The twelfth graders had changed into their swim wear and were now sitting out in the sun listening to Poseidon drone on about what hey were going to do in this Physical Education lesson. He tried desperately to make them as interesting as possible, but they always included either swimming or horse riding.

Poseidon was standing in his usual green regalia and booming out words in a very loud and echoing voice. Echo was mimicking what he said under her breath

Hermes and Dionysus burst into the lesson halfway through his explanation. Poseidon glanced at them with eyebrows raised.

"Sorry," muttered Hermes. Beside him, Dionysus was still giggling uncontrollably.

"As I was saying, today, we are going to do a treasure hunt."

Cupid raised his hands in mock prayer, "finally something not involving water." He hated swimming; it took ages for him to dry the wings.

"Hey, then why the hell are we in bathers?" asked Ares.

"Well there are a lot of rivers and streams in the Forbidden Forest, and I'm sure you don't want to get your usual clothes dirty."

Their eyes turned and settled on the dark gloomy patch of tall, foreboding trees that stood watchfully on the school borders.

Phineus leapt up. "You're kidding me right? I mean, you can't let us go in there. It's against the school rules." His voice quavered and his eyes were wide in disbelief.

Andromeda gave him a disgusted look.

"Nonsense," said Poseidon, tutting, "you have my permission to go in there."

"Erm," said Psyche nervously, "there is a reason why we aren't allowed to go in there."

Poseidon waved it off offhandedly. "Don't worry about that, Hades just probably told you that to scare you. None of that's true. He has something wrong with his brain if you ask me."

If that was true, then it meant all the other teachers in the school were crazy as well, or it could mean that only one teacher was crazy and was calling all the other teachers that.

"Anyway," said Poseidon, while the dumber people in the class were trying to figure it out, "I say you are allowed so you must be allowed. Get into six groups of four. Each group will get a map and you are to follow it to the place where I buried the treasure."

"But-" began Hephaestus.

"No buts," said Poseidon cheerfully, "get into your groups."

Groups of friends immediately found each other and a few loners stared gloomily at them on the borders.

"On the other hand," said Poseidon, a wicked grin spreading across his face, "I think I'm going to sort the teams."

In a few seconds, the year twelves had assembled outside the forest. Phineus had developed an odd twitch in his right eye and Persues was watching him with a smirk. They had slipped their normal clothes over their bathers; only idiots would enter the forest in only their swim wear.

Ares stared disdainfully at his team. He was the only unlucky person in his class to get stuck with a whole team of girls. Firstly there was Artemis, who was looking at him as if he was some unnamed creature from the underworld. On his first ever day at Olympus High she had broken his nose all because he spilt half his dinner on her head. Then there was Athena, whose sporting abilities were next to zero and annoyed every single person in the class with her superior intellect. And last, but not least, was Briseis; a nice enough girl but horribly soft hearted, hated battle and probably couldn't even tell the difference between an axe and a bow.

Beside him, Hector was also agonizing over his team. It contained a drunk, a copycat and a handsome angel whose heart was set on creating couples. It couldn't get any worse. Dionysus was reeling around drunkenly, clutching another can of coke and giggling. Echo, who forever wanted to be popular, was hanging around Aphrodite, mimicking everything she said, rather oblivious to the strange looks she was receiving. Cupid was trying to get Hermes and Athena together. The fact that the latter hated the former's guts seemed to fly past his silly blonde head.

Hector glanced almost pleadingly at Poseidon, but he was struggling with a huge box.

"Weapons," he said happily, dropping the box, which unfortunately landed on Narcissus' toes. He gave a high pitched girlish scream of pain and immediately wrenched off his shoe to see if it damaged any of his toenails.

The class leaned forward to see what was inside the box. It was filled with metallic silver bow and silver arrows that had some sort of syringe filled with blue liquid as a tip.

"Inside this syringe is a sleeping potion, guaranteed to knock your enemy out for about ten minutes. Under normal circumstances, it would last longer but since this is a field exercise, you might accidentally hit one of your classmates."

He sounded extremely proud of himself for having thought up such an intelligent solution to a problem experienced by many teachers from other schools.

"What if some of us don't know how to shoot?" asked Hephaestus flatly, destroying his teacher's moment of glory.

"Well er," Poseidon looked decidedly flustered. He hastily checked his extremely expensive waterproof watch. "Wow, look at the time. We'd better hurry up. Everybody grab a bow and some arrows, and someone from each group collect a map from me. When I blow my whistle run into the forest. Try and get as far away as you can from the other groups. Don't open the map until I blow my whistle a second time. Okay?"

They quickly followed his instructions.

Poseidon lifted his silver whistle to his mouth and blew as hard as he could, his face ballooning into comical proportions and turning as red as an overripe tomato. No sound came out. The students stared at him in exasperation.

"Well, isn't that a coincidence. Just wait out here while I run inside and fetch another whistle." He turned and began sprinting towards the buildings.

"This teacher's loony," muttered Paris under his breath.

Jason rolled his eyes. "And it took you four years to realise that."

Suddenly all of them jumped as the siren screamed in their ears.

"Wait a moment," said Achilles slowly, "it's not recess yet."

Andromeda grabbed him by the arm and shoved him into the forest. He crashed headlong into a tree. "That's our signal, you slow coach. Run!"

One by one the teams figured it out and they all plunged blindly into the Forbidden Forest. Little did they know what was in store for them.


A second siren screamed through the school. Hermes crashed into a clearing and paused for a moment, breathing heavily. He straightened up. "Guys? Are you here."

"Well I'm here," muttered a rather strained sounding voice. Hephaestus had just popped out from behind a bush. Sweat streamed down his face and he hobbled awkwardly on his deformed legs.

"So am I," said Hercules. He did not seem at all puffed out and merely looked as if he had been taking a breezy stroll around the park.

"Where's Helen?"

Hephaestus shrugged. "I lost sight of her after a few minutes."

Hermes swore violently under his breath. "We'll have to start without her. Who has the map?"

Hercules produced a yellowed piece of paper out of a pocket. He held it up to the little light that was streaming through the trees. "Dang," he muttered, "I can't read this." The so called map was a pile of incomprehensible squiggles and lines. Apparently Poseidon's map making skills were as bad as his teaching skills.

Hermes snatched it off him. "Give it to someone with intelligence," he said smirking before turning to the map. He began turning it round in his hands. "Wow, this is bad. I can't even tell which one is the right way up."

Hercules smacked his head with his hand. "Great, we have an illegible map."

"Keep doing that and you'll lose the few braincells you have."

"For all we know the other groups could already be on their way to whatever Poseidon buried," Hercules growled.

Hephaestus peered over his shoulder. He was probably the smartest in that group, not that it much to be proud of. If there was one intellectually challenged group, it was this one. "I think we're here," he said, pointing to some random spot on the map. "Or here, or here, and oh, it could be here, and maybe here, or-"

"Do you know what you're talking about or just making wild guesses?" roared Hercules, his patience wearing thin.

At that moment, Helen appeared. Her damp blond curls were glued to her forehead and her flowing white robes were torn in many places by snagging branches. She was greeted by the sight of Hercules diving at Hephaestus and tackling him to the ground, Hermes grabbing Hercules by the shoulders and trying to pull him back but as effective as a string of empty cans being dragged by a limousine and the map fluttering to the ground by her feet.

"Oh my," she said before fainting dead on the spot with a soft thump.

Hermes glanced up. "What was that noise."


Persephone held out the map for the rest of his teammates to see. In the dimness of the forest, it was almost completely illegible.

"It's no use," said Persues, squinting at the map, "even if there was light, we wouldn't be able to tell where we are. We have to find a waterway or some other landmark."

"Of course you would know," sneered Phineus.

Persues looked at him steadily. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's always Persues did this, Persues did that. You really are a teacher's pet who knows everything. I wonder why Andromeda ever liked you."

Persues curled his fingers into fists.

"Oh stop it you two," shouted Psyche, stamping her foot. Her thick dark blonde hair bounced on her shoulders and a frown crossed her face. "You're both acting like little kids. If we are to do this thing then we have to work together."

"I agree," said Persephone softly.

"Okay," said Psyche angrily, "as Persues said, we have to find some sort of stream or spring. Persephone carries the map, Persues and Phineus keep a lookout and shoot anything that moves. I will make sure that you two don't act like total idiots. Let's move."

They all looked at her in amazement. Normally Psyche was shy and patient. Somebody has given this girl a new backbone.

"She's been spending too much time with Cupid if you ask me," muttered Phineus as they set off.

"That's why nobody's asking you," said Psyche shortly. "Cause you're a brainless idiot."

Suddenly Persephone froze, causing Persues, who was behind her, to walk right into her. "What was that?"

A large raspberry bush beside her began to shake. She quickly jumped back. Phineus nocked an arrow to his bow.

"Don't shoot yet," murmured Persues.

The bush began shaking more vigorously. Phineus looked genuinely frightened.

Persephone stared at it wide eyed in fear. "Shoot!" she shrieked.

Phineus released the arrow. There was a scream of pain and Narcissus slumped forwards out of the bush, a silver arrow in his chest. He immediately stiffened as the sleeping potion took effect.

"Whoops," whispered Phineus.


Achilles sprinted across the forest floor. Behind him, Aphrodite dragged her dainty feet along, often pausing to catch her breath and continuously complaining. Andromeda was jogging steadily behind her and Apollo brought up the rear, bow in hand. Earlier, Andromeda had managed to decipher Poseidon's messy mass of lines and figured out their position. If she was correct, then they should be coming across a stream by now.

"Halt," called out Achilles, holding up a closed fist. He liked using military signals.

They had come across a fast flowing river. He could probably jump across but he was't exactly sure about the rest of them, especially Aphrodite. The group stood pondering for a few minutes.

"So," said Aphrodite, shoving back her golden corn coloured hair, "how are we gonna get across?"

"That's what what we've been trying to figure out for the past few minutes." Apollo rolled his eyes.

"We can just swim across," suggested Andromeda.

"And spend the rest of the treasure hunt with wet clothes? Even if we took them off and just wore our bathers we would still have to carry them," Achilles said drily.

"Plus like, totally ruined make-up," Aphrodite added while reapplying lip gloss and checking her reflection in a small compact mirror.

Three exasperated faces swung around to stare at her. She looked up and smiled, "bet you guys didn't think of that."

"We're getting off the point. I suppose we could use one of the vines to swing across or something..." Apollo trailed off doubtfully. He reached up, grabbed a vine, pulled on it and brought the whole thing crashing down around his head.

"Good job" Achilles said evenly then proceeded to attach the fallen vine to an arrow. He then handed the arrow to Apollo, gesturing to a thick trunk across the river, "see if you can hit that, then we can swing across."

Apollo nodded then briefly aimed and fired. The shot was perfect and the arrow slammed deep into the trunk. Andromeda grabbed the vine just before it swung to the other side and pushed off the bank. She landed in a pile of bushes with a crash and a shouted curse.

"Whoah," muttered Achilles, "who would think that a rich and well brought up girl like herself would know all those words."

Andromeda emerged from the bushes looking rather disheveled but grinning happily. She hurled the vine back.

Apollo caught it and handed it to Aphrodite. "Ladies first," he said courteously.

Aphrodite stepped away from it, shaking her head. She wasn't going to risk falling in or, even worse, messing up her hair during the ride. Shrugging, Apollo swung over himself. Then went Achilles, who nearly knocked over Andromeda as he sung past. He hurled the vine not-so-gently back. Aphrodite caught it, wincing as it slapped against her soft flesh, and stared at it doubtfully.

"Come on, swing over, we can't wait forever," yelled Achilles. He paused for a moment. "Hey, that rhymed."

She pushed off. Halfway there, whether because she accidentally slipped or did it on purpose because it hurt too much to hold on, she let go of the vine and fell shrieking into the water. The rapid current immediately grabbed hold of her, carrying her and her loud screaming away. Achilles pelted after her, wondering why, out of all his friends, he was stuck with this air-headed bimbo.


Jason, Orion and Paris raced down an old game trail that wound its way through the forest. They already had one team member down; Narcissus, who was shot by an opposing team. They couldn't risk going back as they might lose another team member and they were actually quite glad to lose him as all he did was complain and examine his reflection in the small hand mirror he always carried around with him. Anyway, Poseidon never said they needed all the team mates to participate, did he?

They had only been running for a few minutes, and already Paris was beginning to lag behind.

He really needs to exercise more and hang out with Helen less, thought Orion arrogantly, perhaps he should try hunting.

Jason had also noticed that Paris was falling behind was being more sympathetic. "Okay," he called out, "we'll take a break here."

Paris flopped down on the grass gratefully and lay there with sweat pouring down his face, taking in huge gulps of air as if every breath would be his last. Orion rolled his eyes but sat down as well. Jason, however, did not sit down and was keenly investigating the map.

"If we head a little more to the West we'd probably be there in a few minutes," he announced. The place where the supposed treasure was buried on the map was accented by a huge elaborate red cross.

There was silence from the other two. Jason sighed and flopped down as well. It was a nice place to have a rest. The only sounds were birds tweeting in the trees, a musical bubbling sound of a nearby brook and the heavy breathing of Paris as he tried to catch his breath. Everything was calm and relaxed. If they didn't know better, they's say that they were in some popular picnic spot instead of a huge scary forest. Unfortunately, they were in a huge scary forest, and everyone knows, good things do not happen in huge scary forests.

Orion stood up. "I'm going to get a drink." He turned and disappeared into the bush. Suddenly there was a loud scream.

Jason and Paris glanced at each other before getting up and walking over to source of the noise. Orion was standing pale-faced staring at a large orange and purple scorpion. It clicked his claws angrily. Paris started to giggle.

Orion glared daggers at him. "It's not funny," he growled. Ever since he was a child, Orion held a profound fear of scorpions. He could stand spiders the size of his fist and giant bees with huge stingers, but not scorpions.

Paris snickered. He walked up to the scorpion and prepared to squash it. Suddenly there was a loud clicking noise above him. He glanced up fearfully.

"ARGHHHH!" Paris and Orion sprinted away from the brook screaming like little girls.

Jason glanced up at the giant mother scorpion the size of an elephant bearing down on him. He quickly fitted an arrow to the string. The giant scorpion poised its stinger behind its back. "Thanks a lot for your help guys," he muttered before firing his first arrow.


"We've found it," yelled Artemis.

Ares glanced up eagerly and quickened his pace. He found the rest of his team members grouped around a large X on the ground. He smiled, they were obviously the first group to get here.

"Alright everyone, great job, but the treasure's not ours' yet, we gotta dig it up first," Ares said.

Athena glared at him. "I suppose when you say that you mean that we three girls do all the work while you lounge around being lazy?"

Ares patted her on the head. "Athena, since when have you been a mind reader?" This complement was rewarded with furious glares from all the girls in the group. With the majority of his team watching him murderously, Ares slowly backed up with his hands raised, turned, grabbed a shovel and casually began digging trying to appear not too hurried. Artemis watched him triumphantly. The girls eventually picked up shovels as well and helped (but not too much) with the exception of Briseis who began biting her nails.

There was a triumphant shout from the diggers, they had uncovered what appeared to be a small wooden chest. The group chivalrously waited for Briseis to join them before excitedly examining the chest. Ares squealed girlishly and grabbed the chest, preparing to open it but then thought better of it and handed the chest to Artemis, who smiled and reached for the clasp when...

...to be continued