Her Emerald Eyes

Prologue: Dreams & Gods

Three weeks ago...

He was dreaming. He was sure of that. He knew, because he had had this dream many times before. Joseph was standing on an open flat plain. It looked like it went on into eternity, with no sun or moon, or any other heavenly object, to show Joseph the separation between the earth and the starless sky above.

Joseph shifted his feet on the ground below him with his toes. He curled them in and out, feeling the sand beneath his feet. It was so smooth, and was cool to the touch, but at the same time, Joseph felt that he didn't sense it, but was just grasping with his feet through the nothingness of this world that surrounded him.

The terrain was completely void of life. No plants grew, as far as he could tell, on this endless expanse. No creature stirred here, and there was no movements as far as the eye could see. Except for one thing.

He had to squint his dark eyes to see a figure coming towards him, far from where he stood. As it came closer, it became apparent that it was running, gracefully, as if its body was one fluid motion. It was a large cat, a leopard, racing over the continual field that surrounded them.

Joseph couldn't run, not that he wanted too. He knew there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape too. He just stood there, waiting for his inevitable fate. Time slowed as the Leopard came closer to him, and he could see it with perfect vision, even though there was no light in this world. Its eyes were bright golden orbs, like two moons shining forth out of its sockets. The Leopard's chest heaved in and out, taking in breath as it closed the distance between the two. Its fur kept close to its body, moving just as the muscles did. Finally, when it was only three yards out, it pounced time, still just inching forward.

It glided through the air, no creature ever so graceful as this, so beautiful, so deadly. The hunter looked straight into the eyes of its prey. Joseph could see his own reflection in this cat's pupils. His face was stone, not moving an inch, totally calm. He accepted the fate that would become him, the prey to this angelic animal.

Joseph closed his eyes, waiting for the leopard to finish him. Just as the large cat made contact, he woke.

His eyes opened, looking up at the ceiling of his three room apartment. To his left, he could hear his alarm clock, playing music in Arabic on the station he had it set to the night before. He rose from his creaking bed, sighing softly. What does it mean? He asked himself.

He looked around his humble abode. There was an ancient dresser to his right, and to his left was a doorway leading to a small bathroom. In front of him, there was another doorway, that lead out to the hallway outside of his room. The apartment was old, and it showed it. Cracks ran up the elderly walls, now tan, a sharp contrast to their original creamy white.

Joseph moved silently to the bathroom, to prepare for the workday ahead. He looked at himself in the mirror.

Joseph was not tall, barely at the height of 5 feet and 9 inches. He had dark, brown hair, and dark eyes to match. He looked down at his tanned dark skin, and then at his hands, callused from hard labor on his family's farm. He was not a large man, but the muscle he did have prevented anyone from confronting him during his live. That's not to say that he was violent, but the truth being that he would not even hurt a fly.

He went though each of his morning tasks silently, not really paying attention to what he was doing. This caused him to cut himself while he shaved, but otherwise the morning was uneventful. He finished shaving, took a shower (cold, because there was no hot water), dressed for work, and ate a breakfast of toasted bread. He sighed as he cleaned and put up the dishes, looking at the barren cabinets that held no more than some canned food and more bread. He then grabbed his keys, and left the apartment, locking the door behind him.

Joseph smiled to himself as he walked out of the complex. He took in the sounds of the city, watching as old cars and wagons as they rode by in the streets before him. Cairo was a busy city at all times, but especially during the morning. People were moving up and down the street, walking to their jobs and other activities. Merchants sold goods alongside the road, mostly their wares being made up of wheat and other food items. Though himself not a Muslim, Joseph's Mexican Indian background helped him blend in with the world around him. As he walked, he smiled to himself as he remembered how he came to be here, a small town farm boy from Arizona, to working under the famous Egyptologist Albert G. Eisner in Cairo, Egypt.

***

Joseph Hernandez was the oldest of a family of four, and it was expected of him to look after his younger siblings. Along with this, and working with his father on the farm, Joseph lived contently and prosperously with his family. That is, until his freshmen year in high school, when a fatal car crash took away his mother and two youngest siblings, his brother Ryan and sister Esperanza. It was heartbreaking, and his family never recovered. His father took to drinking, and would almost always get drunk after working in the fields. Joseph began to look at his life, and realized that this was not what he wanted for himself and he had no dream of continuing this small, dying farm.

He had always made good grades, but he now knew that if he ever wanted to get off this farm, he would have to be the best in his class. He studied fervently, often going many nights without sleep in order to raise his grade point average to where a college would actually notice him. He aspired to leave his little town, and to see the world around him. When graduation came, he was Valedictorian of his graduating class. It was a momentous event, and he was sure it would the best day of his life.

Little did he know how wrong he was. The gravest night of his life was to come that day, and it had changed him forever.

***

Joseph thought about that dark moment of his life as he continued to walk down the street, heading to the National Egyptian Museum, where he worked for Eisner. He was so deep within his thoughts in fact, that he did not hear the footsteps closing in behind him, or the giggling that went with said footfalls.

Hands enveloped and covered his eyes, as a sweet voice spoke in a whisper next to his ear.

"Guess who?" Jennifer started, still trying to suppress a laugh as she said it.

Joseph smiled slightly, being thrown out of his thoughts by this encounter. He knew exactly who it was, but decided to play along.

"What? Who's that?!" He spoke softly, not wishing for those around him to notice the English he spoke. Even with the boom of tourism in Egypt, people did not take kindly to these guests of their country, especially Americans such as them.

They both laughed as the woman released her grip over his eyes, and he turned around to see his good friend, Jennifer.

Jennifer was your stereotypical blue eyed, blond American, but in no way an air head like blondes are made out to be. She had graduated from the University of Chicago, just as Joseph had, and they had both been chosen by Doctor Albert Eisner to assist him in his studies while he was visiting his old friend in Chicago, who was their professor in Egyptology at the University. That was where their similarities stopped however. Jennifer came from Chicago, and had lived there all her live with her very successful rich family. Her tuition was paid for though out college by her father and mother, something Joseph could never dream off his father doing, not that he had the money of course. They were also very different in personality, with Joseph being more reserved and perhaps could even be considered an introvert, while Jennifer was an extremely out going extravert and the life of any party she was part of during her college years.

As they continued to walk down the street discussing things of work and how their weekend had gone, one might have thought that this was just another couple of young people that were dating, but that was not the case. As beautiful as Jennifer was, Joseph never dreamed of being romantically involved with her, and thought of her as a younger sister, not to different to the way he felt for his sister Esperanza before she died.

They continued to chat with one another as they walked to the museum, although they had begun to speak in Arabic. Both had learned the language when they discovered that they would be working under Eisner here in Egypt, and after a year in the country, they could both speak it fluently. However, Eisner had also asked that they learn Ancient Egyptian, in order to help him with hieroglyphics they would find on artifacts in the many ancient sights they would visit across the age old nation. Joseph studied diligently, and learned the language very quickly, but Jennifer struggled with the dead tongue, and still needed help ever so often when translating the sacred writing.

It was a one sided conversation, as Jennifer told him every detail about her past weekend and what she had done the night before. Joseph was polite and listened quietly, giving his opinion whenever she asked, but was still thinking about his reoccurring dream with the leopard. It troubled him, and he did not understand what the dream meant, if it meant anything at all.

It wasn't like the dream was always the same. It always seemed to stop at different portions of the scene. Sometimes he would wake up as the great cat had landed on him, pinning him to the ground. Other times it would stop before the leopard got anywhere near him, and even once he woke before he even saw the leopard. Of course, sometimes the dream went farther than that, and he would be forced to watch as the leopard consumed him, Joseph still not being able to resist the powerful predator.

He thought of all this as they reached the Egyptian Museum, and Jennifer was finishing up recounting the events of the night before, telling him something about being chased by a drunk and being saved by a handsome policeman.

They walked up the steps of the busy building, dodging tourists as they raced in and out, trying to get as much sightseeing in the day as possible. The two walked through the old large wooden doors and was immediately relieved by the cool atmosphere of the structure, a sharp contrast to the dry hot weather they had just escaped.

Joseph looked around him, taking in the beautiful and priceless artifacts from an empire from long ago. As he walked though the main hall he would glance into the many side rooms that held costless rarities of pharaohs and their subjects. Jewels adorned the walls in glass cases or were simply just mounted there. These artifacts of Old Egypt were not the only things that made their home within this massive house.

All sorts of objects from Egypt's occupied past also laid in these hollow halls; rusted swords and armor from Roman Legionaries, Arabic Scripts from Islamic Intellectuals, Cannons from the brief Napoleonic Expedition and Invasion of Egypt, and rifles and letters written by British & Egyptian Soldiers during the Great War.

Yes, this Museum held more history of one of the world's oldest nation than any other in the world. Joseph never tired of the place, and enjoyed every minute of his work therein. Each time he walked through its isles of amazing trinkets and pieces, it was like he was seeing for it for the first time.

The pair continued to walk past the various exhibits, entering a door marked 'Employees Only' in both English and Arabic. They were now in a dimly lit room, where several scientists were examining a mummy Doctor Eisner and the rest of them had found during an expedition into the Great Pyramid of Giza. This particular mummy was found within the unfinished subterranean chamber, holding a large tablet in its hands. Today, Joseph and Jennifer were to help Doctor Eisner translate the hieroglyphics on the tablet, along with examining the mummified man more closely.

Finally, they came to the door with a piece of notebook paper taped to the frame, with the words 'Doctor Albert Eisner's Office' quickly scribbled across.

Joseph knocked on the door, before opening it slowly. He knew the Doctor liked his privacy, just as Joseph did, and did not appreciate it when people barged in on him while he worked.

"Doctor Eisner? It's us, Joseph and Jennifer. We are going to begin to translate the tablet, as you asked for us to do today."

Joseph peeked through the door. Inside, the makeshift office was a mess. Charts and maps laid cluttered across a foldable table near the center of the room, with papers and stacks of books littering the wooden floor. To the left and right wall, there were large wooden bookshelves that held a wide variety of books and manuscripts from as far back as the late 18th Century. It was an impressive sight to behold, both in the magnitude of the information that the small room held and in the fact that anyone could find anything in it, let alone work long hours there as the doctor did.

A large man stood at the in the center of the room, looking over the scripts that laid there. He was tall, and is what Joseph would consider husky, but held it in well enough when he stood proud. He wore large wide rimmed glasses, and his hair was unkept, long and black, with grey peppering through it here and there. The doctor's skin was aged and wrinkled, from the many years of work under the baking Egyptian sun.

The first thing Joseph noticed out of the ordinary was the fact that the tablet which he and Jennifer were to translate was on the table. Secondly, when he looked up at Eisner, he had the widest grin on his face, something the old man rarely did.

"Joseph, Jennifer you're here! I have good news. I was too excited about the tablet to wait for you to translate it today, so I spent the weekend here finishing the work."

"What?! But sir, do you mean to tell us you stayed here all last weekend translating that massive piece of rock?" Jennifer began, startled at the man's devotion to this old slab.

"Precisely my good lads! And it was worth it. I have now completed the translation, and I tell you this is big. Huge in fact! This simple tablet will put us into the history books as the discoverers of the greatest find of Egyptian History in the 21st century!" The man was ecstatic, practically bouncing up and down as he spoke to his employees, waving his hands in the air for emphasis.

"Your joking Doctor! What could possibly be on that tablet that could revolutionize history in such a way?" Joseph was skeptical, as this was not the first time Eisner had made such a claim.

Jennifer on the other hand, became just as excited as Eisner, and ran over to the table to see the tablet herself.

"What does it say Doctor Eisner? Does it tell of the deities from before the Predynastic Period?" Both she and the doctor were now looking at the tablet, ignoring Joseph's question. The inquiry Jennifer asked was one that had escaped archeologists of all types for many decades, and continued to elude all even today.

"That and more my child! We have stumbled on to an account of a so far unknown godess worshipped during the Protodynastic Period, and even more so amazing, an account of the tomb of the Scorpion King."

This caught Joseph off guard. Little was known about the fabled Scorpion King, and along with the assumption that they had discovered another deity that the Egyptians worshipped; this could definitely very well be the greatest historical find of the 21st century.

"Eisner, you say that you have discovered a new deity. What exactly does the tablet tell about it?" Joseph was starting to feel cold seep into his bones, as a dark abnormal feeling caught a hold of him.

"Well, I shouldn't say 'new' deity my friend. As you know, Bast is a goddess more centered in worship in Lower Egypt, during the Third Millennia B.C." The Doctor chuckled to himself, so giddy about his new find he did not notice Joseph's sudden distress. He continued.

"This tablet tells of a, how you would say, variation of Bast, which was worshipped in Upper Egypt, as opposed to the Lower Country." He had turned his back from Joseph to the tablet which laid on the table. Jennifer and Eisner now had their attention on the great rock and the translation Eisner had made, and did not see Joseph break out in a cold sweat.

"A variation? How so?" Joseph chocked out the last sentence, finding his throat dry. His breathing quickened, though he knew not why he felt so anxious. Still, Jennifer and the doctor did not notice their companion's angst.

"Well, first of all, it is extremely similar to Bast. The only major difference I can depict from the tablet is that the head of Bast does not have the head of a lion." The Doctor paused, finally taking notice that Joseph had not joined them to look over the tablet. He still stood a little ways out, and the doctor was unable to see his upper body due to the low lamp casting a shadow over his face.

He looked up at where he supposed his assistance's eyes where and then carried on.

"Instead, it appears that the Upper Egyptian Version of Bast does in fact have the head of a leopard."

"What other variations is there Doctor?" Stated Jennifer, just as excited about this new find.

Doctor Eisner turned his attention back to Jennifer and the tablet as the hunched over the translations. He began to explain other minor variations, but Joseph wasn't listening.

Joseph could not believe it. He was not a superstitious man, barely religious for that matter, as he considered himself a 'non-practicing' Catholic. But this was too much to be a coincidence. First the dream, and now this. What did it mean? Repeating his thoughts from the morning. Was it some sort of- sort of sign?

He shook his head. At this rate I'll go mad, he laughed grimly, inwardly to himself. He needed to focus at the task at hand. This was an amazing find, and his dreams were nothing more than something that happened in accord with the tablet.

Still, as he tried to put his mind at ease, he couldn't tare the nagging that remained in the back of his head. Deep down, he felt that fate had chosen him for something, and he wasn't sure if he liked it.