Page 4 of Ra (The Scarab Prophecy #1)

“This is bad. This is so bad,” she whispered, rushing back to the wall behind the throne to try to pry her scarab from it again.

After several failed attempts she finally dug into her fanny-pack and took out a small pocket knife to try to remove the scarab from its place in what had been Ra’s palm.

“Oh, come on!” she half-screamed in frustration.

“Do not damage my temple!” he said conversationally.

“Just… stay quiet while I try to figure this out! This cannot be happening. It’s got to be a hoax,” she snapped as she continued to try to pry at the scarab from different angles.

She felt warm breath on her neck and glanced over her shoulder, quickly jumping away from the scarab and pressing herself against the wall when she found him looming over her.

“You do not tell a god to remain quiet,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“You’re not a god. You’re just a human with a delusion.”

He smiled at her and gestured to where his likeness once was a part of the relief. “I am Ra. We’ve already established that,” he said, grinning a self-satisfied smile at her as he raised his chin and looked down his regal nose at her.

“That’s impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible when you are the god of all creation.” He looked down at his hands and waggled his fingers before shaking out his hands at his sides. “Most things, anyway. Once I’ve been alive for a while again, I’m sure all my powers will return.”

“Okay. Let’s just pretend you are Ra. How do you speak English? Why don’t you speak ancient Egyptian?”

“Watching from the walls of this temple for as long as I have, it was easily learned. Besides, I am a god. I’m able to speak any language I choose. The one I’m speaking is the one I’ve most heard recently. What did you call it? English? What is English? Who rules the country of English?”

“It’s the national language of America, and is quite commonly spoken and understood in most of Europe as well. And why are you pretending you don’t know what English is?!” she shouted. “Stop pretending to be something you’re not!” she insisted as she slipped out from between him and the wall.

His smug grin slowly shifted to an expression of irritation as he slowly followed her, the words of his native language — ancient Egyptian — using accents not heard in more than a thousand years falling from his lips, made his words unfamiliar, yet familiar enough for her to grasp his basic meaning.

She held her ground and simply watched him approach, dumbfounded as she began to realize that somehow, in some unintentional way, she’d called Ra into the 21st century.

“Why do you not speak back now, female?!”

“Can you use any power you had before?”

He gestured a few times, pointed a few more, lifted his hands toward the ceiling again seeming very confused when those gestures produced no results at all. “I cannot! I do not understand! And I hurt!” he said, whining the last bit a little as he placed a hand over his bladder.

“You hurt?”

“Yes! It is very uncomfortable.”

“Oh, crap. I brought Ra back, and now he’s going to die because he’s human and I don’t know what to do with him,” she mumbled as she headed toward the stairs.

“Just go back in the wall. The scarab is still there, you should be able to return. That’s the only answer.

Go! Go!” she said, shooing him toward the relief of all the gods behind the throne where his likeness once was standing amongst the images of the others.

“Hold, female! You did not ask to leave my presence. I will not be returning to the wall!”

“I don’t have to ask to leave your presence. All I have to do is go. If you refuse to go back to where you came from, then good luck to you. I cannot be involved with this! This is insane!” Azi said as she started quickly up the steps.

It only took her a few seconds to realize he was managing to catch up with her regardless of whatever pain he was feeling.

“Go away!” she said.

“I demand you stop running from me!”

But she did. Even faster. The faster she ran, the faster he ran.

“Stop following me!” she ordered.

“You will not leave my presence until I say you may!”

“I can go anywhere, anytime I choose,” she shot back at him as she reached the top of the steps and darted through the tomb that had been built on top of his temple.

“What is this?” he demanded, stopping and looking around at the plain, servant’s tomb that rested above his. “It is horribly ugly! Why does it hide my temple and all its beauty?”

Azi didn’t stop to answer, she simply ran out of the exit and started quickly toward her car.

“Do not run from me! I order you to stop!” he shouted as he burst through the door. He hesitated for only a moment when two security guards dressed in matching uniforms seemed as surprised to see him as he was to see them. “Get out of my way!” he ordered as one approached.

Both men stepped back, and bowed their heads.

“Female! I order you to stop!” he bellowed as he broke into a run.

Azi glanced in her rear view mirror as she backed out of her parking place and accelerated toward the exit gate, only to see Ra running after her car. He looked terrified, desperate, lost and completely out of his element.

Ra ran as quickly as he could, trying to catch the small moving object that was carrying her away, but it was hard to ignore the fact that he was leaking.

Leaking! “I am leaking!” he cried pitifully.

“Why am I leaking? I will surely become dust as all my liquids exit my body! Help me put them back!” he shrieked.

He blinked his eyes furiously as he swiped his hand across his forehead, trying to stop the sweat that dripped into his eyes and blinded him.

“I cannot even save my eyes! My fingers leak more quickly than my head!” he cried.

He stumbled to a stop and began shaking his hands, clearly near panic as perspiration dripped from them.

She watched as he panicked, looking pleadingly after her car, actually reaching out toward her at one point.

“Damn!” she hissed as she slammed on her brakes and came to a stop.

She put her car in park, and got out, walking back toward him where he’d stopped running and was now having a semi-meltdown, having completely forgotten about her.

“Are you alright?” she called out.

He lifted his gaze to hers. His expression was one of panic. “I am leaking! Why am I leaking?!” he cried.

She was confused for a second, then she realized what was worrying him. “It’s sweat. You’re sweating. It’s normal. Don’t you know what sweat is?”

“It is from inside me! There will be nothing left of me but dust!”

“It’s sweat! Everybody sweats. It won’t kill you as long as you drink plenty of fluids.”

“I can’t sweat!” he shrieked.

“I just said everybody sweats! You’ll be fine!”

“I do not sweat!”

“It’s hot! Under a relentless sun! In the freaking desert! You’ll sweat. Drink some water, you’ll be alright!”

“You do not understand! I am Ra, god of the sun! I do not sweat! All others sweat, but not me!”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that no matter who you were, it’s not who you are now. You’re sweating. You should get used to it until you find a way to get back to wherever you were.”

“I will not be going back to the place I was in.”

“Then get used to sweating.”

“Help me!”

“Go back. You’ll stop sweating.”

“I will not go back!”

“Oh, yes, you will. You can’t stay here.”

“Watch me as I stay,” he said defiantly.

She thought about it for just a split second before she decided he was acting like an unruly toddler.

It might be better if she just treated him like a toddler.

“Okay. I’ll watch you leak until there’s no moisture left in your body, because you don’t belong here, and if you stay here, you’ll leak and leak and leak until there’s nothing left but dust,” she said, smirking at him.

He stopped trying to force the sweat rising up through his pores back into his skin and looked up at her with fury in his eyes. “How dare you make light of my situation!”

“I didn’t say anything you didn’t say.”

His eyes narrowed and he stepped closer to her. “You thought to desert me without guidance in a new world! You ran from me.”

“You don’t belong here. You should go back where you came from. It makes things unbalanced for you to be here.”

“I will not go back. We have a quest to complete.”

“Okay, let’s get a few things straight,” Azi said. “First, there is no we. Second, I’m not going on any quest. Third, the only thing I’m willing to do is find a way to put you back in your tomb.” She rubbed her temples and mumbled to herself. “Can’t believe I just said that.”

“I demand you assist me in completing my quest.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen. You can’t demand I do anything, because you’re just a human now.

You need to return to the tomb, though. I’m leaving before we both get in trouble.

I have to try to figure out what I did to make this happen.

Just go back to wherever you came from, and after I do a little research, I’ll come back later and seal you in.

I think it’s just the scarab that I put in the hole in the wall, but I have to make sure before I make things worse.

You’ll be safe wherever you’ve been for the last three thousand or so years. ”

“I’m not returning to the afterlife. This is my chance. Did you not hear me say that I want to live?”

“I did. But I’m not the right person for you to come alive with. Surely you’re meant for some expert who can help guide you through it all. I’m just an Egyptologist.”

“What is an Egyptologist?”

“Someone who studies ancient Egypt and helps preserve their culture.”

He smirked.

Azi let her head roll back on her shoulders and stared at the sky.

“Need I express my thoughts or are you aware of them?”

“I’m aware.”

“And yet you thought to leave me in my hour of need. How dare you?”

“Because I’m as confounded by all this as you are.”

“You have not even considered other actions,” he said accusingly.