Safeguards of Men

Those who Serve and Protect their Fellow Man

Fantasy equal: Horus

The journey from Greece has taken an age, yet you finally find yourself under the scorching Egyptian sun, on your way to Memphis to deliver an important message. The message was scribed by your master, Marcus Antonius, which is to be delivered to his lover and the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. You are nervous, since you know the message does not contain good news. Marcus is to lengthen his visit to Greece and shall not return to his queen for another several months. To deliver this message, however, is your duty and you must see it through.

Finally the fatigued camel enters the great sandstone walls of the Egyptian capital. You first make a stop at one of the Greek military guard posts. Here you quench your thirst and take a quick plunge at the local baths. You bath alone and quick.

In the distance you see her palace, glimmering white under the unforgiving gaze of the sun. As you approach the architectural marvel a guardsman asks you the purpose of your visit. With a quick scan of the eye he allows you entrance and guides you to the reception hall. All in the palace is forged and crafted from precious materials. Furniture made of ebony, gold and ivory. Great statues, intricately decorated with gems. Even her maidens are bejewelled and garlanded with gold and jewels. The whole palace smells of incense and you hear the exotic sounds of Egyptian musicians from corridors in various directions. This place is a feast for the senses.

You are delivered to the Queen. Her bewildering eyes seem filled with anger. This does not surprise you, since she was expecting another Greek. Women, of course, do not have a hold on you, yet you can understand why Mark has such strong feelings towards her... on a physical level. She exudes exotic sex appeal, power and majesty. You think few men would elude her magnetism.

She speaks... “I expected my Marcus to walk through those doors, not one of his feeble slaves! I demand to know where he is!”

Without saying a word, you hand her the scroll. She reads it... With each line read you can see the rage welling up in her eyes. “By the will of Isis, I shall have his head on a skewer! The whole of Greece if he does not return to me soon! Throw his slave in the dungeons! Markus can have him back once he returns,” she decrees.

Your heart sinks. You do not resist your arrest, for you know heads here fly as often as a day breaks here without a cloud in sight. Your breastplate is removed and disarmed in front of the queen. Covered only in rags you are led towards the dungeons. Where the one guard jerks at your left arm, the other leads you rather gently. The man to your left throws you into a gloomy cell before slamming the door behind you. There was no means of escape, your hands are bound, still is.

“Hemaka! See to it that our guest here rots with as much pain and despair as possible!” the one guard commands the other.

“As you wish,” Hemaka replies. Both Hemaka and the other guard disappear from your sight. You examine your new home. It is larger than the cells in Greece, just as dirty and musky, but far hotter and humid. You crawl to the darkest corner and make yourself as comfortable as possible.

It’s not long before Hemaka returns. He approaches your cell and whispers, “Worry not. I know this ordeal is not your doing. Our queen has no respect for Greeks, not even her own people, to be honest. I shall see to it that you escape, but it shall take time, since we have to wait when fewer guards are on patrol.”

You respond, “Why would you help a Greek messenger? I do not have riches and influence like my master and will not be able to repay you. Furthermore I thought you Egyptians despise us?”

“I do not despise the Greeks. They have done me a great honour, of which I will tell you later,” says Hemaka. “Here, let me cut your bonds as a token, proof of my will to help you escape,”

You do not trust the Egyptian, but being released from your bonds shows no harm. You lift your weary body from the dirt and walk over to the door where Hemaka stands. He does as he promised and afterwards hands you a couple of pomegranates.

“Keep that for when your hunger is at its worst. They’re from a tree in my garden. Quite juicy, so it would quench your thirst somewhat as well. My shift is over. I need to go,” he says.

He disappears from your sight. You do not know what to make of this character. He seems sincere enough. An attempt to escape is also worth your while, since you are to die in this place and with an ally on your side, you might just be able to break out. You eat the pomegranates straight away. The rats will get to it if you were to keep it for later anyways.

Several days come to pass. During this time Hemaka has provided you with all kinds of local food; salted fish, ostrich steaks, figs and lettuce, amongst other things. He is a skilled smuggler. None of the other guards or prisoners has noticed the special care he has given you. Also once when one of the guards wished to have a bit of fun with you, Hemaka swayed him from touching you by means of a little bluffing. You doubt Mark Anthony would have their heads if they were to harm you, yet it worked, since none of the guards ever laid a finger on you.

You two are not able to exchange words in fear of the guards and prisoners noticing the developing friendship, yet you have been communicating by means of written words. Hemaka has given you a bottle of ink and a feather. And since your imprisonment you have exchanged stories, beliefs and personal information over multiple parchments of papyrus.

You have learnt his sister was abducted by a young physician to use in his quest of gaining knowledge of the human anatomy. He would have cut her open and mutilated her if it was not for a Greek soldier who saved her from the physician’s clutches. He set her free, unscathed and untouched. For that he’ll always be grateful to the Greeks. Helping you would be a means of repayment

You have started to grow fond of Hemaka. You’ve learned from his words and actions that he is an honourable man, the salt earth. His character is resourceful, cunning, intelligent and rather pleasant. Hemaka is also a devout worshipper of the Egyptian God, Horus, whom is the son of Isis and Egypt’s protector from the malevolent God, Seth. Quite a fitting god to worship, you think to yourself. Furthermore you quite enjoy the looks of him as well. He looks like most Egyptians; slim, dark hair and dark eyes. He has a boyish charm and you melt away at the glance of his twinkling eyes and brilliant smile.

Finally the night of your escape is nigh. Hemaka hurries towards your cell. This time he whispers once more instead of exchanging parchments of papyrus. “Mark Anthony has arrived and most of the guard has been summoned for his welcome. Now is our chance to get you out of here.”

With that said, Hemaka unlocks and opens your cell door. He shrouds you in dark linen to veil you from hostile eyes. You are led outside, where you welcome the fresher night air. You don’t travel far before you are forced into a small clay house.

“Stay here,” Hemaka says. “Make yourself at home, but don’t let anyone enter. I shall return as soon as I can.”

You do just that. A couple of hours pass, sitting there alone in the dark. With the passing of every moment you grow more worried. What if Hemaka is suspected of your escape? Finally he arrives. He enters smiling.

“All has gone well. I have told the other guards that Mark Anthony demands your release. There’s no real record of your imprisonment, I’ve taken care of that,” he says. “All that needs to be done is to plan your return to Greece, which should be easy enough as long as you avoid the city guard and reunite with your kin at their outposts.”

You well up with joy and embrace your saviour. He laughs and returns the gesture. After a somewhat awkward silence, he moves towards the back of his house where you think he signals that you should follow. It seems his house is situated in the corner of the foot of a cliff. You think it to be rather dangerous, but he says there has never been a rock slide from this cliff. His neighbour’s house has no windows overlooking Hemaka’s little sanctuary at the back of his house.

The Egyptian starts a fire, which lights up his sanctuary. You are rather surprised at what you see. The fire is set alight at the heart of the sanctuary. To the far, right-hand side grows several pomegranate trees, with a patch of chickpeas and lettuce falling under their shadows during the day. To the left is a well and what seems to be a great basin of stone. What strikes you most, however are the lights and shadows dancing on an identical pair of great statues carved from the stone of the cliff. The statues are of a naked man with the head of a falcon. Hieroglyphics have been engraved on the surface of the stone in between the two statues. The craftsmanship of the wall along with the statues is absolutely astounding.

Hemaka mentions you are looking at his workmanship, as he fills the large basin with water from the well using one of those clever irrigation machines. After several moments of trying to decipher the hieroglyphics, he lifts you up from the dirt and throws you into the basin, much to your surprise.

“Finally! Soon you won’t smell like a sewer rat any longer!” Hemaka exclaims as he laughs. You hurl yourself out of the water, grab Hemaka around his waist and let him topple over you as you both plummet into the water.

“Calling me a sewer rat”, you say, chuckling to yourself. A wet Hemaka smiles at you before getting to his feet to remove his guard garb. You wish to watch, but feel ashamed to do so. The attraction between the two of you is so obvious, yet you still are unsure. Rather play it safe, for now hopefully.

From a quick glance you notice Hemaka is quite hairy beneath his clothes. His chest is covered with a brush of coarse, black hair. So too his forearms, armpits, stomach and beyond towards his pubic area. Finally he removes the loin cloth that covers his blade and pommel gems. Your attention now is fixed on him. He doesn’t give you much time to marvel at his equipment before he descends into the water once more.

“Your turn”, says Hemaka. He finds it hard to hide a devilish grin. As you prepare to ascend from the water you notice that it may not be such a good idea, as someone might lose an eye from your newly extended blade. You hesitate. Soon you build up enough courage to ascend from the water in your full glory. Without making eye contact you remove the rags from your body and descend into the water before glancing at Hemaka once more. Now his devilish grin is obvious. He pulls himself forward and takes your right hand and places it on his now extended blade to reassure you all now are good and safe.

Once again we leave the rest of the story up to your imagination, :). Hemaka is a follower of Horus, whom is an Ancient Egyptian god who protects Egypt from the evil God of Destruction, Seth. Thus this collection is inspired by Hemaka and his God; those who serve and protect their fellow man.

"Horus was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from Set, the god of the desert, storms and chaos.
Since he was god of the sky, Horus became depicted as a falcon, or as a falcon-headed man, leading to Horus' name, (in Egyptian, Heru), which meant The distant one. As falcon he may be shown on the Narmer Palette dating from the time of unification of upper and lower Egypt. Horus was also sometimes known as Nekheny (meaning falcon), although it has been proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), that became identified as Horus very early on. He was married to Hathor, the god of love. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus