by Joan Holub
Atalanta clapped her hands, and her eyes sparkled. “Ooh! It’s like an enchanted obstacle course!”
“Yeah!” Clotho grinned because Atalanta’s excitement was kind of catching. “Maybe this game will turn out to be sort of fun after all.”
“Fun, yes!” the king announced from the balcony, overhearing her. “However, only one team will survive.”
“S-s-survive?” snorted one of the centaurs. He sounded as nervous as Clotho suddenly felt. What had she gotten herself into?
6 Ready, Set, Attack!
FEAR NOT. IT’S ALL IN fun,” Queen Althea told everyone with a bright, reassuring smile. “The spears and arrows used in our game cannot cause injury.”
By now she and King Oeneus had come to sit grandly in one of the rows of seats that ringed the balcony overlooking the brightly lit third of the arena where the game would commence. Others in the audience either sat in the seats as well or stood along the railing as they prepared to watch the contest unfold.
“The queen speaks true, team members!” the king called out to the arena. “All weapons in Game On! are made of magic. Your spears and arrows appear dangerous but won’t do any real harm. Each time you are struck with one from an opposing team member, a temporary red X will magically appear on your skin. Three Xs mean you’re out, out, out of the competition! The team with the most players still standing in the arena when you hear the sound of a lute wins the game!”
There was a brief pause as the queen handed the king a scroll; then he went on. “Before we begin the very first game ever to be played in this stupendous arena, I would like to take a moment to solemnly dedicate our new shop in honor of the goddesses and gods of Mount Olympus.” He ceremoniously whipped open the scroll and began reciting from an alphabetical list of all the honored immortals. “Amphitrite, Antheia, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Athena…”
Whoa! Until now, Clotho had never realized how many immortals’ names started with the letter A! The scroll the king was reading from was a long one. So to pass the time, she, her four teammates, and the five members of the other team did stretches. She was doing jumping jacks when an all-too-familiar teeny voice piped up from somewhere below her left ear.
“That king is just trying to pump up the egos of those goddesses and gods. As if they weren’t already stuck-up enough,” the voice complained.
Huh? Good thing she didn’t have arachnophobia (which was a fancy name for fear of spiders). Because when Clotho glanced sideways, she saw that Arachne was perched on her left shoulder! Sometime earlier, without her noticing, that wacky spider had managed to crawl out of her travel bag and up her arm. And, as usual, Arachne was back to insulting immortals. Clotho tried not to take offense, even though she was immortal too. She needed to stay on this spider’s good side if she wanted permission to work in her shop.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she warned the spider. “What if you fall off and get stomped on? This arena is way too dangerous for someone so small.”
“Don’t worry,” said Arachne. “My sticky feet can hang on to anything. And me being here is a win-win situation for the two of us. I get out of the shop to have some fun for a change. And you get my help. With my eight eyes to watch out for you, you could actually win this game.”
“Hey, Clotho, stop giving yourself a pep talk and get over here, girl,” Atalanta called just then. Because Arachne was too tiny for her to notice, she’d obviously thought Clotho had been speaking to herself!
Clotho looked over and saw that, as the king droned on, some team members had begun trying out the equipment in the arena. Atalanta was currently boinging around on the arena floor, which seemed to be every bit as bouncy as the mobile trampolines.
“Watch!” Atalanta crouched low, then boinged up from the floor to land on a passing square trampoline. From there she proceeded to bounce high and do flips in the air.
When the moving trampoline veered close to Clotho, Atalanta grabbed on to her hand, pulling her up too. Surprised by this maneuver, Arachne let out a screech.
Atalanta winced at the ear-piercing sound. “Whoa! That’s quite a screech you got there, Clotho.”
Clotho didn’t take time to explain that the screech had in fact come from a spider. Because she and Atalanta were suddenly having fun! They were boinging around, slapping hands, bumping elbows, and doing dance moves in midair, giggling all the while. When a star-shaped trampoline happened by, Clotho grabbed Atalanta’s hand and they leaped from the square one over to it. After that, whenever a new trampoline bounced near, they’d switch again.
“Woo-hoo! Higher!” Arachne hollered. Her sticky spider feet really were having no trouble hanging on. After her initial surprise she was apparently having a blast.
“Yeah, higher! This is funtastic-o!” Atalanta said, mistakenly assuming that Clotho had been the one who’d done the woo-hooing.
Clotho did a backflip and grinned big at the athletic young woman. “Yeah, tons o’ fun!” She’d never tried doing flips in the air while flying in her sandals. She’d been missing out!
In good spirits, the two of them began showing off, bouncing higher and higher, and doing even more daring flips and girl-power poses as they sprang from the trampolines. And with each bounce, they seemed to be gaining the favor of the crowd overlooking the arena. Enjoying their antics, the onlookers laughed and shouted encouragement. Super! thought Clotho. If the crowd liked them, they would probably root for their team once the games began. Though Clotho was having the best time ever, deep inside she was aware she was breaking the “no mingling” rule. She pushed away the thought. She’d never had a chance to hang out with anyone besides her sisters before, and this experience was amazing!
Eventually the king’s words came to a halt as he ended his alphabetical list of honored immortals with “…and last but not least, Zeus.” Probably relieved that the king was finally done, the audience clapped extra loud and called out hoorays. Down in the arena, the ten team members hopped off the trampolines and gathered to stare up at the king. All looked as curious as Clotho felt regarding how this game would begin.
King Oeneus had opened his mouth as if preparing to explain, when a voice blasted out from somewhere on the balcony. “What about my sister, Artemis? Why wasn’t she on your list?” It was the godboy Apollo. And he was pointing an accusing finger at the king. The king froze, seemingly unable to come up with a reply.
Standing on the arena floor, Clotho heard Toxeus say to Meleager, “Good question. Did your dad leave Artemis out on purpose or what?”
Meleager shrugged uncertainly. “Dunno. But I do know immortals aren’t going to be happy about this.”
“Especially not Artemis,” Atalanta put in.
They spoke freely in front of Clotho, not realizing that she, too, was an immortal. She lifted her eyes and scanned the crowd above them but didn’t see the goddessgirl in question. “Where is Artemis, anyway?” she said to Atalanta. “I heard her talking about the game earlier this morning, and she sounded excited about it. In fact, she helped design it. So why isn’t she here?”
Before Atalanta could respond, Ares stepped forward in the balcony to clap an arm on Apollo’s shoulder. “Apollo’s right. His sister has been dissed!”
7 Snort
COMPLAINTS AMONG THE IMMORTALS IN the audience began to grow. It was an insult to all of them (Clotho, too) that one of their number had not been properly recognized. Poseidon thumped the handle end of his trident on the floor in annoyance. This caused a stream of water to shoot from the tops of its three sharp prongs, spraying those who stood nearby.
The murmurs got louder. “Artemis has been insulted by a mortal king!” “We immortals shouldn’t put up with it.” “She must be avenged!”
Mortals in the audience—as well as down in the arena—frowned, becoming restless and worried.
“Revenge first, questions later. Typical,” remarked the teeny, squeaky voice of Arachne. The spider had to be thinking of how Athena had taken revenge on her after that we
aving contest. Nevertheless, Clotho shushed her.
Overhearing, Atalanta quirked an eyebrow at Clotho, obviously mistaking Arachne’s words for hers again. “Oh, I didn’t mean—” Clotho started to say. But she fell silent when a girl’s voice suddenly rang out.
“How dare you insult me!” It was Artemis at last! Every head whipped her way as she appeared on the balcony to stand on the bleachers beside her brother. She gestured accusingly at the king with one hand, while keeping the other firmly behind her back. Strange, thought Clotho. Was the girl hiding something? “I cannot believe you left my name out of your list of honorees! Especially when I think of all the work I’ve done to help create this game. You have much to answer for!”
Yikes, thought Clotho. Artemis sounded super angry!
Apollo punched a fist high in the air. “You tell him, sis! You are a goddess. No mortal should ever disrespect you like that. Not even royalty!”
Clotho happened to look at the queen right then. To her surprise, she saw Althea wink at Artemis, who grinned back. Huh? What was that all about? It didn’t make sense. Had she been mistaken about the wink? Maybe the queen had gotten something in her eye and had been trying to blink it out. But that wouldn’t explain the grin, and it really had looked like a wink.
As if truly frightened by Artemis’s show of anger, the king got on his knees and clasped both hands to his chest. “Oh, Goddess, please forgive me,” he wailed with melodramatic flair.
This was all kind of over-the-top, Clotho decided. And it didn’t quite ring true. It was sort of like the king and Artemis were actors in a play, reciting lines they’d practiced many times over. What was going on here?
“Hmph. I will not forgive you so easily!” Artemis declared. The hand she’d been holding behind her back whipped forward. A papyrus scroll was clasped in her fist, and she unfurled it. “Good thing I just, uh, happen to have my MOA Revenge-ology class textscroll with me. I’ll read aloud what it says right here in chapter six.” She cleared her throat. “Ahem. ‘Dealing with Disrespect: When a mortal insults a god or goddess, retribution is required.’ ” Having made her point, she let go of the end of the scroll. It rolled itself back up with a snap.
Weird coincidence that she just happened to have that scroll handy, thought Clotho. And that she had found the section within it about insulting an immortal so quickly.
Perched on a bleacher seat almost directly behind Artemis and Apollo, the gossipy Pheme was hastily scribbling on a notescroll she held. Everything that was happening here would no doubt show up in her Teen Scrollazine column this week.
“King Oeneus!” Artemis went on. “Your unforgivable slight to me cannot go unpunished. So, as befits my title as goddessgirl of the hunt, I will now unleash a true terror. One that will kick off your grand opening in a way no one will soon forget. After all, we wouldn’t want things to get bor-ing!” Everyone gasped as she whipped out her bow and nocked an arrow. Surely she wouldn’t send it flying toward the king, would she?
Grinning big, Artemis shot her arrow high. It burst a humungous bag that hung from the domed ceiling, unnoticed till now. Confetti rained from it down into the arena like sparkly, colorful snow. “I hereby command that the magical spears and arrows will go live in five, four, three, two, one!” she shouted. “Game On! Have fun, everyone!”
There was laughter, hooting, and cheering as Clotho and everyone else realized the great joke that had just been played on them. The king’s supposed insult had all been part of a plan. Artemis had merely pretended to be angry to make the opening of the game more dramatic! Apollo, Ares, and Poseidon looked as astonished as everyone else. Clotho guessed that Artemis hadn’t even let her brother and his friends in on the surprise that she and the king and queen had hatched while designing today’s game.
But there were more game surprises to come. Crunch! Whoosh! In the dead center of the arena, a pointed mountain abruptly shot up from somewhere below and quickly grew to rise as high as the balcony. The two centaurs had been standing at the arena’s center when this happened and had to leap out of the way in a hurry.
Atop the mountain’s peak stood a monstrous glow-in-the-dark creature, lit by a purple beacon. There were excited screams and shocked gasps as everyone pointed to it. The creature was furry and black, stood on four legs, and had pointed ears. Sharp tusks curved up on either side of its snout. Clotho couldn’t decide if it looked more like a pig or a bull. Either way, it was extremely scary-looking.
Snort! Snort! Flames shot from its mouth, so it also breathed fire!
A yell came from among the onlookers. “That’s the Calydonian boar!” Others chimed in. “I heard that that beast likes to destroy the Calydonians’ crops so they go hungry.” “Yeah, and it gobbles their sheep so they don’t have wool to make clothes.” “And just for fun, it chases little kids to scare them!”
Atalanta nudged Clotho with an elbow. “Sounds like one wild, crazy, mean boar. The goddess of the hunt has brought forth a worthy foe, but we will beat it!”
Clotho gulped. “I’m not really skilled at fighting boars. Or anything else, for that matter. Like I told you before, I knit.”
“Watch out, Atalanta!” Ares called down from the balcony. “That crazed boar is staring right at you. And it looks hungry!”
“Hungry? Yeah, maybe for Meleager meat. Because no way is it gonna gobble me or my team! I’m in this to win this,” Atalanta boasted. Thus began what would later be labeled in Pheme’s column THE WILD AND CRAZY CALYDONIAN BOAR HUNT.
Snort went the beast. Stomp went its hooves. The crowd of onlookers screamed in delicious anticipation as the monstrous creature came crashing down from its mountaintop lair. Members of both teams scattered to strategic locations around the arena in preparation for whatever the creature might do.
“Don’t worry, Atalanta,” Meleager yelled. “I’ll save you!”
“Huh? You think I need to be saved?” scoffed Atalanta. “Take care of your own team! This is a competition, remember? I’m going to beat the boar and you.”
Meleager looked a bit disappointed at her rebuff, but then he rallied. He seemed determined to impress her somehow, even if they were supposed to be pitted against each other, both teams vying to win the game. He shot an arrow at the boar. A miss! It angrily eyed the nearest gamers, which happened to be the two centaurs.
“Run!” the half-horse creatures shouted to each other. As the boar barreled in their direction, they galloped for the metal gate through which they’d entered the arena. But of course it had been shut and locked. “There’s no way out! We’re doo-oo-oomed!” the centaurs whinny-wailed.
Lucky for them, the boar abruptly spied Atalanta. Swinging toward her, it charged. Atalanta held her ground. She drew back an arm, hefted a spear, and threw. Then, without waiting to see where the spear landed, she nocked an arrow in her bow and fired. Neither went near the boar, however. Which had been Atalanta’s intent, Clotho realized a moment later. Her crafty team leader had been aiming her magic weapons at the opposite team. Splat! Splat! One red X appeared on the arm of each of Meleager’s cousins, Plexippus and Toxeus. Two more each and they’d be out of the game.
Meanwhile, having caught on to what Atalanta was up to, Jason from her team threw his spear at the boar. Zing! Veering away from the spear—as well as Atalanta—the beast put on a burst of speed and escaped. Jason had succeeded in keeping the boar away from their team captain. However, while his attention was focused on the boar, an arrow from Meleager’s bow struck him, and another from Toxeus’s bow hit too. Splat! Splat! Red Xs appeared on his ankle and one knee.
“Strike two!” someone in the balcony yelled, pointing at Jason.
All at once an arrow zoomed Clotho’s way, shot from one of the centaurs’ bows. She leaped out of its path onto a springy trampoline. Boing! Atalanta, who was also bouncing around to avoid an arrow, high-fived her in passing. After executing a triple somersault, Clotho came down behind a large rock. Which was coincidentally a great place to hide!
Then something struck her. (No, not an arrow or a spear, but an idea.) Since the others on her team were way more skilled with weapons than she was, she could simply offer them her weapons whenever they ran out of their own. So when Atalanta ran low on arrows, Clotho boinged over and fed her more. And she tossed a spear to Jason when the centaurs pinned him behind the waterfall. Splat! With her help, he caused a new X to appear on one of the centaurs.
Getting more and more involved in the action, the audience shouted (mostly) helpful suggestions to various team members. Things like “Quick! Clotho, climb that rock!” and “Meleager, splash into the waterfall from the trampoline!” and “Jason, hide in that hedge and pretend to be a topiary!”
It was tricky trying to dodge splats and boar attacks while wielding weapons at the other team. All ten players wound up dividing their attention between defeating the boar and warring with one another. Arrows and spears flew, splattering those they struck with magical red Xs. No three-strikes-you’re-out so far, though.
“Yikes!” Arachne yelled in her teeny voice as Clotho dodged yet another arrow. “I thought coming along with you would be an adventure. But this is freaking me out!”
“Hush!” Clotho replied. “I need to concentrate, or I’ll get X-ed! Maybe you should’ve stayed in my bag. Or better yet, back at your shop!”