Mice wander freely, snickering at the laziness of the cats dozing in and around Bastet's temple. Bastet herself is laid back on her favorite chaise and glassy-eyed, when a herald appears on the portico steps. "Pharaoh approaches."

Pharaoh appears momentarily, walking a careful path between dozing cats toward the goddess Bastet.

He mumbles, "I see you've appropriated my headdress again." He carefully slips it out from beneath her head.

Bastet protests, "Myaa—my neck pillow!"

Pharaoh chides her, "It is not a neck pillow. This striped headress, the nemes, is a symbol of my authority."

"Mrmph," she replies in dissatisfaction.

"Bastet," begins Pharaoh in a pleading tone, "Egypt in in peril, and the cats won't listen to me. Please, I beg of you, awaken Sekhmet to lead the cats into battle."

Bastet stretches. "Nyaoh, I'm too... cozy...." She rolls onto her side and curls into a ball before releasing a satisfied sigh of kitty contentment.

Pharaoh pleads. "Please, we need your divine aid!"

Bastet murmurs. "The mice can wait... napping takes priority..."

An aide runs in and whispers to Pharaoh, who turns to you.

"I am needed elsewhere. Please, find some way to rouse the warrior goddess Sekhmet from within Bastet. It is urgent. The mouse people ravage our food supply. Only Sekhmet can lead the cats of Egypt to victory." He sighs, "Or at all, really. You know what it's like trying to gain obedience from cats. It requires divine intervention."

Pharaoh places his hands firmly on your shoulders.

"I must go, but I'm counting on you. I leave Bastet in your care!"

Pharaoh casts a last desperate glance at Bastet's snoozing form and marches out of the temple, leaving Bastet to you, along with a slew of lounging African wildcats.