Page 8 of Ra
“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 onlything 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.
“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!”
