A/N: Hullo!
Forgot to mention last time, though its pretty obvious, Trials of Apollo haven't happened either.
XxxLil'MunchkinxxX: Thank you! I agree that the protagonists make the Kane Chronicles really unique and I especially adore Sadie.
WeylandCorp 4: Thank you! Hope you enjoy this chapter too xx
RadioDog77: Me too. I have a lot of plans for this...
Guest/s: Thanks for your reviews and I hope you like the chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing...
CHAPTER TWO
Percy Jackson liked to think that he was used to weird. When he was twelve, he'd discovered that he was the son of a Greek God (the best one, he thought modestly) and ever since he'd gone on all sorts of deadly and bizarre quests and killed some even more deadly and bizarre monsters (although, he'd made friends with a few of those deadly and bizarre monsters, too).
The thought of Roman Gods existing as some sort of split personality to the Greek deities was confusing enough but now there were Egyptians as well. Percy could remember when he first met Mr D and how he had been surprised by his appearance. In Percy's mind, Gods were meant to be strange and mighty looking. While Mr D didn't exactly fill that quota, the Egyptians seemed to fit it perfectly.
One of them had blue skin, he reminded Percy of a Smurf (albeit a very big one), while another was red and another seemed to be covered in stars - and no he was not kidding, actual stars decorated her skin (which was also blue). He absently wondered if Artemis would be jealous.
"Well," one of the Egyptians commented smugly, "it's obviously about us. We should read it." She was beautiful and if Percy had to compare her to the gods in his own pantheon, he'd say she was a mix between Aphrodite and Hera - a frightening combination. Although, her multicoloured wings - yes, wings - made him think of Iris, the rainbow goddess.
"A smart choice," Shai agreed, "but perhaps some introductions are in order?"
That sounded like a good idea but Percy already knew that trying to correctly remember all the new names about to be thrown at him was difficult, he couldn't even remember everyone from the Greek side of things, for Hades' sake!
He tried to listen as the Egyptians rattled off their titles proudly. There was Horus, who was God of the Skies and of War as well as being Pharaoh of the Gods - Percy couldn't help but blink at that, Horus looked like a teenager (apart from his mismatched eyes). Then there was Isis, the lady with the wings and Percy blinked again when she revealed herself to be not only the Goddess of Magic, Motherhood and Wisdom - cue Athena's glare - but also Queen of the Gods.
"Aren't you Horus' mother?" Annabeth asked.
Isis merely stared at her. "Yes. He was also my brother once."
Percy decided that he didn't want to know any more about Egyptian genealogy, it was more messed up than Greek.
Next up was Ra. His eyes were golden, and he looked older than the others - which he was, he informed us, as he was the oldest god. He also mentioned that, aside from being the Sun God (and very different from Apollo), he used to be the Pharaoh. For some reason, all the Egyptians glanced, or scowled, at Isis who ignored them.
There was Osiris, the Smurf-blue God of the Dead who had smiled kindly at them all, far nicer than his Greek and Roman equivalent. After Osiris came Set who made the demigods recoil. At first, he looked fairly normal, if you ignored his scarlet skin, but then his skull started to flicker. Percy didn't know what animal he had seen, but he knew that he did not like its very sharp and very pointed teeth, even if it did look a little like an anteater. It only made sense when they learned that he was the God of Evil and Chaos.
Percy perked up when Set's wife, Nephthys, introduced herself politely as the Goddess of Rivers and, oddly enough, Sleep. He decided that she was alright when she berated her husband (and brother) for startling them. The next goddess was small and lithe, like a gymnast, and even wore a leopard-print leotard that matched her yellow eyes. Her name was Bast, the Goddess of Cats and Protection and Percy wondered if there was also a deity purely for dogs. He didn't get the chance to ask.
After Bast, there was Bes. Bes was short and ugly (Percy really didn't want to describe him further) and he was the God of Dwarves.
"Dwarves?" Rachel repeated dubiously. "Isn't that insulting? Couldn't you be the God of-"
Bes cut her off grumpily. "I am not going through this again. I'm the God of Dwarves, end of." A blonde girl with blue streaks in her hair (who kind of looked like a younger Annabeth) snickered.
When the next God introduced himself, Percy admitted that he flinched a little, maybe a lot. Geb, the God of the Earth, seemed genuinely kind but after the latest war, the demigods didn't care much for the Earth - though even Percy wanted to aww as the God wrapped his green arms lovingly around his wife as though he hadn't seen her in a thousand years. Speaking of which, his wife was blue and covered in sparkling stars, a fitting look for the Goddess of the Sky. Somehow, this wasn't what the Greek and Roman demigods were caught up on.
"Nut." Percy couldn't help but echo. "You're name is Nut?" Leo and the Stolls were practically giggling and even Nico and Clarisse were unable to stifle their smiles. Luckily, Nut simply raised an eyebrow as though this wasn't the first time she'd been met with this reaction.
There were two left. Thoth, the God of Writing, appeared to be the most human of the lot with curly blonde hair and a white lab coat while Sobek, God of Crocodiles and Strength and Deity of Rivers, had light green skin and the head of an actual crocodile. He also couldn't seem to stop sweating.
Now it was the turn of the Egyptian heroes and Percy shared a look with Annabeth as Shai said, "I expect you to keep your titles to yourselves, magicians. We wouldn't want any spoilers, would we?"
Magicians? Maybe that was what the Egyptians called their demigods, although the son of Poseidon hoped that their powers weren't limited to pulling rabbits out of hats. A man stepped forward that Percy hadn't noticed before, the only adult of the group. He was tall with smooth brown skin and wore a matching red suit and fedora. "Amos Kane." His voice was deep but calming and Percy liked him instantly.
The next 'magician' was an African-American teenager a bit younger than Percy and the green-eyed demigod could instantly see the resemblance he shared with the man before him. "Carter Kane." He introduced himself a little awkwardly and Percy mentally cheered as he was proven correct.
The blonde beside Carter rolled her bright blue eyes and pushed him out of the way. "Sadie Kane." Her voice was full to the brim with defiant confidence.
"Wait," Leo said in confusion, "you're related?" His question clearly wasn't appreciated but it was one that was burning on the tongues of all the Greeks and Romans. Carter and Sadie glowered darkly as Amos frowned and was it Percy's imagination or was Osiris scowling as well? Either way, that was very much the wrong thing to say.
"He's my brother." Sadie snapped causing Leo to hold his hand up in surrender. "Our dad is black and our mum is white." Percy had been so caught up in the fact that they were siblings that he hadn't even realised that she had an English accent.
"But your accent-"
"I grew up in London and Carter didn't, simple."
That didn't really clear things up but no-one wanted to breach the subject again. From then on, the introductions were quick and reputable painless which made it hard for Percy to remember everyone. There was Walt Stone who was Sadie's boyfriend and a prospective NBA player of his height was anything to go by, Zia Rashid (Carter's girlfriend who was glaring adamantly at Leo), Jaz, Felix, Alyssa, Julian, Sean, Cleo and others he had already forgotten.
It was the Greek and Roman introductions next, although Horus managed to remark snidely that, "Zeus didn't need an introduction after his dramatic display." Most of Camp Half-Blood seemed to be in the throne room with a good amount of demigods from Camp Jupiter too. Percy could make out Annabeth, Grover, Thalia, Nico, Will, the Stolls, Katie, Chris, Clarisse, Rachel, Piper, Leo, Lacy and Drew (who seemed unable to tear their eyes from Sadie) as well as Reyna, Jason, Dakota, Gwen and even Chiron. The entire Olympian Council was also present, including Hades and Hestia.
"Ma'at that was long." Sadie yawned. "Can we get this over with?"
Athena huffed but complied, eager to read herself.
