They reached the temple, stomachs rumbling.
“Cannot wait.” Jay rubbed his hands together eagerly as they approached the table.
“We haven’t got enough chairs,” Claire sighed.
“Now we have.” Hecate extended the table and added three more chairs, one double the size, with just a flick of a hand. It was amazing her power.
“Three?” Jordan pondered.
“Porseus is aloud, no?” Hecate asked.
“Yeah as long as he has manners,” Jay chuckled to himself, as they each took their seats at the table.
“Oh, the plates, I remember these. Hard work were these,” Hecate told.
“You made them?” Lochlan questioned.
“Hephaestus did, sneakily without Zeus seeing,” Hecate whispered.
Jay thought about how he might be able to create something like these plates in his new workshop, he hadn’t even seen it yet. Would it be like a full-functioning factory? Or was he asking too much?
“Lovely,” Hecate announced, a selection of cheese, berries and bread appeared on her plate beside two MilkyWay-like bars.
“Ambrosia if you’re wondering,” Hecate told, cutting one of the bars with her knife, topping it with a berry, and eating it with a super straight back utter snobbishness.
“Ambrosia?” Jay questioned.
“Food of the gods,” Amy answered.
Jay looked down at his plate. He hadn’t had a substantial meal in days.
He focussed hard and whispered the spell, a delicious curry appearing before him. The rice was moulded into the shape of a tree and the curry surrounded it like a swamp. The exotic spices wafted up into his nose.
He ate the meal slowly, savouring every mouthful. He had missed a meal today and he needed to replace it.
After they finished their meals, Porseus eating a small dollop of meat and a tiny carrot which he left, unsurprisingly, Mormo, Hecate and Porseus left the table and strolled off into the guest room, the one Jay had never seen before.
The ring bearers also left the table seconds later and retired to their huts.
“Well, busy day,” Bobby said.
“Would talk, but cant.” Hollie staggered into her dorm. It was well into night when Jay finally went to sleep in his cosy hut of red and yellow. The fire burned in the fireplace as he closed his eyes.
The next morning Jay was straight out of bed really early, knowing that Hecate was going to dig out a path through to the rest of the island, and that he would be able to see his new workshop!
He jumped out of bed and put on some clothes. He whizzed into the hall, looking away from the under stair doorway in case he got tempted, and got himself some breakfast using his supermarket fridge.
Then, Jay walked slowly over to the door under the stairs, standing in a daze for a moment, pondering what it was going to be like.
He reached out with his hand, and flicked the switch, which lit up the gaps around the door.
Then he grasped the handle. He slowly turned it till it clicked, and then opened the door steadily.
He looked down to see a proper concrete floor, then closed his eyes, ducked his head, and walked into his dream.
Opening his eyes, he smiled with delight.
The workshop was about two times the size of the insides of the hut. There were nine chandeliers of pure gold, in rows of three, hanging beautifully off the ceiling. There was a twenty five ft. square of open space at the far end of the room, a small squashed cylinder sat in the centre like a podium. Behind the large area were three doors.
Along each side of the room were work benches, above them, hundreds of shelves. There was another giant worktop in the centre, directly in front of him. A large dent was made in one of the tops, a large lump on another.
The shelves and worktops were completely empty and sparkling clean. It was amazing, it even smelt of what it should have smelt of.
Jay raced down the one side of the room, running his hand along the worktop. He leapt on and off of the podium and then stared at the three doors.
What was inside them?
He paced over to the right door and turned the knob. He opened it up and a surge of heat hit him, and it must’ve been hot as it literally did hit him.
The light was blinding yellow, he could hardly see, but he could just make out some shelves on either side.
He shut the door exhausted, it must have been an oven. Then he strolled over to the middle door, and slowly opened it.
This room was a storage room; there were millions of shelves and tables, hooks and rails everywhere. The best bit was that they were partly full. Bits of scrap metal and plastic, pistons and wires were piled neatly in stacks, all assorted.
Jay was so excited that he ran over to one of the shelves, grabbed some scrap metal, and weirdly hugged it.
He stopped himself, laughed, and then sped out of the room so as he could check out the last door.
With another click he was blasted with a bitter chill. It was like opening an enormous freezer set at minus six thousand. His skin tingled and his eyes burned. He immediately shut the door and did a quick shiver-dance.
How cool could his life get? It started off so lame and boring, and now it was full of deadly fun, amazingly cool stuff everywhere. He had his own, fully functioning workshop, well, fully functioning soon anyway.
He felt so excited that he had to go and share it. He couldn’t wait to tell everyone. So he sprinted to the door the other side and closed it behind him. He opened his front door and jumped out into a lovely fresh summer morning.
The sun was shining beautifully in the sky, not a cloud was in sight. The birds, who probably had monkey tails and lion bodies, sang the morning chorus.
In fact, when he thought about it, he had never actually seen a bird at the hideout, only a nymph, which he didn’t exactly meet, and a nereid which had been smashed to pieces by tumbling rocks.
He’d got back to worrying about it again, all those unanswered questions.
Suddenly his excitement melted away and he began pondering in thought once again.
“Hi Jay, coming to find Hecate?” Bobby questioned.
“Oh, yeah I was,” Jay replied.
“You alright?” Bobby asked.
“Yeah.”
“You don’t look it.”
“I was just thinking about things.”
“Oh, well you coming then?”
Jay and Bobby strolled over towards the temple. They flew over the stream and across the field, Jay explaining his whole workshop to Bobby, who sounded genuinely interested.
“Well I’ll get you making me a bow and arrow, I’ll send you an order form,” Bobby laughed.
“Yeah I’ll put you on my list, I’ve got a long waiting queue, so many orders,” Jay chuckled as they walked into the temple.
“Well where do you think she is then?” Bobby thought.
“There,” Jay answered, pointing straight ahead of him.
Inside the main room sat Hecate, Mormo, Porseus and Amy, all in deep conversation.
“Yeah, well I don’t think I can stay much longer, I think I should go tomorrow,” Hecate told.
“Well you’re welcome to come and stay anytime.” Amy smiled, glancing round and noticing Bobby and Jay, who were stood in the hall.
“Hi guys, anyone else up yet?” Amy questioned.
“Morning all,” Hecate greeted.
“I’d like to say thanks for the workshop Hecate, it’s great,” Jay thanked.
“Yeah well I forgot to put any tools in there, but then I thought about it, and there isn’t really any need for them anyway,” Hecate replied.
“Well thanks.” Jay walked into the room and Hecate stood up.
“Got a lot to do today again then. It’s time to explore this place,” Hecate said, reaching out with her hand so as Porseus could climb up onto her shoulder.
“No one’s up, I don’t think,” Bobby told.
“I doubt it, they’ll all be well excited, an
d they’re probably on their way here now,” Amy corrected.
All five of them, if you count Mormo, six if you count Porseus, strolled out of the temple and back out into the morning breeze.
“See, I told you they’d be up.” Amy pointed out a large group of kids wondering through the fighting area.
“So where are we going to cut through then?” Hecate asked.
“You mean through the forest?” Jay pondered.
“Yes,” Hecate replied.
“I say we open up the forest there.” Bobby pointed to the back side of the fighting area.
“Yes, and that’s the closest way to get to the beach as well. Clever girl.” Hecate smiled.
“I always pick right,” Bobby said.
Hecate, Hollie, Bobby, Jay and Mormo swept over the stream to meet everyone else in a group at the one entrance to the fighting area.
“Morning all,” Hecate greeted.
“My potions lab is ace,” Liam blurted.
“It’s what?” Hecate asked.
“He says his potion lavatory is really good, we should know, he hasn’t shut up about it since we first seen him this morning,” Alice sighed.
“Jay hasn’t told you about his workshop yet either.” Bobby rolled her eyes.
“What’s it like?” Broudie questioned eagerly.
“Oh interested in his place then.” Liam shook his head.
They laughed.
“So we’re going to open up the forest today, explore the island,” Amy informed.
“Yeah, this island which Hecate hasn’t told us the name of,” Philippa added.
“I cannot tell you, it is not for me to say.” Hecate smiled.
“Let’s go then.” Amy announced and began trekking down the field.
Jay told of his workshop to the others and Liam told his sister and Amy about his lavatory.
They slipped through the fighting area’s trees and then stopped at the forest wall, ready to make the entrance to the rest of the island.
“So, this part of the forest is quite slim so it should be just a simple bit of manoeuvring, but then it might not be,” Hecate muttered turning back to face the trees.
“How about you just walk at them, they moved when we were on San Cristobal,” Hollie suggested.
“We don’t want to upset any nymphs do we, especially seems as you’ll have to put up with them yelling at you all the time,” Hecate chuckled.
She shook her shoulders and the dragon, Porseus, jumped down to the ground. She put her hands out front in a diving position and pulled them apart. As she did, the trees moved sideways, nudging other trees into a dense pack.
The trees groaned and wined as they were pushed closer together, the soil rumbling.
“What an earth are you doing?!” Shouted a tiny little voice.
Jay squinted his eyes, searching the trees.
“I’m up here.” The squeaky voice was tense and angry.
Jay looked up in the trees and spotted a small, fragile girl. Her skin was light green and she wore a dress made of leaves. Her ears were like elves and her hair was as brown as the branch she was sat on.
“Hello there.” Hecate walked up to her.
“What are you doing, trying to suffocate us?” The nymph screamed.
“Don’t worry little dryad, I am creating a path so as whenever we have to come through here, we won’t disturb you,” Hecate said nicely.
“Well how are we supposed to survive being so close to each other?!” The dryad yelled, swinging her feet.
“Give us a moment.” Hecate turned to face the bottom of the tree she was sat on.
“Off my tree you!” The dryad called down.
“How about this.” Hecate touched the bottom of the tree and the angry, elf-like nymph shut up.
Hecate pulled her finger off the bark and the little dryad blushed. Her hair went silky and wavy, her leaf dress suddenly blossomed with a tiny pink flower at the top. Her light green skin became less pale and she closed her eyes delightfully.
“Better?” Hecate asked.
“Much.” The dryad put her hands together, tilted her head to one side and vanished.
“So shall we move on?” Hecate moved into the woods, everyone staying close to her tail. Hecate had moved the first few trees either side so as they could just about fit a land rover through, so quite wide. She stopped at the trees again and did the same thing.
“Why did you call that nymph a dryad?” Liam asked.
“Because that’s what a dryad is, a tree nymph,” Lochlan answered.
“Yeah, I‘ll have to teach you how to bless them wont I? It‘s quite simple, all you have to do is touch the base of the tree and focus on trees blossoming and growing tall and strong. Then there‘s a spell as usual but you‘ll learn to do it without the spell once you‘ve practised. It’s great when you’re dealing with an angry nymph,” Hecate said.
“What’s the spell?” Jay asked.
“Wongarmiant.”
“So what about all the other nymphs?” Lochlan asked. “Won’t they get jealous of whatever you did?”
“Probably, but then that means that you’ll have to do it to all of them. They’ll all say how kind you are and then you’ll have some great allies,” Hecate said simply.
“Tiny elf people?” Jay pondered.
“They’re nasty. I correct myself, really nasty, when they know their forest is under attack.”
“It’s under attack?” Cameron looked around suspiciously.
“If it ever was, you’d be fine,” Hecate corrected.
Then she turned to face the trees and did the same thing, spreading the trees apart to reveal more and more of a path way. Every time she pulled apart the trees, one or two dryads would start yelling in a high pitched tone at them, then Hecate would do that thing and they’d disappear.
Six or seven dryads later, they found a couple sat beneath a tree.
There was a dryad with her evergreen skin and leafy dress, and then there was a man, a man with sharp goat-like ears poking out of a curly nest on his head. He was wearing nothing from the waist up, but from the waist down, he wore fury trousers.
On his feet he was wearing some shoes that looked a lot like goats feet, like hooves. They were sat under a large tree in front of them, both staring worriedly at Hecate.
“What do you think you’re doing?” The dryad leapt to her feet leaving the weird man and his fury trousers sat by himself.
“Sorry, we’re just making a pathway so as when we come through here, we won’t disturb you,” Hecate repeated rhythmically.
“Well you’ve disturbed me now.” The nymph crossed her arms angrily.
“Dear? Who are they?” The man asked.
“Oh, there them strange mortals from inside the tree circle. You know the ones that jump around with their swords and shields all day,” the nymph huffed.
“Hello satyr, Dionysus sends his regards,” Hecate told the…the satyr?
He wasn’t wearing fury trousers, his legs were the fury trousers. And the shoes were his feet.
He was a donkey from the waist down.
“Dionysus? Pan?” The satyr jumped to his feet, now showing his small donkey tail.
“Yes, the gods don’t forget you. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was going to your tree.” Hecate wondered past the nymph and touched her tree. As soon as she touched the trunk, the little nymph smiled joyfully and closed her eyes. She disappeared into nothing.
“Do you see Dionysus and Pan, the great gods?” The satyr questioned eagerly.
“Yes Vincent, I shall tell them, he may remember your great times thirty five uncle is the satyr who helped him as an infant. But we must be off.”
“I must bring all my satyr friends here, we can have a party, drinks all around.” The satyrs eyes lit up and he started trotting on the spot.
“A party, your whole life is a party, surrounded by drink silliness,” Hecate laughed pitifully.
“Parties are fun. We have party all nig
ht. Wait you are nice aren’t you, you like parties?”
“Yes Vincent.”
“You might be the nasty ones though, we might be dealing with the enemy.” Vincent started walking back behind the trees, tripping on a bramble bush.
“We aren’t the enemy Vincent, we are your friends,” Hecate told.
“How will I know? You could trick me,” Vincent bleated.
Hecate sighed and then pointed to the ground. A dust cloud whipped into existence and rose gradually.
Then it span its way back down to the floor leaving a musical instrument behind, floating elegantly as if it was bobbing in the sea.
“Reed pipes, you may have them as a gift. Go tell your friends that the people inside the tree circle are your friends and that you should always help them, for they will help you.” Hecate ordered.
“A true sign of the satyr gods, will do mam. Greetings to all.” The satyr jumped high into the air, grabbed the pipes and galloped off behind the trees, putting the instrument to his mouth and playing tunes on it as he scrambled away.
“Satyr?” Jay questioned, baffled by the scene.
“Oh, they’re harmless, just like a bit of partying really,” Hecate replied.
“Too much partying if you ask me, do things they shouldn’t,” Amy said.
“A nymph and a satyr?” Alice questioned.
“Yeah, they usually couple up,” Hecate answered. She turned back to the trees and carried on digging her way through.
About five minutes later they separated some trees that were swamped in fog (the same fog that blocked the sight of the rest of the island from inside the tree circle), to find an evergreen field. Flowers of white, yellow, purple and pink spurted from the ground.
Beyond the lumpy fields was a tranquil, glorious sight, the Mediterranean Sea.
There were no birds there and no animals as far as Jay could see. To the left he saw a large hill, at the top was something he recognised.
There was a small stream of water trickling down the hillside, disappearing behind some rocks just above the trees. It was the top of the water fall.
To the left there were more fields and there was a cove. Jay could just make out some sand inside the cove, shells littered the floor making it look like a sheet of white.
The last time Jay had been to the beach was when Hollie took them over to one of the islands in the Galapagos, all the tourists staring at them. This was much better, it was their own. They actually owned it!
“So, where do we start then?” Hecate asked, Porseus jumping off her shoulder and flying up into the air.
“The beach for sure,” Claire replied.
“Agreed,” Hollie said, taking in the scenery with her bulging eyes.
“Well you would agree wouldn’t you?” Bobby put in.
“You should have seen what she did when we were by the sea at the Galapagos Islands,” Jordan laughed.
“Yeah you told us Jord,” Alice said.
“Oh yeah.”
Hecate led them across the ankle high grass all the way to the beach, the landscape slowly declining as they veered closer to the thunderous beauty of the blanket of blue.
Exploring the cave.
(Chapter 22)