Page 5 of Ra (The Scarab Prophecy #1)

“I panicked,” she said, raising her head and looking at him again.

He leaned over and pressed his hand to his bladder again. “This is aching more and more.”

“You probably need to pee.”

“Pee? What is pee?”

“Relieve yourself! Go to the bathroom. Urinate! Just push it out and you’ll feel better.”

He looked down at his pelvis, then up at her with a horrified expression on his face. “I will not do that. Gods do not have such basic needs. Humans and servants have need of such things, but not me. I, am above such things!”

“Fine, suit yourself. Go back downstairs, return to the wall, and live the next three thousand years needing to pee.”

His arrogant demeanor seemed to deflate and he looked at her sincerely. “I can’t. It’s my chance. It’s our only chance. I wished for it daily for so long that I’ve lost count of the days. All I can be sure of is that I’m alive. Beyond that, I have no idea of what is next.”

“Use your powers.”

He looked at his hands hanging loosely at his sides. “I have none.”

“They might come. Just keep trying.”

“I plan to. But for now, I am as helpless as a human.”

“I hate to break it to you, but I think you are human.”

Ra looked down at his feet covered in the dust and sand blowing across the parking lot.

He looked at the object she’d gotten out of, then he looked at her.

“Take me with you. I do not know where you go, but it is my desire to live, just once more before I must return to those of my kind. Let me see the world. Let me see all that has transpired in our absence, then I’ll do all I can to return to whence I came. ”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

“You don’t,” he said honestly.

“I think that’s the first absolutely true thing you’ve said to me,” Azi said.

“No, actually everything I’ve said has been true, at least as I knew it to be at the time I said it.”

She looked toward the tomb and its two guards still standing outside, pretending they didn’t see them. “There’s not exactly a place for you to hide away in there.”

“There is not. And I will be no trouble.”

Azi stood looking at him, feeling the resignation in his demeanor. He knew he didn’t have long to be here and just wanted to experience a little of it. “Alright. Let’s go. I’ll show you what I can before you have to leave.”

“You will?” he asked, with a bare trace of a smile gracing his lips.

“I will. As you so graciously pointed out when you asked me what an Egyptologist is, I’m probably one of the only people alive that can help you understand all that you see.”

“That is my thought, as well.”

She turned her back on him. “Come on, get in. We’ve got to find you some clothes and shoes, and then we’ll see what happens next. But you can’t wander around dressed like that.”

She got in her car and put it in gear, waiting for him to get in so they could drive away. She looked over at the passenger side through the window, not seeing him anywhere. She glanced in her left side mirror and saw him standing there outside her door, simply watching her.

She put her car in park and got out. “Why are you just standing here? Get in!”

“I tried! You closed yourself in the small object, preventing me from entering!”

She shook her head in disbelief as she took him by the hand and led him around to the passenger side, opened the door and stood there as he very gingerly half-sat on the passenger seat. “This is soft,” he said, bouncing just a little on the seat with a surprised smile.

“Yes, it is. Now, put your feet in, like you saw me do.”

He looked up at her, his smile wide and happy as he nodded and put first one foot, then another onto the floorboard of the vehicle.

She closed the door, causing him to jump, then went around to the driver’s side and got in.

She put the car in drive and pressed on the gas, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the road that would lead to the highway to take them away from the Tomb of Ra and the gift shop and food stalls that had risen up around it since its discovery.

As she sped along, weaving in and out of other vehicles they passed, Ra slammed a hand on the center console and another on the dash while pushing himself back against the seat. “It is a chariot! What magic is this chariot?” he demanded gleefully while watching everything they zoomed past.

“It’s not magic. It’s a vehicle. You get in it, press on the accelerator and it takes you where you want to go. Everyone has one. Everyone drives one, or at the very least, knows someone or has family that has one and drives one. If not, you can hire them to take you wherever you want to go.”

“We are flying!” he shouted as she reached almost sixty miles an hour.

“No, we’re not. And if you’re worried about falling out, buckle your seatbelt.”

“My what?” Ra demanded.

She quickly glanced his way, realizing he was little more than an adult-sized baby. “Watch,” she said, reaching back and taking hold of her seatbelt, then clicking it into its matching latch. “There. All safe and secure.”

He turned to look at his own side of the vehicle, and repeated her actions, successfully securing himself with the seatbelt after only the third try. “Ha! I am secure!”

“Very good. Now, let’s talk about your name. We cannot introduce you to people as Ra, the sun god.”

“I am no one but Ra the sun god!”

“No one believes in gods anymore. They’ll think you are insane and lock you away.”

“I have been locked away long enough.”

“What shall we call you then?”

“I am Ra.”

She sighed. “I suppose we could get away with Ra. Just please don’t tell anyone you’re the sun god. If you do, I will have to tell them you’re drunk.”

“What is drunk?”

“Like, wine. Drank too much wine.”

“I like wine. I will drink wine.”

“No. We don’t have wine anymore. It’s gone with the gods. No wine at all.” She almost shuddered thinking of having to manage him drunk. Sober was difficult enough.

“I am not finding this new world very hospitable.”

“I tried to tell you, but you wanted to live. The rules are different now. If you don’t learn them, you’ll never be accepted.”

He sat there for a few awkward moments, watching pieces of the world he finally found himself in go by. Finally he nodded. “I am Ra! I do not drink wine, and I need clothes so that I do not wander around dressed like this.”

Azi giggled. “Very good.”

“What is your name female?” he asked.

“Azi. I’m Dr. Azi Clement.”

“Thank you, Azi, for taking me to live for a while.” He didn’t tell her he already knew that her name was Dr. Clement.

He’d heard those working with her refer to her as such.

But she didn’t need to know he’d been watching.

Just like he didn’t tell her about The Scarab Prophecy.

He feared it would frighten her even more and she’d leave him on his own.

That, he couldn’t have happen. He needed her in his quest for life.

In his quest for not only himself, but for his fellow gods.

And if the fact that he was human was more than a temporary thing — he was beginning to think that this was one of Neith’s little jokes, though it was not funny in the least — he’d need Dr. Clement for a lot more than willingly giving him her heart.

He’d need her to help him navigate everything about this new life.

Winning the heart of a human took little to no effort.

Coercing a stubborn female who wasn’t fully convinced of his godliness to help him reclaim his powers and strength, would definitely be more difficult.

“When I am once again a god, I will reward you for your service.”

“I don’t need a reward. Let’s just get through the rest of today and possibly tomorrow and see what happens.”

“Agreed,” he said, finally beginning to relax a little, though his grip on the middle console did not let up at all.

~~~

Abasi walked up the walkway toward the two guards still standing on either side of the entrance. “Was he angry?”

“Not completely. He seemed lost,” one of the guards said.

“After three thousand years, I can’t imagine feeling any other way,” Abasi said.

“He definitely got in the car with her?” Abasi asked.

“He did. She stopped and helped him get in, then they drove away together,” the first guard said.

“Are you sure this is the best decision?” the second guard asked.

“Our people have waited milennia to fulfill our promise. The time is now, I have no doubt.”

“Very well. We are honored to be a part of the prophecy.”

“Give me a minute, then we will lock it up and return to our families for the night,” Abasi said.

He stepped inside the servant’s tomb, then headed down the stone stairway into the Tomb of Ra.

He went over to the wall behind the throne and took a small scarab much like the one Azi had left in the wall and pressed it to Azi’s.

The scarab popped out of its place in the wall and Abasi pocketed both of them.

He stood back and looked at the pale, almost ghostly representation of Ra on the relief, where before he’d been vibrant and vivid. “Good luck. May you win her heart and your place in this time.”

Abasi bowed to the throne, then made his way back upstairs.

He locked and bolted the security door that had been installed at the top of the stairway, then bolted the security door at the entrance to the servant’s tomb.

He walked up the short hallway and exited the site, pausing while his brothers locked up and secured the site from the outside.

He smiled at the two new guards approaching right on time, two of his own people as well, cousins, coming to replace his brothers and wished them a good night as he and both his brothers walked into the desert toward their own families’ homes.

“I will see you when the sun rises tomorrow!” he called happily to them as they broke off toward the right.

“Ra willing!” one of them called back.

Abasi laughed and waved as they went their separate way.