28 May 2012
She howled at the moon, the moon above the sand. She howled a wolf alone, in a far off foreign land.
The moon shone bright above the dunes, as the dry wind carried her cry, to the pinnacles of the pyramids, the she-wolf's lullaby.
The Pharaoh was a God-King, descended from Amon-Ra, whose bloodlines flowed from Marduk, in Mesopotamia.
He was worshipped by his people, his divinity adored. His power, vast and mighty, with obedience assured.
It had been a Nordic diplomat, a fair haired Norseman herald, who had brought the she-wolf to him, looking panicked and dishevelled.
"This beast, she is a wild one", the fair haired herald explained. A priest infused the air with incense, and six acolytes took her chains.
The Norseman left that evening, with diplomatic ties. A longboat floated down the Nile, fully loaded with supplies.
The Pharaoh went to see her, there was something about this beast, for he had thought about it constantly, and it's fight to be released.
His empathy and compassion, was fearless of her rage. And the God-King Pharaoh dismissed the guards, and stepped inside her cage.
With a snarl and a sniff she viewed him, unable to sense any fear, and the she-wolf seemed to tame to him, as the God-King made his way near.
His eyes where dark, but friendly. Her eyes where cold as ice. In his hand he held a piece of meat, and knelt before her to entice.
She was hungry, she was starving, she was ravenous, and it hurt. The she-wolf approached the God-king, who placed the meat before her in the dirt.
Violently she snatched it, like a mantis taking prey, a necessary appetiser for the main meal of the day.
The God-King then sensed danger, a cruel look in her eye, and for a second of his immortality, The Pharaoh feared to die.
She seemed to grow before him, the she-wolf doubled size, as if the morsel she had eaten, was a feast somehow disguised.
The Pharaoh stood his ground, and inhaled a foreseen last breath. Not even he, in his majesty, could avoid this certain death.
The She-Wolf's face was now in his, her breath felt like fire in the heat. The God-King Pharaoh sighed and said: "if only I'd brought you more meat."
He closed his eyes for a moment, for he thought that moment his last, but still he could feel her breath on his face, long after the moment had passed.
Then he felt the fullest lips, gently pressed against his own. He opened his eyes to astonishment, for a beauty from the she-wolf had grown.
She was raven haired and slender, pale, though perfectly formed. Kneeling there naked before him, somehow the she-wolf transformed.
He was silenced, he was motionless, believing not his mind, through the memory of past lifetimes, he had never known the kind.
Then a shadow from a corridor, a flicker from a torches flame, and the beauty there before his eyes, again to beast did change.
He watched her body contorted, but before change reached her face, she spoke to him with pleading eyes: "You must free me from this place".
The Pharaoh opened wide the cage, and the She-Wolf then leapt out. The God-King stepped out behind her, and the She-wolf turned about.
He reached out then to touch her, and she gave him a parting kiss. As his hand had been extended, she sank her teeth into his fist.
He recoiled without emotion, wrapping linen around his hand. As he looked she seemed to smile at him, though he did not understand.
She had bitten the hand that fed her, then disappeared into the night, as the Pharaoh stood astonished still, at the magnitude of the sight.
His hand had healed by morning, but the God-King had felt strange, as he went about his duties, thinking only of their exchange.
For he felt the she-wolf with him, he wondered if she felt the same. He was unable to shake the vision of her, the woman the wolf became.
His dreams became tormented, his priests where at his side. A fever on the Pharaohs brow, dark omens had implied.
There where prayers read to Anubis, the embalmers where prepared. Three weeks into the fever, from the fever the God-King was spared.
Now he stood atop a balcony, staring out into the sand, as the sun receded from the sky, for the moon to take her stand.
As the night breeze lifted to his ears, the God-King heard it say: "I'm waiting in the dunes for you, change now, come and play"
The Pharaoh God-King vanished, as if swept away upon a tide, of feral passion burning, to howl at the moon by her side.
The Pharaoh & The She-Wolf • Opuss № I