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_ Chapter 5 _

the egyptian city Epharis 1554 B.C.

Tigersight was lead into the building. He slowly followed after Tinasious,all the time looking at the walls of the building, he hadn't thought it was possible for anything to be more grand that the buildings outside. Now that he was looking it in the face, he realized just how dead wrong he had been.

There were well dressed peasants everywhere, he could only tell because of how different they all looked. He only assumed this was so the evil man didn't have to look at theiratrociousclothing, while living in his glorious building.

As they made their way through a maze of palace, they passed through rooms larger than a regular sized house, into hallways hung with massive tapestries, upstairs and through countless doors. Quite a few of the rooms they pasted through didn't seem as if they had a purpose at all. Just from how long they had been in the building Tigersight imagined this whole building to be bigger than his village.

What disturbed Tigersight most was that, there was plenty of room in this one building for at least half if not more than half of all the people, from the outer city; and yet those rooms and spaces went completely empty and or filled with wasted fancy things, that this man probably couldn't even remember he had.

The guard's finally stopped at a pair of massive doors several times taller than Tigersight. They unbound his arms and legs. The doors began to open as if the people inside had known they were standing there even though the doors themselves were thicker than Tigersight's hand was long.

The guards drug Tigersight into the middle of a large room, with ten columns five on each side, as soon as they were about fifteen feet away from a large golden chair, which was designed to have a dragon breathing fire down the leg of the chair. Two of the three guards shoved Tigersight to his knees.

Sitting in the chair, was a rather young looking man, not much older looking than his own master Edgeclaw. The man had a very stern face, with an evil look of pure hatred, and scorn.

His skin was smooth and flawless it had a paleness to it that seemed to radiate evil power. As if this man had never seen pain, it was unnatural and frightening yet; it made Tigersight wonder how this man had gained so much power, without a single scar to prove his strength.

"And what the hell is this, thing doing in my palace!" the pharaoh angrily spat.

Tigersight thought his voice sounding like a sword meeting glass. This man, he assumed was the pharaoh; voice echoed in Tigersight's head leaving him feeling dizzy. But Tigersight was determined not to look weak in front of the man that had destroyed everything he had, and everybody he had loved; just on a whim.

The Guard that was standing to his left side spoke quietly and hesitantly like he was afraid of the man.

"This is the slave from the tribal expedition."

"The slave from the tribal expedition, amusing simply amusing..." pharaoh spoke softly and quietly, somehow Tigersight had enjoyed his voice more when he had been spitting fire for them being in his presence.

Pharaoh stood up and slowly walked down the three steps that had led to his chair. He walked up to the guard that had just spoken, and he circled around him, once repeating...

"The slave from the tribal expedition..." a thin smile appeared on his face, but somehow, this face seemed worse than any punishment he could have handed out at this point...

"Tinasious..."

"Yes? Your highness..."

"Exactly how many slaves was I expecting to get for the tribal expedition?" Pharaoh didn't look away from, the guard he had been slowly circling.

"Three hundred Sir..."

"Three hundred?"

"Yes that is correct Sir."

"Three hundred," this time his voice sounded if he was mulling over something in his mind.

"Tell me again, why this thing is in my throne room." Pharaoh paused looking directly into the guards eyes.

"This is the slave from the tribal expedition..."

"I'm sorry what, was that that thing you just said?"

The guard gulped, "This is the slave from the tribal expedition..."

"See I'm pretty sure you just used a singular word just there, meaning there is only one slave..."

The guard from Tigersight's right side interrupted "There was a big fire and..."

"Tinasious, was I just talking to him?"

"No, sir; you were not speaking to him." Tinasious pointed his chin a little higher, feeling a bit smug.

"So then why, is he speaking to me; and to me it sounds like he is making an excuse, please tell me I'm not crazy..."

"You're not crazy..."

"Actually that was a rhetorical question." Pharaoh glared at Tinasious then went back to the first guard that he had been questioning, as if he had never been interrupted.

"Now, tell me in your own words..." Pharaoh glared at both Tinasious and the second guard, "Why if I was expecting 300, slaves why I only got, say it with me... Wah"

"One?"

"One, slave; that's correct..."

"It's because we were out skilled?"

"No, I don't think that was the reason, I think it's really because you like making me angry."

"That's not..."

"How. Dare. You. Only. Bring. Me. One. Slave." Pharaoh began to yell directly in the guards face "Do I look like an idiot? Do I look like I enjoy having my buttons pressed? Well Do I?"

"No Sir, you don't..."

The fact that the guard had answered his angry ranting, seemed not only to confuse the Pharaoh, but he also quickly became really calm. As if none of the last five minutes had actually happened.

"Hmmm, well it would seem that you do have guts after all." Pharaoh shook his head for a second, then pointed the guard standing on Tigersight's right side then said "You kill him now. Kill this pathetic thing, this awful waste of space that dare, show his face to me.

The guard from Tigersight's right side walked quickly over to the guard on his left side pulled out a small dagger from his belt, and slit his throat. The guard dropped dead on the floor, a fellow guard; and he had done the act without and remorse, dignity, or hesitation.

"Why is this slave bleeding all over my throne room?" Pharaoh glared at Tinasious and the second guard, just as the three other guards from the expedition walked into the throne room.

The taller one was the first to speak.

"It's just a little blood..."

Pharaoh pinched the bridge of his nose, "Just a little blood; Just a little blood he says."

"Well somebody must be really interested in making me absolutely furious today!" Pharaoh said more to himself than anybody else.

"Tell, you what," he stopped pinching the bridge of his nose and walked over to the tallest man. "When there is just blood, in your lungs, and you; I don't know; start dying from it, at that point is it going to be 'Just Blood'?"

"No, sir it's not..."

"Right, so I think before you open you trap in front of me ever again... you had better make sure that it's not, JUST BLOOD!"

The guard took a step back, in fear. At least that was what Tigersight saw from his vantage point, low on the floor.

But Pharaoh was hell bent on letting the guard have all of his anger, and so Pharaoh further invaded his personal space, causing the guard to back up several more steps until the guard tripped over a small crevice in the tile flooring. At this moment Pharaoh pointed his scepter at the guard's throat and motioned for the guard to stand up again.

"Do you realize exactly what you have done wrong? This time all the anger had subsided from Pharaoh's voice, and he sounded no worse than the reprimandingof a small child, by their loving parent.

"I believe so..." the guard answered hesitantly this time.

Well you see if you look just outside of those windows; I'll show you exactly what you did wrong. See all the little people down there?

The guard stayed silent afraid to answer the question.

At the silence Pharaohs voice became rough with anger; but still nowhere near close to the yelling that had been going on earlier.

"Do. You. See. All the little people? Or are you blind?" Pharaoh's teeth gnashed together as if he had at least 50 times more rage than the violent amount he had already unleashed in the last twenty minutes.

The guard answered this time, "Yes, I can see them. I can't really make out...

"That's enough out of you I just wanted to know if you could see them."

With that they both walked back over to the center of the room where Tigersight was kneeling.

Pharaoh turned on a dime and was in the guard's personal space again.

"If you had to guess how many of those little tiny people would you say it took to make this particular room you're standing in?"

"Uh... um... a lot of them."

"Sadly you would be wrong... Do you want to know why you are wrong?

"No not really sir, it was a straightforward question I didn't think there could be a wrong answer."

"Ok, then." Pharaoh was still holding back his rage, his voice growing steadily rougher as the conversation drug out longer and longer. "The correct answer is none of them. It took about half of the current amount of slaves I have their hold lives to build just this one room." Pharaoh had a dangerously upbeat tone.

"Like these columns for example Many, many, gigantic bricks stacked and shaped to look like this. 3 years."

"That is quite impressive."

And do you want to know the extremely impressive part?

The guard had relaxed a little from the earlier yell, as if he had only been in a bad mood because of something that had happened prior to them walking in the room.

"Yes."

"He's bleeding all over my throne room."

Before the guard could answer, all the rage that Pharaoh had been surprising, came out in one extremely violent rush that had caused everybody in the room to jump.

"These tiles are irreplaceable! There is blood all over them! And they are ruined completely! Now every time I wish to enjoy my throne room! I have to be reminded of your Stupidity!!

"You cannot blame us for a slave covered in blood after all it was your rule to teach them a lesson before they got to you, so you didn't have to deal with their high spirited ways... those were your exact words." The guard scrambled for something anything, which would get him out of trouble. But the guard found nothing. So the guard looked down from Pharaoh his fear so great he could no longer maintain eye contact with him.

"Right... Yes, of course those were my exact words. I remember them completely; just like I remember telling that man right there, to kill his comrade." Pharaoh's voice still full of anger, seemed to beg for the guard to say something more.

The guard didn't even look over at the guard Pharaoh had pointed at. Instead the guard stood there, unmoving. A small whisper escaped the guard's lips, and then his face grew eerily clam, and blank. A few seconds later the only person who's face weren't blank were Tinasious, Tigersight, and the Pharaoh.

"I do believe that today has been full of quite a bit of disappointment Tinasious."

"Yes Sir, I agree completely."

"I simply cannot let these men go unpunished now can I?"

"No, of course not Sir."

"Well, what then do you believe the true answer to my predicament is?"

"It cannot be death sir? As much as I really enjoy your anger filled death sentences... Would it be better not to torture them, or mar them for life?" Tinasious all the while enjoying this conversation couldn't help but look at the five guards standing near him.

"Hmm, yes I believe you're right that is definitely the answer I'm looking for."

Really Sir? Tinasious seemed surprised by the turn of the conversation.

In a deathly calm voice Pharaoh's words echoed throughout the whole room, despite the fact of his yelling never made a sound more than the syllables escaping his lips.

"I want you all to kill yourselves without getting any more blood on my throne room floor."

At Pharaoh's command all five of the guard's that had been standing stiller than a statues began to suffocate themselves through various methods, each one crueler and sicker than the last. None of them left a spec of blood on the floor let alone drool. The same as it had been with the first guard that had slayed is comrade earlier not even an ounce of dignity nor fear, and hesitation stopped them from killing themselves.

As soon as the last body dropped to the ground, about thirty slaves ran into the room, variously dressed from the nice ones Tigersight had seen in the hall to the rags he had seen them wearing outside.

Ten of them paired together to drag the bodies out while the rest of them set to cleaning up all the blood that had been spilt all over the floor. There effortless pace, and over all speed... seemed to signal that they had done this many times in the past.

As soon as all the slaves had left, Pharaoh finally turned his attention to Tigersight.

"I'm dreadfully sorry you had to see all of that. It was a very rude way for us to meet. However I cannot allow people to think they can walk all over me and not be punished." The Pharaoh's voice still contained a hint of malice from when he had been talking to the guard.

Tigersight replied simply, holding back all his fear and remorse for the guards... who moments ago he himself had wished dead, but for various different reasons.

"Like I need your showy words and your nicety's I know who you are inside how evil you truly are. Why bother wasting you effort on me? It's not like you care at all what I think."

Pharaoh eyebrow rose at Tigersight's comment.

"Ahh, it seems from my little show, you have wised up completely. Coincidently you are right, I really don't care what you think, and in fact I don't even care what your friends think regardless of them being alive, or still burning to death at this very moment. You are here to serve me, and to do my bidding. You will work in my fields, or you will be mercilessly whipped and beaten. And if you displease me."

Pharaoh smiled a little and gestured to a spot of blood that the slaves had missed, near Tigersight's leg.

"Well you have seen what comes of it."