The Panotii moved towards them slowly, then pulled off their droopy cloaks.
The black robes fell and what was revealed was a weird sight. They had ears, like bloodhound’s, that drooped from their tiny little elf-ish faces to their dirty, orange feet. They had deep red eyes, no hair, and a cluster of furrow lines on their forehead.
Their face and body were a light orangey colour, and their clothes were green and brown.
They wore vest tops made up of layered leaves, and then a pair of shorts which were also layered similarly. They wore a bendy twig around their waist like a belt, and no shoes. In each one of their hands was a large walking stick made of dark brown wood, carved and polished to perfection.
They lifted their sticks and swung them round like ninjas, a practised routine to try and scare the enemy. That’s when they moved closer.
“Kind creatures, I don’t think so,” Hollie said, pulling out her two blades from her belt.
“What have I been waiting for…? This,” Broudie answered himself, pulling out his massive blade and snapping his fingers to reveal the dark, black and red, terror shield. He looked back at Jay then winked. “Let’s go.”
Jay pulled out his sword and removed his shield from his backpack as quickly as he could. But by the time he found it, he had heard the first swing of a sword; the fighting had begun.
He swung round with his sword and shield to hear Hollie’s orders,
“One each, Claire and Jay can take on one together,” she screamed dodging a hit from one of the elf-like creatures, and protecting a tourist with her blade, which according to Jay’s theory wouldn’t affect her unless she was Greek or had something Greek in her hands. Whether the theory was right, who knows?
Jay swivelled around and saw Claire duelling with one of the Panotii, she was doing well until she noticed Jay, and missed with her blade, leaving the Panotii with and open shot.
Jay was one step ahead, he thrust his hands forward and a flame shot from it. It hit the Panotii and it let out a screech of pain, so horrible, you had to cover your ears. But it really only made him angry.
“JAY!” Claire shouted.
Jay looked up again and saw the Panotii trying to whack Claire with his ninja stick.
He ran forward, his sword clenched tightly in his hand. Jay swung his weapon, making a cut in the creatures arm. He yelped and then turned on Jay.
The creature started twisting and turning his stick, spinning it round himself. Jay knew he wasn’t good at fighting, magic was his only hope, and what should he do in a time of trouble…?
“Hokvalmia,” he shouted.
His body shone bright orange and he erupted into flames. ‘Ok,’ he thought to himself, ‘let’s show this guy whose boss!’
Jay jumped up in the air and zoomed around the creature, who kept trying to swat Jay as if he was a fly.
It was really hard not to set fire to the amount of tourists that were frozen like stone statues around him as he sped around the elf ninja. Then he willed off the fire and he stretched out his leg, kicking the Panotii in the face.
He (supposing it was a he) staggered backwards and a knife shot through the air and into the creature, piercing its heart.
Jay looked to his left and saw Claire leaning on the railings.
“Well, you look like you needed a bit of help,” she said.
The Panotii coughed and gasped, then finally he fell to the ground. There was a crack, and then the Panotii erupted into pieces, each grain flying off the top of the tower and disappearing into the ground.
“What hap-?”
“DUCK!” Claire shouted.
Jay quickly squatted and looked up to see a pair of orange ears shoot over him. He turned around, just in time to see a sight that can only be described as ‘belly-burning’.
Broudie struck the creature between the ribs and then got slapped in the face by his droopy ear. Broudie got swept away from the creature, who erupted, just like Jay’s, into bits, which rocketed down the tower and into the ground.
They had all disappeared now, all four of the Panotii.
In the comfort of safety once again, they all let out their laughter, as Broudie stood there beside a tourist with a camera, both hands stuck to his face.
“I think they inject lead into their ears,” he cried.
“How can she call them friendly, and harmless, they could of killed any of us,” Jordan said, recovering from his laughing fit.
“Ah, but maybe they got annoyed with the gods, I mean it must be horrible to be thrown into the deepest, darkest pit in the world, with a load of fierce creatures,” Hollie reminded them.
“But, if they were harmless, why throw them in a pit for eternity?” Claire asked.
“Personal grudge maybe,” Hollie replied.
“Creature dead, ground, disappear?” Jay murmured.
“What’s the matter with Jay?” Broudie asked, shaking himself off.
“Never seen a mythological creature die before has he,” Claire told them.
“Oh, right yeah. Jay, it happens to all creatures that are going to go back to Tartarus, it’s not gonna happen to you,” Hollie said.
“Oh, right. Just a bit weird isn’t it,” Jay mumbled.
“Isn’t everything in Greek mythology weird?” Hollie replied.
They laughed.
“Shall we continue our search?” Broudie suggested.
There was a silence where no one answered, they all just looked to Hollie.
“I think I’ve found him,” she whispered.
“What do you mean?” Jay asked.
“What I mean is, haven’t you realised that there is a, don’t look now, but there is a man crawling just behind the pole over there. He hasn’t been frozen by time,” Hollie said.
Clearly not listening to Hollie’s orders, everyone turned around and looked at the pole behind them. There was one leg stretched out beside it, the owner was hidden.
“Eh, I think he’s hiding from us,” Claire spoke quietly.
“State the obvious,” Jay chuckled.
“Leave the talking to me,” Hollie ordered.
They all turned around and Hollie cleared her throat. She spoke very quickly,
“Frederick right? We’re Athena’s descendants and the Gods have sent us to recover the information on the whereabouts of the temple of Barthimia,” she paused, waiting for the foot to move and a voice to answer. But nothing.
“Fine if you want me to come over there and force the information out, then that’s fine. I was just trying to do it the nice simple way,” Hollie explained. “Stay here, don’t let him pull off any escape attempt,” she added quietly, “I knew he’d be a typical demi-god.”
Then Hollie walked casually over towards the pole.
Silence fell once again.
She was a ft. away when she chanted a spell,
“Baffoliam” A bubble of clear blue zoomed out of Hollie’s finger, heading towards the foot.
“Ha,” The man named Frederick blurted, pulling out a sword and reflecting the spell with it.
Hollie was super-fast and sliced the bubble in half with one of her knives.
“Right, let’s get down to business.” Hollie leapt round the side of the pole and got her first glance of Frederick, holding one of her knives at his throat.
He had short, messed-up, blonde hair, and a small, blonde mane. He had blue eyes and pale skin.
He was holding a small sword and was wearing a plain, grey-ish brown top and blue three-quarter length jeans.
“Danger, hide, zip wire, arc.” His voice was of fear and panic as he jumped into the air and began falling metres down to the ground, off the Eiffel tower.
“Jordan get him, he’s a sky demi-god, GO!” Hollie shouted, racing past a tourist holding up his thumbs, and joining the others.
“Right I’ll try and hold him.” Jordan dived off the tower and plunged after Frederick, no hesitation.
“Ok, he said arc, so I’m guessing the Arc de Trio
mphe, NOW! He’s our only hope of finding the temple!” Hollie jumped off the tower and sped off, water erupting from her feet, towards the small rectangular block that Jay had spotted whilst looking at the magnificent views.
She had jumped off one of the tallest landmarks in Europe without even thinking, not even stopping at the edge.
“C’mon Broudie, I can carry you that far. Hokvalmia.” She changed into a dove, grabbed Broudie by his collar and flew off.
Then it was just Jay left, he knew he had to jump off, but didn’t have the guts to do it.
Down below everyone was still frozen in time, completely unaware of the possible suicides that were jumping off Paris’ most known attraction ‘other than the Mona Lisa maybe’ he pondered.
A very ‘Jay’ thing was to waffle off topic, now was probably not a good time.
He leapt onto the gate that surrounded the tower and tried his hardest not to look down. He was balancing on a five centimetre wide metal bar, he needed comfort to give him confidence.
There was only one thing he could think of. Fire.
“Hokvalmia.” He erupted into flames and stepped straight off the gate as if it was a curb on a road. He plummeted towards the ground, air rushing past his ears.
“JAY, C’MON!!” he heard Hollie’s voice screaming at him from below.
Jay urged himself forward and pulled out of the dive, now going straight for the small arc, which had four moving figures and a couple of frozen figures stood underneath it. He flew past some trees and then slowed down as he veered closer to the people.
Jay stopped in front of them in a perfect fighting position (he was getting good at this flying malarkey).
“We’ve lost him, gone,” Jordan puffed.
“We haven’t lost him, we just haven’t seen him,” Hollie corrected. “Allow me to show you,” she placed her hand in the middle and they all leant forward to complete the spell, “Polacify.”
Their veins shone white, and they were invisible again, but something wasn’t anymore: Frederick.
“Help us out here guys, leg holding weeds?” Hollie signalled one, two, three and Hollie, Jordan and Claire shouted in unison,
“Vinatonius.”
Suddenly, millions of weeds emerged from the ground, each grasping one of Frederick’s limbs.
“Ok, we can see you, you can see us. We need you to tell us where it is,” Hollie said, “You will die if you don’t, creatures will hunt you down and kill you.” Her tone was strict and quite evil.
The man was a peculiar sight. He seemed genuine but he had an ancient look in his eyes, a swirling mass of wisdom and knowledge.
Frederick must have dropped his sword during his flight for it was nowhere to be seen. No escape for him this time, thankfully.
“The creatures are safely locked up in Tartarus,” Frederick spoke quite deeply.
“Really, so how come those Panotii were there then? Did you not hear them, ‘We, Panotii, will discover the jewel and take over the gods, those who wrecked our lives,’” Hollie impersonated the Panotii a bit too well.
“They weren’t there? I would have known if they were there,” Frederick said.
“Typical demi-god, pretends nothing’s going on and then laughs,” Jordan muttered.
“Typical? Do you think they gave me this job of holding the whereabouts of the temple because I was your average demi-god? No, I helped the gods, and they made me immortal,” Frederick said, as if immortality was more of a punishment. “Who are you in any case? If you’re not demi-gods?”
“We’re Athena’s descendants, the prophesised twelve that will save the world,” Claire replied bitterly.
“Well, if we got a real god to tell you, would you listen?” Jay chirped up, trying to make himself useful.
“Yeah like any god would listen to you,” He tugged around in the weeds, “they didn’t even listen to me when I tried to talk to them about the creatures I’ve been see-”
“Oh, so you have seen some creatures. Look all we need is for you to tell us the location so as we can get the jewel back to the gods,” Hollie said as she clicked her gooble watch and whispered, “Karomas.”
The cars started moving again and the noise immediately swallowed whatever Frederick was trying to say.
“I didn’t hear that sorry,” Hollie said.
“I said, I am not going to tell you because it is my job not to,” Frederick said proudly.
“Ok, wait a minute will ya.” Hollie turned to the rest of the group and spoke,
“Look the only way we can possibly get him to understand, is if we get a god to come and tell him. Try contacting one in your mind. I know they aren’t supposed to pay any attention to us, but we all know they do.” Hollie stepped back and closed her eyes.
Jay, and everyone else, followed her lead.
‘Please Hephaestus, answer me. We need the gods help with this one. He won’t tell us unless a god tells him to.’ Jay prayed in his head. He felt stupid but he knew Hephaestus was watching, he must’ve been. But there was no answer, nothing at all, so he tried again.
‘I know you’re not supposed to talk to me, but this is life or death, for billions of people. Please help us out, we need y-’
Jay reopened his eyes to hear Claire mumbling something, as if she was talking to someone, maybe she had got through to Aphrodite. Maybe Aphrodite would come down and sort Frederick out with a love potion or something.
Then Claire opened her eyes.
“I spoke to Athena, she said you forgot the thing that he will remember, and she will send it to us now,” Claire said, confusedly looking to the sky.
Jay was now very confused, Claire had spoken to Athena, who was her godly ring? Aphrodite or Athena? He thought Amy’s was Athena.
“Oh, yes I forgot about that. Hopefully he,” Hollie looked over her shoulder at the struggling Frederick, “will remember it as well.”
“Why didn’t Athena send the present to us whilst we were at camp?” Jay asked.
“Maybe Hermes’ delivering surface was on strike.” Jordan joked.
“Is there such thing?” Jay wondered.
“Gul-li-ble.”
“She probably has more important things to do.” Claire suggested.
“More important than saving the world?” Broudie smiled.
The people of Paris scattered around the Arc de Triomphe in cars and on foot, babbling on to their family and friends with no clue, whatsoever, that there was someone being tortured by some kids for information in another one of their attractions. If you call leg holding weeds torture of course.
Suddenly, there was a cool chilling breeze that ran over them, and then Hollie narrowed her eyes, fiddling with her hands behind her back.
“Frederick, I’m going to show you something now that Lady Athena, goddess of wisdom, craft and battle strategy, has just sent me. She said you should remember it,” Hollie said as the chill disappeared.
Jay was wondering if Athena had sent something, because he hadn’t seen anything, unless it wasn’t something you could see. Hollie pulled her arms in front of her and revealed a small, brown box. It had moss green and burgundy stripes around the edges, and a plain brown top and bottom.
It was similar to the box they used to speak to the gods but not as decorative.
The moment Frederick saw the box, he gasped loudly and swallowed hard.
“What is this? That bad my gods?” Frederick prayed to the sky.
“What’s bad is the thing we told you a few minutes ago, the monsters are escaping,” Jay shouted impatiently, getting very annoyed that Frederick never took any notice of them. Maybe demi-gods were all this bad.
“The mythological creatures, that I helped capture, are escaping from Tartarus?” Frederick questioned.
“Yes, they are all after you, trying to get hold of the jewel. What do you think the Panotii were doing up the Eiffel tower? Did you think they were trying to see if there ears would touch the floor?!” Jay screamed. All the passers-by were
looking round, trying to find the source of the shouting.
“The Panotii were after the jewel. They are peaceful creatures. They wouldn’t try and kill you just to find the jewel.” Frederick shook his head.
“They said that we were allies of the gods, and they intend to take over the gods, because of them trapping them in Tarta-” Hollie was rudely interrupted by Jay,
“Sorry Hollie, but could I just say something?”
“Sure, take it away.”
“Thanks. Right you know what this box is, and it shows you the gods have given it to us, now we are in a hurry. We need to find the temple and get the jewel. We need to get there before the monsters do, this could result in the death of all humans, and even eternal punishment for you. Worse than the underworld, that is a complement Hades.” Jay took a breath then continued a little quieter, to stop drawing attention, “This is where you say sorry guys, the temple is bla bla bla and here is something to help you, good luck,” Jay acted out the giving of a present, “Well, where is it?” Jay finished.
His sudden power surge died down inside him and he took some long, deep breaths, quite impressed at his little argumentative speech.
“I can’t just tell you, what if you made a copy of the box, and were trying to trick me. How can I tell?” Frederick cried.
“How about you ask us something that only you and the gods know, and we tell you,” Broudie suggested.
“”Like what?” Frederick asked.
“Anything that only you and the gods know,” Hollie told him.
“Of course! I know, the code…What does that box do and what is it called?” Frederick questioned, a smile stretching across his face.
“Alright, I shall contact the gods and ask them.” Hollie closed her eyes, and all went silent.
Then Jay heard a misty voice, similar to Hephaestus’ but female,
“You have found my dear friend. He can be released now he understands the situation. Hollie free him first.” the voice went silent, as Jay heard the moving of plants and the crumbling of ground. He looked up and saw Frederick stood free.
“Now what does he ask my friends? Of the box I do guess,” The voice questioned.
“Yes Athena. The name of it and what it does,” Hollie replied, speaking softly.
“The name is what it is and it does what it does my child,” the voice replied.
“How does that answer his question?”
“Just say what I told you, he will understand. It is like a secret code, devised by the gods and Frederick so as if there was any trouble, then the gods could ask him of the whereabouts. This could only happen in the worst of situations, like this,” Athena answered.
“Ok, thank you Athena, we shall be back in no time with the jewel safely in our hands. I shall see you soon,” Hollie told her confidently.
“Good luck my ring bearers,” Athena spoke, her voice gradually getting quieter till there was no voice left.
“First of all Frederick, I would like to say sorry for the vine thing, but we thought you might run away from us again.”
“I understand, I should of listened, it’s just my job is to run away. These last two millennia have been very hard, what with all the breakouts from Tartarus. So I am sorry as well,” Frederick told them.
“Other, oh never mind. We have talked to Athena and she told us.”
“What is its name?” Frederick questioned.
“Its name is what it is,” Hollie replied nervously.
“And what does it do?” He asked more confidently, a smile spreading over his face again.
“It does what it does.”
“You did talk to the gods, they are still alive.” Frederick jumped in the air excitedly, which was a strange sight seeming as he was about 40 years old – physical age of course.
“Would you please tell us quickly, otherwise they will be dead!” Hollie reminded him why they were there.
“Yes sorry, I hid the temple on the Galapagos Islands. There is only one entrance, hidden on the island now named San Cristobal? The temple usually pulls in any Greek mythological thing so you should be able to sense the exact location. The entrance is shielded. You will need to unlock all shielding activators before you can finally get in.” Frederick said. “In the temple there are millions of different rooms, the temple is plastered in traps and tasks, which you must complete to get past. The jewel itself is hidden in a room that can only be found if you pick your directions in this order…left, left, right, centre, right, up, down. It is important you go around the temple in that order, if you don’t you will never get to the jewel room.”
“What happens if we go the wrong way?” Claire asked whilst Hollie jotted down the directions on a piece of paper which had magically appeared in her hands.
“Don’t! The rooms change as you enter the next, when you go from a hall to a room, come back out of the room, and you walk straight into a lava pit,” Frederick told them.
“Ok, say we follow the directions, don’t go wrong, complete all the tasks and get past the traps, how do we get back out with the jewel?” Jordan questioned.
“The jewel will get you out. She will help you,” Frederick replied.
“What do you mean she, it’s a jewel not a person.” Broudie laughed.
“Old talk, you know a ship is a she for example. Anyway, creatures are crawling all over the temple, be careful. And do come back some time, I’ll be up there.” He pointed to the top of the tower.
“Okay, thank you. C’mon guys we need to get this jewel.” Hollie started jogging away from the arc, dodging the passers-by.
Jay, Broudie, Claire and Jordan followed.
“WHEN YOU GET TO THE JEWEL ROOM YOU WONT HAVE MUCH TIME! REMEMBER THAT!” Frederick shouted to the group as they disappeared out of view.
The dreaded beep.
(Chapter 8)