Apollo and the Battle of the Birds Read online

  “That’s Epimetheus,” Ares whispered.

  “I wish Father would let us fight for King Cronus,” grumbled another, deeper voice.

  “And that’s Atlas,” Ares added.

  “The king’s got soldiers all over the land,” Atlas went on. “Word is, they’re going to capture those annoying Olympians soon.”

  Epimetheus chuckled. “Ha! I bet Rhea will serve King Cronus up a tasty breakfast of them once they’re caught.”

  At these words Zeus’s blood went cold. He looked at his brother and sisters—Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia—and they looked stunned too. “Rhea” was their mother’s name!

  It must be another Rhea, Zeus thought. Our mother would never—

  “Serve her own children to the king, would she?” Atlas said. “Not even our mom would do that!” The Titans laughed.

  Serve her own children to the king. Zeus looked into Hera’s eyes. When she nodded sadly, he knew they were both thinking the same thing: that their mother was on the side of King Cronus!

  Zeus felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. He had always dreamed that he would meet his mom one day. In his imagination she was sweet and kind. She would make him fig pudding, he’d thought, and tell him how proud she was of him for being the leader of the Olympians.

  Now he was crushed, so crushed that he didn’t even hear a loud bell ringing in the distance.

  Ares nudged him. “That’s the lunch bell. They’ll be leaving the field now.”

  Once the coast was clear, none of the Olympians moved right away. Zeus figured his siblings, like him, were still thinking about what those Titans had said about their mother. Finally Hades returned and took off his helmet.

  “They’re in the house,” he reported. Then he noticed the sad faces around him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Well, it sounds like our mom, Rhea, is working with King Cronus,” Poseidon explained. “Stinks, right?”

  “I don’t believe it,” Hades said with a frown.

  “But we heard one of the Titans say so,” Demeter said sadly.

  Hades shrugged. “What do Titans know? I just don’t think our mother would do that.”

  “What our mother would or wouldn’t do isn’t something we have time to think about right now,” Hera snapped. She turned to Zeus. “Come on. We have an aegis to find! You’re supposed to be our leader, aren’t you, Boltbrain? What’s next?”

  Zeus took a deep breath. Hera was right. They had a quest to finish.

  “Hades, put your helm back on and open the gate to the pasture,” Zeus commanded. “Ares, you go inside and tell all the Titans a thief has taken the sheep. When the house is empty, we’ll go in.”

  “We shouldn’t all go in,” Apollo pointed out. “We should leave somebody outside to stand guard. To warn us if the Titans come back unexpectedly.”

  “I’ll do it,” said Demeter. “I wouldn’t be much use hobbling around that big house anyway.”

  “I’ll stand guard with you,” Hestia offered, patting her sister’s arm.

  Hades nodded. “And after I open the gate, I’ll come back and help the two of them keep a lookout,” he said to Hestia and Demeter.

  “Great,” Zeus said. He pointed to Hera, Apollo, and Poseidon. “You guys come search the house with me. Ares, we’ll meet you back at the edge of the forest afterward.”

  “And then we go find some monsters to battle, right?” Ares asked eagerly.

  Zeus rolled his eyes. In his humble opinion this new brother of theirs was way too eager to fight. “Not unless we have to.”

  “All right. Here I go.” Hades put on the helm and immediately disappeared. Leaving Hestia and Demeter behind, the rest of them moved as close to the house as they could. Hiding behind some thick bushes, they heard the sound of sheep bleating as the invisible Olympian herded them toward the open gate.

  Then Ares took off for the house, running and yelling. “Mom! Dad! Somebody is stealing our sheep!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Discovered!

  Right away four giants lumbered out the front door of the big house. Peeking from behind the bushes, Zeus decided the Titans all looked kind of alike. Except one was taller than the others, another had enormous muscles, one was smaller and kind of chubby, and one had a big head of golden blond hair.

  “Where’s the thief?” the muscled one asked, and Zeus recognized Atlas’s voice.

  “He opened the gate and ran off into the trees,” Ares lied. “I tried to chase him, but he was too fast.”

  “Well, thanks for nothing! You ruined our lunch!” whined the chubby one, who must have been Epimetheus, Zeus guessed from his earlier glimpse of him. The tall one was probably Prometheus.

  “If we go chasing after him it’ll make me sweat,” said the blond one, flipping back his hair. Zeus figured he had to be the Vain One, Menoetius.

  Now a fifth giant, taller and older than the others, stomped out of the house. His bushy brown beard was streaked with gray, and he wore a small hourglass around his neck, which hung from a leather cord. Iapetos, the father, obviously.

  “What are you lunks doing, just standing here?” he growled. “Let’s get those sheep!”

  The four Titan brothers thundered toward the pasture. As Ares started to follow them, a female Titan stepped out of the house. Her blond hair was piled up in fancy curls all over her head, and there was bright pink makeup on her cheeks that matched her pink lipstick. Dozens of bracelets dangled from her arms.

  “Hey, Other One!” the accessorized Titan called out to Ares. “Stay here with me. I need help polishing my jewelry.”

  Iapetos grunted in Ares’s direction. “You heard what your mother said. Go help her.”

  Ares nervously glanced toward where the heroes were hiding, and then ran back to the Olympian house.

  “How are we supposed to search the house if it’s not empty?” Hera whispered.

  “It’ll be okay,” Zeus whispered back, hoping he was right. “I’m sure Ares will distract his mom for us.”

  “Anyone want to borrow my helm?” Hades asked, suddenly appearing in front of them.

  “I’ll take it!” Hera said, snatching it from his hands. She slipped it on, becoming invisible. “Let’s go!”

  Hera, Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo tiptoed up to the house. Zeus peeked through the crack between the open door and the doorjamb. He could hear Ares talking in a loud voice.

  “So you want me to help you here in the kitchen, Mom?” he was asking. “The kitchen, on the left side of the house?”

  “He’s letting us know where he is, and that he’s not alone,” Hera hissed. “If we stay away from the kitchen, we’ll be fine.”

  “Of course the kitchen, you idiot,” they heard Clymene, wife of Iapetos, say, clicking her tongue. “Honestly, Other One, you have even fewer brains than the Silly One!”

  Zeus sneaked through the front door. He had been in a Titan’s house before. Everything in it was much bigger than in a regular home, since the Titans were giants. The door opened up into a hallway. Against one wall was a wooden table twice as tall as Zeus, with a big pitcher on top. Farther along the hallway he could see doors leading to other rooms.

  He turned back to the others. “Everybody pick a door and search the room beyond it,” he said. “Just don’t go into the kitchen.”

  Apollo and Poseidon nodded. Hera probably did too, but Zeus couldn’t tell because she still wore Hades’s helm. The other three Olympians quietly slipped into the house behind Zeus, and they all split up.

  Zeus went into a door on the left. Just before he pushed through it, he glimpsed a door on the right push open and figured it was Hera, still invisible.

  Meanwhile, Hera looked around inside the room she had entered. It was a pantry, with shelves holding big loaves of bread, dried meat, bowls of figs and olives, and baskets of carrots and onions. Dried herbs hung from the ceiling, filling the pantry with their scent.

  Shiny. Metal. Tassels, Hera reminded herself. She looked around
but didn’t see anything fitting that description. So no aegis here. Then she heard Clymene again, this time very close by.

  “Where are those rose petals?” the Titaness asked. “Other One, help me look for them in the pantry.”

  Yikes! Hera thought quickly. Even though she was invisible, she didn’t want the Titaness bumping into her. She curled up in a corner of the room, under one of the shelves.

  “I must wash my hair in rose petals tonight,” Clymene was saying as she swept into the room wearing a bright pink robe. Hera saw Ares glance around nervously as he came in behind her. He was probably worried that one of the Olympians was hiding there. He was right!

  “Everyone who matters will be at that temple,” Clymene continued. “And when they hear me sing, well, I will surely get the fame that I deserve! My name will be known throughout the kingdom!”

  She got a dreamy look on her face, but behind her Ares just rolled his eyes. Hera figured he must’ve heard Clymene brag like this before.

  “And of course my beauty must match my voice,” she said. “Now then, Other One. Have you found the rose petals?”

  Ares grabbed a clay jar off a shelf. “Right here.”

  “Excellent! While I prepare my bath, you may finish polishing my jewelry,” she said. Ares sighed.

  Hera let out a breath when he and Clymene and Ares left. She could hear the sound of Clymene’s shiny bracelets jangling as she walked.

  The bracelets . . . Hera suddenly had a thought. She raced out of the pantry and down the hallway, glancing in every room. She finally found what she was looking for—Clymene’s bedroom, the last door on the right.

  None of the others had reached it yet. She was sure it was Clymene’s room, because the curtains were pink, and so was the cover on the bed. Tunics in glittery colors were messily scattered across the floor. Besides the bed, the biggest item in the room was a table pushed against the wall, with a chair in front of it.

  Bracelets, flimsy scarves, and pots of makeup were scattered across the tabletop. Hera shinnied up the leg of a big chair to its seat, which was higher than her head, to get a better look.

  And there it was, hanging from the wall. A bright, golden shield that could be slipped over your neck and worn to protect your chest and back. Gold tassels hung from its bottom.

  Hera’s hunch had been right. Someone who liked shiny things as much as Clymene did would love the aegis. It was way too small for a giant Titan. It looked like she had been using it as a mirror, though.

  Hera reached up and took it off the wall, then stood there, trying to figure out how to get back down from the chair.

  “My aegis! It’s floating!” Clymene shrieked as Hera stood with it in her hands.

  Hera groaned. She had forgotten that even though she was invisible, the aegis wasn’t. Unless she was wearing it, that is. She quickly slipped it over her head, but it was too late. Clymene, in a pink robe, stormed out of the bathroom just as Zeus, Poseidon, and Apollo met up in the hallway. They’d been caught.

  “Other One! What are these small people doing here?” she yelled. Her lips curled in disgust, like she was confronting vermin.

  “Um . . . I don’t know,” Ares replied. “But I’ll chase them out for you. Get out of here, you . . . small people!”

  Zeus and the others broke into a run, heading back out the front door. Clymene watched them go, her mouth open in confusion and a look of horror on her face.

  Once the Olympians were outside, Hera took off the helmet. “I did it!” she cried. “I found the aegis!”

  Poseidon gave her a high five.

  “Come on,” Ares said urgently. “We’ve got to hurry away before—”

  Bam!

  A huge boulder landed in front of them, shaking the ground. Atlas came stomping toward them, his arm raised, ready to throw another huge rock. His brothers and father were behind him, holding enormous rocks too.

  Iapetos pointed at Zeus and his companions. “Capture them. They’re Olympians!” he yelled.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Missing

  With a mighty heave Atlas pulled a small tree out by the roots and hurled it at the Olympians. Zeus reached for Bolt and flung it through the air. It grew as it flew, and sliced the tree trunk in half before it reached the Olympians. Then Bolt turned and flew back to Zeus’s hand.

  “Other One! Why aren’t you beating up those guys?” Atlas yelled to Ares.

  Ares stepped forward. “Because I’m an Olympian like them!” he said proudly. “And we’re ready to do battle!”

  His brothers started cracking up. “You? An Olympian? You’re just a little slug!” Epimetheus crowed. “And you know nothing about battle.”

  Athena looked quizzically at Iapetos. “I thought Slug was our brother.”

  Iapetos shrugged. “Of course he isn’t. Look at him! We’re big! He’s small! I captured him and we pretended he was family so he’d be our servant!” Scowling at Ares, he said, “This is your last stand, little Olympian!” With that, Iapetos removed the hourglass from around his neck.

  “What’s he doing?” Hera wondered aloud.

  “He has power over time,” Ares explained, sounding nervous. “The sand in that hourglass can stop time for whoever it touches. He’ll freeze us and then take us to Cronus.”

  “You’re smarter than we thought, Slug,” Menoetius said. “But not smart enough to get away.”

  Grinning, Iapetos held up the vial of sand.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” yelled Poseidon. He jumped in front of Ares.

  “So you like to control time? Well, it’s bath time, Beardo!” he shouted. He pointed his trident at the bearded Iapetos. A blast of water hit the Titan’s chest, but Iapetos barely noticed it.

  “Bolt!” Zeus yelled. He pointed his thunderbolt at the hourglass, aiming a jagged charge of electricity at it. But Iapetos held up his palm, blocking and absorbing the charge.

  Hera put Hades’s helm back on, picked up broken pieces of boulder, and started hurling them at Iapetos and his sons. They only seemed to bother Epimetheus. “Ow! Ow! Who’s doing that?” he wailed.

  Clymene rushed out of the house in her pink bathrobe. “What is all this racket? I’m trying to take a bath!”

  At the same time Apollo took out his bow and started shooting arrows at the Titans. However, they only brushed the arrows away with their big hands.

  Iapetos laughed. “Foolish Olympians! Give up. Let us end this now.” He held up the hourglass, tipping it toward them like he was going to douse them with sand.

  Suddenly a loud whistle pierced the air. Tweeeeeeeeeet! It was Ares!

  The Titans froze, anxiously looking up at the sky. It grew black overhead as the massive flock of Stymphalian birds raced to answer Ares’s summons.

  One of the birds swooped down, its red eyes blazing, and grabbed the vial from Iapetos’s hands.

  “Call off your pets, Slug!” Iapetos shouted, shaking his fist.

  “No way!” Ares replied. And then to the Olympians he yelled, “Come on. Let’s get out of here while the getting’s good!”

  The birds descended on the Titans as the Olympians raced away from the house. Metal feathers whizzed through the air, and globs of poisonous poop rained from the sky.

  “Wait! Where are Hestia, Demeter, and Hades?” Hera shouted.

  Zeus skidded to a stop. “They’re standing guard.” He quickly changed direction and headed toward the bushes, where they should have been hiding—only, they weren’t.

  “They’re not here!” Zeus called to the others. “We can’t leave them. No Olympian left behind!”

  He felt an invisible arm grab him by the elbow. Then Hera took off the helmet and appeared in front of him. “They’re probably in the forest, waiting for us,” she said. “Come on!”

  Zeus didn’t argue. He hoped Hera was right. But in his heart he feared she might not be.

  He, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, and Ares all raced down the edge of the field, past the lake, and finally stopped at the edge of t
he forest.

  “I don’t see them anywhere,” Zeus said. He circled around the marsh, staring down at the mud. “No footprints, either.”

  “Pythia will help us, have no fear. Let’s just keep walking and wait until she appears,” Apollo suggested.

  “Hey, that’s right,” Poseidon said. “This is about the time Pythia usually shows up! We’ve got the aegis. We found the Olympian. That’s when that misty stuff comes and Pythia appears.”

  “Right!” Zeus agreed. “So let’s just walk and wait.”

  The Olympians walked and waited . . . and walked and waited . . . and walked and waited. Poseidon passed around some bread and cheese and apple-sized berries he had stolen from the Titan kitchen.

  “There’s no grilled cheese without Hestia,” Poseidon said gloomily as they ate.

  They walked and waited. The sun went down, and soon stars dotted the black sky. They stopped walking.

  “I don’t think Pythia’s coming,” Hera said finally.

  “But she always comes,” Poseidon protested.

  “Listen, there’s no point in waiting around here for that oracle forever,” Ares said impatiently. “We need to keep going so we can battle King Cronus and his Cronies!”

  “We can’t do that until Pythia confirms that our current quest is finished and gives us a new quest,” Zeus said stubbornly. “Besides, she might be the only one who can tell us how to find Hades, Hestia, and Demeter.”

  “But she hasn’t shown up, has she?” said Hera. “So what do we do now, oh fearless leader of the Olympians?” she asked. There was more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

  “If Pythia won’t come to us, then we’ll go to her,” Zeus said. “We’ll head for Delphi!”

  Ares clapped him on the shoulder. “Great idea,” he said. “And we can fight off the Cronies all the way there!”

  Poseidon frowned at him. “That’s not as much fun as it sounds.”

  “We need to head north, and then cross the sea to get to Delphi,” Ares reported. “It’s the fastest route.”

  “Chip will lead the way,” Hera said. Still holding Hades’s helm, she reached under the aegis for the amulet with her free hand, and dropped the helm in the process. “Okay, this is a little tricky,” she said.