RACHAEL
Chapter 15
I was full of mixed feelings as the monster chased me towards the entrance to the park.
Everyone knows the basic feelings: sadness, anger, happiness, et cetera. But what I felt now was such a hugely mixed combination of those and quite a few more that I felt like I should make up a new word.
First of all, I was still trying to process the idea that I was alive. Alive and breathing. The Set animal had me cornered. I was done for. But then, out of nowhere… Savvy appeared.
Savvy was another thing. I was insanely happy I had found her (duh), but also kind of mad. Okay, pretty mad. I hate to admit it, but all this time I had pictured Savvy in some sort of dungeon, battered and bruised, captured by Nyx or something. The next thing I know, Savvy is standing right in front of my face, healthy as ever, while I was still lying on the ground like an idiot marvelling at the fact that I was still in one piece.
And she shouted something, some kind of spell…avast, was it? No… A'max. Whatever that meant. While I was still processing where Savvy had come from, some kind of stick she was holding had promptly burst into flames and struck the Set animal's body. I had no idea what she had just done, but whatever it was, it worked, giving just enough time for Savvy to let me know that she had a plan.
A plan. I don't mean to be rude, but Savvy rarely comes up with plans. I mean, she's smart and all, but not really the planning type. He style involves more of jumping into the situation without considering the consequences and "go with the flow" type. In other words, no planning involved. Another thing that was bothering me was where Savvy had learned to do those things. It had been almost a week since the arai incident, and now that I think about it, she could have been anywhere.
I heard a deafening roar that could only be produced by the Set animal just a few metres behind me, and that reminded me that I could be dwelling on such things later.
What had Savvy said? Distract the Set animal and meet her at the front of the amusement park? It wasn't often that I followed Savvy's orders, but hey, she just saved my life. What could go wrong?
Well, if distracting the Set animal was Savvy's grand idea, then that was what I would do.
I yelled over my shoulder while still running. "Hey! Ugly! Over here!" Not the most creative insult, I admit, but it worked.
I will… I will tear you to pieces! You'll be sorry you ever crossed my path!
"Sound tempting!" I said. "But I think I'll pass."
The Set animal growled fiercely, louder this time, which could only mean it was gaining ground. I stumbled on some graved but continued forward, slightly cursing under my breath. Running wasn't my strong suit. Well, if you wanted to talk long distance I'd beat you any day, but I could not sprint, which was really not helpful in this situation.
I almost slammed headfirst into the stone archway as I reached the amusement park entrance. I glanced around, looking for the sign Savvy had mentioned, but only spotted a brought yellow but slightly banged up billboard supported by two stone pillars. It read:
HAPPY FAMILIES AMUSEMENT PARK
I was still staring at the sign in bewilderment while the Set animal pounced on me from behind.
Out of sheer luck, I made it out of the way just in time. The Set animal flew past me and landed sprawling on the ground, growling. Seriously, did this thing ever get tired of growling?
I turned behind me to see the one and only Savvy Hughes standing by the park sign. She looked really tired, and was panting and sweating and holding one of the stone pillars for support. I tried not to look at the gash in her thigh.
"Hi," she said, kind of awkwardly, still breathing hard.
I brushed a stray strand of hair out of my eyes. "So what's this plan of yours?"
The Set animal growled again and its body tensed as it got ready to pounce.
"Hold on a sec," she said. "This thing's getting on my nerves." She raised a sort of black and white staff with strange hieroglyphics inscribed down the side and yelled, "Ha-wi!"
A golden hieroglyph burned in the air in front of Savvy.
The Set animal flew back by an invisible force of energy and lay on the ground still.
I stared open-mouthed at Savvy.
"Anyway," she continued. "The stone arch way. If we can bring it down on top of the Set animal..."
I saw where this was going. "What do you want me to do?"
She shrugged. "Distract the Set animal, keep it focused on you."
"Mm-hmm."
"The stone arch way looks pretty strong, and I've already conjured a lot of spells today, so I'll have to weaken it by hand first before using magic."
"Yeah…" I said stupidly, getting more and more confused by the second.
"Oh, and can you try to corner it into that area," she pointed at the ground and directly below the centre of the arch, "so we can be sure the rocks will fall on top of it?"
"Anything else? Would you like a cold drink and a slice of pizza as well?"
"Shut up Rachael."
DEATH! The Set animal screamed in my head.
I backed away from the arch as Savvy began hacking away at the stone with a rock. Normally I would think the rock wouldn't make a scratch, but the rock was glowing ever so slightly and seemed to be doing its job quite well, so I didn't say anything.
The Set animal advanced towards me, and for a second I stood frozen. How was I supposed to defend myself? I had no weapon, except for Alexis and there was no way I could use that against the Set animal. We all saw how wonderfully that worked last time.
I took another step back when I felt something shift in my right boot. I quickly stuffed my hand inside and pulled out nothing other than a Celestial Bronze dagger. It was still there, exactly where I had hidden it before Capture the Flag.
I wielded it before me, and the world shifted into slow motion.
I had never been as skilful with a dagger as I was with archery, but it seemed that this once luck was on my side. I was mostly parrying the Set animal's strikes; it was much too fast for me to sneak in a blow of my own. I was dimly aware of Savvy trying to weaken the archway, but all my focus was on the Set animal. I knew that the second that concentration wavered, it was game over.
The Set animal paused and sniffed the air hungrily, as if just realizing there was another tasty mortal behind it, making more than a bit of noise.
"Oh, no you don't," I said and slashed at the monster's back. It snarled at me and we continued our fight.
The pounding noise suddenly stopped. Savvy must have finished weakening the arch. She nodded at me, and in that split second pause the Set animal head-butted me so hard I went flying backwards and landed hard on my ankle.
Immediately I knew I had broken it. Pain like a hot steel wire made its way up my leg. The world narrowed to just me, my ankle, and the pure agony.
"You had to break." I scolded it.
The ankle did not reply.
"Di immortals," I cursed under my breath. I had been lost, separated from Camp Half-Blood and my best friend for five days, battled the Set animal which really shouldn't exist, finally had found Savvy, all to be stopped by a stupid broken ankle. I began to crawl away from the shadow of the arch, wincing with every movement.
The Set animal snarled again, but just as it was getting ready to pounce, Savvy's clear voice rang through the amusement park.
"Sa-hei!" For a moment nothing happened, and I glanced at Savvy quizzically, but slowly a golden hieroglyph appeared seemingly from thin air:
And then one hundred pounds of stone crashed directly on top of the Set animal, burying it. In less than thirty seconds, Savvy and I were looking at nothing but a huge pile of rocks.
"Well." I said, still tightly holding my ankle. Savvy cracked a smile and then winced as she remembered her thigh.
I took off my backpack, now worn from recent events, and rummaged through it. "Please, please," I muttered. I came up victorious and grinned. I held in my hands a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia.
I held it out for Savvy to see, but she just looked at me weirdly.
"Why are you shoving yellow brownies at me?" She asked.
I sighed dramatically. "This, unbeliever, is what's going to heal your thigh. Feel the power of ambrosia!"
Savvy just stared at me like I had gone bonkers. I rolled my eyes and opened the package and ate a couple squares. Instantly my ankle went from unbearable pain to a slight throb. Of course, if wouldn't heal right away. Even ambrosia wasn't that powerful. But two, three days at the most and I would be right as rain. Hopefully.
I tried to stand, and Savvy came over to steady me. I gestured to the ambrosia, and she shrugged and ate a square. Her eyes widened. "It tastes just like Beth's cheesecake!"
I grinned, and Savvy went for another piece, but I stopped her and shook my head. "Not too much. You could burn up." She instantly dropped the square. Apparently she wasn't looking too forward to that happening. She opened her mouth to say more but before she could a dark red light shined through the cracks in the rocks. I groaned. "It's still alive?"
Savvy cursed slightly and we both backed away from the pile of rubble, neither of us having the strength to stand. Frankly, it looked like Savvy was on the verge of passing out.
With a load roar, the rocks exploded and Savvy and I covered our eyes with our hands to avoid head injury. The next thing I knew the Set animal towered over us, growling.
I looked over to Savvy, who was holding something in her hands. Some kind of necklace maybe? I shot her a curious look, wondering what she was doing, but she clasped the pendant in her hand and muttered something under her breath. At first nothing happened, and Savvy tossed the pendant away in frustration, but it soon began to glow softly.
The Set animal roared, but just as it was about to strike, it tensed up suddenly as if something has struck it from behind, and promptly exploded into dust.
Umm…
Standing behind what used to be the Set animal was a small and agile figure, like a gymnast, with black hair and wore a…skin-tight leopard-print leotard?
And was it just me, or were her eyes yellow?
I wasn't really sure what to make of it, but Savvy was certainly very relieved at the person's appearance. Well, I supposed I should be too (she did save our lives), but I was too busy trying to take in the creature's taste of fashion.
Savvy's gaze shifted from the amulet, now lying abandoned on the ground, its glow faded, to the person standing in front of us. Her expression changed from that of exceeding pain from her thigh, to the utmost gratitude. "I can't believe it actually worked!" she marvelled, examining the amulet with respect.
The person turned towards Savvy and smiled, her eyes glinting like a cat's as she did so. "You must be Bast!" Savvy said, grinning back. "Carter and Sadie told me about you!"
I didn't mean to be rude (actually, I hated to be rude, unlike a certain Savvy Hughes), but those eyes were seriously bothering me. "Um, excuse me for saying so," I started, not really sure how to put it into words, "but do you wear contacts?"
Bast narrowed her feline eyes in suspicion, and Savvy shot me an annoyed look. "Rachael!" she scolded. "Don't be rude!"
Who just said that?
"Speak for yourself," I said indignantly.
"She's the goddess of cats and protection," Savvy continued, speaking extremely slowly as if I wouldn't understand otherwise.
She definitely deserved a punch in the face.
I searched me brain for connections. Something sparked into my mind from Madam Isabelle's lessons.
"Bast is an extremely skilled fighter, both with and without magic. She is highly adept at using her two knives to fight and has many acrobatic abilities. One could say she has "catlike" reflexes, and is shown to be an incredible fighter. She may have power over fire, as she is a daughter of Ra, the sun god."
Bast, the goddess of cats? "But you're not supposed to exist," I said, voicing my thoughts involuntarily. "You're Egyptian."
Bast decided to ignore me completely and turned towards Savvy. "Where are my little kittens?" she asked worriedly.
Savvy looked confused for a moment before her expression turned to one of understanding. "Oh! You mean Sadie and Carter? They're…somewhere around here."
Bast studied Savvy for a moment as if trying to decide whether or not she should trust what she said, but after a minute or so she gave a hesitant nod.
I got up and shook Savvy's shoulder, my patience wearing extremely thin. "Who's Sadie and Carter?" I asked, trying to keep a cool tone.
No. I could not let my temper get the better of me here.
Savvy shrugged nonchalantly. "People."
As if I didn't already know. I usually wasn't the one to be asking what was going on, but the one answering them. Most new demigods who arrived at camp were still hesitant to believe the whole one-of-your-parents-is-actually-an-immortal-god thing. But that wasn't me. I had gone through that years ago, yet someone here smelled fishy.
And no, I didn't mean the deli store nearby.
"Savvy," I said, trying to come up with a logical explanation myself before asking, "Can you please explain what's going on?"
She gave me a frustrated look. "What about you? It's not every day I learn that my best friend can shoot with a bow and arrow almost perfectly, jump over twelve foot fences and disappear into light!"
I stopped short. She had a point, though the last thing wasn't actually my doing.
"Kittens!" Bast catcalled. "We should go look for Carter and Sadie."
Savvy nodded. "Come on, Rachael."
"Coming," I grumbled, my tone angry. I didn't even know who these people were, yet I was supposed to help search the entire of Manhattan for them? Hadn't I done enough searching already?
I glared at Bast shortly before we exited the park. I preferred not to be labeled as a "kitten".
…
One hour later and we still hadn't found them.
Bast was overly obsessed with knowing that they were okay. Anytime I suggested that they probably already moved on she would shoot me a menacing glare. If looks could kill, I'd be dead about 100 times over by now.
Savvy wasn't as bad as Bast, but was still bent on meeting up with them. How could she have so much faith in them? What if they were monsters in disguise, building up a fake trust so they would have a clear shot?
And me? Well, I was pretty much ready to damn everything else, pack up my stuff and move to Australia. And I wasn't sure if Savvy noticed my ankle, but I certainly did. And it was pretty much killing me after this much walking. The ambrosia had done its work well, but I really needed crutches or something.
We stopped at a park bench to take a quick rest. I sat down, taking deep breaths and trying to divert my attention away from my ankle. I seriously hope we didn't get attacked right now, because I would be useless.
"Where are they?" Savvy grumbled.
"We have to find my kittens!" Bast cried.
"Can we go now?" I muttered, frustrated.
Suddenly Savvy sat up. "I have an idea!" she announced proudly.
"Great. Brazil?"
She gave me a disapproving look. "No, Rachael." She said while pulling a long rod from her bag. "Heqat." She said. The rod grew longer and wider, and soon Savvy was holding in her hands a black and white staff.
"That again?" I grumbled.
Bast shot me another glare.
"Arjana!" Savvy spoke, while looking intensely at the staff. Something clicked in my mind: find.
Nothing happened.
Savvy mumbled something and the staff shrank back into a rod. She laid it on the flat of her palm and stood up, speaking the spell again.
The rod glowed for a few seconds, but then quickly died out.
"See?" I said, smugly.
"Whatever," Savvy muttered, dejected.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Who are you people?" I was quite serious. For one of the first times in my life, I had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Savvy looked at me, biting her lip, as if like, how do I explain?
Suddenly it all clicked in my head. Egyptian goddesses, Egyptian monsters, Egyptian magicians, Egyptian Egyptians, I scolded myself for not noticing, the throbbing pain of my ankle overruled any other thought. I was such an idiot!
Egyptian.
"No." I muttered. No no no NOOOO...
What is it with my stupid life? One day, at eleven years old, someone knocks on my doorstep and tells me the Greek gods are real. Fine. Why not?
A year later, Percy disappears, and a bunch of new Roman demigods come into the equation, bringing with them a lot more trouble.
And then, as my life slowly settled back into routine, I find out there's a whole new world of… of…Egyptians.
Really? How weird can a person's life get?
Oh, and my ankle. Okay, that wasn't really weird, but it hurt. A lot.
"Just…" I started, trying to get a grip. "Tell me later." Savvy nodded. "So, how are we going to reach them?"
Savvy just shook her head and we all kind of just sat there for a few minutes, mulling over the situation. Then the next thing I know Savvy's running off with a smile on her face, returning a couple minutes later with a smug grin and a phone gripped in her hand.
"Really?" I asked. "You stole another one?"
She didn't even bother answering, but punched in the number and pressed dial. There was a blast of static but eventually I heard a soft voice at the other end of the line.
"Hello?" Savvy asked. "Yeah, Sadie? Yes, I'm fine. Where's Carter? We're at 55th street. Where are you?" I waited as Savvy had a mini conversation on the phone, but started as something she said caught my attention. "We killed the Set animal."
There was a pause at the other end of the line.
Savvy chatted for a few more minutes before hanging up.
"Well?" I asked. "What did they say?"
Savvy turned to Bast and me. "They're too far to meet up with us. I said we'll meet back at the House of Life."
"The House of Life?"
Bast nodded. "We'll have to conjure a portal."
Savvy glanced at her wristwatch. "Hey, if you're back, that mean all the gods are back." She shrugged. "Cool. I think the next auspicious moment is in a couple of minutes."
"Wait, where are we going?" I questioned. I had to make sure I knew what was going on before we ended up on the moon or something.
"The House of Life," Savvy answered.
"Yeah, well, ever think of the fact that I don't want to go there?" I argued, my tone heating up.
"Ever think we need to?"
"We don't need to do anything!" I tried, exasperated. "Look, Savvy. I don't know who these people are and I excuse me if I don't want to go puppy dogging around them!"
"Well I want to! Ever think of that, Rachael? Ever think of what I want?"
We were seriously arguing now, but I wasn't going to back down. "I don't want to go to your stinking House of Noodles!" I yelled.
"Then don't come!" she yelled at me. I stopped short.
"What?"
"I'm going, Rachael, whether you like it or not. Because… because maybe this is where I belong, okay?"
"I…" I started, but I couldn't think of anything to say. I hadn't really realized why Savvy was so attached to these people. Only now it came to me: she found somewhere where she could be herself. A place where she felt like she belonged.
And being her best friend, I knew that that was a definite rarity.
"All right," I gave in. "I'm coming."
Savvy grinned at me. "Let's get this show on the road."