Hyperion and the Great Balls of Fire

by Joan Holub

  Contents

  Greetings, Mortal Readers

  1. Boom! Boom! Boom!

  2. The Missing Torch

  3. A Trio of Monsters

  4. The High One

  5. Lightning Strikes Twice

  6. Global Warming

  7. Theia

  8. Something Fishy

  9. The Journey Back

  10. Seeds of a New Quest

  About Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

  For our heroic readers

  —J. H. and S. W.

  Greetings, Mortal Readers,

  I am Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, in Greece. I have the power to see the future. Hear my prophecy:

  Ahead I see dancers lurking. Wait—make that danger lurking. (The future can be blurry, especially when my eyeglasses are foggy.)

  Anyhoo, beware! Titan giants now rule all of Earth’s domains—oceans, mountains, forests, and the depths of the Underwear. Oops—make that Underworld. Led by King Cronus, they are out to destroy us all!

  Yet I foresee hope. A band of rightful rulers called Olympians will arise. Though their size and youth are no match for the Titans, they will be giant in heart, mind, and spirit. They await their leader—a very special yet clueless boy. One who is destined to become king of the gods and ruler of the heavens.

  If he is brave enough.

  And if he can get his friends to work together. And if they can learn to use their new amazing flowers—um, amazing powers—in time to save the world!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Ka-BOOM! Sssst!

  A fireball as big as a watermelon struck the ground and exploded in flames. It had landed only a few feet from Zeus! He and four other ten-year-old Olympians had all been sleeping in a small forest at the edge of an abandoned village.

  “Yeee-ikes!” yelled Zeus. Instantly wide awake, he leaped to his feet.

  “My sandal’s on fire!” shouted Hades, hopping around.

  “I’m on it!” Poseidon called. He lifted his golden trident, which looked sort of like a pitchfork—only cooler.

  Whoosh! Three streams of water suddenly spurted from the three pointy tips of the trident, hitting Hades’ foot. It was just enough to put out the sandal fire.

  Hades looked from Poseidon to the trident in surprise. “Did you gain a new magical power when I wasn’t looking?”

  Poseidon nodded. “My trident can magically draw water from any source nearby. A lake, a pond, even from deep underground. I figured it out last night when I was wishing for a drink of water.”

  “Handy trick,” said Hera. She and Demeter—the two girl Olympians—had woken as well.

  “Especially since those fireballs are back again,” added Demeter.

  All five Olympians had been dodging the mysterious fireballs since the day before. However, for some reason the attacks had stopped at sundown last night.

  Now that it was dawn, the sun was here again. And so were the fireballs.

  “I think the Titans are playing some evil game with us,” said Poseidon.

  Screee!

  “Like Dodge the Fireball? Let’s get out of here!” yelled Hera as another flaming ball came screaming in.

  BOOM! Sssst!

  The Olympians took off just in time. They hurdled over rocks and raced across parched ground. If only there were a finish line somewhere, thought Zeus. A place where they’d finally be safe from harm. Was that only wishful thinking?

  The future is what you make of it, Pythia the Oracle had told them. If and when all of the Olympians are united again, you will have the power to defeat Cronus and his evil ways.

  It was because of her that they’d begun yet another quest. This time they’d been sent to find the Olympic Torch. But as usual with the oracle’s quests, she hadn’t given them any details. Such as what the torch looked like. Or who had it. Or why it was important to find it.

  Screee! BOOM! Sssst! Another fiery ball struck the dirt right behind Zeus. A huge plume of fire and smoke shot up from the ground.

  “Thunderation!” he yelled. Flames licked at his heels as he put on a burst of speed.

  “Someone’s trying to blast us to smithereens!” shouted Hades.

  “Yeah,” Zeus said, panting. “And I think I might know who that someone is.”

  “Who?” Hera called out. She and Demeter were right behind them.

  Poseidon came last. Pausing, he aimed the tips of his trident at the spot where the last fireball had fallen. A spurt of water put out the fire.

  Screee! Boom! Sssst! Another fireball landed to the right of the Olympians.

  They veered down a road that went left. “Look. A temple!” shouted Zeus. He pointed to a white marble building surrounded by columns. It stood at the bottom of a hill. “Let’s take shelter there.”

  Soon the Olympians were all safely inside the temple. Hera shoved back a lock of long, golden hair that had fallen over her face. “Okay, Thunderboy,” she said to Zeus. “So who’s after us?”

  The irritation in her voice was impossible to miss. At least she hadn’t called him Thunderpants. Another of her many nicknames for him.

  Zeus shrugged. “It’s only a guess. But I think it could be the work of one of the Titans I saw with Cronus. That day I made him barf.”

  Until recently the other four Olympians had all been imprisoned in the belly of the evil King Cronus. But after Zeus had sent a thunderbolt down the giant Titan king’s throat, the king had barfed them all up.

  Unfortunately, most of them had been recaptured by the Titans. They’d had to be rescued all over again, one by one. Zeus had seen to that.

  But there was still another Olympian left to rescue. A girl named Hestia.

  “The Titan I’m thinking of has a head that glows like the sun,” said Zeus.

  “Hyperion!” Demeter exclaimed, her green eyes flashing. “That would make sense. He’s the Titan god of light. The physical incarnation of the sun.”

  “The fizzy-calling-car what?” asked Poseidon.

  Hera rolled her eyes. “Duh. It means he sort of is the sun. In bodily form.”

  They all ducked as they heard another fireball hit the ground somewhere outside.

  “Does he hurl fireballs—er, sunballs?” Hades asked.

  Zeus looked around for Hades but didn’t see him. He must’ve put on his Helm of Darkness. It was a jeweled crown that made him invisible.

  “Maybe,” Zeus replied. “But no matter who is after us, we still have an Olympic Torch to find.” He stood up and went to peek out one of the temple’s windows.

  “I’m betting that when we do find it, we’ll also find Hestia,” said Poseidon. “Because remember what the oracle told us: ‘Find the torch, and you will also find more of those you seek.’ ”

  “Right,” said Hera. “Pythia also said the torch belongs to the Protector of the Hearth. Maybe that’s me.”

  “Or me,” Demeter said evenly. Both girls were a little annoyed that the boys all had magical objects. Zeus had a lightning bolt. Poseidon, a trident. And Hades, a helm. Yet the girls still had nothing.

  Zeus patted the small thunderbolt tucked under his belt. It sparked at his touch. Although many had tried before him, only he had managed to pull it from the big cone-shaped stone in Pythia’s temple. It was dagger-size now, but he could make it five feet long if he wanted.

  “You know, I used to think my bolt belonged to someone named Goose,” he told the others. At the silly name, Poseidon snickered and Hades smirked. The girls grinned.

  “Only because that’s what Pythia said the first time I met her,” Zeus added quickly. “But it looks like she meant me all the time.”

  Demeter nodded. �
�Goose. Zeus. They’d be easy to confuse. Sounds like it was just another of her foggy-spectacle mistakes.”

  Yes, thought  Zeus.  And that meant the thunderbolt was really and truly his. It also meant he was the leader of the Olympians. Pythia had said so. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be their leader. But since it was his destiny, he’d try to do his best.

  Suddenly, loud shouts, heavy footsteps, and the clank of armor alerted the five Olympians to danger.

  “Soldiers are coming!” hissed Hades’ disembodied voice. “I can see them out front through the window.”

  Everyone looked at Zeus. “Should we fight them or run?” asked Poseidon.

  Zeus hesitated. With their magical objects the boys could most likely ward off the Cronies. (That was what everyone called King Cronus’s soldiers.) They might even be able to make the soldiers retreat.

  “What? No answer, Mr. Smarty Thunder-pants?” Hera asked.

  Argh! There she went with those nicknames again, thought Zeus.

  “Better if we escape before the Cronies figure out we’re here,” he decided. “Less risk of being captured or followed.”

  He could see daylight shining in through a hole at the bottom of the back temple wall. The hole was singed around the edges. Probably made by a fireball hitting the temple. And it looked just big enough for them to wiggle through.

  “We can go out through that hole. Hurry!”

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Missing Torch

  Zeus was last to escape out the fireball hole. And just in time too. As he wriggled through, he heard the Cronies. They were stomping up the front steps of the temple.

  “Let’s check in here!” he heard one of them shout.

  It was Lion Tattoo! Zeus realized. He was the leader of the three half-giants who’d kidnapped Zeus in Crete. Zeus had escaped them more than once. Good thing too, since they were always threatening to fry, grill, or toast him for a snack!

  Once Zeus was outside, he raced to join his friends. Lucky for him none of the soldiers had come around to the back of the temple. Yet. But up ahead his fellow Olympians were nowhere in sight.

  “This way!” a voice whispered. Hera sprang up from behind a large boulder, surprising him.

  Zeus grinned at her. “Waiting for me?” he asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Someone had to, Boltbrain. So you wouldn’t get lost.”

  Boltbrain? That was a new one, thought Zeus.

  Together they took off running. They had to hop over lots of big dents in the road where fireballs had struck. The temple was soon lost to view as they rounded a hill.

  Spotting Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter up ahead, Zeus and Hera caught up to them. From there they all wandered through one empty village after another. The farther they traveled, the more the sun beat down. It baked everything it touched.

  After a while they came upon yet another small village. It looked as abandoned as all the rest.

  Hera peeked in a door that someone had left open. “Hello? Anybody home?” she called out.

  “They left. Wouldn’t you? This place is fried,” said Poseidon, fanning himself.

  Demeter bent to stroke the leaves of a withered wildflower. “Poor little thing,” she said. At her touch the purple flower perked up on its stem a little. When she let go, it wilted again.

  Seeing this, Zeus’s eyes widened. Was her touch somehow magic?

  “Look! A water well!” Poseidon yelled. He ran ahead to the well in the village center and looked inside it. Then his shoulders drooped. “It’s empty.”

  Zeus hadn’t realized how thirsty he was until now. Occasional sips of water from Poseidon’s trident weren’t enough. He went over to stare down into the well too.

  “Can you fill it?” he asked.

  “I’ll try,” said Poseidon. Holding tight to the handle of his trident, he lowered its three-pointed end over the side of the well. “Long!” he commanded. Instantly the trident began to lengthen.

  When its sharp prongs reached the bottom of the well, Poseidon commanded it to drill. Spinning in superfast circles, the trident obeyed. It drilled down through the earth, going deeper and deeper. Minutes later water bubbled up, swiftly filling the well.

  “Hooray!” Hera grabbed a terra-cotta jug from several that sat beside the well. She filled the jug with water and took a long drink. Then she passed it around to the others.

  “Flippin’ fish lips! That’s good!” Poseidon declared when it was his turn to quench his thirst.

  “Better than the water from the River Lethe?” Zeus asked. Poseidon had drunk half a glass of water from that Underworld river during their last quest. It had temporarily made him forget half of everything he knew.

  “Huh? What River Lethe?” Poseidon joked now. “I don’t remember it.”

  Zeus and the others laughed.

  “Shh,” Hades said suddenly. “I hear something.”

  The five Olympians froze. Zeus’s eyes scanned the far end of the village road. He expected to see Cronies. But instead a group of tired travelers appeared.

  “Water!” one of them shouted. The whole bunch of them swarmed the well. They grabbed jugs and scooped up water, then drank thirstily.

  “My village ran out of water a week ago,” a man in a blue shirt explained.

  A woman nodded. “There’s a drought where I live in Olympia, too. Hyperion took over a temple there. He’s been scorching every village and farm field for miles around.”

  Zeus’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of Hyperion’s name. So he’d been right to suspect the sun-headed Titan!

  More travelers came, including a family. The young children ran to look at Poseidon’s trident. He twirled it over their heads. They squealed with delight as a shower of cooling water drops rained down over them.

  “Where did you get that thing?” their father asked. “Is it magic? Rumor has it that Hyperion is collecting magical objects. For King Cronus.”

  “Heard he’s already captured a magical flame,” another man added before Poseidon could reply. “Now his soldiers are searching every temple in Greece for a magical torch that can hold it.”

  So that’s why the Cronies had stormed the temple he and the others had hidden in, thought Zeus. They’d been after the magical torch, not the Olympians, for once! He wondered if the flame’s and the torch’s magic somehow became stronger when they were together. A package deal.

  “Maybe that’s why Hyperion started throwing fireballs,” Zeus murmured, thinking aloud. “Hoping to scare someone into fessing up about where the missing torch is.”

  “Any idea where it might be?” Hera asked the men.

  Zeus knew what she must be thinking. That they should try to find it before Hyperion did.

  Of course, Hera was convinced that she was the Protector of the Hearth, the Olympian that Pythia had spoken of in her prophecy. Which would mean the Olympic Torch would be Hera’s magical object.

  But Demeter was just as sure that the prophecy referred to her. Unfortunately, only one of them could be right.

  “No one knows,” said a woman in answer to Hera’s question. “But once Hyperion has both flame and torch, he’ll surely give them to Cronus. Who will turn their use to evil. Like he does everything else.”

  “Fireballs!” someone yelled suddenly. Everyone fled as three great balls of fire screamed down from the sky.

  Zeus jumped over a low stone wall. He flattened himself against the trunk of a giant oak tree.

  Just then the amulet that hung on a cord around his neck twitched against his skin. He pulled the smooth chip of stone from the throat of his tunic. The chip was as big as his fist. Like his thunderbolt it had come from the temple in Delphi where he’d first met Pythia the Oracle.

  The other Olympians soon joined him in his hiding place. The five of them huddled together under the oak tree. They peered at the chip as the symbols that were now scattered across its surface arranged themselves into a map.

  A small black arrow appeared on the map. It pointed
toward a red dot labeled OLYMPIA.

  “Flyin’ fish sticks,” said Poseidon. “That’s where Hyperion is holed up! We have to go there?”

  “Mm-hm,” said Zeus. The chip guided them on all their quests. They followed wherever it led.

  “But even if we do manage to steal the magical flame from him, we’ll need the torch, too, right?” said Hades. “Sounds like the flame must not work right without it.”

  “One of the villagers I gave water to told me about a temple south of here,” Hera said, sounding excited. “Inside it there’s a torch that refuses to light. I think it could be the Olympic Torch!”

  “Maybe,” said Zeus. “But Chip is pointing us to Olympia. In the north. Seems more likely the Olympic Torch would be there. If it’s not, Chip will probably tell us where to find it. After we get the flame from Hyperion.”

  But as usual Hera disagreed with his plans. “By then it might be too late,” she argued. “The Cronies are already hunting for the torch. They might beat us to it.”

  “How about if we split up?” Demeter suggested. “Hera and I can go south and look for the torch at that temple. You guys can go north and steal the flame.”

  “I think we should all stay together,” said Zeus. “You don’t have weapons. How would you defend—”

  “Exactly!” Hera crowed. “Without weapons or magic of our own, Demeter and I can’t help you against Hyperion. So you won’t need us.”

  She had a point, thought Zeus. “All right, then,” he said, seeing some wisdom in her plan. “Be careful, though.”

  “Humpf,” said Hera, tossing her long golden hair. “We can take care of ourselves.”

  “Sure,” quipped Poseidon. “Like on our last quest when you got captured and taken to the Underworld?”

  Hera’s face flushed red. But before she could think of a snappy comeback, another fireball came sizzling down from the sky.

  Boom! Ssssst!

  Crack! It hit the giant oak tree, splitting it. As the tree toppled, the Olympians yelled good-bye to one another.

  Then the boys ran north toward Olympia, hoping to steal the flame. And the girls ran south, hoping to find the torch.