Aphrodite & the Gold Apple

  Welcome to ALADDIN QUIX!

  If you are looking for fast, fun-to-read stories with colorful characters, lots of kid-friendly humor, easy-to-follow action, entertaining story lines, and lively illustrations, then ALADDIN QUIX is for you!

  But wait, there’s more!

  If you’re also looking for stories with tables of contents; word lists; about-the-book questions; 64, 80, or 96 pages; short chapters; short paragraphs; and large fonts, then ALADDIN QUIX is definitely for you!

  ALADDIN QUIX: The next step between ready to reads and longer, more challenging chapter books, for readers five to eight years old.

  Cast of Characters

  Aphrodite (af•row•DYE•tee):

  A golden-haired, beautiful girl found in a shell

  Athena (uh•THEE•nuh):

  A brown-haired girl who travels to magical Mount Olympus

  Persephone (purr•SEFF•oh•nee):

  A girl with flowers and leaves growing in her hair and on her dress

  Oliver (AH•liv•er):

  Athena’s puppy

  Zeus (ZOOSS):

  Most powerful of the Greek gods, who lives in Sparkle City and can grant wishes

  Hestia (HESS•tee•uh):

  A small, winged Greek goddess who helps Aphrodite, Athena, and Persephone

  Medusa (meh•DOO•suh):

  A mean mortal girl with snakes for hair, whose stare can turn other mortals to stone

  Artemis (AR•tih•miss):

  A black-haired girl with a bow and arrow

  1 On the Road

  Aphrodite rolled her neck from side to side. Swish went her long golden hair. Then she circled her arms in the air. “Feels sooo good to be able to stretch,” she told Athena and Persephone. She had met these two new friends only yesterday here in the magical land of Mount Olympus. Both were eight years old, like her.

  Because of a magic spell, she’d been locked inside a giant shell. She hadn’t been able to move around much. So no wonder stretching felt good to her! Her new friends had rescued her from that shell in a deep underground place called Wunderworld.

  After leaving that place they’d walked a long way along the orange, blue, and pink Hello Brick Road. They had slept under the stars. Then they had gotten up early this morning to begin walking again. For the past two hours Aphrodite had made a game out of trying to step only on the pink bricks. Pink was her favorite color!

  Persephone yawned. “All this walking is making me tired. If you showed me to a flower bed, I’d take a nap in a snap!”

  Real leaves and flowers always grew from her dress. And from her curly yellow hair. So yesterday in Wunderworld some giant daisies had mistaken her for one of them. They’d tried to capture her! They’d wanted her to hang out and be friends with them forever. Luckily Aphrodite and Athena had been able to rescue her.

  “At least Oliver is getting a nap. He’s pooped,” said Athena. She glanced down at Oliver, her little white dog. She was carrying him in her book bag. The top flap was open. His head stuck out, but his big brown eyes were closed. “The sooner we get to Sparkle City, the better. Zeus just has to help me get back home!” Athena said.

  Aphrodite knew Athena didn’t belong in this magical land. A strange storm had blown her here from far away.

  “And I hope he’ll give me the gift of good luck!” Persephone added. She was sure she had a case of “bad luck-itis.” And she was afraid her bad luck rubbed off on others.

  “Yeah, good plan,” Aphrodite told Persephone as she trudged along. Having daisies try to trap you was definitely bad luck.

  The three girls were on their way to see Zeus. He was king of the gods and super-duper powerful. If anyone could help them, it would be him! However, he lived in Sparkle City at the top of Mount Olympus. They hoped they would get there by tonight.

  Aphrodite took a big jump to land on the next pink brick. She had a reason for wanting to see Zeus too. People told her she was hard to like sometimes. Probably because she said whatever words came into her head, without thinking first. And sometimes that hurt people’s feelings or made trouble. So she wanted Zeus to give her the gift of likability. Then maybe she’d be able to make and keep friends.

  She looked at the sleeping dog. “I wish I was small enough to fit inside your book bag,” she said to Athena. “Then maybe I could catch some z’s too!”

  Athena and Persephone laughed. The Hello Brick Road had been winding up a grassy hill for the past twenty minutes. Now they got to the top of it.

  “Look! Poppies!” Persephone exclaimed. She pointed ahead. Fields of bright red flowers grew on both sides of the road far into the distance. Giggling in delight, she left the road and went leaping through the flowers.

  “No!” Athena quickly called out. “Come back!” She chased Persephone into the poppy field, trying to stop her.

  Hestia, a tiny, glowing, fairylike goddess, had told them that as long as they stayed on the Hello Brick Road they would be safe. But there was danger once off it. The last time they’d seen the tiny goddess, she’d said: “If all goes well, you’ll reach Sparkle City soon. But there’s danger ahead. Watch out for—”

  Only before she could tell them what they needed to watch out for, her glowing light began blinking. And then… Pop! She’d disappeared.

  “Ha! Danger doesn’t scare me!” Aphrodite had declared at the time. Even so, she didn’t stray from the road. She just hoped that her friends weren’t making a very bad mistake.

  As she watched worriedly, both girls slowed and then sank to their knees. “Sooo sleepy,” Persephone murmured.

  Athena yawned. “Me too.” They lay down among the poppies and began to snore softly.

  “Wake up!” Aphrodite called from the safety of the road. But the two girls stayed fast asleep.

  Suddenly Aphrodite heard a familiar cackle. “Eee-heh-heh!” A girl with wiggly green snakes for hair popped up from behind a tall clump of poppies near Athena.

  “Medusa!” Aphrodite exclaimed, frowning. She was the one who’d used magic to trap Aphrodite in that shell!

  2 Medusa’s Poppies

  “That’s my name, don’t wear it out!” Medusa gave Aphrodite an evil grin. This snake-haired girl could turn people to stone. She did it with magic zaps from her eyes. Those zaps hadn’t worked the time she tried them on Aphrodite, though. So she’d locked her in that shell instead.

  “Go away forever and I promise I’ll never say your name again,” Aphrodite blurted out. As usual, she spoke without thinking.

  “Grr,” growled Medusa.

  “Hisss,” went her snakes.

  Aphrodite pointed toward her sleeping friends. “You cast a spell over those poppies, didn’t you? So they’ll make everyone but you take a nap!”

  “That’s right,” said Medusa. “You snooze, you lose. In Athena’s case anyway. Watch this!” She waved her arms over the poppies. “Army, rise up!” she shouted.

  At once, large animal-shaped stones appeared out of nowhere. They stood in rows like animal soldiers. There were life-size monkeys, deer, wolves, bears, giraffes, hippos, and more!

  Aphrodite’s eyes got big. “Did you eye-zap a whole zoo, or what?”

  Medusa ignored her. Instead, she called out to the stone animals. “Carry the girl with the little white dog back to my castle.”

  The animal army began to move. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. They chanted a song as they marched toward Athena:

  “Once we were animals. Now we are stone.

  “Changed by Medusa who rules from her throne.

  “All of her orders we must obey.

  “We do what she tells us to, day after day.”

  Aphrodite wanted to help Athena an
d Persephone. But she did not want to leave the Hello Brick Road. If she ran into the poppy field, she’d just fall asleep too. Somehow she had to foil Medusa’s plan.

  She thought fast. “If it’s Athena’s magic sandals you’re after, maybe I can get them for you,” she said. “Then you won’t need to take her to your castle.”

  Medusa had been after those sandals ever since that storm had blown Athena here. The sandals had white wings at their heels and could fly. Medusa claimed they were hers. Yet they’d slid onto Athena’s feet and seemed quite happy to stay there.

  “Nice try,” Medusa replied. “But I know only Athena can take them off. And once I’ve locked her in my castle, she’ll give them to me. Or I won’t let her leave.”

  Aphrodite crossed her fingers behind her back. Then she told a fib. “Athena lets me and Persephone borrow her sandals all the time. It’s easy as pie for us to pull them off her feet and fly them!”

  Medusa’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Army, halt!” she called out. The stone animals froze in their tracks. She looked at Aphrodite and nodded toward the sandals. “Go get them, then.”

  “No way!” said Aphrodite. “Those poppies will make me sleep too.”

  “Not if I make a path through them,” said Medusa. At her order, a stone bear, a hippo, and a large monkey stomped off, clearing a path. It began a few inches from Athena and ended where Aphrodite stood on the road. “There,” said Medusa. “Happy now?”

  “Nope,” said Aphrodite. “How do I know that path is safe?”

  “You are sooooo annoying!” grumped Medusa. “I wish you’d never gotten out of that shell.” She pointed at Oliver. “Get that dog and set him on the path,” she commanded the monkey.

  “Eep! Eep!” went the monkey statue. It did as she ordered. Right away the little dog woke. “Woof! Woof!”

  Aphrodite clapped her hands and called, “Come, Oliver!” He paused and looked over at the sleeping Athena. But then he ran down the newly cleared path to Aphrodite. “Good boy!” She scooped him up in her arms.

  Medusa frowned. Her snakes flicked their forked tongues. “Stop stalling,” she told Aphrodite. “He stayed awake. You got your proof. Now go get me those sandals!”

  “Whoa. You’re so impatient!” Aphrodite set Oliver on the Hello Brick Road. “Stay,” she told him. “You’ll be safe here.” Luckily, the little dog obeyed.

  Aphrodite hurried down the cleared, poppy-less path. When she came even with Persephone, she stopped. “Um… I just remembered something,” she said, hoping to fool Medusa. “I need Persephone’s help to get the sandals.”

  “What? Why?” Medusa demanded.

  Quickly, Aphrodite came up with an answer. “Because I can only pull off Athena’s left sandal. Persephone has to pull off the right.”

  This was another fib. Medusa had been right. Actually, no one but Athena could remove the sandals from her feet. Aphrodite shrugged. “Silly, isn’t it? But, magic is weird, right? Like that eye zap thing you do.”

  “Enough! Just get on with it!” yelled Medusa. She motioned to the monkey statue. It tugged Persephone over to the cleared path.

  Safe from the poppies’ spell, Persephone woke up. She rubbed her eyes. “What happened?” she asked Aphrodite. “One minute I was running through the poppies, and the next minute—” Her words came to a stop. She had noticed Medusa snooping over Aphrodite’s shoulder. Persephone pointed at the snake-haired girl. “What’s she doing here?”

  “She cast a spell over the poppies that made you fall asleep. Athena, too,” Aphrodite explained. “But once we give her Athena’s magic sandals, she’ll go away and leave us alone. C’mon. I’ll pull off the left sandal while you pull off the right one.”

  Persephone jumped to her feet. “But we can’t do that, because…”

  Aphrodite butted in in a flash. “Because Hestia told us we shouldn’t let Medusa have them? That she might use their magic to make trouble for Mount Olympus?”

  “Well, yes,” Persephone said.

  “Baloney,” Aphrodite replied. “Hestia worries too much. I’m sure Medusa will only use the sandals to do good magic.” She winked big at Persephone.

  Medusa didn’t see the wink. “Sure, only good magic! Eee-heh-heh,” the snaky girl fib-cackled.

  At last Persephone caught on. She grinned at Aphrodite. “Oh. Then I guess it’s okay.”

  The girls moved to the end of the path. They bent over Athena’s feet. Aphrodite grasped Athena’s left sandal. Persephone grasped her right one. Then, to distract Medusa, Aphrodite looked over at the stone army animals. “Hey, why is that hippo hula dancing?”

  Medusa whipped around. “Behave, or else!” she shouted to her stone animals. But they were all standing at attention, including the hippos.

  “Pull!” Aphrodite whispered to Persephone. Holding tight to Athena’s feet, the two girls dragged her to safety on the path. The sleeping spell broke, and Athena opened her eyes. Aphrodite and Persephone grabbed her hands and tugged her to stand.

  “Run!” Aphrodite shouted. Holding hands, the three girls raced down the path toward the Hello Brick Road as fast as they could go.

  3 Up the Mountain

  “After them!” Medusa shouted to her army. But Aphrodite, Persephone, and Athena could run faster than heavy stone statues. Within seconds, the three friends got to the Hello Brick Road. Safe!

  Oliver leaped into Athena’s arms. “Woof!” She hugged him.

  “You tricked me!” Medusa shrieked. She shook her fists at the girls. Her snakes hissed. They flicked their forked tongues.

  “So? You were going to kidnap Athena!” Aphrodite replied.

  “Huh?” said Athena as Oliver licked her cheek. “She was?”

  Aphrodite nodded. “She was going to lock you up in her castle and keep you there until you gave her your winged sandals.”

  Persephone gasped. She stared at Medusa. “I knew you were up to no good!”

  Athena looked at her sandals. Then she looked over at Medusa. The snake-haired meanie was stomping around the poppy field.

  “I’ll never let you get these sandals,” Athena called to her. “Never, ever!”

  “So you say now,” Medusa muttered. She angrily plucked petals off poppies and tossed them to the wind. “But you’ll change your mind. Those sandals have powers you can’t even guess. Only I know what magic they can do.”

  “All the more reason for Athena to keep them!” Aphrodite said. “Come on,” she told her two friends. “Let’s try to reach Sparkle City before dark.” To Medusa, she said, “You can take your mean old army and march on back to your castle.”

  “Yeah,” said Persephone. “You can’t harm us. Not as long as we stick to the road!”

  “Eee-heh-heh!” cackled Medusa. “You haven’t seen the last of me! Army, retreat!” she ordered her statues. Immediately, they disappeared without a trace. Then she went too, in a puff of green smoke. Poof!

  Aphrodite punched a fist in the air. “Sparkle City, here we come!”

  They walked for another hour, then came to the base of the steepest part of Mount Olympus. Athena pointed to the top of the mountain. “Look! Rainbow-colored sparkles!” They were from Sparkle City.

  “Almost there!” Persephone exclaimed. “We just have to climb the rest of this thing!”

  “Too bad it’s so steep,” Athena remarked.

  They started upward. Along the way they picked and munched on berries. Oliver ate them too. After a while they came to a very thick forest. It was dark inside it. So dark they could barely see the road ahead. Animal sounds made them jump. So did scraping tree branches.

  “Hoot!” “Growl!” Scritch-scratch!

  “I wish we had a flashlight,” whispered Athena. At her words, the girls heard a click. The single wing at the back of each of Athena’s sandals began to glow. The glow was so bright it lit the girls’ way!

  Aphrodite grinned at Athena. “I think you just found out another one of your sandals’ magic powers! Besides flying, I mea
n.”

  Suddenly Oliver’s ears perked up. He began to growl and bark. Then he dashed up the road.

  “Oliver! Come back!” Athena shouted. But this time the little dog didn’t obey.

  The girls raced after him.

  “Woof! Woof!” Oliver came to a stop at the base of a big olive tree. Here, the Hello Brick Road made a half-circle around the tree before continuing straight ahead again.

  Oliver stood on his hind legs. He pawed at the trunk. “Grrr!”

  “G-get that wild animal away f-from m-me!” a frightened voice wailed.

  The three girls huddled close together. “Is that tree talking?” Athena whispered.

  “Maybe,” Aphrodite said. “Many things talk in this land.”

  “Yeah, remember those talking daisies in Wunderworld?” added Persephone.

  Athena nodded. “Right. And a signpost on this very road spoke to me once. I’ll just check this out.” She lifted one sandaled foot into the air. When its glowing wing shone way up into the tree, the girls gasped.

  “There!” Aphrodite pointed to a branch high up.

  Standing on the branch was a girl about their age. Her long black hair hung over her shoulder in a single braid. She held a bow fitted with a silver arrow. The bow’s string was pulled back tight. And the tip of the arrow was aiming down. At Oliver!

  4 Artemis

  “Stop!” yelled Athena. “Don’t hurt my dog!”

  Her shout startled the girl in the tree, just as Oliver’s barking had. Her feet slipped on the branch.

  As the girl tried to keep from falling, she lost control of her bow. It swung to point upward. Her silver arrow shot through the air. Zzzing! It sailed through the branches high overhead.

  Athena ran to Oliver. He was still barking at the tree. She hugged him. “You’re safe now.”

  “Shame on you!” Aphrodite scolded the girl in the tree. “You could have killed Athena’s dog!”