Short story: Bubastis, 1400 BC

For _silverfox, who chose the prompt ‘Cat’ on my writing meme. This is a loose prequel to the Triangle prompt fill, where I wrote about the Plagues of Egypt. Since tomorrow (Oct 31st) is, in addition to being Samhain/Halloween, also one of Bast's feast days (although she shares this one with Sekhmet and Ra) I thought this was a fitting time to post this. :D Although please note that the Festival of Bubastis would have taken place in middle April.
 
Historical/mythological notes: While Bubastis reached its peak during the 22^nd Dynasty, the Plagues were believed to have taken place during the reign of Ramses II, of the 19^th Dynasty; I rather doubt Gabriel and Bast had talked things out by then, so this takes place sometime during the early 18^th dynasty.  Since the entrance hall, festival hall and hypostyle hall of the Temple of Bast were only built during the 22^nd Dynasty, most of the celebration here is outdoors. Tanis did indeed have a famous royal wine-producing estate, known as ‘Preserver of Kemet’ (though admittedly I don’t know if it was actually during this time period). Maahes is a leonine Nubian war god who was assimilated into the Egyptian pantheon and considered Bast’s son. And there is actually very little evidence supporting large-scale Hebrew slavery, so I avoid referring to them as a nation of slaves here.
 
Meme: Cat aka Bubastis, 1400BC
 
 ( It should be made very clear that Gabriel was not drunk... )

~*~