MISFIT

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

"Those eyes of hers see better than any blind eye" Fiji said.

"Find the man that has no name, tell him the first blind eye has come to claim" Kuzo whispered over and over again.

"What are you trying to tell me mom" He frowned.

"Look Kuzo, there's more" Kuzo followed Fiji into a tiny space that looked like a doorway that led to a shelf with many other sculptures, he assumed they were Egyptian gods and Kings, perhaps.

Arkmenrah, Anubis, Hathor, Maat, Isis, Osiris…he scanned through, reading their names in hieroglyphs and then he found one without a name.

"This is it, the man with no name"

"I guess we need to tell him the first eye has come to claim" Fiji said sarcastically

"You're not helping Fiji"

"Well Horus and Ra are gods associated with the eye" Fiji said but there was nothing about an eye among those sculptures. Kuzo began to pace.

"Think, think, think, Kuzo, think, then he walked back to his mother's sculpture"

"Did mom ever tell me about any stories about an eye as a kid?" Kuzo said to Fiji.

"Well she did tell you to cross your T's and dot your' I's you always somehow forgot to cross your T's your mother used to say….."

"English not Hieroglyphs, do not blind your I's" They both said in unison with a wide smile spread across Kuzo's face.

"That’s it Fiji, you are a genius" Kuzo picked up the dog and kissed it.

"You're so lucky I don't have my horseshoe on now stop messing up my mane kid" Fiji complained. Kuzo put him back down.

"Help me find an I without a dot on this sculpture"

They began searching for one on the sculpture without a name, they searched for a while but couldn’t find anything.

"What are we missing?" Kuzo sighed.

"This is frustrating" Fiji complained.

"I could use a break" Kuzo sat on the ground and leaned against the pedestal that help the sculpture and it moved once a bit of force was exerted on it. It just slid, so easily.

"What did you do?"

"It moved"

And right beneath it was what they were looking for, an 'I' with a spot above it that looked like something needed to be fixed in it.

Kuzo stood, looked at it and then rushed back to his mothers sculpture and studied it. Then he saw it, one of her eyes had a tiny blot.

"This one, Fiji, get me a knife" Fiji rushed to the table and picked a knife. Kuzo took it and began working out the eye.

"What the hell are you doing disfiguring your mother like that?"

"This is the first blind eye, it’s the one marked, we need to fix it in that spot to get it opened.

The eye came off like he had suspected it would. He took it to the spot and fixed it in and he heard stones shift beneath him and the floor began to part.

"Whoa…" He took a few steps back and then suddenly it stopped, leaving a square hole in the floor with a staircase leading down.

"Looks like we have no choice but to go down there" Kuzo said.

"After you" Fiji said.

"Guardian my black ass, you are one scared dog you know"

"Well as a dog there isn't much I can do is there, this is Egypt, and an opening in the floor could be the gateway to hell"

"You are a mystic being, what's to be scared about it isn't like you haven't seen worse" Kuzo took the first step into the hole and continued, Fiji followed, it was a long staircase down but once Kuzo's feet hit the ground torched began to lit up mysteriously, a very long way ahead, they just kept coming on.

"It’s a huge cave"

"It's not a cave, it is a city underground, look at the structures. They began to explore.

"Be careful, there could be traps down here" Kuzo warned.

"Well good, traps mean treasure, I could use a golden collar" Fiji said and walked ahead. Kuzo sighed and rolled his eyes.

***

It was mesmerizing down there, there was too much of history down here, and that alone was pleasing but Kuzo knew he needed to find whatever was down here, what the clues had led him there to find, he also needed to find Summer, wherever she was.

"Do you hear that…this way!" Fiji took a route and run for it.

"Fiji, wait!" Kuzo chased after him till they appeared before a lake that was spiraling.

"Its…black"

Kuzo knelt to feel it but Fiji stopped him.

"Wait"

"It isn't water, the lake of misconceptions, it swallows nothing you give it, it gives nothing you ask of it, it quenches nothing you want it to, not thirst not fire…..it just exists to lie, it is a facade" Fiji explained.

Kuzo went ahead and touched it but it was as dry as the feel of fingers rubbing each other.

"Mercury?"

"Maybe, black mercury perhaps"

"Now that alone is mysterious" Kuzo stepped into it but to his surprise, his feet wouldn’t sink. It kept spinning but he wasn’t moving. He stepped back quickly in fear.

"Ok, now that is just so wrong, maybe it's not what we're being drawn to, let's get out of here, this place creeps me out"

Kuzo turned to walk away and Fiji followed.

But when they got to the foot of the staircase, there was Raheema, the princess.

"It is you" She said, wearing a smile.

He was lost. She walked towards him in her long white gown with golden seams, she looked beautiful in it.

"You are the son of the nature goddess, the most kind and gentle, she prophesied your coming before she left centuries ago.

"What did she say?" Kuzo knew she meant his mother.

"I should take you to Nefret, she wields the prophesy books only she can explain what they say to you?"

"A seer?" Kuzo asked.

"No…..she doesn’t worship our gods nor walk in the ways of our people, she studies the stars, time, and everything that your mother lives for. Her ancestors harboredthe nature guardian your mother, they stayed with her mixed with her and she thought them a lot of things, she is treasured among our people, my father hardly believes in her, he thinks she is a myth, he is rather traditional"

"Let's go see Nefret then" Kuzo smiled, she did too.

"But that lake…..?"

"I really didn't think this place existed, they call it the City of Lies, why, I really don't know but somehow all its people just disappeared, almost as if they never existed, centuries ago and as time went by the story got twisted and many said it never existed, and I believed so till you came" She drew closer.

"First of all, my mom is no god, she bleeds like you and I, she falls sick although hardly and I'm obviously not a god either" Raheema giggled.

"You cannot tell anyone about this discovery till I figure all this out, ok"

She gave a gentle bow.