YGO Drabble Challenge [#34, Generation] Meskhenet
Challenge Name and Number: Generation, #034
Drabble Title: Meskhenet
Word Count: 275
"This girl was born without a Ka," said the priestess.
The child lay in his wife's arms, unmoving. No tinge of vitality graced her cheeks, no personality was there to wiggle her fingers or fill her eyes with curiosity. She breathed, she ate, her heart beat freely; she was living, and yet so clearly not alive. He had called for a priestess of Meskhenet from the temple in Shedyet the moment they had realized something was wrong their colorless child.
The priestess had arrived several weeks later, dawdling as she would for a small-time landowner like him with no political standing, with a cart of offerings for purchase in tow. He had hurried his sons into the sleeping room when he'd seen her sneer at the ass grazing on the front lawn. He could see them peeking around the corner, dark eyes wide.
"What do we do?"
He caught a leer from her, before she spoke again. "For those who have enough greatness in their hearts, an offering can be made to Meshkenet, in prayer that she will give the girl a Ka even now."
Money. The greatness of his heart meant only the amount he could pay the temple. The last inundation had come early, before they had had time to finish the harvest. He had not been able to afford the extra hands, when taxes were higher to pay for the war and his wife had been unable to work. And so they had earned less this year than the year before. They could not plant the same acreage. They would earn even less. The taxes remained the same.
"What does Meskhenet ask?"
Drabble Title: Meskhenet
Word Count: 275
"This girl was born without a Ka," said the priestess.
The child lay in his wife's arms, unmoving. No tinge of vitality graced her cheeks, no personality was there to wiggle her fingers or fill her eyes with curiosity. She breathed, she ate, her heart beat freely; she was living, and yet so clearly not alive. He had called for a priestess of Meskhenet from the temple in Shedyet the moment they had realized something was wrong their colorless child.
The priestess had arrived several weeks later, dawdling as she would for a small-time landowner like him with no political standing, with a cart of offerings for purchase in tow. He had hurried his sons into the sleeping room when he'd seen her sneer at the ass grazing on the front lawn. He could see them peeking around the corner, dark eyes wide.
"What do we do?"
He caught a leer from her, before she spoke again. "For those who have enough greatness in their hearts, an offering can be made to Meshkenet, in prayer that she will give the girl a Ka even now."
Money. The greatness of his heart meant only the amount he could pay the temple. The last inundation had come early, before they had had time to finish the harvest. He had not been able to afford the extra hands, when taxes were higher to pay for the war and his wife had been unable to work. And so they had earned less this year than the year before. They could not plant the same acreage. They would earn even less. The taxes remained the same.
"What does Meskhenet ask?"