Chapter 7
Selim and Hana were rushed to the hospital in the ambulance. Once they arrived at the Hospital, Doctors began treating Selim fairly quickly. Hana was ushered to the waiting room. The room was surprisingly empty, only a few others were in the room as well. She took a seat on one of the hard plastic seats, and waited for news on her friend.
In the treatment room, the nurse cut the sweater off of Selim, along with his shirt and pants. Another took his temperature, which read 40.5 degrees celsius. “We need to get his temperature down before he starts seizing.” the doctor said. An IV was poked into his arm, and vials of blood were taken from him. He was draped with wet towels and had fans pointed at him, to start cooling him off. One nurse unceremoniously shoved an ice pack between his legs, two more ice packs were placed under his arms.
Back in the waiting room, Osiris and Horus ran up to Hana. The usually unflappable Osiris was looking frazzled, his worry for Selim evident on his face. “Where is he, how is he, what’s happening to him?” The panicked god babbled at Hana.
“Calm down. I will go see to him.” Horus shoved the other god into the seat next to Hana. “Stay! You will be of no use in your state. I will come for you when I am done.” Horus walked to the treatment rooms, where he could sense Selim. The man was half conscious, and the doctors and nurses were working to cool him off.
Horus sighed. Selim having been brought to the hospital made things all the more complicated. He would need to heal the man in such a way that the medical practitioners were not suspicious of his fast healing. He decided on a staggered healing, he would slowly heal the man, and make it seem like his condition hadn’t been as severe as originally thought. It wasn’t too difficult for him, and only half an hour later Selim was wide awake and his vitals were back to normal. The doctors figured that the thermometer must have been defective, and that he had simply had a syncopal episode. It was decided, after two more hours of observation, that the man could be released.
Three hours later the group left the hospital. Selim was wearing a shirt and pair of scrub pants that the hospital had provided him. Osiris was giving his avatar a lecture about the importance of dressing for the weather, and Hana was calling for a cab. She had decided that it was best for them to return to Yatzil’s home. They could regroup there, and see if any progress had been made on the location of the boys.
Horus could not help himself, and he just had to poke fun at Selim. “You make the third avatar I’ve had to heal today. But you are the only one who was felled by wool.”
“Whatever, let’s just get back to Yatzil’s, alright?” Selim was not in the mood. He was tired, anxious, and stressed. He felt bad that he may have endangered the hunt for the boys all because he didn’t bother to take his sweater off. Yatzil was his friend, he didn’t want to let her down.
“The cab is on its way. We should be back at Yatzil’s within half an hour. Once we get there, we will figure out our next steps. I tried calling the others, but they aren’t picking up their phones. For all I know, they have already found the boys and that’s why they aren’t answering, too busy with the boys.”
The cab pulled up and rolled to a stop. Selim, Hana, Osiris, and Horus piled in and started the journey back to their friend’s home.
—---
Tefnut, being the goddess of moisture and rainfall, naturally gravitated to the damper places in her search. She and Maya looked in every street drain, every sewer hole, puddle, and pond for any traces of the boys. They found rubbish, rats, coins, and a single stiletto but not a single sign of the boys.
Their lack of progress was exactly why, at 2 in the morning, the duo were walking down the bank of the River Thames. Tefnut was sensing for any humans in the river, and pulling them up as she found them. So far she had found a severed arm, a four hundred year old skeleton, the bottom half of a man, a foot, a thousand year old skull, a bloated corpse, and a small handful of miscellaneous bones. Each remain that she found she would place on the bank of the river, and then she would move on.
Tefnut pulled up another bloated body, this time of what appeared to be a man. Maya sighed; they were getting nowhere doing this. She didn’t think that they were going to find the boys in the river. “This is pointless. They aren't there. And besides, wouldn’t Khonshu know if they had suffered a… final fate?”
Tefnut stared at Maya, the remains that she had just pulled out of the water floating in mid-air. She dropped them to the ground with a squelch.
“I had completely forgotten that. But yes, we can discontinue this search. What should I do with them?” She asked, gesturing to the morbid line up of remains.
“Eh, just leave them there. We probably solved some missing persons’ cases. Give the families some closure. We should do this more often now that I think about it, be nice to help out the families.”
“Of course, we certainly can do this again! It also cleans the water. Should we head back to Yatzil’s and regroup?”
“Let’s”
—---
Khonshu and the others landed in the anteroom of Mut’s home. Amun, Isis, Hathor, Yatzil, and Declan were all in varying states of confusion, none of them had expected Khonshu to pull all of them to Mut’s home. While they were all invested in the return of Marc, the presence of everyone was not strictly necessary. Khonshu could probably have made do with just Yatzil, Amun, and perhaps Hathor.
Khonshu stormed up to his mother. The goddess was standing by the stairs, staring at the mishmash of individuals who had appeared in her home. Her son’s rage and anger she understood, but why did that mortal woman look like she was going to flay someone? And why was Hathor glaring?
“Mother.” Khonshu thrust his staff at her, to punctuate his anger. “Where are my children?”
“Well, you see-”
“WHERE ARE THEY!” He screamed.
“They panicked and ran into the duat!” Her son did have a temper, better just get it over and tell him the truth.
Khonshu was silent, disturbingly silent. No one in the room spoke, they were all somewhat afraid to say the wrong thing and invoke the wrath of Dadshu.
‘COOO’ A loud bird coo broke the silence. Mut looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the bird. ‘COO’. It seemed to be coming from her son?
Khonshu opened his beak, and a pigeon shot out. The bird fluttered madly, and flew straight into Mut’s face. Mut screamed and flailed at the pigeon. The pigeon fluttered away from her, and flew out the still open window into the Duat.
“That is one weird bird.” Declan commented on the strange bird’s behavior.
Isis turned to the man. The goddess had a mischievous grin. “Khonshu or the pigeon?” she asked. Both were weird birds, that much was true. At least Khonshu had an excuse, he was worried for his children, and his parents were odd ones. The pomegranate didn’t fall far from the tree. The pigeon, well, it was just weird.
“Mother, am I understanding you correctly? You had my boys and lost them in the cursed desert? Have you even tried finding them? And what were they doing here in the first place!?”
Mut was not having a good day. First her new grandchildren attacked her, then a pigeon attacked her, and now her son was admonishing her. Honestly, she had only done what she had thought was best. And Khonshu had lost them first.
“I found them in the mortal realm, lost. I brought them here as I thought it would be a safe place to stay until you could fetch them. But when we arrived I found that they had split into three bodies. The little ones became feral and attacked me. One of them-Stevie?”
“His name is Steven.” Yatzil snapped at Mut.
“Ahh, yes, Steven ripped out a fist full of feathers while Marc choked me and Jake bit me!”
“Good for them.” Yatzil told the goddess. Honestly, what had she been thinking, taking the children into another dimension? Anything could have happened to them! She should have called for Khonshu, or taken the boys to Khonshu. That would have been the responsible thing to do. But no, she just had to drag them to the Overvoid, causing them to split into three bodies and have their second panic attack of the day. She was not making herself out to be grandmother of the year material. Yatzil had serious doubts that Mut would be allowed any unsupervised visits with the boys anytime soon, if ever again.
“Just who are you?” Mut did not know who this angry mortal woman was, but she did not enjoy the way that the woman was talking to her. In her day mortals respected the gods.
“I’m the boys mother. I adopted them.”
“She is also my avatar, making the boys my grandchildren by extension. Quite frankly Mut, I don’t appreciate the way you handled my grandsons, nor do I appreciate the way you are treating my avatar.”
Shit, Mut had misjudged that one. Hathor, despite being known as a benevolent goddess, also had a destructive side. This side typically only came out when her family was in danger. The last time her destruction was unleashed was when her father Ra had been threatened. Sekhmet had had to be sent to restrain Hathor in the end. The incident is simply referred to as Hathor’s rage, and it still gave those involved nightmares. And now Mut had accidentally endangered the children that Hathor considered her grandchildren.
There was no way around it, Mut was doomed. She had better figure out a way to fix this, and quickly, before Hathor unleashed her rage again. Mut knew that if it came to that this time, it would be far worse than the last because this time her son would be right next to Hathor, waging war with her.
—---
Back at Yatzil’s home, Anubis was dealing with his godchildren. The boys were restless, and starting to get bored. Anubis found a box that produced moving pictures, he believed it was called a television. He pushed at random buttons until the box turned on, a show featuring a strange Doctor and a blue box started playing. Dr. Who, the title said. The boys sat down in front of the box and started watching. Good, they were occupied now.
Anubis grabbed a book off of the bookshelf and settled into one of the chairs. He cracked open the book, ‘The Keeper of the Lost Names’. He delved into the book while keeping an eye on the little boy, ensuring that he didn’t wander off or get bored or something. He remembered how much trouble Kebechet could be when she was their age, she would get into the most ridiculous situations if she was left alone for more than five minutes. Anubis had a feeling that these boys were worse than Kebechet had ever been. There were three of them, for starters. And they had managed to get lost in the Duat. His daughter had never done that.
Thankfully, it seemed that their entire attention was on the show playing on the box. Anubis was able to focus on the book, and relax. He became so relaxed that his eyes slowly started to drift shut, his entire body relaxed. He had had a long week. A series of natural disasters followed by some man made disasters had him working overtime on the barque, aiding souls. Then his friend acquired a child. Then said friend lost the child. And then said child ended up on his ship, with Taweret and Sekhmet. Which led to him being here.
So, you really couldn’t blame him for drifting off. He hadn’t slept in about seventy-two hours, and the chair was cushy. It was fine, the boys were entertained, and he would hear them if anything happened. That was a certainty, his Jackal ears ensured he would hear everything, even in his sleep.
—---
The cab pulled up to Yatzil’s house and the group piled out of the back seat. Hana charged the fare to her credit card, adding a tip for the man. She thanked him and headed towards her friend’s home, Selim, Osiris, and Horus right behind her. She opened the front door and called out.
“Hello?” She did not hear anyone respond to her call. All she could hear was the TV, and loud snoring. What was going on? Where was everybody, and who was sleeping? Hana couldn’t imagine any of her friends falling asleep at a time like this, not when the boys were missing. Was there someone else in the house?
Hana followed the sound of the snores, Selim, Horus, and Osiris right behind her. The sound seemed to be coming from the sitting room, where the TV was playing what sounded like Dr. Who. Hana peeked her head past the doorframe to see what was in the sitting room. She was surprised to see Anubis out cold in the sitting chair, a book forgotten on his lap and a small stream of drool trickling from his mouth. He was the one who was snoring. Even more surprising was the fact that Marc was sitting on the floor, a plate of cakes next to him, watching Dr. Who.
“Oh, thank Isis. You are safe. And, wait, are you watching the weeping angels episode! Nope, turning that off.” Hana quickly turned the TV off. She would not be responsible for the boys having nightmares about murderous angel statues. The little boy looked at her and pouted with a frosting-covered face.
“We were watching the telly!..I want to see how the man beats the monsters…Oye, ese fue un espectáculo divertido. ¿Por qué lo apagaste?
The three boys switched rapidly, upset that she had turned the inappropriate show off on them. “That show is not for children. If, and only if, your mom says that you can watch it then you can finish the episode another time. Until then, I will put on something else. OK? And just how much cake did you eat?”
“Not that much.” Steven answered in his little British voice.
“How much did Jake and Marc eat?”
“Alot.”
Great, they would be getting a sugar high anytime now. Hana turned the TV back on, and flicked the channel to a children’s show. It was some sort of superhero cartoon about a dog. Suppermutt, or something silly like that. She figured that this would keep the boys entertained for the time being.
Horus wandered over to the still sleeping Anubis and poked him with his staff. Anubis jolted awake, and looked around the room in confusion. He was starting to fall back asleep when Horus poked him again, causing him to wake the rest of the way up.
“Wha? Whas goin on?” The exhausted god asked.
Horus was finding Anubis’s confusion entertaining. Typically the god was quite composed, it was rare to catch him off guard like this.
“Sleeping on the job, were you?” Horus teased the other god.
“What, I’m not working…OH RA! The boys!” The god jumped up and looked around, frantic to find his godsons. Khonshu would turn him into a Jackal pelt rug if anything happened to those boys on his watch. Thankfully, he quickly spotted them in front of the box that played shows. A woman, Isis’s avatar he believed, was with them. He also saw Osiris and his avatar, Selim in the room.
“Having a little nap, hmm? How did you even wind up here, with those trouble makers?” Osiris joined the two other gods. He was curious as to how Anubis had come to be here with the boys. Out of all the gods and avatars searching for them, how was it that he was the one to find them?
“They were on my boat with Taweret and Sekhmet.”
“What? How in the world- Oh dear, please don’t tell me that they died!?” Hana was alarmed when she heard the jackal god say that the boys had been on his boat. His boat was where he greeted the souls of the dead, where he weighed their hearts and led them to the field of reeds, or cast them to the cursed sands.
Selim was also concerned for the boys. He didn’t think that it was possible for any living being to enter the Duat. Even if it was possible for the living to enter the Duat, the desert was cursed. Osiris had told him about it, it was a haunting place. Many demons roamed the sands, demons that wouldn’t hesitate to hurt an innocent child. The sands trapped the damned souls of the dead, forming grotesque statues that dotted the desert. There was no water, no shade. It was a terrifying place for anyone, and he could not imagine a child ending up there.
“No, it was nothing of the sort. Boys, why don’t you explain how you wound up in the desert?” Anubis didn’t feel like telling the tale, and besides, he wasn’t even sure that he had the entire story himself. He was still a little foggy on how the boys had even ended up with Mut in the first place. Let them explain their adventure to the others. They would probably enjoy telling the tale of their grand adventure anyway.
“We ran and ran and ran until we wound up at the museum…We went in and looked at all the cool stuff and the mummies, and the statues, and stuff. There was a statue of Grandmum, she came and got us, and brought us to her flat…But when we got to her flat there were three of us, and it scared us…Así que ataque a la vieja murciélago y la mordí porque quería matarnos!...Right, like Jake said, he bit her and then I choked her…I ripped her feathers out…We jumped through the window and ran…corrió muy lejos…Until we got tired so we stopped for a jiffy…So we made a sandcastle…hice un ángel de arena…Auntie Sekhmet found us…She played with us until Uncle Anubis’s barque came…She threw a knife it was so cool!...Ci…We got on the boat but Uncle Anubis wasn’t there…It was a mean Hippo… I bit her…Jake called her lots of funny names…Then Uncle Anubis came…And we came home!”
The three gods and two avatars stared at the little boy. Marc, Steven, and Jake bounced back and forth like a ping pong ball during that conversation, to the point that the only way to tell them apart was their accents. The boys’s body was practically vibrating, and they had a cookie in their hand, which was quickly stuffed into their mouth. Just how much of a sugar high were they riding?
“That sounds like quite the adventure. How about we never do it again, yea?” Selim could not take the chaos of these children. He did not envy his friend, he could only imagine the sort of insanity that they would get into. Not even a full day into having them, paperwork not even filled yet, and the boys had managed to get lost in London, and then again in the Duat. Their response? Tour a museum and build a sandcastle with cursed sands. Selim should probably get to work on that paperwork so that he could get it filed before Yatzil changed her mind. Or, more likely, before the boys managed to get lost in an alternate dimension. He wouldn't put it past them at this point.
“It’s starting to get late. It’s already six o’clock. Do you think we should attempt getting them to take a bath, and go to bed at some point?” Horus was fairly certain that most mortal children bathed at night. He was also fairly certain that most went to bed at some point after the sunset. However, his exposure to children was limited, so perhaps the others would have a better idea.
“Unfortunately, we probably should try and get them clean. They are rather sandy. And at some point we should try to get them to go to sleep. Not sure how that’s going to work out.” Hana eyed the jittery boy, who had clearly had too much sugar.
“Bath? NO BATH!” Marc shouted, and ran down the hallway. Hana sighed, and chased after him.
“I got you some bubble bath! You can use that! Get back here!” She ran after the little boy, determined to not lose track of him. She was not going to lose the boy so soon after they had found him, not over a bath. “I’ll let you have another cookie!”
“Biscuit and Bubbles!” Steven darted out of Yatzil’s music room, stripping his clothes off as he dashed to the bathroom. He was already down to his underpants, which were quickly ripped off and tossed behind him, landing on Hana’s head. She was pretty sure that he had done that on purpose.
Osiris chuckled at Hana’s current predicament. “Another cookie, really? How is that going to help? They’re never going to sleep now.”
Hana glared at him. “Shut up and help me get them in the tub. Knowing them, they’re going to flood the joint.” Osiris nodded at her, and the two entered the bathroom, prepared to face battle.
———
Khonshu and Hathor both appeared to be on the verge of murdering Mut and Amun, and Yatzil did not appear far behind them. Declan figured he should probably do something to deescalate the situation before he ended up dealing with the bodies of two dead gods.
“Alright everyone, let’s just take a moment and simmer down, lads and lassies. We are pretty close to finding the boys, we at least have a general location for them now. That’s more than we had an hour ago. Let’s all work together and figure out what our next steps should be.”
The three murderous beings still looked like they were out for blood, but at least Declan had managed to get them onto a different train of thought. One step at a time.
“Clearly the next step is to kill that buffoon who lost the boys!” Yatzil yelled and pointed at Mut. Mut backed away from the avatar, she was honestly quite frightening right now. Mut had never been afraid of a mortal before, but this one scared her.
“You know, I could pull the Userhetamon barque out and we could go look for the boys.” Amun spoke up for the first time since he had returned home with his son and the others. Everyone in the room, gods and avatars alike, turned to stare at him. “What?” Why were they staring, he had thought it was a good idea.
“Now you have an idea about how to help? You’ve been clueless all day! Get the bloody boat so we can find our grandkids!” Mut screamed at her husband. Honestly, he couldn’t have come up with that any earlier? They probably would’ve found the boys already if he had suggested that in the first place.
Amun ran outside. The Userhetamon was currently docked next to the house. It was a glorious golden ship, which had been gifted to him after he was named the king of deities. Amun decided that he’d get the ship rigged and pull it around so that everyone could climb aboard. He hoisted the sails and stationed himself at the wheel. He summoned a gust of air, and the ship surged forward. Amun steered it towards the front door, where he parked it. The door was flung open and the occupants of the house rushed out. Mut, Khonshu, Isis, Hathor, Yatzil, and Declan all clambered aboard the ship.
“What are you waiting for? Move that ship and find my sons!” Khonshu yelled at this father as he slammed his staff down, summoning a gust of wind. The ship jumped forward, and Amun quickly took over control of the air. His son’s control of the air was rather like his temper, abrupt and aggressive. Allowing Khonshu to power the trip would likely lead to a shipful of sand sick travelers.
“Here we come boys!” Yatzil called out into the expanse of the desert.
—---
After one hour, a minor flood, and more bribery, the boys were finally bathed. They had three more cookies (One for me, an one for Jake, an one for Marc! Steven had explained), brushed their teeth (Jake, you spit in the sink, not at Horus!), and changed into a pair of blue PJs. However, they were absolutely refusing to go to bed.
“I’m not tired… No, I’m not zonked, you are…Yo no tengo sueño!” They were chanting, over and over, switching between the three of them. I’m. Not.Tired. Currently they were running laps around the house, up and down the hallway, back and forth, back and forth. Every now and then they would jump up on the couch or chair, only to jump down and start running again. It was honestly exhausting and somewhat frightening to watch.
“Should we try and stop them?” Selim asked as the boys ran past him and dove under the end table.
“I don’t think we can. At some point they should run out of energy. I hope.” Hana eyed the boys with a little bit of fear. Jake was currently trying to climb the curtains. She made a mental note to check that her birth control was up to date. Those boys had scared her off of children for at least a good ten years, if not forever. She would stick with fish for the time being, thank you very much.
“I don’t envy Yatzil or Khonshu.” Osiris muttered, watching the little avatar rip around the room. One thing was sure, the boy was entertaining.
—---
The Userhetamon sailed swiftly across the Duat sands. Amun followed the small trail of footprints that led away from his home, however they quickly faded away. From there he headed in the most likely direction, based on the way the footprints had been heading. Everyone was spread out along the rails, searching for any sign of the little ones.
Yatzil was the first to spot anything. “Stop the boat!” She yelled. Amun quickly halted the boat, causing everyone to be thrown forward. Declan, Isis, and Mut toppled to the deck, losing their balance with the abrupt halt of the ship. “Look,” She said as she pointed, “A sandcastle.”
Sure enough, there was a sandcastle. Not something that you would typically find in the Duat. “It had to be the boys. Who else would build a sandcastle in the middle of the Duat? Anubis?” Yatzil was excited that they were close to finding her boys. She wanted to hug them, and tell them to never do that again.
“Anubis! That’s it! To Anubis’s ship!” Khonshu thumped his staff on the deck, and a wild gust of air pushed the Userhetamon forward. The golden ship flew at an improbable speed, and those who had not already fallen to the deck did. Khonshu remained the only one standing, as he pushed the ship to his friend’s barque. He completely disregarded the complaints and pleas of the other passengers for him to please slow down, we’re going to be sick Khonshu. He needed to get to Anubis. He just knew his friend was the key to finding his boys.
Quickly, far too quickly, Anubis’s barque was visible. First, it was on the horizon, then a mile away, then Khonshu ground the Userhetamon to a halt, rail butting up to Anubis’s barque. Khonshu could hear someone vomiting behind him. He turned around to see his mother leaning over the rail, sick. The others were not in much better condition, many of them were varying shades of green.
Khonshu hopped onto Anubis’s ship and stormed up to the cabin. He beat on the door with his staff, impatient for his friend to come out already. The door was quickly opened, however the gods behind the door were not the one that had Khonshu expected.
“Hello brother.” Sekhmet growled. Her day was not going well, and it was that chicken’s fault.
“Khonshu, oh, so nice to see you, and so soon after meeting your lovely boys! Except that Jake, he sure is feisty. Oh, my is Mut OK?” Taweret chirped at Khonshu. She had never had this many visitors in one day while babysitting the barque for Anubis. She loved getting visitors!
“Taweret, Sekhmet. Where is Anubis? I need him to help find my boys..Wait did you say you met my boys?! WHERE ARE THEY YOU GIANT HIPPO?!” Khonshu advanced at Taweret, threatening her. Yatzi and Hathor, both still green, had joined Khonshu on the Barque and they too started to walk towards Taweret. Taweret honestly found Hathor and Yatzil more frightening at the moment, as it appeared as though they were going to lose their lunch soon. Taweret did not do vomit, she was a sympathetic vomiter.
While Khonshu threatened Taweret, the rest of the occupants slowly made their way from the Userhetamon onto Anubis’s barque. They wanted to be able to hear what was being said better, everyone was invested in finding the boys as fast as possible. They were also curious as to why Taweret and Sekhmet were on Anubis’s barque instead of the Jackal god.
“Yes, Sekhmet brought them here. Lovely boys, really, bit of a temper on that Jake, but he’s quite creative! Anyway, Anubis came and took them home.”
“You're kidding me.” Declan groaned, having overheard that the boys were now home. They had come all this way only to miss the boys again.
Khonshu growled. He felt like they were going round in circles. Sure, at least this time they knew that the boys were somewhere safe with someone he trusted, but how was it that seven gods and five avatars kept missing one little boy! Sure that one little boy was actually three little boys in one, but still. Surely one of them should have found them earlier.
“Right, back to Yatzil’s home.” Khonshu pulled all of the occupants on the barque into the mortal realm. All seven gods and two avatars crashed into the now very cramped living room of Yatzil’s apartment. A confused Anubis, exasperated Hana and Selim, and highly entertained Osiris and Horus greeted them.
“Where. Is. He.” Yatzil and Khonshu asked simultaneously.
Anubis, Hana, Selim, Osiris, and Horus pointed to the top of the six and a half foot tall bookshelf. The boy crouched on top, and grinned at the newcomers.
“Mum! Dad! Hola!” The three said, and then sprang off the bookshelf, landing on top of Khonshu, who hastily caught him with a groan. “Missed you, Dad.”
“Anubis let them get into the cakes.” Hana wearily said, as a way of explanation. “I am so glad you are back.”