longer.blue

Solo | The Hunt | The desert beyond Cairo shimmered beneath the crushing weight of noon. Heat rolled across the dunes like invisible tides, bending the horizon into liquid gold. Above the ruins of ancient Heliopolis, the sky stood vast and merciless. A lone jackal, sleek and cunning, prowled the dunes near the ruins of Heliopolis, its golden eyes scanning for prey. It had no idea it had just become the target of something far greater. High above, Ray stood on a crumbling temple pillar, the scarab mark on his chest glowing white-hot. In a burst of golden light, his body dissolved into pure solar energy and reformed instantly. Where the man once stood, a sleek peregrine falcon now perched compact, powerful, with sharp golden eyes and feathers that shimmered faintly with solar energy. Ray launched off the pillar with a powerful beat of his wings. Within seconds, he was slicing through the cold night air at terrifying speed. Pigeons exploded from ruined pillars in terror. Sand spiralled upward in violent whirlwinds seconds after the thing had already passed. The wind screamed past his streamlined body as he climbed higher for his reconnaissance. Every feather shimmered faintly like polished bronze beneath the sun. Tiny threads of living sunlight coursed between the plumage like veins of molten gold. His eyes glowed with predatory brilliance, twin solar embers scanning the earth below with terrifying precision. The world had slowed for him. At nearly five hundred kms an hour, the sky itself became fluid. Air pressure folded around his wings in rippling distortions. Every gust spoke to him. Every thermal current carried whispers. Ra’s instincts flowed through him effortlessly, divine mastery over the oldest hunter beneath the sun. Far below, moving between scattered black rocks and dry brush, prowled a jackal. Lean/Dark-furred/Alone. But It trotted lazily through the desert as if unaware of the predator above. But Ray had already seen it from miles away. From high altitude, his falcon eyes pierced the shimmering heat haze with unnatural clarity. He could see the twitch of its ears. The rhythm of its heartbeat. The exact pattern its paws made against the sand. Every movement mapped perfectly inside his mind. The jackal paused atop a rocky ridge. That was enough. Ray folded his wings. The sky detonated. He descended like a bullet fired by the sun itself. He entered his dive. Wind shrieked across his feathers. Four hundred kilometres/Four-fifty/Faster. The dive became invisible. Only a flicker of sunlight flashed across the dunes. The jackal sensed danger at the final possible instant. Its ears snapped upward. Golden eyes widened. Too late. WHAM. Talons slammed into its side with explosive force. Sand erupted outward in a violent crater as the jackal rolled across the ground with a startled snarl. Then silence. The falcon was already gone. The jackal sprang up furiously, teeth bared, scanning wildly left and right./Nothing/Only desert wind. A low growl rumbled from its throat. Then / CRACK/ Another strike from nowhere. The falcon hit from behind this time, claws raking across the jackal’s shoulder before vanishing again in a blur of gold. The attack had lasted less than a heartbeat. The jackal spun in circles, snapping at empty air. Above, Ray soared upward again, exhilaration surging through him. Every flap of his wings carried the power of divine sunlight through his body. Far beneath him, the jackal barked angrily toward the empty sky. The creature was trying to anticipate him now. Clever. Raymond angled one wing slightly. The world tilted. He dropped again. This time the dive was even faster. The jackal heard it & lunged sideways, but Ray was already there. His talons struck the creature cleanly across the muzzle before he twisted mid-air with impossible precision and shot forward again. The jackal yelped in outrage, tumbling head over heels through the sand. Again the attacker vanished. /Invisible/Untouchable. Only tiny spirals of drifting sand marked where the falcon had been. Minutes passed like this, the predator and prey dancing beneath the merciless sun. Except this was no true hunt There was no killing intent. Only exhilaration. Challenge. Instinct. At last the jackal stopped moving. He was completely still. Its ears twitched once. High above, Ray narrowed his glowing falcon eyes. Something changed. The jackal slowly lifted its head toward the heavens and smiled. The jackal’s body erupted in black-gold fire. The desert darkened momentarily as divine power unfolded outward in ancient waves. Fur became robes. Claws became hands. Golden eyes transformed into blazing celestial stars beneath the head of a majestic black jackal. The god stood tall among the ruins. Anubis, the Guardian of the dead and / also /the son of Ra. Ray landed gracefully upon a broken pillar, still in falcon form. Golden sunlight swirled around him before his body unfolded back into the towering figure of Ray. "You knew the whole time,” Ra 𓅃 muttered. Anubis crossed his arms with amused dignity. “You struck me fourteen times, Father. The fourth attack gave you away.” Ra 𓅃 laughed “Then why keep running?” The jackal god tilted his head slightly, ancient eyes gleaming. “Because it has been centuries,” Anubis said softly, “since I last saw Ra happy enough to play.”