Monster Girl Encounter - Anubis Pt. 01

I pulled up my scarf. The wind over the dunes was picking up speed. A bad sign if I wanted to scout out anything. The wind brings the sand with it and if a full sandstorm rolled in, I would lose even more time.

My name is Shaiq Alamar, but it would be better if you didn't know me. I'm not good company.

I have dark black, destroyed hair, caramel skin, dark brown eyes, you know, someone who wouldn't stick out too much in a crowd and I prefer it that way. I was wrapped up in my usual gear. White full body suit with loose cloth, wraps around my face and a light blue scare around my mouth to shield from the wind and sand.

Let's not sugarcoat it or tiptoe around it... I'm a grave robber. I was far away from any civilization. Laws don't apply out here and nobody will be any wiser if some of our own, old forgotten gods and rulers are traveling a bit lighter in the afterlife. If only I'd known that I would find much more than just treasure that day.

I've been scouting for a while looking for valuable, promising targets. Something that'd get me through the month, maybe even several months. It's a hit or miss business.

And just as I was about to give up, as the wind hastened and the skies became blurry, I saw it: A temple-like structure reaching out of the ground and practically piercing the sky like a beacon in the night. It was more refreshing than any oasis could've been to me.

"There you are my sad little abandoned friend. Don't you worry, I only care about the beauty on your inside. No need to cover up with sand now. I'll be right over."

I jumped and slid down the slopes towards the ruin, closing in on its derelict, crumbling structure. It's design looked like nothing I'd ever recognize. Definitely none of the gods I knew had temples like this one. It was a piercing spire almost like the top of a pyramid, but just below the tip were 4 entrances into the interior.

I climbed the dust and sand-covered stone blocks to the top and examined the inside. From the four entrance ways, there was a spiral, rock staircase leading down into the buried depths. With the storm rolling in and the contrast of the bright light and the dark interior, I couldn't see squat. Only way to get a better image, was going inside. So that's exactly what I did.

I was more than happy to leave the scorching sun and the loose ground underneath my feet behind and looked forward to bringing home an easy haul. Anything that I could've gotten out of there would've sufficed. Hell, if need be, I'd have broken off a piece of rock from the structure itself and sold that. You would be surprised what benign shit people buy as long as long as it's "ancient and has a convincing mystic backstory to it".

The space around me grew darker as I descended. What little light there was, coming in from the hole in the ceiling was slowly dimming as I got further in. And once I was too far inside to run back up in time... I heard a loud rumbling sound as if an ancient mechanism had been activated. The last gusts of dusty wind blew through the cracks in the openings before they sealed shut.

"Great... booby-trapped. Alright, alright, absolute darkness but we can still make this work, buddy." I said, talking to the ruin. Trust me, if you don't personify SOMETHING in this line of work, you go insane before you know it.

I rummaged through a knapsack I had on my shoulder and searched for my flint so I could make some fire. But to my utter surprise, I didn't have to. With my hands still inside the bag, suddenly an array of bright orbs sprung to life from seemingly nowhere. Nowhere I could see at least.

Their warm orange light illuminated the sprawling inside of the tomb. I realized I was standing on a stairwell that led all the way down to the center of the room with several chambers extending from it. In the room beneath me, I saw several pedestals lined up in a circle around the end of the stairwell as if to greet entering visitors. All of them were lavishly decorated with rubies, sapphires and all sorts of gems and precious metals.

I picked up one of them, stunned by its beauty and craftsmanship. My mouth hung open in disbelief for several minutes as I stammered to myself, grabbing my head as I try to grasp what I just had found. "Holy f... this is... I'm rich! I'm fucking set for life." I stuffed my sack with every one of these little trinkets, ecstatic at the jackpot I struck. Of course, I was an idiot to think that things could ever go that smoothly.

"Just you wait... once I get you out of here I will..." The second I turned around, I was stunned to see a girl face to face with me. She had long, flowing black hair and sharp eyes which stared at me blankly. She was quivering and shyly spoke up before I could take in any other details beside her face. "I'm afraid this is going to hurt... sorry."

"Hurt? What are you..." SMACK

She slammed something against my temple with painful force. My face hit the ground, eyes slowly growing hazy, and as I heard muffled voices talk over my limp body, everything turned black.

I couldn't even tell how long I was out. The lights, making it seem like it was regular sunlight inside the tomb didn't help make it any more certain either. I wanted to touch the wound on the side of my head out of reflex as a thumping pain set in, but I couldn't. My hands were tied and locked around my back. 2 women stood at my side, making sure I would stay put, knelt down on the ground, and that I wasn't looking at them.

And it turned into a rude awakening of multiple kinds. I was in a throne room, high ceiling, lavishly decorated floors and walls adorned with gold and gems. At the far end, a high throne, and on it, a dark skinned, imposing woman, dressed in skimpy black leather wear and bandage-like wraps around her forearms and legs. Just like the temple itself, she decorated herself in golden jewelry. She had insanely long hair, pouring even down the seat of her throne, and a massive, red snake with menacing, piercing blue, kaleidoscopic eyes coiled around the entire throne itself like it was just another adornment.

Immediately, I knew I fucked up. I knew this was not just a regular woman. I had heard stories about them, but I never believed them. "...a Pharaoh. God. Fucking. Dammit." I muttered to myself.

The woman stared down at me. I could tell from the menacing aura, that she was beyond pissed.

I didn't want to stand the hostile silence any longer and took the risk of speaking up first. I cleared my throat. "Umm... your highness." I took a little bow and began talking in this beyond awkward situation. "So... I guess this temple is yours then? Nicely done with the decorations, really compliments your... snake." I chuckle, playfully addressing the golden snake statues on the columns of the room. Her eyes narrowed sharply, not being amused in the least.

"You know, fair play. You got me. If I had known these trinkets back there were still owned by someone I would have treated them with far more respect. I'm a very respectful guy you know. So now that that's sorted, why don't we leave this behind us. You got your trinkets back, you got a good hit on me, why not let me go and..."

"Quiet!" Her voice echoed in the room with deafening force behind it. With a furrowed brow and barely contained anger, she clasped a golden scepter and slapped it against her hand to manage her fury. "You have violated my private domain, you attempted to steal my belongings and now you insult me by playing it off as a joke!?"

"Not at all. This is just as serious to me as it is to you. Look, that I stumbled into your home of all places was pure coincidence. It could've happened to anybody. Be glad that it was me though, because I am perfectly willing to leave your treasures in your care and go home. No harm done."

"You've already done the harm you claim not to have caused. My kingdom has been ransacked before. Time and time again our treasures have been claimed by less than unworthy people and I refuse to let someone as incompetent and disrespectful as you get away with another flick on the wrist."

"Wohohoah! Maybe we shouldn't get too heated about this Miss... uh..."

"Pharaoh Cassiopeia and you better remember the name, Mortal! Hah, I can't believe that even out in the middle of nowhere I have to deal with your kind's insolence, coming into my kingdom when I didn't even ask for you. Well, since you were so desperate that you felt the need to come in here, why don't we keep you around a little longer. The exit to the outside won't open until dawn anyways. But maybe you can be useful even beyond that. Our grounds DO need to be maintained after all. Fatima!" She cocked her head, signaling someone behind me to step forward.

Finally I saw at least one of the two people who were standing behind me. It was another girl. It wasn't the one that knocked me out, but she looked eerily similar. Her hair was short, ending below her jawline and just as dark a tone of black. She was wearing a black leather bikini along with a blue, broad, decorated collar and magenta-colored, semi-transparent harem pants. Her hands and feet were like the black paws of a wolf with a black, bushy tail and sharp, pointed ears.

With a golden spear in hand and piercing eyes, she glared at me. Her look told me that I was a pest in her eyes. Nothing more than a cockroach waiting to be crushed. Seething hatred permeated her every pore. But before she spoke to me, she turned to her Pharaoh for guidance. "What should I do to him your highness?"

"We want to make sure he stays here and that he doesn't cause any more of a disturbance. This provides us with an opportunity to let Karima prove herself. Make sure he is bound to her and should he obey any of her commands, disturb our home or try to run away, he pays for it."

Fatima reeled back in surprise and protested. "Wait! My Pharaoh, I believe this scum will learn his lesson far sooner in my hands. You can't leave him to Karima, she's not ready!"

With all this talk going over my head, I chimed in. "Now hold your horses! I am not going to stay here! I haven't stolen anything! Let me go! I have much better things to do than to rot in this dusty, dark corpse dump. I have to get back!"

"Enough of your insults! You heard me, mortal! You will serve under Karima from now on. You fulfill your duties and I will let you go once you've redeemed yourself."

"Oh yeah? And who exactly is this Karima?" I asked provokingly, spitting in the face of her high and mighty pride and attitude.

But to my surprise, the answer to my question did not come from the Pharaoh, but rather from a timid, whisper-y voice behind me. "That umm... that would be me."

At that moment, a timid, reserved girl stepped forward. Her features were the same as Fatima's except for her luscious, much longer hair. Just like her, she held a spear in her hand but didn't seem intend on using it nor like she ever could or would be able to use it properly. Even though I was tied down and literally kneeling before her, she seemed to shrink in front of me. She was less... no scratch that... she was a LOT less imposing than her counterpart.

I turned around to the Pharaoh with an unsuppressed, smug smile on my face. "Well, I changed my mind. Please DO leave me in her care. I'm sure she'll be a great supervisor."

Noticing my smugness, Fatima snarled. "Your highness, Karima is nowhere near ready for this task! He's going to escape the second she turns his back to him!"

She knocked on the floor with her scepter, creating a deafening echo in the room. "QUIET! You're all giving me a headache here. Fatima, you should know that my word is law. If you have your doubts, so be it. Karima, I task you with overseeing our prisoner."

With trembling paws and her eyes flicking between me and Cassiopeia, she nodded vehemently. Probably to reassure herself that she could do this. "You won't regret it your highness. I know I've messed up before, but this time I'm confident I can handle it without incidents."

"I don't doubt that you can. Your sister is right about one thing though. We do not want him to escape before he has repented. Maybe you should handle this part as well. Bind him to you with a curse, Karima."

"Does it have to be a painful one?" She asked sheepishly.

"If he is supposed to feel the consequences of disobedience, it will have to be."

"As you wish." She downheartedly walked over to me with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, I know this is the second time today. I promise it won't hurt if you play along." She knelt down in front of me and... put her big soft paw on the top of my head while her concerned eyes met mine. They were a dark hazel brown color and as gentle as a soft breeze. I was skeptical of her, but it didn't feel like she enjoyed forcing me like this at least.

"We'll see. I'll be out of here sooner than you'll think." I taunted her but for some reason, she showed no hostility in return.

"I just hope you'll stay long enough so you won't have to suffer. Now hold still, please."

Karima closed her eyes as a dark, black cloud engulfed her arm, snaking down from her shoulder into her paw, seemingly seeping into my head even though I didn't feel the faintest thing besides her hand itself. It almost felt like she didn't do it correctly.

The clouds faded in the same order, first on her arm, then around my head. She smiled happily and petted my head one more time as she said "Thanks for your cooperation." Almost like a doctor after a child sat quietly through an examination.

"Uh... no problem. You're... you're welcome." For some reason, I felt the need to respond kindly to her. Even though she was with the people holding me here, I felt no anger towards her. I needed to clear my head. This was wrong. Was she toying with me?

After the so called curse was done, Fatima pulled her aside sternly. "Okay, Kari. He is your responsibility. Keep that in mind. Don't embarrass our family! Look, I know you can do this and I trust you but... please be careful, okay?" She spoke to her and it was clear immediately, that she was definitely the older sister. She put her arm on her sisters shoulder encouragingly before they both nodded at each other.

Then she turned to me and that prideful visage turned into a scowl. "And you... don't dare to mess with my sister or you're going to suffer much more than you can imagine. And certainly more lethal than a curse."

I shrugged. "Wow, I'm trembling in my boots. But sure, if it makes you sleep better. I won't even be around long enough to mess with her so you won't have to worry your cute little head about that."

Immediately I had a spear tip at my throat. "Don't you dare mock me, mortal!"

"Fatima!" And just as quickly, she was called back by Cassiopeia.

She grumbled and waved me off. "Take him away and put him to work, Kari. Don't mess this up again."

Karima shamefully hung her shoulders and nodded half-heartedly. "I won't, Fati. Not again." Before leading me out of the throne room.

And so I ended up as a groundskeeper for the tomb. Pointlessly sweeping the halls, as if sand wouldn't just cover them again, filling holes in the crumbling wall with mortar and most embarrassing, dusting off the artifact I came here to steal. Sometimes life gives you just the biggest middle finger.

I grit my teeth as I carried out meaningless task after meaningless task as Karima checked in on me every 10 minutes like clockwork, coming in with a schedule and a checklist to make sure that A) I did everything right and on time and B) That SHE did everything right and on time. I had gone through this routine for a couple of hours when she came in this time.

"Yes, yes, yes, this is looking good. Everything is perfectly in order. We're making great progress! The fittings look cleaner than they've ever been and the entry hall looks almost presentable. You have no idea how much of a favor you're doing us with your work, Shaiq."

I passive-aggressively threw my broom into the corner and scuffed. "It isn't exactly a favor if you're forced into it." I dejectedly looked up only to see the exit still closed off with an immovable set of stone doors.

She sighed as if she tried to empathize with me. "I know this is not the most ideal situation. The Pharaoh can't have made a good impression after how she treated you. But hey, as long as you're here, you don't have to traverse the sandstorm outside, you will get food if you need it and you'll be safe in here. Nothing gets in or out without my knowledge."

"Yeah, and it's the 'out' part that's bothering me right now."

Searching desperately for more positives, Karima fidgeted with her fingers. "Uh..uhmmm... I can't just let you out buuuuuut... the doors up there will open as soon as the storm has cleared. Which should only be in a few moments. Maybe the moonlight will calm your..."

Like clockwork, just as soon as she finished that thought, a loud rumbling shook the foundation of the ruin. The heavy stone tablets moved their heavy selves out of the way and let the natural blue light of the moon fill the entry hall.

My mind must've completely switched off, because at that moment, all I could think about was to escape. I left Karima behind dumbfounded as I mindlessly dashed up the stairs. "See you later, suckers! I'm off to go somewhere less dead!"

But just as I was about to disappear into the night...

"STOP!"

That one damn word, reverberated in my head like I was standing near a cannon going off. Immediately a sharp shock choked my brain, forcing my body to crumble and seize. I held my head as I fell down the few stairs I had made it up and directly into a mound of sand I had piled up before. I laid there, waiting for the pain to dissipate as Karima stood over me, anxiously clenching her spear.

"I...I need you to stay and obey my orders. I can't let you leave, no matter how much I want to. I have a lot riding on this. WE have a lot riding on this!"

As she finished her declaration, the pain faded and I was furious. "YOU have much to lose?! Yeah, because this is all about YOU! I found you by pure coincidence and you punish me like this for a crime I haven't even committed yet and was ready to make amends for!"

She fell silent, hanging her head in shame as I berated her. She didn't even attempt to respond.

"And what exactly do you want me to do? Stay here and polish your trinkets some more?" I picked up one of the artifacts from one of the pedestals demonstrating my point to her. I looked down at it and sighed in frustration. "I could've done so much more with this than you are. There are people out there, starving to death while this little thing here could've fed an entire city."

The trinket I held in my hands was a little statuette with the sign of weighing scale in white gold welded onto it. Just like all the other treasures it was beautifully decorated and gorgeous to look at, even more so, now that I had cleaned it.

Karima continued to solemnly watch me, not interfering even as I held one of her treasures in my hand. Maybe because she knew I couldn't escape anyways. "It's a beautiful little thing. It's sad it's going to be kept here, far away from anyone who could appreciate it. And it could be used for so much more... so much more..." I sighed, leaning with my back against the wall as I gently rubbed my thumb over the emblem.

Karima had no idea what to say but quietly joined me. She let out a long sigh before putting up the courage to ask me something. "I... know it's not my place to ask but... why DID you want to steal our treasures in the first place? You say over and over that they're wasted staying in here. What did you want to use them for?"

The question tickled another sigh out of me. "I'm from a town not far from here. A small one that you would probably miss on the way to the bigger cities. We live in the shadow of the deserts and apart from a few water springs, we don't have much but it's home. My parents... they laid the first stones of the foundation of the city at the order of our Sultan and labored away, wearing down their bodies until they were practically incapable to work anything anymore. With blood, sweat and tears they built our town... and now they're old, brittle and helpless. They were getting no help from the Vizier, not a single ounce of respect or reward."