In the ancient times of the desert, amidst the shifting sands and the relentless sun, there stood the Xubkhar Temple, a bastion of mysticism and reverence. It was guarded not by mortal sentinels but by Ap-Heru, a jackal born of divine essence, crafted by the hands of a pantheon akin to the gods of ancient Egypt.

Ap-Heru's existence was bound to the sacred duty of safeguarding the temple from the avarice of thieves and the malice of intruders. His form, adorned with the markings of divine ancestry, struck awe and fear into the hearts of those who dared to challenge the sanctity of the temple's grounds.

For ages uncounted, Ap-Heru stood vigilant, his senses sharp as the desert winds, his loyalty unwavering to the divine will that birthed him. He not only defended the temple but also embarked on quests bestowed upon him by the temple's priests, venturing into the depths of the desert to fulfill the will of his creators.

However, fate is a capricious force, and even the most steadfast guardians are not immune to its whims. One fateful day, as Ap-Heru returned from a mission fraught with peril, the earth beneath him trembled and convulsed. The sands themselves rose in revolt, swallowing the sacred edifice whole, consuming the temple and all its glory in a cataclysmic upheaval.

Buried beneath the suffocating weight of the desert's embrace, Ap-Heru clawed and struggled, his divine sinews strained against the relentless tide of sand. When he emerged, battered and broken, from the depths of the earth, he found himself forsaken by the very gods who had fashioned him. In their eyes, his failure to protect the temple marked him as disposable, a mere relic of a bygone era.

Cast adrift in a world he no longer recognized, Ap-Heru found himself bound by mortality's shackles. No longer sustained by divine essence, he hungered and thirsted, his once eternal existence now subject to the frailties of flesh and bone.