Twisted Prophecy
Chapter 1
My dream started something like this,
Typhon, the terrible enemy of the Gods, Father of all monsters, was deep in slumber when I noticed Ares, the God of war and Hermes, the God of Thieves and Travellers, wrestling in the monsters arms when Typhon started to move, feeling agitated, about something he had dreamt about. Somehow, without even knowing, I knew what he was dreaming about.
Chaos, the mighty first being, father of the Titans and Gods, was stirring trouble in his sleep. He was shouting at the darkness. At first, I believed he was telling off Erebus, his son, the Primordial God of Darkness, when out of the gloomy blackness, came a monster I had already met, the terrible Echidna, an evil monster with her brood, mother of all monsters and married to the catastrophe that is Typhon. The pair's forces make the Gods' and Titans' combined forces look like fire crackers, which is really bad.
I woke with a shock. I was looking up at a picture of my dad, Zeus and a picture of my mum, Athena, when I noticed my name and age written on the wall. My name is Jayden and I am 10 years old. I saw a strange light coming from outside, until I realised what it was. Outside in the shining sun, having a sword/spear fight, were my best friends, Hugo and Olympia. Both of them are also Demi-Gods. Hugo is the son of Hades and Demeter and Olympia is the daughter of Hephaestus and Artemis. Each time their weapons connected the hearth got fiercer and a bird fell into the fire which turned the colour of that bird which was the strange light I saw. The Oracle of Delphi was happily watching my other friends Noah, who is the son of Apollo and Hera and Sienna, who is the daughter of Poseidon and Hestia, fighting a hellhound that they had summoned to practice fighting. I could see them hacking away, trying to kill the hellhound but they just couldn't do it. The hellhound was just too quick and able to jump over their heads. I was the only one in camp who knew how to beat the hellhound, so I jumped in to help them. I told Noah to run screaming from the monster to the left and I told Sienna to do the same but to the right and escape behind the monster. I ran toward the hellhound just as Noah and Sienna stabbed downwards on the hellhound's tail. The monster winced in pain. I only had one thing to do. I charged the hellhound. The monster reared up and I chucked my scythe in to monster's heart and in seconds it had disintegrated into a pile of sand. I retrieved my scythe when a hissing sound sent a chill up my spine. I turned just as Olympia shouted in fear.
"No!"
And then I saw it. A horrible monster. And I realized what monster it was. But I was already in motion. I turned, looked. Then it all went black.
"Noooo!" screamed Olympia again. Hugo and Noah advanced on Medusa, being careful not to look her directly in the eyes. They stopped dead when they saw Medusa approaching on my stone statue. Then she swarmed at Hugo and Noah swung his sword upward and chopped off Medusa's head with a sickening schlock! Medusa's head fell on the floor and my statue crumbled into pieces.
A few moments of stunned silence, while everyone came back to terms with what had happened, were broken by an upsetting sentence.
"We need a shroud." whispered Sienna.
"A shroud for the son of..."
"No-one, no-one's dead.
"JAYDEN" shouted my friends.
I smiled at them.
"We thought you were..."
"You need to study that monster, when she dies, her statues made in the past day are revived by the Gods, so here I am" I said cheerily "I have surv..."
"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty python, Approach, seeker, and ask
My friends jaw dropped, so I turned and realised what my friends were looking at.
Right in front of my eyes, was the Oracle of Delphi, who must have been summoned, standing there quite still. And it was waiting for an answer.
"We have no reas..."
But I knew there had to be a reason, and I remembered my dream.
"What do I need to do to help the Gods Ares and Hermes?
"What?" mumbled my friends, "What's wrong with them?"
Out of the Oracle's mouth spewed green mist as it started the prophecy.
You shall find the place of the Gods worst nightmare,
The best combined forces will send out a huge scare,
Where the most treacherous monster stays in his slumber,
A new age will arrive with new thrones and a new leader.
Chapter 2
At dinner, I told my friends about my dream. It took them a few moments to take in what had happened.
"Chaos hasn't stirred at all." muttered Olympia
"Only Kronus." agreed Hugo
"We can't just sit here and wait." confirmed Sienna
"My cousin is in trouble!" yelled Noah
"WE will not sit back and do nothing," I screamed "We, the most powerful Demi-Gods, shall call a meeting with the Gods..."
"The remaining Gods." whispered Hugo
"Not helpful." said Sienna
"WE shall confirm our fears that Chaos is stirring trouble with Typhon, that he wants war with the Gods that my prophecy has confirmed the end of Zeus' reign and that Chaos will stop at nothing to destroy the Gods."
"What if they don't believe us?" asked Olympia
"They have to, I will contact my father and call the meeting, and we must do something!" I yelled.
"YEH!" everyone screamed.
Then we went to bed.
That night, I had my worst nightmare yet.
I was walking on the beach, when a rumbling from the ground filled my ears. The sand opened up and I fell through. I don't know where I was going, but the tunnel kept on going down. 13 seconds later I was thrown into something that looked like a large bat wing. I looked up, in hope of being somewhere enjoyable and happy, but then I got the biggest scare of my life. I WAS IN THE ARMS OF THE MONSTER TYPHON. I looked nothing like myself, but like my friend Noah. And that gave me a fright. A cringe worthy voice said,
"Yes, yes, you'll do nicely"
I woke up, feeling worried and nervous, anxious to tell my friends about my dream.
I looked at my watch 10:00. Time for the meeting.
Olympia, Sienna, Noah, Hugo and I were in the coach to Mount Olympus. The journey was bad but when you're in a hurry, WHO CARES! We arrived in Olympus, 12 thrones stood in a U shape, a hearth in the centre with a girl about 8 years old tending to it. 9 of the thrones were occupied by Gods. The top two were for Zeus and Poseidon. On the left, were 5 thrones, for Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Hermes and Apollo. On the right, were 4 thrones, for Hera, Demeter, Aphrodite, Athena and Hestia. Hestia doesn't have a throne because she is the girl that tends to the hearth. Being the son of Zeus, I had permission to sit in the throne of Ares. Sienna is the daughter of Poseidon and Hugo is the son of Hades so both Hugo and Sienna shared the throne of Hermes.
"Father, fellow Olympians," I said "It has come to my attention that the mighty Chaos is stirring trouble. I have had 2 dreams."
I described my dreams, which worried Noah a bit and the Gods were tensing around me.
"I know what to do." I said confidently.
"Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus, you must use your powers to defend Mount Olympus from the outside. Poseidon, you must ask your brother Hades to personally go to Tartarus and check on Ares and Hermes. Hephaestus and Athena, I have had suspicions that Chaos has been gathering an army of monsters and they are forming at Mount Othrys. You must go and destroy the army before Chaos can lead them into battle. Aphrodite and Hestia, you must set up a full scale attack in the emergency that Hephaestus and Athena are too late. Hera and Demeter, you must go and protect the borders of Greece. We will stay in here and we fight till the death. Chaos will not win."
"I have a suggestion." asked Apollo brightly
"Fine." said my uncle, Poseidon.
"I would like to call upon the Oracle to tell us the prophecy in person to confirm."
"A vote..." I suggested "In favour of the Oracle."
Everyone raised their hands in agreement. In seconds, the old mummy that I always saw in the window watching us was in front of us and spoke in a rasping voice,
You shall find the place of the Gods worst nightmare,
The best combined forces will send out a huge scare,
Where the most treacherous monster stays in his slumber,
A new age will arrive with new thrones and a new leader.
The thrones of whom you will not expect,
The new age will be for the best of the best
"You didn't tell us about those last 2 lines." said Hephaestus
"Peace son, I have made a decision for all of us, only if my husband Zeus agrees." said Hera
Everyone looked at Zeus, not knowing what he would do, baring in mind we didn't know what Hera was talking about
"If it's within our powers, yes, I accept" agreed Zeus
"I hereby want all you to swear on the River Styx that we will all go into hiding if we lose against Chaos. We will swear not to give up until Chaos is beaten and we win" said Hera, "That is my request."
"What about what the Oracle said about a new age." reminded Apollo.
"She said that it's the thrones of whom we will not expect meaning if we expect it will be Chaos then it won't be as we expect him." Sienna put in.
Worried and Nervous, Noah spoke up, "What about Jayden's dream about me in Typhon's arms. Will he get hold of me?
"I'm sorry." I said "I should have mentioned, that to gain access to Tartarus, Hades will need the help of a male Demi-God that isn't the son of Big Three which you are the only one, so you will have to go with Poseidon to Hades and enter Tartarus."
"You can't!" yelled Sienna "You've known him since you were 2. All of your child memories. He could die. He may not escape alive."
"I will not have my son die before his time" argued Hera.
Apollo put in, "Nor would I."
"So it is settled." confirmed my uncle Poseidon, "I will take the boy to Hades with me and we will only leave with Ares and Hermes."
"Yes." I said, "Sienna, Hugo, Olympia and I will stay here and fight for Olympus."
Hera added, "The oath."
"Yes." said Zeus
Then the air seemed to bend around him and a shimmering figure behind him walked toward Hestia, in the centre of the room.
"Styx." said Aphrodite, "The goddess of the River Styx."
"The lady is right," said Styx, "I don't like an oath being made on me when I know it can't be kept"
"How do you know it can't be kept?" questioned Aphrodite
"She is my daughter and she has the same eyesight as the Oracle, she can see the future, she thinks she can see the future but she may be wrong." Said Apollo grimly.
"Yes" replied Styx, "I have been blessed with the eyesight of the Oracle, but I know from what I've seen, you will be unable to keep it."
Hera grumbled,
"How can you be so sure."
Styx produced an image made out of mist, that showed some stuff that was going on in Tartarus,
"Take a look at this,"
The mist showed a picture of the mighty Chaos meeting the monster Typhon. It seemed that Chaos was holding Echidna ransom, as a hostage. He was probably hoping for Typhon to agree to fight the Gods, and be on his side. Being the Gods worst nightmare, Chaos knew that if Typhon and Echidna were on his team they would be unstoppable. It seemed that Chaos was trying to lure out Typhon by using Echidna (his wife). Then the scene changed. It became a picture of what the Oracle meant about the near future. We could see Olympus with 90 new thrones. They looked like the size for being 3m tall and 2.5m tall, which worried the Gods a bit as they are only the size of normal beings, even though on Olympus now, there were only 12 thrones and the fire for Hestia. Suddenly the face of Chaos appeared above the throne meant for Zeus. His face was black with glowing red eyes and a ghostly white mouth and wickedly bright yellow hair. He spoke with a misty voice,
"This here place, Mount Olympus, will be the place of my ruling, my uprising, my rebirth, and all of you Gods and Goddesses shall be driven back to my caves, all except the strongest, the ones who serve me."
Poseidon shot his trident through the image and the mist disintegrated.
"Pah," he said, "That has only said that Chaos' fight will never be forgotten and that my brother Zeus, will have Chaos' face etched in his throne."
Apollo was still unsure about something,
"What about those other 45 thrones that we saw in the mist image."
Styx seemed to have an answer.
"If it is still unclear then I would be surprised, but the thrones that you are unsure about are the thrones for all the... I'm sorry, I can't explain it, and it would reveal the prophecy."
"Hang on a minute," intervened Hephaestus, "If you know the prophecies' meaning, then why can't you tell us what it means to stop us worrying."
Zeus grumbled because he could sense the answer,
"If we knew the answer then we wouldn't even attempt to do our duties, but this is the only way, Apollo said that Styx could see the future but sadly she can sometimes be wrong, If this is a time she is wrong then that means we will have to send out everyone so that even if Chaos does create an army, then Hephaestus and Athena can destroy them with their forces. Either way, we are destined to win."
I seemed to be put back when I was supposed to be leading the quest so I had to settle all agreements that had happened.
"Okay, so Poseidon and Noah will go down to Hades and enter Tartarus and will only leave with Ares and Hermes. Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus will protect Mount Olympus from the outside. Aphrodite and Hestia will set up a full scale attack for us just in case. Hera and Demeter will protect the borders of Greece. Hephaestus and Athena will destroy the army that Chaos has created. Olympia, Sienna, Hugo and I will stay here and protect Mount Olympus from the inside.
We will be undefeated!"
Chapter 3
On the way back to camp, Olympia and I had an intense discussion on what weapons we would need.
"I will take my scythe (the same one Kronus used, except mine is poisonous by touch), Hugo will take his sword (Makhaira), Sienna will take her dagger (Kopis) and you will take your shield (Ageas) and your spear (Hoplite)." I said.
Olympia muttered "What about Noah what weapon will he...oh yeh, he's going..."
"To Tartarus with Uncle Poseidon." I finished off, "He will come back alive."
I could see some tears welling up in her eyes.
"Hera and Apollo said that they wouldn't have Noah die before his time." I said in encouragement.
"But if he's going into Tartarus to get Ares and Hermes," Olympia sobbed, "Chaos is the most powerful thing on earth and if he's in Tartarus with Noah then he can do much more damage that Hera and Apollo can do and probably take no notice of what they said. He can still die!"
I was the most powerful Demi-God of all time and yet I had nothing to tell Olympia that would make her feel better.
"I have known Noah for as long as I can remember and if I lose him for nothing then I will feel real bad. Hades might not even be okay with Noah and blast him to pieces but hopefully Poseidon can stop that from happening."
I thought that that comment had ceased all conversations as we travelled the next half an hour in silence, until it was broken by our van. It suddenly got very muddy and we came to a screeching halt. Then a voice boomed from the shadows. Thinking it was Chaos, Sienna and Hugo hid behind their chairs. Strangely, what came out of the shadows was a lot less scary. A Satyr the size of a regular man was controlling the sheep in the field and stopped and stared at us.
"That's impossible! He is..." started Olympia
"I am Pan, Lord of the Wild, if you choose to stay here then I have a preposition for you."
Confused and bewildered, Hugo spoke up.
"What do you mean?"
"If you choose to stay here," repeated Pan, "Then you shall be given a choice. A choice of bravery, a choice of skill, a choice of concentration and it shall be presented to you by..."
Out of the gloomy sky came Janus , the two-headed, deceiving, god of choices and doors.
"I know of your situation, so I have made a decision for you."
I sounded shocked.
"What kind of a decision can a God make for us?"
Janus snorted.
"You can go through a door and you may be killed by an unexpected person who has information that you will need or if you go through another door you will travel safely till you get back to camp. The choice is yours."
Janus smiled as he knew he could change the paths. If we chose the right one then he could change it as long we had made the choice. He either wants us to do badly so he wouldn't change it but if he wanted us to do right then he wouldn't change it.
"How do we know you won't change the doors after we decide?" asked Sienna.
"Before we got here," started Pan, "I made Janus swear on the River Styx not to change the doors around. I can also tell you from what the Oracle has told the Gods, that the person that will try to kill you is the same person that tried to kill Theseus with over hospitality on his way back from Crete. This man's legal name is Procrustes. I have a little something to recite a prophecy." As he said that, a red headed Harpy, birds with ladies heads, sat on Pan's shoulder and recited a prophecy
Procrustes, the schemer,
That head-chopping scone
That evil will sense you,
One of you will fight alone.
"That is what the Oracle said so you must now make a decision on what door you will you go through?"
We exchanged looks, I gave Janus one of my deluxe you'll pay for this looks. He just snorted.
"Jayden think carefully about this, one of us will fight Procrustes alone."
"Chill Hugo, I have fought him before so I know how to beat him." I said confidently, "I will ensure that I am the one who fights Procrustes and I will defeat him."
"Which path have you chosen?" said Janus getting agitated
I said in an adult tone,
"If you are truly the Janus, then you will show us the path that takes us to Procrustes lair and give us the information we need. I will ensure that I will be the one who fights Procrustes and being the son of Zeus and Athena I will be able to defeat him in about 2 minutes." I ensured.
"What about protecting Olympus?" asked Sienna, "We need to get our weapons and get inside Olympus."
I paused, I didn't know what to do as I had to defend Olympus and battle Procrustes.
"You don't even need to fight Procrustes, do you?" asked Hugo
"Of course I do!" I yelled, "He will give us the information that we need to defeat Chaos. He is the only being that knows what Chaos' power is like and the damage that he can cause."
I suggest…" started Pan, "That you go to the path that leads to Procrustes, that Janus will kindly show you, and if you sleep on the way then you will have a dream that isn't related to this deadly quest. I can be of service, unlike some Gods."
It seemed like a good idea until Olympia piped in.
"Hang on a second Janus... if you know where Procrustes is then surely you can tell the other Gods where he is and they can kill him after getting the information. Its easier because even if they lose they can't die. Us - on the other hand - can die."
"The girl has a point" agreed Pan.
"Shut up goat-man!" yelled Janus.
Suddenly, with no immediate warning, a lightning bolt flew across the sky toward the planet Mars. Hugo and Sienna seemed to think it was weird but I knew that it obviously meant that there was some communication between my dad and Ares (Ares' roman name is Mars). Although, it may not be good communication. Ares might be tying to provoke my dad so he would go to Tartarus and free him. But that would be impossible because no God can cross each other's territory without invitation.
"You'd better choose quickly!" hurried Pan, looking up at the sky as it started to rain
"I have decided," I said proudly, "We will go to Procrustes and fight him. I need to have that dream about my life. I can sense that it will be to do with my birth and how I was born, won't it?"
Pan nodded,
"Yes child, it has something to do with who you are. Call yourself a Demi-God eh, we'll see about that. But for now, you must go…"
"Through this door." Janus finished off, pointing to the door on his right, "This door will take you directly to Procrustes' lair and you are right, he will give you information. But there is always a twist. Because where there is death, there will always be death."
"Then," I said "We shall be on our way. Thank you Janus for your helpful information and of course thank you Pan for your help. But we really need to go now."
"Oh, hang on a sec..." Began Pan, "You will also meet a young man your age called Leo, don't be surprised because he is a God. He is the son of Hephaestus and Hestia."
"But I thought.." muttered Olympia.
"All will be revealed, so for now, I bid you farewell." said Janus
Then in a puff of smoke, they disappeared.
We all stared at each other just to check that we weren't hallucinating. But judging by Olympia's facial expressions, we weren't.
Chapter 4
"So," I started, "Let's go through this door that Janus kindly left us. I can't wait to meet Leo. Hopefully he has some sort of special powers that we can use if he lets us and maybe he has some special weapon and maybe he can change into a special animal when he wants and maybe he...!"
"Okay, Jayden!" yelled my friends, laughing at how cool I thought Leo would be for a God.
"Calm down, you're giving me a migraine, and children of Apollo (God of healing) don't..."
"Even get migraines." finished off Sienna, "Seriously Olympia, you need to stop thinking about Noah. Its bad for you, he will be absolutely fine."
"You don't know that."
"Yes I do."
"You're not a daughter of Apollo; you can't see the future like Noah can, or the goddess Styx."
"But I can feel it."
"No you can't, only children of Hades can feel it."
"And children of Thanatos and Moros and Attis (God of Death, Goddess of Doom and God of Rebirth)..."
"You know what I mean!" wailed Olympia
"GIRLS!" I yelled. "Arguing isn't going to help anyone, even Noah. So lets just go to Procrustes Lair and give him a piece of our mind. And anyway Leo can help because he's so cool."
"Let's go then shall we," agreed Hugo, then he turned toward me, "Go below and get some rest as you'll need it to live through this dream. Pan reminded me before we left that all of us will get a dream if you survive only if you do tell us what happened in yours."
Reluctantly I went down to the engine room which magically turned into a bedroom with 4 four-poster beds.
And then I had my dream, which obviously, wasn't scary:
I was lying in my bed. I seemed to be the size of a baby, yet I looked just like my 10 year old self. Then a man that smelt of an ozone storm strode into the room, whilst carrying a lightning bolt that was sparking on both ends. This man was clearly my father Zeus. He leant over my bed and out of his head sprang my mum, Athena, in full battle gear, just like she had when she was born. Zeus kissed Athena and put the kiss on the lightning bolt, in a contraption that read 'Only use when both powers are in need'. He closed the contraption and spun the bolt. Somehow it morphed into a hat of pure awesomeness. He placed the hat on my head and in unison, my parents placed a blessing on me which went something like this 'Είστε τώρα ένας Θεός της Μορφικά ονομάζεται Jradeni.' My parents then left the room singing praises about me. I suddenly had two big realisations: 1-I understood what my parents had said to me and 2- I was now a God- Then I was awakened by my hat spinning into life, becoming larger.
"Jayden, what happened?"
I realised that the hat in my dream had come to life and was on my head. I smiled up at my friends, eager to tell them what had happened
"Actually, it's Jradeni now."
My friends looked around
"Understand this: Είστε τώρα ένας Θεός της Μορφικά ονομάζεται Jradeni." I challenged
"Oh dear," muttered Olympia, because she knew what it meant.
"Yes," I confirmed, "You are right."
"That's so cool," shrieked Olympia, "Tell the others."
I wondered.
"Tell us what?" yelled the three in unison.
I considered
"Say hello to a new major god, one of the thirteen Olympians, me. Jradeni, the God of morphing."
My friends looked around again, to see if they had heard me correctly, which of course, they had.
"Wait...you...a God...Jradeni...Morphing" stuttered Sienna, in shock, "How..."
I described my dream, about the blessing and how I got this new hat. I took it off and opened the contraption and showed them an owl with a lightning bolt etched across its face-the symbol of my parents-which was what the powers were kept in."
"That's so..." started Sienna
"Mesmerizing." finished Olympia
"I was going to say amazing but mesmerizing covers it." argued Sienna
My friends smiled.
"I can't wait for my dream." hoped Hugo
"Don't jinx it." I reminded
"I won't," Hugo said, "I just can't wait"
"Well I'm going next." said Olympia
"No, I'm going." argued Sienna
"Dream on girls" Battled Hugo
"Watch it Man" yelled Olympia
"You can talk." screamed Sienna
"Shut up, Its my turn." insisted Hugo
"PACK IT IN, ALL OF YOU" I ordered, "I will go next to take Noah's dream, Then Olympia, then Hugo and lastly Sienna."
"So not fair." muttered Sienna
"Who put you in charge, boss?" asked Hugo
"Do you want to test me boy," I challenged, "I am a God now, a rank above all of you, so do what I say. If you also get a dream then you will all be Gods and Goddesses but my parents are a rank above yours so I am a rank above you. I am in charge now, so goodnight."
I went back down to the engine room
Noah's dream started like this.
Noah was lying in bed. Noah was the size of a baby, yet he looked like his 10 year old self. Then a man with a first aid kit walked into the room This man was clearly Noah's father, Apollo. He leaned over Noah's bed and Noah's mum, Hera, appeared on the other side of the bed. Apollo kissed Hera and put the kiss in the first aid kit, in a contraption that read 'Only use when both powers are in need.' He closed the contraption and spun the kit. Somehow it morphed into a hat of pure amazing ness. He placed the hat on Noah's head and in unison; his parents placed a blessing on him which went something like this 'Είστε πλέον ένα σημαντικό Θεός καθορισμού ονομάζεται Nareno.' Noah's parents then left the room singing praises about Noah. He suddenly had 2 big realisations: 1-He understood what his parents had said and 2-He was now a God. Then he was suddenly awakened by his hat spinning into life, getting bigger.
"Jradeni, what happened?" asked my friends
"Just had Noah's dream."
"We know that, we mean what happened?" they asked again
"This hat is Noah's, from Apollo and Hera."
"Oh, we didn't know that." mimicked Hugo
I just ignored him
"Olympia," I challenged, "What does this mean? 'Είστε πλέον ένα σημαντικό Θεός καθορισμού ονομάζεται Nareno.
Olympia didn't seem at all surprised.
"Noah is now a major God, one of the 14 Olympians, A God of Fixing called Nareno."
"But what about Tartarus?" asked Sienna, "You said that to gain access to Tartarus, you need the help of a male Demi-God who isn't the son of Zeus, Poseidon or Hades. But now he is a God so he is no longer a Demi-God and therefore he can't work as a key to Tartarus."
"Call Quentin, he is the son of Hermes and Iris. He can help me send a message to my father so he can inform Poseidon of that helpful information. If Poseidon and Noah can't gain access to Tartarus then Ares and Hermes will be in grave danger
Chapter 5
