Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 8

TJ Misunderstands the Idea behind Taxes and Passes Out even Better than Me

"Well, which is it?" TJ asked. "You can't just say something like that and then trail off."

She continued, "I read about an artifact that was found in North Africa and brought to a museum in Boston. It was a little figurine made out of clay."

Percy took a deep and sharp breath through his teeth. "Waaaiiittt a moment. North Africa? As in Egypt, North Africa?" Annabeth let her head drop. "Yes. You know what that means don't you?" "Yes, I know... At least I think I do. But how is it possible? Does it really all tie together or are we just seeing connections that aren't real?" Annabeth shook her: "No, I think we have to consider calling them too. If they can't help us we maybe have wasted our time but we know that they have nothing to do with it. If they can help us that's good too. Either way, we get something out of it. But how do we even get in contact?"

"Maybe if you would tell us what the heck you're even talking about we could help you!" I snapped. Realizing my mistake I apologized: "Sorry, I didn't really sleep well." Alex snorted. "How?" She asked. "You just slept for almost four hours! You know what, don't even bother I don't care. So what are you guys talking about?" She turned to face Annabeth. "Who do you want to call?" Percy sighed - I really think I should start to count - and made my day a lot worse than it already was. "Some time ago I met someone who introduced himself to me as Carter Kane. He and I had to fight off a monster. After that, he told me that he has royal blood of some kind. A wild story that involved a lot of fighting and possessing sassy gods followed. I was sure that I'll never have to see them again. Turns out I was wrong."

Especially the part about possessing gods confused me a bit but I decided that it wouldn't help to ask. "That's all nice and well but what does that have to do anything with the artifact and Morpheus?" "You see, Magnus, Carter and his sister have royal blood which somehow has led them to inherit gods. Carter is a host body for Horus. His sister is possessed by the goddess Isis. But these gods and the monsters we had to fight weren't from Greek mythology and neither were they from Norse mythology. There are Egyptian gods too. Apparently it's a whole thing. They have their own gods, monsters and also their own way to make me want to go far far away."

I didn't know what to say. I just stared at him with my mouth wide open while my mind froze. Next to me, TJ had something you could call a mental breakdown. "Nuh-uh. Not again. Don't do this to me." He stood up, threw his fork onto the table and walked out of the pavilion. He was screaming. "Why? Dear God why is it always us? Can't we just tell the government and let them take care of it? What do we pay taxes for?" He took up a shield that was lying on the floor and wanted to throw it away but somehow a strap got caught in his jacket and when he let go of the shield it just swung back and hit him right in the head. Needless to say he immediately fell to the ground and stayed there. "Ouuuhh!" Some of the campers had watched his little scene and were now standing up to see what had happened. Percy stood up as well. "Alright, nothing to see here. Just a little knockout. Hey you!" - he pointed at Halfborn - "Help me carry him to the infirmary." As Halfborn went to help Percy with TJ, Mallory, Alex and I continued our discussion with Annabeth.

"Are you sure that they can help?" I asked her. "Because I don't want to travel any further than necessary." Annabeth looked at me confused, then shifted her attention towards Grover. "If you were able to climb through Yggdrasil because of this opening spell... Why didn't you do it again? I read about it and according to the stories the distances in Yggdrasil aren't the same as ours. You could've easily taken a short cut and avoid unnecessary attacks." I sat there completely dumbfounded. She was right. We could have just walked through the damn tree and be here in ten minutes instead of fighting off monsters and coping with a terrible loss of food. "Okay well, that settles the discussion whether or not we tell this Egyptian Carter god. But how do we tell him?" We all sat there, thinking of solutions until Grover had an idea: "What if I use a tracking spell on Carter and an opening spell on a tree. We could walk through the tree while following the track that leads us to Carter, no matter where he is." Annabeth nodded in agreement. "It could work..." "Well at the moment it's our only option so it has to work."

We decided that we would go to search Carter Kane as soon as TJ is well again. After lunch, Annabeth gave us a tour around the camp and told us funny little stories about the daily camp life. I knew she just did it to distract us from what we were about to do but it helped and we all were able to relax a little.

As the day went on TJ kept sleeping and since we didn't want to wake him we prepared our stuff for the next day and after dinner, we went to sleep. Annabeth assigned us different cabins that had some beds left for us to use. Mallory and Halfborn took the Ares cabin to the delight of many young daughters of Ares marveling at Halfborns axes. TJ took the only bed left at the Hermes Cabin and Alex and I had to go to Aphrodite's. The inside of the cabin was... How should I say it to describe this in a good way so you understand my first impression...? It was wack. Posters of famous actors and actresses were hanging off the walls, one side of the whole cabin was just a very long table with mirrors, hair products, perfumes and all kinds of different make-up accessories. Don't get me wrong. Everything looked perfect: All the bottles were perfectly arranged, all the bed covers perfectly folded. I didn't know that there's such a thing as too tidy, but this was it.

At least the sons and daughters of Aphrodite were nice. I guess it's in their blood but who am I to know that. I'm not exactly what you'd call charming. They welcomed us in their home, showed us our beds, gave us fresh pajamas and then left us alone. Well... Alone isn't the right word. Behind me, I heard two girls whisper: "Did you see his hair? It looks so good!" Usually, I don't care so much about my appearance but I admit that I blushed a little. Alex sent me a warning gaze. The girls continued their talk. "I know right! It's so cute. But how does he dye it with such a smooth transition?" That's when I realized that they were talking about Alex. I squinted my eyes and peeked to my left. Alex had stopped unpacking her bag and slowly turned around. I knew what was coming and was able to silently mouth each and every word she said: "If you tell me I'm a boy one more time I will literally rip your head off and shove it down your butt!"

The two girls froze for a second. One stuttered a few excusing words while the other one secretly sneaked away. In search of some help, the first one turned around to her friend. When she saw her run away she sprinted after her, lucky to get away from Alex and the whole situation. Alex sighed happily. "I will never get bored doing this." She turned around again. "And which bed do we... I mean which one do you want and which one should I take?