Sacrifice (one-shot)

Sacrifice

Howling winds blew through the barren valley of desert, like the jackals through the night. Fading rays of the setting sun, the golden ship of Ra at its final journey through the sky, stained the shifting sands red. Below his feet, people began to cluster around the great structure from where he was perched, and the busy market square seemed to be solely focused on him.

You reap what you sow, he had once been told, and many a time he had laughed and considered their words folly, the incredulous fools they were.

When the last rays of Ra's light had turned to the darkness of Khonshu's new moon, he walked amongst the shadows, to do what he must in order to survive. The only time he had made his mistake, as the moon let forth a sliver of silver light- the traitorous thing it was, the shadows retreated, only to reveal him and his heinous crime; and so he was caught. Knowing his fate, he accepted it and allowed them to take him away, his punishment already determined.

He cursed his luck, and the goddess of misfortune; Ahti, as he looked down at the ant-sized crowd so far below him. They cheered, they howled and they shouted as they threw their hands up in the air, in anticipation for his punishment: sacrifice.

A sacrifice for the people, a sacrifice to Pharaoh and most importantly, a sacrifice for the gods. That was all he was now.

And he had come to accept it.

As the light hit the golden headdress of the Great Sphinx of Djedefre, he inwardly cringed as he recalled their first attempt of sacrificing him.

Solemnly, he climbed the wooden ladder to the very top of the renowned Sphinx. He had struggled at first, with his hands tied behind him with thick rope- but he quickly learned to gain his balance after nearly toppling over the wooden frame.

With a tentative touch to the golden headdress, he instinctively withdrew his foot from the lava-hot metal, only to be roughly shoved from behind with the blunt end of an iron spear.

He stepped forward and looked down at the mass of people below. 'That's a long way down,' he thought. He knew that if he were to land wrong from this height, he would surely die. 'But, that's the whole idea.'

Many times he went to jump, but he couldn't bring himself to follow through with the act.

Suddenly, with a harsh shove from the guard, his decision was made as he tumbled off the Sphinx's head. With a painful whack, his head hit the snake and the rope caught on its open jaw. And with a twang, the rope snapped and he continued his descent.

His body collided with its nose, and with a loud crack and crumble, the nose of the Sphinx slid to the ground below. He plummeted toward the ground, limbs flailing and dark hair streaming, his eyes tightly closed as he awaited the painful impact before his demise . . .

But it never came. With a resounding snap, he landed into a cart laden with straw.

Slowly he lifted his head, only to see the angered and disappointed crowd staring daggers at him. He touched his neck where an annoying pain had blossomed on impact, and cracked it back in place when he realised that it was in the most unnatural position. Surely there was something wrong, but who cares, he was still alive!

But that wasn't necessarily a good thing . . .

Snapping back to the present, his eyes once again drifted back to the setting sun- sinking low beyond the horizon.

He too, like the sun, would plunge his world into darkness, for the rest of the world to remain light and pure. And so, with eyes closed did he jump off the tip off the pyramid . . .

All it took was a single thought. He had jumped.

And then changed his mind . . .