Listen | A Walt Stone x Anubis story

2

"Walt! Walt! Chief!"

Walt turned around, on his second cup of coffee. Clearly, they are not chasing away his migraines that come in the form of one Carter Kane.

Carter and Sadie were holding duffel bags, packed with some of their possessions and wearing casual wear, fitting for a mountain hike or an expedition.

"What is it, Carter? Are you going camping? And you're dragging Sadie along as well? Or... let me guess: you're cosplaying as Egyptian travellers who walk the desert. The parade's today, right?"

"No, we're going on a quest to fix the sun, it's very urgent and very real!" Carter yipped cheerfully.

"Fix the sun? Actually, I don't want to know. What about the parade?"

"We'll finish it once we get back. The run-down: we'll have a chat with the god of death, Anubis, figure out why the sun's hanging in the sky for two days straight, and head home after the parade. We'd probably be back at the end of the week, so don't worry!"

"As your chief, I do not permit Carter Kane to leave my village with one heap of scrap metal laying abandoned in the middle of the townhouse. Even if I, as a chief, have no reason for not letting you go, you'll have to go through Walt Stone too—I'm not allowing my friends to meet the god of death."

"Why not?" Carter asked.

"You want to meet the god of death? Do you expect to live after that?"

"Um... yes?"

"What makes you think you'll survive the god of death, who is famously known to only be in a good mood every few eons?"

"Because... because we're descendants of Ancient Egypt pharaohs!" Carter fist-pumped in the air, and Walt resisted his rising urge to smack Carter in the face.

"I think you should reconsider your life choices. It's a horrible way to stay alive."

As if realizing this for the first time, Carter said, "Oh."

Meanwhile, Sadie had discreetly toed her hiking bag as far away from her as possible.

Carter huffed. "We are going nonetheless. I will come back unscathed, Sadie too, of course."

Walt rubbed his temples.

Carter sniffed. "I'll miss you, Walt. Let's go, Sadie."

"No." Walt insisted. "You are not going to meet the god of death yourselves."

Carter merely looked at him blankly.

"Let me come with you."

"Why?"

"I'm not letting you get hurt."

"Awww, chief! How considerate!" Carter pucked his lips at Walt. "But so boring!"

"...I don't want to clean up the parade either."

"Understood, loud and clear. You're in, Walt!" Carter cheered.

Sadie silently asked her father where he went wrong with Carter.

They set off nearly immediately. Walt barely had time to pack up his belongings into a single canvas satchel and threw on a fluffy white coat before he was whisked away by the hyperactive boy he had no choice but to call his best friend from a young age.

He looked at Sadie. Sadie looked so tired.

It's fine, he'll just meet up with the god of death and get this over with. It's not like they were trekking through thick, black sludge, taking precarious steps across the ocean of death, braving the undulating waves of screeching horrors that seem to be clawing at their minds and forcing them to give in to insanity.

It wasn't like Walt Stone felt like he was walking to his death.

Finally, after what felt like hours of trekking through deep, endless forests of darkness and taking a boat to get through to a sludgy and muddy place, they finally found a tiny little black temple that frankly, in Walt's opinion, has never seen even a glimpse of sunlight.

How would the god of death help in fighting the sun, again?

"This looks like a place a creep would live in," Walt said aloud while they stepped into the building. "A musty, old, moldy creep."

Carter whipped his head around and gave Walt an accusing glare. "You better not offend the god of death like that, Walt! We're in desperate need of his Lordship's help. The insignificance of us mere mortals are but a speck of dust in his holy lifespan, and we all stand helpless before his colossal wrath. We, therefore, seek the sincerest apology that we can offer, and we hope that the god of death can rain his endless mercy on us and leave us in an intact condition just so we are capable enough to recite our current predicament to him for help."

Silence.

In the dark, black temple, nothing was to be heard.

Then, a cold, chilling voice.

"If it is help that you seek, cease that hope. I have no intention of aiding a living mortal."

Carter gasped and held onto Sadie for dear life.

The cold voice spoke again. "Tell me why I shouldn't claim your souls where you stand right now as you have so willingly entered my temple."

Walt lifted his head to the source of the voice and saw nothing.

Carter and Sadie looked pale and ready to run at any moment. Carter's hands were shaking, and Sadie was holding onto her magic staff for dear life. Walt had to do something. As a chief, he has always been good with words when faced with people who think they are superior.

"Dear respected Lord Anubis, we seek your help in saving the sun. You see, the sun has been up for days and refuses to go down. We fear something has happened to the sun god Ra's spirit." Walt spoke slowly and clearly as possible, hoping to get his message across while sounding as steady as possible, which was quite hard considering he was speaking to one of the most notoriously bad-tempered gods in the Egyptian pantheon.

More silence as the god contemplates.

"...The sun god Ra's spirit," The god finally spoke. "Do you mortals not know?"

"May we ask, what about Lord Ra's spirit?"

A pause. Anubis contemplated what to say next. "It is best not spoken aloud, and after all, none of your consequence. Let us just say that it is a normal phenomenon for now. Once the sun has stopped moving for a certain amount of time, the darkness in the abyss of chaos will start solidifying due to the absence of the sun. Soon enough, Chaos will rise and start the process of the end of the world."