It was quiet and cool in the caves under the sand. Djehuti-thoth had found evidence that he and his young friend were not the first to live there, but the previous owners of the place had deserted it long ago. Deserted the desert... Oh dear, was that a pun? That scamp Bisu was rubbing off on him. Thoth never used to think in puns. The Imeut shook his head and went back to organizing his library.
Most of the caverns, the driest ones anyway, were now dedicated to housing his vast collection of tomes, scrolls and anything else with writing on it. There were a few caverns that were too damp to be safe for his collection, but those caverns were what made this place habitable. There was a network of underground streams and pools in this cave system, flowing with fresh water. There wasn’t enough there for even a small village, but there was plenty for a lone archeologist and his young ward.
As he arranged a stack of scrolls on a shelf carved into the stone, Thoth’s mind kept wandering back to Bisu. Then, he suddenly realized why. It was quiet in the cavern... much to quiet for this time of day. Bisu usually spent these hours clambering about, shouting and playing games or constantly asking Thoth questions about whatever popped into his head. After a few hours of this, he usually climbed onto the Imeut’s back and was dead asleep within moments. However, Bisu wasn’t there. Neither was Thoth’s faithful little insect assistant, Ka.
Thoth was about to drop what he was doing to go search for them both, when Ka zipped into the room. The beetle sent off a rabid series of images which it took the Imeut a few moments to intemperate. Once he had deciphered the scarab’s message, he quickly knocked the dust off his fur and headed for the cave entrance. He was going to have to have a talk with Bisu later about chatting with strangers.
~~~
Bisu led the group up to the entrance, where he saw Thoth waiting for them. Uh-oh... he was going to be in trouble. He hoped their visitors had something exciting enough to make his guardian forget to lecture him later.
Putting a silly grin on his face and pretending as if nothing was wrong, the little Drakel scurried over to the Imeut and climbed up to his shoulders. There he perched, for all the world like a young raja on his favorite elephant.
“I bringed some peoples, Tey say tey has a ting ta show ya Mr. Fluffles.”{4}[1]
(ooc: Finally bringing in Thoth, I’m sorry it took so long for a reply. The first week of school ate me. Pima, you’ll need to pm me whatever info you want Thoth to be able to tell them about the asp and whatnot.)