“I love the fresh sea breeze as the wave’s crash on the sand.” Hollie smiled dreamily.
“Who would have guessed?” Amy said sarcastically.
“You know how long it took us to rid this place of weird creatures?” Hecate asked.
“A day with your power probably,” Jordan replied.
“Two days, it’s not an easy job, you’ve got to clear the whole area of sea and you’ve got to find all those stupid ones that live underground,” Hecate corrected, as if two days of work was unbelievable.
“Couldn’t you have just used some spell to get rid of all living things?” Broudie suggested.
“It’s not just animals that are alive Broudie, forgetting about plants? The place would have been a dessert if I’d have done that.” Hecate shook her head and stumbled down a bank.
The bank lead straight to the beach.
White sand covered the floor, broken up by shells and pebbles. The sea had no waves at all, just little ripples on the surface and a slight lip that curled over as the ripples came to land, snarling a faint grumble.
As soon as they reached the beach, they all, bar Hecate and Mormo, fell to the ground.
The sand was warm to the touch and it felt so nice. Jay sat upright and then took in the magnificent view. The beach must have been a mile in length and the sea was a turquoise jelly of yumminess.
Hollie leapt to her feet and sprinted to the sea. She splashed into the shallows and then dived underwater, just as she’d done at the Galapagos.
Hollie emerged from the water, completely drenched in sea, though she didn’t seem to mind.
“I like this place.” Hollie skipped back out of the water. “Exothius,” she chanted, the spell drying her and her clothes.
“You need to start trying to use your powers without those boring spells. You’d lose in a battle you would. By the time you’ve squealed something, the enemy would have cut you to pieces.” Hecate shrugged.
“We can do certain spells without saying anything,” Jordan told.
“Certain things are not as good as most things,” Hecate replied.
“You used spells in the temple,” Claire blurted, immediately wanting to retract the comment.
“I did. And do you know why we use words?” Hecate asked.
“Eh,” Claire mumbled submissively.
“We use spells because if we get distracted whilst making a spell without words, we might accidentally do them wrong, and the consequences could be fatal,” Hecate answered her own question.
“But you said we shouldn’t say the spells when we’re in battle, touch sand we won’t ever be,” Cameron asked.
“Well, usually you’ll use a spell in a battle against the enemy, so if it did go wrong, it would be quite good,” Hecate replied.
“Gods have an answer to everything,” Liam said under his breath.
“Because we have had lots of practise.” Hecate turned to him, smiling, as Jay giggled.
They stayed at the beach for a few more minutes, building sand castles, if that’s what Broudie wanted to call his. With magic it was so much easier than with a bucket, and you could even make little army sand men that could move around the castle - well that’s what Hecate could make anyway.
Then the goddess of magic decided she’d had enough and that they had a very important thing to do today,
“I suggest we take a look from up there at the island, there’s something I need to show you,” Hecate called from by her humungous sandcastle mansion.
“Can you get us up there?” Lochlan asked.
“Bit of a stupid question really,” she replied.
Hecate didn’t move a muscle, she didn’t even use her hands. Jay and the others, levitated off the ground with no warning, which startled a few of them.
They rose up into the skies, thankfully Jay had got so used to this happening that he didn’t even flinch or panic. As they flew up higher, Jay could make out the shape of the island they were on, he could make out the hideout and mount Mouvast, everything.
The island was the typical rounded shape and had a small part of land sticking out at the far right corner. There was a massive rock hill over the one side of the island and a small green hill to the left.
On top of the hill he could see there was a large hole. The water was spurting out from the top and streaming down the hill towards some rocks, the water falling as a waterfall within the trees of camp.
Surrounding the island was sand and then dark blue sea. But protruding from the sea to the left of them was a massive island.
“What’s that?” Jay asked, thinking it could be somewhere like Mallorca, or Crete.
“You’ll have to find out,” Hecate smiled.
“That’s beginning to be a familiar phrase,” Jordan laughed.
“There’s your little hideout and there’s our new destination, the cave.” Hecate pointed to the large hill of rock.
“Wha-” Hollie was cut off as they were all swept off their feet. They soared through the sky, Jay rolling round and screaming. The air whipped around them, bending them towards the rocky mountain.
There was a large opening at the bottom of the rock, a cave, all dark and gloomy.
“Straighten out dears,” Hecate told, floating perfectly from behind them.
Jay spread his arms out to catch balance, he steadied himself as he approached the ground and stumbled along the grass.
He went headfirst into the soft green bed of blunt spears. Eight thumps later, he raised his head to see most of his friends also spread along the floor beside the giant rock mountain.
“Everyone alright?” Hecate questioned, helping Cameron to his feet.
“Yeah I’m fine,” Jordan answered, helping Jay up.
“Well it would be bad if you weren’t.” Hecate raised her eyebrows and then looked over to the rock hill.
“What’s in the cave?” Hollie asked. “That was what I was going to ask you before you threw us down here.”
“The reason why I wanted you to come here is because this place is important to more people than just you,” Hecate replied.
“Honestly, you’re worse than the oracle of Delphi,” Alice chuckled.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Anyway, anyone hungry?” Hecate asked looking round.
Jay was about to reply, his stomach was feeling kind of empty, when he suddenly felt full. It was as if he had been knocked out, eaten some food, and suddenly awoke. He felt somewhat, somehow, bloated?
“That’s better, no?” Hecate smiled, turned around, and began pacing off towards the large dark opening.
Jay and his mates followed the goddess around to the cave entrance. The cave itself was giving off powerful sources of bitterness. It was like walking along the freezer section when you go in a shop, except five times worse.
Nothing was visible from the outside, all you could see was darkness. Pitch, black darkness.
“What is this place?” Claire asked shyly.
“It’s a cave, home of the one who lived here,” Hecate replied.
“Who’s the one who lived here?” Jay tried.
“I don’t get fooled often, apart from obviously this jewel stuff.” Hecate smiled.
“It’s freezing,” Hollie said, “Who would want to live in here?”
“You weren’t expecting central heating were ya?” Amy laughed.
“C’mon then, let’s explore.” Hecate walked into the dark, cold cave.
“Do we have to follow her?” Lochlan questioned.
“Yep.” Jordan smiled, following Hecate into the darkness, Jay strolled timidly in next.
It was pitch black, all you could see was the brightness of the day behind you. When you walked in it was as if the darkness literally consumed you, it was thick and heavy.
“We need some light.” Hecate said somewhere within the cave. Then suddenly the darkness of the cave was enveloped by a blinding light, which faded to reveal the true scale of the cave, or should Jay say something grander?
This wasn’t a cave, it was a monster of a cave, not even worthy of a tiny title.
It was absolutely massive.
There were several large, cream columns with sketches of mythical monsters on them. The ceiling was a dome about twenty metres high.
There were many little tunnels around the giant cave, leading in all directions, it was probably just under a quarter a mile in width.
There was a strange feeling in the cave though, as if it was haunted. Chills and tingles crept up your back like spiders.
It was quite creepy really, Jay didn’t know why someone would want to live here. It was horrible.
“Well, its empty now, but I can assure you it never used to be,” Hecate said.
“You cleared this place of everything that the previous owner left here? Why?” Hollie asked.
“Well they didn’t exactly plan to leave, so when they did leave, everything was still here. And there is a reason why we cleared this island, we didn’t just do it for no reason,” Hecate told.
“What type of things were in here?” Liam questioned.
“Now you’re trying to find out who lived here again, aren’t you? Well I’ve already told you, I cannot tell,” Hecate replied.
“Do you know this place?” Bobby said.
“Yes, and I think now it’s time for me to continue my guided tour.” Hecate began to walk straight ahead, her light, which floated elegantly above the cave, followed the goddess like a dog on a leash.
“Well, now we’ve taken everything out of here, I think we need to put some stuff in here,” Hecate spoke aloud. ‘First signs of insanity,’ Jay thought in his head.
“Central heating could be a start,” Lochlan suggested, holding his elbows in a shivering position.
“Good idea, I think we need a boost of energy first though, Jay?” Hecate smiled, turning to face him, her face lit scarily by the crystal white light, giving her a pale, ghostly complexion.
“Whoa, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Philippa shook her head.
“What is a bad idea?” Jay asked.
“You performing the heat wave spell.” Hollie raised her eyebrows.
“Oh yeah, real bad idea,” Jay agreed.
“Unless your being slaughtered by a dracaenae and about to be killed, then, it’s a good idea right?” Hecate said.
“Dracaena? How do you know about that?” Amy questioned.
“I had a lot of talks with Athena as you started your quest. I asked for her to contact me as much as she could. So I know all about your quest. Anyway, I think it‘s safe, in any case we can use a shield to stop it if it goes wrong,” Hecate said.
“Go on then Jay,” Amy told, gathering up everyone else in a circle behind Hecate, showing utter belief in him doing the spell right.
“Jay, try and concentrate on heating the cave, imagine heat, not fire,” Hecate guided.
“Okay.” Jay closed his eyes as Hecate created a transparent shield around them.
He shook his head and tried to think of a time when it was hot, when there was a nice heat around them. The time when the foster home had sent them on a trip to the beach and the sun had come out good and proper.
He pictured everyone there building sandcastles and sunbathing. He felt as if he was there, he could even feel the heat on his skin.
“Flaixor minthamya,” Jay whispered, still picturing the seaside scene. He felt his skin getting slowly hotter and hotter, he felt the chills push past him and gusts of hot air reclaim their space.
‘He was controlling the spell,’ he thought. Then he looked up to the blue sky, then across to the thing he shouldn’t have looked at, especially not with the spell.
As his eyes met the sun, he felt a tremendous amount of heat push down on his shoulders. It was nice and warm, but very uncomfortable. He knew he’d done wrong, so opened his eyes and tried to cut off the heat waves.
“Calm Jay, you were doing well,” Hecate comforted from behind her shield. She reached out with her hand and some of the searing heat was sucked from the cave into her palm. As she closed her hand her shield disappeared and Jay could feel some of the coldness returning.
“Sorry,” Jay huffed.
“Don’t worry, you did well. But you must practise Jay, if you don’t, you won’t get better.”
“I tried, it’s just I accidentally looked up to the sun,” Jay sighed.
“Eventually you’ll get there, you just need some practise. Anyway, my guided tour continues.” Hecate walked off away from the door. Jay and his mates followed.
Jay was consumed by disappointment, even with Hecate’s help he still couldn’t work that rise in temperature spell. It wasn’t difficult, ‘Just don’t look at the bloody sun!’ his mind shouted at him.
“Where does this take you to?” Bobby asked as they turned down a smaller tunnel.
“Another blank room,” Hecate answered.
They walked through the tunnel and emerged at a medium sized room. The ball of light swept over their heads and levitated below the ceiling.
“I think a heated swimming pool would do well here,” Liam laughed.
“Not a bad idea, this could be a party room,” Hecate agreed.
“Really, in a cave?” Jay asked.
“Of course, makes it more natural, so where do we want it?” Hecate questioned.
“Anywhere,” Broudie answered excitedly.
“Here?” Hecate flicked her wrist and a gigantic paint splat shaped hole appeared in the floor. Its insides were covered in miniature tiles that spelt the words ‘ATHENA’S DESCENDANTS’.
“Why didn’t you make a swimming pool when you cleared this island of whatever it was that was still on here?” Bobby asked.
“Well, how would I know what you mortals would be like in two millennia? You might have completely changed and prefer lava baths,” Hecate said.
“Wait a minute. If you helped Athena make this place, and you were locked up two millennia ago, it means you must have made the island before the prophecy was given. Did you create the island for another use or something?” Amy thought.
“I was surprised you hadn’t asked me earlier. The oracle told Athena that she must transform one of the islands into a home for people with magic. So I helped her after we cleared the monsters. Then, bla bla bla, I end up in the temple and then years and years later Athena gets another prophecy. The one with you twelve and the whole saving the earth nonsense. She tells me, must’ve created the twelve huts, and then another two years later you get set a quest for me, and you succeed. Then apparently some time in your life time you will save the earth from the monsters or bring the date forward. But then that’s before the other sixteen lines are fulfilled, which no one can work out,” Hecate said.
“Wait what did you say after the saving the world from monsters part?” Jordan asked.
“That was it,” Hecate replied.
Jay heard it as well. Had she slipped up?
“No you said or,” Lochlan said.
“Well you’re not supposed to know but your destiny is to save the world or bring the end of the human race and the Greek gods forward,” Hecate revealed.
“That’s why we don’t have the full support of everyone on Olympus, they think we’ll bring the date forward!” Alice blurted.
“Yeah well don’t tell Athena I told you that,” Hecate told.
“We were never told of this bringing the date forward stuff,” Hollie insisted, clearly worried.
“Look, I want my stay to be happy, so forget about it for now. Where were we, oh yeah filling up the pool.” Hecate turned to the empty hole, waved her finger and the pool filled with sparkling topaz water, ripples rolling on the surface.
Jay thought to himself about the first time he met Hollie, Jordan, Philippa and Liam. Hollie had told him that he could stay here and die or join them and save the earth. They did not know that they could destroy the earth before time, they believed that they would save the earth whatever.
Jay thought about what e
lse that prophecy might’ve mentioned that they didn’t know, maybe this quest was part of it. Maybe if he found out what the prophecy was, then they’d be prepared for what to come, or did it not work like that?
“So maybe we should add some other fun stuff in here.”
Hecate transformed the room into a teenagers dream, desperately trying to pull the ring bearers to the joyful souls they usually were.
There was a dance floor with a shining glitter ball with hands that, when turned on, would dance to the music as well.
There was a game station which played loads of games like Tetris, space invaders and the famous fruit machine.
The best part though, the part that actually lifted their spirits, was the liquid fountain.
Hecate built a large water fountain at the one end, right next to the electrical games. The fountain spurted water from the top and it flowed layer by layer down to the large pot at the bottom.
There was a large stack of cups at the side that you could use, and then to fill up, all you had to do was put the cup under one of the trickling water falls.
The best part was that the water was absolutely gorgeous. It was like sweet lemon at one time, then like fresh strawberries, and then it tasted like chocolate caramel. Jay could see himself coming here a lot.
They finished in that chamber of the cave completely full of the magic liquid. After that room they moved back into the main cave and then headed forward.
They reached another walkway, which lead all the way back round to the main cave.
In this walkway Hecate hung a gigantic picture, the same one she’d hung in Jay’s room. The one about their first quest.
‘This can be a gallery of your quests,’ she told them. Jay sighed, still hoping that would be the last quest he would have to undertake.
He was thankful and all for being part of the quest and getting the chance to prove himself, but it was quite hard and very tiring, plus his life was in danger ninety nine percent of the time. Jay thought though, that if he was offered another quest he would probably take it on and complete it with the help of his new mates to save the world. Hopefully not kill the world, according to the prophecy.
Then, after that walkway, they moved into another room directly opposite the entrance. Hecate put up a large brown gate with a tiny door as an entrance. She declared this chamber a ‘guest’s room’, and planted loads of handy stuff like chairs, televisions, a bathroom and, of course, beds. Finishing the guest room they carried on around the giant main room.
“I think you need a stage,” Hecate told.
“Mormo agrees,” the ghost added.
“Why would we need a stage?” Broudie asked.
“Because if you’re going to save the world from all the Greek monsters, I think you’re going to need some help, and what’s the point saying the same thing over and over again to all your allies? Just make one big speech.”
“As long as it’s not me making the speech,” Jay muttered, trying to pull back the happiness as once again the idea of destroying the world before its time had slipped into Hecate’s sentences.
“We’ll put it over there,” Hecate pointed to the far corner of the cave “that means you’ve got all this space for an audience.”
“Big audience,” Claire said.
“So, we’ll have one big stage.” Hecate waved her finger and a giant platform, a metre off the ground, appeared. “A bit higher I’d say.” The platform rose to about five and a half ft tall, hovering steadily above the ground.
“Wont we need a way of getting up there?” Bobby questioned.
“Yes.” Hecate created two winding steps either side that lead up to the stage.
“Wow, that’s big,” Hollie nodded.
“Can we go up there?” Jordan asked.
“Tomorrow, we haven’t got much of a day left and we haven’t even finished in the cave,” Hecate replied.
“We need some more light,” Philippa said.
“Spotlights in the ceiling, yes,” Hecate agreed, adding millions of small lights on the dome ceiling with just a sharp glance.
The ceiling rained with glistening rays of bright light, illuminating the cave, fighting against the dark shadows.
“C’mon then, I wonder what else this place has got to offer.” Amy smiled and followed Hecate as she turned and walked back towards the entrance.
Before they got to the blinding light near the entrance, they had one last thing to do: discover yet another tunnel.
This one was just like the quest gallery, except larger. At the middle though there was a waterfall of mounted rocks.
“Wow, what’s that?” Liam asked.
“A large pile of rocks,” Hecate answered simply.
“There are markings on them,” Jay noticed.
“They’re Greek markings, the alphabet, probably marked by the previous occupants,” Amy suggested.
Hecate nodded in reply, though not the way she would normally nod. It was strange, as if she did not want to agree.
“Let’s try moving them.” Lochlan summoned a vine which wrapped around one of the smaller rocks. The vine pulled, snapped and then disintegrated. “Or maybe not,” he added.
“They won’t move,” Hecate told.
“Well what are they there for?” Philippa questioned.
“Pretty scenery,” Alice suggested.
“Probably,” Amy agreed.
“What are we going to put in here?” Jay asked.
“I think we should leave it empty for now, you decide what you want to do with it later,” Hecate decided, growing freakishly quiet.
“Shall we make our way back to the camp now?” Cameron suggested.
“Yeah, I’m hungry already,” Hecate replied.
“Mormo is too,” the ghost agreed.
They all looked to Mormo in confusion which she replied with: “Mormo just wanted to be a part of the conversation.”
The fourteen of them strolled out of the cave and back over towards the large group of trees making up the surrounding forest of the hideout. The sun had already started setting and the day had started to fade.
When they reached the forest wall they decided going through the forest would take too long,
“So everyone ready?” Hecate asked.
“Let’s go,” Jay answered.
They were slowly picked off the ground and drifted gently over the forest wall and through the murky fog.
Jay kept his balance as he came out of the fog to see they had crossed over just in front of the temple.
He was lowered to the ground and dropped lightly, letting him land on his feet.
Another challenge awaits.
(Chapter 23)