, and Reciprocity.
Ra's anger went to such an extent he swore he would destroy the humanity. And, he just glanced upon the earth from his eyes, throwing fiercest flames of literal fire and it gave birth to Sekhmet.
She was described as a terrifying figure, who had the body of a woman but the head of a lion. On her head, shone the sun disk, depicting her birth was from the mightiest of the Gods, Ra himself."

"Why would a goddess of war and destruction be referred to in a text of medical science? Something's off." He thought as he read further.
"The goddess was considered a protector of the pharaohs and that's what made not just the royalty, but even the common man worship her. When enraged she was a fierce warrior but, that was not all that was there to this Goddess.
She was considered the goddess of healing.""Oh" he read further.
Sekhmet, when not angry, is known for her healing powers and is the deity all physicians worshipped. It was to seek healing abilities and to get a good reputation as a doctor/physician. This was also practised as in, the physicians used to be priests of the Goddess Sekhmet."

He put the book back in the cover and went out. Is this a coincidence? Is this a sign? Is this just a fact that the Goddess of medicine, was herself not just a warrior but a protector of Pharaohs? His mind kept racing.

He ran back and in his room he found the paper where he had scribed some gibberish. He tore it, and swiftly went out.

The shack was full of no less than fifty men, who unlike him were not only older, but immensely well-built and muscular. "This is like a harem but for the queens!" Someone chuckled. It was no joke. All those men seemed oddly stronger than an average person. They cheered and clenched their fists and slapped the tables, where liquor was kept. As he moved past those drinking and through those cheering and cussing, he felt his eyes blinded by the sand. As it settled, he saw two men standing at a distance of twenty feet, taller than any other man in that shack and even they were all taller than him.

"What is going on?" He slowly whispered. As he felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned around.