Ardeth's Weakness

The Arrival

The stars shone brightly above them; the only noise penetrating the comfortable silence was water gently slapping the chiseled well-stones. He pointed to ra's al-hamal, the head of the ram constellation, and wove a tale of the god-king Amun Ra and his creation of men and beasts. She relished his attention, basking in the glow of the moonlight as the silkiness of his voice put her in a trance. She smiled at him when his eyes landed on her. Something was different though, a certain longing was there. His eyes were black in color rather than the chocolate brown she was used to, his hair tied back in an unusual way. Gazing into his eyes, she ignored these small differences, and he reached up to stroke her cheek tenderly. "Nefretiri," he whispered. She leaned into his touch, relishing the feel of his skin on hers. He closed the small distance between them and finally captured her lips with his.

I shot upright, shocked out of my dream. My sheets were tangled around my legs again, just as they had been every night since Ardeth and I reconnected three months ago. 'I need to stop this ridiculous yearning,' I thought as I kicked my legs free from their linen prison. Walking into the bathroom I hurriedly splashed water on my face to wash the drowsiness away. I looked at the clock - it was almost 2 AM - and sighed. 'Well I could attempt going back to sleep but since I'm already awake, might as well just hop in the shower and get an early start at the museum. Or perhaps I could get some research done before opening...' Plopping back down on the bed, I decided to get a tad more sleep before starting my morning routine at 7 AM.
I woke up again... this time with my alarm blaring at me. Rolling over, I glared at the offending device and slapped the off button. I laid in bed for nearly 30 minutes, thinking about how Ardeth had been commuting from Hamunaptra to Cairo so he could visit me. He'd been gone for a while now and I tried concealing my concern. Normally, he arrived in the morning before I opened the museum. Hmm... a tapping at the window broke this thought process. I approached the tapping sound to see Horus impatiently pecking at the glass. As soon as I opened the window, Horus flew into the house and elegantly landed on the back of a chair, squawking and hopping from foot to foot. Gently, I stroked his feathers to calm him and took the letter off his leg. It was Ardeth telling me that he had finished his quest and the elders will allow my presence in their tribe! I scribbled a reply back to him, too excited to write anything else but an exclamation of joy and inquiring when our journey begins. The sun had started to rise beautiful pink and orange flooded the sky. I watched as Horus flew off with my note, his feathers stretching in the warmth of the day. Despite the cheerful hues of the morning sky, the only color I wished to view was a deep, smoky black - not unlike a certain Medjai's eyes.