Nerata'ari awoke with a start. She looked around and almost panicked. The last thing she remembered was standing in her temple agreeing to something she was hoping would give her life a new purpose. Now she was laying in an overly large, luxurious bed, covered in red and gold sheets. She wasn't sure what material they were made out of but they felt amazing against her skin. At the foot of the bed was a table covered in the most amazing food she had ever seen. Plates of meats piled high, fruits of every shape and color, vegetables and cheeses adorned another plate. The aroma alone was enough to make her call this heaven. Two crystal goblets of wine stood at the other end of the table, almost beckoning her.
Nerata'ari looked around more. The room she was in was about twenty five paces on each side. The floors were made of tan colored sandstone, same as the ceiling fifteen feet above. About ten feet to her left was the back wall of the room. It was covered with murals depicting Sekhmet's battles with hieroglyphs describing the scenes. In the center of it was the head of an enormous lioness. Water was flowing from her mouth into a large basin. The center of the room was dominated by a pool twenty feet on each side. She could see small tufts of vapors rising from the water. In the far back corner stood rows upon rows of shelves, each packed full of scrolls of various sizes. Nerata'ari could see from the opposite side of the room that some were lovingly taken care of, others were covered with the dust of neglect. The remainder of that wall was taken up with weapons and armor of all kinds, most entirely alien to the Oracle.
Nerata'ari gasped when she looked to her right. For a second it looked to her that the entire second half of the room didn't exist. The room appeared to end on the other side of the pool. She soon saw that there was a small staircase descending to a lower floor. This part of the room was almost completely empty, even the walls ended at the top of the stairs. The only thing down there were a pair of sphinxes in each corner holding the roof up. Beyond them Nerata'ari could see nothing be blue sky. There was something white on the horizon, she couldn't figure out what though. It took almost a whole minute of staring at it before it dawned on her. It was clouds! The room she was in was above the clouds!
Nerata'ari jumped out of bed and was immediately assaulted by a strange sensation. Her body felt different. There was no pain or discomfort, just a strange feeling all over though. She tried to put a word to it, heaviness maybe? Maybe she was a bit larger? She looked down at her body and was hit with a new realization; she was completely naked. She shook that off and tried to focus on the first problem. The first thing she saw where her breasts. They were always above average in size, and didn't look like they were any bigger, thankfully. Looking past those she instantly recognized the problem. She had always had stick thin arms and legs. Now she had muscle, not a grotesque amount, but just enough to fill out her limbs nicely. She stretched, looking herself over. She was actually pleased with what she saw.
She mentally chastised herself forcefully. Her body was nothing to be proud of, it was just a vessel for her ka. She should never slip into hollow, pathetic existence vanity brings she reminded herself.
The sky brought Nerata'ari back to her senses. She ran across the room, down the stairs, and all the way to the edge of the floor. The room she was in sat at the top of a huge pyramid, at least a thousand feet tall. As if that wasn't enough to make Nerata'ari scream for her life and frantically grab at one of the sphinxes, she watched transfixed as clouds floated by underneath the pyramid. Miles below them the earth languidly passed by. She might have found the view beautiful had she not been terrified out of her mind.
Nerata'ari crawled very rapidly away from the edge, chanting "oh shit" like it was her religious mantra. She managed to make it to the bottom of the stairs before she heard a hearty, yet melodic laughter. She looked up at the sound, not caring who, what, or why someone was making it, her mind was just glad for the reprieve from visions of plummeting to her death.
Sekhmet was bent in half at the top of the stairs, hands on her knees, laughing hysterically. The Goddess could barely keep herself from falling down the stairs. After half a minute she regained some composure, "I'm sorry I laughed at you my dear, but your reaction was priceless. Welcome to my home Nerata'ari."
The young Oracle didn't even know what to think at that point. Humiliated for acting like a child? Angry for the embarrassment, or her Goddess' laughter? Her mind flashed another image of her falling through clouds. That settled it, she would just feel happy to be on solid ground.
Nerata'ari's arms and legs were still trembling when Sekhmet helped her up to unsteady feet, the Goddess keeping a firm grip on her lest she fall over. Nerata'ari came to enough to realize her Goddess was also naked. It was then that she became aware of many things about Sekhmet she didn't know, but probably should have considering the time they spent together.
Sekhmet stood about three inches taller than Nerata'ari's five feet two inch frame. The Goddess had high cheekbones, a small, pointed nose, full lips, and a strong, yet feminine jaw. Her eyes were tan colored, but had small waves of black lines, like beautifully hypnotic disks of polished snakewood. These features combined to make Sekhmet the most beautiful woman the oracle ever saw. She was almost ashamed she had spent this long with her Goddess and hadn't noticed these details before.
No she thought, her face looked the same, but her eyes were different. The last time she looked they were a deep brown like her own. Was she able to change her eye color?
Nerata'ari's eyes drifted lower over the Goddess' body, still glistening with warm water from the pool. Her skin was still a bronze and olive mix, like most Egyptian women, but it had a very faint golden sparkle to it, like a million distant stars in the night sky that you could only see when not looking directly at them. She had very large, firm breasts, each topped with a small brown nipple sporting a gold ring pierced through it. Each of the orbs jutted out proudly from her chest. On her flat stomach, just above her exquisitely shaped left hip was a large tattoo of a lioness tearing out, and eating, the heart of a dragon. On each of her well toned thighs was another tattoo. On the right a lioness had a wolf's limp body in its mouth, while the left thigh displayed the same lioness, blood dripping from its maw, standing over a headless man clutching a large battle axe.
The sight of her Goddess' naked body flooded Nerata'ari's mind with lustful, carnal thoughts and desires. She imagined the two of them rolling in the bed she had just woken up in, tenderly caressing and exploring each other's body.
Decency and modesty brought the Oracle's mind careening back into reality. There were so many things wrong with her thoughts she didn't know where to begin. She was having improper thoughts about her Goddess, who could kill her with just a thought if she had known what her Oracle was thinking. Then there was the vow of celibacy she had taken. Sure, she and her fellow priestesses may have gossiped about men and what they might do to them. That was always late at night while trying to stifle their giggles so as to not wake the older priestesses or Oracle. But none of those were ever as vivid or arousing as what flashed through her mind just now. The idea of being attracted to a woman gave her pause as well. She had occasionally found herself staring at her sisters when they were bathing, but that was nothing compared to this. Not to mention every time she ever fantasized about sex it was with a man. But if she was going to be honest with herself she had to admit that she was hopelessly, desperately attracted to a woman.
How could all these feelings have welled inside of her so fast? Was her Goddess manipulating her?
No she thought. She needed to be completely honest with herself. Instances of their time together in the temple came rushing back like a tidal wave. Innocent glances at Sekhmet when she wasn't looking. The jokes, laughter, and smiles they shared. The occasional little flirting back and forth between them. These feelings had been brewing for awhile, and she was an active participant in developing them. She felt naive for not recognizing what was happening earlier. She should have known better. Even if she had nothing against which to gauge her feelings, she should have known something was amiss and put a stop to this. Such emotions for her Goddess were heretical.
Her body brought her mind out of the clouds. Her stomach was churning, not from nausea, but as though something wonderful was about to burst from her chest, wash over humanity, and erase all its sins. Her heart hammered against her ribcage like it was her stomach's accomplice. Her palms began to sweat as she became dizzy. The muscles in her arms built up such energy with the idea of grabbing Sekhmet that Nerata'ari had no idea what willed them to her sides, while her legs were torn between running towards the object of her heretical desires and away from her.
