Serial Fiction: Astral Testament

Episode Two: The Crypt of Hanan, Part 1

1

The sun shone brightly against the silky black hair of a beautiful, young Egyptian woman with stunning eyes outlined by the artfully applied dark kohl eyeliner and creamy olive skin stood. She imperiously on the deck of an Egyptian galley cradling a long staff with the head of an ibis carved at the top. Her elegant low-cut white cotton dress exposed her ample cleavage under much of her smooth plump breasts under a bronze jeweled wesekh. She sniffed the salted air floating along the cool breeze of the sun-brightened day and stroked the wesekh sensually as the ship drew into port at Tyre. She watched the bustling activity of seamen and merchants on the shore with wonder. “I have not been here since I was, what, 7 or 8? years old!” she thought. “What a place!” The smells and sights all came rushing back to her with fond memories. Always the explorer and seeker of new experiences, knowledge, and trade, Tetisheri recalled exposure to Canaanite traders, scholars, and thinkers and smiled. Her memories of the aromas of Tyre were much better than the smells of the first mate's cabin, though he was quite accomplished at guiding the ship to port. She glanced at the squawking of her ibis Dewey perched on a ship mast near the first mate’s ear and almost burst out laughing. He was trying to give the first mate pointers in his usual Ibis way. “Good thing the first mate didn't speak Egyptian or the poor man's ego may have been crushed,” she thought. “Isis help us if Thoth ever deigns to teach Dewey other languages.”