Chapter 6
Mut sat up and assessed the damage. She had cuts and bruises to her legs, her dress was in tatters, there was a bite on her left calf, and a large chunk of feathers missing from her left wing. The wing was slowly oozing blood as were her legs. The boys had run off out through the window. This was not good, she had lost her grandchildren in the Duat.
Her husband, Amun, came down the stairs. “Love, what was that racket?” He asked her. As he got closer to Mut, and was able to see her, he amended his question. “What happened! Were you attacked, do I need to get weapons? Are you alright love?” He reached a hand down to his wife, and assisted her up. Mut took the hand of her husband, allowing him to help her up.
“It was our grandson.” She started, only to be cut off by Amun.
“Maahes?” The confused god asked. Why would he have done this to Mut, sure the lad had a bit of a temper, but he loved his family.
“No, you fool. Khonshu’s son. Sons.” She was cut off again.
“But our Khons does not have any chicks.”
“He adopted the child yesterday. I found the child lost and brought them here. They panicked, attacked, and ran off into the Duat. Now get your act together and go get our son!” Mut yelled at her husband.
“Bes? What will he do?”
“KHONSHU!”
“Oh, Right. I’ll just go and fetch him.” Amun vanished, knowing full well that he had better listen to his wife or he would end up sleeping on the futon for the next month.
—---------------
Sekhmet was taking a walk through the Duat, making sure that all was in order. She liked to take walks like these on occasion, they calmed her. She had a bit of an anger issue, so it was important for her to practice things that helped her remain calm. She usually didn’t encounter anything odd on her walks, however today she found the most peculiar thing.
Sekhmet caught sight of three boys sitting in the sands of the Duat. As she walked closer to the trio of identical boys she was able to see that they were souls, but not the typical kind of souls found in the Duat. What was unusual about them was that they were souls of the living, not the dead. They should not be in the Duat. And it appeared that they were making a sandcastle. How odd.
“Children, what are you doing?” the lioness goddess questioned the boys. They looked up from their sandcastle and looked at her. Huh, they did not seem startled at the appearance of a woman with the head of a lioness. These truly were some strange boys.
“It’s Sekhmet!” the leftmost boy called out. He seemed excited for some reason.
“Steven, didn’t you say she’s Khonshu’s sister?” the little boy on the right asked the middle child. It figures her little brother has something to do with this. He always seemed to have something to do with the unusual events in her life.
“She is! Think she can help us out? I’m kind of bored and want to go home.” The middle boy- Steven said.
“Well we can ask her. If she does anything bad, we can take her.” That was the boy on the left. Did he have blood on his face? Sekhmet hoped he wasn’t injured.
“How do you know Khonshu, and what kind of assistance do you require?” Sekhmet asked the children. She really needed to figure out what her brother had gotten up to this time.
Jake thought that this person seemed nice. She hadn’t made any move to approach them, and had given them their distance. He liked that. It gave him the chance to run if he needed to.
“Hi Auntie Sekhmet, my name’s Steven, that’s Steven with a V. Me, Marc, and Jake are Khonshu’s avatar! We don’t normally have three bodies, we normally only have one. Khonshu said we are aspects.” Steven proudly announced his status to Sekhmet. He liked her, she seemed funny. Jake seemed at ease with her and Steven trusted Jake. He was a pretty good judge of character. Usually. He may have missed the mark with their Grandmum.
“Steven, you forgot that he adopted us!” Jake admonished Steven.
“Oh yeah, Jake’s right. He’s also our new Dad.” Sekhmet blinked and stared at the boys. Her little brother had gone and adopted a triple aspect human child, and made them his avatar. Why in the world would he do that, a child couldn’t carry out his services, not properly at least.
“Khonshu saved us when SHE tried to kill us, he came and healed us, and took us to Yatzil. She’s nice, and she pinky promised times a thousand to protect us. Oh! My name’s Marc. Marc Khons Vasco.”
So her brother had somehow found a child on the brink of death, who was a triple aspect, and decided to make them his avatar in order to save their life. He then went on to adopt the children. And somehow the children wound up in the Duat, in separate bodies, without a single sign of Khonshu to be found. The children had said something about needing help and wanting to go home. Perhaps someone had kidnapped them? There was blood on the one boy’s- Jake’s- face.
“Jake, why do you have blood on your face?” Sekhmet asked her nephew.
“I bit grandmum, and the doctor! Oh, and people on the street. They were going to hurt us.” Jake announced with pride. He had done such a good job of protecting his brothers.
Sekhmet pondered what Jake had said. He had bitten Mut because she was going to hurt them? The boy surely had to have been mistaken, Mut would never hurt her family. The others he bit, well, they may have been trying to hurt him. How had they come to be with Mut? Were they visiting with Khonshu and become lost? Jake’s answer had not really provided her with any answers as to how they came to be here.
“Well, I always say it’s a good policy to bite first and ask questions later.” Sekhmet mumbled. She then licked her finger and used it to wipe the blood off the boy’s cheeks. He tried to wiggle away, but she pinned him down until she was done. She had experience doing this, he was going to have a clean face.
Jake’s face clean, Sekhmet decided to try one of the other boys for an answer. “Steven,” He seemed like a sensible and smart boy, “can you tell me how you came to be in the Duat?”
“It was completely bonkers! Declan, that’s Horus’s avatar, was giving us an exam, and found that we needed our meningitis jab. When he gave it to us, we got all fuzzy and forgot where we were and thought we were back in the bad doctor’s place again, so Jake bit him, and we ran off and kept running until we came upon the museum. We went into the museum to get off the street and to see the cool stuff, and when we were looking at the statue of Mut, she showed up. She took us to her home, and when we got there we were three, not one! And that made us panic, we thought she was gonna hurt us like that mean doctor from the bad place did, so we attacked her, and we ran away, and we walked through the Duat until we got bored. Then we made a sandcastle, and then you showed up.” Steven said all of this while gesturing wildly, as though he was acting out his story.
Sekhmet paused and soaked in what Steven had said. That was quite the story, and she was impressed with how much the little boy could talk. From what she gathered, the children panicked, attacked, and ran. Then Mut found them and took them to her home. The boys panicked again, attacked again, and ran again. She hoped that this was not a habit of the boys and that they were just having a bad day.
“My brother is going to have his hands full with you three. I believe that Anubis’s ship is not too far from here and should be passing by soon. It will be easiest for us to wait for the ship to arrive and to try to contact your father from aboard the ship.” She would have just opened a portal back to Mut’s home, and have Mut fetch Khonshu, however it could be tricky opening portals in the sands. She would not risk accidently opening a portal somewhere other than Mut’s home, not with her nephews. Anubis’s ship would be safer.
The boys nodded and Marc smiled. “Anubis is our godfather! He’ll be happy to see us.” Of course her brother went and made Anubis the godfather. Well, now the jackal had to help them.
“Wanna help with our sandcastle?” Marc asked her. Well, it wasn’t like the goddess had anything else to do while waiting. She settled down in the sand and joined the boys in the construction of their sandcastle.
——
Amun arrived in the mortal realm, landing in the place his son’s aura was strongest. Surveying his surroundings he found that he was in a mortal dwelling, a seating area of some sort. Two humans were in the room and seemed to be staring at him. Of course, they couldn’t see him, he was a god and thus invisible to mortals.
“Yatzil, who exactly is the god in your living room?” The male human asked the female. Perhaps they could see him after all.
“I’m not sure. Do you think we should call Hathor and Horus back?”
Right, it seemed that these humans had an affiliation with some of the other gods. Just his luck he ran into some of the only mortals who could see him. “ I’m Amun. I’m looking for my son, if you don’t mind.”
“Khonshu’s dad. Well, the chicken is a little busy right now.”
“Right, but as his father, I need to see him this instant. So, if you could just call him for me?” This was not working. The two mortals were just staring at him. Why weren’t they doing his bidding, as he commanded?
“OK then. Like I said, he is a little busy with an emergency.” The male informed Amun.
“But his mother told me to get him! Something about his kids? All I know is that if I don’t do what Mut says, I will be in the god house for months!” Why couldn’t the mortals understand how important it was for him to do as his wife wanted? Wait, why did the female mortal look like she was going to hurt him?
“You couldn’t have led with that?! HATHOR I NEED YOU” Owww, she was loud. How would Hathor help, he needed Khonshu.
Hathor appeared in the room, to the left of Yatzil. “Yes, what seems to be the issue my dear?” She hoped that her avatar was Ok and that she wasn’t in any pain. Perhaps she had called her because the boys had been found. “Amun, hello. What brings you here, we are a little busy right now.” She addressed the out of place god. Now was not the time for social calls.
“I need you to get Khonshu. That goose head there” she pointed at Amun “says that he has information on the boys, and needs to speak to Khonshu.”
Hathor turned to Amun. “Well why didn’t you say something to begin with? I’ll be right back with that old bird.” Hathor vanished, and headed to Khonshu.
“I am so confused.” Amun mumbled under his breath. Mortals were not what they used to be.
—--
Sekhmet saw the Barque approaching them. She stood up, and ushered the boys behind her. Reaching into her belt pocket, she pulled out a dagger and launched it at the ship. The dagger landed solidly on the door of the cabin with a loud thunk. The ship slowed to a stop, the noise alerting Anubis that something was amiss.
“Cool!” Jake exclaimed. “Can you teach me that?”
“Maybe when you're older.” That child was already biting people, the last thing he needed was to know how to throw knives.
Sekhmet headed to the ship, the boys following behind her like ducklings. She lifted each of them up and onto the deck before jumping on board herself. Finally, she would have someone responsible who could help her deal with her wild nephews. Now if only Anubis would get out of the cabin so that she could explain the situation to him and hand the children off to him. She really wanted to finish her walk, she was starting to feel stressed again.
Taweret heard sounds coming from the deck of the boat, so she walked out onto the deck to investigate. She was surprised to see Sekhmet and three little boys. Sekhmet looked kind of surprised to see her as well. She went to introduce herself to her guests but was stopped short by a scream.
“AHHHHHHH! Hippo!” Steven screamed in panic. Before him stood a giant gray skinned woman with the head of a hippo who was wearing ceremonial Egyptian robes. When Steven screamed, the hippo woman also screamed. Her ears flicked back and forth, and she threw her hands out in front of herself. Marc leapt in front of Steven to protect him from the Hippo woman.
Jake reacted to Steven’s shock and jumped at the hippo woman. He grabbed one of her arms and clung on. Jake then threw his legs up and over her arm so that he was hugging her arm tightly. He then did what had become his go to move, he bit her hard on the arm.
“AHHHHH” the hippo lady yelled as Jake bit her. Sekhmet ran up and grabbed Jake by the back of his shirt and pulled him off of the hippo woman. She held the boy in the air, as though he were a scruffed kitten.“For the love of Ra! Jake, this is Taweret, She is the goddess of women and Childbirth. Why did you bite her?”
“She scared Steven!” Jake yelled as he struggled to get away from Sekhmet’s grip. He wasn’t having much luck. She had raised Maahes and she knew how to deal with unruly cubs like Jake.
“That is not a reason to bite her. Now apologize.”
Jake scrunched up his face and pouted. He did not want to apologize to the mean hippo lady. But he did not think that his aunt was going to let him down until he apologized.
“Sorry Tempura.”
“Taweret Jake.”
“Right, Tartan.”
“Taw-er-et.”
“Tam-pon”
This earned him a glare from the lioness goddess.
“Tar-pit”
“Jake” Sekhmet growled.
“Sorry Taweret.”
“Good boy.” Sekhmet put him back down and he ran back to his brothers and glared at the goddess. He didn’t like her anymore.
“Taweret, where is Anubis?” Not that Sekhmet thought that Taweret couldn’t help them, but Anubis was their godfather. He would be more helpful. And it was his responsibility, as godfather, to deal with his annoying godchildren. She had dealt with enough for the day, thank you very much.
“ Oh, he got called away by Khonshu. Some emergency. Said not to bother him unless it was an emergency.”
“Could you call him?” She asked the goddess.
“But he said-”
“Taweret, I think that this qualifies as an emergency. Call him.”
Taweret blinked and flicked her ears. “Anubis! It’s an emergency” she bellowed. The boys covered their ears. Taweret was loud, she did not know the meaning of quiet.
_____
Khonshu and Anubis were running up the road, towards a museum. Anubis said that he had scented the boys, and that they had been this way. The two gods were about to enter the museum to continue their search when Hathor appeared in front of them. They were forced to come to a sudden halt lest they collide with the goddess.
“Hathor, move. We are on the path of the boys.” Khonshu hissed.
Hathor rolled her eyes at her friend. He did not intimidate her. “Your father is at Yatzil’s. Something about the boys.”
Khonshu cocked his head at Hathor. What in the realms? “What do you mean, Hathor?”
“Yatzil said that he has information on the boy’s whereabouts.”
“What do you think Anubis?”
“The scent here is old- it is possible that your father has better information. Go. I will continue to investi-OWWW.” The jackal winced and rubbed his temple.
“Anubis?” Khonshu questioned. His friend looked to be in pain.
“Taweret. I told her to call if there was an emergency, and apparently there is an emergency. I have to return to the Barque. I’m sorry my friend.”
“I understand. Hopefully there hasn’t been an uprising of the souls in your absence.”
“Please don’t remind me of that. I will try to return as soon as I can.” Anubis vanished, headed back to the Barque and the Duat.
—-----
Isis decided to use her magic to track Khonshu's wayward avatar. She cast a simple spell that provided her with the location of all living beings within a five mile radius that Khonshu had last interacted with. She then narrowed the spell down so that it would pinpoint the smallest being; that small creature obviously being his avatar. She locked in on the location of the little one and headed towards them. They seemed to be moving around a lot. They were probably still panicked and running around.
The tracking spell led Isis to a park bench not far from Yatzil’s home. Isis did not see the child, but her spell told her that he was here. She concentrated harder, and realized that the boy was under the bench. She carefully crept up and peeked under, not wanting to scare him. Under the bench she did not find a boy, but she found a bedraggled pigeon. Oh, the poor boys must have had some sort of magic mishap and turned themselves into a pigeon; no wonder they were so frightened. Isis scooped the bird up and headed to Yatzil’s home, glad that she could return Khonshu’s child to him.
—---
Khonshu appeared in Yatzil’s living room, Hathor not far behind him. Sure enough, his father was there, looking confused as to exactly what was going on. He was sure his mom had something to do with this.
“Why are you here, Dad? Where are my boys?” The last bit was said sharply. He would not forgive his father if he had dragged him away from a lead, and he had no idea where the boys were. From the looks of it, Yatzil would probably kill the god with her bare hands.
“Right. Well you mother said that she found your children- congrats on that by the way, when were you going to tell us”
“DAD!”
“All right, well she found them somewhere, and took them to the house. But for some reason they attacked her and ran off into the Duat. You know you really should work on discipline, they beat her up pretty bad-”
“Did you just say that my children are in the Duat” Yatzil ground out.
“Umm, yes? But I thought they were Khonshu’s?”
“I am going to skin you alive!”
“Khonshu, are you going to let her talk to me like that!” Amun was shocked, since when were mortals so bold?
“I will help her.” His son said.
“I will hide the body. Those are my Grandchildren.” Hathor chimed in.
“Aww, that’s so sweet Hathor! But let’s talk about that after we deal with the god who lost our boys.”
Amun was afraid. He was sincerely afraid for his life. They were inching closer to him and the three had this look on their faces. He was going to die.
A loud bang from the entryway distracted the angry trio. Amun tried to slip away, but the mortal woman grabbed his arm and held tight. Oww. Right, he was staying put.
Isis ran into the room, looking quite proud of herself. She held something in her hands with great care. “I have found them!” the goddess announced to the room. She then opened her hands and revealed…
“Isis, that is a pigeon.” Yatzil stared at the angry bird.
“How did that thing find me again!? It was harassing me this morning, get it away from me!” Khonshu shrieked. The pigeon fluttered out of Isis’s hands, crapped on the floor, and landed on top of Khonshu’s skull. It stuck its head in his eye socket and cooed. The annoyed god batted the bird away from him.
“I think perhaps I should have specified the smallest human being when I cast the tracking spell, not the smallest living being…I thought that the children had run afoul of some magic.” Isis looked at the pigeon who was attempting to get back onto Khonshu. “I will clean up the mess.” She offered in a way of apology.
“Forget it! We’re all going to Mother’s and she will be taking us to the boys!” Khonshu yelled as he pulled the occupants of the room, pigeon included, to Mut’s house.
—----
Anubis appeared in the captain’s cabin of the Barque. Nothing was on fire, which was a good sign. However, he could hear yelling coming from the deck of the ship. Something about tampons and tar pits? He sighed, sounded like Taweret had an unruly one. He wouldn’t necessarily consider a restless soul an emergency, but perhaps there was more to the story. Or Taweret had panicked. Anubis opened the door to the deck, fully prepared to be met by chaos, he just was not expecting the chaos that he found.
Three very familiar boys, Sekhmet, and Taweret stood on the deck. It sounded like the start of a bad joke. And perhaps it was, given all the trouble the boys had gotten up to today. One of the boys was being held aloft by Sekhmet and was calling Taweret names. Sekhmet seemed to be at her rope's end with that one, she growled at him and he finally apologized to Taweret. Though Anubis did not miss the little tongue he stuck out at Taweret once Sekhmet had let the boy go. What exactly was happening on his ship?
“Taweret, I left you for a few hours. Why is there a little boy tormenting you?” he asked the goddess. His question drew the little boys attention to him, and they scampered over to him.
“Anubis! You’ll save us from the mean ladies.” the feisty one who had been teasing Taweret said. Anubis was unsure how exactly Khonshu’s boys, his godchildren, had ended up in the Duat, but he was sure it had something to do with this little one in particular.
“Right, first names. I have only met you as one, not three.” He needed to keep them straight.
“Steven!”
“Jake” The naughty one. He’d have to keep an eye on that one.
“Marc”
“Ok. Now, why are you in the Duat?” he asked the children.
“Granny Mut found us lost. She brought us to her house. We got scared.” Steven said.
“We thought she was going to hurt us. Jake bit her and I choked her.” Perhaps he had to keep an eye on both Marc and Jake.
Steven continued the story.“I ripped out a bunch of feathers and made her scream.” Scratch that, Anubis had to keep a careful eye on all three of them. Of course his friend picked a violent bunch.
“Then we ran away.” Marc added.
“But we got lost in the sands. And bored.” Jake stated.
“So we made a sandcastle and then Auntie Sekhmet found us and helped us with the castle.” Anubis would have paid to see that.
“And then she helped us on the ship and I bit the tarado hippo.”
“Jake!” Sekhmet growled at the little boy. They were not starting this again.
Anubis sighed. It seemed like the children had managed to have quite the eventful day. At least they were safe now. And soon he would be able to return them to their father, at Yatzil’s home.
“Right. We will be heading back to your home shortly, understand? When we get you back to your father and mother, we will be having a little talk about your behavior with Taweret, Jake. And your language, don’t think I didn't know that was a swear word. Sekhmet, please stay on the ship and help Taweret. I will be back as soon as I can. Again, call for me if it is an emergency.” Anubis scooped the three boys up into his arms and portaled them back to their home, the mortal world.
He arrived in Yatzil’s living room with one child. The boys three souls had merged back into their singular body once they had re-entered the mortal world. He set the little boy down and looked around. The room was something of a mess. There was blood on the floor in several places, bandages tossed on the floor, a table tipped over. Bird poop and feathers littered the floor, for some reason. The house was quiet, there was no one there.
“Uncle Anubis, where is my mommy and daddy?” the little boy asked, tears glistening in his eyes. Great, he had returned the child but Khonshu and the others were nowhere to be found. Looks like he was going to be babysitting for a bit longer than he anticipated.