Uranus and the Bubbles of Trouble

by Joan Holub

  Zeus was a little annoyed that Hera was so sure her feather was right and that Chip was wrong. Still, he decided not to argue. “The main thing right now is to put some distance between us and the Titans. Let’s go!” he yelled.

  Poseidon and Artemis jumped to Hera’s side at last. Together, they steered up the coast as the Titans’ winds rocked the boat like a baby’s cradle. Big waves crashed against the sides, spilling onto the deck.

  “Athena, Demeter, Hephaestus, Apollo, get into the hold!” Zeus commanded. Those four Olympians had been hanging on to the sides of the deck. He feared they were in danger of falling off. They didn’t have as much experience with sea travel as the other six Olympians did.

  “Make a chain!” Athena called over the wind, and the four of them held hands as they made their way safely belowdecks.

  Zeus gripped one of the masts and stared up at the battle still raging in the sky. As the winds and waves continued, their ship creaked and groaned. The Olympians still on deck struggled to keep from falling over.

  “We’re going to be broken into toothpicks!” Poseidon wailed over the howling storm.

  “You’re the ruler of the seas!” Hera called to him. “Can’t you do something to calm things down?”

  “This isn’t the ocean’s fault!” Poseidon shot back. “It’s those two Titan windbags who are stirring things up!”

  Ares gripped his spear. “Why are we running away? We should fight them,” he said fiercely. “We can take them! I’ll show them what—”

  Just then a huge wave smacked into him, knocking him over and soaking him. He spat out the salt water and scowled.

  “Hang on!” Zeus cried out, studying the coastline they were fast approaching. Then he looked at Hera. “Where are we supposed to land?”

  “I don’t know!” she yelled back, peering over the side of the ship. “My feather didn’t say—”

  Another punishing wave hit the ship. This one picked them up like a huge, watery fist and carried them toward shore at a dangerous speed.

  “Steer away!” Zeus yelled. But he was too late. Things started to happen fast. Hera and Poseidon were thrown overboard! Their ship ran aground on the beach. The rest of the Olympians cried out in shock and fear as their ship keeled over to lie on its side in the sand.

  “Whoa!” Zeus lost the grip he’d taken on the mast and slid down the deck. When his feet hit the railing, he stopped and swung over the side of the ship to the sand below.

  Hera and Poseidon swam up onshore, drenched. Ares, Artemis, Hestia, and Hades scrambled over the rails to drop down beside Zeus. Athena, Demeter, Hephaestus, and Apollo rushed out of the hold to follow them off the ship.

  “Is everyone okay?” Zeus asked once they all stood on the beach.

  “Oh, great! A shipwreck!” Hephaestus grumped as the others nodded wearily. “This is all we need.” Gripping the cane he used to walk, he stumbled across the sand. When he came to a halt by the others, he went uncharacteristically quiet as he took in the smashed ship.

  “You were shipwrecked when you were little,” Athena remembered gently. “That’s how you hurt your leg, right?”

  “Oh, this must bring back bad memories for you,” Hestia offered kindly.

  “It does!” blustered Hephaestus. “And if I’d been in charge, we wouldn’t have crashed.” He sent Zeus a dark glance.

  Zeus ignored him. Hephaestus had made it clear plenty of times that he wanted to lead the Olympians. And sometimes Zeus would have loved to pass his leadership responsibilities to someone else. But leading Olympians wasn’t a job you chose—it was a job that chose you. And Pythia had said that Zeus had been chosen, whether he liked it or not.

  “Well, at least we got away from the Titans,” Hera pointed out.

  “Are you kidding?” Hades asked. “Have you looked up lately?”

  All the Olympians glanced up at the dark sky. Uranus’s giant body still stretched from one end of the horizon to the other. Just then a new volley of stars and rocks rained down on them like hail.

  “Take cover!” Zeus yelled. He scanned the area as they turned to move inland. Maybe there was a cave somewhere, or at least a rocky overhang.

  Quickly, Apollo called them back, pointing out to sea. “I know you want to escape Titan troubles, but shouldn’t we wait for those incoming bubbles?” he sing-songed.

  “Huh?” Zeus spun around to see a huge wave of sparkly bubbles moving in from the sea. It was heading right for them!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  An Olympian Is Born!

  The Olympians stared wide-eyed at the approaching wave of bubbles, which sparkled in glittering shades of gold, pink, and blue. It carried an enormous, perfect shell, as big as a canoe. The bubbles gurgled and bounced around the shell, cushioning it from harm.

  “Those bubbles don’t look so scary,” Demeter remarked.

  As the shell got closer, they drew back. “I wonder what’s inside the shell, though,” said Poseidon.

  “Careful! A Creature of Chaos could be hiding in there!” Zeus exclaimed. Who knew if the shell was carrying a friend or foe?

  The waves deposited the shell on the shore and then withdrew back into the churning sea. Long seconds passed. The scallop shell sat there on the sand. Eventually, the Olympians took a few cautious steps toward it. It was hinged on one side and looked like a giant clamshell.

  Suddenly, the shell popped open. “What’s in it?” asked Artemis, who was in the back of the group and couldn’t see.

  “It’s a girl!” said Hephaestus said in surprise.

  “Shh! Can’t you see she’s sleeping?” hissed Ares.

  Zeus let out a sigh of relief. The girl in the shell didn’t appear troublesome at all. She had long, blond hair that cascaded around her white dress, and she looked to be their age.

  “Her hair is so . . . blond,” Ares said, his red eyes wide with wonder.

  “So? My hair is blond,” Hera snapped. “Apollo’s is too.”

  “But hers is shinier and, um, blonder,” Ares argued.

  Zeus couldn’t help rolling his eyes. “Is this really worth an argument?” he asked Hera and Ares. Could Hera be jealous of the shell girl? he wondered. She was grouchy even in the best of times, but her grouchiness grew worse whenever she was feeling jealous.

  Before either could reply, Apollo burst into song. “A blond girl in a shell has come from the sea. Now all must wonder, who exactly is she?”

  Zeus glanced over his shoulder at Poseidon. “Do you know her?”

  The ruler of the sea shook his head. “Nope. Never seen her before.” There was a goofy lovey-dovey look on his face.

  Hephaestus took a step closer to the shell. For the first time since they had boarded the ship, he wasn’t scowling. He had the same look on his face as Poseidon did. Come to think of it, Ares and the other guys did too.

  “She’s . . . amazing,” Hephaestus said dreamily. “More amazing than any creature I ever created in Lemnos.”

  “Well, of course she is. She’s probably a mortal, not one of your dumb machines,” Hera pointed out.

  Yes, definitely jealous, decided Zeus.

  “If she’s a mortal, she’s no ordinary one,” said the gray-eyed Athena, walking around the shell to study the girl.

  “Maybe she really is a Creature of Chaos!” Hera crowed.

  Ares snorted. “No way! Does she look like a monster to you?”

  “A monster doesn’t always look like a monster, you know,” Hera insisted. “Haven’t you heard that beauty’s only skin deep? Monsters can look nice, but act mean.”

  Just then Demeter gasped and pointed at the girl in the shell. “Look!”

  A silence fell as the girl slowly opened her eyes. They were blue, but not just any old blue, Zeus noted. They were the color of tropical ocean waters, with flecks of gold, like sunlight, in them. Then she smiled, showing off perfect bright white teeth that practically blinded the Olympians.

  “Hello!” she said cheerfully.

  “Hello!�
� they all greeted her back. Ares’s and Hephaestus’s voices were loudest.

  “We’re Olympians. And you are?” Hera asked pointedly.

  The girl sat up inside her shell. “My name is . . .” She paused and then giggled, as if trying to remember it. Then she said, “Oh, yeah. Aphrodite. I am the most beautiful girl you have ever seen!”

  Hera and the other girls looked at one another and frowned. Talk about vain! But the boys couldn’t take their eyes off the new girl—not even Zeus.

  Maybe Hera’s right after all, Zeus thought. This girl has to be some kind of magical creature. It is like she’s cast a spell on them! Well, on the boys, anyway.

  As Aphrodite stood, Hephaestus and Ares rushed forward to help her step onto the shore. “The sand is so . . . soft!” she said, her voice filled with awe. Then she looked up. “And the sky is so . . . big! It makes me feel tiny!” She giggled again, and Zeus thought her laugh sounded like the sweetest bells he’d ever heard.

  Aphrodite began to prance around the beach. “The breeze! It’s so cool, it makes me want to dance! Is it always this wonderful?”

  “It’s plain old Titan-made stormy wind,” said Hera flatly. “What’s so wonderful about that?”

  Aphrodite’s eyes sparkled. “It’s wonderful because it’s new!”

  Athena’s gray eyes narrowed. “What do you mean ‘new’? Have you been trapped in that shell for ten years?”

  Aphrodite shook her head. “Of course not, silly!” Then she giggled again and ran up to Athena’s aegis, a bright, golden shield that hung around Athena’s neck.

  Aphrodite peered into the shiny shield as if it were a mirror. “Ooh, I can see myself! I really am pretty, aren’t I?”

  Athena’s aegis—along with her Thread of Cleverness—made her pretty good at figuring out mysteries. And Aphrodite was definitely a mystery. Athena quickly realized what was up with the girl. “I think Aphrodite was just born,” she announced.

  Zeus shook his head. “Huh? That makes no sense. She looks the same age as us!”

  Athena glanced over at Aphrodite. The girl had picked up a seashell and was holding it to her ear, listening intently to the sound of the “sea” inside it.

  “Aphrodite, today’s your first day alive, isn’t it?” Athena asked.

  Aphrodite pulled the shell away from her ear and nodded. “Yes, my very first day. And it’s awesome!” Then she looked up at the sky and pouted. “I don’t like the dark sky, though, and the icky sharp things falling from it. When will they stop?”

  “This is crazy,” Artemis said, shaking her head. “Nobody is already ten years old when they’re born!”

  “Uh-huh. And nobody lives in the belly of a giant Titan like Cronus for ten years either,” Poseidon pointed out. “But some of us Olympians did.”

  “And she’s acting like someone just born,” Athena added. “Which means she’s like a walking, talking baby, and we need to protect her.”

  “I’ll do it!” said Ares and Hephaestus at the same time. Both boys flexed their muscles, posing in strong, protective stances.

  Zeus motioned to Poseidon and Hades, and the three brothers huddled together. “Pythia said we had to find the bubbles, so there must have been a reason,” Zeus told them. “That wave of bubbles brought Aphrodite to us. She’s our age, and she—”

  “She’s weird, just like the rest of us,” Poseidon interrupted.

  “Speak for yourself! Just because I rule the dead and my pet is a dog with three heads, that doesn’t make me weird,” Hades said. Then he thought about it. “Oh wait, maybe it does.”

  “The point is that our quest is over,” said Zeus. “Plus, I think the bubbles led us to a new O—”

  Just then Hestia came over and tapped him on the shoulder. “So, we girls think Aphrodite is an Olympian,” she announced.

  “Yeah! That’s what I was just trying to say,” said Zeus.

  “Wha—?” said Ares and Hephaestus, overhearing. They’d been “protecting” Aphrodite while the others had begun sweeping away any sharp-edged stones or shells they found around her so that she wouldn’t accidentally step on them and hurt her feet.

  “The girl from the shell is an Olympian as well,” sang Apollo.

  “But that was too easy!” Poseidon exclaimed. “Usually, we have to fight Creatures of Chaos on a quest.”

  “And get chased by Cronies,” Hades reminded them.

  “And if our quest is over, where’s Pythia?” asked Ares. The oracle always appeared to them at the end of each quest to congratulate the Olympians for completing it and to tell them about their next quest.

  “You mean that lady with the foggy specs?” asked Hephaestus.

  Apollo rolled his eyes. “She’s an oracle. She can see into the future.”

  “Really? Then why didn’t she tell us we were going to get stuck in the middle of a father-and-son Titan fight and get shipwrecked?” Hephaestus asked.

  “Can we please focus, people?” Hera asked. “Before something happens to your precious Aphrodite.”

  Turned out that the bubbly girl had wandered away while the others were talking. Now she was picking bright-red berries from a bush farther down the shore. Zeus rushed over to her.

  “Stop!” he said. “Those are poisonous. They’ll make you sick.”

  Ares glared at Hephaestus. “Nice job protecting her.”

  “Ditto!” Hephaestus shot back.

  Aphrodite’s beautiful ocean-blue eyes went wide. “But I’m so hungry!”

  “Me too.” Hera held up her feather and studied it. “There’s a village nearby. Let’s go see if we can scrounge some food.”

  “I’ll walk by Aphrodite,” said Ares quickly.

  “No, I will!” said Hephaestus, and the two boys bumped into each other, trying to get to Aphrodite first.

  Zeus sighed. Finding another Olympian had been lucky. But he had a feeling that the girl from the bubbles was going to add to their troubles!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Still Hungry!

  Chip, can you get us to the village?” Zeus asked his amulet.

  “Es-yip!” Chip replied, and a black arrow formed on the surface of the smooth stone to point the way.

  “Okay, let’s get going!” Zeus called out to the others loudly. “Make sure you have everything you need from the ship.”

  As the Olympians gathered up their packs and got ready to leave, the sky above them grew brighter. Aphrodite shielded her eyes from the sun. “Ooh, it’s turning prettier and prettier!” she cried.

  “Looks like Uranus is leaving,” remarked Athena.

  She was right. A few minutes later, the Titan was completely gone, leaving behind a bright-blue sky with a slowly sinking sun.

  “I wonder who won the fight—him or Cronus?” Ares asked.

  “Who cares?” Zeus answered. He wouldn’t have rooted for either of them to win! But at least while his father and grandfather were fighting, they’d been too busy to bother destroying the Olympians.

  “It’ll be dark for real soon, though.” Hestia held up her magical object, a torch. “I can light this if I need to, but we should get moving.”

  With Zeus in the lead they began to march inland, following Chip’s arrow. Hephaestus and Ares guarded Aphrodite, who danced rather than walked along the path. Tiny, sparkly bubbles bobbed around her with every step. The other Olympians made a game of chasing and popping them. For a while their spirits remained high.

  “How far is this village?” Hephaestus complained after a while. The sky had grown darker as they walked, and this time Uranus wasn’t the cause. It really was almost night.

  “Well?” Zeus asked Chip.

  “Hree-tip ours-hip,” Chip replied.

  “ ‘Three hours’?” Poseidon translated. “It’ll be pitch black before then!”

  “We’d better find a place to camp,” Athena suggested.

  Zeus nodded. After another hour of walking they found a clearing next to a stream. Everyone dug into their packs and pulled
out whatever olives, stale bread, and berries they had left.

  Poseidon frowned. “All of our bread is soggy. Too bad we didn’t get a chance to go fishing.”

  “It’ll have to do for now,” said Zeus. “We’ll get better food in the village tomorrow.”

  They all settled in and soon fell asleep after they ate, exhausted. As they slept, shiny bubbles danced around Aphrodite in the moonlight.

  In the morning they all drank water from the creek and then eagerly headed for the village. It wasn’t long before they saw a dozen huts stretched across low, grassy hills. Each hut had a fenced-in yard with chickens, goats, or large, brown cows. Crops grew in a nearby field, and a stream ran between the field and the huts.

  “All right,” Zeus said. “Looks like there’s plenty of food here. What do we have to trade?”

  “Weapons?” Hera suggested.

  Ares hugged his pack and glared at Hera. “You’re not taking any of mine!”

  “Actually, they’re mostly my weapons, remember? We took them from my island on your last quest,” Hephaestus said pointedly.

  “We won’t need many for trade,” Athena reassured Ares. “A slingshot or some extra arrows should buy us enough to eat for a few days.”

  While the others searched their packs for weapons to trade for food, Aphrodite walked to the edge of the village’s stream. There, she saw a girl dragging a fishing net through the water.

  “What are you doing?” Aphrodite asked her.

  The girl seemed surprised by the question, but she couldn’t help smiling at Aphrodite. “Fishing,” she replied.

  “My friend Poseidon likes fish too!” Aphrodite exclaimed. “You should be his girlfriend!”

  Poseidon had left his pack on the ground to follow Aphrodite when he saw her leave, so he was right behind her when she said this. He turned bright red. “Girlfriend? But I’m only ten years old!”

  Aphrodite giggled. “Just kidding,” she teased. Apparently, though she’d only been born yesterday, she was already learning to joke.

  Just then a young farmer walked up to them. “Can I help you, travelers?” he asked.