The Reading, Part 2
Normal-The Book
Bold- The Story
SADIE KANE WAS PRETTY SURE this was a going to take longer then she thought. Mainly because right now, Percy and Nico were arguing with her idiot brother and boy friend. Seriously, what was so wrong with Carter having a griffen for a pet? percy apparently had some pegsi- which means, if she was remembering correctly, was the white horse with wings that was Hercules' best friend and ride everywhere in that Disney Movie.
The thought did make Sadie giggle to herself a bit but it also scared her. These teens scared her. They defaintly weren't magicians, but they were still different like Safie and her friends were. They all had an aura of power around them, a very strong power that Sadie knew to watch out for.
But yet, they seemed just like them. Just a group of kids who were still kids. They just trying to live there lives to the fullest as they could just like Sadie and her friends. And for the same reason... They don't know when it all will just suddenly end for them...
After everything she had been through along with all the other kids at the twenty-first nome, she grew to value life even more and could tell that these strangers did too.
Sadie soon snapped out of her random, deep thoughts and saw the boys were still bickering. But no longer about Freak and the pegsi that was named 'Blackjack' but now about what was better, Mountain Dew or Root Beer. The blond girl rolled her blue eyes at the four morons, which she saw the other females do as they watch the boys.
Finally Sadie stood up and pulled the book out of Carter's hand. She glared at him and then Walt. They return to there seats, as well as Percy and Nico. Sadie looked for where they left off and began reading.
"I remembered El Paso, the winter before last, when my sister and I had been attacked by the crocodile god Sobek. That wasn't a good memory.
Sweat trickled down my neck.
Sadie scowled at the memory herself. That really wasn't a good trip to go down on. Then anger boiled inside her veins. If that oversided reptile try to pull one trick on her brother...
"Sobek," I murmured, "if that's you, messing with me again, I swear to Ra…"
"Ra?" Nico question, looking confused. "Raw, as in, the noise monsters make?"
"No." Zia answered. "Ra. Just R-A."
"Didn't you say you were the host of him?" Thalia asked. Her steely blue eyes seemed to borred into her. Sadie wasn't worry though, she knew very well that Zia could take care of herself. But Sadie started to regret saying who they were the host of.
"Yeah." She finally said. "It will probably explain in the story."
Sadie looked at Walt, and he looked back. Then she looked at her brother, and knew that they all hoped that the book didn't. None of them wanted to explain anything to the others. It was too tricky. It was clear they were different and not from there world. Combining her and her friends' with there's... Sadie didn't want to know what would happen then.
The croc god had promised to leave us alone now that we were tight with his boss, the sun god. Still...crocodiles get hungry. Then they tend to forget their promises.
This caused the group to snicker a bit. Easy the tense atmosphere.
No answer from the water. The ripples subsided. When it came to sensing monsters, my magic instincts weren't very sharp; but the water in front of me seemed much darker. That meant either it was deep, or something large was lurking under the surface.
"That doesn't sound very safe." Walt stated. Sadie agreed witht the annoyingly handsome boy.
I almost hoped it was Sobek. At least then I stood a chance of talking to him before he killed me. Sobek loved to boast. Unfortunately, it wasn't him.
The next microsecond, as the water erupted around me, I realized too late that I should've brought the entire Twenty-first Nome to help me. I registered glowing yellow eyes as big as my head, the glint of gold jewelry around a massive neck. Then monstrous jaws opened—ridges of crooked teeth, and an expanse of pink maw wide enough to gulp down a garbage truck.
And the creature swallowed me whole.
Everyone's jaw was dropped. No one expected Carter to get eaten! Sadie almost choked. On air.
Zia was holding Carter's hand in a death grip now with both hands. She had a mixed expression on her face, like anger with worry and a little bit freaked out. Sadie couldn't help but feel the same way.
She would have thought tht her own flesh and blood brother would tell her that he got eaten by a giant gator, but apparently not!
"A gator ate you?" Annabeth asked. "And you lived?"
Carter looked incredibly uncomfortable. "Percy saved me. That's how we really met." He looked at Percy. "Thanks, by the way."
"No prob." He shot a friendly smile but then nervously snickered. "And sorry about what happens soon."
"Yeah, me too." Carter smiled back and then waved Sadie to read which she did.
Imagine being shrink-wrapped upside down inside a gigantic slimy garbage bag with no air. Being in the monster's belly was like that, only hotter and smellier.
For a moment I was too stunned to do anything. I couldn't believe I was still alive. If the crocodile's mouth had been smaller, he might have snapped me in half.
Sadie winced at the thought. She never say it out loud or abmit to herself or anyone else for that matter, but she really did care about her brother, and mostly perfer him alive.
Just as Sadie was about to read again, she realized Carter was looking at her with a smirk. Oh no... He saw her. He pointed a coffee color skinned finger at her and open his mouth... Crap.
"YOU CARE!"
"No I do not! How dare you insult me that way, Carter Kane!" Sadie defended herself.
"Yes, you do!"
"No, I don't !"
YES, YOU DO!"
"NO, I DON'T!"
Just then, the two siblings stood up in one of there famous yelling fits. No one could make out to what they were saying, they just knew they had very loud vocal chords. During it, Sadie just slipped back into her thick British accent when you could only make out some words she said even though she was speaking the same language. Finally, Zia got Carter, who was laughing like a maniac and smiling at his sister's red face. Walt got Sadie to stop screaming like a crazy British girl and settled her down in the chair, steam might as well have been pouring out of her ears.
The demigods were confused out of there mind of what they just witness. It was extremely funny as well as kinda creepy and scarey. Sadie soon calmed down enough to read, still glaring at her brother as he smiled at her sweetly.
As it was, he had gulped me down in a single Carter-size serving, so I could look forward to being slowly digested.
Lucky, right?
"Totally," Walt said sarcastically. "I'm so jealous."
The monster started thrashing around, which made it hard to think. I held my breath, knowing that it might be my last. I still had my sword and wand, but I couldn't use them with my arms pinned to my side. I couldn't reach any of the stuff in my bag.
Which left only one answer: a word of power.
All the magicians stopped breathing. There hearts came to a halt. This was bad. Carter was like the small flame on a match to set off the atomic bomb, when he try to do a word of power... Ra help them...
If I could think of the right hieroglyphic symbol and speak it aloud, I could summon some industrial strength, wrath-of-the-gods-type magic to bust my way out of this reptile.
In theory: a great solution.
In practice: I'm not so good at words of power
"Truer words have never been spoken." Sadie commented.
even in the best of situations. Suffocating inside a dark, smelly reptile gullet wasn't helping me focus.
You can do this, I told myself.
After all the dangerous adventures I'd had, I couldn't die like this. Sadie would be devastated.
"Because she cares." Carter Smirked quietly.
"Please, Carter." Zia asked as sweet as she could. She was a little nervous since Sadie was now being held back by Walt so she wouldn't kill her brother. "I prefer you alive."
Then, once she got over her grief, she'd track down my soul in the Egyptian afterlife and tease me mercilessly for how stupid I'd been."My lungs burned. I was blacking out. I picked a word of power, summoned all my concentration, and prepared to speak.
Suddenly the monster lurched upward. He roared, which sounded really weird from the inside, and its throat contracted around me like I was being squeezed from a toothpaste tube. I shot out of the creature's mouth and tumbled into the marsh grass.
"Here I come!" Percy called. Annabeth rolled her eyes but smiled.
Somehow I got to my feet. I staggered around, half blind, gasping, and covered with crocodile goo, which smelled like a scummy fish tank.
The surface of the river churned with bubbles. The crocodile was gone, but standing in the marsh about twenty feet away was a teenage guy in jeans and a faded orange T-shirt that said CAMP something. I "couldn't read the rest. He looked a little older than me—maybe seventeen—with tousled black hair and sea-green eyes. What really caught my attention was his sword—a straight double-edged blade glowing with faint bronze light.
"Hero Percy Jackson has just saved you." Thalia rolled her eyes. "You must be so honored."
The magicians chunckled at the conment as Percy blushed and glared at her, which she responded to by glaring straight back.
I'm not sure which of us was more surprised.
"Well, normally you don't get a goo covered kid with every monster you kill." Annabeth stated.
"You make it sound like Happy Meal." Nico stared at her a little surprised, then he spoke in a different voice, trying to sound like Percy. "Yes, I believe that you gave me the wrong toy. I simply demanded for the killing action gator but instead you gave me the edible Carter." Everyone laughed. Thalia shooked he read at the boy. Only Nico would relate this, of all things, to food. Espically McDonald's.
For a second, Camper Boy just stared at me. He noted my khopesh and wand, and I got the feeling he actually saw these things as they were. Normal mortals have trouble seeing magic. Their brains can't interpret it, so they might look at my sword, for instance, and see a baseball bat or a walking stick.
"Why would a freshman in high school need a walking stick? Carter I know you're getting older but still." Walt poked at him.
But this kid…he was different. I figured he must be a magician. The only problem was, I'd met most of the magicians in the North American nomes, and I'd never seen this guy before. I'd also never seen a sword like that. Everything about him seemed…un-Egyptian.
Egyptian? Annabeth thought to herself. She never really study the gods of Egyptian mythology but she wanted to now. She tried to remember the names the others said earlier. Iris? That was one of them right? Ra. Horus? Anubis?
"The crocodile," I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. "Where did it go?"
Camper Boy frowned. "You're welcome."
"What?"
"I stuck that croc in the rump." He mimicked the action with his sword. "That's why it vomited you up. So, you're welcome. What were you doing in there?"
"You sound a little rude there, Perc." Nico stated.
"Yeah, sorry about that." He apologized to Carter. Carter smiled and told him it was okay.
I'll admit I wasn't in the best mood. I smelled. I hurt. And, yeah, I was a little embarrassed: the mighty Carter Kane, head of Brooklyn House, had been disgorged from a croc's mouth like a giant hairball.
"Sounds like you're having a bad day Carter." Zia said.
"Yeah." Carter replied. He wonder if he said she could make it better if she kissed him but he doubted it would a actually work. Oh well, a man can dream can't he?
"I was resting," I snapped.
"Sassy!" Thalia snapped her fingers in a dramatic way.
"What do you think I was doing? Now, who are you, and why are you fighting my monster?"
"Your monster?" The guy trudged toward me through the water. He didn't seem to have any trouble with the mud. "Look, man, I don't know who you are, but that crocodile has been terrorizing Long Island for weeks. I take that kind of personal, as this is my home turf. A few days ago, it ate one of our pegasi."
A jolt went up my spine like I'd backed into an electric fence. "Did you say pegasi?"
"Way to drop the 'p' bomb, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth poked him in the ribs.
He waved the question aside. "Is it your monster or not?"
"I don't own it!" I growled. "I'm trying to stop it! Now, where—"
"The croc headed that way." He pointed his sword toward the south. "I would already be chasing it, but you surprised me."
"You make it sound like his a disgrace." Walt said.
"He is." Sadie mumbled to only where he heard. He turn to her and winked at her. Sadie tried to control her blush.
He sized me up, which was disconcerting since he was half a foot taller. I still couldn't read his T-shirt except for the word CAMP. Around his neck hung a leather strap with some colorful clay beads, like a kid's arts and crafts project. He wasn't carrying a magician's pack or a wand. Maybe he kept them in the Duat? Or maybe he was just a delusional mortal who'd accidentally found a magic sword and thought he was a superhero. Ancient relics can really mess with your mind.
Finally he shook his head. "I give up. Son of Ares? You've got to be a half-blood, but what happened to your sword? It's all bent."
"It's a khopesh." My shock was rapidly turning to anger. "It's supposed to be curved."
"More sass!" Thalia snapped again.
But I wasn't thinking about the sword.
Camper Boy had just called me a half-blood? Maybe I hadn't heard him right. Maybe he meant something else. But my dad was African American. My mom was white. Half-blood wasn't a word I liked.
"Oh..." Percy said softly. "I'm so sorry, man. I didn't know. I didn't mean it that way."
"It's okay." Carter smiled.
"Just get out of here," I said, gritting my teeth. "I've got a crocodile to catch."
"Dude, I have a crocodile to catch," he insisted. "Last time you tried, it ate you. Remember?"
"You two are so mean and rude to each other." Sadie stated.
"Yeah, are both of you that grumpy?" Annabeth asked. Both boys blushed and didn't answer.
My fingers tightened around my sword hilt. "I had everything under control. I was about to summon a fist—"
For what happened next, I take full responsibility.
"Oh no." Sadie groaned. "Here it comes." She already figured what Carter's mistake was. She already knew the results are no where near good.
I didn't mean it. Honestly. But I was angry. And as I may have mentioned, I'm not always good at channeling words of power. While I was in the crocodile's belly, I'd been preparing to summon the Fist of Horus, a giant glowing blue hand that can pulverize doors, walls, and pretty much anything else that gets in your way. My plan had been to punch my way out of the monster. Gross, yes; but hopefully effective.
I guess that spell was still in my head, ready to be triggered like a loaded gun. Facing Camper Boy, I was furious, not to mention dazed and confused; so when I meant to say the English word fist, it came out in Ancient Egyptian instead: khefa.
Such a simple hieroglyph: A picture of a fist.
You wouldn't think it could cause so much trouble.
As soon as I spoke the word, the symbol blazed in the air between us. A giant fist the size of a dishwasher shimmered into existence and slammed Camper Boy into the next county.
"What!?" The other 3 demigods cried. Annabeth turn to Percy, making sure he was okay. Thalia stared with her mouth opened and Nico was looking for the right words to speak.
"Okay." He finally spat out. "So, you're telling us that you guys can just think of a Egyptian word and it's matching syllable on some one and it pops out of thin air and attacks them?"
"Yeah, pretTy much." Sadie nodded.
"Mater Dei..." Nico gasped and Sadie couldn't help bit wonder if he just spoke Latin.
I mean I literally punched him out of his shoes. He rocketed from the river with a loud suck-plop!
Everyone burst out laughing at the mental image they all had of Percy.
"I like this kid." Thalia announced. She pointed to him. "You have to teach me how to do that."
And the last thing I saw was his bare feet achieving escape velocity as he flew backward and disappeared from sight.
More laugher broke out.
No, I didn't feel good about it. Well…maybe a tiny bit good. But I also felt mortified. Even if this guy was a jerk, magicians weren't supposed to go around sucker-punching kids into orbit with the Fist of Horus.
"Oh, great." I hit myself on the forehead.
I started to wade across the marsh, worried that I'd actually killed the guy. "Man, I'm sorry!" I yelled, hoping he could hear me. "Are you—?"
The wave came out of nowhere.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Percy rubbed the back of his head. "I shouldn't have done that."
"It's okay," Carter said. "Sorry about starting it all. It really was an accident."
"Nah, Don't worry about." Percy laughed. "I get harder blows from Annabeth here on a daily basic."
They turn to the blond who just shrugged. "Sad but true."
A twenty-foot wall of water slammed into me and pushed me back into the river. I came up spluttering, a horrible taste like fish food in my mouth. I blinked the gunk out of my eyes just in the time to see Camper Boy leaping toward me ninja-style, his sword raised.
I lifted my khopesh to deflect the blow. I just managed to keep my head from being cleaved in half, but Camper Boy was strong and quick. As I reeled backward, he struck again and again. Each time, I was able to parry; but I could tell I was outmatched. His blade was lighter and quicker, and—yes, I'll admit it—he was a better swordsman.
I wanted to explain that I'd made a mistake. I wasn't really his enemy. But I needed all my concentration just to keep from getting sliced down the middle.
All the magicians glanced at Percy with interest, impressed with his strategy and strength. He was defiantly a thread to keep an eye on.
Camper Boy, however, had no trouble talking.
"Now I get it," he said, swinging at my head. "You're some kind of monster."
"Carter a monster?" Nico stared at Percy strangely. Really now?
"What else was I suppose to think of him?"
"Anything else but a monster."
CLANG! I intercepted the strike and staggered back.
"I'm not a monster," I managed.
To beat this guy, I'd have to use more than just a sword. The problem was, I didn't want to hurt him. Despite the fact that he was trying to chop me into a Kane-flavored barbecue sandwich, I still felt bad for starting the fight.
He swung again, and I had no choice. I used my wand this time, catching his blade in the crook of ivory and channeling a burst of magic straight up his arm. The air between us flashed and crackled. Camper Boy stumbled back. Blue sparks of sorcery popped around him, as if my spell didn't know quite what to do with him. Who was this guy?
"I'm Percy Jackson, of course." He smiled widely.
"You said the crocodile was yours." Camper Boy scowled, anger blazing in his green eyes. "You lost your pet, I suppose. Maybe you're a spirit from the Underworld, come back through the Doors of Death?"
"I'm guessing that there Doors of Death is like out Land of Demons?" Zia whispered to Carter who nodded with the same thought in mind.
Before I could even process that question, he thrust out his free hand. The river reversed course and swept me off my feet.
I managed to get up, but I was getting really tired of drinking swamp water. Meanwhile Camper Boy charged again, his sword raised for the kill. In desperation, I dropped my wand. I thrust my hand into my backpack, and my fingers closed around the piece of rope.
I threw it and yelled the command word "TAS!"—Bind!—just as Camper Boy's bronze blade cut into my wrist.
Everyone silent at this point. The magicians were worry about Carter and his well being, they didn't want him hurt. But the demigods all stayed still, afriad to move. This Carter boy was more of a thread then they thought. Normally anyone who sword fought with Percy didn't lost very long, way shorter then the time Carter lasted. Not only did he do that, but he used some kind of... Magic to punch him with a gaint fist and now used some rope to tie him up with only a lift of his arm. Now it was there time to ask, Who was this guy?
My whole arm erupted in agony. My vision tunneled. Yellow spots danced before my eyes. I dropped my sword and clutched my wrist, gasping for breath, everything for forgotten except the excruciating pain.
In the back of my mind, I knew Camper Boy could kill me easily. For some reason he didn't. A wave of nausea made me double over.
I forced myself to look at the wound. There was a lot of blood, but I remembered something Jaz had told me once in the infirmary at Brooklyn House: cuts usually looked a lot worse than they were. I hoped that was true. I fished a piece of papyrus out of my pack and pressed it against the wound as a makeshift bandage.
The pain was still horrible, but the nausea became more manageable. My thoughts started to clear, and I wondered why I hadn't been skewered yet.
Camper Boy was sitting nearby in waist-deep water, looking dejected. My magic rope had wrapped around his sword arm, then lashed his hand to the side of his head. Unable to let go of his sword, he looked like he had a single reindeer antler sprouting next to his ear.
All the demigods were nervous again. But it was when Nico pressed a believable laugh were Annabeth and Thalia joined along. Pretending the thought was funny but it didn't get passed any Carter and Zia, who was rubbing Carter's now cut healed wrist like he was still wounded.
He tugged at the rope with his free hand, but of course he couldn't make any progress.
Finally he just sighed and glared at me. "I'm really starting to hate you."
"That's was kinda mean Percy." Annabeth scowled. Percy smiled sheepish and shrugged an apology to Carter. He smiled.
"Hate me?" I protested. "I'm gushing blood here! And you started all this by calling me a half-blood!"
"Oh, please." Camper Boy rose unsteadily, his sword antenna making him top-heavy. "You can't be mortal. If you were, my sword would've passed right through you. If you're not a spirit or a monster, you've got to be a half-blood. A rogue demigod from Kronos's army, I'd guess."
Most of what this guy said, I didn't understand. But one thing sank in."So when you said 'half-blood'…"
He stared at me like I was an idiot. "I meant demigod. Yeah. What did you think I meant?"
"So this all started over a misunderstanding and a gator?" Sadie asked. Everyone soon realized it was true, and began to get afriad at the thought of all the magicians and demigods fighting over somethibg even bigger...
I tried to process that. I'd heard the term demigod before, but it wasn't an Egyptian concept. Maybe this guy was sensing that I was bound to Horus, that I could channel the god's power…but why did he describe everything so strangely?
"What are you?" I demanded. "Part combat magician, part water elementalist? What nome are you with?"
The kid laughed bitterly. "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't hang out with gnomes. Satyrs, sometimes. Even Cyclopes. But not gnomes."
"My gods, Percy." Everyone was really laughing now.
The blood loss must have been making me dizzy. His words bounced around in my head like lottery balls: Cyclopes, satyrs, demigods, Kronos. Earlier he'd mentioned Ares. That was a Greek god, not Egyptia.
I felt like the Duat was opening underneath me, threatening to pull me into the depths. Greek…not Egyptian.
All the magicians felt that way now.
An idea started forming in my mind. I didn't like it. In fact, it scared the holy Horus out of me.
That described everyone's in the room feelings.
Despite all the swamp water I'd swallowed, my throat felt dry.
"Look," I said, "I'm sorry about hitting you with that fist spell. It was an accident. But the thing I don't understand…it should have killed you. It didn't. That doesn't make sense."
"Don't sound so disappointed," he muttered. "But while we're on the subject, you should be dead too. Not many people can fight me that well. And my sword should have vaporized your crocodile."
"For the last time, it's not my crocodile."
"Okay, whatever." Camper Boy looked dubious. "The point is, I stuck that crocodile pretty good, but I just made it angry. Celestial bronze should've turned it to dust."
"Celestial bronze?"
Our conversation was cut short by a scream from the nearby subdivision—the terrified voice of a kid.
My heart did a slow roll. I really was an idiot.
"At least you admit it." Sadie quietly mumbled. Not even Walt hear her this time.
I'd forgotten why we were here.
I locked eyes with Camper Boy. "We've got to stop the crocodile."
"Truce," he suggested.
"Yeah," I said. "We can continue killing each other after the crocodile is taken care of."
"Deal. Now, could you please untie my sword hand from my head? I feel like a freaking unicorn."
