Prompt#284 - Sphinx – Winds Howl Like Pain - Tekia - Original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Winds Howl Like Pain.
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Sphinx
Warnings: none
Rating: G
Summary: Jacky and Mata’ka’ala come face to face with another god, but one unlike any they have faced before.
Night had fallen over the city, leaving it in blue shadow, with only the small glows of windows breaking the stillness. Jacky frowned down at the city slowly ebbing toward sleep, a wrinkle between his brows as he waited. He worried his bottom lip, teeth biting and distracting him from the chill that was creeping over his bare legs. Night in the desert was cold, and he really wished he had brought a fur or blanket with him.
Mata’ka’ala was supposed to have come to him at dusk, but dusk had long since passed and still Jacky waited. Mata’ka’ala hadn’t told him what to do if he didn’t show. Mata’ka’ala had never not shown. He had always been there for Jacky, and this moment, this still, stolen moment, made Jacky’s skin crawl. He clenched his fists tightly and bit down harder on his lip.
He shouldn’t be like this. He shouldn’t be so dependent on one man. Once, he had lived by himself, put himself through college and even dared to take a plane into a foreign country where he didn’t know the culture all on his own. Now he couldn’t even make the short journey from city to country without having Mata’ka’ala hold his hand, like a child.
He snorted and muttered under his breath, “This is your fault.”
There was not a response, but then again, he hadn’t really expected there to be one. Sometimes, it felt as if he were unworthy of the god’s attention, a mere host, nothing more. He cursed softly and pulled back into shadows as a pair of guards appeared down the street from him.
Then he cursed again when they started in his direction. With his back pressed to the wall, he edged away, slipping through a small door and into the wilderness beyond the city.
Wilderness. It was empty desert as far as he could see, which was quite far, considering the time of night it was. Stars filled the sky with their soft light, and the moon wasn’t full, but it was bright where it hung heavily in the sky. Then a dog bayed, and he shivered. Yeah, wilderness.
He could hear the scuff of sandal on stone behind him and he quickly stepped away from the door and further away from Mata’ka’ala. Something twisted in his gut, but he refused to acknowledge it. Mata’ka’ala wouldn’t have done anything stupid. He wouldn’t have gotten himself hurt. He was fine, Jacky assured himself as his feet kept walking, cracking the hard sand underfoot. Mata’ka’ala was a great warrior and a god. There was no way that he could have gotten injured.
Impossible.
But then again, so had been Suppiluliuma.
Suppiluliuma had been an old man.
Suppiluliuma had been the living god king.
He shook his head, hoping to shake out those thoughts, but what else was there to think about when Mata’ka’ala wasn’t beside him? The wind was harsher out here, and it picked up the sand, blasting it against his unprotected arms and face. Another dog howled.
He couldn’t tell from which direction the howl was coming from, but something made him turn to his left until he was well away from the faint black glow of the river. His legs felt the strain of moving uphill, even though he couldn’t see the hill he was on.
Then, quite suddenly, his way was blocked by a massive stone. He froze in his tracks, his blood suddenly pumping quickly under his skin and the god inside him expanding until it felt like he was going to burst. He clutched at himself, in fright rather than cold now, and tried to make out the shadows cast by the moon. Then he gaped.
It did have a nose, once upon a time. A small nose, making him think of a woman’s face, and he remembered the debates about whose face it had been modeled after. A woman after all, he thought.
The sphinx’s chin rested on the sand, large eyes gazing out at nothing, faint yellow and blue paint still visible despite the neglect. Something about the beast called to the god inside Jacky, and before he even realized he was moving, his hand was reaching out to rest on the smooth stone lip.
Unsurprisingly, the stone was warm, and Jacky’s body fell against the stone, seeking anything to warm him. He closed his eyes and let the god take him, unwilling to fight now that Mata’ka’ala wasn’t there with him.
And then he was, large hand wrapping around his upper arm and pulling him away.
“Come, Telepinu, we must hurry away.”
Sleep crept away slowly, and Jacky blinked up at his companion. His mind was muddled and it took a moment to remember they were supposed to be fleeing for their lives.
“What happened?”
“We won’t be followed.” His jaw was clenched and his hand on Jacky’s arm was beginning to hurt, but Jacky merely nodded. He really didn’t want to know. He cast a quick glance back at the face of the sphinx and bit his lip again.
Had that been another god calling to him? Did Mata’ka’ala feel it too?
Quickly, he turned back and opened his mouth to ask, but the answer was on Mata’ka’ala’s face. He was glaring at the statue, lips a pale, thin line. After studying his face a moment, Jacky finally asked, “What do you know?”
Mata’ka’ala blinked as if coming awake from his own dreamlike state and looked down at Jacky. “Ssp-anx are our kin. Where we live, they guard. They watch over us, forever.”
Jacky tried not to think about the many sphinx statues he had seen desecrated and forgotten over the years. Worn away by wind, rain, sand and time. Their kin? Forever?
Only until someone forgot about them.
He had a feeling it was the same way for the living gods such as themselves. The people of Hattusa were scattered to the four winds, within a thousand years they will forget their ancestry and their culture. The fourth great empire of the ancient world will be forgotten like a dream upon waking.
Then what was going to happen to them?