Sphinxlets

They were the only two of their kind, and as they did not like each other very much, their relationship was volatile.  The result was three babies.  Their mother called them Empress, Pharaoh and Deity.  Their father left before they were born.  He knew they existed, however, and he intended to visit them when he had time.

Empress’s first words were, ‘I’m bored.’  A few days letter she said, ‘Why can’t we ever do anything?’

‘Our task is to stay here,’ her mother, the Egyptian Sphinx, said, ‘and watch over these people.’

Empress turned her nose up at this, and went to play-fight with Deity.  Deity, being the smallest, knew that she had no hope of winning and every chance of getting hurt.  She folded her wings and took refuge in a cave cut into the landscape.  Empress tried to dig her out with her paw.

Pharaoh, who had already grown to almost twice the size of his sisters, climbed onto his mother’s head and looked down on all the people beneath them.

‘Who are they?’ he asked.

‘Human beings,’ his mother said.  ‘They are the third greatest creatures of this world, beneath us and cats.  We are greater than both, because we are both of them, and more.  Cats can look after themselves, but humans are too stupid, so they have turned to me to protect them.  Will you help me, little king?’

‘Of course, Mother,’ said Pharaoh.  ‘They are very funny.  May I play with them?’

‘No, dear,’ said his mother.

‘But of course,’ a deep and resonating voice said, ‘you may play with them.  Mind first, then body.  It is great fun to watch them squirm, in every sense of the word.’

‘Oh,’ said the Egyptian Sphinx, with no more than a cursory glance at her ex-mate.  ‘It’s you.  Well, I don’t know that we have time for you.’

‘Humph,’ said the Greek Sphinx, slumping to the ground.  ‘I didn’t come to see you.  I came to think about things.’

‘What things?’ asked Empress.  ‘Do you kill those human things, Father?’  (This correct address was an educated guess.)  ‘You don’t protect them, like Mother?’

‘Certainly not,’ the Greek Sphinx said, ‘because I cannot forgive them for being stupid.  Besides, what’s a bit of worship in return for being nice to them?  I don’t need them to tell me I’m wonderful!  Better to kill them before they even bother trying to ask favours of one.’

‘Why don’t you, then?’ asked Deity, peeking out from the darkness of her cave.

‘Well,’ said her father, ‘because I’ve always said I’d let them go if they could answer my riddle.  And now they all seem to know it!  It’s common knowledge!  So-called “educators” in so-called “schools” try to make the nasty little ugly ones solve it, and when they can’t…’

‘They kill them!’ said Empress, her fur rising with excitement.

‘No,’ said her father.  ‘They tell them the answer!  Then usually they make the horrid little things draw revolting pictures of me… and I can’t even kill them, because by then they know my riddle!’

‘What is your riddle?’ asked Pharaoh.

‘Now, hold on,’ the Egyptian Sphinx said, before the Greek Sphinx could reply.  ‘You are not to kill them if they can’t answer it!’

‘Of course I won’t,’ said the Greek Sphinx.  ‘Well, children, the riddle is this: what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?’

Empress looked at him for a moment, then gave up at once.  Pharaoh thought about it for longer, then said, ‘That’s much too hard.  You shouldn’t kill them for not knowing that!  Poor little creatures,’ and he smiled down at the people below him.

‘Certainly not, if even a sphinx can’t answer it,’ the Egyptian Sphinx said.  ‘They’re only human.’

‘These sphinxes are babies,’ said the Greek Sphinx.  ‘They have not yet reached their full cleverness.’

‘I think I know the answer,’ said Deity, still in her cave.  ‘One has to work out that it’s a metaphor, doesn’t one?’

The Greek Sphinx scowled.  ‘A what-aphor?’

‘The words don’t mean exactly what they say,’ said Deity.  ‘I’ve got a better one, and it isn’t a metaphor at all - it means just what it says.  Here it is: what does a man do standing up, a woman sitting down, and a dog on three legs?’

‘Well, their thingies, of course,’ said the Greek Sphinx, blushing a little.

‘Apart from that,’ said Deity.

‘You’d have to let them off that,’ the Egyptian Sphinx said, ‘because you can’t deny that it’s true.’

‘I’ll say that, then,’ said the Greek Sphinx.  ‘I’ll ask the riddle, and then I’ll say apart from… you know.’  His blush deepened.

‘Wee-wees!’ said Empress.

‘Ahem…’

‘Oh, Father!’  Empress stretched out her front legs, held her tail high and flapped her wings.  ‘Let me go with you so that I can help ask the riddle!’

‘But you can’t!’ said Pharaoh, sliding down from his mother’s back.  ‘I won’t let you!  Do you want to fight about it?’

‘Do you?’ asked the Greek Sphinx, unsheathing his claws and spreading his wings to full span.

‘Peace, Pharaoh,’ said the Egyptian Sphinx.  ‘You can better protect the people without violence.’

‘Silly whelp,’ said the Greek Sphinx, turning away from his son.  ‘Come, daughter, we shall start our work anew with your sister’s riddle.  Will you join us, cave dweller?’

‘Not now,’ said Deity.

‘Come then, um…’

‘Empress, Father!’ said Empress, beating her little wings, and taking off after her father as he flew towards the setting sun.

‘Those poor people!’ said Pharaoh.  ‘Oh, Mother, how can you let them?’

‘My dear,’ said the Egyptian Sphinx, ‘it is not for us to upset the balance of -’

‘Don’t get too worked up about it, you two,’ said Deity, slinking out of her cave and then settling down to sleep by her mother’s flank.  ‘After all, they flew off without waiting to find out the answer.’