“Oh dear, you stepped all over my sand drawing…” Keket said to the soldiers who stepped on the head of her drawing. “It took me five days to finish this, the wind kept messing it up.” She said sadly.

“Is this the smyt village?” One of the soldiers grunted. Keket raised her eyes, keeping her head still cast down so her black bangs covered her dark blue eyes.

“Why yes it is, sir.” She said going back to drawing her picture. The soldiers continued walking towards the mud houses in the distance. “However it would be best to wait another hour. We are having Amun punished.”

“And what exactly is he being punished for?”

“He stole from Bakari’s family.” She said and raised her head as far as she could without showing her eyes. “We’re cutting his hands off.” She smiled slightly.

“Why do you keep your bangs so long don’t they get in your eyes?” Keket looked up at the carriage where the voice came from. Her eyes rested on a small boy that looked about her age, he was wearing a nice white robe that ended inches above his knees, and he was also wearing gold arm bands and several gold necklaces. His chestnut brown hair looked unusual considering most people in Egypt had black or dark brown, his eyes were quit unusual for they were so black they looked blue.

Interesting…

“Well?” He asked impatiently, leaning out further.

“It’s so no one can see my eyes…” She trailed of. Though like most Egyptians, Keket had tanned skin and black hair, she was born with blue eyes. The ‘evil’ eye. So her mother had told her to avoid eye contact with strangers, especially when she was alone.

“Why would you want to do that?” He asked. She opened her mouth but before she could answer, he was pulled back in the carriage and out of her sight.

“…You are here to see the tailor, for the little prince’s clothes…?” She said standing up and brushing sand of her dress. “I’ll take you.” She sighed and started walking to the head of the group.

She lead the group down many twist and turns through a maze like city, since the town square was out of use currently they had to take the long way. While on the way, Keket stopped in an ally making one of the guards nearly bump in to her. She glanced at them and pointed to house covered in dust and sand. It was squished between the back of two buildings and had ripped pieces of faded red cloth hung over the top three rows of windows blocking what little light could reach the building.

“We’re getting Sudi’s clothes from someone who lives here?” She heard the little boy from earlier yell from his carriage. She stood there with her hands clasped behind her back as she waited for them do lower the carriages and bring out the passengers. The little boy from before jumped out of the carriage before they had completely lowered it, and was soon followed by and old man with white hair stand out and walk over to him. He was shorter than most of the people standing in the dusty ally, only standing a 5’4, but besides that he looked like any other old man in Egypt.

“I expect you to behave, Seth and no talking to any one.” He said to Seth.

“Yes father.” He mumbled and glanced at Keket. One of the guards coughed and glared at the small girl standing by the door, signaling her to go inside before the passengers in the gold carriage stepped out. She turned around and was followed inside by 2 guards, Seth and his father.

“Ahem.” She coughed trying to get the old man, who sat on a stool sewing some purple silk garment, to look at her. “You should really get some better lighting, these candles are staring to blow them selves out.” She said looking around at the hundreds of candles lighting the room.

“Mousy I see you’ve brought the little prince here, Nkosi is upstairs, he came to get his mothers dress.” He said not lifting his eyes from the clothes.

Keket threw a glance at Seth rocking on her heels nervously, but slowly walked up the stairs after receiving several glares from the people in the room. She crept on the stone stairs and peeked over the corner scanning the small room for Nkosi.

“Nkosi…” She said nervously. “Are you here?”

“Boo!” Someone yelled and grabbed her shoulders. Keket screeched and jumped out of his grasp, nearly knocking over a large potted plant.

“Nkosi! You evil brat! That was mean!” She said angrily, her shoulders hunched up. “You know how annoying you are?” She seethed pushing his laughing figure to the ground. Nkosi finding her anger hilarious, rolled don the ground in side splitting laughter.

“So Keky, what brings you here?” He said as he wiped a tear from his black eyes. He slowly got up and walked over to her with a goofy grin plastered on his face. Keket glanced down the small steps before answering.

“I showed them here, so they could get the little prince’s cloths…” She trailed of, once again rocking on her heels which has become a nervous habit. Nkosi’s smile faded into a look of curiosity. Slowly with out drawing attention from Keket, who was gazing out the window, he crept over to stone stair case and was several steps down before he voiced his question.

“So the little prince’s here, is he?” He asked, pressing him against the mud wall of the stair wall.

“Yes.” She said absent mindedly.

“Suppose then the pharaoh here too.” He mused as a devilish grin spread across his face. Keket finally snapping out of her daze, scrambled over to Nkosi nearly knocking him over as she grabbed on to him.

“Are you crazy?! You know you can’t steal from the pharaoh, you can’t even steal and apple from a merchant!” She whispered harshly, dragging him up the stairs. “And you know how protective the pharaoh is of the little prince, he doesn’t let people like us see him.” She dragged him over to a rug and threw him to the ground, he opened his mouth to yell at her when they heard a small gasp behind them. The turned to find a little boy who appeared only a few years younger than them.

“Ummmm….I...ummmm.” The little boy said nervously glancing back and forth. Nkosi looked nervously at Keket expecting her to freak at the small prince that stood before him. She did freak but not it the way he thought she would.

“On my Ra! You’re so adorable!” She squealed running up to him and squeezing him and nearly lifting him of the floor.

“Ah, Keket I think you killing him….” He said walking towards them giving her a weird look. The little prince looked nearly scared out of his wits. “Put him down.” Nkosi sighed putting his hand on her shoulder, she sighed sadly but complied.

“My names Keket and that’s Nkosi. He’s mean don’t listen to a word he says.” He looked at them still a little nervous , still getting used to being around people.

“My names….My names-“

“Prince get down here now! The pharaoh will notice you’re gone.” She heard that Seth boy whisper harshly up the stairs. He ran down the stairs and the two could see them leaving through the window. Unaware of the dangers that awaited them in the desert.