DISCLAIMER: Same as before. La la la.
Nolan leads me to a set of stairs. I can swear that I checked in the same spot before, but there weren't any stairs. We stop on the next floor down.
"This is where initiates research their path from scrolls, practice magic, and…" He is cut off by a rather large explosion.
"What was that noise?" I ask nervously.
"Oh, don't worry about it. I bet someone was experimenting with exploding donkey curses again."
"Exploding donkey curses!?"
Nolan chooses to ignore me. On the next floor, there is a basketball court. Statues of a god with the disk thing at the top of his head are the hoops.
"Why don't you have normal hoops?" This Brooklyn House is quite strange, as I've mentioned before.
"Well, that's because since we don't have normal hoops, so we had to make do with other means."
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention this, but baboons with golden fur and multi-coloured rear ends are playing a game. The baboon with a purple Lakers jersey is particularly good.
"Why do baboons like playing basketball?" I point at the snarling baboons, who slap the floor and each other, and grab the ball from another's paws.
"Carter has no idea," Nolan replies. "He's tried asking Khufu the baboon, but Khufu just says it's awesome."
We continue to the first floor. The attention-catcher is a statue of the god Thoth. He has the head of a crane-like bird. It's the one that appeared during my claiming. In one hand, he holds a tablet of stone, and in the other, a stylus, poised over the tablet, ready to record. However, the regal affect is quite ruined by the porkpie hat on his head and the toes coloured with pink and purple crayons.
"That's my dad," I tell Nolan. I relish the expression on his face.
"Who? Thoth? That's impossible!"
"No, it's not. My dad, Richard Ellison was hosting Thoth. And my mother is Athena."
"Athena? But isn't she a Greek goddess?" Nolan is definitely confused. I like making people confused over simple matters.
"Greek gods are real," I assure him, sniggering on the inside. "When they have children with mortals, they're called demigods. They go to a place called Camp Half-Blood."
"Okay, I think a major headache is coming on," Nolan groans. "Greek gods are real, there are demigods, and you are related to both?"
"Yes, you got the main points. But you can't tell anyone. I think that the whole house would panic."
"I promise I won't. So, how did you like the abbreviated tour of Brooklyn House?"
"I rate it an eight out of ten. You scared me, and there was an exploding donkey, but the tour was…awesome."
"Tour guide is happy. Please come again to Nolan's Abbreviated Tour of Brooklyn House!" He gives me a little bow.
"Seriously?" I think the bow is too much, but he doesn't think so.
"I have been known to be a great performer! I'll see you around, Skye." Nolan disappears into thin air. Another invisibility spell. I bet he did it just to impress me. Well, it worked.
"Thanks for the tour!" I call out to thin air. I receive an odd look from a boy of about 12 with disheveled hair. Well, he's one to look. I stare right back at his Antarctic wonderland of a fireplace, complete with live penguins. I walk away, shaking my head.
I decide to find Sadie to see if she could help me get started on this path of the gods business.
Asking around, I discover that Sadie is most likely in Carter's room, talking about what has happened today.
I ascend all those stairs again, and stop in front of an ajointed room. I can hear two voices arguing inside. Just a brother-sister fight, I hope.
I'll spy on them. Now I know what you're all thinking, but what if they are arguing about me? I place my hand on the door, and a silver glow envelopes my hand. I whisper, "Listen", and glowing silver hieroglyphs appear on the door. They evaporate just as quickly as they appeared.
Their voices drift out of the door, startling me by the ferocity in their tone.
"Carter, I'm telling you! Skye, with proper training, will be more powerful than the two of us combined! Wouldn't that be awesome?"
"Sadie, not only is she powerful, but dangerous as well! A daughter of 2 gods? And a descendant of Cleopatra? The sight of her spells trouble for us."
"Only if she gets into the hands of our enemies will it spell trouble for us. And the Romans don't know about her, so all is good."
"Sadie! You're missing the point. The girl named Annabeth said they would declare war against us. We can't risk that!"
"Wasn't bringing her here your idea?" Sadie points this fact out. I find myself nodding with her words.
"Now I don't think it's such a good idea!"
That's when I interrupt. I push open the door, poke my head in and hiss, "Why don't you argue a little louder so everyone can hear?"
The siblings immediately cease the argument and stare at me.
"How much of that did you overhear?" Carter asks me cautiously.
"Enough to figure out some important things. You wanted to kick me out!" I accuse Carter with as much venom as I can muster, which is quite a bit. The poor boy shrinks back.
"Because the Romans might attack us!" He protests, but not without guilt. "I'm thinking that bringing you here wasn't such a good idea. Maybe you should go back to that camp of yours."
"But I haven't been trained in the Egyptian side of my powers yet. I need to know them. What if I explode the camp by accident?"
"Carter, just let her stay until she can get the hang of her powers." Sadie pleads. "It might be safer for all of us."
"Oh, fine. But you have to be very careful. And you have to go to school, as well." Carter says. I think he said it just to shut us up.
"Oh Carter, very funny. Tomorrow's the final school day of the year. And later, there's going to be a dance."
"Really? Could I come to the dance?" Excitement sparkles in my eyes. I'm told quite often that my eyes become lighter when I'm excited or embarrassed. "I've never been to one before!"
"Of course you can come," Sadie smiles. "Right, Carter? Oh brother dear, try not to dress like you're going to a funeral again, hmm? I doubt Zia would like that very much."
I meander without rush back down the stairs to the gym, and surprisingly, the baboons have finished their game. Someone else is in occupying the gym instead.
Nolan has a look of concentration on his face and is frowning at 4 statues which are 15 feet tall each. He is gripping a staff at least a foot taller than him (and Nolan is quite tall) in his left hand and a boomerang-thing in his right.
I hide behind the door as to not disturb him.
The 4 statues begin moving in unison toward him, and I bite my lip to not cry out a warning. It's pointless as he already knows.
He throws his staff down, which I take as a sign of defeat, at first. Until it starts morphing into a gigantic bird in the middle of the air. A kite, which is a kind of bird-of-prey. The animal's patron must be the god who's path Nolan is following. Nolan points at the statue farthest to the left of him as says a command, "Heh-sieh." It means "turn back".
Glowing hieroglyphs of blue float and direct themselves to land on the statue. It stares at Nolan, and stops it's advance. It then turns a walks in the other direction.
He turns his attention to the remaining 3 statues. "Drowah', he says this time. Boundary. A forcefield, also of blue, flickers into existence between Nolan and the statues. He throws his boomerang-thing, and it cuts of the head off a statue, leaving only two still facing him. The boomerang-thing returns to his hand.
He murmurs something I don't catch, and the kite swoops downward, attacking the remaining statues. One is shredded into a pile or clay ribbons, and the other topples over.
"Stop!" I scream and run into the gym, as Nolan raised the boomerang-thing. He turns toward me just as the statue froze in midair, hovering over him by a foot. If I hadn't intervened, he probably would have been crushed.
I skid to a stop, out of breath. I take a moment to compose myself, and then straighten up. Nolan had an unreadable expression on his face. He muttered something, and the kite returns to staff form.
"What is your problem?" Nolan's voice explodes in the silence. I back up a few steps. How dare he shout at me like that! It isn't a crime to save someone's life.
I put my hands on my hips and really lay on my attitude. "Well, I'm really sorry for saving your life!"
Nolan holds his ground. "I had it under control. You just ruined my practice!" He makes up for my walking backwards by advancing towards me, with fists clenched. I get the feeling he really wants to shove me over.
I tilt my head back to look into his eyes, which startles me. Silver lines like lightning are racing around his deep blue irises. "Until the statue almost made you into a Nolan-pancake."
He glares daggers at me. "Stay out of my business next time!" Nolan grabs his staff and boomerang-thing, and storms out of the gym in a fury. The statue that hadn't been destroyed by Nolan bonks into the wall and falls down, twitching and shuddering.