Chapter Eight

It Cannot be Done

It was night time when we arrived at the new realm, walking out the front door of a magnificent looking structure. I nearly fell down some steps when looking back at its mammoth, ornate shape. The gardens on front of us were neatly manicured, with trimmed hedge topiary. Annabeth screamed in delight. "This is Castle Howard in England, a Baroque structure built by Sir John Vanbrugh between 1699 and 1712 and is one of the greatest stately houses. I've always wanted to see it!" she gushed enthusiastically. While I am constantly amazed by Annabeth's knowledge on architecture, she did seem like she wanted to see every building in the world sometimes. I couldn't deny the building was amazing though, and at least she had forgotten about her argument with me. Thalia seemed even more excited than Annabeth.

"Look at the moon!" She shouted.

The moon was full, and huge. Ten times the size it should have been, shining very brightly indeed. The stars too were brighter, clearer and more numerous than I'd ever seen. It was like we were stood on an asteroid in deep space, and it was quite a breathtaking sight. With all the light in the sky it was no wonder everything was quite visible, even thought it was night time.

"It's time for a hunt!" Thalia enthused.

"How do you know that?" I enquired.

"Look at the moon! Have you any doubt that this is the realm of Artemis? Goddess of the Moon and of the Hunt?"

I looked up at the moon again and noticed something in the centre of it, and it was getting bigger.

"What the hell is that?" I pointed at the object approaching us.

We all looked as it approached. It was a silver chariot pulled by four silver horses. Three figures were in the chariot.

"Lady Artemis!" Thalia got down on one knee. Grover looked excited, he loved Artemis.

Artemis looked how I remembered her, as a twelve year old girl, but it was one of the others that capture my attention.

"That's Zoe Nightshade." I said. "And Phoebe as well."

"It looks like Artemis hasn't updated her avatars." Annabeth said.

The chariot landed nearby and pulled up near us. Artemis stepped out.

"Welcome to my realm, heroes, and a special welcome to a hunter maiden." She nodded at Thalia.

"I hope the boys are giving you no trouble, Thalia Grace." Artemis said, looking at me, Tyson and Grover.

"No lady, Artemis, they have been most heroic in our quest."

"Then I shall allow them to hunt in my realm"

"We have a hunt?" Thalia asked excitedly.

"Yes, hunter. There is a creature just north of the lake over there." She pointed east.

"Capture it, and bring it to the Temple of the Four Winds, bur be aware that the beast is sacred to me, and the chase may not be as straightforward as you may think. You will need all your wits about you to progress from this realm"

With that she climbed back on the chariot and shot off into the distance.

"Avatars just aren't the same." Thalia sighed.

"So what's the Temple of the Four Winds? Grover asked Annabeth.

"It's a stone domed Palladian folly, past the tree line about five hundred yards over there." She pointed east. How the hell did she know this stuff, I wondered.

"Well let's go find this beast." Thalia announced.

We headed east across the gardens until we reached the wood beyond. Annabeth saw it first, drinking from the lake.

"We are so in trouble." She said.

"Why is that? It looks like a deer. Just a deer, quite a big one though." I said to her. Although in the moonlight it looked like it had metallic antlers and hooves.

"Just a deer, Starfish Brain, that's the Ceryneian Hind!"

I just looked on, nonplussed, as did the others.

"Don't you guys know anything?" Annabeth said, unbelieving. We shook our heads guiltily.

"The Ceryneian Hind is a stag with Bronze hooves and golden antlers. It was Hercules' third labor to capture this beast alive and bring it alive to king Eurystheus. It can move faster than an arrow in flight and Hercules spent a year chasing it around the old world and eventually captures it in the land of the Hyperboreans, and the old tales don't even say how he captured it! See our problem now?" Annabeth explained, a bit condescendingly.

"So what's our strategy?" I asked.

"Are you not listening? There is no strategy, not with what we have got. We cannot win."

"Then we must find something to alter your strategy equation." I replied.

"What do you mean?"

"There is no winning strategy with what we have got, your Athenian blood tells you this is so?

"Yes. Without question." She said looking at me wonderingly.

"So we look around and find a new factor to alter the equation that will give us a winning strategy." I summed up. "Artemis said it wouldn't be straightforward."

Annabeth's eyes lit up, you could almost see her mentally analysing new strategic possibilities with the addition of new data. "Good idea. Let's go have a look around the grounds." She said to me approvingly.

We wondered back to the stately home. We looked everywhere. Inside the castle, the gardens, the orchard, the dairies, the greenhouses and the stables. Nothing. Then all of a sudden, Grover got excited.

"There are caged animals over here!"

He ran over and started letting rabbits out of hutches and letting goats and llamas out of their nightime prisons. In the end cage was a dog, a friendly looking brown Labrador. There was a name badge on the cage. Laelaps.

Grover opened the cage and Laelaps jumped out and started licking his face.

"What have we got here?" Annabeth said catching up.

"My new friend Laelaps." Grover said, getting another face lick.

Annabeth froze. "Laelaps, did you say?" Laelaps jumped over and started licking Annabeth.

"This is it, Grover, this is our winning strategy."

I didn't know how a Labrador could help us, but Annabeth seemed confident, and called us all into a meeting. "This is Laelaps." She said. "He was a gift from Zeus to Europa, and he never failed to catch what he was hunting." She said smiling, watching the smiles on our faces at that revelation.

"What's his history?" Thalia asked as she petted him.

"He was passed down through heirs, and even Artemis gifted him to Procris, whose husband set him on the Teumessian Fox, a fox that could never be caught. The paradox of a dog that always caught its prey, chasing a fox that couldn't be caught, sent ripples of disturbance through Olympus, until Zeus turned them both to stone and cast them into the stars." Annabeth recounted.

"Wow." Grover exclaimed. "Poor thing, maybe we can take him with us."

"Maybe." I said. "How do we get him to catch a deer five times his size?"

"I'll ask him to." Grover said, "I speak dog quite well."

"We don't have to catch the Hind, just deliver him to the Temple of the Four Winds. Laelaps can round him up like a sheep in a field." Annabeth claimed confidently.

We took Laelaps to the lake and Grover explained the hunt to him. He understood perfectly. He trotted stealthily over to the Hind as to not startle it. The Hind noticed him but didn't bolt. It stuck its head down and charged at Laelaps. I held my breath, worried for our new friend. Laelaps gave an almighty growl, which stopped the Hind in its tracks, and it turned tail and ran off. Laelaps expertly chased it, herding it in the right direction, and not letting it get away. They shot passed us and we chased after them, and when we got to the end of the tree line, the Temple came into view. It had steps and classically pillared arches on all four sides, and a magnificent dome on top. Laelaps continued to guide the Hind to the Temple until it ran up the steps of the south side and vanished. Artemis appeared in its place.

"Congratulations my heroes, that was a successful hunt." Artemis pronounced. "The doorway is open." She pointed inside the Temple. She bent down and picked some moonlace from the steps and smiled as she dissapated into a moonbeam.

"That was the best exit yet!" Tyson announced. "Moon lady turns to moonlight!

Grover let out a contented sigh. "Can we take Laelaps with us?

"Only one way to find out." I said. "C'mon, boy!"

We ran up the steps and into the Temple, burst out of another door only to find ourselves including Laelaps on an ancient sailing ship at sea.

"This has got to be the realm of Poseidon." Thalia said instantly.

"I don't think so." I said confidently

"Why? We are at sea are we not?"

"Yes, but you haven't looked behind you."

Thalia spun around, and proceeded to look up. The mountain nearby has been carved into a giant throne, upon which a bearded being sat holding a giant thunderbolt. You could feel the power radiating from it, and there was no doubt we had just entered the realm of the King of The Gods. Zeus.