• CHAPTER ONE

    Deep, deep down is one of the darkest places you can imagine. The world is surreal, shifting constantly between wasteland and floral paradise. Ghostly apparitions flit and soar about, some vaguely resembling humans, others looking hopeless and destitute. Their voices were whispers coming from nowhere in particular, a harmonic rush of wind.

    Among this strange little world, sits quite a conspicuous structure. It rose high above the ground, a shone like the brightest sunlight on gold, even though the sun was currently nowhere to be seen. To approach this magnificent building, you'd have to walk down a long silver aisle, with giant statues of winged sphinxes sitting along the sides, as if on guard.

    The walls were covered in beautiful drawings and mysterious writings and scriptures, that glimmer and through off twinkles. Inside the temple, you'd see a fabulous hall with many open doorways, each giving off its own unique allusion of mystery, beckoning, and a hint of lethal danger.

    Continuing, the darkest door leads down, down, down... down into the darkness that just keeps getting blacker and blacker. Just when you think you'll never see the light of day again, a dim light hits you full on as you enter a small room...

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    The scent of the room could have knocked any inexperienced person out cold. It was both dull and sharp, a morbid mixture that hinted at its source. Most people would immediately become dizzy and attempt to run away, but for the figure standing over his subject, tools in hand, it was all in a day's work.

    His breathing was raspy under the mask, which only added to the complete creepiness of the whole scene. The wearer of the said mask carefully slid the blade along the side of the body's abdomen, as neat and clean as he could. He had already emptied the blood, so nothing came gushing out, and he then proceeded to reach into the body with his hands and dig around.

    Plop. A liver landed on the tray next to him. Then came the stomach. And the spleen. The figure didn't seem squeamish in the slightest about his macabre activity, and just concentrated on getting those pesky intestines. They were always the most difficult, seeing you had to pull them all out, wind them, like some cheap handkerchief-in-the-sleeve magic trick that a false magician would preform for bratty children...

    "ANUUUUUBIS!"

    The excited call shattered the gloomy air in the room, and the figure let out a muffled sigh from behind his mask.

    A boy around fourteen years old ran into the small room, grinning like a loon. He had blond-brown hair, and heterochromia eyes; the right eye radiated a golden yellow, while the left shimmered silvery gray, and had black markings tattooed all around it.

    "Anubis!" he called to the figure, "You wouldn't BELIEVE what I have planned for us!"

    "I'm kind of busy, Horus!" the muffled voice replied, putting his hands on his hips.

    Horus rolled his mismatched eyes, and stomped over to his cousin.

    "Dude, take off the mask," he said, "You sound like Darth Vader!"

    At this, Horus yanked the mask off of Anubis, revealing a boy with dark hair brushed in front of his eyes, emo style. His eyes were a dark brown, and they glinted as he scowled at Horus.

    "How many times have I told you not to barge in here while I'm working?" Anubis scolded. "What if I had been preforming one of the magic rituals? Huh? Everything would have been messed around, something would've blown up, certain spirits would have been enraged-"

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah," interrupted Horus, "We've had this conversation before. Now, as I was saying. I offer you, Anubis, a chance to join me in glorious adventure and excitement!"

    "Again?" Anubis questioned, bored. These days, Horus was always looking for an excuse to drag someone on an "adventure," things being quiet as they were for some time now. They almost never worked out. What ever happened to the serious Horus he used to know and respect? The almighty warrior Pharaoh, Champion of the Sky, the guy who'd actually leave him alone when he wanted it.

    Horus just sniffed. "Excuse me for thinking that you might actually want to do something fun besides playing Frankenstein with a bunch of dead cats all day long."

    Anubis glanced sheepishly at the tiny subject he had been working on. He hadn't had an actual human corpse to work with in centuries... people these days, for some reason, just didn't see the appeal in having their bodies tried out, gutted, and wrapped in gauze. Why ever not, still alluded Anubis.

    Now that he thought about it, would it really be so bad to take a break? Although most of Egyptian Pantheon refused to accept it, they were the idols of a dead religion. Hardly anyone in Egypt or the world seriously practiced the old ways anymore; and when they did, it was usually either a bunch of creepy, no-life dorks who were trying to get revenge on their enemies (AKA, their boss who refused a raise), or an equally creepy, no-life group of teachers in a British boarding school trying to unlock the secret to immortality. Their once sacred words and teachings could now only be found in libraries in the "Mythology" section.

    Anubis sighed.

    "What did you have in mind?" he asked Horus.

    Horus squealed with delight and put an arm around his comrade's shoulders playfully. They led themselves out of the morgue, out of the Temple, and out into the surreal Land of the Dead.

    "We're going to see the world, cousin dearest!" Horus exclaimed, spread his arms out in front of him dramatically, "True, our Egypt is great, but there is so much MORE out there! Monuments to see, people to meet..."

    "Please don't kick my butt for saying so, but you're starting to sound like Set."

    Now it was Horus's turn to scowl. Technically, he and Set had gotten over the whole murder-hostile-take-over-avenging-father-fight-to-the-death incident long ago, but Horus still didn't like the guy for the simple fact that Set was (in his opinion) an annoying, smart-a** delinquent.

    "Our vacations gonna be SO much cooler than anything Set does!" sniffed Horus.

    Set was also known for adoring travel, which eventually led to him being described as the god of all things foreign. He was currently fluent in Egyptian, English, French, Japanese, and Spanish, had entire rooms filled to the brim with snow globes, T-shirts, and various other trinkets and souvenirs. He often bragged about his travels, and Horus could just hear his little pompous voice...

    'I'm best friends with the former Queen of Ethiopia! I've drank some of the finest wine in Greece! I've hunted seals with the Eskimos! What have you done, Horus? Nothing! Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing...'

    Horus was grinding his teeth, as Anubis gave him a worried look.

    "Hey, dude, you okay...?" he asked.

    Horus snapped out of it, and gave his friend a bright smile.

    "Yeah, it's all cool! As I was saying... I got this all planned out! You, me, and Sobek! We're going on the ultimate vacation! Starting with...", here he paused for effect,"... the City of Lights!"

    "New York?" asked Anubis.

    "No, Austria." Horus rolled his eyes, "Of course I'm talking about New York! I hear it's great! And that the city never sleeps!"

    "How would a city sleep in the first place?" questioned Anubis, "Cities do not sleep. Humans, gods, and animals do."

    "I don't know," Horus replied with a shrug, "Must be one of the new-found slang sayings people use these days."

    After a few more minutes of walking, they reached one of the doorways that lead up to the mortal world, and stepped through. This particular gateway led right into the Valley of the Nobles, a high source of ancient Egyptian magic, and anyone who saw them walking around would simply assume they were two teenagers on tour.

    Now, you may be currently wondering why so far the gods have been described as regular-looking humans instead of their traditional depictions as animal-headed beings. Well it's actually a long story: The gods have the power to look like pretty much anything they want, and they also like to keep up with the times, so they are simply projecting their shape to match that of typical 21st century human beings... Oh. Well I guess it isn't really that long of a story. Just continue your reading...

    LATER.-

    The little fish didn't have a chance...

    He sometimes wondered what it was going through his prey's mind when he was hunting. Did they feel all safe and stuff? Or did they simply foolishly choose to ignore that chill running up their spine, or... whatever it was fish had... Whatever. The point was that he was coming for it, and he was coming for it fast.

    The fish only had time to turn to the sudden and swift change in the water current, before powerful jaws clenched around its body. Although all hope was pretty much lost, the fish still put up a fair fight. It was quite a strange sight to behold for anyone on the bank of the Nile River, to see a young boy thrashing about in the water like a wild animal with a fish clenched in his jaws.

    "NYA-HA!" cheered the boy as he dragged himself and the fish to shore, "Heeheeheehee! Stupid fishie is no match for ME!"

    His sk8er clothes were soaked to the brim, and he had a crazed, animalisitic look in his eye from the excitement of the hunt. But just then, the boy heard a grunting above him, looked up, and saw a fairly shocked little old lady standing above him. Her face looked absolutely appalled, and honestly, who wouldn't? The boy just narrowed his eyes at her sassily.

    "Hey, do you mind, grandma?" he said saucily, "I prefer not to be watched when I'm eating."

    "AHHG!" the lady let out a shriek, and then BLAM. A force like a ton of bricks collided against the boy's head, making the fish fly out of his mouth. It was quick and unexpected, so there had been no time for retaliation, not to mention the stunning awe that came afterwards that most creatures experienced when being attacked out of nowhere.

    "AH-!" the kid only managed to get the exclamation of surprise out before another round of beating came down upon him.

    "BAD BOY! JUVENILE DELINQUENT!" screeched the old woman, "YOU TRY TO SCARE A LADY OUT OF HER WITS! FEASTING LIKE ANIMAL! I SHOW YOU!"

    WAM. WAM. WAM. WAM. Eventually the grandma seemed satisfied with her abuse on the seemingly teenage male, and trotted off to rejoin her friends on a tour boat that was just starting to row off. The boy twitched, and slowly, cautiously began to uncurl from the fetal position he had taken to defend himself from the onslaught. What the HELL was in that purse? How embarrasing... being who he was, and getting thrashed be an old lady... now. Where did that fishie go...?

    He looked around and saw the fish gracefully leaping away, down the river, and into sweet, sweet, freedom.

    "Aw man..." he moaned sadly to himself, then hugged his knees and began to sulk. "Hungry..." he whined.

    Just then, he looked up and saw to other boys approaching. At the sight of their arrival, the wild boy quickly forgot about his escaped meal, lept up, and cheered.

    "Horus! Anubis! FINALLY!" he grinned, almost with a hint of insanity.

    Horus just smiled, "Hello Sobek. I trust you are in good health?"

    "Oh, yeah, TOTALLY, man!" remarked Sobek, "In fact, I just took down this water-demon hag all on my own. Trying to ruin MY Nile! Hmf!" Here he smiled triumphantly.

    Anubis grinned mischieviously, "Oh, yes. I hear those are VERY dangerous. Especially when armed with a purse filled with arthritis pills and century-old mints for little kids."

    Sobek's smile sank. Apparently his friends had seen the whole thing, and there was no point in trying to keep up the act.

    "Awww, Anubis," he whined, "Can't you just let me have my creative and awesomely amazing story time, just ONCE? Everyone loves a good tall tale!"

    Anubis stuck his tongue out in response. "So when are we going on this little "adventure," you two planned out, Horus?"

    Horus took on a strange expression. It was the kind of face that was an awkward cross between fear, and keeping back the stabbing urge to snicker. It was an almost familiar look, as Anubis had often seen it on the likes of children who were just about to admit that they'd done something naughty. Usually Horus was a pretty straight-forward guy, so whatever it was he had been hiding, it was defenitely bad.

    "Horus..." whispered Anubis, visions of extremely stupid and dangerous stunts and explosions dancing across his mind, "What did you do...?"

    "Nothing!" Horus whined indignantly, "We're just waiting for the rest of our company to arrive."

    "Oh." Anubis let out a sigh of relief, but then a new anxiety started to build up. "What other company...?" he asked supiciously.

    "Ummmmm..." Horus shifted his eyes, looking for an excuse to avoid the question, while Sobek chewed on a stray fish bone guiltily, avoiding eye contact. At this point, Anubis was genuinely frightened.

    "Who? WHO?" he demanded, beginning to freak out.

    Suddenly, from a short distance away chimed a clear and sweet voice.

    "Hellooooo! I'm here!"

    Have you ever walked up stairs to your bedroom, late at night, with all the lights turned off? As you reach the top of the steps you make the mistake of thinking there is one more step there than there actually is, and the gut-lurching feeling of shock as your foot falls through the emptiness, then you fall with it? That's right about what Anubis felt when he heard that voice, the very same gut-wrenching feeling starting deep in his stomach, making its way up his spine, instinct already warning him of trouble before the thought was even fully processed in his brain.

    "No..." he snapped his head to Horus and Sobek who were still avoiding eye contact, "NO!"

    Anubis lept behind Horus, trying to use him as a god shield.

    "WHOA! Take it easy, man!"

    "HOW COULD YOU?"

    "Uhh... well... you see... I..."

    "HORUS!"

    "Whaaaaat?"

    "It wasn't my idea!" Sobek tossed in.

    Their bickering was interrupted by the arrival of the person whom the voice belonged to. She was a tell, elegant girl with hair that was cut into lethal layers, long, sharp, manicured nails, and spotted clothing. She gave off waves of both subtle and hyperactivity, the way she almost crouched when she stood along with the flitting gold irises gave off a very... catlike air.

    Horus smiled, "Hello Bast."

    "Hello, Hor-" she stopped midsentence. She flicked her head to the sides, sniffing the air, then began to hiss violently. "The Dog is here..." she growled.

    Indeed, Anubis peaked out from behind Horus and gave her an equally vicious growl. At the sight of each other, the whole world seemed to burst into flames of hatred and hostility. It was scary the inhuman way they glared, as if the hostility was pure second-nature. Which, in these two's case, it kind of was.

    "YOU DIDN'T SAY HE/SHE WAS COMING!" they both screamed at Horus, pointing at each other.