Chapter Text
It was already evening and with the dawn came the time for Presley to head home. He had already started packing his bag, while Armon stored away the training equipment. The Warrior rolled his shoulder and a quiet whimper escaped his mouth.
»Not long, my prince, and I will need to go way harder on you in order to not get beaten up. You nearly dislocated my shoulder today. Which would be a shame, cause it is my last one left«, he chuckled
«Perhaps you are getting old, Armon« Presley giggled, his voice cracking a bit.
»Get to my age and we can start talking about that! «
»You’re 3500 years old. I doubt that I will discuss anything when I am that age.«
Presley shouldered his bag pack and turned around to say his goodbye to Rath. The Tutor was staring at this thing he found recently for over half an hour now and for a second, Presley thought, Rath had not heard him. But he was wrong.
»Rapses, wait! « Rath shouted from the other room. Presley stopped in his tracks.
»Can his highness please check if my package has arrived and give me a call? «
»Sure. But while we are at it: you seriously need to stop sending stuff to my home address, Rath! We talked about this and Mum is already very suspicious. Get a P.O. box already, so that I can stop to find silly excuses. I worry that she thinks I hide stacks of porn under my bed, cause she does not see anything added to my collections.«
»Pornography would not be an unheard thing to read for a young man your age. «
»Oh my fucking God, Rath! Will you stop that? The fact that I am 16 does not mean that I jerk off all day. «
Rath poked his head out of his science chamber and squinted his eyes at his young student. Presley had a sudden urge to flee the Sphinx.
»There lies no shame in manly urges, my prince. It shows that you are healthy and probably capable of producing an heir. «
Presley went all shades of red and started running towards the door to the tunnel that went outside. He mumbled something undistinguishable on his way out. A baffled Rath stared at him questioningly. Armon looked at his slender friend, visibly amused.
»What did I say to deserve this reaction? «
Now Armon straight up started laughing, but he had mercy with Rath and told him, »For starters: the prince is not too keen on discussing his wet dreams with his teacher, I guess. This country is rather … stiff when it comes to the matters of love. You would know that, would you consume more television or go out once in a while. «
»Pfff. Dumb is, what this country is. How is talking about the pleasures of intimacy and the blessing of fertility frowned upon? How marveling at the human form sinful? I will never understand that, no matter how hard I try. «
»I do not get it either, but I can understand, that the prince is, in this society at least, too young to be confident about this theme. And if I can respect this boundary, how silly I may ever find it, so can you. «
Armon stretched his muscular body, wrapped in bandages once more and yawned. Rath’s face expression was still frozen in a form of surprise.
»What? « asked the warrior.
Rath sighed, »I just wonder: when did it happen that you are the sensitive one, and I am stumbling around and making Presley feel uncomfortable.«
»For starters: you should socialize more. You are in this room for hours on end and we hardly see you these days. I sometimes ask doubt that you sleep at all.«
Rath expression hardened. His brows drew together and his lip built a small line. Armon knew very well that it was important work, that he was doing there and that he couldn’t rest until he finally solved this issue that made their duty so difficult in this modern world.
»I have to find a solution to this problem with our bodies and I also need to get our disguises notched up. Not long and the prince is out of school and he might move places and we need to blend in somewhere else. How do you see yourself getting a flat, or a ticket for a flight, if we need to follow the prince somewhere, when we cannot get some ID because one sees we are dead meat walking from a mile away? «
»It has worked enough so far, hasn’t it? We even got hired like this. «
»Making Food Deliveries for Beefy Burger will not pay the rent of a flat in another city. Some of the universities the young prince is interested in, are in areas that are expensive. Magic can only get us that far. «
The bigger Mummy walked towards his friend who troubled himself with the problems of all of them and this obsession of his to find a solution all by himself. Sometimes Rath seemed to forget, that they were a team and that all of them were working on making it here. He stopped at arm’s length and laid his hand on Rath’s shoulder.
»You will find no nothing if you do not rest, old friend and you have to have faith, that the gods that are with us, will help us figure that out. We live here for so many years already, have overcome so many hurdles. We will find a solution for this too. Together, yes? «
Armon felt, that some tension left the other guardians shoulder. They looked at each other. Friends through life and death and back. Armon was right. Rath exhaled some breath that he probably didn’t need anyways (it just felt so natural to breathe and no one of them had ever tested out what happened, if they stopped doing it for a prolonged period of time).
»I hear the sense in your words. Fine. Just give me one more hour to finish this round with the new artefact I am testing, then I will rest. I promise to be in my sarcophagus before Ja’kal ends his shift. Nefertina is on duty tomorrow so I can take a second resting period over the day. «
Armon was pleased with himself. He got better in calming down the scribe each day.
»That’s the spirit. Remember: You are no good to your prince if your armor dissipates during a fight against Scarab and his minions because you refused to recharge your energy. That is the kind of dead we want to avoid. «