Sorry that the first chapter was so short. I am having trouble with my computer, and well, i'm sure you all know how that is. Anyway, hope you like!
Oh, and i don't own ANY of the Bartimaeus trillogy, exept all the junk below. ( to find the footnotes, scroll ALL the way to the bottom!)
I was home. I had been for a long time, ever since the Glass Palace incident. I guess everyone thought I was dead, along with Nathaniel. So was it a surprise when I felt the tug of a summons? Not really. What did surprise me, slightly, was that it was a gentle summons. Not hard and painful like most of the time. A strange, haunting melody drifted across to me from the world, and I'm not sure why that bothered me.
I decided I would become a huge fire. Flames scare most people, especially Magicians. However, the girl I saw when I appeared (1) did not as much as flinch. Actually, she looked rather bored.
"Finally!" she said, standing up straight. "It took you long enough." I must admit, I was rather shocked by her casual tone. Well, let's see how long it took for her to loose it. The fire seemed to grow, until the whole room was in flames. From within its depths someone – a child – started shrieking.
"Quit that will you?" Hmmm… I guess it's not a command. I kept the screaming going. The girl shrugged, turned and inserted a pair of earphones. I couldn't believe it. Listening to music in the middle of a summoning! The little git. I started screaming louder, And making the flames wilder, but she just turned up the volume, tapping her foot in time to the beat. This kept going for several minutes, until, finally, I couldn't contain my curiosity. What the hell was she up to? Summoning something, than ignoring it is not typical. The screaming died down a bit, and the fire settled into the form of a wolf. Her music was so loud now I could hear the words;
"Get outta my waaay awaaaay, oooooh, first you kissed me, then you killed me. Get outta my waaay awaaay oooooh, can't stop me, watch me go. Watch me go!"
Hmm. Odd for a magician to be listening to some rock band. Oh, well. New times, new phases.
"WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME, CHILD?" Said the fire-wolf in a deep, rich vibrato. She looked around.
"Oh. Quit shrieking, have we? I couldn't hear." She turned off her walkman and winced. "I think you ruptured my eardrums."
"YOUR OWN FAULT."
"Maybe." She said, giving me a funny look. "But you're wondering why I summoned you? That's easy. I want you to answer some questions, and then you can go on your way." (2) The fire-wolf's eyes narrowed.
"PROCEED."
"Alright. What's your name?" Like she didn't know.
"I AM BARTIMAEUS, SAKHR AL-JINNI, SER –"
"Yes, I know that." she waved her hand vaugely. "I mean, what name do you like to go by?" she picked up a note book and a pen, looking at me expectantly. Completely and utterly unprepared for such a question, I said the first thing that popped into my head.
"Rekhyt ," I said, the vibrato in my voice gone. She raised her eyebrows and made a note.
"Rekhyt? Isn't that Egyptian for 'servant'?" the wolf nodded. "Okay… did you serve much in Egypt?" another nod. I was gonna make her work for the answers. "Who was your master, or masters?"
"Tutmoses, Ramses the great, Khufu, Eye, Ptolemy, and many others who are not so mentionable." Another note was written down.
"Wasn't Eye the head priest who helped assassinate King Tutankhamen?"
"Yes." (3)
"And which Ptolemy?"
"The scholar."
"I see. Now, what did…"
(1) Honestly. How many young, extremely capable magicians are there?
(2) Bad road, bad road, BAD ROAD! This is exactly like Ptolemy. I have only had three human friends, and two of them started by asking questions. It's always the same, gradually geting used to one another, making friends then – BAM. Their either dead or thinking I'm dead. I will not go through that again, even if you paid me.
(3) Actually, I was in on the job. Tut, aged nineteen, was riding out in the desert on his schmancy gold chariot. Guess who the horses were? Exactly. We threw him of his chariot, hit his head against a rock, and he died a few days later. Not that we get any credit. Archeologists seem to think it was the mummification process that whacked his head out of shape. Bah!
Okay, How did you like it? Please review. Tell me if it's good, bad or even "My, the weather's nice today!" Just please make me happy and RIEVIEW!
