Hephaestus and the Island of Terror

by Joan Holub

  “And also, you’ve been stuckoo on an islandoo for a long time with only beardedoo guys who talkoo funny and bowoo down to you,” Hades said, and then laughed. “That’s gotta get boring after a while.”

  Hephaestus took a deep breath. “I can see that it is my destiny to take my rightful place as an Olympian. Besides, you need a leader,” he declared. “I am coming with you!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Boom!

  A new Olympian we have found-oo. Now we’re surely glory bound-oo!” cheered Apollo.

  Hephaestus grinned. “I like the sound of that.” He and Apollo high-fived.

  “Let’s get to the ship before any more of your creatures come to life and try to attack us,” Zeus urged. He was a little jealous of how quickly the new Olympian was bonding with everyone.

  They hurried back toward the shore. Just as before, the fog grew heavier and thicker as they made their way to the rowboats.

  “We’ll never find the others in this blanket of gray,” Zeus complained.

  Hephaestus found the nearest Sintian and poked him with his cane. “Stop the fog machines,” he ordered.

  Zeus slapped his forehead. “Right! The fog!”

  The worker bowed and hurried off to do Hephaestus’s bidding. Moments later the hum of the machines stopped, and the blanket of fog that hovered over the island began to vanish. When the group reached the shore, the fog was thin enough that Zeus saw Hera, Hestia, Demeter, Poseidon, and Ares waiting for them by the rowboats.

  “We got lost in that weird fog and decided we’d better just wait for you to turn up,” Hera explained. Spotting Hephaestus, her blue eyes grew wide. “Who’s this?”

  “Greetings, fellow Olympians!” he said, spreading his arms wide. “I am Hephaestus, your new leader.”

  Hera looked at Zeus. “Is he serious?”

  “Well, let’s talk about it later,” Zeus answered. “I think it would be a good idea to get off this island as quickly as possible.”

  Ares ran up to Hades, Athena, and Apollo, whose arms were filled with weapons. “Oh man, look at all this cool booty! Is it ours?” he exclaimed, picking up a shiny silver shield.

  “It is now, bro,” said Hades. “Let’s load the rowboats.”

  Hephaestus eyed the ship out in the water. “It’s bigger than I thought it would be. I think there’s room for some more of my stuff.” He walked over to the nearest fog machine and fiddled with it. “Fetch more weapons,” he told it. Immediately the machine took off on its three legs, climbing back up toward the volcano, its long tube automatically trailing behind.

  Hades, Ares, Athena, and Artemis loaded the two rowboats, and then they, Hestia, and Demeter jumped into them and headed to the ship. “Back for you in a few, after we pack this loot aboard the ship,” Artemis called back to the Olympians still on shore.

  “So the spell on Artemis wore off,” Hera remarked to Zeus as they watched the rowboats glide away.

  Zeus nodded. “Yeah. We found her gold bow and silver arrows.”

  “What about the silver lines and gold dolls?” Hera asked.

  “Oh, we found those, too,” he answered. “Except it was a silver lion and a gold dog. And they came to life, thanks to the amazing mechanical skills of this guy here.” He pointed toward Hephaestus, but he tactfully didn’t add that the lion and dog had attacked the Olympians.

  Hephaestus, who’d been talking with Apollo and Poseidon, overheard and came over. “By ‘this guy’ he means me, the ruler of this whole island,” he said, motioning with his cane, and accidentally whacking Hera in the process.

  “Ow!” she muttered. “Watch it with that thing. And just because you can rule an island doesn’t mean you can rule us,” Hera said, rubbing her shoulder with a frown.

  “Of course,” Hephaestus replied. “Are you loyal to Zeus, then?”

  “Not necessarily,” Hera answered, which Zeus wasn’t surprised to hear. “I was just thinking that if there were going to be a new leader, it might be somebody more experienced with fighting Titans. Somebody like me, maybe.”

  Zeus rolled his eyes. Great! Now everybody wants to be leader, he thought. And then he noticed more of the three-legged walking machines coming down the path. A group of Sintians was following them. The platform on top of each machine was loaded with weapons and pieces of metal.

  “To the ship!” Hephaestus ordered the machines. They obeyed his command, wading through the water toward the ship, while balancing the spoils they carried. Hades, Ares, Athena, and Artemis passed them, returning with the rowboats.

  “Looks like we can head out now,” Zeus said.

  Hephaestus turned to the Sintians. More and more of them had started to gather on the shore, curious about the commotion.

  “My loyal subjects!” Hephaestus called out to them. To fully capture their attention, he waved his cane around, accidentally bonking himself in the head this time.

  “Ow! Ahem,” he said, wisely lowering his cane and rubbing his head. “The time has come for me to leave you. I must follow my destiny.”

  At this announcement, the Sintians began to murmur among themselves.

  “Leader-oo must noot leave-oo!” one of the warriors shouted.

  “Oog! Oog! Oog!” agreed the others, raising their voices in a chant.

  “Calm down!” ordered Hephaestus, but the Sintians did not listen. Instead the warriors among them drew their weapons.

  “A fight!” Ares cheered, shaking his spear.

  “Our magical weapons don’t work on the island,” Zeus told him. “But they might work once we’re offshore. And the weapons from Hephaestus’s workshop are already on board. To the ship!”

  The Olympians ran for the rowboats—except for Hephaestus, who refused to believe the Sintians would disobey him.

  “Droog-ee ur woo-pongs now!” he thundered, but his demand only made them angrier. An arrow whizzed past his face. “How dare you!” he yelled, slamming his cane into the ground.

  “Groog leader-oo!” one of the warriors shouted. At that, a massive Sintian scooped Hephaestus up.

  “Put me down!” Hephaestus demanded.

  Artemis stood up in the rowboat. “I got this,” she said confidently, and aimed an arrow at the warrior. “One arrow in the backside coming right up.” Unfortunately, Hephaestus was kicking and flailing his arms, making it difficult for her to zero in on the Sintian.

  “Careful!” Athena said worriedly.

  Artemis’s eyes narrowed, and she let the arrow fly.

  Whoosh! Her silver arrow whizzed through the air and poked the Sintian—right in the behind.

  “Oog!” the Sintian cried, dropping Hephaestus. The boy used his cane to pull himself up and then quickly climbed onto one of his three-legged machines, which was just then walking past. “To the ship,” he told it.

  By now the other Olympians had reached the ship. They clambered aboard.

  “Hurry, Hephaestus!” Zeus called out as they hauled up the rowboats too. Hephaestus might be annoying, but they needed every Olympian they could find.

  The Sintians let out angry shouts and shot a swarm of arrows toward their leader.

  Once all except Hephaestus were on board, Artemis immediately knelt down and shot even more arrows toward the Sintians. One by one she knocked the weapons right out of their hands.

  “Quick! We need to recharge our magical objects!” Hera yelled.

  The Olympians formed a tight circle on the deck of the ship. Zeus held up Bolt and Chip. Poseidon held up his trident, and Athena did the same with her aegis and Thread of Cleverness. The others also thrust their objects and weapons high. Hades raised his helmet. Demeter, her bag of seeds. Hestia, her torch. Ares, his spear. And lastly, up went Hera’s peacock feather.

  As the objects came together, meeting high in the air between the Olympians, the objects all began to glow softly. Their magical light grew brighter . . . and brighter, until . . .

  Boom! A mighty charge of energy surged through all of the objects, rocking the s
hip with its power. Brought together, their immortal magic always became far stronger. And Bolt glowed brightest of all! Its magic was working again!

  At last the Olympians broke apart. Hearing a grinding sound, they raced to the side of the ship.

  Creak! Creak! The three-legged machine Hephaestus was riding on was almost to the ship. Apparently its tripod legs had extended since its platform stayed above the water. There were so many Sintian arrows stuck in it now that it looked like a porcupine! It teetered left, then right, acting dizzy. Then it toppled over backward! Splash! Hephaestus fell into the water too.

  “I’ve got this!” Poseidon cried. Quickly he tossed his trident into the sea, jumped down onto it, and zipped across the water to the rescue.

  Meanwhile the Sintians charged into the sea, their arrows continuing to fly toward Hephaestus—and now Poseidon.“They’re not going to make it. Do something!” Hestia urged Zeus.

  He held Bolt high. “Large!” he yelled. At his command, the weapon grew to a sizzling supercharged lightning bolt five feet long. He aimed it at the Sintians, who were firing at Hephaestus and Poseidon.

  Zap! In a burst of jagged light, Bolt shot from Zeus’s hand. It struck some of the low plants along the shoreline. As they sizzled and then turned black, Bolt zoomed back to Zeus.

  “Back off or else!” Zeus warned the Sintians. “Bolt’s electricity will fry you like fish!”

  A cry rose up from the Sintians. “Boots! Boots!” they chanted, punching angry fists in the air.

  “Do they really think boots will protect them from Bolt’s electricity?” Athena wondered aloud.

  But seconds later dozens of new Sintians appeared on the island’s shore, some of them carrying boats.

  “This means war!” shouted Ares.

  “No! Sure, I could unleash Bolt to fry every warrior on the beach. But Sintians aren’t monsters or machines. They’re mortal men. Weird men, but men just the same. Let’s just get out of here while the getting is good!” Zeus shouted to the others.

  Just then Poseidon and Hephaestus zoomed up to the ship on the trident. Ares and Demeter rushed over and helped pull them aboard.

  Once he stood on deck, Hephaestus looked back at the island. “Ingrates!” he yelled at the Sintians. Then his shoulders slumped and he spoke more quietly, and a little sadly. “I protected them and their island for years! I thought they worshipped me. Liked me.”

  Though Zeus hadn’t known Hephaestus very long, he could kind of understand the Sintians’ hostile feelings toward the boy. He could be pushy and he liked to brag. Still, Zeus put a hand on Hephaestus’s shoulder. “You don’t need them anymore. You have us.”

  Hephaestus brightened. “True! And you guys need me big-time. How fast can this ship move?”

  “Depends on the wind,” Zeus replied. “Why?”

  The boy grinned mysteriously. “You’ll see.”

  As he spoke, the whole island began to rumble. The ground shook, knocking some of the Sintians off their feet.

  “What’s happening?” Poseidon shouted.

  “I suspected I might have to leave the island someday,” Hephaestus said with a wicked grin. “So I made sure that no one would ever be able to steal my ideas and inventions. Wouldn’t want the Sintians to use them to come after us and wage war, right?”

  Zeus shuddered. He wasn’t completely sure what Hephaestus had up his sleeve, but whatever it was couldn’t be good! “Set sail. And start rowing!” he shouted to the others.

  Then he joined in, grabbing one of the long oars that could be used to get the ship moving when there was no wind. Meanwhile, Apollo, Athena, Hestia, and Artemis worked the sails. Waves crashed up against the ship, stirred by the trembling island.

  “Faster!” Hephaestus hollered to them. He didn’t bother to help, but only stared at the island with that same smug smile. Panicked, the Sintians scrambled to find safety.

  Suddenly, bright orange sparks flew from the volcano. It rumbled and roared. And then . . .

  BOOM! The volcano exploded in a shower of sparks and ash.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Find the Bubbles?

  T he ship moved away from the island, but not fast enough for Zeus. Sparks and ash were flying toward them. The Sintians took refuge in their boats, but made no effort to chase after the Olympians, fortunately.

  “Faster!” Zeus yelled. The oars hit the water again and again, moving in a rhythm that pulled the ship slowly forward.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Poseidon told Zeus. Standing in the bow of the ship, he held up his trident.

  “Sea monsters! Come!” he called out, and his trident glowed. Within minutes the two monsters they’d met earlier emerged from the water in answer to his summons.

  “We hear and obey you, Master,” said Turquoise.

  “Yes, even though you made us come to this weird island,” Green grumbled.

  Poseidon ignored his grumbling. “This place is bad news. I want you to get us out of here!”

  Green nodded. “Told you so! Um, Lord Poseidon.”

  The sea monsters ducked underwater, and Zeus felt the ship begin to pick up speed. Thick, black smoke followed them from the island as the serpents pushed them out into the open sea.

  “Where should we go from here?” Poseidon called back to Zeus.

  Zeus hesitated. He really wanted to return the stolen ship. But if the Cronies had gotten word of the theft, they might have guessed the Olympians had taken it. So going back to where they’d gotten the ship might not be safe.

  While he was thinking, Hera spoke up. “I’ll send out my feather to scout for a safe harbor,” she said, and she held the Feather of Eyes in her palm. “Find us a place where we can hide, away from Cronies’ prying eyes,” she told it.

  “Doesn’t even rhyme,” Apollo said, tsk-tsking as the feather floated away.

  Soon the smoke was behind them, but they could still see black plumes billowing in the sky over the island. Hephaestus watched calmly.

  “I know you were mad at those guys, but wasn’t that kind of harsh?” Hades asked him.

  Hephaestus shrugged. “They’ll be okay. But they do not deserve my inventions. They proved that to me.”

  Hmm, thought Zeus. Hephaestus was clearly skilled when it came to metal inventions, but not so much when it came to people. Maybe he wouldn’t be such a great leader after all.

  Just then the feather returned to Hera. She looked into its eye. “There’s a small island not far from here,” she reported. “The sun is almost directly above it, so head west.”

  They changed course, and with the help of the sea serpents, they arrived at the small island just a few hours later. Then they rowed to shore in the rowboats and stepped out onto the beach.

  “We can stay on the ship tonight, but let’s check out the island first and make sure it’s safe,” Zeus told everyone. “We don’t want to be attacked in our sleep.”

  “Very smart thinking, Zeus,” said a voice.

  Startled, Zeus glanced toward the place where the voice had come from, and saw a cloud of mist. A woman with long black hair and glasses appeared inside the mist.

  “Pythia!” Zeus exclaimed, feeling glad to see her. “We completed our quest! We found another Olympian—Hephaestus. And Artemis got her bow and arrows and woke up.”

  Artemis held up her gold bow. “Yeah, thanks. Good to meet you.”

  Pythia smiled at her. Then her gaze scanned the group. “Well done, all of you.”

  Hephaestus stepped forward. “So are you the one who calls the shots in this group?” he asked. “I thought Zeus was supposed to be the leader.”

  “I see what the future holds,” Pythia answered. “Well, not always clearly, but it is my duty to guide the Olympians. Zeus is their true leader.”

  Zeus was happy to hear Pythia say that. But part of him still wasn’t sure if he felt worthy to be their leader anymore. He was always making mistakes, it seemed. And when Hephaestus had called him “soft,” some of the other Olympians had seemed
to agree.

  “And that brings us to your next quest,” Pythia said. “You must find . . . the bubbles!”

  “Find the bubbles?” Hera asked, confused. “Is that it?”

  Pythia took off her glasses and cleaned the lenses with the edge of her white robe. “As usual, my spectacles are foggy,” she replied. “That’s all I can see. Ah, well.” She faded into the mist.

  Hephaestus turned to the others. “So this is how you get all your quests?” he said in disbelief. “A strange lady comes out of the mist and tells you to search for stuff, and you just go?”

  “We found you, didn’t we?” Zeus asked a little crossly. Hephaestus was really starting to get on his nerves! Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have him in the group after all, even if he was an Olympian.

  “So what’s the bubble plan, Bro?” Poseidon asked Zeus.

  “I have a plan,” Hephaestus butted in. “How about you all make me your leader? I’ve got lots of experience. Don’t forget, I ruled a whole island.”

  “Thanks, but we barely even know you,” Hestia said. “And Zeus has never steered us wrong.”

  “Thanks for the props,” Zeus told her gratefully. Though it was a bit of an exaggeration to say that he’d never steered them wrong. Still, he appreciated her support.

  Then Artemis spoke up. “I may have been half-asleep when we first landed on the Sintians’ island,” she said to Hestia. “But I do remember that when the Sintians asked us to drop our weapons, Zeus was like, ‘Yeah, anything you want.’ ”

  Hera raised an eyebrow at Zeus. “Really? You did that?”

  Ares shook his head. “Wow, dude, that is weak.”

  “You weren’t there,” Zeus said in his own defense. “We were outnumbered. I made the best decision I could.” And as he said it, he realized it was the truth.

  “Zeus did great,” Hades said, sticking up for him. “And anyway, Pythia says he’s our leader. So I want to hear his plan for getting to the bubbles.”

  “I want to know Hephaestus’s plan,” countered Ares.

  Suddenly the sky above them turned as black as night, plunging everything into total darkness!