It was a fine and sunny day in the city of Crete and James Pope was just arriving home from school. James was a normal 16 year old kid. He was tall, had blonde curly hair and strange, light blue eyes. He was adopted by his father Anton after he found him One thing that wasn’t normal about James though was a small tattoo of an owl printed on his chest. James often wondered where this tattoo came from and always came to the same conclusion, that his birth mother had given it to him before she abandoned him.
‘Hi dad’, James yelled as he entered the front door. There was no answer so James just continued upstairs toward his bedroom. As James entered his bedroom he stopped dead in his tracks. There was a man standing on the window sill. This man was very bizarre looking indeed. He was wearing a white rag over his body, a golden pair of winged sandals and a winged helmet. James was sure the man was really there but as soon as he blinked, he was gone. ‘Wow’, James muttered to himself. ‘I must be going insane’. As James walked into his room rubbing his head he noticed something laying on his bed. It was an old, tattered envelope. He picked it up and opened it.
James, The letter read, Mount Olympus needs your help. Hades; Ruler of the underworld threatens to take over mount Olympus. Every living thing will die and their souls will be used as slaves. Please use the ring enclosed in this envelope to teleport to Mt Olympus.
Yours sincerely – Zeus, Supreme ruler of Mt Olympus
The letter was brief but James knew what he had to do. He dug his hand in the envelope and pulled out a silver ring with an owl printed on it. The same owl in fact that was printed on his chest. ‘James wear the ring’, said a female voice inside his head. James always heard the voice giving him advice but never knew where it came from, and with that, he put on the ring. Everything went fuzzy and he fell down….down….down.
James awoke suddenly. He quickly jumped up and looked around. He was in the middle of a giant room, the most magnificent room he’d ever seen. The walls were made of solid gold and the floor of shining marble. All the way around the room the wall was covered with giant thrones and at the top of the room was biggest and the grandest throne of them all. Sitting in this throne was a giant man with a glistening silver beard, and in his left hand, he was wielding a golden lightning bolt. ‘Z-Z-Zeus’, James stammered, but before the man had a chance to answer a model of Earth in the centre of the room started to spin rapidly and out of it appeared 10 other giant people. ‘Poseidon, Hestia, Hera, Ares, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hephaestus and Hermes meet James, our demy-god’, Zeus said to the gods who had just appeared. They seemed to take no notice of James and just sat in their thrones and chatted hastily. ‘James my boy’, Zeus said. ‘Yes mister Zeus sir’, said James shakily. ‘Your quest is to assist Hermes in blocking the entrance to the Underworld. Hermes will fill you in as you head there. HERMEEEEEEEEEES!’ yelled Zeus. Suddenly a man jumped off his throne and walked towards Zeus. ‘Hey you’re the guy I saw in my bedroom’, James said. Hermes didn’t listen and started whispering to Zeus. Zeus handed Hermes a glowing purple orb and with that, he turned around and headed toward the Earth next to where James was now standing. ‘Take my hand’, he ordered James. James put his hand in Hermes’s and once again everything went fuzzy.
James looked around and saw he was in a forest standing next to Hermes. ‘Where are we?’ James asked. ‘Athens’, replied Hermes. ‘Where are we going’ asked James. ‘We are heading toward the ruins of the Parthenon boy, don’t ask questions’.
After hours of walking through the dense forest the duo finally came out to be faced with the stony ruins of the Parthenon. As they entered, Hermes led James to a large statue of Athena in the middle. Hermes was observing the statue for a while before he found what he was looking for. In the centre of her shield there was a hole that he was fitting the purple orb into. When the orb was fixed in place, there was a loud rumbling sound and the whole statue started to move back, revealing a trap door with an old sign on it.
The sign read:
Το τέλος
πλησιάζει
‘James you are the only one who can read this sign. What does it say?’ ‘James looked at the script and instantly knew what it said, the end is nigh. When he said this allowed there was another rumbling as the trap door opened. ‘James get back, when she comes out we have to be prepared’. ‘When who comes out?’ asked James. Suddenly there was a loud hissing sound and out of the portal jumped an evil looking woman with snakes for hair. ‘MEDUSA’ Hermes yelled. Hermes was in mid-air hovering around Medusa’s head, the snakes snapping at him viciously. Then, with a reckless swing of his wand (which had now turned into a sword), he struck her in the neck cutting her head clean off. ‘James, squeeze the venom out of the snakes heads around the portal then say those words you said before 3 times. James did just this. When he finally finished the spreading of the snake venom and the incantations, the trapdoor shut and statue moved back into place. Then with a swish of his wand Hermes and James both disappeared
When they got back to mount Olympus they were welcomed by all 11 of the gods in the room clapping and cheering, including Zeus which was a rarity. ‘James, you have done everyone here in Mount Olympus proud. Take this gift of thanks from us’, said Zeus as he handed James the ring he used to get here. ‘Hermes’, Zeus said again. And with that Hermes waved his wand once more and James started to disappear, but just before he left he heard Athena talking to him. ‘My beautiful boy, you have done your mother proud’, said Athena. James recognized this voice. It was the one he heard when he needed help making decisions. Then it hit him. He finally realized the Athena; goddess of wisdom was his mother and that he was a demy-god.
Suddenly James was back home. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the ring Zeus had given him. Then he just laughed and said ‘maybe I’m not going insane after all’.