Pet King

Fina walked out of the house. When it turned back to take a look at it again, the feelings in its heart tangled together, unable to be distinguished from one another.

Two thousand years ago, it had been here before. But then, no matter where it had gone, it was surrounded by a loving crowd, and it had not noticed the low-profile generations of temple guards. Maybe it had seen—but it hadn’t noticed. It didn’t even know their names.

There had been so many people in the crowd, words of respect spilling from their lips, every single one of them more respected than the temple guards. It hadn’t even given the crowd much regard. Why would it have paid attention to the silent temple guards lingering outside the crowds?

Besides, it didn’t usually take a second look at these normals. It had more important things to do, like being by her side.

But it was regretting its actions now. If it had just taken one more look, just one more look at them, it would’ve been respect that was long due.

They would never know now which pharaoh had ordered them to begin protecting the temples.

The pharaoh asked them to guard the temples, but they didn’t tell them when they could stop. So they just, stupidly, with their whole lives, across many, many generations, protected the land with all they could.

What foolishness!

Back then, no one had thought the prosperous dynasty would end. Even if they had, they wouldn’t have dared express it either. Everyone had said that the Ptolemaic dynasty would last for thousands of autumns and millions of generations so that they didn’t have to think about when to stop guarding the temples.

There was no dynasty that lasted forever. Even the pharaohs of ancient Egypt had different surnames. When one fell, another one would surely take their place.

There had been many wise people back in the days. Pharaohs, clergy, Head Secretary of the Kingdom, or the Head Librarian—these people were all wise beyond their years. Maybe someone had thought of this problem, but it didn’t seem very auspicious to tell the temple guards when to stop guarding the temples, so they all avoided the problem.

Something overlooked or intentionally ignored by their current person in power, and a family was sentenced to an endless cycle of misery.

Today, their cycle ended here. It represented all of the pharaohs to give an order that should have been given long ago and set their spirits free.

Even though their lives may have ended years ago, life was life, and fate was fate. Maybe the “soul” seemed like a joke to Zhang Zian, but Fina was willing to believe in its existence.

The souls of the pharaohs would never disappear, so…hers would not either.

Fina went back onto the hill. Richard and Zhang Zian’s bickering still had not ended. They were debating a question that only fools would consider.

The other elfins were exploring the surroundings with nothing else better to do, flipping over broken gravel and sniffing at broken pillars. Fina didn’t alarm them, but it followed a treacherous path up, avoiding several teetering walls to reach the top of the temple’s ruins.

It noticed that there were a few lights installed in the ruins, and the lights were all pointed towards the ruins, long electrical cords leading to somewhere unknown.

Most likely, in the night, all these lights would turn on and bathe the ruins in light, so that the tourists staying in the Siwa Oasis could admire the ruins from the comfort of their rooms, just like a clown in the spotlight of the stage.

When it had first come to the pet shop, it had been reminded that the wires were dangerous, and it shouldn’t try to bite through or scratch the wires. What the heck? Did they think it was an idiot? It wasn’t just any normal cat!

So it didn’t plan to destroy these lights and wires. As this was equipment that would significantly affect their tourism, it would be repaired quickly, so there was no point in destroying it now.

Zhang Zian didn’t climb up, since he saw that the tip was already teetering dangerously, and it would be risky to try and climb it. But that risk was nothing to Fina.

It leaped onto the tip in a few strides easily, not even alerting the rest of the elfins with how light its jumps were, and easily scaled upward to the inside of the tip.

Fina closed its eyes, starting to pray for a divination.

“Ah! Oh Holy Amon! You’ve come to heaven and become the Father of all the Gods, the Creator of all on Earth. Your coming has brightened Santa Maria. Maria welcomed you with devoted arms, and Ma’at and Nut embrace you passionately. Please bestow upon us prosperity, glory, sincerity, and holiness!”

Praying for divine intervention was a complicated and holy process, often needing a long period of preparation and the assistance of priests.

Priests were no longer around, and it didn’t have the time to do preparations. They didn’t even know if Amon was protecting this piece of land that had long ago been ruled by a foreign power. But it could only pray, hoping for a miracle, just like what Alexander the Great had done 2,000 years ago.

“Oh Great Amon, please let me see her one more time.”

To see her one more time might not be difficult, since she had seen that the mark on Peter Lee’s map was exactly where her body rested. If everything went smoothly, they might really be able to reach that place.

But what it wanted to see was not the mummified version of her.

“Oh Great Amun, please let me see her…alive again, even if it’s just for a second.”

The wish was too absurd. With so many noble pharaohs throughout ancient Egypt and its 6,000 years of history, none of them had been granted the wish of reincarnation. She was not any more noble than those great pharaohs, so the holy Amon would most likely ignore this joke of a wish.

“No matter what method needs to be used, no matter what price there is to pay, please, oh Great Amon, please grant me this wish.”

After its silent prayer, it kept its eyes closed, instead focusing on her hearing, touch, and other senses. Any movement within the tip, any…signs of God Amon’s response would be detected by her.

But not a single breeze of wind had blown in. The tip was deathly silent.

What exactly did godly intervention look like? How had the ancient priests determined that they had gotten the blessings of the god Amon?

Fina waited and waited and waited, not knowing how many minutes passed. It could hear Zhang Zian calling its name from afar, but it couldn’t respond. It was worried that the moment it did, it would miss Amon’s signs.

“Come! Please, come!”

It knew that a prayer was meant to be done calmly and devotedly, not for selfish reasons. But it couldn’t be calm at all. All it wanted to do was shut Zhang Zian’s mouth with stones!

As for selfishness… Could it be that Alexander the Great had not come here for selfish reasons at all? He’d come for a country, while it had come for one person.

The Godly Divination didn’t come.

Fina opened its eyes, disappointed. God Amon’s powers may have already left this wretched land.

When it leaped off the tip, it was spotted by Zhang Zian.

“Fina, where did you go? I’ve been calling out for you,” he complained.

Fina was already down in the dumps, so it gritted back at him, “Call, call, call. What’s the point? I won’t go missing, anyway!”

“I don’t mean that.” Zhang Zian pointed to the sunset. “We just discovered something weird. The sun seems to be hovering at the horizon, but it hasn’t set even though it’s been too long.”