-Somewhere near the bottom of the Pyramid, Fizzle-
“This is a really nice pyramid and all, but can we hurry this along?” I wouldn’t mind just grabbing this ‘End of Immortality’ thing and quickly getting out of here. We’ve been having quite the time doing this one thing. “Even if we have all day to call my guys in to assist us with getting out of the jungle after we’re done here.”
“Be patient, this is the last room we really need to pass through and there really aren’t any more trials beyond the one that will give you access to the guardian of the artifact you’re here for.” Baast was being fairly coy as she looked to me. “Don’t you just want to relax and… help me get my sister to do lewd things with a carrot and what could possibly be a significant other for her? Come now, matchmaking is fun!”
“No… I can honestly say I really don’t want to do anything involving matchmaking right now.” I couldn’t make my voice any dryer.
“Fine, be a spoil sport with helping me with my sister… maybe with radishes as those can be pretty sturdy." The ornate door had a bejeweled white cat image, we could probably profit hugely from just stealing the gaudy looking door and separating its disparaging parts out."Right, opening the door now!”
After Baast opened it, the door led into a room with walls heavily lined with jewels, not to mention the ceiling and floors. Even the path way leading up to a ghost cat laying on her side eating from a bowl of ghostly looking grapes was brightly lit with rubies.
“I so do love the taste of grapes, it doesn’t matter whether they are peeled or not.” I believe the white anugyptian cat is Clarity, she apparently had the luck to have what looked like an infinite bowl of ghostly grapes and a recliner to laze about on. Also the lithe cat was wearing an anugyptian gold necklace and had a tuft her fur in a ponytail. “Bright Beam, front and center, do you realize how long it’s been since I’ve had some companionship!”
“I’m so sorry princess!” Blubbered Bright who was hiding behind Baast.
“If you were really sorry, then you certainly wouldn’t be cowering behind her holiness Baast.” The white cat sat up and stretched out and popped another grape in her mouth. “I’ll get to you in a moment, but first our guests. My name is Princess Clarity, do you have any questions?”
“Yeah, how did you get the recliner and a bowl of grapes to be ghostly like that?” Jacky was recovering fairly fast for having lost a little more than three pints worth of blood. Wait… no… that wasn’t a quick recovery, it was just a moment of coherency before she dizzily laid her head back down on Sekhet’s back.
“Do you know how some say that you can’t take things with you when you go? Do you know how often everyone gets told that?” Clarity laid on her side and propped a paw up under her chin, she gestured to her recliner and bowl of grapes with her other paw in wide sweeping motion. “Well obviously everyone else wasn’t trying nearly hard enough and were quite clearly ‘wrong~’!”
“That… still doesn’t any sense.” Pointed out Mara, while her sisters nodded.
“That’s why I’m the Priestess of Mystique and a princess, I don’t need to make sense! Though I will say that I find that nothing is completely impossible if you truly wish to pursue it beyond all reason.” Clarity chuckled. “I was a capable, beautiful and beloved leader in life, I’ve learned quite a lot from the best and even more so from the worst dregs of our society. Frankly, pink and green were never my colors of choice.”
“Hey, I wasn’t that bad! Also will you sign this please?” We turned to see Cheerful holding up the scroll in front of a slightly spooked Clarity’s face, Clarity raised a single brow and looked the scroll over with slight disdain. Eventually she smiled. “Does this mean you’ll sign it?”
“Yes, this does have some perks I’d be quite interested in. You’re as wonderful as ever Cheerful, though I would like to remind you that I’ve always been partial to the color… purple.” Clarity sent Bright a coy evil grin, Bright ducked behind Baast and blushed. She turned back to us. “So what exactly are you here for? To bask in my humble, yet completely wonderful, presence? I know I’m quite an extravagant beauty, but I’m sadly out of date on my life expectancy... not that that would really stop me from dating someone among the living if I wished too. Though you'd have to bear in mind that I can't have children as I am.”
“The End of Immortality.” As she said this, Daring was staring curiously at the chair and bowl of grapes while caressing her helmet fondly.
“Ah, that… that particular legendary item is a very curious thing to be after. Well come along then!” Clarity hopped off her recliner and made her way towards one of the doors at the back of the room that we could probably break down for millions of bits. “Aside from being a princess, I’m fair paw at storytelling. My stories can sound absurd, but the truth is sometimes stranger than what people can write down since writing was first invented.”
“Isn’t that the truth, I tend to leave the worst or far more boring parts out of my adventures.” The door opened and more stairs, this lead into a crypt with an empty golden coffin that we passed by.
“So the End of Immortality was apparently made and used with a specific purpose in mind, it is sufficient to say that it did what it was supposed to and lived up to it's purpose. It was given to a trustworthy guardian after it was successfully used once to enact what some might see as a tragedy and some others might see it in a brighter light provided they didn't like the goddess it was used on.” At the bottom of the next set of stairs, Clarity made her way up to a shrine with a green colored sphinx statue on a slightly raised floor. “The guardian is the one who you’ll have to deal with if you want to get it. They are said to be one of the most powerful and mystical beings to walk the world and have had many a legend under their name. We simply call her Pharaoh Emerald of the first cake. Now if someone will read the words on the pedestal as to how one can call the guardian forth from her… ‘slumber’… then she can take things from there.”
The way she paused before saying the word 'slumber' earned my attention and I glanced at her, she gave us friendly smile that was hiding something.
“Oh, I can do that!” Nefer gleefully ran up to read the inscription, he apparently knew how to read any language. It was fairly obvious that he would be capable of reading Ancient Anugyptian given his apparent history of constantly reincarnating into himself and traveling the world with open eyes. “To bring out the guardian from this statue, cast upon me a feather from the goddess of Bennu and prepare yourself for an incredible confrontation unlike any other. Well that sounds rather scary.”
“Where are we supposed to get a feather of Bennu?” This adventure was certainly dragging on, but apparently it’s been worse for Daring considering the fact that she’s been all over the world looking for this one thing. We were now on the cusp of getting it and another road block. “Also, can you please tell me that there is one here or at the very least nearby.”
“Sorry dearie, but I don’t believe it would be even possible to get one of Bennu’s feathers.” Inhaling through her nose and then exhaling through her mouth, Clarity moved to sit in front of the statue while addressing us. “It’s a very strange tale. I should start it by saying this, Bennu was a self-made goddess. She was at one point mortal and became impossible to kill or at least that was what many had thought when she became immortal.”
“Okay, what happened and why can’t we get a feather from her now?” Tilting her head at the cat, Daring was looking fairly curious and a little angry.
“She actually died in a rather ‘permanent’ fashion, which should be impossible as she was completely capable of rebirth from almost any form of death. Nothing should have been capable of putting her down forever, it is just unfortunate that apparently someone found a way to do so. That is why we have a guardian here to protect this powerful relic, so admittedly even awakening her can be a challenge of it's own accord.” Clarity held out a paw to the green colored sphinx statue. “The End of Immortality was said to have been used on Bennu and she was swiftly slain, said artifact was then given to a trusted hero of our time and she is now the guardian to the ‘End of Immortality’. It took a while for anyone to find Bennu’s body and that was because nobody heard anything resembling a scuffle from her. It was as if she didn’t fight off her attacker at all! I would like to say that if any other method had been used, then it certainly wouldn’t have been the end of Bennu. Any method of killing the self-made goddess Bennu should have been clearly and completely ineffective, except for this one thing.”
“An artifact that has a legend about it actually being used to slay a goddess?” Shuddering at the thought of what we were after, I continued while thinking about the Staff of Sacanas. “It's always been fairly obvious why GODLESS would want it so badly, but to have it confirmed as actually having killed a god...”
As I drifted off, mother gasped loudly drawing all our attentions to her as she adjusted her robes and hat. There was a bright smile on her face as she looked towards Clarity.
“Was… was Bennu what we would call a ‘phoenix’ nowadays?” It was curious that mom would ask that, she seemed very happy all of the sudden. Her tail was whipping about excitedly and her ears were perked straight up.
I wondered what had mom so happy and even giddy looking, I’ve never seen her smile so brightly in a long time.
“Actually, she was the first phoenix to ever exist. She in fact gave birth to the whole race, as all phoenixes are said to have come from her. Phoenixes were never as intelligent as Bennu was, but they are still fairly bright creatures.” It was Sekhet that answered the question for us. “She used to be a heron and when she perished for good, she was a heron once more and no longer the bird of flame and ash we knew her to be. It was said by Anubis that both her soul and power went missing, apparently she was never actually meant to die and somehow managed to do so despite the fact she was a goddess. Nobody knows what truly became of Bennu's soul, but as you’ve all heard me say multiple times.”
“Souls.” Mara started.
“Are” Marie continued.
“Sacred.” Maria finished. “You don’t need to keep saying it you know, we get it!”
“Exactly.” Sekhet said with a smile. “Nobody knew what became of Bennu’s soul when she perished, as none of the death gods could find her in any of their systems and she was the most likely to end up with Anubis, king of the jackals and god of death. If no one had her, then she possible slipped through the cracks to some greater beyond.”
Mom reverently strode forward and pulled a phoenix feather from one of her pockets, always good for curing foreign bodily or magical ailments. She motioned for Clarity to move out of the way and she did. There was an intense look on mom’s face, even if we couldn’t see her eyes.
“I cast upon you this feather of a descended from Bennu, so something that has been long awaited can be remade anew!” Roiling white flames exploded into existence in mom’s palm, she took aim at the sphinx statue and hit it with the energy.
The energy seeped into the statue and we waited. I was wondering if it would even work on the statue, but then I remembered that mom cured Jacky like this and was curious as to what would come of this. The statue started to glow brightly and we all started to back away as it started shaking violently.
I looked to Sekhet who was staring at it curiously and went wide eyed a second later. Baast just had a friendly, if evil looking, smirk on her face.
“Finally… the time has come!” Baast yelled as the statue exploded into a fountain of green chunks and smoke. “I also incidentally now owe someone fifteen blue diamonds.”
“Mehehe… muwhaha-hahahahaaa! It’s been so many years since I’ve been imprisoned, as a sorceress I’ve done my time... and now it is time for me to live again!” The smoke swirled and was swiftly blown away from the form of an Abyssinian. She was wearing a red top and a long red skirt that hung down to her ankles, said ankles had sandals matching her anugyptian motif. The nemes she wore definitely denoted her as being a pharaoh. “It’s so nice to be a part of the world once more, it’s been so long since I’ve tasted the sweet air of freedom and it seems that the time has indeed come my old friend Baasty.”
Her black hair hung below her shoulders, she had dark brown or greyish fur. Her hands were holding writhing green flames and she looked at us with her slightly pudgy smirking face, her fluffy tail shifted under the skirt she was wearing as she took on an aggressive stance.
We all did the same, the exceptions being Clarity, Jacky, Sekhet, Baast and curiously enough mother, mom didn't seem the least bit impressed with the sorceress.
“Now who would challenge me for… huh?” The Abyssinian stopped when mom marched right up to her and stood in front of her, she was holding… an ace of spades card?
“I’ll give you this, if you shut up and let me hug you. It’s been too long and we’ve had several trying days to get here Jaded.” Did mom just say that was Jaded? “Also, take off the disguise.”
“Really mom… way to ruin my fun!” The Abyssinian groused out, she still swiped the card from mom’s hand then put her hands to her face and lifted it upwards to reveal a clay mask with a smiling face painted on it. As the mask was removed, the form of the Abyssinian shifted and we were soon looking at an older looking Jaded who smiled at us fondly. She was still wearing the same clothes, but her backpack was now clearly visible as was her magical alchemy necklace. “You think that you’ve had it rough? Wait until you hear what I’ve been through!”
“Please Jaded, I need to snuggle my kitten this instant!” As mom said this, she removed the blindfold and they stared at each other for a long moment. None of us saw when the two met and started to cuddle one another. “It’s been practically six years Jaded… do you have any idea how horrible it has been?”
“Love you too mom, and yes I do have a fairly good idea since I’ve seen everything Fizzle’s been up to. I have a lot to tell you and the others as I’ve been up to quite a bit and I know a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t, like who the leader of GODLESS is, my father and Fizzle’s parents, but first things first though…” Jade said as she nuzzled her face into mother’s neck and shoulder, she pulled away and started to stretch out with several cracks and pops. “Those genies had it right, several thousand years like that will leave you with such a crick in the neck! Agh, I really need to stretch myself out!”
After snapping and popping several parts of her body, I noted that Jade was fairly slim. her beige fur shined and her green hair was as vibrant as I remembered it being. Overall she had aged perfectly well and was as beautiful as I remember.
I’ve missed snuggling that… I wanted to snuggle that… I deserved to snuggle that!
“Jade…” I started to move forward slowly, Maries was right behind me and my pace was getting quicker by the second.
“Hey Fizzy… I guess it’s been…” We rammed bodily into Jade knocking her over and my lips fell on hers hungrily, my heart throbbing in my chest.
Once I let her get some air, she only had one comment for us.
“I’ve waited an eternity for the both of you.” Jade stated as she pressed her forehead against mine with her eyes closed.
“Honestly, we did the same.” Mara slapped her tongue across Jade’s face and soon my lips were back on hers.
It would take something far stronger than a god to pry me off of Jade now!
“You know, I thought you’d be more upset with me and would be berating me about putting you through all this.” She said as wrapped my hooves around her. “I mean the years of emotional turmoil and pain couldn’t have been easy for any of you.”
“Jade… don’t ruin the moment… you stupid, lovable, idiot!” That made her smile warmly at me as I cried and laughed into her slightly unkempt fur.