previously...

she scoff at his dull-witted moan. imenet decides he is not worthy of discourse or explanation. a decorated beast, yes, but she'd never engaged in conversation with even the finest chariot horse.

the migraine. again. she sets fingers to skull, hunches over in the water. damn this. damn all of this. damn him, especially.

imenet dives under the water. it is cooling. overwhelming.

Nakhtmin does not see her resurface.

she breaks the surface with a gasp. eyes closed, she breathes heavy, face to the sun.

when she opens them, she flinches.

the oasis is gone. her captor & companion too. imenet twists her neck to see if she'd looked the wrong way.

no. in place of the lake, is a much vaster spread of water. it goes to a distant, unknown shore.

she looks back at what had her aghast.

a great pyramid looms in the distance. not that distant. and it brings great comfort. for she knows it was made.

a buzz at the nape of her neck, threatening to build up to pain, but already she is splashing for the shore. imenet's eyes are still on the construction as she wrings the water out her fur.

how fast could she reach it? half an hour? less? more? she'd try all the same.

first she swayed on two legs, leaving behind a trail of water. by the time tiredness brought her to all fours, her fur had dried through the layers. and still the nameless was pulled forth by the sight of the pyramid, rope-bound by the stem of her mind, certain in some way that the long nightmare of her perpetual waking will become clear, if only she could reach the base.

the wavering image of something approaching could almost be ignored. almost. but then she caught the glint of golden bands in sunlight, and a deep feeling of annoyance made her falter.

imenet's eyes drooped down to the approaching beast. her jaw set. as nakhtmin spoke, her teeth ground.

you! she yelled back, and threw his way a wave of sand. where by the gods were you?!

her frown is deep, twitched only by a wince when the play of light across his coat stings her eye.

as he leans in, she leans away.

vanished? in moments? she couldn't have held her breath so long! did she lose consciousness, and was pulled away by some underground current? yes, that makes enough sense. and she desperately needs things to make sense.

well, be it so, i suppose we're back to where we started. she gestures at the sand all around. this doesn't much look like "north" to me.

his promises are hours old to her.

and please, don't tell me you're seeing this too- now her fingers wiggle towards the looming pyramid. or i'll think we've both gone mad from your barbarous sun magic.

her brows only furrow further at his grandiose introduction, peering at the pyramid's gleaming cap between nakhtmin's horns, thinking the monument not very alike to a spear.

and she blinks.

her hands go up in swiftly moving motions meant to convey slow down.

wait wait wait. you said skyspear is- isn't safe. spells, or whatnot. and i certainly wasn't unconscious for days-

she so wishes a migraine would overcome her now, to have an excuse to stop trying to think through this nonsense. but she merely feels stupid.

her arms drop to the sand either side of where she's sat herself.

the moon? the moon? months?

aghast, jaw slack. nakhtmin's prattle drums against her eardrums without piercing the brain.

eight months?

he is still talking as she buries her face in her hands. any moment, she is sure, her weight will lift off the sands and drift off skywise. unmoored by the real. and she was, wasn't she?

first awakening somewhere cold and dense with mist, greeted by a hunter's teeth. next a blink sent her to the sands, accosted by an antelope. as she thought she'd left the heat, all it took was the water for her to return.

the length of her memory was measured in hours. 

months?

nakhtmin's words are heard as echoes, still she hears them. palms move away from face. her wide eyes squeeze to slits.

yes. she lifts to her feet, dusting her fur. yes, yes. your pharaoh. i need to see him. or a priest or a prophet or-

fingers wriggle with frustration at herself.

anyone else.

and this she punctuates with a pointed look towards nakhtmin.