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The Guardian of Set: A Tiger Tail

The wind gave a lonesome howl across the golden sands surrounding a pale, sunbleached tomb. The four stone pillars surrounding it, each emblazoned with wards and protections from ten different cultures, had toppled over from ages of erosion. The magical protections that once sealed away such a forbidden place were gone. Yet both obscurity and isolation still protected the ancient tomb from those who would plunder it.

As did the enormous guardian wrapped around the sandstone walls of the tomb. A mighty creature, a thing of golden fur and enormous paws that could crush a mortal man with a single swat. A mane of onyx hair cascaded down its head, bouncing ever so slightly as it sprawled, tilting its head back and forth to survey the dunes surrounding the ruined tomb. It's lips curled into a small frown as it saw a speck on the horizon. There was someone coming, which baffled the guardian. "Who would cross such a remote, desolate landscape to come here now? Who would even still know the tomb of my father even existed?" a contralto voice rumbled as the guardian spoke to itself, thrashing its long tufted tail behind it. For a second it considered racing out to meet the coming creature, but it hesitated. Its purpose was to guard the tomb. If it left its vantage point perched around the physical structure of the tomb, someone could sneak in without its knowledge. The guardian did not SEE anyone else coming from any other direction, but it did not wish to rule such tactics out. So it remained in a lounging position and waited. And waited.

And waited.

The speck on the horizon grew in size as it trudged forward towards the tomb, and towards the one who guarded it. Hours had passed, as morning ceded to afternoon. It was large creature who drew near (though still tiny compared to the enormous guardian), standing nearly seven feet tall. The creature's entire body was wrapped, head to foot, in pale golden cloth, making it impossible to tell what species had approached it. Only a single gap was present around the head, allowing a pair of deep blue eyes to stare up to the guardian. It noted that they were the color of a deep pool of water. It had been many years since the guardian had seen such color. It had been many years since it had seen water at all. A large brown bag, as long as the creature's torso, was slung over its back.

The guardian reared up, pushing out its claws and snarling at the figure before it. "Hear my words, mortal: answer my riddle to gain access to the tomb of Set, fallen deity of this world. Answer falsely, and I will dev-are you staring at my bosom?!?" the guardian's eyes widened.

The figure began to chuckle. "Sorry, cuz! They're just so big, and they're just.. right there! How could I not?!?" The figure thrust its arms forward for emphasis, before reaching up to begin unwrapping the golden cloth, letting it fall to the sand below. Beneath the cloth coverings was what appeared to be a orange furred tiger wearing a thick, sheepish grin. The guardian surmised was likely of the southern beastmen tribes. The tiger scratched its head and panted a bit. "Sheesh, without anything covering your body, the sun just beats down on you out here, doesn't it?" By now the humanoid creature had removed enough of the cloth wrappings to reveal more about it. Underneath, the male tiger wiped some sweat from his fuzzy forehead. "Hot enough for yah, cousin?"

The guardian wrapped her mighty paws around her chest and looked away. She hadn't even noticed the heat until this creature started talking. Now her face felt hot and she felt flustered. "I do not mind the temperature. And quit gazing at my breasts!"

The tiger looked away. "Sorry! You know cousin, most species wear clothing to cover their naughty bits..."

The guardian gave a derisive snort. "I am no mortal. My ways are my own." she raised an eyebrow almost as long as the tiger was tall. "And why do you call me cousin?" She felt the prickles of a sensation she had long forgotten... curiosity.

The tiger purred, as he kept unwrapping the cloth rags covering his body. "Because you're a cat! All felines are family one way or another, you know?"

The guardian rolled her eyes and turned her nose up away from the tiger. "I am a sphinx. You are a tiger. We aren't related." The sphinx folded one paw over its other paw, before leaning its head back down to size up the comparatively tiny tiger. "Will you take the challenge my riddle offers, or not?"

The tiger closed his eyes and folded his arms. For a moment, the guardian wasn't sure what he was doing. She leaned in, her head only a few feet from the visiting feline. "Are you ignor-"

The tiger raised his right paw. "No! Not at all. Just considering if I should take the test or not. Sorry if I seemed like I was ignoring you. Double sorry that you don't like being called cousin, by the way."

"Is this... a jape?" The sphinx tilted its head ever so slightly. 'Why would anyone come to such desolation if not to plunder my master's tomb?" The spark of curiosity had kindled to a bonfire, growing in intensity as the stranger piled fuel on top of it.

The tiger opened his eyes and rolled them, waving his raised paw. "Oh, don't get me wrong. Riches and plunder and booty are all well and good. I wouldn't mind them if they were offered." He leaned sideways to look along the sphinx's sprawled body. "Especially booty. No finer prize in my mind. At least most of the time." He chuckled. "But I'm not really good at riddles! Makes the ol' noggin hurt, you know?" he tapped the paw he'd raised against his head for emphasis. "I really only came out here because I wanted to see if the rumor I heard was true."

The sphinx frowned. "Rumors? You mean of the great wealth of Set?"

"That there was a large creature out in the desert, all alone, guarding an old ruin for all eternity." The tiger folded his arms. "I couldn't believe it until I saw you with my own two eyes. Don't you get hungry? Or thirsty?" He frowned.

Her ears drooped against her skull. "...the god Set, even in death, provides all I need." She looked away. "Guarding his burial chambers is both my responsibility and my joy."

"Uh huh. That sounds rehearsed, but sure." The tiger's tail trailed along the dunes, making waves in the sand behind him. "What about all your wants? Don't you ever get lonely, miss..." He trailed off. The guardian had been isolated for quite some time, but she still picked up on the social cue that he was asking her name without really asking.

"Amenset." She said, considering his question in her mind. She hadn't ever felt lonely, up until the moment he'd asked. It was as if considering the possibility suddenly made it real. HAD she been lonely? She'd been alone, certainly. For a long, long time... "And I don't need people."

"Amenset, huh?" The tiger's frown bent into a smile. "That's certainly an original name. Nice to meet you, Amenset! I'm Terinas, typical tiger. Terribly torrid, tends to tease, terminally traveling." He broke into a fit of chuckles. Amenset wasn't sure why. Once he recovered from his self-inflicted laughter, he put his paws on his hips. "How about instead of answering your riddle or being eaten, I just spend some time out here with you, and then be on my way?" He set his brown leather bag on the ground.

"You... don't want to enter the tomb?" Amenset's eyes went wide. She'd simply never considered the possibility that someone would travel all this way not to get into the tomb. There was trickery at work here, clearly. Her eyes narrowed. "I think you're trying to deceive me." She leaned in, licking her lips. "I think it would just take a single snap of my jaws to bite you in half. Your bones are tiny, I could devour you with little effort." She took a step towards him. "I wonder what your flesh tastes like, 'cousin'."

Terinas, in response, flinched, his arms pulling against his body as he took a step back. "CARDS!" he shouted, scrambling to get a paw into his backpack.

She blinked, stopping her advance. "...what?"

"CARDS!" The tiger yanked a stack of what appeared to be small square pieces of paper from his pack and held them up to her. "A game! Fun! No eating!" he waved the cards at her as if warding her off with a magical talisman. "Come on! I don't want to fight, I'm rather terrible at it! And if you say I can't go into the tomb without passing some ruling of yours, I won't! Treasure's heavy and stupid anyway! I'd rather have friends!"

The sphinx reared back, uncertain how to react. Nothing about this encounter was going the way Amenset had been taught it would. "The first visitor in a near millennia, and you... don't... wish to desecrate my father's tomb? Truly?" She sat on her haunches, feeling the sand shift beneath her bottom to better comfort her.

"I'll admit I considered it!" Terinas whined. "But why do we have to be so HOSTILE to each other?" He took another step back. "You've as much as said I can't get in without meeting your demand. I don't want to die and I don't think I can meet your demand, so why not find another way to spend the time? Since I've come so far anyway..." As he spoke, Amenset had lowered the front of her body, breasts pressing into the sand, to stare at him again, extremely closely.

The great guardian Amenset took a deep breath, and let out a sigh which blew the tiger's hair back for a moment. "You... are a very strange traveler." She twisted her body, squirming a bit as she settled down in front of him. "But I suppose if you are sincere, I will humor you. Your game looks very tiny. So I think before I can learn, we'll have to make some adjustments." She pushed herself up, tossing her hair with a whip of her head. She could feel the sands of the desert below her. The power of her father flowed through them, as she felt them rise up around her form. She watched, with a slight amount of amusement, as the tiger who named himself Terinas scrambled away, the sands once beneath his feet pulling towards her. Sand from all around her rose up her body, swallowing her whole. Cocooning her in it's gentle embrace. She was just a single dune in the desert. And then, a gale blew across the sands, and the newly formed dune broke apart, the sands of Set scattered along the breeze. Until, seated on her hind legs, left behind by the sands, was a sphinx roughly the same size as the tiger who was currently staring at her, jaw gaping open. As if it were nothing, she gave him a small smirk and folded her front paws across her naked breasts. "So, how do we play?"

"G-gods..." The tiger took a moment to recover, shaking his head. "Oh, it's very easy! See, you can use these cards to play various different games. The one I'll teach you is called Inverted Castle, and you play it by trying to assemble various combinations of..." The tiger began to explain the game, as the fearsome guardian Amenset listened.

---

Time passed. The two of them had played four rounds of the game Terinas called "Inverted Castle", which seemed to be a game where you stacked sets of cards on top of smaller sets of cards, arranged by number. The larger "castle" won. Amenset had yet to figure out where the "Inverted" aspect of the game came in. She purred. "There! A stretch of the first seven numbered cards, in order. A suitable foundation for my new structure."

The tiger growled. "It's only your fifth game! How are you so good at this?" His face was scowling mask, as his tail thrashed angrily. "Hmmph. Alright. I guess my only option is to discard three cards and redraw."

"Such a simple game is nothing more than the idle distractions of kittens to me." The great sphinx chuckled. She had no opposable thumbs, which had caused the tiger to hesitate in teaching her until she explained she had been QUITE literal about saying that the powers of Set provided all she needed. With just a twitch of her tufted tail, the sands beneath her feet had risen up to hold her cards so she could watch them. "If you choose to make such a concession, I'll simply draw a single card to replace one of the ones I played this turn." She watched as the sands near the deck rose up, pulled a small card off the top, and twisted it towards her hand. "I'm surprised that you aren't discontent about this arrangement." She grinned. "Most who would travel out here would be furious if they were barred entry to the tomb. I have trouble believing that this isn't some kind of deception even now. But it's a fun deception, if that's what it is."

Terinas' ears perked up. "You'd think so, right?" He folded his arms and closed his eyes. The tiger let out a quiet sigh. "Hey." He opened his eyes, locking his blue pools with her pale golden ones. "If you believe anything about me... anything at all... believe this. I came here to see you, first and foremost. Everything else ain't as important. Desired, but not as important." His tail curled up against his right thigh. "I'm not like most adventurers. I'm not. I'm NOT. I'm more interested in seeing sights than slaughtering strangers."

Amenset blinked. "Terinas... you got very serious for a moment. Why?"

"It's nothing." the tiger gave her a wide, fanged grin. "So as an abrupt change of subject, I'm rather hungry and thirsty. So what sorts of stuff do you eat around here?"

Amenset considered pressing the issue, but decided not to inquire further. "I do not require beverages or foodstuffs. The power of Set sustains me wholly."

The tiger frowned and rubbed his fuzzy chin. "Hm." He frowned. "Well, it's a good thing I brought a lot of supplies with me." He reached over towards the brown backpack sitting in the sand next to him, and began rummaging around inside it without looking inside it. "Let's see, gotta get some liquid in me. Now where did I put..." There were a few clanking sounds as he groped around inside his backpack.

Amenset's ears perked up as a voice of suspicion whispered into her mind. This was likely the ruse, right here. She had been enjoying the game, but she was no fool. No one would come here to just spend time with her. No one would care about her like that. He was going to offer her something to eat or drink, and it'd be poisoned or something. The guardian within her was certain of it. It was a weak ploy, however. She didn't need food nor water. "I will not require anything." She stated, making it clear up front that she wasn't falling for it.

"Suit yourself, miss." The tiger pulled out a metal flask, licking his lips as he did. "Ah! I'm pretty sure this is the spiced wine. Fine vintage, from Nonsensica!" He sloshed the liquid around inside the metal flask, before unfastening the lead stopper and taking a swig of it. "Aaaah, now THAT's the stuff!" he purred, his body relaxing in front of her. "Nice sweet tang, but it burns a bit as it goes down. Simply magnificent. So whose turn was it again?" He set the flask down to rest against his left hip,

Amenset's lips curled into a slight frown. "Yours. Aren't... you going to offer me some?" That was the trick, wasn't it? But he'd had some himself. The raging inferno of curiosity burning within her mind clashed with the voice shouting that this was a trap.

Terinas raised his right eyebrow. "I thought you said you wouldn't want any?" He discarded a card and took another swig from the flask. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, which seemed a bit glazed over at the moment. "Mmm. Sleepy." He mumbled. Amenset's hawk-like eyes caught the glimpse of a few droplets of moisture on his lips, before one of his paws slid downward to wipe them away.

She licked her lips. If he was drinking it, it couldn't be poisoned, could it? And she'd never had "wine". What would it taste like? The only things she'd ever tasted before were the fools who faced her challenge and got it wrong. Curiosity won out over suspicion. "I... said I wouldn't require anything. But perhaps I would like to try some."

The tiger's lips curled into a large grin, then he broke out into a laugh. After a moment he settled down, his tail swishing back and forth energetically behind him. "Fiiiiine, Cuz. I don't mind sharin'." His speech was slurred as he reached for his backpack. "But you don't have proper thumbs, do you? I gotta find a bowl or something fer you."

Amenset looked down at her paws, feeling her face grow warm. All of a sudden she felt very self-conscious. She was meant for walking on four footpaws, not two. She couldn't easily grasp the flask that she'd just asked for a sip from. And now that he'd pointed it out, it felt like a deficiency. Like something was wrong with her. "That won't be necessary!" She blurted out. "I can take care of my own needs. Remember how I used the sands to handle these cards?" She pointed one of her front paws at the deck in front of her, and her hand of cards, propped up on a small platform also made of sand. With a whip of her tail, she spoke, pushing some of the power of Set into the word. Pushing her very will into it. "Reth."

The two of them watched as, immediately before her, a circle of sand began to shift. Edges rose up while the insides sunk in. The golden color of the sand began to darken, turning a dull, deep brown. It hardened, until a clay bowl, slightly sunk into the dunes around it, rested where there had once been sand. Terinas' eyes were wide. He sat there, staring at it for a moment while Amenset sat, a prim little smile along her face. A slightly childish part in her head was proud to impress the mortal like this. It felt good to awe and amaze him. The tiger took another swig from the metal flask. "Daaang." he looked at the clay bowl, reaching down to touch it, and then after a moment of feeling it up, lifting it up and turning it around in his paws. He whistled slightly. "Changing your size, making objects... can you just do anything with sand?"

"The powers of Set provides for me." Amenset purred, leaving it at that.

"Well, a deal's a deal." Terinas set the bowl back down in the indentation it'd been formed in. "I know we didn't really make'a deal, but you know what I mean, right?" He unscrewed the flask and poured. After a moment or two, the bowl was filled with a bright blue fluid that glowed ever so slightly in twilight the setting sun behind them. "Drink up!" The tiger put the now-empty flask back into his backpack, dropping it in with a thunking noise, and then went back to his cards. "Dang, what were we playing again? I forget..."

Had the fluid not fascinated her so, Amenset might have noticed that the tiger was acting oddly. But it smelled like nothing she'd ever smelled before. Her head was bent down, her nose nearly touching it. "I don't have words for this scent." She mumbled aloud, taking a deep whiff and letting it tickle her nostrils. The novelty was like an addictive drug. Each whiff made her head feel like it was burning for a second or two. She'd never felt anything like it.

"Fruity!" Terinas discarded his whole hand and neglected to draw more cards. "Made from crushed grapes. And a few spices and herbs, I think..."

"So wine is... blue?" She really had no idea. Her muzzle opened as she prepared to taste it.

"Sure." The tiger mumbled, stifling a yawn.

Amenset began to lap at the beverage beneath her. The scent had been delightful. But the taste was intoxicating. A mixture of sweet and tangy against her tongue, with a faint burning as it passed through her throat. She'd tasted flesh and blood, and even leather before. None of them had ever tasted so good. In a matter of minutes, she had emptied the bowl, and was lapping at the bottom of it for residue. It tasted really good. She wanted more. She looked up at him. "Do you have any more?" She licked her lips and then mewed slightly. She'd quenched her thirst for the first time in her life, but now she was feeling thirsty again!

Her guest replied by waving a paw in her direction. "I got more stuff, drink an' food, but that ain't a good idea yet. Wine's gotta odd effect on people, yah know." He leaned over towards her. "'specially if yah've never had it before. 's called being drunk."

She tilted her head. "Drunk?" Her body was starting to feel hot. She hadn't noticed it before. "What's da- that?"

The tiger purred. "Mmm... you feel really warm and giggly. And sleepy, too, in my experience." He blinked. When his eyes opened again, there was a faint shimmer to them as he gazed into hers. It was like a light was blinking faintly beneath a pool of water. In his eyes.

"Pretty!" Amenset giggled as she looked into his eyes, watching the light blink on and off. On and off. On and off. "Your eyes're like... sapphires..." She stared into them, purring.

"An' sometimes it's hard to think, and you get really relaxed." The tiger yawned slightly, his eyes never closing, as he leaned in closer towards her. "Relaxed..." he said again, with a bit less volume.

"Relaxed?" She kept gazing at his pretty eyes. She wanted to focus on them. Her front paws went down to press into the sand, supporting her so she could lean forward.

"Yeah... relaxed..." the tiger slurred out. "Sho relaxed an' deep... really relaxed an' peaceful..."

Her muscles slackened as Amenset leaned forward. "Mmm... peaceful..." She hadn't felt tired before. It was hard to think and an easily ignored part of her was screaming something wasn't right. But it didn't feel wrong. It just felt peaceful and relaxed. Like she could curl up and take a nap right now. She'd never had a nap before, but all of a sudden it seemed like an enticing idea. "An' relaxed..." She mumbled, blinking a few times as Terinas told her how hard it was to keep her eyes open. She kept leaning forward towards his eyes. She wanted to see how deep they were, as they kept blinking on and off. On and off, blinking into her mind.

The tiger leaned closer towards her. "Yeah. Sho relaxed an' peaceful an' deep. Really ain't thinkin' 'bout anything anymore, are yah?"

And then it happened. She lost balance and fell forward, collapsing on top of the cards, her bare breasts brushing against the sands. She moaned, feeling her nipples grow firmer. The tiger fell over too, only a moment later, falling on top of her with a light thud. At first Amenset felt angry, but a few seconds after it happened she realized that the other feline felt so warm and nice on top of her. She found herself purring faintly, her body vibrating against the dunes. She'd never craved the touch of another before... had she been missing out?

Terinas chuckled, reaching down and stroking at her back, caressing her fur. "Mmm... nice and comfy..." his tail curled up against her, as the paw that was petting her moved down towards her side, stroking around towards her chest. "Sho relaxed. Sho peaceful. Sho deep an' obedient..." he shifted his body to whisper into her right ear, which twitched as she listened. The shimmering eyes were gone now. She wasn't focusing on anything other than his voice anymore. As it told her how ok it was to relax, more and more. His paw reached her right tit, stroking at it. Caressing her in a way she'd never felt anyone touch her before.

Amenset shifted her body, trying to roll over to allow him more access. It didn't work as well as she wanted with him resting on top of her. "Mmm." She mumbled. She hadn't tried very hard to roll over, however. It was easier just to relax and listen. To feel peaceful and deep and relaxed and listen to the tiger's voice.

She felt like she was sinking down into an abyss. Drifting down deeper and deeper into the depths of her own mind as she listened to the tiger's words. Down past conscious thought. Past instinct. Past the physical sensations that the tiger was bringing about by touching her. Until she was so deep and relaxed that there was nothing else in her mind, but the words. The words that she trusted so deeply. Whispering into her mind.

"Yah trust my wordsh. Yah wanna obey my wordsh. 'cause I make you feel sho relaxed and happy, don' I?" The slurred voice whispered.

Her mind was a void. There was nothing there but the whispered words, passing through as she heard them, before vanishing again. There was nothing substantial within it to resist those words.

"Nnnngh." Yet something in her resisted anyway. She felt her body twisting. She wasn't sure if she did it or not. She was so very relaxed and moving felt like too much effort.

"Hm."

There was silence for a moment. She was glad for the silence. Focusing on the words was hard. It was all she could do, but it was hard.

"Yah- you trust my wordsh. My wordsh- my WORDS feel so good to listen to. Sho relaxing and pleasing.You like feeling good, and you feel good when you listen to my words. You trust an' obey my words, don't you?" The voice was trying again.

"Yesh..." She heard herself murmur out.

Within the void, the words echoed. "Sho- So Set's your daddy, right?" The voice seemed to be getting more coherent.

She felt her lips move. "Yes." She responded after a long pause. A faint voice said something was funny about him being her "daddy", but she was too relaxed to object.

"Then you're his little kitten, aren't you? Daddy's little kitten."

The words echoed in the void within her mind. She was too relaxed to do anything but accept it. She was Daddy's little kitten. "Yes." She felt a smile shifting across her face. She was daddy's little kitten. Something about that idea felt soft and fuzzy. Like her mind.

"And what am I, cousin?"

"Cousin..." She mumbled. There was no resistance in her mind at all anymore. Just acceptance. The voice was her cousin.

"That's right. All felines are family, aren't they?"

"Yes." There was no emotion in her voice. Just dull acceptance. She had family. It felt nice to know that. She couldn't be lonely, she had family.

There was a pause, and then the voice spoke again. It sounded dry, like hiss of sand rubbing against sand. "Is your daddy around anymore?"

"No." For some reason her eyes were getting moist. "I'm all alone."

There was a longer pause this time. She kept being an obedient kitten and relaxing. She liked feeling relaxed so deeply.

"You're not alone. Not anymore." The words passed through the void, and she accepted them. "Your cousin is here. He's here to take care of the little kitten. Can you say that, kitten?"

"Take care of... the little kitten." she mumbled back.

"Now, do you know what little kittens do?" The voice was asking her a question.

"No." Thinking was hard when she was so relaxed. But even if she was wide awake, she had no answer to give. She didn't remembered ever being a kitten. She used to believe only mortal cats could be kittens.

"They play. They giggle. They mew and act cute and have fun. Little kittens don't have to worry about anything. They don't have to think too hard about anything. Because they can trust their family to take care of them. Little kittens trust that their family knows what's important, so they can just be happy and carefree and have fun. Do you understand?"

She didn't. Not entirely. "How do I have fun?"

The voice sounded a bit annoyed. "Your family will show you how. You don't have to think too hard about it."

"Ok." She mumbled as she accepted it. She was a kitten. She didn't have to think too hard about it. She had family that could take care of thinking for her. A big smile grew across her face.

"Good little kitten." The voice was accompanied by something petting at her hair. "Now it's going to be time to wake up soon. Wake up at the count of five."

Just the idea of waking up caused her to stir. She felt her tail twitching.

"One... two... three... four... five." With every number it counted, the voice sounded a bit farther away.

She yawned, paw moving to rub against her left eye. "Mrrraw..." She used her right paw to push herself up. At some point her cousin had gotten off of her. She blinked a few times, looking around. The sun was setting, so her slitted golden eyes didn't have to do much to get accustomed to the twilight. She looked around, as her vision cleared. He was standing off a bit to her right, towards the tomb. For a moment she felt angry about that, but she didn't know why. It was quickly forgotten. "Cousin?" She got on all fours and padded over towards him. Raising a paw, she smacked at his right arm to try and get his attention.

Terinas turned to look down at her. "Oh, hello!" he reached his paw up to pet at the mane of black hair covering her head. "Woke up, I see. How do you feel?" He gave her a smile.

"Mew!" She returned his smile, sitting on her hind legs and looking up at him. As she did, she felt a jiggling sensation against her chest. She looked down at her tits. "Stop that!" She hissed, batting gently at them, trying to get them to stop wiggling and squirming. Her tail thrashed like a snake as she lightly bapped a breast with her paw, running it down the front. Once she hit a nipple, a white hot bolt of pleasure ran up to her mind. Amenset moaned. Her attempt hadn't made the bouncing stop, but it felt good! She tried to press at the other nipple, to see what it felt like, but Cousin Terinas grabbed at her paw. "Hey!" she felt her ears flop back as she looked up at him.

"Don't worry about that right now." He chuckled. "Wanna have some fun before bedtime?"

She tilted her head to the right, looking up at his blue eyes. "Mew? How?" She didn't know what he had in mind. "More cards?" she pointed back at the place they'd been playing before. That was the only thing she could think of when she thought about fun. It was odd how she'd entirely forgotten they'd been playing cards before she started thinking about what fun was. But she wasn't worried about it. Her family was here, she could let Cousin Terinas think for her.

The tiger scratched the back of his head, while unslinging his backpack and setting it down. "Well, I have something a little kitten might like in here. It's a toy!"

"What's a toy?" Amenset was confused by what Terinas pulled out of his bag. It was a brightly colored sphere, pastel green in color, with a bright yellow stripe down the center of it. She watched as he clutched it in his hands. "Is that what a toy is? What does it do?"

Terinas' eyes went wide. "You don't know what a toy-" He slapped his muzzle with his left paw for some reason Amenset couldn't discern. She didn't worry about it much. Her cousin must have had some reason. "Don't worry about it. This is a ball. It's one sort of toy." He grinned. "You'll like it." He swung the arm clutching the ball backwards behind his body in an arc, and then let it fall forward like a pendulum, swinging underhanded and releasing the ball from his paw's grip just as his arm started to rise the other way.

The kitten couldn't help herself. Her eyes followed the ball as it fell to earth and started ROLLING. Like she was under a spell, Amenset darted after it. Instincts she didn't know she had kicked in and she padded on all fours after the toy as it rolled along the dunes. She broke out in a giggling fit, her body feeling a rush of energy as she chased it. At first it was moving faster than she could move while so tiny. But after a few minutes its roll started to slow. That was when she struck! Pushing off her four feet, the kitten flew through the air, pushing her claws out as she swung her front legs forward to grab at the ball, a manic grin along her face. She landed, her front paws grasping at the smooth surface of the ball. And then the rest of her body caught up with her front legs, slamming her into the desert sands. She rolled forward in a clumsy somersault, trying to keep the ball in her grasp. Her paws tried to dig her claws in, but the surface of the ball wouldn't allow it. "Meeeeew!' She squealed in panic as she rolled forward without any control for a few moments. She finally settled sprawled on her back, the ball held in her front legs up above her body like some sort of trophy. She smiled, her eyes lighting up... until the ball slipped out of her grasp, bouncing to one side, and her front paws fell against each other, clapping.

She looked up. The ball was ROLLING again! "Get back here!" She hissed, rising to her feet and chasing it again. And again. And then again. The sun had vanished from the sky by the time she'd tired herself out, settling down with the ball pressed between her front paws, as she tried to nibble on it out of pure instinct. She could hear steps in the sand. Cousin Terinas was coming towards her. She didn't say anything to acknowledge his presence. She had her mouth full. But her ears perked up and her tail swished along the sand.

Terinas looked her up and down. "That was cute. No, that's underselling it. YOU were adorable, little cousin. Do you like your toy?"

She pulled her head up away from the ball. "Mew! Yeah!" She nodded eagerly, laughing again just from the memory of the play. "Do you have any other toys?" She smiled, feeling unlike she'd ever felt before. She felt tired, but it was a good sort of tired. She felt warm all over... especially between her thighs. She fell silent and frowned. The warmth was spreading. It was like she was LEAKING the warmth. It was another sensation she'd never felt before, but this one was less welcome. She squirmed, rising up to try and get away the wet, warm feeling. Her nose twitched as she caught the scent of something a bit acidic. But what?

Terinas sniffed the air. "Smells like a little kitten just wet herself." He was wearing a grin that went from ear to ear as he looked down at her.

"W-Wet?" Amenset reached a front paw back to her thighs. The fur around them DID feel wet... she moved down to paw at the sand. It felt wet too! And warm. She looked at her cousin funny. "How? Am I ok?" Her face became a mask of panic. She'd never leaked before... was she bleeding? She began to squirm and whimper, feeling her eyes getting moist too.

The tiger chuckled and scratched between her ears, which calmed her somewhat. "It's totally fine, kitten. You're alright." He purred, bending over to scratch lower. "You see, when cats eat or drink stuff, it goes down into their tummies and most of it gets used for stuff. But some of it's left over, and then it comes out the other end. Big cats can control that, but for a little kitten like you, this was the first time you've ever had that happen, huh?"

She felt her face get a bit hot. She hadn't even noticed it was happening. Maybe that was why cousin Terinas called it an accident. "I... I'm sorry..." She felt nervous and fidgeted. She didn't like the idea of leaking all over everything. It felt bad, even if it wasn't blood.

Terinas crouched down to hug her against him, pressing his chest against hers. "Aw... there there... it's ok." he whispered into her ear. "Your cousin knows the little kitten just doesn't know how to control it yet. He's not mad..." The hug, combined with the scritchies, calmed her down a lot. "But just in case it happens again, maybe we should give the little kitten something to wear, so that you don't leak all over everything again, ok?"

Amenset nodded. It seemed sensible to her. Her cousin was really smart! "Ok... but I don't have anything to wear..." she whimpered, coming back towards the verge of tears again when she realized she wasn't going to be able to stop from leaking all over.

"Well, you can make something with sand, can't you?" Terinas grinned and patted her butt.

The sphinx's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah!" She had forgotten she could do that! "But... what?"

Terinas smirked. "Don't worry about that. Cousin will tell you what to make, you just make it, ok?"

Focusing on shaping sand into an object was hard for Amenset for some reason. She remembered it being easier, but she kept getting distracted by different things. At one point her ball started rolling away and she had to pounce at it to get it back. And then her tail started twitching and she had to smack the tuft of it to keep it from moving and distracting her. She chased it a bit before her cousin Terinas reminded her what they were doing. But little bit little, she shaped what he described: Bright white swaddling garb, swollen and thick and puffy around the crotch and behind, to absorb anything she might leak. It thinned out along the sides where it would wrap around her hind thighs, with two pink fabric clasps that would cling on either side to keep it tightly against her crotch. Her tail got it's own hole in the backside as well, making a faint rustling noise whenever she moved it. Cousin Terinas told her the noise made her seem more cute, so she decided that she'd swish her tail around a lot once she was wearing it, just to make him happy.

After a few setbacks it was done. The garment lay before her, and she looked down at it. "What do you call this, cousin?"

The tiger smiled. "It's a diaper. It's something that little kittens wear until they learn how to control themselves down there." He bent over to pick it up. "I'm going to help you put it on, ok? If you've never worn clothes before, it makes sense to have someone else do it."

Amenset nodded. "Ok..." Something was bothering her though. "But what if I wet too much and start leaking anyway?" She didn't want that.

The tiger patted her head, laughing. "Then your cousin will just have to change you, silly kitten." He grinned. "Now roll over on your back and spread your legs. I'll get you diapered up in a jiffy!"

The sphinx kitten nodded, rolling over on her back. Terinas bent down between her legs and frowned. "Hmm. I see a lotta sand down around where you leaked, and that won't do. Let's get you cleaned off first." He reached into his backpack to pull out a cloth. "I'm gonna touch you down there. Is that ok?" He paused.

"Uh-huh!" She nodded. She wanted to be clean, and her cousin was the one with the thumbs for grasping. It made sense to let him do it.

He nodded and began wiping along her crotch. Little trickles of white fire shot up from it to her head. "Mmmmmmrrrrrrooooowl!" She squirmed, feeling a flush of heat run along her face. "What... what is that?" She shuddered involuntarily, her tail curling as her legs twitched and her paws flexed. The tiger brushed along it again, and she let out a yowl as the feeling happened again. "Feels gooooood." She moaned.

She saw Terinas' face break into another wide grin. "You like that, huh? Well, how about this?" he pushed a single finger along the length of her clit, causing her to squirm and wiggle.

She pressed her front arms into the dunes, trying to dig her claws in. Like all the other sensations that her cousin had shown her, she hadn't even realized this one existed until the moment he triggered it. She felt a deep-seated need to feel more of this. She wanted it to be stronger. More intense. Her mind worked through the feelings of lust to try and figure out a way to make the feelings stronger. "Push it in!" She hissed at the tiger. "Push your finger in!"

Terinas' eyes went wide for a moment before he nodded, pushing the finger inside her clit and wiggling it around. Amenset's eyes rolled in the back of her head and she howled in pleasure. She squirmed, overcome with the intensity of the sensation, and the scents that came with it. Her crotch was so warm... and wet... suddenly her eyes went wide. "Oh no!" She whimpered, her face frowning. "I'm leaking again!"

Terinas purred as his other paw went to grip the top of his pants, right at the waist. "Maybe we need to plug it up so you don't, you think?" She felt his finger pull out of her as the tiger tugged his pants down, revealing a large, stiff cock, dripping a clear fluid as he let it dangle above her.

Amenset blushed. It was wider than the finger had been. She whimpered, wondering what it would feel like inside her. "W-will that work?" Her face was hot, and she grit her teeth. "Do it." She had to know what it felt like.

"If you insist, cousin." Terinas grinned, sliding his body down as he pushed inside her. Amenset felt his cock entering her body... and then groaned. The blinding hot sensation had returned, greater and more intense than the times before it. Overcome, she felt as the tiger began to slide back and forth inside her, pushing at the walls of her pussy. Her front arms, almost on instinct, whipped up to wrap around him, pulling him in low. She wanted more. "Faster." She mewled, as the tiger obliged. Her body flexed, pressing her up against his cock as he quickened his pace. He grunted as he kept going, his chest rubbing up against her breasts as he pumped back and forth inside her. She breathed heavier and heavier, howling out into the night, announcing that she was being fucked to all the denizens of the dunes.

And then she felt herself explode. Her cousin stiffened, shuddering, and then flopped over on top of her. She felt oddly full. The two of them lay against each other, panting for a few moments, before she gently smacked his back with her front right leg and grinned. "Again! Again!"

Terinas shook his head. "Maybe later, kitten. For now, we need to get you diapered up. Cousin Terinas says it's bedtime, since the sun's gone."

He pulled out of her, provoking a mewling whimper from Amenset. She began to growl. She wanted to do that again. She didn't feel tired, and she didn't need to sleep. Why had she been acting like a kitten again? It was almost like-

"And while you were playing, I got something else for you to drink. I think you'll love it. Warm milk!"

-and then it was forgotten. "Milk?" She licked her lips. She didn't know what it was, but if it was anything like the wine, she was excited. She watched as Cousin Terinas pulled the diaper up over her crotch, and then fastened the sides. He stood up, pulled his pants up over his cock, and then walked towards the old ruin, waving a paw for her to follow. Amenset rolled up onto her tummy and pushed up, prancing behind him, her bosom bouncing as she walked towards him. The diaper felt weird around her body, but she'd never worn clothes before, so she guessed anything would feel weird. It pushed her rear legs apart, making her waddle as she walked.

Warm Milk turned out to be sweet and creamy. According to her cousin Terinas, it was best not to lap at it like she had wine. Instead he had a clear bottle with a soft nipple wrapped around one end, which he held up in front of her, and pushed into her muzzle. Whenever she pulled on it, some of the liquid dribbled into her muzzle. It was a slow way to drink her milk, but she quickly got into it. Working for a taste of the treat was oddly fun for her, stirring parts of her she never knew she had. And it was soothing as well. After what felt like forever, swallowing the milk bit by bit, she felt her eyes getting heavy. Terinas was saying something about relaxing and going to sleep, but she was barely listening. She just wanted to lay down and rest. The tiger pushed something against her mouth. She thought she heard him call it a pacifier, but she was too tired to care. She started to suckle on it, relaxing.

The kitten closed her eyes.

---

Terinas waited until he was sure the sphinx was asleep. He'd maneuvered her away from him while she was nursing, so that when he got up he wouldn't risk stirring her. He pushed himself up to his footpaws and took a few steps away from the slumbering sphinx to test if he was in the clear. After it elicited no response from her, he grinned, picked up his backpack, and walked towards the entrance to the Tomb of Set. Once he was inside, he patted himself off to clear off any sand he'd got on his clothing, and let out a sigh of relief.

"Sheesh, I can't believe that worked. Seriously, who makes a magical guardian and then doesn't give them mental resistances? I can't believe a mesmerization potion worked. I honestly thought she'd see through me and kill me. Thank the gods I've drank enough of that stuff on accident to build up a tolerance." He grumbled. "Hopefully getting all the way down into the tomb doesn't take too long. Once she wakes up, that potion will have worn off, and she'll be pissed." Talking to himself had become a habit after such a long time traveling on his own. "I only wanted to look around. Sheesh."

The stairs down lay before him. He lit a torch and began to descend. After a few steps, he stopped. "...and now that I think of it, how terrible is it to give a creature sentience and then never give it a chance to live a life? Sheesh, Set really was a monster of a god, wasn't he? Then again, guess I'm one to talk." He gritted his teeth and went down.

And down.

And down further still.

Time lost all meaning as he descended.

Until he reached the bottom. He hoped it was still night. As he stepped into the chamber that the stairs led to, Terinas' eyes went wide. "Wait, what am I looking at here?!?"

---

The kitten opened her eyes, feeling the sun beating down on her. She felt wet down between her legs. She guessed the milk had gone through her and leaked out. Good thing cousin had put her in diapers! She spit out the pacifier that she'd been suckling on and looked up, letting her ball roll away from her as she did.

"Cousin?" She stretched her body, standing up with a crinkle. Her diaper was all yellow in front now.

The tiger was nowhere to be seen, though. The guardian blinked, and then looked at the pawprints leading up to the entrance to the tomb of Set.

"Waaait a minute..." she murmured, before figuring it out. And snarling.

---

"YOU BASTARD!" Amenset screamed as she saw the tiger finally exit the tomb, leaping down from the roof of the ruins at him, with a faint crinkle obscured by the sound of her screaming curses at him. She hadn't grown back to her enormous size. She hadn't even taken off his absurd crinkly undergarment. She wanted him to see her just as she had been when he left her. She wanted to make sure he recalled exactly what he'd done to her, and realized how angry she was about it.

The tiger whirled around when he should have ran, eyes wide. "Oh gods, forgot about y-" He never got a chance to finish that sentence. Amenset slammed into him, knocking him on the ground and pinning his front paws with hers. She growled, looking at his throat. "You actually- I can't believe I actually fell for- Trickster! Deceiver! BASTARD!" She pushed her claws out, letting them dig into his wrists.

She heard Terinas cry out in pain, which gave her a bit of satisfaction. She saw red blossoming from his wrists. "Ok! Ok! Yeah, I'm a bastard!" he spat out, wriggling beneath her furious frame. "But you had fun with it, right?!?" He whimpered, as he felt her digging deeper into his flesh. "Look, I could have just left you there in a stupor, right? Or tried to stab you when you were at my mercy. I played with you! I showed you a good time! You didn't even know what a toy was!" He gave her a sheepish grin. "Come on, surely that's worth the price of entry, right? Right?!?"

Amenset hissed. "I can't believe you're trying to wiggle out of this, 'cousin'." She spat in his face. "The rules were simple! You answer my riddle, you get in. You deliberately tricked me to sneak in and plunder the treasures of the tomb for yourself! Ugh, did you really think I wouldn't be-" She snarled. "No more words. I'm devouring you right now." She bared her fangs at him, ready to dart in and strike a final blow.

"THERE WAS NO TREASURE!" Terinas bellowed out.

She stopped. "...what?" Her face went blank.

"There wasn't anything down there! At all! You're guarding absolutely NOTHING!" he wiggled against her grip. "No traps, no treasure, not even a corpse! Haven't you ever been down there before?!?"

She resumed snarling. "Stupid bluff."

"No no no it's not a bluff!" Terinas' eyes teared up. "I swear! Go down there and look if you don't believe me!" He took a deep breath. "Look, I know I tricked you. But look at yourself! You don't sleep! You don't drink! You've never eaten anything beyond the people who came here! You didn't even know what a toy was!" He looked over at the pooling blood from his right wrist and flinched. "But Set created you capable of all those things! He made you alive, and never let you LIVE!" he looked over towards the tomb. "Don't you owe it to yourself to at least find out if all that deprivation wasn't all just for a lie?"

Amenset narrowed her eyes at him, gazing into his. He didn't blink back. In her mind, the urge to kill wrestled with the fires of curiosity that the tiger had kindled in her. She snarled, gritting her teeth. One side won out. "FINE!" She shouted up into the air, to no one in particular. "We'll go down there. Together. You go down first. If you try anything suspicious, or if you're lying, then I eat you. If you're telling the truth... well, maybe your punishment will be less severe." She pulled up away from him, never letting him leave her range of vision. She had to be sure he wouldn't escape.

"Oh thank the GODS." Terinas stood up, grabbing a bandage from his backpack and wrapping it around his bleeding wrist. Amenset allowed him a moment to staunch the bleeding before the two went down into the Tomb.

At the bottom, Amenset's eyes widened. There was nothing. The stairs opened up into an empty, rectangular room. There were no engravings. There was no gold inlaid into the walls. No glistening jewels. No works of art. Not even a sarcophagus. She fell on her butt, with a faint crinkle. "I don't... I don't understand." Her eyes started to get moist. "Why?!?"

Terinas looked away. "Satisfied?"

"No." She hissed. "This is a trick. It h-has to be. An illusion of some kind."

Terinas' ears fell flat. "If I could make illusions, why wouldn't I have just used one to trick you up above? Instead of, you know, all the stuff we did. I'm not a magic user." He put his paws in the pockets of his pants. "Well, not good enough of one to do all this. Look around if you don't believe me."

She glared at him. "You first." She watched as he walked into the room, stepping on tiles in the floor, poking at walls, and so forth. After a few moments of watching, she followed him. The guardian sphinx felt the stone against her paws. She tested every wall for any hidden doors. She dug at the floor for any secret panels. She even had the tiger push against the ceiling. Both of them discovered nothing to indicate they were in anything other than an empty, rectangular room.

The guardian had nothing to guard.

She hung her head, sobbing. She had spent so long that she'd lost track of the time, without purpose. She had been obedient. She'd never questioned her orders. And she had been deceived. The tiger stood nearby as she cried, looking away and saying nothing. After a few moments, he reached out and put a paw on her right shoulder. "I'm sorry." He said. The words felt hollow to her ears.

After a few more moments, he coughed and cleared his throat. "So, uh, what are you going to do to me?"

She closed her eyes, sniffling, and fell silent. She needed time to think. To sort through all the feelings she had. But she had no time. Not if she wanted to keep the Trickster around for his proper justice. So she made a decision. And hoped she would not live to regret it.

"I will not kill you." Her words were dull. Devoid of emotion.

The tiger sighed in relief. "Oh thank the GODS!" He turned to the exit. "So I'll just be going now-"

"Your punishment is that I'm coming with you. There are settlements, correct? Gatherings of your people. You're going to take me to one. At least to one. If I'm no longer a guardian of the tomb, then I'm going to find a new purpose. Somewhere. And I won't find one all alone out in the desert." She looked up. "And someone has to make sure you stay HONEST."

Terinas rubbed his back and swallowed, nervously. "Y-yeah. Sure. We'll be traveling buddies. Not a problem."

"And remember." She narrowed her gaze to watch him squirm. "I only sleep when I want to." She smirked as the tiger squirmed. "So no sneaking off."

She started waddling towards the stairs. "So let's go now, Terinas." She started up the stairs, and then turned. "And don't get the wrong idea, but... thank you. Not for being a bastard, but for at least for being nice to me."

The tiger followed her. "So, if we're gonna be traveling together, I should probably warn you:L walking around with that yellow stain on a visible diaper is, uh, well..."

"I will also require you to change me, yes." She sighed, as the two of them climbed the stairs. It was going to be a long journey out of the desert, and they needed to get started sooner or later.

The End... for now?