Nereus and Brian; A tale of heroism, sadness, bravery, and distrust
By Enrique
“The mother of a god, once imprisoned, will not be able to exit the cell. Once saved, she will disappear into forever darkness;” said by the prophecy created by an old man billions of years before the medium aged Nereus and Brian were both formed. Once upon a time, there resided two brothers; by the name of Nereus and Brian, both the sons of a well-known women who goes by the name of “Mrs. Meatloaf”. Nereus was known as “the old man of the sea,” and was also the god of fish and all ocean animals. Nereus had always worn a toga-like sort of outfit that varied in many colors. Also, he had developed lots of grey hair that had overtaken his look of having bleached pink hair combed into a slicked back fashion. On the other hand, Brian was nothing like Nereus. Brian was a monstrous blue narwhal, a whale with a huge horn placed on its forehead, who had strangely yet fascinatingly grown a large beard draping from his lower lip. Both brothers thrived in a very stunning villa located right along the Aegean Sea, where Nereus was formed. Their hut was also right on the top of a cliff overlooking the tremendous place known as “Atlantis”. Occasionally, they could hear humongous waves crashing up onto the cliff almost reaching their house perched hundreds of feet up. One very beautiful, sunny day, they wandered down into the small city to scout if there were any gods or demigods to try to send their message that they had desperately needed help to solve by a god or goddess. Their news was that their mother, Mrs. Meatloaf, had been sent to celery jail. She was sent to jail because all of the smelly fish of Atlantis, one afternoon, had realized that one of their most famous pies were cruelly stolen from their shop. After that, all of the smelly fish tried to find evidence of the antagonist who stole their pie. That night, one smelly fish looked into Mrs. Meatloaf’s window and saw that she was eating a pie that looked similar to the pie that had been stolen from the smelly fish. The smelly fish who had seen Mrs. Meatloaf eating the pie called for backup and then busted into her apartment building and found out that SHE was the one who had stolen the pie. Thus, that morning, they all ran down to the government house and complained to the government that Mrs. Meatloaf had stolen one of their most famous pies. The government nodded all of their heads and immediately proceeded to sending her to celery jail, in the depths of the ocean.
All of a sudden, they spotted someone who had looked like the god or goddess. “Brian, look over there; on the east side of the island!” Nereus exclaimed with joy.
“It can’t be…” Brian responded in pure disbelief. Immediately, they both saw a goddess wearing a blank white tunic accompanied by emerald vines and leaves draping down her long, tan neck. At first, they weren’t quite sure if it was a goddess, but after they immediately peered at her glowing bow under her tunic, and now had a positive result on who it was.
“Nereus, I believe the goddess we are looking at is the steadfast Artemis. She is the goddess of the beautiful moon and hunt; no wonder she has a bow!” Brian softly remarked as if in pure awe.
Quickly, without warning, they both hustled down their ancient cobble street as if a herd of lions was chasing after them. Amazingly, in record breaking time, they somehow managed to sprint down quick enough to catch up with Artemis.
Suddenly, Artemis said, “Hello boys, what may bring you to thee goddess of the moon and hunt?” Both men were breathless and had no response at all. But, Brian stepped up to the plate and responded boldly with,
“Hey Artemis, so ummm we kinda have a problem… our mother, Mrs. Meatloaf, has been sent to the devastating celery jail for stealing a pie from the smelly fish. The smelly fish all complained to the government to take her to celery jail. Then, government stepped in and took her from her house and immediately whirled her over to the jail without an issue. Please Artemis? Is there any way in the whole wide world that you could possibly use your special power things and save our beloved mother?”’
She nodded, and took both boys by the hand and vanished into thin air, taking Nereus and Brian with her. They were whirled through the air with force. Their minds felt as if they were going to explode. They looked around and saw themselves in a rainbow tube going through what looked like outer space. Without warning, both men were teleported to the entrance of the celery jail and put out of their weird moment, in the depths of the ocean by the celery farm. They both looked around, but Artemis was nowhere to be seen in plain sight. They both shrugged, and just strolled into the room where they would have to find the keys to enter the area where the cells were placed. “Nereus, I don’t see the keys anywhere, what shall we do now?” Brian exclaimed in a sad and monotone voice. Immediately, Nereus saw a sparkling gold key dangling from the ceiling, about 10 feet above them.
“Brian! I see the keys, put me on top of your large shoulder blades and boost me up into the air. Maybe I will be able to reach them.” Nereus said in pure desperation and shortness of breath. Brian lifted Nereus onto his shoulders and lifted him up using all of his strength. Nereus grasped the keys and Brian lifted him down into the hard ground. They both immediately trotted into the cell room and saw their mother at the end of the hallway screaming at the top of her lungs to not let her go due to the prophecy she had said right before she had been taken from her house by the government. Both brothers had no idea what she was talking about and continued on with what they were encouraged on pursuing. They had continued walking towards her and immediately unlocked her from her jail cell.
“Boys, do you not remember what I told you! If I leave this jail, I will be gone forever, and you will not be able to see me for eternity, do you understand?”
“Yes mom,” Nereus said with a slight grin on his face as if he was in pure defiance and not understanding the very words his mother had just said. They took her by the hand and walked right out of the jail.
When Brian looked back to check if the so called “prophecy” had really spoken, to his fear, he saw no one standing behind them. He called for his beloved mother; but no response was received. Brian kneeled down and started sobbing like a rainstorm. Nereus turned around out of pure disbelief and tried to comfort his brother while trying to hold in the storm of tears he had coming. All of a sudden, they heard a loud voice coming from what heard like the black clouds that were hanging above them. The voice in a booming tone said,
“Boys, this is the prophecy speaking. Because of your bad actions and not listening to your mother, she has been lost for eternity. I’m dearly sorry.”
After hearing this, the boys slowly found their way home throughout a time span of 20 years. For 10 years, they both lived at their house in pure sadness and despair. They started not eating, make them very sick and very skinny. Right before they were about to reach death, a couple of legendary soccer players arrived at their house overlooking the ocean.
“Hey Nereus, Brian, we’ve heard about your very bad situation. I’m Pele. This man right here to the right is Cristiano Ronaldo, and this man over here to the left is a man by the name of Johan Cruyff. We’ve came here to help get your mom back.”
Both brothers sat there in disbelief.
“Um Pele? You realize that in order to get our mother back you must do this in an extremely fast timely manner because she is already gone. If we don’t get her back quickly, she will actually be totally gone from humanity,” replied Brian in a slow and persuasive tone to his voice.
“Yeah, just what Brian said,” exclaimed Nereus in a speedy manner to try and get the point across without having the words sink deep into the peers minds.
The soccer legends walked into their beautiful villa and immediately got their tools out to start the appearance of their long lost mother.
Immediately, without warning, the men muttered some gibberish words and seconds later, their mother had appeared covered in ashes and dirt as if she had been working out in the fields for a whole week without b
athing. Nereus and Brian both rushed towards their mother and gave her the biggest hug anyone had probably experienced in their entire life. All of them were so happy to finally being able to see each other again after the thought that they would never get to see each other again. The men looked back to thank the kind people who had just solved all of their problems from their life, but in pure disbelief, Brian saw that they had disappeared as if nothing had ever happened. The brothers ignored that and focused on the fact that they (the soccer legends) had defeated the prophecy and gotten their mother back. For the rest of the families lives, they all were thriving in pure in peace on top of their cliff above the ocean and in their beautiful little villa, and would never, ever, not listen to one another for the rest of their lives.
Autumn’s Journey
By Sierra
The sharp forest green leaves rustled in the breeze, eager to transform into something amazing.
The terrifying Greek gods and goddesses gazed down on the shifting world, watching the mortals from the paradise Olympus.
As Zeus played with the cheery nymphs, Apollo and Artemis tinkered with the sun and moon’s powers, and motherly Demeter was spending time with her daughters, Arctina, Lunita, and Persephone. Arctina had luscious white hair and sharp blue eyes that gazed into everything she looked at. From her appearance you wouldn’t think she was a kind woman, but she was just that and more. Lunita had crazy yellow hair, kind, green eyes, and an outrageous personality that sometimes made her get into trouble... Soon Persephone, their sister, would be going down to live with appalling Hades in the Underworld. They were saying their farewells and enjoying their time together while they could. Playing in the fields and smelling the freshly cut grass, Persephone quickly sprouted colorful roses, Lunita helped the roses bloom to perfection, and Arctina watered them with ice-cold water until they froze into alluring forms of beauty. Motherly Demeter had helped perfect her daughters’ powers as the girls were children, so they could rule the seasons alone as women. She was very proud of them, but sadly now she had to let one go for seven months. Poor Persephone, left in the Underworld to live with Hades and a bunch of dead people. But Persephone had to, because of those seven tiny, tart pomegranate seeds that she ate in the Underworld when Hades captured her. For every seed she ate, she had to be in the underworld for that many months. While the girls and their mother were together, Zeus was chuckling and playing with the nymphs. His favorite nymph was named Autumn, and she was the most cheerful out of all of them. But when she had her down times, she was really sad. Zeus knew she could cheer anyone up, and because Hera became outraged at Zeus for being with the nymphs, that came in handy. The sisters, Arctina and Lunita, started crying and wished they could help their sister somehow to be happy with Hades. As soon as they spotted Autumn, they knew an answer. Why not have Autumn go down to the Underworld with Persephone? That way, she was sure to be happy.
The glad girls ran to mighty Zeus to plead for his happy nymph while Persephone spent time with her mom. “Zeus, mighty Zeus, please may we ask you a favor?” They said in unison.
Zeus stubbornly responded, “Arctina and Lunita… I know you are sad that your sister Persephone will depart from our world, but we made a deal! She will stay with Hades for seven months, and that’s final. Is there anything else?”
Lunita sweetly said, “Oh, no, Zeus. That is not the case. Our sister is just sad and lonely and we think we know what might cheer her up!” They were so excited to share their plan to the tremendous god. “We would like to have a cheerful nymph go down to the Underworld to cheer Persephone up when she is sad! What do you think?”
Zeus thought about it for a moment, then agreed that this would be a great plan. He said he would give them the most cheerful nymph he had, because he also felt sorry for Persephone. “Who is the nymph?” Arctina questioned, already knowing what the answer would be.
“Her name is Autumn, and she has a contagious personality. She the happiest and most optimistic nymph I know!” Zeus happily said, obviously pleased with himself. The sisters shrieked with joy that they had got what they wanted. Later, Zeus told all the nymphs except for Autumn, because he wanted her to still be cheerful when they took her. When the nymphs heard the news, they mourned, because Autumn was their sister and friend. But Zeus had commanded them not to tell her, for her own good. He would tell her the news the next day, and every god, goddess, and mortal would know the news.
The next day, Zeus brought Autumn to his castle in Olympus and told her what would happen. He told her this was for Persephone, and for him, so she would do her duty. As soon as she knew, she asked Zeus with her normal cheerful voice if she could be dismissed, and he agreed, surprised she was still glad. This was all just an act though, and she flew back home as fast as her wings could carry her, to tell her friends the news. With a sad and depressed voice she cried, “Zeus has commanded I go to the Underworld! I can’t do this! It’s so terrible there that I would die of sadness. What will I do?” She burst into tears.
Her sister, Crystal, said, “Autumn, we already know… We have no clue what to do without you. But this is Zeus’ command, so you must do it. We know you can! You can brighten anyone’s day just with a smile!” The other nymphs nearby agreed and comfortingly embraced the teary nymph. Autumn was strengthened by their words and decided that she could do the hard trial. It was only for seven months, not even a year. And Persephone was a beautiful and kindhearted goddess, so it wouldn’t be half as bad. Sorrowfully, Autumn said goodbye to all her friends with tearful eyes and flew back to Zeus’ castle to tell him she was ready to go. She knew she wouldn’t be seeing them again for seven months.
Meanwhile, Artemis was teaching Apollo how to shoot an arrow on Earth, and it wasn’t working very well. Apollo was used to playing the lyre, a small harp, but not shooting arrows at innocent animals! He never thought he would catch on. “I’m never going to catch on, Art! Why are you making me do this?”
“You’re my brother. You have to learn.” Frustrated, Artemis looked upwards to see if the day was almost over and the sun was setting, but it wasn’t even close. There wasn’t even a hint of a sunset yet. All she could see that was different was a bright and colorful dainty creature flying in the sky in the direction of Olympus. “I think she’s crying Apollo! Look. Poor creature.”
Sure enough the girl was bawling, and Apollo was curious what was wrong. “Let’s go to Olympus, and see if Zeus knows what’s wrong.” So the twins did.
When they arrived a couple minutes later, the young nymph wasn’t there, so they ran up to Zeus and asked if he knew who the nymph was. Right after, Zeus said, “That is none of your business. It is only a nymph who will be taken to the Underworld to keep the goddess Persephone company for seven months.” The twins looked at one another and felt the nymph’s sadness. Being kindhearted, they desired to help the young girl.
Apollo said, “Zeus, do you realize what you’re doing? This poor nymph is being sent to her death!”
Artemis said, “You can’t do this. Please let her stay here. Have you seen how sad she is?” As the gods and goddess argued, Autumn burst through the old, splintered castle door, trying to hold back tears and show Zeus she was capable of doing it. But she knew she really wasn’t. Zeus realized what he was about to do: send the happiest nymph on the most sorrowful journey. This was bad. He had already told Persephone that Autumn was coming, and she was very happy to have someone other than herself who wasn’t dead. Possibly Autumn could only stay there for shorter than seven months? But how long?
“Zeus, I’m ready.” Autumn sadly said. Apollo and Artemis glanced at Zeus with worried looks. As Demeter, Persephone, Arctina, and Lunita arrived, Autumn was shaking with sadness and thought, what will I do? This is way too scary for me. The Underworld? Well, there’s no turning back now. Seven months with dead people, Hades, and Persephone. Ugh. Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, Arctina, Lunita, and poor Autumn stood in silence. That was when Zeus thought of something. He was gaz
ing at the two sisters, Lunita and Arctina. They rule the bright summer and snow-coated winter. Those two seasons were so different, like a lion and a lamb, who couldn’t cooperate by each other. There had to be something in between. There was already spring, thanks to Persephone, so the transition from winter to summer was smooth. But what about the transition from summer to winter? That was where Zeus decided Autumn would fit in. When she was happy and bright, she sure was shining happiness. But when she was sad, she sure was depressed. And it happened fast. This was perfect. All he had to do was change her personality into a season, so none of her friends would be too sad with her gone. Then however she felt in the Underworld would be what the season did. It was perfect. And Autumn would know that however she felt, her friends would see, so they still had some sort of connection and she would be happy for at least a couple months and cheer Persephone up. Then she would start to be sad because she missed being with her friends, which started the transition to winter. Zeus imagined his plan was brilliant.
“Gods, goddesses, and nymph,” Zeus started, “I have a brilliant plan to make everyone happy.” Everyone whispered quietly to one another. Apollo and Artemis were happy for Autumn. But Autumn has her doubts, Zeus is great, but he can’t make everyone happy. That’s impossible. How will I be happy in the Underworld without my friends and sunshine? “Autumn will go to the Underworld,” he declared. Autumn immediately thought the worst. I knew it. Everyone but me will be happy. “But she will stay in the Underworld for only around three months.” Autumn blew out a breath of relief. “Her personality and how she is feeling will look like how it is on Earth. Nature will change in a transition from summer to winter. Do any of you have suggestions for what we will call this time?” Autumn was so relieved. She would only have to stay in the Underworld for three months, not seven, and she could still kind of be with her sisters, the nymphs.
Demeter spoke up. “This a season, right? Just like summer, winter, and spring? What if my daughters come up with the name…? After all, they are the queens of the seasons…” The three sisters agreed and began brainstorming. They each came up with 2 names that they thought were good, and shared them. From Arctina there was Takurua and Dimra. These were other names for winter. Lunita chose names that meant summer: Vera and Lato. Persephone thought of Lapaki, which means spring.
Persephone started to share the second name for the season, “I think the most appropriate name will be autumn. Her name is Autumn, and the season is basically her, so why not?” Everyone thought it was a great idea. Especially Autumn. She was so excited that she could have her own season! It was like she was one of them, a beautiful goddess! Even though she would never see what the season was like, and Persephone wouldn’t either, it was still fun to be a nymph and be the ruler of a season.
Zeus declared, “Now that that decision is made, it’s time to say bye to our dear friends here, Persephone and Autumn. Hades will arrive soon to take them.” Sadly, the only person she could say goodbye to now was Zeus, but none of her sisters. As Persephone was hugging everyone and saying goodbye, Hades walked up through the floor of the castle to greet his queen. “Horrifying Hades, another person will be going with you. Meet Autumn, the cheerful nymph. She is now the goddess of autumn.” Autumn smiled, as sad as she was to be leaving the sunny world, and her friends, but she was going to be with Persephone for three months, while being a goddess for all that time.
Hades whined, “No! I want to be alone with Persephone!” Zeus glared at his brother and with that once glance, Hades quieted. “Well, let’s go…” He seemed to create a portal from the floor of the castle on Mount Olympus. He started walking downward, as if he were walking down stairs, and beckoned for Persephone to come. Persephone said one last goodbye to her family then trailed after the god of the Underworld, Autumn right behind her. Autumn realized, this is an adventure, not a punishment. I see that now. I’m a goddess of a season named after me! Three more months and I’ll return to live here again. As soon as they disappeared into the Underworld, the world underneath Mount Olympus changed a bit. The leaves changed into bright and happy colors and the nymphs and gods knew that it was Autumn, the nymph changed goddess who did this amazing work.
Crystal, Autumn’s best friend and sister, looked down from her cloud bed that night at the changing world reminded of her friend and said, “We miss you, Autumn.” The stars came out and were so happy with Autumn that they shined through the earth’s crust, into the Underworld, where Persephone and Autumn slept. And to this day, between summer and winter, Autumn enters the Underworld with Persephone and activates the season of autumn.
The Polar Bear
By Tabitha Brakefield
Artemis was a hunter. She enjoyed getting food for her village. Artemis had a brown and gold highlights, she had very beautiful purple bright eyes like the sparkling jewels that lay in the cave. When she was young she would hunt every day for her father. Sometimes with her father, when she grew up it just stuck with her and now day and day she hunts.
The villagers lived in modern time, with all the Gods keeping them safe in the sky were the villagers prayed and gave sacrifices for them. Artemis was the one to get the food; rabbits, bears, squirrels.
One day, when Artemis went to go scavenging for food, she dashed down in the land to go hunting. “Zeus, I’m going down to hunt,” she said while she was getting her bow and arrow. “Bring back a bear” he said with a loud roar.
After a while, when Artemis around the dark deep forest, nobody would ever come in because it was too dangerous. She did as she was told. Artemis found a cub and his mother by the spring water. She got an arrow from quiver, pulled back and shot. The momma bear gave a loud roar with pain.
The momma was carried to the village. Zeus was astonished that Artemis would kill something like that. When Persephone saw she went down to the land. “What have you done?” she shouted with anger.
“What have I done?” Artemis said, “I’ve given food for this poor village,” she said with a little bit of sass. Persephone was filled with anger as she went up into the clouds.
“Zeus!” she said, “Have you seen what she’s done?”
“Yes I have and I wanted her to do that to sacrifice one bear.”
“What!” Persephone questioned, she shook her head vigorously.
“What do you mean?” questioned Zeus, “It’s a simple bear.”
“A simple bear! Its wildlife and wildlife needs to be protected, and by the way she is killing all the animals soon there won’t be any animals left”.
“Any left!” he said with a smirk like it was funny.
“I can just make more of them. I’m Zeus,” Zeus bragged.
“I know one thing, and you can’t make animals. You are the ruler of the Gods you don’t assemble animals.”
“Well, you are just being smart. I can create anything,” Zeus said with anger that made the room around her echo.
“No you can’t,” said Persephone, “I know you can’t like I just, said you are the ruler of all Gods. One thing I know is that you don’t do you don’t make animals just appear”. Persephone stormed off, Zeus was still arguing with himself thinking, yes I can I’m the ruler of all Gods. I can do anything that I please.
Later that day Persephone when no one was watching, put a sleeping dust on the bear and took the mamma somewhere safe. Then, when she knew no one was watching, she patched the bars wound.
Persephone had an idea, “Maybe I could move this bear to a safer place, like, like the Arctic” She said out loud even though she knew no one could hear her.
When she came out of the safe place, it was getting dark, she took the bear to an abandoned barn so the bear could be safe. Until morning.
The next morning and when Persephone went to the barn she had told everyone that she was going on a trip to the forest for some calming sound.
Then, when she had everyone fooled she took the bear out of the barn.
It took many days. Many days. When she finall
y arrived to her destination, she was tired and ready to leave, but she would not because she wanted to have the momma bear to be safe and not die. When she finally reached the Arctic, Persephone bent down on her knees and started to laugh hysterically because she was happy that she made it, made it to the Arctic and her plan might work... She laughed so hard it hurt her stomach. She did not know why she was laughing so hard she thought it was so funny. The momma bear was right behind her, the momma bear plopped on top of Persephone to keep her warm. When she noticed, and finally stopped laughing, she hugged the bear because she was very happy she would not give up, because she was strong. She felt the soft bear fur on her skin and that made her really happy.
Then she finally noticed she probably went too far with Artemis. She felt really bad about how she had a very mean tone.
Persephone always felt bad when she did something like that. She was a very kind person, and she wanted to still be friends with Artemis. When she went back home that took about the same amount of time when she left. When she arrived with the village, she made the village have spring time and have more food for the winter and more food to keep having dinner for the rest of the days and not starve. Artemis said she was sorry to Artemis, which she said she was sorry to.
She told everyone that they will be something new in the world, a new type of bear. The new bear change the color of its dark brown fur into pure white to blend in with the snow, longer feet to help it swim and catch fish easily in the deep dark depths under the thick ice.
Origin of Ninja’s, Spinjitsu, and Roses
By Elliott Chen
Luke was bored to death as he waited for his mom to return from the market to buy food and pick him up from school. To pass the time by, he decided to tinker with his school utensils.
“This is a boring life.” Luke muttered under his breath. “Sometimes I wish I could be part of the war.” At this part of the war the Greeks were losing against the monsters that lay just outside of Greece’s borders. Maria, Luke’s brother happened to come across him while chatting with her friends.
“Hey Luke what’s wrong,” she asked.
“Nothing,” he grumbled, “Waiting for you.”
Their conversation were interrupted when the considered unbreakable school exploded into millions of pieces.
“Hurry!” said a boy in armor with a gleaming sword who suddenly appeared in front of Luke’s face, “You don’t have much time left to run! Walk down the road, take the first left, then the second right!” Luke and Maria didn’t hesitate to run. As they ran, they became aware of the screams of dying men as they hit the second right.
“Luke!” screamed Maria, “It’s a dead end!”
“Whatever, let’s just run through it.” They were surrounded by boys and girls in full armor and spears when they
“Hello” replied a boy in armor. “We have been waiting for you.”
“Like we even recognize you.” muttered Maria, Luke barely being able tell what she said.
“Actually, we know you two,” replied a nymph who seemed to hear what she said. “It’s about time you learned about your true self. Maria, you are actually a nymph me albeit it may not look like it. Luke, you are the son of… actually, all we know is that you are the son of a god, like most of us are, we may be often called “demigods.”
“We are out of time Riana!” yelled a boy, who had a wound on his left shoulder and cuts all over his legs and arms, to the girl who looked like the leader. “We’ve got to go back, we can’t hold them anymore!” That seemed like enough to get the warriors to pour out of the room. Maria and Luke ran after them, but when they got to the forest, Luke passed out.
Luke woke up in the forest. “Hey, wake up, it’s time for breakfast.” said a voice.
“How long was I out?” Luke asked, rubbing his eyes, still half asleep only to find when his vision cleared, a muscular boy wearing armor, shin guards, and a Spartan style helmet.
“I don’t know, don’t ask me.” he replied as he handed Luke a bowl of light brown oatmeal. Luke took a sip, it smelled like rice and tasted somewhat sweet like sugar.
Then they heard a horn blow. “Oh, it’s time for the meeting, follow me,” the boy gruffly ordered. They walked to a house with a yellow flag with a green laurel embroidered on it.
“Greetings,” a girl said who standing guard at the door was. “I assume this is our new boy?”
“Yep,” the boy replied. “Wait here,” and then whispered to Luke, “I’m called Thomas by the way, the girl’s called Alisa,” then walked inside.
One hour later after Thomas went inside, he came out, saying, “The council has decided that you must begin training immediately.”
Five days after training began, Luke received a letter that had a wax seal that somehow had iron, bronze, gold, and silver mixed in it.
“Well, don’t wait, open it!” screamed a little voice in his head.
Cautiously, Luke opened the letter as if it was going to hurt him. Inside was a letter written by an unknown object or person. It read:
“Dear Luke,
Since the gods like me cannot directly interfere with you war, I have decided to send you a weapon that might be useful against Kronos. Sadly, we are also at war with him.
Sincerely,
Hephaestus, God of the Fire and the Forge.”
Luke took one last peek at the envelope, there was a tiny piece of package that had: “For Luke Only” emblazoned in silver on it. He unwrapped the package and alas! Enclosed in the package were blueprints of new weapons. Luke hurried to the armory but was rudely blocked by a centurion named Hank.
“Where do you think you’re going punk?”
“Go mind your own bee’s wax or you’ll be sorry that you ever lived punk.” Luke sneered back.
“Who do you think,” Hank said, “is boss here huh doofus? Who do you think you are threatening a demigod who is higher rank than you? Huh?”
“Oh that’s okay, I guess you don’t want a new weapon that might help us win the war do you?” Luke retorted, “Oh yeah, I forgot, you don’t!” Luke could not resist another insult, “because you’re an idiotic coward with his tail between his legs because he’s scared.”
Luke thought he hit the nail on the head when he saw a look of shock on Hank’s face, but then it returned to a scowl.
“Fine then, but I’ll be watching you from now on.” replied Hank as he walked away.
Luke walked to the forge and opened the first blueprint of the four weapons. It looked like a four pointed star. It had a hole in the middle and sharp edges and sides and it was meant to be made about the size of a dart and was supposed to be made of iron or steel or… celestial bronze! His hands immediately set to work on these inventions. By the end of the day, he had finished perfecting it and made at least ten ninja stars. When Maria saw him fiddling with the ninja star’s, in Luke’s perspective, she freaked out and overreacted.
“I-I-I-I-is th-th-that b-b-bronze?” Maria asked fearfully stuttering.
“Yep,” Luke said, “and that’s not all.” He tossed the new weapon at her but aimed at her hair and into the bull’s eye in the archery targets, cutting a bit of Maria’s hair off and impaling itself in the target... Maria jumped, shocked.
“Luke!” she screamed, “you could’ve seriously hurt someone with that! Or me!”
“What, I’ve been practicing.” Luke replied with a laugh, “and I already have a name for it.” He loved it when his sister freaked out since she always overreacted.
“Well, be careful.” Maria warned and drifted away.
Luke quickly began to work on the weapons and two days later, he finished them. Luke brought them to Riana and the warriors outside the council building.
“Wow!” exclaimed Hank.
“How does this work?” asked another nymph inquisitively who was very cautiously holding the star as if it was very lethal.
“I’ll show how to use the weapons later and answer any questions.”
After Luk
e finished, a warrior hurried and started whispering to Riana, then she motioned for the warriors, including Luke, to come inside the building. After a while, they came out and settled down to their own places where they were before. “Well do you want me to demonstrate the weapons I made?” Luke quietly said, breaking the silence
“Sweet!” yelled Thomas
“Awesome!” said Hank.
“What are we waiting for?” yelled another nymph excitedly, not knowing what she was in for.
“See and be amazed!” Luke, who was in black ninja clothes and the red headband, unleashed the weapons hidden in his clothing. He decided to start with the ninja stars. He threw one at the archery practice one-hundred meters away. Then, he quickly put three between his fingers in both hands and threw them at the dummies five-hundred meters away. This was what he called Spinjitsu. They all landed on the heads of the dummies. Then, out of nowhere, fruit sailed furiously toward him. Luke unsheathed his katana and sliced them into dinner. Then he leaped up and sliced a rock flew towards him very quickly and he cut as if it was butter with a downward cut. By the time he finished showing off the bombs, the crowd was in complete shock of how he made the weapons.
“Well then, if we can have about five warriors like this newbie be trained like this, we’ll go and attack Kronos. His army grows stronger each day.” said Riana. The crowd howled their agreement.
By September 25th, Luke had already trained five people on how to handle and make the weapons he presented a couple days ago. In honor of the ninja star, he called the warriors who handled these new weapons ninja’s.
At the morning meeting, nervous Riana decided to go to war.
“Are you sure about this?” asked a normal, brown haired warrior who was somewhat tall.
“Yes, now or never.” replied Riana.
Luke spoke out loud, “Raise your hand if you want to go to war with Kronos now.” He paused, then said, “If you are not like a coward who does nothing to help others.” This remark worked because over half the people raised their hand. “Then let’s go!”
Five minutes later, they got to Olympian grounds back to the city where they were attacked. They hid under a big black bad hill for cover so they were not caught. The battle turned into a disaster the moment it began. The monsters would have completely overpowered all the attackers if it had not been for the other five ninja’s Luke trained to fight the monsters. He and Maria plus Riana went to fight Kronos. It was a hard battle, and at one point it looked like the Romans were losing, then it looked like they were winning. At this point of the battle, many dead warriors and monsters lay strewn across the battlefield. No one, no one, was lucky at the battlefield Luke, Maria and Riana was not so lucky with Kronos either. Five minutes later, Kronos leaped at Maria and cut downwards but instead, Riana jumped in his way and took the killing blow instead.
“Riana!” screamed Maria,
“N-no more t-t-time,” she stuttered, “r-r-r-r-remember the prophecy.” then, she looked at Luke. He nodded as if he knew what she was talking about. Riana died.
“Sorry Maria, but it has to be done.” as he unsheathed his dagger and stabbed her.
“L-l-l-Luke,” Maria gasped with her hand on the blade, “I thought we were at least friends.”
“This is the only way to defeat him. Take a flaming arrow, dip it in nymph’s blood, and shoot Kronos in the head,” as he dipped a flaming arrow that stung his hand into her blood.
“I’ll have revenge soon!” screamed Maria and then perished hating Luke.
Then Luke turned around and looked hatefully into Kronos’s eyes.
“Die!” Luke screamed with a fiery hatred, screaming as he shot Kronos like a ruthless bandit who wanted revenge. Kronos laughed.
“You cannot stop me b…” Kronos was stopped mid-sentence and returned to Tartarus, defeated.
Thus the battle ended, Luke was praised for his courage, officially made the new weapons and became a general, Riana, and many others died that day, and Maria was honored for her forced death and so the gods transformed her body into a rose, stained red with her blood, as now all of them are, and since Maria died hating Luke, roses have thorns on them.