“Well I didn’t expect you to do it first time,” Hollie told him. “You keep practising and you’ll be able to do it.”
Hollie walked over to Claire and they all got down to practicing the light spell.
Then, after about half an hour, Hollie had them throwing and catching balls of light in pairs. There were a few instances where the light didn’t stop when someone tried to stop it, and Hollie had to quickly catch it herself, but it was quite fun.
After an hour they would change to a different spell, and then practise that. Jay mastered some and failed others. He perfected the opening spell and the fire spell, but couldn’t manage the rain curse. All he kept doing was sending single water droplets upwards into the sky.
Then when they finished the hour on the protecting spell, they left the fighting area for some well-deserved lunch at their cabins.
“How many spells are there?” asked Jay when they reached the campfire.
“Billions, some are useful,” answered Broudie.
“And some are really not,” Liam said, pacing out of his cabin with his bow and arrows at his side. “How was your training, any good?”
“Yeah, and guess what. Jay can do the control spell!” Broudie said.
“Wow, really? Well I best be off, were going to see the demi-god tribe in Snowdonia. I‘ll seeya the day before you go,” Liam told them as he stumbled off towards the river.
“They are so unlucky, you’ve never had to try and talk to a demi-god nicely have you?” Broudie questioned.
“No, I don’t even know what one is.”
“Well, basically, they are the children of one god and one mortal human, so they have a few powers that they get off their godly parent. The gods don’t know they have a child but when the baby demi-god is born, the god or goddess runs away from the mortal parent.”
“Goddess doesn‘t know the child is going to be born? But she would tell because she’s got the baby inside her? Right?”
“Oh no, not all baby demigods are born the same way,” Broudie gave out a small laugh and then continued, “Some emerge from the mortal, some pop out of fires, some get built by rocks and so on, quite…peculiar, I suppose is the word.”
“So they are basically like us except they have parents and their parents are gods?”
“Definitely not, they’re arrogant and horrible. They didn’t used to be though. And they don’t have magic they can just control stuff like water if they are children of Poseidon.”
The two boys strolled off into their cabins.
Jay was greeted by the same cosiness of the warming house, then the tastes of a lovely meal, which he definitely deserved. After his lunch, he went back out and met Jordan.
It didn’t seem weird settling into a new regime and not having to worry about schoolwork, it was different, but it felt right.
“Hey, d’you want to have a duel, no weapons just powers,” Jordan asked.
“What do you mean?” questioned Jay, as they reached the waterfall. Jay was holding his homemade shield and Jordan was holding his. Jordan’s shield however was like a tiny cloud with a strap on the back, it gave you a headache just looking at it.
“You know, no weapons. Just your powers, so you can use fire, and I can use the sky.” he levitated off the ground big-headedly. “Oh and shields are not allowed either,” he added.
“But what if you lift me up and drop me, then I break all my bones,” Jay muttered warily.
“If only we had some phoenix tears, then we could do some proper battling.”
“Phoenix tears?”
“They can heal anything and cure anything, except they cry very rarely.”
“We should buy a phoenix,” Jay proposed.
“It’s a wild bird Jay.”
“So that’s that idea gone.”
“We could practise still, if anything goes wrong we can just get Liam to sort it out,” Jordan decided.
“It’d be good for the quest.”
“Can you use your powers without magic?” Jordan asked.
“Eh, no,” Jay replied, “What does that mean?”
“It’s easy, don’t say anything, just picture a flame in your head and a flame will appear. Throw your hands in front, whilst thinking of fire, and you can shoot fireballs. Experiment, and remember no spells.”
“Ok, can I try the flame thing first, before you send me flying?” Jay questioned.
Jordan nodded and Jay cleared his head of everything, which wasn’t too hard seems as it was quite quiet now there were only five at camp.
He closed his eyes for concentration, pulled his hands behind his back, remembered the time when he was sat staring at the fire in his old house, the care home, and then slowly re-opened his eyes.
He forced his hands forward and everything went into slow motion. His hands felt like they were trying to compress a giant steel spring and the air somehow turned thick and gloopy. Then he could smell the smoke, he kept running over the picture of the flame in his head, the yellow and orange flames, flickering on top of the black chunks of coal.
Slow motion was turned off and two balls of fire emerged from Jay’s hands, the sensation was prickly and warm. The two fireballs flew at Jordan at super-speed.
Jay had a moment of panic! What if Jordan got burnt? What if he killed him, but just then he was blown off his feet by a strong wind.
“Excuse me, you cannot throw fireballs at me,” Jordan said, as Jay lifted himself to his feet with ease. He took one look at Jordan then took in a gasp of air, he had a burn mark on his chest. His shirt was ripped and his chest was red raw.
“Jord, I-I’m so, are you alright?” Jay rushed over to him.
“I’m fine,” Jordan cringed.
“I burnt you,” Jay panicked.
“Look, if I want to go on this quest I need to stay strong even when a Chimaera’s sent my chest on fire.” Jordan’s eyes tightened at every word, as if he was struggling to speak.
“We need to get that checked out.”
“Good job I always carry something out with me then.” Jordan nudged to the rucksack that he had bought along.
“You’ve got something that can heal that burn?” Jay questioned.
“If you could get it that would be great,” Jordan urged as if he was really in pain and that Jay should shut up and get the first aid rucksack.
Jay opened the grey bag and foraged threw to find a small jar. He pulled it out and Jordan told him to bring it over. Inside was a murky blue liquid like cloudy seawater.
“Open the lid,” Jordan ordered.
Jay did as he said and the stench of the liquid hit him terribly. It smelt of rotting carcasses with a tinge of fresh lemongrass and some sort of spicy orange.
Whatever it was, it smelt disgusting!
Jordan scooped out the thick paste and spread it on his chest. He continued cringing as he spread it over the redness.
It was like light blue gunge. It was disgusting. But Jordan just lathered the slop all over his chest in heaped scoops, smothering it all over and letting it drip down his clothes and on the floor.
The scary thing was that when the drops of potion touched the grass, it literally burnt, leaving a strangely poisonous red mark on the ground.
Jordan finished and Jay could see the redness fading. He reopened his eyes and struggled some words,
“Drench, me.”
“Drench you?”
“Yeah.”
“I have no water,” Jay said confusedly.
“Gold, fish, mem-ory? Aquamarnias,” Jordan mouthed.
The sound of a splash and Jordan was covered head to foot in water, dripping wet.
“Oh, you need to wash it off,” Jay realised, just stood there casually watching Jordan helplessly.
“Yeah, thanks for the help,” Jordan laughed, shaking his head.
“Well shouldn’t you have just waited till you got back to your hut, you could’ve showered then, instead of getting your clothes soaked,” Jay wondered.
“Good job there’s a drying spell then.” Jordan whispered something that sounded like ‘eggs oh thee us’ and the water was sucked from his clothes leaving his dry shirt tattered and his blonde hair back in place.
“Do you feel anything?”
“No, brand new am me.”
“What was that stuff?”
“Anti-burning treatment.”
“Who d’you get that off?”
“Liam, he gave me some. He brews up loads of helpful things. Good if you’re ill.”
“So he’s like a witch?”
“Yeah, say that to him next time we meet.”
“Ok, so how about this duelling thing, or are you not up for it?” Jay asked.
“Let’s try target practise.”
“That’s not duelling?”
“Well if I go stand over there it is.”
He walked over into some open space and yelled for Jay to try and hit him.
“What if I burn you?” Jay questioned.
“You’re not going to, I’m more powerful,” Jordan said.
“So what happened before?”
“Caught me off guard.”
It took Jay at least twenty fireballs till he actually got a hit. Well he called it a hit, but really the fire was about to hit Jordan and he extinguished it. Bit of a letdown.
After that they changed over and Jordan had to use his wind controlling skills to soar a tiny leaf at Jay from a long distance. The first time he missed, the second he cheated - curving the leaf as it went off course. Then when he got it dead on target, Jay ducked and started laughing. He felt a gust go under his legs and he was swept off his feet.
Then they tried doing some target practise near the trees and Jay managed to set part of a nymph’s tree on fire. She screamed really loud and Jordan used some of the burn cream to repair her hair and her broken branch.
Finally they had a go at reflecting each other’s hits. Obviously Jordan had to show off and deflect every single one whereas Jay ended up with about fifteen pierces in his arm from the spiky thorns. The boys finished off and strolled back to their huts after about an hour. It had been a fun and interesting day. Now he was looking forward to learning some more spells and fighting skills…Wait! What did he just say?
‘Can’t wait to learn???? Shoot me now!’ Jay laughed to himself.
The next four days were packed full of learning spells, battle strategies and how to kill specific creatures. For example, if you met the Chimera, you needed to shoot a lead-tipped arrow into its mouth. Shame when Jordan and Jay faced it all they had was a rock.
Jay was rubbish at shooting, and even if he was, where was he supposed to get a lead-tipped arrow from?
Apparently the Chimera was the creature Jay had met when Jordan saved him. ‘Exactly!’ Jay thought, ‘No lead-tipped arrows to help us were there?’
Jay also read some of his books and came up with lots of spells for the quest group to learn, most of which were really hard. But although it was tough work he was getting on with his new acquaintances and he was enjoying life a little more.
The next day the rest of camp arrived, back from their journey to Snowdonia.
“Any luck?” Hollie asked hopefully.
“What do you think? There was twenty of ‘em all together, and not one even looked at us when we were talking to them,” Amy said moodily.
“At least it’s another star we can put on our map of demi-god camps that don’t listen to us,” Bobby said.
“Not one listened? What about any demi-god children of Athena, they usually listen,” Claire asked.
“It was a camp of all male demi-god children, they didn’t want to let Amy, Bobby, Philippa or me in, but Philippa just walked straight in and ignored them,” Alice told them, recalling the memory with a chuckle.
“Well, that’s what they’d do to us,” Philippa quite rightly said according to all the nodding heads and laughs.
“Well we’re off today at twelve, as you know,” Hollie said excitedly.
“C’mon, you’ve got an hour, get your weapons, you need a shield and sword, knife or spear. Everyone meet at the entrance to camp. Oh, and any stones or plants you think could help, bring them along. Liam, they might want a potion too,” Amy instructed, as the group split up, some to the temple, probably the weapon room, and some to the cabins.
When Jay arrived at his cabin he wondered what he should do. What should he take? Did he need food or water?
He decided to take a bottle of water in his pocket and all the money he had. Then he picked up his shield and strutted off to the temple.
When he got there, there was no one about, so Jay tried to think back, what did Broudie do to open the door?
He walked over to a blank space in the wall, and then he said something, a word. It was the opening spell, it was something beginning with A, aderium, no it had a ‘P’ in it, aderperium, no…aperium?
“Aperium,” he shouted.
Then, just like before, a crack appeared at the bottom of the wall, and it travelled up, across then back down, outlining a door. There was a little rumble and the door knob emerged out of the wall. Jay reached for the handle and turned it to enter.
There was an eerie squeak from the hinges of the door and Jay was now facing three people, each were rustling around in boxes and running their fingers along the walls of swords.
“Hi.”
“Oh, hi. What ya looking for, sword, spear, knife?” Jordan questioned.
“Sword, I think,” Jay answered, as he entered the room. He walked around the centre block and took a look at the wall of swords.
“Aha, got it.” Claire picked up a small curved knife, which had a gold handle. “I love this knife, it’s amazingly quick. I haven’t seen it in a month. Oh, I must’ve dropped it in here after I had personalised it. Well, I’ll see you at the entrance.” Claire skipped out of the weapon room leaving the two boys and Hollie.
Jay continued his search, even though he didn’t know what he was searching for. Then, after a minute of looking, he came across a long, thin sword that had a light brown handle with strips of dark brown patterned inside. He stopped in front of the sword and stared at it for a few minutes, then Jay heard the same voice in his head that he had heard once before, the same one that told him to use the control spell.
“This is the one,” The voice spoke slowly.
Jay smiled at the ceiling and then picked up the sword.
“That the one? You choose?” Hollie asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever had any God or Goddess speak to you, I know I have, but only a few times. See, they aren’t meant to talk to us really.”
“Yeah, I have, told me to use this,” Jay replied, holding up the sword in his hands.
“Use it, always listen to the gods, it shows respect. And they’re like always right,” she told him.
“Oh, Jay. If you’re taking a sword you’re going to need this.” Jordan chucked a coiled leather band over to Jay.
He caught it and unwravelled the belt.
“Thanks, well seeya in a second.” Jay pocketed his sword, which slipped perfectly into its holder hanging from his new belt which fitted perfectly around his waist. He strolled out of the weapon room, out of the temple, and into the field.
Then he checked his watch, which had also been miraculously salvaged from the care home and teleported into his bedside drawer, and realised that he still had ten minutes left till he had to meet everyone at the entrance. What to do?
“Y’alright Jay.” Broudie shouted from the foot of mount Mouvast.
“Yeah, you got your weapons?”
“Gods, I had them ready the night I got chose.” Broudie replied, now close enough to talk without shouting and to decipher the details of each other’s weapons.
Broudie had a red-tinged, black shield, which was really scary, sticking out from his backpack and a fat sword stuck in his belt with a matching red-ish black handle.
“What do
we do now we’ve got everything?”
“Dunno, I reckon we should go to the entrance. Are you excited?” Broudie questioned, as they made their way around the mountain and towards the giant banner.
“And nervous, nobody here has ever been on a quest have they?”
“No, the nearest we got to a quest was when I joined, Athena told us that we should seek out demi-gods and try to explain the situation with the monsters. They never believed the gods. I mean why would they listen to us?”
“About what?”
“About the monsters escaping Tartarus. They think if they turn a blind eye they can just keep living their boring lives!”
“Oh, right. So no one has any experience in this type of thing whatsoever?”
“Amy’s the one with the most experience at being a sorceress, but she’s never really done a quest either. She once said to us that the world is full of monsters and that we don’t even know it. She said all animals in the world were Greek myths but they were accepted into the world. Whatever that means.”
“So we could get killed by a monster like an army of squirrels,” Jay said.
“No. What I meant when I said that all animals are Greek is that some have been out of Greek mythology for so long they’ve forgot it and moved on with everyone else. Whereas obviously certain monsters, we wish would have moved on and become household pets or something, haven‘t.”
“Really, it doesn’t mention that in my book about mythological creatures,” Jay said, for he had never heard of this. Slugs, the evil killers that killed Hercules.
“No they don’t mention it in books really. Imagine having a pet like the hydra.”
“Terribly expensive, I stick to the half horse, half chicken breed, me,” Jay laughed, feeling quite proud that he’d remembered one of the mythological creatures.
“They’ve actually got a name in Greek mythology, but I can’t think what.”
“Me neither.”
The two boys walked under the banner labelled: ATHENA’S DESCENDANTS, held up by two extra strong trees hat towered above the others, then walked towards the small puddle of water, which Jay emerged from on his arrival.
When they got there a girl appeared from the side.
“Hi,” Bobby said excitedly. Both Jay and Broudie turned round and answered in unison,
“Hey.”
“Four minutes to go, then you’ll be leaving for the first ever quest of Athena’s hideout. I thought there would be more people here by now.”
Just then, as if they had heard what Bobby had said, four people walked under the banner and into the entrance area.
“Hello guys and gals,” Liam said. “Are you ready to rumble?” he added.
“Hey Liam,” Broudie said, shaking his head.
Then Claire parted from the group to join Broudie and Jay, and she was closely followed by Jordan.
Claire had a knife in her belt but had no shield. Unless she was going to defend herself with love, as that was her godly ring. The knife was really long and curved and had a gold handle with, what looked like, pink slush inside.
Jordan had a sword, really long with a red wood hilt like most things at this camp. It was plain red with a white jewel in the centre that sparkled in the sun. Also he carried a small watch, which wasn’t a watch really. It was a miniature version of his cloudy shield so as when he needed the shield all he had to do was enlarge it.
The shield was dark bronze yet covered in clouds and had a small eye in the middle which Jay swore was moving around looking at people. Lightning strikes struck from the eye out wards making the shield look really deadly.
“Hi Jord,” Jay welcomed.
“Hi, Jay. Got your weapons ready?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was going to bring my…”
“Hello everyone,” Amy announced, as she walked under the banner. “Who are we missing then?”
“Hollie, Lochlan, Alice and Cameron,” Philippa replied.
“Make that just Hollie,” said Lochlan, who had just strolled under the sign with Alice and Cameron beside him.
“Just Hollie, what a surprise,” Amy laughed, and so did everyone else.
Jay had got used to Hollie being always late to everything, sort of a tradition.
Then, after a few minutes, there was a sound of gushing water, and everyone looked up to see Hollie flying towards them with a litre of water behind her, a flashy entrance.
“And that‘s,” Hollie started, the water drenching the floor as she landed on her two feet with her arms crossed and two blades pocketed in her belt.
“All of us,” Amy finished.
“Everyone ready to go to Francé?” Hollie asked, putting on a very good French accent.
There were a few cheers and then Amy silenced the crowd.
“You will leave now and return with the jewel of Barthimia, hopefully. To get it you will hunt down Frederick in France, who is an elderly demi-god. He is the only one who knows where the temple of Barthimia is. You will get this information and find the temple. You will then enter the temple and come back to camp with the jewel. There will be creatures and monsters after you at all times, so be careful. Try not to get noticed, for we will have a lot of work if you get seen performing a spell, and…Good luck,” Amy finished her speech and everyone started shaking hands, hugging and wishing people good luck.
“Good luck Jay,” Liam shook his hand vigorously and smiled.
“Yeah, thanks,” he laughed.
“Time to go guys, c’mon I’ll go first.” Hollie jumped into the air and was swallowed by the shallow puddle of water beneath her.
“Let’s go.” Broudie leaped from the side, and then he too, was engulfed by the puddle.
“Jay, you go next,” Amy told him.
So, Jay walked forward and then jumped into the air.
“See-” Jay didn’t have time to finish his sentence for he had been swallowed by the puddle himself. Then, just like before, he felt water rushing past his ears and all he could see was a mixture of blue and white swirls ahead.
He emerged from the water and landed on the small protruding pebble. He gasped for air and then jumped over onto the dusty path beside the stream.
“Y’alright?” Broudie asked.
“Fine.”
There was a splash of water and Jordan appeared from the cave’s entrance nearly knocking Jay to the floor.
“I hate going through there,” he stated, jumping off the pebble to join the group.
Jay looked around breathing in the air. It was colder and more brisk and homely. It was comforting yet it was as if he’d just walked out of his hut.
Then, another splash later, and all of them were ready to set off.
“Ok, Jord can you-” Hollie was answered quickly,
“No, definitely not! Not to France. I could carry myself and maybe another, but not five people.”
“That’s alright. We’ll make our own way. I can fly, you can fly, Broudie can go with you, Claire can fly like a dove and Jay could try to fly using his fire skills. But first we need to make ourselves invisible,” Hollie instructed.
They’d all changed instantly to ultra-fast mode. No time to waste, conversation was quick and fast-paced. It was quite exhilarating, yet a bit frightening too.
“I’ll do it,” Claire volunteered.
“You sure?” Hollie asked.
“Yep, everyone hands in the middle.” Jay followed her order and the others’ example. “Polacify.”
Her hand shone white and everyone’s veins illuminated, x-raying their hands in a shock of light. Then there was a fresh breeze that swept over them, fizzling on their skin in a pleasant, sort of ticklish way.
“Nice one Claire,” she congratulated. “Em, now Jay, we know we can fly to France, do you think you could? It will drain lots of energy out of you,” Hollie told him.
“What happens if I fall?” Jay questioned.
“Claire will catch you and you will have to start flying quickly beca
use she won’t be able to hold you for long,” Hollie replied.
“Thanks hol.”
“I don’t think doves have muscles.”
“True, true.”
‘Wait? If I fall I am relying on a fragile, pea-sized dove to catch me…? Sounds about right.’ Jay thought.
“Ok, do we follow you?”
“Yeah, follow the person with the water coming out of her feet. Let’s go, no time to waste…Relacian formalios.” Hollie shot up into the air, water bursting from her trainers and evaporating into nothing before making contact with the floor.
“Go on Jay,” Broudie urged.
Jay gave him a nervous smile and then tried to clear his mind. He was getting used to this now,
“Hokvalmia, relacian formalios.” he erupted into flames and then shot up into the sky, his arms were a burning orange and his feet were hot red. It completely contradicts the vision of a cartoon rocket with the red, orange and yellow spikes bursting from the bottom. It’s more like a swirling plasma of murky orange and ‘fiery’ yellow.
He felt a rush of energy and he suddenly felt alive and courageous, even looking down he wasn’t scared at all, staring down at a tennis court and a jumble of spaghetti pathways like a load of drunken yellow brick roads.
He reached cloud level when he spotted Hollie flying through the air to the left of him. Jay leaned towards her and he shot forwards. The others joined them in the sky and, just like that, they began their quest for the jewel of Barthimia.
Then, about half an hour of zooming through the sky, they finally reached the English Channel. A beautiful desert of blue and…more blue! It was mesmerising, and quite offputting.
It was only when he was about eight ft. from the water, that he realised he was diving towards the sea. He quickly tried to swerve and dodge but part of his leg got dipped into the sea.
It was freezing cold and it stung like fire (‘Strange?’).
He started heading upwards again, but his soaked leg was starting to dampen the rest of his body, putting the fire, that was keeping him up, out.
Then he started descending again towards the sea. He started screaming and shouting for anyone to notice as he lost altitude, but Hollie and the others were soaring through the sky ahead, not thinking to look behind to see where Jay was.
Then the last thing he saw was the blinding sun before he plunged into the enveloping blanket of dark blue.
The stinging sensation he felt before was multiplied as his whole body was consumed.
He sank a good few metres, then started rising up. He was struggling to keep his mouth shut, trying to not let any of the water in, but his breath had been sucked from him.
Bubbles were surrounding him. Floating up to the surface. He wriggled around trying to get to the top, to get some air…but it was useless.
The light of life drifted from his view in a capsule of starved air. Darkness descended.
He couldn’t hold his breath much longer, he was going to drown…
The Panotii.
(Chapter 6)