I was sick, sick with the plague that had raged across the world for neigh on two years then. It started with a cough and then a tiredness that sapped the strength from bone and sinew and I did what I always do when ill, went to bed and tried to sleep. Sleep I did for a day and a night and another day. No appetite, no energy, no strength. I awoke for short periods to drink a little water perhaps, or just lie there exausted for a time before again lapsing into black oblivion devoid of dream or thought save the random thought that crossed the fevered mind wondering if I would survive yet another illness. The stories of this plague darkened my mind in those moments and though I was only tired then, still I wondered if the symptoms were only a precurser to a stronger sickness.
In the dark of that second night, as I lay in bed in a fitful, feverish sleep, I became aware of a large lion in my room. I sat up then, though my body remained reclined, and saw in the darkness a flaming lion. A male lion, his mane was a crown of flame, his eyes a blue fire. I felt the heat radiating at me as he stood there by the bed. Then he stood up on his hind legs and I realized he stood straight like a man. He wore a harness from which hung a pair of curved swords. I recognized the swords. They are called khopesh and were the swords used by the warriors of long ago. The warriors of Ancient Egypt. I knew then who he was, or I guessed at who he might be. Maahes! the guardian protector of the Pharaoh. It was that moment, the moment I recognized him that he spoke.
"I will heal you if you wish, you have just to say the word and I can enter you and heal you,"he said. His voice was deep and melodious. Like he was singing.
"Yes, I will accept your help, but you will have to tell me how it is I should repay your kindness?" I replied.
"Tell the story is all I ask, tell the story as I am almost forgotten. I was once known to many but now I am almost forgotten." he said.
With that he burst into a pure red flame and I felt the heat enter my body. It didnt feel like a fever, it felt like spontaneous combustion, as though the flames would melt my bones and reduce my poor body to ashes. After a few minutes the flame went out, or I passed out.
I awoke in the morning at my usual time before the sunrise. It was still dark and I moved from the bed and went to find a writing pad to write down this dream (if dream it was?!). When the sun rose I stepped out the back door ro watch the first rays and realised the plague was gone from my body. I still felt a little weak but I was able to eat and I didn't return to bed until my usual bed time. I went through that day feeling the fire within me. The feeling of the fire stayed with me for a couple days before it disipated, but I was healed.
I tried to do a little research about Maahes but found little on the internet about him. He wasn't forgotten, he was the protector of the ancient kings, but there was little else about him I could find. He hasn't returned to me since that encounter and I write this to fulfill my promise to him. I am sharing the story. I was healed by Maahes, the lion god of Egypt. But what more he may have in store for me, if anything, is yet to be revealed.
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