Corrine forced the snake's tail off her arm. She grabbed the tip of its tail and stretched it out so it couldn't escape, or hurt anyone.

             "How can you help me?" she demanded.

             "I would tell you, but you're being quite rude." Her voice was light and bubbly, yet sinister and dubious.

            She pulled the snakes head and tail farther apart. "Tell me."

            "Familiars don't feel pain, you idiot," Orcus said.

            Corrine loosened her grip slightly. "Who are you?" she asked.

            "I'm Jikininki," she sneered.

            Buka flew up to the two and perched on Corrine's shoulder. "Why are you loyal to Berstuk?"

            Jikininki's face contorted itself, it looked like someone put a string in her mouth and pulled back on her cheeks. Her jaw was unhinged, her eyes were awkwardly squinted, and her tail tried to thrash in violent jerks.

             "Loyal to Berstuk?" she laughed. "Why- how could I be loyal to Berstuk? He-he." She cackled in terrifying burst of mumbling and high pitched screeching.

            Corrine looked back over at Brooke and Caleb, to avoid having to look at the monstrosity that was unfolding in front of her. They were looking back with her same confused and scared expression. Theodor was propped up on his elbows, he looked like he was done with everything that was going on.

             "Shut up. Shut up. Shut up," Orcus muttered on repeat. He and Buka were standing with mixed feelings of anger, and annoyance.

             Corrine turned back to Jikininki. She had calmed down, and was just giggling slightly.

             "If," Buka started, "You are not loyal to Berstuk, then why won't you tell us how you can help."

             "I would," she breathed. "But, as I've said, you're being quite rude."

             Corrine dropped the snake and held her sword, ready in case she tried to escape.

             Jikininki coiled herself as soon as she hit the ground. "Would you like to call your friends over? Berstuk will be dispelling me soon and they may have questions."

             Corrine ran over to them and helped Caleb carry Theodor to the snake.

             "So, she's Berstuk's familiar?" he asked.

             "Yes."

             "And we're going to trust her?"

             "I don't know. I'm not the one in charge," she mumbled.

             Brooke raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that? You're the one making orders."

             "Since when?"

             They both shrugged. The four-stayed silent until they reached the familiars. Corrine, and Caleb set Theodor on the ground and turned to Jikininki.

             "Now, what do you know?" Corrine asked.

             The snake did its best to smile. "I know how Berstuk plans to kill The Concord."

             "And how's that?" She was starting to lose her temper with this awful snake.

             "He plans to wake Kebechet."

             The forms all flinched at the sound of their gods screaming in response.

             "He can't!" Chaac shouted.

             "How can he?" Turan questioned.

             "She's still here?" Hodr asked.

             "That wretched hog!" Ninhursag screamed.

             They each covered their ears, even though it didn't help. The familiars looked at the children with pity and took matters into their own hands.

            "Where is Kebechet?" Buka asked.

             "A desert in Egypt," she said, giving the forms a pitiful look.

            "Descriptive," Caleb said, still holding his hands to his ears.

            Jikininki sighed. "I'll give you the coordinates later, but you have other places to go first."

            "Wait," Brooke said. "Why would waking Kebechet help anything? Who is she?"

            "She's the only god in her original form," Buka said. "If she were to be awakened she could kill everyone in The Concord in mere seconds."

             "Oh..." Brooke muttered.

             "How is she in her original form? Didn't The Concord destroy them all?" Corrine asked.

             "She's The Wandering Goddess," Orcus sighed. "The Concord couldn't find her when they destroyed the forms. By the time they did find her, they had already destroyed their own forms and weren't powerful enough to destroy hers, so they put her in an eternal slumber type thing."

            "And no one has woken her? If she's that powerful then why hasn't woken her to... I don't know. She seems useful," Caleb said.

            "To break The Concord's spell," Jikininkin answered." You'll need a couple of powerful artifacts, most of which are next to unobtainable."

            "So, we have time?" Brooke asked.

            "No, actually. Berstuk has, at least, a general idea of where each if the artifacts are. The only thing he doesn't know is where in Egypt Kebechet is in."

            "How do we stop Berstuk from getting them, exactly?" Corrine asked.

            "You'll find the artifacts yourself, and hide them again." Jikininki slithered around, in a pacing manor.

            Orcus groaned. "How many artifacts are there?"

            "Four, and you only have a day or two at most to find all of them."

            "Whoa! Wait! We have to split up?" Caleb asked, fear in his eyes.

            "Yeah. What's the big deal?" Orcus said.

            "We all barely survived being in a group and now we have to go on our own? We're going to die." His fingers were fidgeting as he spoke.

            "You may die either way," Jikininki said, "but everyone will die if you do not do this."

            Caleb bit his lip and kneeled beside Theodor, hoping to hide is worry.

            Corrine sighed, giving Caleb a pitiful look. "What are the artifacts?"

            "The mistletoe spear, Hodr should be familiar with that one. It is up in Scandinavia, but no one knows where. Hodr hide it long ago."

             Everyone shot Theodor either a curious or angry look. He muttered something about how he should be able to find it, but his voice was too weak to hear him properly.

            "The spear," she continued. "Is necessary because it was used to kill a god. Odin used it to help keep Kebechet at bay while the spell was being cast." The snake curled herself back up, not knowing what to do with herself.

            "The second artifact is The Book of Thoth. Within the book there is the spell on how to put a god to sleep. It would be easy to change it to reverse the spell. The Book is in the remains of The Library of Alexandria, in Egypt.

            "The third is Pandora's Box. It was used to keep other gods and demons away while the ritual was performed. It will do the same when she is awakened. The Box is in Athens, hidden in stone.

            "The last artifact is The Adder Stone. It can give unimaginable power to anyone who can use it properly. It's in a forest in Wales."

            They all sat silently, dreading having to be on their own. As they all sulked in silence, the tip of Jikininki's tail turned to ash.

            "Oh, it seems Berstuk knows I'm here. He will speed up his search as much as possible now that you know his plans. You need to find the artifacts and keep them at of his reach for as long as possible. If he finds them he will destroy everything. You must go waste no time." Her tail was slowly turning to ash, creeping up her at a slow anxious pace. "Go now! Go!" The rest of the snake turned to ash.
             A soft breeze blew by and her body went with it, leaving the children on their own. They were scared and they didn't know what to do. They each looked at each other, the same dread in their eyes.

           "What now?" Brooke asked.

            "Now," Corrine said. "We do what we were forced to do."

Okay I didn't try with editing this one so I'm sorry. I'm too tired to function but I finished the chapter so here it is. Also there was so much dialogue that I had to put in here. That's all I had to say on that matter. Once again I'm sorry for the not so edited chapter. I'll fix it later. Thank you all for reading!