by Alex Cliff
Max grinned at him. ‘It doesn’t matter. Least we can take the apples back to Juno now.’
Finlay’s eyes lit up. ‘Yeah. We’ve done the task, haven’t we?’ He pulled the wind and water apples out of his pockets. ‘Come on, let’s get the last apple. The sooner we get back to the castle with the apples, the sooner Juno’s magic will go and Cerberus will turn back into a proper statue.’ They ran back to the shed and Max took the fire apple off the pedestal.
‘The Three Golden Apples!’ he said, holding up the final apple. ‘We’ve got them all!’
‘Let’s go!’ Finlay exclaimed.
‘I wonder if Cerberus will stay where he is when Juno’s magic goes and he turns completely back to stone,’
Max said as they left the shed and hurried past where Cerberus stood. ‘And if he does, what the owners will say. And about the fact that half their garden wall’s been knocked down!’
‘It’s all right.’ Finlay grinned. ‘With any luck, they’ll blame it on the Brownies running wild!’
‘That reminds me, I’d better put their keyboard back,’ Max said. ‘You coming?’
‘Just a sec,’ said Finlay. He picked up a fallen stick, ran back to Cerberus and held it up to each of his stone snouts. ‘Here we are, boy. Fetch!’ He threw the stick, and smiled. ‘Oh, I forgot – you can’t, can you?’ He tickled the nearest muzzle. ‘Sorry about that!’
Laughing together, he and Max raced out of the walled garden and down the path.
‘Three apples!’ Finlay yelled to the sky as they scrambled into the castle keep a little while later. ‘We’ve got them, Juno! Come and see for yourself!’
‘Fin!’ Max protested in alarm.
‘Who cares if she comes?’ Finlay threw the apples triumphantly into the air.
There was a thunderclap and the apples vanished.
Finlay felt a swirling in his chest and the next second a golden light was streaming from him as the superpower of courage flooded out. It swept across the courtyard to the tower and hit the back wall. Suddenly Finlay didn’t feel quite so brave about facing Juno. There was the sound of crumbling, breaking stones as Hercules’ face appeared, but the noise was drowned out by a second thunderclap.
Juno suddenly stood in the castle keep, her cloak billowing round her, her face dark with rage.
‘You succeeded!’ she exclaimed.
Finlay backed away to join Max. ‘Y-yes,’ he said, looking into the goddess’s terrifying face, his extra courage now gone.
‘You got past Cerberus and solved the riddle!’ Juno hissed.
Hercules’ voice rang out. ‘Cerberus!’
The goddess swung round. ‘Yes, Cerberus. I placed him there to guard the apples!’
‘That is not playing by the rules, Juno!’ Hercules exclaimed. ‘Fighting Cerberus is a task in itself. It was one of my tasks when I completed my twelve labours. It is not fair to expect the boys to get past him and fetch the apples!’ He turned to the boys. ‘To have subdued Cerberus and brought back the three golden apples is an astonishing achievement. You must both have shown great courage today – and wisdom. Courage on its own would not have been enough.’ He turned back to Juno. ‘You have made the boys complete two tasks for the reward of freeing one superpower!’
Juno twirled a lock of her hair. ‘I never said they had to fight Cerberus. The task was getting the apples.’ She grinned evilly. ‘They just had to get past him to be able to do it.’
‘That’s cheating, Juno!’ Hercules said furiously.
‘Not by my rules.’ Juno clicked her fingers. Hercules’ mouth continued to open and close but no words came out. ‘And my rules are the ones that count, Hercules,’ Juno breathed triumphantly.
Hercules looked as if he was about to explode with rage. Ignoring him, Juno turned to the boys. Her voice turned icy cold. ‘Do not think you have won yet. There is one more task to complete and tomorrow you will die!’
Finlay felt a shiver of fear run down his spine but no way was he going to show Juno how scared he felt. ‘We won’t!’ he told her defiantly. ‘We’ll do whatever task you set us. We’ll get Hercules his last superpower back.’
‘Yeah!’ Max nodded. ‘Then he’ll be able to break free from the tower!’
‘Never!’ Juno shrieked and with a clap of her hands, she disappeared in a flash of lightning. At the same time, the stones around Hercules’ face closed over and he disappeared.
The boys stood in the suddenly silent castle.
‘Juno seemed really mad with us,’ Max said slowly.
‘Yeah,’ Finlay agreed. He forced a grin. ‘ Barking mad if you ask me!’
Max took a deep breath. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter what she says, we’ll complete the task tomorrow and free Hercules.’
Finlay nodded. ‘Even if we have to fight ten more of those Cerberus dogs!’
Max frowned. ‘You sure you haven’t still got some of that super-courage inside you?’
‘You mean you wouldn’t fight two Cerberuses tomorrow?’ Finlay said.
Max didn’t answer.
‘Bet you would,’ Finlay went on. ‘You did all sorts of brave stuff today and you didn’t even have the extra courage. You stopped the dog biting me when I was stone, you got the keyboard, you made the dog jump on the fountain flagstone and you solved the riddle. We’d never have got the apples without you.’
‘Or you,’ Max told him. ‘You were the one doing the Lara Croft stuff to get to the apples in the first place and you stopped the dog at the end when it was about to eat us.’
They looked at each other.
‘Guess we did it together,’ Finlay said.
‘And we will again tomorrow,’ Max put in determinedly. ‘We’ll beat Juno and get Hercules his last superpower back.’
Finlay nodded and put his hand up in the air. Max met it in a high five.
‘Tomorrow!’ they both yelled.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALEX CLIFF LIVES IN A VILLAGE IN
LEICESTERSHIRE, NEXT DOOR TO FIN AND
JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM MAX, BUT
UNFORTUNATELY THERE IS NO CASTLE ON
THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE VILLAGE.
ALEX’S HOME IS FILLED WITH TWO
CHILDREN AND TWO LARGE AND VERY
SLOBBERY PET MONSTERS.