A/N: Wow, ten positive reviews on the first chaapter alone! I'll try to update faster, but it's sorta crazy cause I've got three stories I'm trying to focus on. But enough of this. It's time to see what Carter Kane has been up to since the events of The Red Pyramid.

-Chapter 2: I Get a Little Help From The Funeral God-

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Alright then, while Chris was busy listening to our first story, here's what Sadie and I were up to. Khufu and I were outside on the basketball court, while Sadie was inside Uncle Amos's huge mansion, the twenty-first nome. I watched as Khufu tried to teach me how to cross over between my legs, but my mind was elsewhere. Ever since we had gone to that school and dropped off the amulet, I kept expecting a person to walk into our house and say that he or she was ready to join our cause. Of course, it was going to take time. But any day could be the day when Apophis rises, so I just wanted to be ready.

"Agh!" Khufu shouted.

I snapped back to reality. What was I doing? Oh yeah, Khufu was teaching me how go between my legs with the ball. He passed the ball to me and I caught it.

"Agh!" Khufu said, which probably meant, "now you try!"

I shrugged and copied his demonstration. He nodded in approval and I gave the ball back. At that moment, Sadie walked onto the court, still in her pajamas.

"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" I asked.

"Not really," she replied sleepily. "Why?"

"Your hair," I said with a chuckle. "It's a mess." [Oh, c'mon Sadie, you should have seen it! Ow! Cut it out!]

"Well it's not like I can watch what my hair does in my sleep."

"Agh! Agh!" Khufu grunted, which probably meant, "Sadie, get off the court! We're busy!"

"Why are you out here anyway? I haven't seen you do anything outside since we got here."

She sighed, then started talking. "I just had a strange dream."

Uh-oh. That didn't sound good at all. Usually strange dreams have something to do with our bas. Which is like this spirit that you inhabit when you're asleep. Mine usually leads me to something important, like seeing what Set was up to about a month before.

"Is it bad?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure."

"Well what did you see?"

"I was in somebody's front lawn," she began. "I had the sudden urge to go into the house, so I did. I was able to just walk through the front door without anyone noticing me. I went into someone's bedroom and saw this guy sitting on a bed."

"So?" I cut in. "Some random dude sitting on a bed is pretty normal."

"Would you let me finish?" She snapped. "Carter, he was listening to our tape, and he was near the end of it."

I didn't know if I should have been happy that we might get a new ally, or worried about trying to convince him to leave his normal life.

"What do we do, Carter?" Sadie asked.

"We wait," I replied. "It's his choice, if he wants to forget about it, so be it. But if he finds the amulet, then he might not have a choice, once he gets a taste of that power."

"Well, then I'm going to go watch TV. I find these American shows quite entertaining."

"TV?" I asked. "Sadie, you're not usually the lazy type. Don't you think you should get up and do something, you know, productive?"

"Carter, I've just been really tired lately," Sadie began. "Maybe that hi-nehm spell took more out of me than I thought."

I seriously doubted that, but I didn't feel like argueing with her, so I just dropped it.

"Oh, by the way, how old did this guy look?" I asked.

"Not sure," Sadie said. "Probably about your age. The room looked like any normal 14-year American's bedroom."

That didn't make sense. We hadn't sent the tape to any kids, only adults. Great, now some random dude was probably gonna go show the tape to his friends and it'd be all over the news. I could see the headlines now. "CARTER AND SADIE KANE, NOMINATED FOR WHACK-JOBS OF THE YEAR!" [Aw, c'mon Chris, I didn't know at the time!]

"And one other thng. I think he lives in Eagle Ridge, Connecticut. (A/N: Not a real town. Just fictional.) The neighborhood looked pretty familiar."

Eagle Ridge. That meant whoever this guy was, he was close to the school we had dropped the package off at.

"Any idea who it might be?" I asked, not expecting good news.

"Maybe," she said thoughtfully. "I saw their mailbox. It had the name Riker painted on the side of it."

I thought for a moment, trying to think if we had sent one of the tapes to a Riker. I would have to look at the list of names I had written down earlier. The best case scenario was that this guy had just stumbled across his mom or dad's stuff and had seen the tape player. The worst case scenario was that we had sent the package to the wrong person. Dad would kill me if I told a regular person about the gods. About twenty minutes later, I went into the kitchen to raide the fridge. I got a bottle of gatorade and a box of cheeze-itz from the pantry. I sat there and munched on the crackers and gulped down gatorade until I was satisfied.

After that, I went back outside to practice my three-point shooting. I was too busy running around the three-point line taking shot after shot to notice that another person was standing behind me at half-court. I took a shot at the top of the key, but it turned out short. The ball went off the rim. Hard. It came right for my face, but luckily I ducked before it could give me a bloody nose. I turned around to see the guy standing at half court, holding my basketball. It took me a while to recognize him, that is until he spoke.

"Hello, Carter," the dude said.

"Anubis?" I said, surprised and very confused. "Wrong place dude. Sadie's in the living room."

"I did not come to speak to Sadie," Anubis replied calmly. "I have come to assist you in finding a new ally."

"Really?" I asked. "You know who this Riker kid is?"

"Indeed," the death god replied. "Tell me Carter, do you know who Rick Malone is?"

"Yeah!" I exclaimed, remembering that we had sent Malone a copy of the tape. "He's the guy who spends all of his time studying Egypt."

"Yes, and he also owns a funeral home. That would be the main reason he is my host."

"You have a host?" I asked, now more than a little shocked.

"Don't act so surprised. All gods have a host at one time or another. Once he got the package, I influenced him to send the package to Eagle Ridge. To Riker."

"But...why?" I asked, kind of mad Anubis would send the evidence of the gods' existance to some kid.

"Because, he has Egyptian blood, and I can sense great power bottled up within him. Power you and Sadie need to help him learn how to use. He may be able to rival even your powers."

He didn't need to say anything more. I was already convined that we needed this guy on our side. And we needed to get to him before The House of Life decided to fill him with that "the way of the gods sucks" crap.

"Do we need to go get him?" I asked.

"No need," Anubis replied with a smile. "He will have a guide. But he won't be here until after he finds the spine, which has not happened as of now."

Anubis gave me the basketball and took a few steps back.

"Chris Riker will be here soon enough. Remember Carter, The House of Life might try to go after him as well. If he is not here within a week, then go to Eagle Ridge and see if he is there. We can't afford to lose a valueable ally like him."

And with that, the funeral god disappeared, leaving me all alone on the court. The time had finally come. We were about to get another powerful magician on our side.

Unless The House of Life got him first.