Gem of the Deep

Chapter 2

Are You Ready to go back to Titanic?

DISCLAIMER: Mummies Alive! is the property and trademark of Dic Inc. and the producers of that show. This page is intended for entertainment purposes only, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Disclaimer: TITANIC is a Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Lightstorm Production. Basically, anything that's in the movie isn't mine, and a copyright infringement is not intended.

Thanx again to Mia, who's allowing me to use her character, Lyris, in this story.

A loud ringing pounded through his brain as Presley's eyes suddenly snapped open in surprise. As quickly as it had come, the ringing stopped, and the remainder of his fellow classmates filed out of the classroom, their books in hand and backpacks trailing behind them.
Presley yawned loudly, causing his english teacher, Mr. Darrison, to turn around from the blackboard that he had previously been erasing. Trying not to be noticed, the boy quietly threw his binder into the backpack by his feet, zipped it up, and quickly slunk out the doorway into the crowded hallway.
The way to the buses wasn't any easier to get through. Large groups, teams and hourds of children and faculty were pushing their way through to get to their vehicles. This was of the ordinary, the same thing happened everyday, every year, so the boy prince wasn't too concerned with the fact that seventeen people were trying to push by him at once.
Presley gave a small sigh of relief as his hand gripped the cold steel hand railing on the inside of the bus, pulling himself up from the steps and into the exterior. As usual, he would be sitting with Walter Lu, at the center of the bus, to chat about the day events and their big plans for the weekend.
" You want to what?" Presley asked, flopping his backpack down on the ground beside their seat.
" Go see a movie tonight." Walter repeated, pulling out a bottle of water from his own backpack and shoving the sac under the seat. " It's that new thriller playing - Deep Six. You know, submarines, boats, government conspiracies. what more could you want in a movie?"
" That's true for so many reasons." Presley acknowledged, putting his feet up on the seat in front of them. " It's been on the top sellers list for almost five weeks already."
" So, are you going?" He asked his best friend hopefully.
" Are you kidding? I'm there!" Presley promised. The two slapped hands together as the busdriver sat down in his seat. " This's gonna be great!"
" Carnavon!" The two boys looked up to the front of the bus to see the bus driver looking over at them with a discruntled look. " Feet down! Now!"
" Yes sir." Presley responded, bringing his feet down off the top of the seat before them, to the delight of the two fifth graders sitting in it. After that minor setback, the huge engine of the machine revved up, and the busy school day was left behind them, ready for a weekend of relaxation and bliss.
***
" You guys are giving me a headache!" Presley shouted, putting his hands over his ears.
He had arrived at the Spinx shortly he had gotten off the bus and to his house, making sure everything was well and good before continuing on, this time via skateboard. He had reached the museum only a short time after that, stopping by to say a quick hello to his mother Amanda, and to inform her that he was off to the park that afternoon, followed by going to the Cineplex with Walter.
And there he was, at the Spinx, hoping to get a bite to eat, and maybe get a quick Egypt-su lesson with Armon in on the side. Instead, as soon as he had entered the door, Presley was quickly surrounded by all five mummies, each chatting away and contradicting one another. It reminded him of the debate club at school.
" Quiet. Quiet!" He shouted again, his ears still cupped in his hands. After a very short time, they all got the idea, and soon, the room was once again quiet.
" Forgive us 'O prince." Ja-kal apologized.
" We weren't aware that we were causing you displeasure." Lyris told him softly.
" Um, no. That's OK." Presley told everyone, holding his hands out for everyone to forgive his sudden outburst. " It wasn't that, I just couldn't understand anyone with you all talking at once."
" Understood, we will try to keep things...less hectic." Rath promised, looking over the group. " Now come." He stated urgently. " There's hardly enough time for it."
" Hardly enough time for what?" Presley asked as he ran after the others, who were all heading towards the library.
" Oh, don't worry, you'll like it." Nefer-tina guaranteed, gently grabbing his arm and pulling the Pharaoh prince through the rest of the long corridor to their destination.
Once they reached the library room, Presley nearly choked in disbelief. The once tidy, yet somewhat disorganized room was now in shambles, books falling off the neatly stacked bookcase, falling on a paper-covered floor. Maps, plans, departure scedules, newspaper clipping-they were everywhere. He even glanced up at the ceiling where, miraculously, they were somehow able to get a two meter long drawing of of Titanic's ship decks and hulls pinned up on the plastered stone.
" No offense or anything, but I hate what you guys have done with the place." Presley confessed, stepping around a large pile of ship building books that were dropped on the floor beside the old pine desk. " Were'd you guys get all this stuff? I know that we never had this many books before."
" It was very simple." Nefer-tina told him, helping the boy over a large piece of bristol board covered with 84-year old newspaper articles. " We went to the library, and there was this nice man there that let us borrow all of these books."
" Don't you need a library card for that sort of thing?" Presley asked confused.
" Not according to him." Lyris exclaimed, meeting the two around the wooden desk. She gave a small laugh. " He seemed rather hysterical at the time. I think we shocked him something fierce."
The boy smiled back at her, remembering how many people reacted when they were face-to-face with the 3500 year old mummies. Deep inside, he felt a little sorry for the poor librarian, hoping that he was in good condition and not prone to any heart attacks.
" If you all wouldn't mind, I would like to get this underway as quickly as possible." Rath told them in haste, moving excess hard-cover books and mounds of paper from the flat surface of the old pine desk. The books slid across it with a slight grinding noise, the paper which had been shoved along with it simply falling in soft white sheets on the already indistinguishable floor. What he replaced them with on the desktop was equally confusion, a long, black piece of papyrus paper, with writing done in what looked like gold, and a little bit of melted silver for the writing columns.
" Aw, keep your wrapping on!" Nefer-tina exclaimed, looking over in his direction with a sour look.
" Come young prince, it's time." Lyris told him, putting a quiet hand on his shoulder and leading him through the rest of the book stack obstacle course, making sure to swerve around the newly-founded mound of paper that had toppled off the desk.
" Time for what Lyris?" Presley asked in complete bewilderment. " You guys keep saying that it's time for something, but you haven't told me what yet!"
" It's pretty complicated, in a way Presley." She began. " I don't understand it very well myself, but it will be a great stride for us in getting the Jewel of the Nile."
" Oh, right. That Queen necklace thing." He remembered, finally reaching the wooden desk and placing his hands on the side of it. " So, how are we going to get the crystal back?"
Rath looked at him as if to say "Look at this", and put a finger on the unusual piece of papyrus that was lying in front of them both at the present moment. " What do you think about bringing a god from the Western Gate?"

***

" Nuh uh! No way! Nada! We are not bringing another god through the Western Gate!" Presley ordered, throwing his hands up in the air wildly. " Every single time, every single time a god or goddess, or whatever has come through the Western Gate, something gets blown up, somewhere get's distroyed or someone looses their memory. No way! Not again!"
" But my prince..." Rath began.
" Presley please, be reasonable about this." Lyris intercepted. " This will help us..."
" How? By bringing some nutzoid god through a time portal to San Fransisco?" He asked loudly, turning away from them. " I'd rather take my chances with Scarab again."
" Young prince." Ja-kal said softly, walking over to him, and kneeling to the boy's eye level. " It will not be that way this time. We have taken simple precautions so that the god will not get out of control."
" How?"
" Well, first of all, the actual god won't even be here." Rath told him from a distance. " Only their essence, or being will be here. Secondly, they will be confined to a small area, and will not be allowed to leave that area."
" The area being the library, of course." Lyris explained more fulling.
" And, if they do get out of control, we can just get rid of them." Armon added, taking time away from a long BLT that he had presently been consuming. " So there's nothing to worry about."
Presley looked around at the five with a concerned look. " How do you guys know all this stuff? How do you know it won't, you know, backfire."
" Once again, Pharaoh Amenhotep comes through for us." Nefer-tina enlightened, grabbing the black scroll from the desk, and turning it clockwise around in her hands. " He gave us a scoll that enables us to talk to a god or goddess without them coming through the Western Gate. And if we want them to return, we just have to destroy the scroll."
" Careful with that!" Rath exclaimed, taking the scroll from her. " We don't want to break it before we beguin the spell!"
" Oh, bite me."
" So the spell can only be used once." Presley deduced. " So if this Jewel of the Nile isn't on the Titanic, then we're out of luck."
" Unless the Pharaoh packed another one of a kind scroll for us to use, yes." Lyris stated, turning to return to the wooden desk. " We're playing on a hunch, that's all."
" But there's an excellent chance that it is there." Ja-kal told him. " Remember, you were the son of Queen Diphthera, and you were the one that thought that the crystal was on the ship. Something must have told you that the Titanic was the one."
" Ya, OK, sure." Presley acknowledged, leaning against a tall stack of old novels and ship building guides. " So, we've worked out that there's going to be a god coming here. But you haven't told me which one yet."
Nefer-tina laughed. " That was the hard part. We're not rating well on the gods well-wishing lists these days!"
" We couldn't choose Nuhn, since he wants you destroyed, we couldn't choose Geb since he gets cranky everytime he sees us." Armon said.
" So, we thought about maybe using the God Sohbeck, the god of the Nile." Lyris added. " We haven't angered him in any way. But then, the Titanic isn't in the Nile, so it wouldn't have helped us any. Neither would have bringing any of the other gods- Osiris, Isis, Horus, Thoth... None could help."
" But then..." Presley voiced, knowing that there must have been a catch in there somewhere.
" Then, we decided on one. The goddess Maat- goddess of purity and perfection." Rath finished, lying the black scroll once again on the flat wooden surface. " She would happily listen to our cause, and being the goddess of balance, would not want Scarab to get the gem." At the mention of the goddesses name, the gold hyroglyphs on the sheet began to slighty light up, then fade. Shortly afterwards, the silver writings began to do the same, and soon, the entire papyrus looked like the cool night sky, pitch black and lighten with with thousands of stars slowly twinkling with a brilliant luminescence. " The scroll is telling us that it is time to beguin." Rath told everybody, spreading the paper it's full length, which ended up to be over a meter long. " If we don't do it now, we will have to wait another week."
" Why another week?" Presley asked, still slightly discruntled that he was still in the dark about the certain subject that they had been discussing that day.
" The spell has to be given on the fifth day of the week before the fifth hour of the day." Lyris began explaining again. " It's almost four o' clock now, and the spell takes about an hour to complete."
" An hour?!"
" Well, the magic has to go all the way to the Western Gate, penetrate it's magic, search around to find the proper god or goddess, then pull them out throught the Western Gate and bring them here. So on and so on. I told you it was complicated."
" So let's start the spell already." Presley ordered.

***

" The twin peaks of the pylon open across the vast expas of that which is the afterlife. Beyond the splendor of eternity we call upon you Goddess Maat, creator of balance and founder of the perfection of man, for a favor of the world's being. We call upon you..."
The room was dark. Nobody spoke. The only luminescence was that of two large torched on either side of the room. It was said that when Maat passed through to the other side, she was to form inbetween them, and not be able to move away from them until the spell was broken and the scroll was destroyed.
Presley yawned for the second time in almost five minutes, glancing up at Rath with a bored and annoyed look. This wasn't what he though a spell was suppose to be like. He had been sitting in one place for almost ten minutes, looking inbetween the two flaming lights for something to happen. The repeated words "We call upon you..." continued to ring in his ears and for the first time in a while, was considering not learning the magic abilities that someone of his stature should possess.
The beguinning had been simple. The actual spell had beguin more than forty-five minutes before, everyone taking their proper places and preparing for the arrival of the supreme goddess. Only now, after not speaking to anyone and only hearing the words of the scroll being repeated over and over, they were all getting a little antsy. Even Ja-kal, who was used to spending hours alone in the wilderness, or Lyris, who's patients well excelled anyone elses in the room were beguinning to feel the sting of bordom.
Presley leaned over to the person sitting next to him, which happened to be Armon, for the first time that day, without either a Beefy Burger, or a sandwich or anything else in his hand.
" When is this going to be over?" He asked anxiously.
" I don't know, but if it's not over soon, I'm getting up for a snack break." He answered, the same annoyed tone in his usually optimistic voice.
" Ya, me too..." Presley began to respond back, when a faint, yet prominent mist crept it's way through the doorway and into the floor of the library. Nefer-tina, who had looked like she had previously been drifting off, snapped to attension, patting Ja-kal's shoulder to the left of her, so he could view the spectacle. Soon, he began to examine the strange phenomenon, and nudged Lyris, who was sitting to his right. She slowly nodded back at him, telling that she had already seen it, and was now transfixed on it with a curiousity lingering about her.
The spectacle didn't stop there however, for soon, small beams of light began to appear out of nowhere, without a source or a fixed direction to head towards. These were followed by what sounded like a low moaning sound, but was more like a humming tune that a haunting song. It's notes were sweet, but held onto a touch of mysterie that was now encasing the six, a part of them unable to turn away, a part of them wanting to run away and never return.
"...we call upon you Goddess Maat, creator of balance and founder of the perfection of man." Rath continued reading from the black scroll, ignoring the mists, lights and sounds now flowing about the entire room. It seemed that although there was a great power transfixing in the area of the walls, there was still much more work to be done until it was completed.
The moans grew louder, the sounds now screaming around the room like a wild tornado heading towards a trailor park. It sounded almost like someone was flying around the room like a banshee, the cries seeming to flood over the entire city, engulfing all that heard them.
" What's going on!" Nefer-tina yelled over the noise, clasping her ears in her hands up against the sides of her face.
" What?!" Armon yelled, holding his left arm up to his left ear, and trying very hard to blot out the noise that was going into his right ear, that was for the time, unreachable.
" I said, What's going on!" She repeated.
" Ya, you can use it!" He yelled back.
An explosion. The bright light nearly blinding everybody, and caused them all to look either down towards the fog or in the opposite direction from where it came. The most unusual part about it was, there was no noise. Usually, when there was an explosion you would expect a disasterous thundering, or a monsterous clapping as the sound barrier was broken. But, there was nothing. Even the howling and spinnig winds that had once filled the small room had grown silent, and for a time, everyone took their hands away from their ears and listened to the complete silence that was now present. The torchlight was no longer needed, for the large explosion of light had completely illuminated everything in the room, and now, the group could plainly see what all their searching and waiting had to produce. Inbetween the torches, there was a glowing ball of painfully bright white light. And in front of that bright light there was a figure, almost too thin to be human, but had a human appearance non the less. It was the Goddess Maat.
She was the average hight of a normal human woman, with long, straight white hair flowing down towards her ankles. She was dressed in gleaming white robes, each taking the appearance of a piece of tissue paper. Her face was completely emotionless, but had a sense of well being and happiness, which gave her pale complexion a sense of life. And to top it all off, a tall, unusual looking feather was stationed on a crown that she wore on her head, shimmering with the light that was bouncing off of it from the glowing beams of luminescence.
" Who here, beyond the gates of time, has summoned the great Goddess Maat to ask their simple mortal favor?" She asked. Although being the Goddess of purity and perfection, she was a higher being none the less, and treated others as pawns at a puppet show.
" We did, 'O great goddess of balance." Ja-kal announced, for the first time in almost an hour sitting up from the wooden metal chest that he had been resting on while the spell was being cast. " We must ask a very important favor of you. A favor that may grant the world it's freedom."
Maat looked at him with a disapproving glare. " The powers of a god are not to be bartered for. Nor are they to be called upon. I will decide what my decision will be, and it shall be you that will not have the choice to make." She cast a pale, white pointing hand towards the group, letting everyone know of her reign, and how they were not to boss this goddess around.
" That didn't go very well, did it." Armon stated.
" I just hope this doesn't turn into an arguement. I like my head attached to my body thank you very much." Nefer-tina added, standing up off the wicker chair that she has been sitting in previously.
" Goddess Maat, we did not bring you here for our own personal gain." Rath said, trying to talk to the goddess in a manner that Ja-kal had failed. " We are only the beguinning, and it is up to you to decide what the outcome of the matter shall be."
Maat cast an eerie eye over everyone. It was an unusual enough state already. Five 3500 year old mummies and one young boy call upon one of the most powerful gods in Egyptian history, and now they want her to preform a task that possible couldn't help her in any way. Yet, she was growing increasingly curious as to why they would take the chance and risk bringing her to the modern world. She cautiously raised an eyebrow, slight hesitation in her voice. " Alright. You have captured my attension. Now plead your case."
" This boy, here," He pointed to Presley, who quickly sat up and smiled a polite smile to the goddess. Her glance, however never wavered, almost as if she didn't even care. " He is the reborn son of the Pharaoh Amenhotep. We have a belief that the well-know jewel that the Pharaoh had given the queen on the night of their matrimony still has the ability to hide the soul that the Pharaoh pledged to her..."
" I know of the tale." She said arrogantly.
" Of course. And we wish to get the gem before the sorcerer Sarab is able to obtain it, for with it, he will become the most powerful being on the earth, and no one will be safe."
" Ah yes, Scarab." She gently scratched her chin with her forefinger. " I have heard of him. The demonic spirit that he possesses has illuded our best efforts to contain him. He will get his when his time has come."
" But great goddess," Ja-kal exclaimed trying to talk to Maat once again and this time try not to put the perverbial foot in his mouth. " If Scaab obtains the gem, then he will never die. He will become immortal and none of us will be able to stop him."
She started to say something, but held back and began to think about what was just brought before her. Maybe, just maybe, these bandaged mortals knew what they were talking about. " That is true." She confessed, holding her arms out in front of her. The ball of light behind her slowly began to lower to the ground, and her along with it. It was a sign of peace, to tell them that she believed them, and had decided to help them in whatever quest they had in mind.
" And, you have a way to prevent him from retrieving this lost Pharaoh's Soul I'd guess." She stated, her small feet gently touching the cold stone floor, and the bright light that had previously been behind her grew dim.
" We do." Lyris aknowledged, stepping out of the crowd and standing straight before the goddess. " We know where the jewel is now located, and if we could obtain it, then Scarab will never be able to use it's powers for any evil purpose."
" And then I will be able to take ith through the western Gate, where it belongs." Maat finished, telling them all in her own way that in trade for her help, they must sacrifice something. She wanted the Jewel of the Nile, and if they wanted to contradict her, she was gone.
" Um, very well." Ja-kal agreed, holding his hands up in defeat. " Once we are able to obtain the crystal, we will deliver it to you, and it will be sent throught the Western Gate, where it rightfully belongs."
" Agreed." She said, a more plesant tone in her voice, with the hint of a smile on her face. " Now, we can get down to buisness."

***

" I apologize for my behavior before." She told everyone, sitting down on the wooden chair that was stationed at the old wooden desk. " You must understand, my life is very hectic, and being called away for reasons, whether they be important or not, makes me rather cross at times. You have no idea how many people have called upon me just so they could know what the 649 numbers were in advance." She chuckled, a wide smile crossing her face, the lively feature looking good on her colorfully lifeless face.
" We understand. Life as a god must be pretty ruff a times." Nefer-tina aknowledged, tilting her head in sympathy. " Now, all we want to do is get that jewel back so Scarab won't be able to get his hands on it."
Maat looked over the many plans and blueprints that were piled on top of the old pine desk. She didn't know what they all ment, herself never studying the art of shipbuilding, but wiht the mummies wakling ehr through it, she already understood that getting the Jewel of the Nile was not to be a simple task. " This is going to take up many resourses." She told everybody. " If only I knew where it was on the ship."
" I think it might be located here." Rath pointed to a small square on one of the maps on the ship. It was the dining Saloo area, and was most famous for it's fine oil lamps and crystal centerpieces. That would be the most obvious place that it would be."
" But most things are not in the places that we imagine them to be." She told him, running her small hand over the paper. " And even if it was there, is there any guarantee that it would still be there now?"
" Well...no." He confessed, leaning against the desk. " But if there was such an elaborate gem on the ship, that would be the best place to show it off."
" I am not certain, therfore I am against it." She stated, folding her arms across her chest. " A spell this large cannot be done twice at a time. I will not waste my magic to search for a jewel in a ship two and-a-half miles under the ocean if it is all for nothing."
" But there's no other logical place that it could be."
" Too bad we couldn't go there and take a look around the ship for ourselves." Presley thought out loud, forgetting about the ball of yarn that he was waving in front of Kahti's face. " Then you wouldn’t have to waste so much time any magic trying to get it back." The cat jumped at it once again, catching Presley off guard and bowling him over onto his backside. " Hey! Kahti!"
A wide grin fell across the goddess’s face. She stood up and wafted over to the boy that was sitting on the stone floor. Kahti hissed at Maat as she came closer to her master. Presley calmed her down by putting his hand on her head and holding her back before she became the wild jungle cat that she transformed into when she was scared. Maat kneeled down until she was at the same eye level as the prince. Presley felt very awkward at this stage. What was she doing. She just stood there and looked into his deep green eyes, looking as if to find something, something that she didn’t know was there...
" You are very wise Prince Rapses." She complimented. " You have the wisdom of a true Pharaoh, and the imagination of a child."
" Thanks." He said with an unsure tone, not knowing if that last statement should be taken as an insult or as a compliment.
" Then that’s what we will do." Maat arose and turned around to face the five mummies which by now were just as baffled as Presley was. " Just as the prince said."
" Do what Goddess?" Lyris asked.
She smiled her pretty smile once again, her teeth glimmering such as the bright ball of light that had brought her here in the first place. " Why, we shall explore the Titanic my child. Anyone up for some adventure?"

***

" Go back to the Titanic? Now? From here all the way to..."
" Southampton." Lyris put in, looking up from her novel. " Southampton, April 10, 1912."
" Yes, right." Rath continued, trying to figure out the exact plans that the Goddess was going to have about the team. " So, instead of seeing the Titanic now, we'll see it then?"
" It is really not that difficult to understand." Maat told him, picking up and old piece of newspaper, and inspecting the date and the times very precisely. " Time travel is not a difficult thing to do. It's safe, and it will allow me time to regain my strength to return you to the present." She turned the paper around in her hands, a slight frown foarming when the old newsprint began to rub off on her crystal white fingers. " I will arrange everything, you shall be comfortable and well off."
" Until the bloody boat sinks." Rath muttered under his breath.
" Personally, I can't see myself in a high-cut collar dress." Nefer-tina jokes, hopping up on the wooden desk to talk to Maat. " Are you sure this will work? We've had some problems with time travel before."
" As long as you remain out of sight of the video cameras and make no hints about what you know about the Titanic's demise, yes, I believe that this will work." She said confidently, lying the the newspaper beside Nefer-tina.
" That will be a shock to the public." Lyris giggled from behind her book. " Watching a gang of 3500 year old mummies and a Pharaoh prince walking up the gangplank onto the finest liner of all time."
" That will be a problem, won't it." Maat stated, rubbing her chin in thought. " I shall keep that in mind for the future."
" The present future I hope." Ja-kal stated, pulling on one of his bow strings, and watching intently as it snapped back in plae with a low humming sound. " We must get it before Scarab does."
" When you go back in time, it doesn't matter when you first start out Ja-kal." Lyris grinned, finally putting the book down and sitting up off the small bed, placing her hands on both of her bandaged knees. " It only matters what time you go to in the past."
" Yes, and I was hoping to get started as soon as possible." Maat agreed, walking over to the two burning torches that were beguinning to flicker in the small room.
" We can plan and be ready in maybe a day or two." Ja-kal followed the goddess over to where she was walking, and abruptly stopped as she did.Maat turned around, something slighty unusual about her, but no one could point it out. Everything wa the same, her features, her mood... nothing was out of the ordinary. Ja-kal felt uneasy as he approached her more closely, watching his boundaries and being ready for practically anything.
" Actually," The goddess began, holding her arms out in front of her, as if to draw them all near and tellthem in secret about what she was going to say. " I thought that we could beguin right now."
" Right now!" Rath exclaimed in a huff, quickly striding over to where Ja-kal now stood. " We do not have the resources or the information to travel back in time and find the jewel now. And not to mention how to act and how to fit in with the peoples of the 1920's..."
" You will all do fine." She waved his accusations away with one white hand. " Besides, you want my help after all. I am a very busy goddess mummies, and I do not have the time and patients to congure up such a long spell and see it for the duration of your journey." She explained, her hands folding across her chest, her smile beguinning to waver and transform into a strict frown. " So it all depends...do you want to find the gem, or risk the anger of an agitated goddess?" The familiar howling of wind began to waft through the room as the well-known flashing lights began to appear again. Mist began to pour in from the doorway such as previous, and the painful sound of a wailing soul echoed through the stone walls of the library.
" Goddess Maat, please!" Lyris shouted over the howling wind and temperamental fog. " We mean no disrespect!"
" A goddess is not to be given limits by mortals!" Maat explained, throwing he hands up into the air. A bright white ball began to form between them, slight signs of lightening filled the glowing sphere, and the goddess's eyes began to take the same appearance.
" She has quite a temper, doesn't she." Rath stated, crossing his arms in front of him, determined not to move his ground until something earthshattering occured.
" Maat, please!" Ja-kal repeated, desperately trying to get throught the overpowering wind and talk some sense into the moody goddess. " we will do whatever you ask. Just please, stop this act of senseless hostility!"
That made the goddess even more cross with them. Only, instead of destroying everything that was inside the small library, she calmly stopped the glowing orb that was growing from her fingers, and quietly let her arms fall down around her waist. Everything would have been good, except for where her luminous smile once was, was a dead frown, topped off with a pair of glowing angry eyes.
" Oh, now you've done it." Rath muttered, as Ja-kal stepped back from the furious goddess.
" I hope this doesn't turn out to be another one of my past lives." Armon exclaimed, pulling away from the ookshelf, where the wind had forced him to stand when Maat had began her temper tantrum. Everything was more of a mess now then it was before. There was now no books on the bookshelf, many of them skattered about the room- all of the papers had gone flying, some of them sitting on chairs, on the bed, and even some out in the hallway leading to the garage. Even the mighty picture of the ship that had been stuck on the ceiling was now in ruins, parts of it still clinging to the stone ceiling, but more of it was now being burned on one of the torches, where it had landed after the storm.
Maat looked about the group with a distasteful glare. Kahti meowed loudly, and ducked under the overturned desk, peeking out to view what was about to become of her masters. " You think that you can tell off the Goddess Matt?" She asked, having no need of an answer from anyone of the six. " Then you will not get my full co-operation."
" So, you will not help us?" Ja-kal asked, a feeling of sorrow and regret lingering in his voice.
" Oh, I will get you to the ship alright." Maat told him, now with a myterious tone instead of an angry one. " And you will have your chance to find the jewel. Only, you will no longer have my assistance. You will load up on Titanic, but as the others, you will unload with it as well."
" Goddess Maat, please. We apologize for whatever insults we have caused. But we can't do this without your help." Nefer-tina pleaded, holding Presley warily by the shoulder, just in case she had another mood swing.
" I know." She stated, once again holding up her hands to form the glowing sphere that began her storm of wrath. And it began again- papers flapped in the wind and books flew in all corners of the library. None of them had anything to grab onto, and so, were forced to try and stand their ground as best they could. Ja-kal ran over towards Nefer-tina and Presley. Once he reached them, the three huddled together , the two mummies continually getting pelted with large books that rightfully belonged on the bookshelf.
" By the powers of the Goddess Maat, goddess of balance and purity, I call upon the powers of Ra, to help in my spell." Maat chanted, the glowing ball now beguinning to to form behind her small frame as it grew, slowly beguinning to lift her off the floor. " The powers of the ancient sands, give me your wisdom, and grant me the powers of transferrence!"
Lightening crashed and thunder boomed over their heads as the wind picked up even more, throwing them all against the side wall to Maat's right.
" What is she doing?!" Lyris yelled over the wailing winds.
" She's granting our spell!" Rath hollered back, flinching as a large hardcover book sailed across the room and slammed into his shoulder. " And I fear the consequences..."
" By the powers of Maat, I send you all back to a time where the sky was clear and technology was just beguinning." She chanted. " Back to the place know as Southampton, April 10, 1912. You will all be brought there, bearing first-class clothing and images of the living. You will search for the infamous Jewel of the Nile, until such a time as you discover it. Prince Rapses will chant the prayer of Ra, and you will all be brough back in time to the 1990's. But, if the crystal is not found, then you will all pay for your insults, and be cast into the sea, never to be heard from by mortals again."
" Maat! No, that wasn't what we agreed on!" Ja-kal yelled, quickly dodging a small wooden chair, which shattered against the wall behind him.
" I command it!" The goddess shrieked, the torches suddenly bursting with a white luminescence that caused them all to turn away. The light began to head towards them, the six unable to move because of the harsh winds. The light penetrated the winds and mists and circled them, causing the world to stand still. it grew too bright to imagine. Presley closed his eyes tight, but he was still becoming blinded by the light that was still penetrating his eyelids.
" Until you succeed." Maat snickered, her own little way of saying "Good-bye". Nefer-tina held onto Presley's shoulder, and Ja-kal did the same to the other shoulder. Armon stood in his battle pose, determined not to move no matter what horrors Matt was going to unleash. In the last second before the inevitable, Rath quickly grabbed onto Lyris's arm. She glanced up, but couldn't see who it was, because of the intense light that was causing her pain to simply look around.
The wind flew around the room, even the bookcase, which was belted to the stone floor, beguin to crack away from it's foundation. Kahti screeched from under the desk, which was the only thing that wasn't flying around, only because it was jammed in the doorway of the library. The last thing she saw before they left was the light which was circling around the group turning into a ball of lightening, a quick explosion, and...
They were gone.

***

Kahti slowly emmerged from under the desk, her wrapping falling on the many papers that had completely covered the floor, and piled up in the corners. The wind was gone, which had calmed the cat down a little. She jumped onto the overturned bookcase to try and find some trace of her masters. There was none. Even the bright lights that had pertruded from the torches was gone, and the only thing that was left was the same old dull flames, not flickering since the wind had died.
Maat was, however, still there. Kahti growled at her, but resisted the erge to transform. She had a content look spread across her face, her arms still lying at her sides.
" What's the matter kitty?" She asked with an arrogant tone. " You were the lucky one."
It was then that Kahti transformed, a deep lion roar escaping her mouth as she raced towards the glowing goddess. Maat held out her long, white arm, pointing towards the ferocious cat that was about to spring onto her.
A loud beam of lightening flew from her index finger, the sound itself was enough to make the large cat jump in surprise. The bolt just missed her, but that wasn't where she was aiming.
Kahti looked down at her two front paws. Below them, was a shattered piece of papyrus, black as the night, with gold and silver writing strewn across it.
Maat laughed, holding both her hands up towards the sky as a golden glow began to pertrude from her stomach. It continued to grow, until it covered her entire body. Then, before the cat could even blink, she was gone, as the scroll said that she would be once it was destroyed.
Having no need to be bulked anymore, Kahti shrank down to her normal form, just a small black speck in a vast expas of white papers and torn diagrams. She looked up towards the ceiling and began to meow mournfully. Her voice echoed throught out the entire Spinx, and it would have mattered, if there had been someone there to hear them.
To her left, five bright golden amulets, each enscribed with a guardians name, and shaped like a certain patron animal stood alone, covered in the darkness of the room, as the torches suddenly flickered, and died.

To be continued in Chapter 3: Southampton Return to the Gem of the Deep Homepage