his scribe had caught one! he praised her, remembering all too late that he as pharaoh should not hunt the sacred incarnation of Thoth nor the Benu-bird. thus after congratulating her, he cursed himself for this development and veered through the thick mud at the base of the reeds.
there were others here -- white geese, green-headed ducks, long-tailed pheasant. unless he wanted to further risk a poor weighing, he should not turn his teeth against another heron, as he had done when he was a noble boy and not a god.
khaemwaset closed his fangs on a flapping, muddied wing, and hauled not a heron but a loon from its hapless place among the thick stalks.
his ears flickered for y'var'la, urging her victory even if he was forbidden in its sharing, and he felt a flash of purely mortal jealousy in that second.