Zeus and the Dreadful Dragon Page 3

  Hestia pointed her flaming torch at the pile of logs she had just gathered. A flame jumped out of the torch and immediately set the logs ablaze. “We can take turns watching the prison tonight and make sure the Titans don’t get out,” she offered.

  Zeus nodded. “All right,” he said. “We’ll camp here for now and head out in the morning.”

  When the sun rose the next day, the two Titans were still safely trapped by the vines. Zeus sent Hermes to scout out the road to Olympus. Hermes returned while the Olympians were eating whatever food they’d had in their packs when they had fled the boat: bread and a little bit of cheese.

  “What did you see, Hermes?” Zeus asked.

  “The road to Mount Olympus is blocked,” Hermes reported. “There’s a big wave of Cronies—about fifty or so, I’d say. Then a little farther down there are five big Titan guys. Behind them are two even bigger Titans. One keeps setting fire to everything.”

  “Sounds like Hyperion,” Zeus remarked. “He used to be Cronus’s second-in-command.”

  “Didn’t Cronus banish Hyperion after we beat him?” Hera asked.

  Zeus nodded. “Yeah, but Cronus probably realized that he needed Hyperion’s help to defeat us.”

  “The other big guy was a big band of wind with wings, and snakes instead of legs,” Hermes added. “He was blowing stuff around with his stinky breath. I didn’t get too close, but, boy, was it gross!”

  “That’s Typhon,” Apollo said. “I was his prisoner for a while. He is a big bag of wind!”

  “Is that all?” Zeus asked.

  Hermes nodded. “Past Hyperion and Typhon is the palace on top of Mount Olympus,” he said. “I couldn’t see Cronus.”

  “What about the dragon that I heard about?” Ron asked. “It’s supposed to be enormous!”

  Hermes shook his head. “Maybe it’s inside the palace? I didn’t see it.”

  Hera folded her arms across her chest and looked at Zeus. “Now would be a good time to hear your plan, don’t you think?”

  Zeus almost snapped back at Hera but stopped just in time. She was right—they did need a plan. But he had been trying too hard to think of one all by himself. He remembered what his mom, Rhea, had told him, that he didn’t always have to do things by himself.

  He looked at Hera. “Maybe you can help me come up with a plan,” he said. He looked at the others. “Maybe you all can.”

  The Olympians and Ron gathered around him in a circle. Zeus picked up a stick, crouched down, and drew a line in the sandy earth.

  “The first wave is Cronies,” he began. “Apollo and Dionysus, you guys got rid of a whole Crony army by combining your magic songs. So we’ll put you on the front line.”

  “They’ll need a few of us who can protect them if the Cronies attack,” Hestia said. “I’ll do it.”

  “And I’ll use my slingshot,” Demeter offered.

  Zeus nodded. “Okay. That’s you four,” he said. He drew another line. “Next, Hermes said there were five big Titan guys.”

  “That could be Iapetos, my dad—I mean, the guy who kidnapped me—and my four brothers. I mean, his four sons,” Ares said. “They’re mostly just big and strong. But I have my spear now. I can take them.” He shook his spear to emphasize his point.

  “You’ll need help,” Zeus said.

  “I’ll do it!” Poseidon offered.

  “No,” Hera said. “We’ll need your water power to cool down Hyperion.”

  Zeus nodded. “Smart thinking,” he said, and Hera’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the compliment. Zeus started drawing more lines in the dirt. “Let’s match our powers with the powers of the Titans. Aphrodite, you stick with Poseidon and take down Hyperion.”

  “Okay,” she said, smiling at Poseidon.

  “Artemis and Hermes, you two can focus on Typhon,” Zeus went on. “And, Hephaestus, you stick with Ares.”

  “What?” Hephaestus cried, and Ares glared at Zeus. “Why?”

  “Because I’ve seen what your cane can do,” Zeus replied. “And combined with Ares’s spear, you two should be unstoppable.”

  The two boys frowned, but they didn’t argue with that.

  “Hera, Athena, and Hades, you three will stick with me, and we’ll try to press through and get to the palace,” he said. “If the dragon is there, we’ll combine our magic and try to take it down.”

  “And then what?” Hera asked.

  “And then the fourteen of us will face Cronus together,” Zeus said. “That’s how it has to be.”

  “What about me?” Ron asked. “What can I do?”

  “I’d like you to stay back here and guard Mnemosyne and Eris,” Zeus said.

  “But I can fight!” Ron protested.

  Zeus nodded. “I know. But we’re all basically immortal, and since you’re not . . .”

  “You’ll be safer here,” Hera finished. “And if they get out, or if anyone else comes toward Olympus, you can fly on Pegasus and warn us. You are our official lookout!”

  Ron seemed to be satisfied with that.

  “The Goat Guys will stay with you,” Dionysus added. “I don’t want anything to happen to my band.”

  Zeus turned to Hera. “You’ll be my second-in-command,” he said. “If anything happens to me, the others need to follow you.”

  He looked at the other Olympians. “Got that?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Nothing’s going to happen to you,” Hera insisted, and for the first time he could hear in her voice how much his sister cared for him. He smiled at her.

  “Yeah, Cronus is going down!” Ares whooped.

  “All right. Let’s get packed up,” Zeus said. Then he held out his right arm, and the others did the same, piling their hands on top of one another.

  “This is it,” Zeus said. “Today is the day we defeat the Titans and King Cronus. Today is the day we take Mount Olympus. Today is the day we fulfill our destiny. Is everybody ready?”

  “Ready!” they shouted.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Battle Begins

  The fourteen Olympians marched off on the road to Mount Olympus. Apollo, Dionysus, Hera, and Hestia walked at the front of the group, with Zeus and Demeter right behind them. Apollo and Dionysus were talking and singing.

  “The Cronies all disappeared,” Apollo sang. “Then they . . . What rhymes with ‘disappeared’?”

  “Um . . . ‘weird’?” Dionysus replied. “ ‘Feared’?”

  Apollo nodded. “ ‘Feared.’ That might work.”

  Hera stared at them. “What are you two doing?” she asked.

  “We’re getting a song ready for when we meet the Cronies,” Apollo replied. “We want to be prepared.”

  Zeus was surprised to hear that. Usually Apollo made up songs on the spur of the moment. If he was thinking up his lyrics before the battle, he was really taking this seriously.

  Hera nodded. “Good,” she said. “Carry on.”

  Zeus smiled. Hera was taking her job as second-in-command seriously too.

  They’d been walking for about an hour when the tall peak of Mount Olympus appeared in the distance. Above the peak Cronus’s glittering gold-and-marble temple on the palace grounds sat on top of thick, fluffy white clouds.

  Zeus stopped. “There it is,” he said. “The future home of the Olympians.”

  The others stopped and stared.

  “Wow, that’s really high,” Ares remarked. “I don’t think I could live all the way up there.”

  “It won’t be my home,” Hades said. “I’ll be in the Underworld.”

  “And I’ll be in the sea, I guess,” Poseidon said.

  Everyone was quiet for a minute. Finally Hera spoke up.

  “Listen, Pythia says our destiny is to defeat Cronus,” she reminded them. “So that’s what we’ve gotta do. We can work out living arrangements later.”

  Everyone nodded and kept walking. They crested the top of a small hill.

  “I think it’s showtime,” Apollo said,
pointing down.

  A large group of Cronies was gathered at the bottom of the hill. The thickly muscled half-giants all wore loincloths and were carrying spears.

  “Apollo, Dionysus, Hestia, charge up!” Zeus commanded.

  Apollo held up his lyre. Dionysus held up his crown of ivy. Hestia held up her torch. The three Olympians touched their magical objects together.

  Zap! Clink! Zing!

  A bright light exploded as the objects touched. For a few minutes the objects would be supercharged.

  And just in time. When the objects charged up, the Cronies spotted the bright light.

  “Oh good. Snack time!” one of them yelled.

  With a loud cry the wall of Cronies charged up the hill.

  “First wave, attack!” Zeus yelled.

  Demeter shot a rock from her slingshot at the Cronies.

  Whack! It hit one of the Cronies smack in the middle of the forehead. He fell forward.

  Hestia aimed her torch at the Cronies. Fireballs rained down on them and landed at their feet.

  “Hit it, Dionysus!” Apollo called out.

  Dionysus began to sing. “Cronies, hear my song! Everybody stop and listen to Apollo. Oh yeah!”

  Amped up with extra power, Dionysus’s voice carried over the attacking Cronies. They all stopped moving.

  Then Apollo sang, “What happened at the battle was just like magic! The Cronies disappeared, but it wasn’t tragic. One by one they popped far away. Where they went, nobody can say!”

  Poof ! The nearest Crony vanished into thin air.

  “Moldy mackerels! They’re vanishing!” Poseidon cried.

  Then poof ! Another one disappeared.

  Apollo kept singing the song. Hestia looked at Zeus.

  “Keep going!” she yelled. “We’ve got this!”

  Zeus nodded and motioned for the other Olympians to follow him. They ran down the hill, around the Crony army. Looking behind him, Zeus saw the Cronies continuing to disappear one by one.

  The road continued through a wooded area and emerged onto a field. When the group ran out onto the grass, they found five Titans waiting for them. The tallest one had a bushy brown beard streaked with white. He pointed at Ares.

  “Slug! You are in so much trouble!” he yelled. “Come on over here, Son, so me and your brothers can punish you for what you did.”

  “I’m not your son, Iapetos, and they are not my brothers!” Ares yelled back. “You kidnapped me when I was a baby, remember? Now I’m with the Olympians, where I belong!”

  “Why would you want to stick with a bunch of puny losers?” asked one of the Titans. Zeus remembered his name—Atlas.

  Hephaestus stepped forward, walking with his skull-tipped cane. “Who are you calling a loser, you . . . loser!” he yelled.

  Atlas laughed. “That’s big talk, coming from a little pipsqueak,” he scoffed, and Hephaestus’s eyes narrowed.

  “Ignore that kid. Get me Slug!” Iapetos demanded.

  His four sons lunged forward. Ares stood, frozen, with a look of fear in his eyes. Seeing the five Titans, who had been so horrible to him when he was growing up, was definitely no fun for Ares. And Zeus could tell that Ares needed some help.

  “Bolt, large!” Zeus cried, knowing he would have to protect Ares. But before he could do anything else, he saw Hephaestus’s cane go flying through the air.

  Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack! The cane hit each of the four brothers, knocking them backward. After the last brother was hit, the cane zoomed back to Hephaestus’s hand.

  Ares snapped out of his trance.

  “Thanks,” he said gratefully.

  “I didn’t do it for you,” Hephaestus grumbled. “Well, maybe a little bit.”

  Ares and Hephaestus touched their magical weapons together and supercharged them as the four Titans struggled to their feet. Ares looked at Zeus with new confidence.

  “Keep going!” he yelled. “We got this!”

  “Are you sure?” Zeus asked. He glanced nervously over at the five Titans, who were back on their feet and looking at Ares with fury in their eyes.

  “Sure!” Ares said, holding up his glowing spear. “And I can call in backup too.”

  Ares whistled, a loud piercing cry that carried over the hills. He used it to call for the Stymphalian birds. They weren’t just any kind of bird; they were fierce and ready to fight. They were made of metal, and their poo was not just smelly—it was dangerous!

  Hera tugged on Zeus’s sleeve. “We’d better get out of here before the poison poop starts falling.”

  Zeus nodded and motioned for the remaining Olympians to follow, and they ran across the field. The last thing Zeus saw was Ares and Hephaestus giving each other a high five before they charged toward Iapetos and his sons. In the distance Zeus could hear the cry of the battle birds.

  “This is where I saw the big blowhard guy and the fire guy,” Hermes remarked as they climbed up another hill. “Right over this—whoaaaaaaa!”

  A huge fireball exploded at his feet, but he jumped up in time to avoid it, and then hovered over the flames with his winged sandals.

  “It’s Hyperion!” Zeus yelled. “Poseidon! Aphrodite!”

  “Trident, long!” Poseidon yelled. He held up his trident, and Aphrodite held up her golden apple, and the two magical objects charged up with extra power. A bright light exploded from them as Hyperion rushed up the hill.

  The big Titan’s body glowed like the sun. His red hair streamed behind him like the flames of a fire. A gold crown glittered on his head.

  “Olympians! Bet you can’t take the heat!” he growled. He opened his palm, and another fireball began to form.

  Aphrodite giggled. “Wow, that’s pretty bright,” she agreed. “But I have something brighter.”

  She held out her right hand, with the golden apple in her palm. A bright beam of light shone from it and hit Hyperion directly in the eyes.

  “Hey, stop that!” the Titan cried. “I can’t see!”

  Frantic, he swatted at the light in front of his eyes.

  Poseidon charged toward him. “You think you’re so hot, but you’re not!” he cried. “Time to cool down!”

  Poseidon pointed his trident at Hyperion, and a wave of water shot from it, dousing the Titan.

  “Where are you, you shrimpy brat?” Hyperion sputtered, fuming. “I’ll fry you to a crisp!”

  Poseidon blasted Hyperion with another wave of water, and Zeus started to feel confident.

  “We are kicking Titan butt!” he yelled. “Hera, Hades, Athena, Hermes, Artemis, let’s keep going! We are going to—”

  WHOOSH!

  A huge wind swept up the hill, knocking the six Olympians off their feet!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  And Then There Were Three

  Typhon!” Zeus yelled, jumping back up.

  Another terrible Titan slithered toward them. He had a craggy face with dark eyes and a shaggy black beard. Two wings covered with shiny black feathers grew from his muscled back. Instead of legs the lower half of his body was made up of a tangle of giant, living snakes.

  “That is one ugly dude,” Hermes remarked. He looked at Artemis. “He’s ours, right?”

  She nodded and held up her gold bow and the quiver of silver arrows. Hermes held up his staff, a golden rod with two wings at the top and snakes wrapped around it.

  Boom! Light exploded as their weapons supercharged.

  “Can’t you turn him into a bird or something?” Artemis asked.

  Hermes nodded. “I can if you distract him.”

  Artemis grinned. “No problem!” she said, and she ran toward Typhon, shooting arrows at supersonic speed.

  “Hey! Quit it! Stop that!” Typhon bellowed, trying to bat the arrows away with his enormous arms. Some of the arrows landed in his arms and chest.

  Hermes lifted off and started to fly over Typhon. Zeus knew that Hermes’s staff contained powerful magic. Zeus had no doubt that Hermes and Artemis could take on Typhon. He turned to Hades
.

  “Call up your chariot,” he said. “Start bringing the fallen Titans to Tartarus. Then bring all the Olympians up to meet us at the temple.”

  “Will do, Bro!” Hades replied. He clapped his hands. “Chariot, appear!”

  The swirling portal opened, and Hades’s four horses flew out of it, pulling the chariot. Hades hopped on.

  “See you soon!” he said, and then the chariot zipped away.

  Now only Zeus, Hera, and Athena were left. They marched toward Mount Olympus. At the foot of the mountain Zeus stopped.

  “Hera, send your feather to look ahead,” Zeus said.

  Hera held up a peacock feather—her magical object—and began to rhyme. It was how the magic in the feather worked, kind of like Apollo’s lyre.

  “Feather, up the mountain fly. Tell us what you spy with your eye!” she commanded.

  The feather disappeared from her hand and flew away, up Mount Olympus. Zeus knew that the feather would return in a few minutes, and Hera would look into its eye and see a vision of exactly what the feather had seen.

  Hera turned to Zeus.

  “Is that why you made me your second-in command?” she asked. “Just so my feather could scout for you?”

  Athena piped up. “I’m not sure why you brought me this far either,” she said. “My aegis won’t work against Cronus.”

  “But you always know what to do with your Thread of Cleverness,” Zeus said, speaking of Athena’s other magical object. “And you’re smart. And brave.”

  He turned to Hera. “Just like you. You might not have a fancy weapon, but from the start you’ve been the bravest Olympian.”

  Hera blushed a little. “Well, thanks, Boltbrain,” she said. “You can be smart too, when you want to be. And brave.”

  Athena started to pull the magical thread between her fingers. “If I really were smart, I’d be trying to figure out how to use the Thread of Cleverness to fight Cronus. Or that dragon Ron keeps talking about.”

  She scanned the ground and then picked up a long stick. Next she searched until she found a round, flat rock. She placed the two next to each other.

  “This isn’t exactly the best time for making crafts,” Hera pointed out.