How to Find the Wish Seed (Sequel to "The Goddess of Bad Luck")

Blue's Diagnosis

      "Atë!" Oliver jumped, wrapping his arm around me. I had swiftly landed on a trampoline in the middle of a cat-filled room that passed as a tacky sitting area. Who was this crazy cat lady? I would not say it, but her decorating skills were awful.

     "OH! You sacred me," I laughed at Oliver's sudden appearance.

     "Get this! I found Lady Bastet," cheered the boy, his exploding happiness reminding of something. A flash of Pit popped in my head. It was the time he kissed me and gave me that necklace. One second, my heart was on fire, and the next it was dissolving in a pool of sadness. I couldn't see him anymore, and I didn't know what to do with that fact. "Are you okay Atë?"

     His question woke me up from the memory weighing down on me like an entire ocean on my shoulders. "Yeah, sorry. The fall kind of knocked the air out of me."

     "I'm so glad you alright," a voice stated, and I turned my head to see who it was. Trying not to scream or make a weird face, I examined the woman in front of me. Well, cat-woman is more like it. She was very tall with the head of a cat. White Egyptian sashes draped down her frame like a curtain. "I really need to renovate this place."

     "Would you happen to be Lady Bastet?" I asked, pretending like it wasn't obvious enough.

     "Just look at me. How could I not be the leader of the cat empire," she posed and I giggled.

     "It was kind of a dumb question," I sighed. "Oh, you should meet my cat. This is Blue."

     I handed the sick cat to the goddess who picked him up and ruffled his fur gently. "Oliver told me all about your problem, but I didn't expect him to be this CUTE!"

     "I know right! Blue is the cutest," Oliver joined in on praising the cat.

     "Oliver, you know he scratched us your nose pretty bad, right?" I asked, raising a brow. Was this kid ok?

     "Well, he still CUTE!" exclaimed the boy.

     "Anyway," I brushed off the entire topic and went straight to the important part. "Blue is sick and we don't know what's wrong with him. Do you think there is anything you can do?"

     "Of course, but I'll need to ask you some things," Lady Bastet summoned a clipboard to her hand and a pen in the other. "First of all, what type of cat is this?"

     "Um..." I froze, not knowing what to tell her. "A teleporting cat?"

     She gave me the side-eye. "Where did you get him?"

     "Well, my friend Pit found him in the forest on the search for the dog I never had," I answered, feeling a wave of nostalgia come over me as I repeated the long gone phrase. Then I realized that I had actually said that out loud. Lady Bastet and Oliver looked as if I had started speaking in another language. "I can explain."

     "No need," she sighed and the goddess wrote a note on her clipboard. "I guess I will have to do some investigating."

     "What are you going to do?" asked Oliver.

     "I'll do you one better and show you. Gather around," she motioned. Oliver and I each took one of her open hands as I put Blue in the middle as she had instructed. Once we had made our circle, the goddess closed her eyes, starting chanting in what I assumed was Arabic.

     Once she finished, the goddess opened her eyes, only I couldn't see her brown irises any longer. Lady Bastet's eyes glowed as bright as the Sun, blinding Oliver and me. When the light didn't show anymore, I was in the woods.