It is well known, the Greek myth of Thanatos and Aurora's love story. But, what if it was placed in a different setting? Where instead of fields with grass and towering oaks with imprints of nymphs, there were deserts blanketing the Earth's skin in dusty sand and skinny palms. What if mummies conquered the dead and the pantheon of the 12 we know converted into a more... Theban mindset.
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The air was dry to breathe in at this time of the year.
The wind carried not the refreshing ambrosia that was a cool breeze, but the tiny particles of grainy sand that could clog one's lungs. Ra was brutal during this season. His glorious rays once bright and warm now turned deadly, into a more heated sensation. Summer was his season, where the days were longer than a pharaoh's reign and the night was but a mere dream.
No one could escape the Sun's powerful gaze as it sat high above the world below, watching the living crawl around and doing chores like ants. Even when they tried to flee from his rays, he always manages to sneak in at least a block of his fingers into their shelter to remind them that he is always there, watching and waiting for them to come out.
The grass, once sage and flexible, now hardened and staled like crocodile skin. Their bodies, now old and lost from their last season's youth laid stiff as another gust of air with Ra's breath tumbled over and through them in a peppery embrace.
They crumbled like statues of old kings in the new age by a pair of feet strapped in sandals. They continued to walk through, paying no mind to the claw marks of the sharp tips of grass blades on their ankles as they hurried along to the edge. The sounds of rushing water made the woman's parched mouth water. Just hearing the movement of the refreshing element was enough pleasure to be quenched.
She hurried along, eager to fill her jar up and head back home. Clutching the large vase in her hands carefully, she treading closer towards the boundary where land met water. It was stained in the deepest of blues, holding much minerals and contexts of life within it. The Nile was truly a sight to behold. While everything around it dries out into dust and sand, it merely stays as it is with it's life giving properties.
The young woman looked carefully through the surface of the water, it was flat and glassy. Calm, good. The jar in her arms almost shivered as it was gently dunked into the river. The jar was stained with the teal skin of Hapi, Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation. His hands were outstretched, coming forth the water to fill his belly within the vase. Crocodiles and lotus plants permeated the hourglass shape of the jar, around Hapi as he warded off any threats in the depths.
The woman breathed a sigh of relief as the jar began to weigh in her hands, the water coming to swirl at the very brink. Sending a quick prayer of thanks to Hapi, the woman stood and backed away from the river, now becoming more rushed and hurried then before. Her sheath gown fluttered as the wind breezed past her, carrying on with it's duties for the day.
