Krypto's Egyptian Short Story

As is normal for any proud mommy moment, I am sharing a short story that Krypto developed, wrote, and edited over the last three weeks for our Tapestry of Grace curriculum.

It was supposed to be based in one of the ancient civilizations that we've studied so far this year - the Egyptians, the Israelites, the Assyrians, or the Sumerians. He chose the Egyptians. Enjoy!

The Darkest Palace

Chapter 1: Escape!

“There he goes!” shouted one of the guards. They were chasing an escaping servant from pharaoh’s palace. Beads of sweat evaporated off the boy’s tanned forehead, his bottomless brown eyes searching vainly for a side street or alley to escape into from the relentless guards. “We have him now!” said one of the guards carelessly, “This road ends at the wall of Pharaoh’s palace!” The young slave realized this only too late, trapped between the trap and the trappers! Then a brilliant idea sprung into his mind….

“He’s just around this corner!” shouted the leader of the guards, laughingly, “You’d think after trying to escape three times he’d have learned his lesson!” But laughter turned to shock as they turned the corner to find that the missing slave had disappeared into thin air! “Where could he have gone?” They turned around in utter bafflement, wondering where he went.

“They’ll never find me here,” thought the slave, cunningly, watching with amusement as the royal guards searched everywhere for him. In pots, near windows, they even searched behind each other for him, without ever a clue where he really was. “All they had to do was look up,” he thought amusingly, watching the guard’s antics from on top of the palace wall. “This is my best escape plan yet,” he thought, as he jumped down in to the palace. He would hide in the very place he was escaping from!

Chapter 2: A few hours later….

“You fools!” cried Pharaoh, the famously cruel, handsome, brutal, and clever leader. User-Aa shouted at the guards after they had made their report. “How does a 13 year old boy slave, who can’t even read or write, outsmart fifteen of my strongest and bravest warriors? Do you want the Pharaoh of Egypt, ruler of the greatest empire in the world, son of the god Ra, to be shamed by a slave boy? Off with you and don’t come back until you have him!”

Unknown to either the guards or the pharaoh, the “ignorant slave boy” was behind a pillar laughing at the entire conversation. He was tall and thin, with many marks on his back from the years of slavery within User-Aa’s palace. He was also intelligent, kind, and often times angry at Pharaoh. He had been a slave as long as he could remember, and his name was Nedjes.   “Oh, those silly guards,” he thought, barely containing his laughter, “they will search all of Egypt before they search here.” With that thought, he slipped away into the depths of pharaoh’s palace…….

Chapter 3: A few months later

Nedjes had never been caught, even though they had searched for him for many days and nights. Finally, they decided to permanently increase the numbers of guards that were guarding the pharaoh’s palace, just in case another servant tried to escape….or an already escaped servant tried to get back in.

And that’s exactly why User-Aa had called court today, someone HAD managed to get in. “I want to know how exactly someone got past my guards, slinked into the very heart of the palace, and killed one of my most valuable nobles! The incident with the slave boy was bad enough, but this!” The nobles all mumbled different thoughts, ideas, and suggestions but no one was brave enough to say them loudly enough for the pharaoh to discern.

“I see you’re all very helpful, but I’ve already called a city wide search for this mysterious killer. And unless you want go and help them search every inch of Thebes, you are going to get back to work!” So saying, User-Aa slumped backwards into his throne, exhausted from that long speech of his. “And to think,” he practically whispered, with his hand sweeping out over the room, “all this, but a day from completion.”

“Sire!” yelled a messenger, who entered the room.

“What is it?” demanded User-Aa, grumpily.

“It’s the killer! He’s killed one of the other nobles who didn’t attend the meeting! This time he signed his work!” So saying, the messenger held up a piece of papyrus with bold letters on it saying, “Ra’s curse.”

“Ra’s curse?” roared User-Aa, “no Ra’s curse can stand up to the son of Ra! I want not only the royal guard, but the entire army searching for this imposter! I want them searching now!”

“Of course your majesty,” whispered the messenger hurriedly, and he rushed off to do the pharaoh’s bidding.

Chapter 4: Palace intrigue

“This time, I’m going to know for sure,” said Nedjes, who had never actually escaped from the palace, but had spent his time scavenging and stealing from the nobles. He was about to learn the truth about a mystery that had haunted him from day one.

He had often seen around the palace a mysterious girl, dressed poorly like himself with a mischievous look in her eye. She was always hiding in the most unexpected places, with big, smart eyes, and beautiful tanned skin, she was enigmatic. He could never find any record about her anywhere. “You can’t stop me this time!” he thought as he raced for this once in a lifetime event, access to the unguarded archives. He had seen all the guards running off to find someone called, “Ra’s curse.”

“You made a dire mistake leaving the archives unguarded this time, I’m sure.” After months of trying to find out who she was, he had almost come to see her as the enemy that was trying to stop him.

“At last, I’m in the archives!” He quickly began going through the scrolls. He had taught himself to read from stolen scrolls during his long stay at the palace. “Aha, here it is. Her name is ---.”

“Hey who left the archives open?” quickly Nedjes turned around and dashed out of the room before the guards could close the door.

Round 1 went to the mystery girl. He still had no idea who she was.

In the throne room, the pharaoh, User-Aa was worried. Two more nobles had been killed mysteriously by “Ra’s curse” and he was starting to be nervous. He had already sent over half of his guards to protect the remaining nobles, but it felt like nothing was helping him get closer to solving the crime.

“Has there been news about him, any news at all?” User-Aa demanded.

“No Sire, nothing we do seems to stop him, if anything, it seems like we’re helping him!”

“Idiot! I want this mystery person dead before the sun rises. If not, you won’t need his help to pass on to the next life! You know what’s at stake here! I must not fail!” howled the frustrated Pharaoh.

“Yes, Sire,” and the guard hurriedly left the room.

Chapter 5: Secrets unlocked

“Today’s the day!” said Nedjes quickly. He had never been in this particular room and today he was going to do it. For a good long time now he had heard constant hammering and working sounds in the room, all thoughts of the mystery girl were gone as he tried to get into the most guarded area in the palace

He quickly sized up the security guarding the room; ten guards, all clad head to toe in armor, a heavy wooden door that would take a battering ram to destroy, and who knows how many workers and other people on the inside. The boy realized that the only way in was to wait until the door was open and then rush through. He didn’t have to wait long before a scribe came out, looking worried and muttering over a piece of papyrus.

Nedjes quickly took his chance and lunged in the door before it was closed. What he saw astounded him. A massive workshop with hundreds of workers all making wooden parts for an unknown something, a dozen scribes drawing a diagram of the same something, and a bunch of guards watching the whole procedure from up high, on top of posts.

That’s when he saw her, his enemy, the mystery girl standing plain as day on the other side of the room.  He started running in her direction when he heard a trumpet. “Have they found me?” he thought worriedly, and he turned in the direction of the trumpet. It was Pharaoh, arriving to carry out an inspection. The boy turned to look at the girl again, but she was gone.

He then turned his attention back to User-Aa. “If Pharaoh is a god, he is a demon one,” muttered Nedjes under his breath.  Pharaoh was boasting about how powerful his army would be when he finished construction on whatever was going on in here.

“Just think,” he said, “when we’re finished with this project, we will have an unstoppable armada of soldiers! Ha!”

“How can he have an unstoppable armada of soldiers?” thought the boy worriedly. “What does he have that makes him so confident in his armies?”

“Display the weapon!” shouted Pharaoh gleefully to his soldiers. The boy gaped in openmouthed astonishment at the weapon.

It was a gigantic wooden frame, set on mighty stone wheels, and within the frame, there was a massive lever and a cup was at the end of the lever.

“Test the weapon!” shouted Pharaoh.

Nedjes watched curiously as they put a large stone in the cup. “Now why would they do that?” he thought. But what he saw next took his breath away. The soldiers pulled on a rope attached to the frame and the lever went up, throwing the rock through the air and through the door!

“They could crush anyone with that!” he whispered excitedly. Then a hand grabbed him.

Chapter 6: Show down

“What are you doing here?” a voice hissed into his ear. He twisted around to gaze astonished at the mystery girl!

“Who are you?” he asked confusedly. “I’m Neferet. I’m like you, an escapee from pharaoh’s palace who decided the best place to hide was IN pharaoh’s palace. I ask again, what you are doing here?” 

“I got curious, that’s all,” responded a slightly sarcastic, Nejdes.

“Well, you almost got yourself and me killed, follow me!” and so saying, she led him though a hidden passageway into the court yard.

“Are you crazy?” he hissed. “They’ll see us out here!”

“No they won’t, they are all inside or preparing for the celebration tomorrow.”

“What celebration,” queried Nedjes incredulously?

“The celebration when Pharaoh reveals his super weapon to the public. We can escape from 

Pharaoh’s palace forever during the festivities.”

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter 7: The surprise ending

“My people,” proclaimed Pharaoh User-Aa, proudly. “Today is the day, where I forever change the course of battles. Today, Egyptian supremacy is assured for a very long time. Soon, hundreds like this weapon that you see before you shall be on every battle field…on our side.  Shortly, every empire, barbarian raider, and puny kingdom shall bow before Egypt, and the catapult!”

So saying he had his guards wheel out the weapon, now named the catapult. The crowd started cheering wildly “User-Aa, User-Aa, User-Aa!!”

“Enjoy your cheap glory, Pharaoh, it will not last long!” shouted an intimidating voice from above.

Every person in the crowd outside Pharaoh’s palace looked up. There, on the roof, was an individual in a mask!

“I am Ra’s curse!” boomed the masked man. With that, he jumped from the roof, landed on his feet, and knocked out two guards.

User-Aa may have had someone do his work for him his whole life, but he was not lazy. He jumped up and ripped off the man’s mask. It was the general of his own army!

“Yes, it is I,” he laughed insanely. “I knew I could be a better pharaoh then you, so here I am!”

While all of this was happening, Nedjes and Neferet were running for their lives through the crowd, panting and sweating as a whole dozen or more guards chased them. “We’ll never make it,” she panted miserably.

“Yes, we will make it, all we have to do is get to that side alley and escape!” shouted Nedjes. Was it too late, he thought, then the biggest and strongest guard he had ever seen was now blocking their path.

“Not this time!” he yelled and rushed into the guard, blowing him over and running into the alley at top speed. They had escaped.

Meanwhile User-Aa and the general were locked in a grapple, each trying to push each other off the raised platform they were on. User-Aa at last succeeded and pushed the general on to the ground below them.

“I’d rather burn then work for you,” declared the general. Then his eye fell on the catapult, “yes, I shall burn, burn, BURN!!!” With that he ignited the catapult and threw himself onto it.

“No!” shouted User-aa. “Guards, save the catapult!”

But by the time they got there with water, the catapult and the general were ash.

“No,” wailed User-aa, “all that work, all that time spent, and now to start over! Why?”

“Sire?” said a guard timidly. “Should we send a patrol after those escaping slaves?”

“What’s the use? They deserved their escape,” and so saying, Pharaoh sat down, and wept.

The End

Historical author’s note -

For a historical novel, this book has very little base in reality, there was never, as far as my knowledge goes, a Pharaoh named User-Aa, the idea of hiding in pharaoh’s palace is ridiculous at best, and the catapult is just wrong and out of place, but it was cool and I enjoyed writing this book. So, if any historian out there is reading my book and then hitting his head on the nearest heavy object, I’m sorry.

Sincerely,

                    Krypto