The column’s disappeared into the ceiling. They were hollow, and they contained something…
Something with giant human feet, and hairy legs.
As the pillars continued to rise, more of the three giant humans were shown. They were just normal humans from back in the Stone Age. The cavemen style clothes, huge stubby fingers, big muscular biceps, large round faces, and one, giant, green eye. A normal hum-
One eye?
One green eye?
“Cyclopes!” Hollie yelled.
A humungous roar shook the temple and the five ring-bearers split up, each hiding behind one of the many columns.
Jay’s heart beat rocketed, he was still a beginner with Greek mythology but he knew who the Cyclopes were, and as far as he knew, they weren’t friendly creatures.
His hands were gripped tightly to the column he hid behind, his hand clutched at his sword in his belt and his shield measly packed behind his back.
ROARRR!
“The amount of time I’ve waited,” one of the Cyclopes growled.
“So, so hungry, for meat,” another one yawned.
“Well anyone here to eat?” The deepest voice roared.
“We have great noses, smell people a mile away,” the one told.
“Especially one’s with magic, they taste better too,” a quieter growl called.
Silence covered the temple-like room for one antagonising minute, the five hearts of five terrified youths could be heard, every, single, beat…
“HELP, they‘ve got me,” Claire screamed.
They all came out of hiding, even Claire.
‘Wait what?’
“I’m here,” Claire said, confused.
“Oh hello there,” the deep voiced one introduced, “we’re the youngest Cyclopes.”
“Have a slice.” Hollie threw one of her two knives at the middle Cyclops.
“Whoa,” the Cyclops reached out, caught the knife, and then slowly bent it in two, “that’s no way to greet your semi-relative. First we say hello…Then we play.”
“I guess when he says play, he doesn’t mean a game of snakes and ladders?” Broudie whispered.
ROAR!
“Don’t listen to anybody, even ourselves.” Hollie raced away from the group and lead one of the Cyclopes away.
“C’mon I’ll help you.” Jordan pulled Jay behind one of the pillars.
The dreaded thuds of giant Cyclopes feet shook the ground, each one getting louder, and louder.
“Fee, fy, foe,” The Cyclops crept towards them then leaped into view, “Hello there.”
“Duck,” Jordan ordered, uncapping his sword, swinging it round the pillar and slicing a cut in the Cyclops’ chest.
The Cyclops gasped from shock then swung his fist down at Jay, who rolled out of the way.
Jordan lifted him to his feet and Jay, too, uncapped his sword and shield.
“Step back Jord. Activate arrows!” Jay pushed Jordan behind him and held out his shield.
A hole in the centre of the shield opened up and a fire tipped arrow erupted from it. Shooting from the shield were flame covered arrows, darting at the Cyclops continuously like a machine gun.
But the Cyclops caught the arrows stupidly. ‘Who would catch a fire tipped arrow, these Cyclops must be so dumb?’ Jay thought to himself.
The monster opened up his clenched fist and he wasn’t harmed by the fire at all.
“Do some research, we can’t be harmed by fire. Ha,” the Cyclops chuckled again.
“Nice.” Jordan nodded at Jay, stepping in front and swinging again with his shining blade.
“Maybe.” Jay thrust the shield forward, and another arrow erupted from it, shooting through the air and just catching the Cyclops on the ear.
“Votaldea,” Jordan chanted, scooping the Cyclops up into the air. The giant fell almost immediately from his enormous weight.
“Aargh,” The Cyclops roared, landing on the floor and then charging at them.
“Hortalia,” Jay yelled, stunning the Cyclops and making him unbalanced and dizzy, his one eye swirling in its socket.
He straightened himself then started pulling down his fists continuingly, one after another.
Jay and Jordan leapt from side to side, not able to strike at all with their weapons.
“Jay, go round the back,” Jordan whispered to him as the Cyclops pounded with one of his meaty fists again.
Jay did what he said and hid behind a nearby column. He held his sword against his cheek and he breathed slowly on the blade. He loosened his grip on the hilt and shivered in preparation, ready to swing.
He jumped behind the Cyclops and pulled back his sword. He was about to strike when Jordan shouted and the Cyclops turned round.
The creature had Jordan in his hand, holding him tight, upside down, and Jordan’s weapon was lying on the floor beneath him.
“Any last words you want to say to your dear friend,” the Cyclops laughed, lifting him up in the air.
“No!” Jay began slicing the air between him and the Cyclops, edging closer and making the Cyclops step back.
“Ugh,” the Cyclops groaned, knocking the sword and shield out of Jay’s hand and sweeping him off his feet. “And you thought you could beat us?”
“Bring them here, Ganymus,” the deep voiced Cyclops called.
Jay looked up and saw that the Cyclops was holding some more of his friends.
“Claire, Broudie!” Jordan shouted.
“Where’s Hollie?” Broudie asked, hanging upside down beside their Cyclops’ dirty thigh.
“Yes I knew the Cyclops Polyphemus. We used to play together and then when we got older, I used to come round and we’d have lamb for tea,” Hollie told the other Cyclops happily.
“Really, the Polyphemus. The king of the Cyclopes, and the ultimate herder?”
“Yes Horomas, I knew him well,” Hollie smiled.
“What are you doing Hollie?” Claire questioned.
“Oh shut up, I’m with family now, they know of Polyphemus,” Hollie sneered.
“What?” Jay was confused.
“Oh shut up all of you, soon I and the Cyclopes shall return to the island with you as our snack for the way,” she laughed and so did Horomas.
“What is this Horomas?” The deep voiced one asked.
“Oh Carlogin, Hollie here knows the famous Polyphemus well. She is going to help us get back,” Horomas said excitedly in a playful, excited tone which didn’t match his appearance.
“Her name is Hollie? That is not Greek.” Carlogin shook his head suspiciously.
“No, my real name is, is ferg-imus,” Hollie replied.
The Cyclops raised his eyes.
“You know, forget your name after a while of getting used to this stupid name, Hollie,” she chuckled.
“Then why are you here?” Carlogin asked.
“He sent me, he called in my dreams and told me that, that I must retrieve all of his fellow Cyclopes, he told me where I had to find you,” Hollie answered.
“Then what are you doing with these, these mortals?” Carlogin looked down at Broudie and Claire, disgusted.
“I could not get here by myself, oh how stupid they were to take me on.” All of the Cyclopes laughed and Carlogin stepped up to shake Hollie’s hand.
“So how do we get out of here then?” Horomas asked.
“Oh, first we need to fill our stomachs, pass me the mortals, I’ll boil ‘em up,” Hollie smirked, and, as the Cyclops turned away, she gave a cheeky wink to Jay.
“Here ya go.” Ganymus and Carlogin handed Hollie her mates, dumping them on the floor in a pile.
Jay fell in a clump beside Hollie, lightheaded from being held upside down.
“Go and fetch them swords, don’t want them thinking up any escape plans,” she laughed again.
Horomas and Ganymus raced over to the weapons which were lying on the floor.
“Alovium.” Hollie reached out and then pulled her hand back to her chest.
&
nbsp; Both Jordan and Jay’s swords levitated off the ground then pierced through two of the Cyclopes.
They erupted into pieces then disappeared beneath the ground.
“Wha-?” Ganymus turned to meet Broudie’s blade, which Broudie had somehow retrieved.
The Cyclops turned to dust, and shot through the ground too.
“Well I couldn’t let you take all the credit, could I?” Broudie smiled.
“What was that all about?” Claire questioned.
“Well they may have strength, but they aren’t exactly the cleverest of the bunch,” Hollie said.
“That was epic!” Jay nodded, retrieving his shield and taking his sword back off Jordan. Jay raised the blade to inspect the blood that dripped down towards the hilt. He gave it a disgusted look then noticed that the blood was disappearing.
“Thanks!” Hollie held his shoulder and walked him over towards the columns as he pocketed his sword.
“Now where do we go?” Jordan questioned.
“The centre,” Hollie told easily, strolling over to the three pillars. She climbed in between them and stood in preparation.
“What now?” Jordan pondered.
“I go,” Hollie answered. A light shone from a spot in the ceiling above Hollie, and she disintegrated into light.
“I guess that was meant to happen?” Claire questioned.
“Yep, me next.” Broudie pushed his way into the centre, and he too dissolved into light.
“Go on Jay.” Jordan ushered him between the pillars.
“Will it hurt?” Jay asked worryingly.
“Not really, just a bit like being thrown off a cliff, ha.”
“What?”
“Don’t wor-”
Jordan’s sentence was cut short, as the light that had appeared above both Hollie’s and Broudie’s head, now shone above Jay’s. He felt the floor beneath him disappear, then the light got brighter, eventually blinding his sight.
He raised his hands, which had started tingling, and saw that they were crumbling to pieces, even though he felt they were still attached.
It had to be the creepiest and scariest feeling he’d felt in his whole life.
Then suddenly an enormous amount of pressure shot from beneath him, and he closed his eyes, rocketing into more white light. The sound of gale force winds bulged in his head, making his mind blank and giving him the feeling of complete calmness.
Then the light died down, he opened his eyes, and a floor he stood on once again.
He looked in front and he was in a small, round, cylindrical room, with numerous exits. Black doorways were placed in front, behind, to the left and to the right of him. All dark and gloomy inside.
“Jay’s here,” Broudie informed, slapping Jay on the back.
“Oh, eh, where is here?” Jay questioned.
“Still in the temple, which you could say is a good thing or a bad thing. Depends how you look at it,” Broudie replied.
Jay was about to turn around when Hollie shouted at him,
“Don’t move!”
“Why can’t he move, I’m moving?” Broudie asked.
“Because our next direction is right and we don’t know where right is,” Hollie said.
“Yeah we do it’s there.” Jay pointed to his right at one of the doorways.
“To you it’s there yes, but to Broudie it’s that one.” Hollie pointed to the doorway behind Jay.
“What?”
“I’m trying to see if we all face the same direction, and if we do, then we will know which one is right,” Hollie told.
“Hi guys, did I frighten you Jay?” Jordan laughed, appearing beside Jay.
“Not then, but before. Look Hol, he’s facing the same way.” Jay pointed out.
“Yep, I think we know which way were going,” Hollie said.
“ROTATION,” the deep voice that they had heard previously called once again.
“Rotation? What’s that supposed to mean?” Broudie pondered.
His question was answered when the four doors started moving, first rising up the walls a few metres then moving quickly around the circular walls, mixing themselves up. Like something out of an illusionist act, the doors shuffled around at a speed, zooming around giving Jay a headache.
They then slowed down and sat once again, at four positions, all equal distance from each other.
“Where’s right now?” Jay looked around him, still not moving from his position.
Then Claire broke the silence, emerging as a white light.
“What do we do in here then?” she said, oblivious to what had happened. “Did I say something?” she added, a moment of silence later.
“No, you didn’t.” Hollie looked straight at her, then at the door to Claire’s right. “You’re standing in a different position to everyone else, because, because they shuffled the doorways. And the teleport system must always enter people into the room facing the same doorway,” Hollie talked to herself.
“Now I’m confused, can someone tell me what’s going on?” Claire insisted.
“The doors move around, and Hollie’s trying to work out which door we have to go through,” Jordan answered.
“So we need to go through that door,” Hollie concluded, pointing to the one to the right of Claire.
She ran to the doorway, and then when she was a ft. away from it, the deep voice cried out,
“ROTATION!”
“No.” Hollie leaped forward but missed the door, and instead, hit the very hard, rock wall.
“Keep your eye on the door,” Jordan shouted out, Hollie groaning, as she lifted herself to her feet.
The doors levitated three metres above the floor and then began to shuffle round. Jay locked both his eyes onto the blank doorway, and followed it.
The doorway sped round the room time after time, circling the other doors as it passed them, and trying to lose his fixed stare.
Four heads shot robotically round the room, as the doors continued to mix up.
Then they slowed down and the doorways came to a stop. Hollie stood right next to one, holding her head in pain.
“It’s that one.” Claire pointed to the one to the right of Hollie, the same one Jay thought it was.
“No it’s this one,” Jordan said, pointing at the one to the left of the one Claire and Jay thought it was.
“No it’s definitely that one Jord,” Broudie told.
“Look, let’s just go for the one most people thought it was.” Hollie declared stumbling over towards the one black doorway.
“C’mon Jord.” Claire, Jay and Broudie all ran over to the door.
Then, just like when Hollie ran for the door the first time, the deep voice cried out,
“ROTATION!”
Claire reached with her one hand, touched the ledge of the door, but couldn’t grab hold of it. They sighed, as the doors once again, rose from the floor.
“Everyone stand underneath a door, I’ll stand in the middle, and, and, KEEP AN EYE ON THAT DOOR!” Hollie screamed, racing to the middle.
Jay took his place under the door they were trying to catch, while Jordan, Claire and Broudie ran to the other three.
The doorways then started shuffling once again, zooming round the circular walls like bees.
They dived up and down for a lot longer than before, then eventually slowed down.
“Broudie, it’s the one above you,” Hollie told, as the doorways gradually floated to the ground.
She ran over to Broudie and signalled the rest to follow. So Jay, Claire, and Jordan sprinted across as well.
Broudie turned to face the wall and then started jumping up and down, trying to reach for the door.
“ROTATION!”
He caught the ledge, and suddenly the doors rocketed up to the top of the room, before they’d even touched ground again.
“BROUDIE! HOLD ON!” Hollie yelled.
“As if I wouldn’t,” he muttered.
Hollie, Jay, Claire and Jordan stood in the centre
of the room whilst the doorways began to shuffle again.
Broudie swung round the room with only one hand grasped on the doorway, as it spun him like a rag doll around the rooms.
The rest on the floor stood in silence, following Broudie’s door, no eyes lay on anything else.
“Guys I can’t,” Broudie cried, as one of his finger unhooked from the door.
“You can Broudie, just hold on, I think it’s slowing down,” Jordan called up. Then, to Jordan’s statement, the doors somehow thankfully came to a stop.
“See you’ll lower down now,” Claire encouraged.
Suddenly the doors dropped to ground level and Broudie forward rolled into the doorway, disappearing into gloominess.
“I’m getting in this one,” Hollie demanded, “relacian formalios.”
She shot across the ground like a bullet and then she, too, disappeared into darkness.
“C’mon.” Jordan hurried forward, “relacian formalios.” He zoomed through the doorway, leaving Claire and Jay.
“Hokvalmia.” Claire shone white and flew slowly and elegantly towards the doorway. She was a metre away when the door shot up once again,
“ROTATION!”
Jay knew what he had to do.
“Relacian formalios.” His feet erupted into flames then he sped along the ground.
He stretched out his hand, grabbed the falling dove that had hit the wall head on, then immediately turned upwards and into the dark doorway.
When darkness engulfed them, Jay let go of Claire, and then extinguished the flames that were still burning around his feet, the only thing alight in the darkness.
Then a bright light chased out the pitch black and Jay took a look around to see where he was.
He was in an enormous chamber, standing on a platform surrounded with sparkling turquoise water. In the centre of the platform was a staircase that spiralled around the hexagonal chamber. It lead up to the top, which was covered in thick muggy fog.
How they’d gone from a doorway to a huge room, Jay had no clue.
“Up is the way,” Hollie declared.
“Can we change camp? This place is awesome, I am totally gonna come back here,” Broudie said.
“So we go up that staircase then?” Jay questioned, ignoring Broudie’s comment.
“There’s something fishy round here, literally fishy,” Hollie replied.
“I say we don’t use the stairs and just fly up there,” Jordan suggested.
“C’mon then, no time to waste. Relacian formalios,” Hollie chirped.
She didn’t move.
Then suddenly a spark of electricity shot from one of the walls of the chamber.
It struck Hollie and stunned her.
She was thrown into the air and landed in a heap on the hard marble platform.
Everyone stood in silence, as Hollie groaned in a pile on the floor.
“What was that?” Jordan pondered.
“Never mind what was it, is Hollie ok?” Claire shook her head and ran over to Hollie.
Jay, Jordan and Broudie followed.
Hollie lay in a ball, her hands wrapped round her leg.
“Are you alright?” Claire asked.
“I, my leg.”
“Is it broken?” Claire questioned.
“No, I can walk.” Hollie lifted herself into a sitting position, then got helped up to her feet.
“What happened there then?” Jay pondered.
“Its magic proof, every time you, ah, use a spell, it electrocutes you,” Hollie said.
“That’s not very nice,” Jordan said.
“C’mon then, I guess were taking the stairs.” Broudie headed off towards the staircase with everyone else in pursuit. After Hollie had hobbled over, they began the, what looked like, mile walk.
“They don’t exactly make it hard for you here,” Jay thought.
“Well, it’s the same as in that first room, there was nothing there that could endanger us,” Claire told.
“I was actually being sarcastic.”
They strode upwards, around the winding corners and up the uneven steps.
They reached about a quarter of the way up when they heard a rumbling.
“I hope that was someone’s belly,” Broudie said, calmly continuing up the stairs.
“Look.” Jordan pointed to their left.
The water was rising like a water feature, and then tumbling back down.
“It’s beautiful,” Claire said.
“Everything’s beautiful to you. I tell you what, if a garbage heap was in the shape of a flower you‘d like it.” Broudie shook his head.
“Look there’s more.” Jay pointed out.
The water fountains were beautiful and quite elegant, but what didn’t make sense to Jay was that there was no noise as the water regained its source.
Just silent splashing. That meant only one thing…magic.
“I think there’s something wrong guys. That water isn’t like normal water. I can feel something flowing through it. Something, something dangerous,” Hollie warned, as Claire helped her up another few steps.
“Hollie, it’s just water,” Broudie laughed.
“No it’s definitely not, it’s got something in it. We need to get a move on. I think it’s getting stronger.” Hollie hurried along.
Then suddenly the fountains stopped and there was an even bigger rumble.
“DESTROY ALL TRESPASSERS!” The deep voice called.
“Gods I wish that blimming person would shut up, every time he says something, something bad happens,” Broudie huffed.
“Yep, and I don’t think it’s gonna change here, look!” Claire shivered.
Sliding into a hot death.
(Chapter 16)