Beauty and the Pharaoh

Chapter 43 - [Beauty and Maintaining Maat]

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks of not really knowing what was going on, and probably the two most stressful weeks of my life.

We got good news.

Only good news.

According to the messengers, Atem's army was able to burn down more than half the ships that were sailing towards them before they even reached the show. Most of the survivors of those ships swam to shore but were too tired to fight and were taken as prisoners.

Burning down those ships destroyed the Sea Peoples' chances of winning this battle by almost a hundred percent. They not only lost their ships, but they lost a lot of their weapons too.

That was good news...

Right?

Maybe Atem was right... maybe the reason they lost this war the first time was simply because they didn't see it coming. Maybe the Egyptian Army was the greatest army that exists in their time.

So maybe this was an easy victory for them.

But something didn't feel right... and I found myself grasping on to Aunty Maya's necklace more often now.

There wasn't much to do in Ancient Egypt while Atem was gone. Though I could imagine the Nile Delta being loud and noisy and filled with battle... it was quiet and peaceful here.

Very quiet.

Lord Hepu was clearly trying to keep his promise to Atem. He was constantly keeping a close eye on me and would always ask me how I was doing.

And he carried around this strange staff now.

But I had to admit, Lord Hepu really made me feel comfortable. There was something about him that made me calm.

Plus, there was Atem's mom.

She kept me company for the most part and even took me on a tour of Memphis. I got to meet the so-called peasants of Egypt and it was a mind-blowing experience.

They all seemed so kind and so happy, and they were thrilled to see the queen but also to meet me, which made me very happy.

When I met them, I even got to talk to a couple people... and all I could think of were the times that Atem made reference to them. He was not lying when he talked about humble, happy people who were just always filled with hope.

It was kind of beautiful.

And oh jeeze, were there a lot of cats here. I mean, there were cats in the palace too but something that was strange was that none of these "peasant" cats looked particularly deprived or unhealthy or anything like that. It was obvious that they were taken care of.

Atem wasn't lying when he said his people loved cats. And they clearly loved their dogs too, since I saw of few of those happily running around.

And though all the cats were great... none of them seemed to be enough to fill the void left by my sweet Neferkitti. None of them even looked like her.

Man... did I miss her.

She had become such an important friend to me... and in a way, maybe I even forgot sometimes that she was a cat. She was so smart, and I really would have loved her company right now.

I'm sure everyone here would have loved her without a doubt.

But anyways, I was actually kind of sad when we had to return to the palace, but Atem's mother promised me that we would visit again.