HEY GUYS! Here's chapter four! And, yes, we have a slightly long chapter today! So, uh, enjoy!

Chapter 4:

I woke up the next morning to find my clothes were picking themselves out and hanging themselves up on the door. My eyes were wide, how would you feel if you woke you and skinny jeans were walking to your bathroom, followed by hi-tops that were hopping behind them? It was weird, it was strange, and it was horrifying, all for about a moment. Then I got out of bed and trudged to the bathroom and slipped on the clothes. The top I was wearing was a flowing white tank-top that had a shimmery gold Per-Ankh symbol on it. I tied up the Hi-tops and threw my hair into a messy bun, applying a bit of eyeliner to my bottom lids and adding mascara to my top lashes.

Then, when I was completely ready, I zoomed down the stairs, only to bump into another initiate. I believe his name was Sean, but I wasn't sure.

"Sorry," I managed, and then I passed by and waltzed into the kitchen to find Sadie. She saw me and tossed me an apple. I took a bite of it and swallowed.

"So what's first today?" I said.

"Well, it's time you got the complete tour." Sadie answered, searching through the gigantic refrigerator.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I pulled Sadie by the wrist, but she was stronger than she looked.

"Eat first, tour later." Then she went back to rummaging through cabinets and drawers and such.

"Well, hurry up. I'm not here to watch you eat, I'm here to learn about my magician side." I complained. Sadie turned around and gave me an annoyed look.

"You're lucky I'm even up this early." She pointed to the clock, which currently said 9:04 am.

"You're kidding right? How late do you sleep Sadie?" I asked, staring at her like she had horns growing out of her head (not that I didn't see Satyrs at camp, but their half-goat).

"Around 11 on a good day, I'm a late sleeper." Sadie shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, you think?" Sadie laughed.

"Uh-huh. Okay, I hope you aren't scared of Albino crocodiles?"

"Of what?" I asked; my face completely blank.

Sadie chuckled, "Never mind, he's not going to eat you, most likely…" I hoped she was joking about there being a giant albino crocodile, but I realized that the chances of Sadie joking about crocodiles were slim to nothing.

Without warning, Sadie threw away her bagel and waltzed through the opposite kitchen door. I threw away what was left of my apple and jogged to keep up with her.

"You know, you could tell me before you start the 'tour'." I complained when I caught up with her.

"Sorry, I do that, a lot." She nodded her head and stared into space.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face.

"Sadie; the tour?! You're supposed to be showing me where I'll be living 3 and half days a week." Sadie looked at me and shook her head.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry Sarah, I didn't get much sleep last night." She paused, "Let's go. It's time you met Philip."

I was really hoping Philip was a cute boy, but no such luck, 'Philip' was an albino crocodile.

I screamed; don't ask me why, but for some strange reason, I was terrified of large reptiles. They were large, scaly, and didn't brush their teeth after they fed on defenseless smaller animals.

"Don't worry, he won't eat you, he only eats our enemies, and monsters that try to invade the mansion. He's friendly," Sadie said, then she crouched down at the side of the pool, Philip swam over to the edge and Sadie pet the top of his head.

"Sarah, meet Philip of Macedonia. Philip, meet Sarah." The crocodile gave me what I hoped was his attempt at a smile. I stood my ground as far away as I could get.

"Hello… Philip…" I said in a high pitched voice.

"Sarah, you are pathetic." Sadie grinned at me like I was an amusing dog. I mimicked her grin with a sarcastic raise of my eyebrows.

"Gee, thanks. I love to be called pathetic by my so-called friends." I rolled my eyes and Sadie cackled.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it. Wait till you meet Khufu." Sadie said.

"Please tell me he's not an orange crocodile?" I asked.

"Even better, come on." Sadie grabbed my wrist and pulled me along till we reached her brother's room.

"Carter! Open up!" Sadie pounded on the door until her brother came to the door, still in his PJ's; a mustache was drawn on his face.

Sadie laughed and pointed at her brother, "Hey Carter, just because you can't grow a mustache doesn't mean you have to draw one on."

"Felix!" Carter yelled, and then he walked out of his room to find the nine year old. I heard his girlfriend, Zia, say, "Carter, nice mustache." Then she laughed.

"Hey Sarah, how was your first night here? Any Ba travel?" Zia asked when she spotted us.

"Ba what?" I asked.

"When a part of your soul journeys through the Duat, and you appear to be in other places." Zia explained.

"No, none of that," I said.

"Then you're lucky. It sucks." Zia explained before continuing down the hallway.

"Khufu, come out, come out wherever you are…" Sadie sang. Then, a large hairy baboon walked out of the bathroom with a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush in his hand.

"Khufu's a baboon?" I asked, though it was clearly obvious.

"No he's a penguin. No duh he's a baboon! Well, we do have penguins here occasionally, but―"

"Penguins? My gods this place is weirder than I thought…" I muttered.

"Yeah, that's courtesy of Felix, who has an obsession with the flightless birds." Sadie explained.

"Agh!" Khufu the baboon said, or yelled, or… never mind.

Surprisingly I understood him, he said, "Hello, does your name end in O?"

"Hi, I'm Sarah, and no… my name doesn't end in O." I replied.

"You can understand him?" Sadie asked, clearly mystified that I can speak baboon as well as I can speak English and ancient Greek.

"Uh, yeah. Is that normal?" I asked.

"Nothing is normal around here Sarah." Sadie said.

"So it seems." I walked over to Khufu, who gave me a smile full of razor-sharp fangs. Yeah, I'm scared of friendly crocodiles, but not of a large baboon with kitchen knives for teeth. Makes all the sense in the world, right?

"Hi, I'm going to be living here for a few days a week. So, don't eat me or anything." I told him.

"Agh! Agh! Agh!" he yelled.

"What'd he say?" Sadie asked.

"He says, 'my name is Khufu, I am very strong. Do you have any flamingos?' whatever that means."

"Khufu has strange eating habits, for instance, he won't eat anything that doesn't end in 'o', as in, Cheerios, Cheeto's, Doritos, Spaghetti-o's, Flamingo's. The list goes on and on." I looked at Khufu, and he gave me another smile.

"Okay then…" I said, taking a small step back.

After Khufu showed me all the tricks he can do, he took a bow.

"He's amazing…" I said in wonderment.

"Hey, you already have Zack, don't get a crush on the baboon too." chided Sadie sarcastically. Though it was a joke, I blushed at Zack's name. I still didn't know what to do about him.

"Oh yes, because a baboon can compare to a cute Demi-god."

"I know; Khufu is sooo sexy…" Sadie said and rolled her eyes.

Khufu made an offended, "Agh." Not going to translate. You don't want to know.

After we left Khufu, laughing hysterically, we toured the rest of the mansion, the Practice room, which was the size of a basketball court. The library, which I had already seen, the great room, etc, etc.

"So, what now?" I asked Sadie.

"I think it's time you met Amos, got your own wand, magicians box, staff." I nodded, kind of excitedly.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I exclaimed. Sadie led us to the roof of the mansion. And the weirdest pet of all was there.

"Oh my Gods! What is that?" I squeaked. In front of us loomed a giant lion/bird hybrid.

"Oh that's just Freak, he's a griffin, he's Carter's pet. He doesn't usually eat people, just Thanksgiving roasted turkeys." Okay, albino crocodiles, baboons with weird eating habits, occasional penguins, turkey eating griffins, just your average zoo.

"We got to wait for an auspicious moment to open a portal to the First Nome." Sadie said, pulling out her cell phone.

"So, when's an auspicious―" Sadie put her finger up to shut me up. Literally, I found that I couldn't open my lips to talk.

"Mmm! Mmmm! Mm!" I tried to say, "Sadie Kane! Undo this spell before I drop kick you off this mansion!" but it didn't work, she scrolled through her cell-phone until she seemed pleased.

Finally, I found that my lips weren't sealed shut. "The next auspicious moment is in 3, 2, and 1!" Sadie took out her wand and a swirling vortex of sand appeared in front of us.

"Jeez, this place can't get any weirder." I muttered.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We jump in, that's what." With that, we jumped through the portal. When we came out, we crashed through a giant tree… in Egypt. To be more specific, in front of the First Nome.

"We―we were just in New York! How are we in Egypt?!" I cried.

"A portal can take you anywhere fast; we just traveled through the Duat. Now, to the First Nome!" Sadie marched ahead with her head held high, up to the Sphinx.

"This tunnel used to be closed, but when we defeated Apophis a few months ago, this tunnel was forced open. It leads right into the throne room. Funny thing being, my brother is pharaoh but he's never here, he's running the 21st Nome back home." Sadie laughed, like the thought of her brother being the all-powerful pharaoh was still hilarious.

"So, how do we get in?" I asked.

"Watch and learn Sarah Saturday, watch and learn." She put her hand to the Sphinx, and then dragged her hand across like it was a giant I-phone. Instantly at her touch, t door quietly swung open. Sadie looked around, but nobody was looking, in fact only a few people were around, and she stepped inside the door and disappeared into the darkness.

"Sadie?" I called.

"Just walk in Sarah, watch." Sadie called; I stepped into the darkness, and found that on the other side it was light. Like the darkness was just a mirage, then I remembered that there's like, a shield blocking mortals from seeing monsters and magic. Like the Minotaur, instead of seeing a raging bull-man in Elmo underwear, they probably see an overly hairy wrestler in Elmo underwear.

"Okay, let's go. At the other end of this tunnel is an entrance to the throne room." Sadie said; pointing in the direction we need to go in, though there was only one direction.

We treaded off down the tunnel. On the walls were ancient Egyptian paintings, like of the people walking sideways with their heads straight? I always thought those were kind of strange. The light seemed to brighten as we walked farther, and brighter, and brighter…

"Sadie, is this supposed to happen?" I asked.

"I don't know this is my first time using this entrance. We shouldn't die though." Sadie said encouragingly, so, it wasn't exactly encouraging.

"Gee, 'shouldn't' makes me feel so safe…" I muttered.

"Ah! Is that sarcasm I heard? Tisk, tisk. There may be hope for you yet Sarah!" Sadie beamed.

I looked up and found that finally, we had reached the door to the throne room. The door was like those you see on Bank vaults. But instead of gears, there were ancient symbols inscribed around the edge. Sadie started pressing certain symbols, and they began to glow. Before pressing the last one, she stopped and turned to me with a sly grin on her face.

"Are you ready to meet Amos?" She asked.

"Sure, I'm ready to see if your entire family is crazy, or if you were just dropped on your head a lot." I muttered the last part under my breathe.

With that, Sadie hit the last symbol, and the door swung open.

So… how'd you all like it? I thought it was fun! A kind of 'girl's day out' chapter. So, anyway, for the next chapter, I need, hmmm, 10 reviews again! That will bring the story to 30 reviews. So, uh, I hope you guys keep reading!