Goddess

Part Five: Birds Fly Home

Chapter 9
~Amunet~
"Again!" Isis says. "It needs to be perfect!"
"I will do it again after you explain why I don't remember what happened in the garden! I remember going out to make sure that Ay was okay, and then nothing!" I look at her expectantly.
She sighs and sits down on one of the three benches that reside in the otherwise bare room. The ceiling is so high I estimate that three elephants could fit in here standing on top of each other! She looks up at me, and her face gets another wrinkle. Her once perfect face was aging very fast. With only two days until the day I become the Goddess of Magic. I rub my temples on my forehead and sit down on the floor, exhausted from a long morning of learning the basics of magic.
"Isis?" I ask. "When we first met, for real, you said that I already had magic inside me. What did you mean by that?"
She looked at me with her knowledgeful eyes. "My dear, must we do this now?"
"Talk?"
She pauses. "Alright. I knew that you had magic in you because of your eyes. Your mother was supposed to be my sucessor, but none of the other gods were ready to give up their seats of power. Not ready to give up their immortality. But now that they are, the effects of immortality wearing thin, and they are becoming old and weak. As am I. So, since I had chosen your mother before, your line will always have magic inside them until your rein as Isis is over."
I feel hot tears well behind my eyes. It stung. "So you picked me because you had already picked my mother?! So that you wouldn't have to waste thirty seconds giving me magic?!" I was angry now. "Why didn't you just pick my mother?" I yell.
She puts her hand on my shoulder to calm me. "Calm yourself." She says sternly. "I didn't know who you were until I looked at your eyes. I knew nothing of my candidates except for their names. I swear. And about last night-" She said, changing the subject. At least it's a subject I need to hear about. "Well, I walked out into the garden, and there you two were, talking you know, and you both just looked so comfortable talking to each other. But, you are destined to be wi-. Nope. Can't say that. Part of the myths. Anyways, he was telling you pretty much your entire future! Now, we couldn't have that. So, naturally, I erased both of your memories of all myths. Of course, his memory of the myths was stronger just then than yours, so he might even still be asleep."
I just stared at her. She erased my memories?! they were mine and mine alone! How could she?
"Well, let's move onto the next spell, shall we? This one is for turning into our sacred animal, the kite. Imagine the words (*glyphs) in your mind. 'I am a kite. I am a kite, I am that of the Magic Goddess Isis, Daughter of Geb and Nut. O gods,may savor be sweet, a flame has risen from the horizon. O who you are in the city, I have brought he who gaurds your coils; give me you hands so I may use them as wings to fly. I am a kite. I am a kite, that of the Magic Goddess Isis.'"
I opened my eyes and blinked. My eyesight had gotten sharper, my body felt lighter, but much shorter, so short, I could touch the ground with my lips if I wanted to. No, not lips, beak. I can touch the ground with my beak! I'm a kite! I am, well almost, the Goddess of Magic! I chirp with glee, and look up, only to see a slightly bigger version of myself. Isis, also a bird. She closes her eyes in concentration and a bright glow begins to radiate from under her feathers, and then there is a flash of white light, an Isis stands before me again, in her long billowing dress. She scoops me up and I have to flutter my wings for balance. She tells me, "Once you have at least heard the spells and done the transformation once, you can do it again and again, as many times as you wish. You must only think about how it feels to be a bird, and concentrate. So long as you can change back. But for now, go! visit your family! When you get there just imagine yourself exactly how you looked this morning, down to how your hair looked. See you in a bit!"
She drops me from her hands and I flap my wings unevenly and catch myself just before I hit the ground.
An unexpected kindness from Isis, I'll admit, but I won't take it for granted. I flapped my wings. I was going steady now, but that was only because I had cught a draft that luckily carried me in the right direction. Other than the fact that flying was hard, I liked being a bird. I was free if responsibility, I felt free, divine.
I had only to tilt my wing and I would spiral in the opposite direction, to hold them to my sides to dive down at the ground. I has never felt so free before. I tuck my wings in to dive, catching myself mere inches above the ground. I landed clumsily and hopped over to a pond of water. I looked at my relflection. I was no ordinary kite. My clothes and makeup had transformed with me. My body and tail are the same color as the beautiful ivory gown I was wearing earlier, my head the sleek black of my hair. My wings matched my tail, both tipped with the ebony black of my silky hair. I chirp with happiness.
I hear behind me, "My, my. What a beautiful bird."
"Shall I catch it for you, Sehkmet?"
"No I will!"
"No, me!"
I grimace at the poor grammer from the last boy. A silly thing, but when your father is a scribe...
I rustle my feathers, and begin to hop into flight, realizing that they are talking about me. I flap my wings, hoping that a breeze will lift me off the ground. I begin to flap and hop more desperately, realizing that I was going no where, and the clammer behind me had stopped. I stop to look behind me, only to see a barren desert oasis. I catch my breath in horror. I begin to focus on the spell that turned me into a kite, and what I looked like in the dark obsidian mirror this morning. I take deep breaths in and out. I close my eyes and begin to imagine myself growing, larger and taller, my wings turning to arms, my tail turning into a train of ivory silk. I breathe in and out. I open my eyes, and feel my bare feet being covered by the blowing sand. So now there's wind. I look behind me at the oasis. The duo of Palm trees towering over the lone bush of plums. The small pool of water deep and glistening against the hot sand. I look over the bush and see the city in the near distance. Too far to hear me yell, but too close so try could see me. I turn and see my house on the outside of the city. I begin to walk towards it. I should be there in a matter of ten to fifteen minutes. I hear a breath behind me and I freeze. A sharp intake of breath. My vision becomes hazy with fear, I begin to hear the rhythm of my heart beat louder than anything else. A hand on my arm. I wrench my arm, trying to break free.