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.
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
