Avatars

The desert was vast. The dunes loomed over them and around them, hushing with the sound of moving sand.

They stood in it, seemingly waiting.

Vlade: "Soooooo we just have to cross this?"

Horus: "Only gods can step foot where we need to go."

Vlade: "Useful... How do we get there then?"

Hestia: "We're avatars, remember."

Vlade: "...Yes. Oh."

Pwyll: "They're gonna have to use us to get over there."

Hestia: "Yep."

Pwyll: "Great."

They stood in a triangle, facing each other.

Hestia: "Ready?"

The other two nodded. Then the gods took control, first Wenet, then Arawn, then Horus. Horus staggered back a little.

Wenet: "Alright! Let's gooo."

Horus: "Yeah..."

They marched into the desert, a new landscape of dunes unfolding around them.

Horus was ahead, striding out into the hot sun, totally set on finding the city. He barely heard when Wenet called for him to stop and only noticed when she threw a stone at him. He looked back and found Wenet and Arawn in the shade of a boulder.

Wenet: "It's too hot for them. Humans aren't used to being in direct sunlight for so long. They need a break."

Horus: "We're halfway there"

Arawn shook his head and Horus relented, coming to stand in the shade while the other two sat down. Eventually, he also sat down.

A while later, Wenet said it was time to move on. She pulled Horus to his feet and propelled Arawn ahead of them.

It was dark by time they reached the city. It was made of dark glass and reflected the moonlight.

As soon as they were onto the circular sandy-glass plinth the city was built on, they stopped. 

Vlade cried out and dropped to the ground as Horus left. Just as quickly Horus took control again.

Arawn: "Mortals cannot step here either."

Horus: "A warning would have been nice."

They made their way into the city.

Wenet thanked some of the minor deities in the city she had been talking to and went back over to the other two.

Wenet: "It's starting in the early morning. Whoever is near the front of the procession may be able to get in."

Horus: "Make sure we're there then."

They entered a room they had freely rented out for the night and Arawn flumped down in a chair in the corner. The walls were glass, but very darkly tinted.

Horus: "Now we wait."

He picked up a book and flicked through it. Wenet sat down at the table and found a pack of cards and started shuffling them. 

Wenet: "Want to play?"

Horus put the book down.

Horus: "Yeah, okay."

Wenet: "Arawn?"

Arawn only grunted in reply. He was scrolling through Pwyll's phone, trying to figure out how it worked.

A bell chimed somewhere. Wenet and Horus looked up from their game of speed. 

Wenet: "Time to go. looking for the box with gold veins running through it, remember. It is most likely in the pain palace-- Arawn?"

Arawn didn't look up from the phone. Horus took it from his hand.

Arawn: "Heyyy! I'd nearly beat that level."

Horus turned the phone off and gave it back. Then all three left to join the gathering crowds.

It wasn't long until the crowds were thick. They pushed their way as far to the front as they could. But, they lost Arawn along the way.

Soon, someone they could only assume was Zeus marched through the crowd and to the front, where he hailed them all with a shout in a language they didn't understand. He turned and made his way towards the tallest, most tinted and gold veined palace there was, the crowds following close behind. 

Music rumbled everywhere, shaking some of the more fragile glass houses.

Horus: "What's going on?"

Wenet: "I don't know. Only heard there was going to be a parade to the palace and that's where the box might be."

The huge gold veined doors opened to admit Zeus and his followers. They surged inside, too many of them to count. Wenet and Horus were so close to entering but then... The doors shut, leaving the crowds clamouring outside of them.

Wenet: Well shit.

Inside the palace, Arawn slunk into the shadows. Or what little shadow there was. While Zeus was speaking, he slipped behind a guard and into the corridors. Everyone was in the main hall so he met no one as he walked. 

On plinths all the way down the long corridor there were items. Mostly mundane, but some were the most exquisite sculptures and art he'd ever seen. And there, so easily in reach, was a small dark box with golden veins running through it.

Arawn quickly stuffed it into a pocket and hurried back out, where Zeus's speech was still going on. He slipped back into the shadows by the door and waited, both for the doors to open and for an alarm to go off. Surprisingly, the doors opened before any alarm sounded and he was swept out with the tide of people. Wenet and Horus met him there. He gave them a nod and hurried back to the room.

The box was placed on the table and they all stared at it. There was no lock or keyhole. No apparent way of opening it.

Wenet: "Maybe it's a puzzle box?"

Arawn picked it up and turned it over. Something rattled inside. 

Arawn: "We could smash it?"

Horus took it from him and tried pulling it as if there was a lid. It didn't move.

Wenet took it from him and examined it.

Wenet: "Look. There's a very fine line there. Maybe..."

She tried turning the two halves and they shifted slightly, then stuck fast. 

Horus: "Other way?"

Wenet twisted it the other way and the two halves came apart. They peered inside and found...

Horus: "A key?"

Arawn: "Not... Exactly what we needed?"

Wenet: "It could lead to it though."

She screwed the lid back on and pocketed it.

Wenet: "We need to leave before someone notices it's missing."

They left quickly, but not before Horus nabbed the book he'd picked up earlier.

The streets were still crowded. The slipped through the throng and towards the desert, trying to hurry without appearing to be hurrying. Somewhere up at the palace, an alarm went off. They looked at each other and picked up the pace.

They were almost out when they heard shouts from behind them. Looking back, they saw guards ushering people towards the palace.

Guard: Shields!

From high above, transparent gold veils fells. They threw themselves into the sand right as the veils reached the ground, shielding the city and trapping its residents inside.

Scrambling to their feet, they plunged behind a dune and out of sight.

Wenet: "Do you know the symbol on that key?"

Horus, who was examining the key, shook his head.

Horus: "The keyring doesn't help either."

Arawn: "Hey, we're here."

They stepped onto a seemingly normal patch of desert and the dunes they had been used to folded way, leaving a different set of dunes in their place.

Horus put the key back in the box, and the box in his pocket.

Horus: "That was fun."

Wenet: "I've liked being... real. But we can't stay. They're not ours."

Arawn: "Weeellll..."

Wenet shot him a look and he grinned.

At the same time, the three deities loosed their control and the humans fell to the ground. Hestia coughed and tried to speak, but failed.

Arawn: "What's wrong with them? Were we there too long?"

Pwyll: "We... Need to eat, idiots. And water. Humans need... food and water to survive."

Wenet: "How long has it been?"

Horus: "Three days, give or take?"

Vlade: "Too long..."

The three deities swiftly took control again.

Horus: "...How do we get food?"

They were standing by a food stall, wondering what on earth their humans would eat. Horus picked something up.

Horus: "What is this?"

Arawn: "I don't know. Ask someone."

Horus: "I don't speak the language."

Arawn: "Me neither." 

Wenet took the object from Horus and paid for it, then nodded for them to follow.

Wenet: "You two are useless."

Back in the place they had met up; the Room Vlade had rented out. There was a selection of food and drink scattered around, most of it half gone.

Vlade: "I recognise this keyring, but I don't know where from."

Horus: "Do you know what the symbol is?"

Vlade: "That's just the key brand."

Horus: "Oh."

Hestia: "Can we leave this 'til tomorrow? I dunno about you guys but I'm frickin' tired."

Vlade nodded and put the key away.

Vlade: "You can stay in here if you want."

Hestia: "If that's alright then sure."

Vlade: "Pwyll?"

Pwyll didn't look up. He was staring at his phone.

Vlade: "Pwyll?..."

Hestia and Vlade glanced at each other.

Hestia: "Arawn?"

Pwyll - Arawn - looked up and smiled sheepishly, then put the phone down. Pwyll shivered as Arawn left.

Pwyll: "He's gotten to level 200 already."