"I thought you were going to spare his life", Ta-hawa started the conversation. We were having a sort of twilight picnic on the bank of the Nile River. Makela ate a fruit salad while I dropped at a random pizza restaurant for a takeaway. "I wanted him to see his agenda in ruin but I realised that he is a unit of a social belief. They all think the same", I replied after I finished chewing. "I wonder how will they justify his death", thought Makela while playing with her food.
"Well, death by illness or resignation. The Templars have been in control over the media for years, they know how to cover the truth", I scoffed. "You took something from his hand, what was it?", she asked trying not to sound too curious. "The key that opens the box, now all we have to do is find that box", I said as I stared at my slice of pizza which for some reason was no longer desirable. That strange foreboding aura, again I felt it, beguiling the serenity, defiling all that was calm and meek.
"It's not our commission, JK. Jacob and his platoon are in search of the Scroll, I think…", she shrugged. I stood up, suddenly sick due to eating, I walked closer to the river. "Is this the same joint Jochebed laid Moses afloat?", I asked as I admired the Nile. "Yes…", "let the matter of the Scroll go", she insisted. I turned to look at her who was no longer eating. "No!", I was indifferent to her persistence. She drew out her Ark, immediately switching it to spear mode while holding the mysterious sword she found at the Table Weaponry. "Juda Kufu, I shall not deviate from our commission", she took her stand.
At that moment, I felt utterly cheated, we had shared so much, been through so much and there she was going against her promise. I chose to stand armless, defenceless. In no way was I going to fight my best friend even though, she was armed and ready. "We have to stick to our feat!", she said flatly though I could tell she was dismayed by the tone of her voice. She knew she was betraying our trust. "Dala what you must", I said. Suddenly the weather was no longer in our favour, a sand storm approaching, I thought.
A mist began to form which made it difficult to see anything through in the dim, I could spot a tinge of gold from Ta-hawa's Ark though I required nothing visible to locate her. Over the months I studied her heartbeat. Makela felt uneasy with her weapons drawn, though, what was this? "Juda... I... ", was the last I heard of her as the mist dragged me to oblivion.
"Hey?... Hey?... You okay?", asked an American girl. Well, although I was dazed, I could tell that the voice belonged to a girl and that she was American due to her accent. "What is he?", asked another voice, belonging to a teenage boy. "A god? maybe one of us, a half-blood", said another voice, a matured one. "What kind of a god do you think he is", said the teenage voice curiously. "Probably Egyptian… Look here, if you look closer, you can see the hieroglyphics", she said scanning my arm and at her touch I fully regained consciousness.
I stood up abruptly, without condensing it I drew my Ark, shifting it to spear gear whilst holding Nimzy at the ready. "Who are!? Where am I? Where's Makela!?", I demanded. A tall blond California buff surfing dude, matured voice, came at me, attempting a disarm me, idiot. Before he could move I knocked him out cold with the hilt of my tomahawk. "it's okay, we won't hurt you", assured the girl with the American accent. I considered my surrounding, campfire in a prehistoric ruin colosseum. I had a hunch of where I was though for the like of me I hoped I was wrong. "As if you can…", I tutted.
"I told you he was a god", beamed a scrawny African American boy, probably 14 at age. His long dreads covered his left eye, he seemed insecure, it was clear that he was the brains among these Californians.
"You fell from the sky. What are you", asked the American accent girl raising her hand with caution as a sign of peace. "Who are you?", I demanded, "we asked first!", exclaimed, "not my concern", I sneered.
"The dude you knocked down is Alex, she is Phoebe and da brother who's talking to you, Carl Jackson, CJ", he mustered his courage and approached me. "they don't believe me but I'm sure you're an Egyptian god", "and what are you?", "demigods", he replied. "CJ! We don't know him!", frowned Phoebe as she stepped in front of him.
"Demigods? Like, offspring of humans and Greek or Roman gods?", I asked dubiously.
Before Phoebe responded, an arrow came flying in my direction. "Stop!", bellowed CJ, footsteps in the shadow. A female voice cried melodiously, "yield" and as bewitching as it may have been, it did not affect me. Four figures materialized from the shadow, I was going to kill these people before they knew who I was if they kept acting like this. The teenager who came at me with a celestial bronze sword at three o'clock was lying on the floor before he could blink.
I cocooned myself with my wings, CJ gasped in amazement at the sight of it. As soon as my wings retracted into the disc cylinder, I threw Nimzy at the hidden teenager at nine o'clock knocking her cold. Nimzy continued to the girl at twelve o'clock who was knocked cold on the floor by the time Nimzy returned to my hand. A male voice from above jumped screaming with an imperial gold sword.
I immediately switched my Ark to spear gear and pinned him to the concrete wall before he reached his feet. "Whoa!", interjected CJ. "How do you move that fast?", bewildered Phoebe. "Why are you attacking me?", I demanded. "Because, if you haven't noticed, you are armed", "so?", "sign of danger", "it's just for emphasis", I replied.
We sat around the fire, the lot were eating stuff that was probably food. Like a normal band of American teenagers camping in a ruined Colosseum in Rome. There was nothing physically out of the ordinary about them. Exchanging story of what they discovered when they left to find food an hour ago. An insecure and uncomfortable feeling every time one of them gazed in my direction.
"I am the daughter of Iris; CJ is the son of Hermes. Tatiana, the girl who tried to compel you to yield, daughter is the of Aphrodite. Justin, the first guy you knocked cold is the son of Janus…", she said then pointed at the other four, "Jordan, a daughter of Ares, Rita, a daughter of Hecate", "and those two Romans", I asked. She gave me a "how did you know" look. "James and Julius, sons of Mars", she replied. "Romans and Greeks working together, how quaint", I said mordaciously. "yeah, I guess we are a prototype…", she frowned.
"Coming together and trying to save the world", she sighed. "Greeks, Roman and Americans. You are so much alike. Ignorant, arrogant and oblivious to the fact that when your world ends the remaining shall continue. Your gods and myths are no more than folklore my kind disposed of thousands of years ago. You build this world that is fragile as thin glass then globalize it. Utter ignorance", I tutted. I barely cared if I offended anyone.
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing, appalled at my words they focused on me. They knew I had more to say. "I do not undermine your quest nor do I think of it as inept, be as it may, your ignorance is utterly frustrating. You do not save the world; you save the world that you abode in. Which is within the vicinity of your beliefs and way of life", I said daring them, the lot to contradict. "So, what you saying?", asked Jordan.
I stood up, shook my feet. "It seems like another life, a lifetime ago. I was exceptionally ordinary, oblivious to the world I live in now. If I was obscured as you, I would have said that I was saving the world. I am saving the world within the vicinity of my beliefs and ways of life. If I fail, the world will not perish except for that which I have failed to save", I finished.
A rude awakening though I was tired of people trying to save the world which was as preposterous as their brains put together. One will notice it in Hollywood movies, people trying to save the world, how come the world only consists of North America?
"You make a strong point. Now will you tell us who you are?", asked Phoebe. I ignored her question. I walked away from the campfire, I knew that heads turned to watch as I left the fireplace. "You fell from the sky! Clearly, you owe us an explanation", cried Rita. "before there was Jupiter, there was Zeus and before he was either Greek or Roman, I was known by my people as Amun Ra", I lied. "I told you", beamed CJ. Somewhere in the void of madness, Mami Watta whispered to me, "well done, my darling".
I flew up to the highest remaining row of the colosseum, there, I laid my head on a rock.
Demigods? prototype? Not my problem, I said to myself. Makela was my problem, where could she be? The last thing I recalled was that we were at a standoff and to add to the problem I was not my usual pugnacious self, I felt as though a part of me was missing, Ta-hawa.
"Do you think he can hear us?", asked the California surfer dude. "Justin, he's a god, obviously he can hear us", frowned Rita. "We have to find a way to retrieve Pandora's Box from that metal hound before the winter solstice and so far, we have no clue as to how", exclaimed Phoebe. "Ra can help us", suggested CJ, "why would he help, we are a bunch of American Greeks and Romans.