The Doomed Prince

After years of prayers, a King of Egypt was blessed with a son. However, the Seven Hathors appeared at his birth and decreed a grim fate: the prince would die by a crocodile, a snake, or a dog. To defy destiny, the King built a secluded castle in the mountains to keep the boy safe from the world. As the prince grew, he grew restless. Seeing a man with a dog from his window, he begged his father for one, and the King, relenting, gave him a puppy, hoping a small dog could do no harm. Eventually, the prince left his confinement to travel to the land of Naharin. There, he disguised himself and won the hand of a princess by jumping seventy cubits to her window. Though his wife learned of the prophecy and tried to protect him, destiny closed in. She killed a snake that crawled toward him, but the prince's own loyal dog eventually chased him into a lake, where a crocodile awaited. The final fragment of the papyrus is lost, but the tale remains a haunting reflection on the nature of predestination.