AN: I had to get away from one shots for a while. Don't know how long this will be, but hopefully it will get finished xD A friend gave me the Kane Chronicles books a few months ago, but being a totally lame person, I didn't actually crack them open until Monday last week. GUYS I JUST FINISHED THEM OMG THEY'RE AMAZING I CAN'T GET THEM OUT OF MY HEAD AOFJEIWJFIPIEWFHIHF I loved them. This beautiful plot manifested in a dream, so I thought "Hey, time for a multichapter story!" Here goes nothing!
And no, this isn't a crossover. Never ever EVER will I do a crossover. Ever.
And yes, this was written on Friday the thirteen. Das wassup.
1. We Rename a Griffin
It's kind of ironic that things started going south on Friday the 13th. Okay, so it had been going south for a while, (since Christmas when Carter and I were possessed—yes, Isis, possessed!—by gods) but on that particular day of bad luck, everything sort of… blew up.
The morning started particularly normal. I sat on the balcony with my trainees and brother, helping myself to a muffin and tea. Phillip of Macedonia was belly up in his pool, soaking in the mid-spring sun. Brooklyn was truly beautiful in April. Back in London, things were usually wet and cold during spring. Flowers would push up through the ground, only to be smothered in muck that was haphazardly slung by boots of oblivious people. In New York, it was stunning. Splashes of pink and yellow bedecked every strip of grass in the city. The sun was brilliant (though it probably helped that Ra was up there, too) and the sky stayed an unwavering blue. I didn't know who the god of storms was, but apparently they were busy elsewhere (probably England).
I can't recall who started the conversation, but we ended up discussing the date: Friday the 13th.
"So you haven't any idea where it originated?" I asked Bast, who was spooning shredded chicken Friskies into her mouth.
She pointed her spoon at me, like "hold that thought" while she finished chewing. "I didn't say I didn't know, just that it didn't begin with the Egyptians."
It took me a moment to digest that triple negative. Felix must have understood it earlier, because he said, "Then who did it begin with?"
Bast rolled her lips between her teeth, as if considering whether to share or not. "It started with the Greeks. You see, there's the gods of Olympus, and there are twelve: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares—"
"That's a lot of a's," Carter mumbled.
"—Hermes, and Hestia. But there's also an exclusive group called the Big Three—Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. They're the original three sons of Kronos—who, by the way, is a huge scum bag, you don't want to meet him—and Gaia, who also is very grouchy. But I digress.
"The story goes that the original three drew lots; Zeus was given the sky, Poseidon the sea, Hades the underworld. But the truth is, they were told by the Fates that if thirteen gods ruled Olympus, chaos would reign. That's inside news though. They drew straws—not lots—and Hades was sent to the underworld. It truly is better that way. Eventually Dionysus would wish to rule among the Olympians, and they bumped Hestia out—well, mostly. They tore down her thrown and erected one for Dionysus, which I bet really sucked. She still tends to the hearth. Anyway, that's how the fear of thirteen was born. Friday was said to be the day Prometheus sent down fire, but no one really knows. That day was a haze for all of us."
I thought it was strange how Bast spoke of the Greek gods, like they were real. I figured it could be true— I mean, I had gone my whole life not knowing about the Egyptian gods until four months ago—but the idea kind of shook me. I remembered vaguely something Uncle Amos had said when we first arrived at Brooklyn House: "Manhattan has other problems. Other gods." Could that be the Greeks? I was about to voice my question when a horrible "FRRRREEEECKKKK" resonated from the roof.
Carter leaped from his chair. "Freak is in trouble!"
I'll admit, when I heard that "FRECK" I was a little freaked out (Haha, get it? Freaked out). Freak the griffin was known to make some pretty awful noises, but the little guy had wormed his way to my heart, and the noise he made just then—well, it wasn't normal. The fifteen or so of us eating breakfast raced up to the roof, snatching weapons from the Duat and tugging amulets from under our shirts all the way, preparing for whatever was torturing our dear pet monster. When we finally reached the roof, I'm sure we looked like a whole bunch of teenagers reenacting pirate bedtime stories in our pajamas; Carter's curved khopesh looked just like the curved blade of a captain. We even had our own primate. All we were missing was a parrot.
And what we found was rather unexpected.
Rather than a band of evil magicians attempting to slay Freak, we found the griffin lying in its stable on its back, lion paws probing the air. It squawked in pain and I had to cover my ears. The sound was positively horrendous. At first I thought it might just have a thorn in its side, or some griffin form of colic. But then something really gross happened. So gross I'm not even going to describe it to you.
Freak laid an egg.
I assure you, this egg was huge. A good five meters in diameter, and another two high. It made an ostrich egg look like a ping pong ball. And it was covered in the clear slime that stunk to the heavens—well, to put it delicately, it was yucky.
The moment Freak was done, it—er, she got up and paced to the other side of the roof to stand next to us, as if trying to put as much distance between her and the egg. "FREEEECCCKKK."
Carter nodded, as if that made total sense. I had seen this done before, only it was always with the baboons. "Is it okay if we touch it?" he asked Freak, whom I figured needed a new name now.
Freak nodded and nuzzled Carter's hand for attention. He patted her on the head and went up to the egg, giving it a good knocking. It sounded solid.
"Freeckkkk."
"Freak is right," Carter said. "We should take it to Amos."
Bast was wiping a tear from her eye. "Mothering," she cooed. "It's so beautiful."
"So will you take it?" Carter asked.
She looked taken aback, as if she had never dreamed herself fit for this. It reminded me of the face one would make when walking into a surprise party they already knew about. "Me? Why, of course! The portal sphinx is only right there. Sadie, be a dear and summon me a portal, please?"
I obliged, more than happy to get that thing out of here. Bast used some of that unforeseen strength of hers and hefted the egg into the vortex of sand. Before disappearing, she called "I'll be back no later than tomorrow!" We nodded collectively and headed back downstairs, leaving our apparently female griffin to groom herself in private.
Rather than attending lessons as usual, Carter and I rallied the now thirty or so trainees in the living room. We'd had plenty of new recruits from the most recent tape (which unfortunately confused a lot of them since they hadn't heard the first one).
Today's order of business? Freak's new name.
Naturally though, with the room being full of kids, the topic changed quickly. Rather than trying to decide on a new name, they discussed how we should have known Freak was a girl, and how "grody" the lying was. The story was retold so many times that by the end, it was so misshapen and false it kind of reminded me of the game we used to play in primary school—Telephone.
"I feel like I'm in Fight Club," I whispered to Carter, who only gave me a confused glance.
Sometimes I don't know who's more American.
I eventually gave up on trying to keep the group focused and called a shabti into the room. "Find me a list of female pharaohs names," I said. The thing bowed and scurried off. When it returned, I scanned the scroll, but didn't find any names that suited our griffin. So I improvised.
I rose to my feet. When that didn't get their attention, I snapped my fingers. For some reason, that always managed to draw everyone in. "I nominate the name Meredith for our griffin."
Everyone glanced at one another, and to be honest, I couldn't read their expressions. "Well?"
Cleo spoke up. "Isn't that a bit… girly?"
"Well it is a girl," I responded.
She shrugged and leaned back against the couch.
"What about Thalia?" one of the new recruits, Nick, said.
"Yeah!" Jaz agreed. "It's all edgy."
"Better watch out for Thalia the griffin!" Felix cried, making everyone laugh.
Carter raised his hands, shrugging. "I hereby name the griffin of the 21st Nome, Thal—"
There was the sound of an explosion, and the entire mansion shook. Plaster fell from the high ceiling, and kids shrieked as it landed around us.
Either Thalia had laid another egg five times the size of the original, or we had company.
Sorry the first chapter was a little silly. I just had to get that out of the way. With PJO, its easier to dive into the deep stuff. Since the characters in the Kane Chronicles (TKC I guess? I'm new to this fandom, lol) are still younger, I feel like I need to portray that as well. After this, it will be dark, I promise.
MWAHAHAHAHAHA.
Okay, peace out home dogs.