Author's Notes: Woo hoo, another chapter so soon! How exciting. I was happy to be able to add a new character for the moment! Though I really should have been writing for my thesis instead… But oh well! It'll all get done.
I probably won't have another new chapter after this for a while, but I'll try! I can be motivated by reviews, so leave long interesting ones, and tell your friends to do the same!
Warning: Slightly graphic death scene.
Senui: Indigo owns nothing. Get lost. (glares) That means YOU!
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Millennial Inheritance
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The Ankh led Shadi through a section of town he didn't usually go to, the tourist district. It was only a few streets lined with souvenir stands, booths of cheap knock-off artifacts, and restaurants ranging from McDonalds to unnamed restaurants specializing in kushari, omahri, and other ethnic specialties. Even Ahmed's Pita Pyramid. Street performers danced, played music, and showed off interesting reptiles. Shadi didn't give the scams lining the street he walked down, and shuddered slightly to himself at the snakes. He quietly dodged through the tourists, who exclaimed loudly over the 'authenticity' and 'good quality' of their finds. He caught a good part of the English he heard, and found himself thinking that he should come here more often, to pick up more of the language.
Shadi wasn't watching where he was going very closely, so he didn't notice the other boy until he bumped into him. They both staggered back a little, and the Ankh dropped back to Shadi's chest.
"I… am sorry," Shadi said a little haltingly. Understanding English was one thing, but speaking it was a little harder.
"Ismahli!" the other boy blurted out in Arabic, then blinked at Shadi's English. "Er… sorry. Oh, um, that's okay…" The other boy looked about Shadi's age, or maybe a little older, and completely confused. He had straight silver hair that fell about to his shoulders, and was wearing tan clothes. His reddish-brown eyes flew to the glinting gold Items Shadi carried. Shadi thought he looked American, and he certainly sounded that way.
Shadi edged nervously away, and slipped between some elderly people to continue following the Ankh's pull.
((It's close… There!(( Suddenly the Ankh's pull turned, and Shadi found himself facing another souvenir booth. It was one of the ones that had things that looked more authentic. In other words, it sold jade, granite, silver, gold-plated metal, and high-quality cloth rather than paper-machete, plaster, aluminum, tin, and felt. The robed man behind the counter was holding the Millennium Ring by a rope, admiring the way it glinted in the sun. There was a large green parrot gripping a long board next to him. Shadi recognized traces of the heavy incense flooding his home in this stall.
))There's the thief! Judge him!))
"Excuse me," Shadi said loudly, ignoring the Scales' spirit for the moment. The large man turned to him. Shadi lowered his voice. "That's not yours. Give it back to me."
The man narrowed his eyes for a split second, then laughed. "I'm afraid this is a little out of your price range, boy. This pendant was owned by the Pharaoh himself, you know. The circle shows his power over the whole world as they knew it then, with the five points being the major cities. It's a steal at 5,000,000 pounds, and I can't accept any less."
Shadi narrowed his eyes angrily. "You THIEF! You drugged me with that incense and stole that from my home! You know nothing about it, it belonged to some priests and a tomb robber, not the Pharaoh, and it's worth far more than that! But I'm not going to buy it from you, because you never bought it from me!" Shadi's voice rose as he continued, glaring at the taller man. The thief looked around nervously. Shadi's accusations were drawing a lot of attention he didn't want, and some of the tourists had stopped to watch, including the silver-haired boy Shadi bumped into earlier.
"Now you know that's not true," the man laughed a little nervously. "You have no proof of that. This has been handed down in the line of the kings since ancient times…"
"Liar! It's mine, and it's been handed down in MY family since those times. AND I have proof of that. It's part of a set that we have, look!" Shadi angrily pulled out the Scales, and held out the Ankh as well. The crowd behind him was muttering suspiciously. Someone mumbled something about getting the police. The man's eyes widened slightly, and he laughed nervously again.
"All right, all right… Don't get so upset…" He stepped out of the little booth and backed down the empty end of the street, clutching the rope the Ring hung from. Most of the crowd began to disperse out of either boredom or nervousness, but Shadi stalked after the slowly retreating man. The silver-haired boy hung back, but didn't leave.
Once he had made it clear of the crowded street, the man turned and took off at a run. Shadi raced after him, grasping the Scales in one hand and the Ankh in the other so it didn't fly over his shoulder and cut off his airway. He heard some footsteps behind him, but didn't want to bother looking behind him.
((It's that American boy you bumped into.((
))How annoying! How about I send him to Anubis?))
/No. We'll deal with him later./ Shadi pounded after the man, and was prepared to run for a while yet, but the man suddenly stopped short, with a bloodcurdling scream. One hand clenched over the Ring, and the other one seemed to be desperately trying to pry it open. Shadi skidded to a halt and watched in horror as the hand clamped around the Ring burst into flames. Shadi started back.
/What's happening? What is this!?/
((…The Ring… As we said, it's violent, dangerous… It… doesn't take kindly to thieves…((
))Or anyone else for that matter. It's not so hypocritical as to be limited to thieves.))
/Why doesn't he just let go? It can't be worth getting burned!/
((…He's not holding the Ring anymore. It's holding him…((
/But… It'll stop… right? It'll just… burn his hand and then end. Right…?/
))Don't count on it. Remember how you found it? That'll be this guy too.))
/Scale, stop!/
))Just a pile of ashes.))
"NO!" Shadi's thoughts were echoed in the American boy's cry. As the other boy ran forward, the man holding the Ring burst into flames with an anguished scream. Shadi shuddered, unable to drag his eyes from the burning man, unable to move an inch. The American had stopped too, and begun to back up in terror.
In one final burst of flames, the fire died. A black, lumpy mass surrounded the Ring. It sizzled. The American boy stood shakily, and slowly walked over to it. He very gradually reached towards the Ring.
"Stop!" Shadi yelled, broken out of his trance. He rushed over to the other, kicking sand over the smoking Ring and trying to remember his English lessons. "You will also be burned!"
The boy drew back quickly, staring at Shadi with wide eyes.
"Who… Who ARE you?" he whispered fearfully.
"My name is Shadi. I guard the Millennium Items."
"I'm Pegasus J. Crawford…" He looked at the sand covering the Ring, which shimmered with heat. "I can't speak much Arabic." He wasn't really paying attention to Shadi, or what he was saying.
Shadi felt sick. "I speak some English. …You should go back to your family."
Pegasus shook himself out of his mesmerized state. "…My parents are here to flaunt their wealth, mostly. They want some exotic decorations for home. I was following them because I don't know where anything is here, and I didn't want to get lost."
Shadi nodded slowly, not completely understanding everything he heard, but getting the general idea. "If they are looking for rich things… this is not the place. Most things here are low-quality."
"I know. My father was getting angry about that, and no one would tell him where to find anything better." Pegasus watched in fascination as Shadi took the Ankh from around his neck and untied the rope around it, sticking it in his belt opposite the Scales, and kicked the Ring out of the sand, then started trying to loop the rope through it. "Won't… it just burn through the rope?"
"No, not unless I touch it." Shadi finally got the rope through the Ring and caught the other end, then stood up, holding the Ring away from himself. "Where are you staying?"
"The Sofitel Old Winter Palace."
Shadi's eyes widened. "That is the most expensive hotel in the city, if not the whole country." Pegasus nodded.
"My father likes the architecture. He's not very interested in the country's culture or history, but he knows people back home think it's cool. He wants to build a casino and hotel and some other stuff there. We're from Las Vegas… It's in Nevada, in America. Do you live around here?"
"Yes…" Shadi remembered hearing a little about Las Vegas, mostly that it was a town of casinos.
((…He seems nice. You should invite him home for a drink, and maybe something to eat. I don't think he's used to the heat… He looks pretty hot.((
/But the Ring…/
((He already knows you have the Items, and he heard you had a set, right? Treat them as heirlooms, it'll be fine. You could use someone else to talk to, closer to your age, especially since you haven't seen Rishid for a while… Don't you think it would be a nice change?((
Shadi hesitated. /…What if I say something wrong…?/
Ankh laughed. ((You won't, you're good! Besides, if you can't understand each other, I can help translate.((
/You speak English?/
((Not quite, but I can see into peoples' minds, their souls… I can understand their meaning, even if I don't know the words they use.((
Shadi came out of his inner monologue to see Pegasus regarding him uneasily. He realized he had been staring at the other boy while he spoke with Ankh. The American looked slightly lost, very disconcerted, and, as Ankh had noticed, quite hot.
"…If you want, you can come to my house and have something to drink," Shadi offered. "It is not far from here." Pegasus blinked, looked around uncertainly, then nodded hesitantly.
"All right… If it's no trouble. And if your family doesn't mind."
Shadi stiffened a little, turning to walk back towards his home and carrying the Ring at arm's length. "…They will not."
Shadi walked back through the streets, slowly enough to let Pegasus follow him. He glanced at the incinerated merchant-thief's stall, and the merchandise that still lay out on the counter, and hung from the back wall.
))You could take that stuff, you know!))
/And do what with it, sell it? Or let it collect dust like most of the rest of the things at home?/
))At least see if he left any money back there!))
/I don't want to look like a thief, Scale…/
))Don't call me that! And who do you think's gonna take that stuff, huh? Thieves, that's who. They're looking at it already, I'll bet you anything.))
/I'm sure you're right, but I don't want to be the one to get in trouble about it…/ Shadi wove expertly through the crowd, bending away from each person he passed to avoid contact with them. After a moment he realized that the silver-haired boy had lagged behind, and he turned and stopped, waiting for Pegasus to awkwardly make his way through the unyielding crowd. He looked very relieved when he saw Shadi again, and Shadi nodded to him slightly before setting off again at a slower pace. After a few minutes, he stopped in front of his door to let the panting, sweating Pegasus catch up again.
"This is my house…" Shadi said by way of introduction. He walked in the door into the cooler air, but instantly remembered the drugged incense. It had thinned, but he could still smell it. "…I am sorry about the smell. That man poisoned the air so I would not wake up when he stole this from me." He walked down the steps into the main part of his dwelling, wrinkling his nose at the smell.
"Oh…" Pegasus followed Shadi, looking around in complete awe at the ancient stone carvings and statues. "Was everything you said true? About that ring belonging to priests and robbers?"
Shadi nodded, dropping the Ring on the Items' tablet and slipping the rope out of it. "Yes." /If I use the Ankh to push it back into place, will it hurt me? …Or you?/
((Hopefully not… I don't think it will. Go ahead.((
Shadi took the Ankh and carefully pushed the Ring into place, then he turned back to Pegasus, who was watching his actions raptly. "I have water, milk, and cactus juice… And some food, if you are hungry." Shadi walked across to the kitchen in the other room. "What would you like?"
"Er… I don't know… Is the cactus juice sweet? That sounds… interesting."
"Yes, it is sweet." Shadi took out two glasses and the bottle of juice, and poured some for each of them, then carried the glasses out and handed one to his guest. "Sit down, if you want."
Pegasus took a deep gulp of the juice and smiled, finishing the whole glass in the next swallow. "Mmm! This is good! Oh, thanks. Where?"
"Um… Anywhere. There are chairs in the kitchen, or you can sit on my bed over there." Shadi pointed to his bed, then went to get the bottle of juice. He hadn't realized Pegasus would drink so much so fast! Pegasus was still standing in the same spot when he came back, so he gestured for him to sit on his bed. As they sat, Shadi poured him some more juice, which was swallowed just as quickly as the last glass, and then another one. "You should drink it slowly," Shadi advised when Pegasus paused to gasp for breath.
The other boy wiped sweat from his forehead. "Jesus! I don't see… how you can live with this heat all the time… I'd fall over dead!"
Shadi shrugged. "I have always lived here, it is what I know. Maybe you should buy a hat, to at least keep the sun off your face."
Pegasus put a hand to his red face and winced at the heat and pain. "My mother told me to put on more sunscreen… I guess I should have listened…" He sipped a little more slowly at his fifth glass of cactus juice, and took a deep breath, eyes drooping slightly and looking rather sick.
"Are you all right?" Shadi asked, sipping his own juice.
"Urg… My stomach hurts… My head too." The American boy closed his eyes and tried to relax the muscles in his aching parts.
"That is probably from the heat… Then you would not want something to eat?"
"Mm, no. I'd probably throw up…"
Shadi nodded in agreement. "Rest for a while, then. It must be hard to adjust to the climate." He took their glasses and the nearly empty bottle of juice, and put them away. When he came back, Pegasus was curled up on his bed, breathing shallowly.
/Is he all right, Ankh?/
((He's got some light heat exhaustion, and that mixed with the cold juice upset his stomach. He'll be okay after he rests for a little while.((
/Okay…/
After about ten minutes, the other boy sat up again.
"I'm sorry, I felt sick…" He looked a little bit worried. Shadi nodded.
"It was because of the heat and the cold drink. Do you feel well now?"
"Yes… mostly." Pegasus looked around slowly. "…You live here?" Shadi nodded. "It's like a tomb…"
"My family has lived here for generations. It… was made to be a place to honor and keep the Sennen Items rather than a comfortable home."
Pegasus nodded, looking at the Ankh and Scales. "I see… So then your family is really meant to guard those… treasures, like you said?"
"Yes, we have always done this."
"Then you've probably passed down a lot of things from ancient times! Is there anything… really interesting?" He seemed very interested.
"Well… a few things perhaps…" Shadi proceeded to tell Pegasus about the Pharaoh and his priests, trying to stay away from anything that led to magic in the present day. What interested Pegasus most was the Dark Games that had been played in the past.
"So every person has… one of these Kaa- things in them, a spirit? How were they pulled out?"
"Er… We are not sure, exactly. It has not been done for a long time. But they could be dangerous. Some would come out and attack people. So they were… pulled out and sealed into great stone tablets."
"I've heard of personal demons, but this isn't quite what I imagined… Did it hurt?"
"I am not sure… But I think so."
"And then those spirits were used to fight?"
"Right. I… have pictures, if you'd like to see…"
"Really? I'd love to see them, if I could! This sounds amazing!"
"All right, follow me." Shadi walked over to the ornate wall lit by torches behind the Sennen Items. "Here, one priest is challenging another…" He pointed to an age-smoothed carving of a priest, one hand held up straight in front of him and the other holding the Millennium Scales, facing another who wore a hood, the Millennium Eye glinting out of it. "…The other accepts, they perform a short introductory ritual… And here are the tablets."
"Amazing…" Pegasus breathed, staring at the carvings. Rectangles with small pictures on them appeared in front of each priest, and in the next section, the pictures had grown to show a griffin and a demon facing each other. "…Who won?"
"That is not shown. It may have been a confrontation or merely a spar."
Pegasus continued gazing at the carvings for another moment, then turned to Shadi eagerly. "Would it be all right… if I drew this?"
Shadi shrugged. "Of course, if you want." Pegasus grinned and took out a pen and a small notebook of blank white paper, and quickly began sketching a rough copy of the whole scene, then a few more detailed drawings of the creatures and the tablets.
"This is great… Thank you so much!"
Shadi nodded to him. "You're welcome. Do you… like to draw?"
"I love it! I love drawing and painting… pretty much any kind of art." Pegasus laughed a little bitterly. "…Of course my parents say I should be focusing on other things… The family business, other businesses… Any kinds of business. Or at least normal things like sports or… whatever they think normal people do."
"They do not like your drawings, then?" Shadi took a look at the rough sketches the other boy had made. "I think they are good."
Pegasus smiled. "Really? Thank you! …But yeah, they don't like this. They say it's a waste of time. They think it's just a phase or something, but I really want to make this my life! I don't want to manage casinos or something, I want to make things, create beauty, things that people will love…" He sighed, closing his notebook. "…But my parents say there's no money in that, and I'll end up starving, living in a cardboard box by the side of the road. And I don't like to admit it, but they're right. Artists aren't known for being well-off unless they're really great, and even then their work is always worth more after they're dead. …What do you think?" He turned to Shadi hopefully.
"I think… your parents may be right about the money… But are there no other ways to use art to make more money with it?" Shadi asked carefully. The other boy stared at him for a moment before giving him a slow, thoughtful nod. "And… if you hate your career, you might feel that you would rather… live in a box."
Pegasus smiled brightly and nodded. "You're right! I'll… try to think of a way to make art make more money… You don't have any ideas, do you?"
Shadi shook his head slowly. "No… I cannot think of anything… Selling drawings and paintings does not pay much, even if they are good…"
Pegasus sighed. "Well… I'll think about it. Thanks, though!"
"You're welcome."
Suddenly something beeped. Shadi stepped back a little and Pegasus jumped and looked at his watch, his eyes widening.
"Oh my God, it's three o'clock! I'm supposed to be back at the hotel!" Pegasus moaned. "Oh, I don't even know where it is…"
"I will take you there," Shadi offered. Pegasus blinked and smiled.
"Really? Thanks!" He started towards the stairs, then turned. "Oh… You might not want to take that gold with you… If my parents saw it, they wouldn't let you leave until you'd given it to them."
"Ah, all right…" Shadi slipped the Ankh under his robe, then went over to put the Scales in the Items' tablet.
))Hmph, as usual, I'm the one put away while HE gets brought around everywhere. I see how it is!))
/You expect me to hide the Scales under my robes? They're huge! You can… keep watch while we're gone./
))Excuses!))
/You'd really want to come with me?/
))Of course not! That doesn't make it fair, though!))
/I'm sorry Scale. Next time, get sealed into something smaller./ Shadi left the Scales clattering with rage and ran up the stairs after Pegasus.
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Endnote: I don't really have more to say… But please leave me many reviews! Long, interesting ones! It would make me so happy. Be sure to go read some of my other stories too, I have a couple of fairly new ones up! Thank you!