"Say, where's that overgrown lizard? We've been waiting here for him for over an hour," said Ryu.
Estevan had a disappointed look on his face.
"I was hoping he'd be better by now. But I guess he's still recovering from the poison. We'll have to start without him," said Estevan.
Athena walked up to Estevan and said to him, "But if we start without him..."
"Athena, don't worry. I'm sure Godzilla will be able to find us like all the other times," said Estevan.
"Okay," said Athena.
"Alright then," said Estevan before he kissed Athena.
"Let's move out," Estevan called to the other members of the caravan.
The others did as Estevan said and started walking.
"Hey Ryu, how are your legs doing today?" asked Sabrina.
"They're still a little sore, but they wont be an obstacle in completing today's mission. After we finish this task today, we're all going home. I'm ready for this and nothings gonna stop me from doing what I have to do," said Ryu.
"Good to know," Sabrina replied.
"Where do we go from here Ryu?" asked Estevan.
Ryu looked at the map for the next location.
"We have to walk around these mountains and volcanoes and head east through the jungle until we reach the temple. By the way, this may seems obvious, but we're more then likely to run into more then a few cyclopes even before we reach the temple," said Ryu.
"Well that's a risk we'll have to take. This is it guys. One more time and we can leave this island and move on with our lives. So let's move out," said Estevan.
"There's a passage through the mountains that will make it faster for us then just going around the mountains," said Ryu.
"Sounds like a plan," said Estevan.
So everybody started walking. It was a long and hard trek through the mountain path, but they had to take it. Along the way, Cody was stopped by Ryu.
"Cody, hold up for a moment," said Ryu.
Cody looked over to his friend.
"What's up, Ryu?"
"Well...this is gonna be our last mission whether we survive, or not."
"Yeah, you coming to a point?"
"Well... if we do make it out of this alive..., I was wondering to myself, where will this leave Estevan?"
"You said what?"
"Well I'm worried about him. He's gotten very close to Athena. But if we mange to finish this quest and the time comes leave the island and go through the portal home, well... there's no guarantee that she's gonna choose to go through the same one as us. I mean she has her own life to live and I'm afraid that if she chooses to go and live it, she may end up hurting Estevan and I don't want to see that happen."
"Hey man, you got nothing to worry about. I talked to Estevan this morning when we woke up. He said everything is cool and he and Athena are gonna live together."
"Yeah? Really?"
"That's what he said."
"Hey, I could move in high heels faster then you two slow-mos. Let's hustle boys," said Sabrina.
Cody and Ryu hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. As the group walked through the mountain path, several of the creatures crawling around the dark areas staring, but never attacking the caravan. It was as if they knew this cluster of warriors were doing something important and dare not get in their way. The same with the creatures that flew over the warriors' heads. Despite feeling nervous, the caravan showed not a speck of fear as they walked through the mountain passage that would take them to the east side of the island where the temple of the Cyclopes was... and where either sure victory or utter and painful defeat awaited them. After nearly an hour of walking through the path, the caravan were at the end of the path looking down at the jungle that awaited them before they could get to the Cyclopes temple. No one said a word as they made their way down the mountain side and down to the jungle grounds and then started walking.
"Ryu, which way do we go now?" asked Estevan.
Ryu looked down at the map in his hands for a few seconds before he pointed.
"That way."
Everyone started walking in the direction Ryu was pointing. They walked for miles and miles and even hours among hours. But soon it started to pay off. First signs came in the form of footprints made by Cyclopes. Then as they walked further along, not only did they find even more footprints, but they also saw a few Cyclopes. At first sight of these beastly creatures, the caravan members took refuge under a cluster of bushes.
"Wow... it's been a while since we've seen this evil things. You forget how incredibly ugly they are," Cody whispered.
"Speak for yourself," Athena and Sabrina whispered at the same time.
"Pipe down guys. We can't let this things see us, or hear us. We can't let them know in anyway that we're here," said Estevan.
Cody crawled over to Estevan's side.
"What do you think, Estevan? How are we gonna get past them?"
"I don't know, Cody. But I'll think of something."
"Hey guys."
It was Ryu calling.
"Follow me, I've got an idea."
Everyone followed Ryu out from underneath the bushes and started walking in a crouched position so as not to be detected. Ryu led them to the base of a tree.
"Alright, Ryu, what is this idea of yours?" asked Estevan.
"Look up," said Ryu as he pointed.
Everyone did as he said.
"I'll bet we could go over their heads by walking from branch to branch from tree to tree," said Ryu.
Athena smiled.
"That's brilliant, Ryu. Way to go," said Athena.
"Wait, wont the noise of the branches shaking around make them look up?" asked Sabrina.
"Well those branches look nice and thick, like they don't have a whole lot of give in them. So I don't think that should be a problem," said Cody.
"If it were, I would've picked up on it before and never would've suggested this plan," said Ryu.
"Well it sounds good to me. What's the group's vote on this?" asked Estevan.
"I say we go for it," said Cody.
"We don't have any other options open to us," said Athena.
"Ah what the hell, I'll give it a shot," said Sabrina.
"Alright then, Ryu it's your plan. You lead the way," said Estevan.
Ryu had a thoughtful look on his face, fore he was wondering if this plan would really work. But he decided this wasn't the time to second guess. So Ryu rubbed his hands together then lightly jogged toward the tree trunk and then jumped onto it and started climbing up as fast as he could. Everyone looked up to see Ryu make it up to the high branches. Ryu looked down to his friends and gave them a thumbs up and smiled.
"Okay, who's next?" asked Estevan.
Athena wasted no words as she started climbing up after Ryu. Cody followed behind, who was then followed by Sabrina with Estevan bringing up the rear. Once everybody was up in the trees, they huddled together.
"This could work. Really, I think this could work," said Cody.
"I know, right?" said Ryu.
"Don't congratulate yourself just yet, Ryu. We still got to actually get to the temple and right now, you have the map and like I said before, this is your plan. So lead the way," said Estevan.
"Right," said Ryu.
He pulled out the map and looked it over before pointing.
"We've gotta go that way."
So everyone started moving. Like it was theorized, the branches didn't really have that much give in them, so it was actually easy to walk on them. The caravan were also able to balance themselves by holding onto branches above them. The branches were as long as they were thick, so it was pretty easy for the caravan to hop from one tree's branches to the other's. However, the brave human and anthropomorphic wolf warriors were still uneasy, fore just underneath them were the Cyclopes and the further they walked, the more seemed to be appearing. While they may be frightened by the great beasts of mythology, they refused to turn back because their presences meant that they were more then likely heading in the right direction. The direction that would take them closer to getting off the island and returning home. It seemed to take forever walking through the branches of the trees, although it was necessary unless the caravan actually wanted to take their chances with the mighty Cyclopes, which none of them really wanted to. I mean, who would? It seemed like they had been walking forever when the tree branches ended. They looked at the land in front of them. There was no trees, no grass. Just rough sand, large boulders and a huge temple in the middle of it all. Surprisingly, there weren't that many Cyclopes outside. Just three, or four sitting on the boulders.
"Pss, pss," Estevan called to everyone.
"Did someone spring a leak?" asked Cody, very smart aleckally.
"Come here, everybody," said Estevan.
Everyone came over to their leader who immediately whacked Cody in the back of the head.
"What was that for?" asked Cody.
"For being a doofus," said Estevan.
"Okay," said Cody, holding his hands up defensively.
"Okay, listen everybody. We don't have anymore trees to carry us over these one-eyed demons and it seems like these are the only four we have to worry about right now, so here's what I say we should do. We climb down these trees, duck low and get to the boulders so we can use them as cover as we make out way into the temple. What do you all think?" said Estevan.
"Well we really at this point don't have any choices, except to try and sneak into the temple like that. It's either that, or try to stroll in like we own the joint, which we all know is not gonna work at all," said Sabrina.
"She's right. We've have no other choice, except to turn back and none of us want to do that," said Cody.
"That's because that choice is no choice at all," said Athena.
"Then it's settled. Estevan, it looks like you got your answer," said Ryu.
"Alright, let's do it together guys. Let's do it for Mary Ann, for Jesse Bratsch, both of who fell to the forces of this damned island. For Hector, for Gunther, for Luthor our centurion friends and their people since they have to live in hiding from these beasts who killed their women folk and stole their prized treasures. And even for Godzilla, since he couldn't be here. Let's do it for all of them," said Estevan as he stuck out his fist.
Everyone else put their fists in and pressed them together, before they started making their way out of the trees. After climbing down from their wooden sanctuary, the group walked until they were at the jungle's edge. Cody looked back to see Sabrina had stopped just a few feet behind the group. Cody walked up to his sister and put his caring hand on her shoulder.
"Are you okay, Sabrina?"
"Yeah... I guess so. I... I only wish... Jesse, or Godzilla were here with us right now."
Cody smiled to his little sister.
"Jesse is with us. He's in here."
Cody put his hand up to his heart.
"And Godzilla? He'll be here at anytime. I know he will. So don't worry about a thing. Come on, we got a job to do and we're gonna finish it. Believe it."
Cody led his sister up to the point the others were at and joined them in staring at the ugly beasts known as Cyclopes. They stood there watching and waiting for a good moment to make their way to the temple. All four Cyclopes looked up at the sky with bored expressions on their faces. Estevan made a signal with his hand and everybody started jogging as fast as they could while still ducking down low. They didn't stop until they got to the first boulder. They got onto the side where none of the Cyclopes could see them. Estevan held his finger to his lips as he shushed the others. He took a quick peek to see one of the Cyclopes gnawing on a giant bone. One of the other Cyclopes grabbed the bone away and started gnawing on it himself. The Cyclops who originally had the bone snarled his protest as he took back his bone and shoved the Cyclops who stole it from him. That Cyclops in turn punched the Cyclops with the bone in the face. He responded by swinging the bone across the other Cyclops's head as if he were swinging a club. He followed up by dropping the broken bone and tackling the other Cyclops to the ground, where the two struggled to get an advantage over the other. The other two Cyclopes watched the grudge match with looks of amusement on their faces.
"Now's our chance. Go, go, go!" said Estevan as he hurried his friends along.
They didn't stop until they got to the entrance of the temple. It was just a great big gap of an opening, big enough for even Godzilla to get through. Or at least something around his size. They walked into the opening at almost the exact same time like they were in unison. There were three different ways to go. The one in the middle led out to a big court yard that made up a big chunk of the temple's space. The paths on the left and right led to different parts of the temple's interior.
"Which way do we go?" asked Cody.
"Don't look at me, the map doesn't say anything past telling us how to actually get to the temple," said Ryu.
"Well we don't want to go out to the court yard. I smell a whole lot of Cyclopes in that direction," said Athena.
"Um..."
Estevan was thinking long and hard about what to do next... when he got an idea.
"I got it. Now I don't like it, but I think we would double our chances of finding the golden fleece is if we were to split up into two groups."
"Yeah, it could also double our chances of getting killed," said Ryu.
"Cut your bull shit, Ryu. He's is right, we would be more likely to find the golden fleece faster if we split into two teams. So be quiet fool," said Cody.
"You watched a lot of Mr. T videos before we left didn't you, Cody?" asked Sabrina.
Then Cody gave her a confused look before saying, "Whatchu talkin' about, Sabrina?"
She just shook her head as she said, "Apparently that's not all he watched."
"Be quiet, fool so that Estevan can explain his split up plan. What did you have in mind, Captain?" said Cody.
"Um... okay... Athena, you and Sabrina go down the left passage while me, Ryu and Cody go down the right path," said Estevan.
"Dynomite," said Cody.
"Okay, when we get back, no more 1980s television for you," Sabrina said to her brother.
Athena wrapped her arms around Estevan in a warm embrace before she said, "Please be safe, Estevan."
"I'll be safe if you be safe. I know how you are Ms. Warrior," said Estevan playfully.
After that, the two groups went their separate ways. Athena and Sabrina seemed to be moving down their hall the quickest since they had the least heaviest supplies and weapons. But they still had to stay quiet and hidden as was proven twenty eight minutes after they had started to turn a corner and felt the ground shaking and Athena pointed to her nose, indicating she could smell them coming. The two ran up to the side of the wall and pressed their bodies against the wall. They let three fifty foot tall Cyclopes walk past them down the hall. Athena looked to see if they were gone then she started walking away. Sabrina stopped her and said, "But those Cyclopes are heading toward Cody and the others."
"Relax, they can handle themselves against only three of those things. Plus I'm pretty sure they're going out to the courtyard where most of the other Cyclopes are. Okay?"
Sabrina was hesitant, but she knew they had a job to do. So she just nodded in agreement.
"Come one, let's get moving, the room holding the fleece has gotta be here somewhere," said Athena.
Then the two started to move as quickly as they could, as Athena continued to talk, "I mean seriously, we've must've gone I don't know how far and no doors, or openings, or not a."
Sabrina just laughed a little. The Cyclopes were indeed heading for the courtyard. But before the last one could step out, he heard a sound coming from down the right hallway. He decided to investigate. The sound he heard was the echo of Cody not looking where he was going and smacking into a piece of stone sticking out of the ground. Estevan and Ryu ran back to check up on their friend.
"Cody, why the hell weren't you paying attention to where you were going?" asked Estevan.
"I'm sorry, Estevan. It's just that... well I'm worried about Sabrina and Athena. I know I was in favor of your idea about covering more ground as two separate groups, but I'm starting to think it would've been safer for all of us if we'd stayed together as a group."
"Look, Cody I know how you feel, but we can't be second guessing at such an important moment as this. If any one of us has any kind of doubt in this mission, it could lead to missteps like what you just had and maybe even worse. Now come on, Cody. I have faith in my girl and your sister, you should too."
"Hey guys, over here!"
It was Ryu. He had walked a little further down the hall while Cody and Estevan were talking and was now waving his friends over. Estevan and Cody looked at each other before they ran over to Ryu.
"Talk to us, Ryu. What have you got?" said Cody.
"Just take a look for yourselves," said Ryu as he pointed.
What they saw was a huge door meant for a three hundred foot tall creature. They also saw a smaller door that was fashioned into the door for a fifty foot tall beast to walk through.
"Do you think this may be where they're holding the golden fleece?" asked Ryu.
"It's the only door we've seen down this hall so far, so it's worth checking out," said Estevan.
"Yeah, but how are we gonna get in?" asked Cody.
"Hmm... Hey, let's try crawling through the space under the door," said Ryu.
"Sure, let's do it," said Estevan.
The three walked up to the door and examined the crawl space under the door.
"Do you think we'll all be able to fit under there?" asked Estevan.
"We'll never know unless we try," said Cody.
"I'm ninety five percent sure we'll fit," said Ryu.
"Ninety five? Sounds good. Yeah, I can live with that. Let's make like a rock and roll," said Estevan.
As the three warriors crawled underneath the humongous door, Cody found it a little difficult to navigate his bulky weapon in the small space, while Estevan and Ryu were able to get their much smaller weapons through the crawlspace with no problem. When the three got through the crawlspace and to the other side of the door, what they saw stunned them silent. Pile and piles of gold, silver, diamonds and rubies galore.
"Oh my god," said Ryu.
"It's so beautiful," said Cody.
However, Estevan was the first to snap back to reality.
"Come one guys, we don't have time to ooh and ah at all this... gold. We need to find the fleece and get out of here," said Estevan.
"He's right, let's make like Scrooge McDuck and go swimming," said Cody before he ran toward the treasure pile and started digging around.
"Well don't just stand there guys, we need to find this thing and then meet up with the girls," said Cody.
Estevan and Ryu joined Cody as they walked around moving pieces of treasure around looking for the golden fleece. While Ryu is searching through the treasure piles, he grabs a diamond and looks at it like he is entranced.
"And who says diamonds are a woman's best friend?" asked Ryu.
Then he looks to see if either of the other two were watching, then he tried sliding the diamond into his pocket. He didn't notice Cody coming up until it was too late, as he slapped the diamond out of Ryu's hand.
"Ow! What the hell, Cody?!" said Ryu.
"Come on, Ryu. You know we have no time to grab shit for ourselves. We need to do this and do it fast. So fleece only, no extra stuff," said Cody.
"Alright, alright. I feel ya dog, I feel ya."
So the two of them went back to searching through the loot for the golden fleece. The search didn't last long, fore the smaller door opened to reveal a frustrated fifty foot Cyclops. It looked down at our heroes and its eye went wide with surprise. Then its expression turned into an angry snarl. The three men raised their weapons, ready to defend themselves. The Cyclops reached his right hand down toward the three, with the intent to grab them. But Cody hurried forward and used his sword to cut the Cyclops's hand clean off. The Cyclops pulled back the stump that use to be his hand and screeched in surprise and pain. Estevan followed up by swinging his exile blades up from their chains and across the right side of the Cyclops's face, leaving an opened wound that sprayed out blood. Ryu took his turn by throwing one of his Hades claws into the Cyclops's eye and then pulling it back, ripping out the eye, leaving the Cyclops blind. The Cyclops lifted its head as it howled in pain and stumbled around blindly. Estevan threw his exile blades into the Cyclops's chest, then Cody got up on the chains of the blades and ran on them until he was face to face with the Cyclops. Then he swung his sword and chopped off the Cyclops's head as he jumped off the chains that Estevan was pulling back to him. The headless body of the Cyclops fell to the ground dead.
"Estevan what do we do now?" asked Cody.
Estevan was in a panic right now, knowing it was most likely that more cyclops heard the dead one's cries and would be coming for them.
"I-I-I- I don't know," Estevan admitted.
But he didn't get a chance to say anything else as the dead Cyclops's two buddies from before had come to check on their companion. What they found made them howl and roar in anger. Three more Cyclopes came from the opposite direction and had the same reaction when they saw the dead one. They looked down at the three intruders and glared death gazes at the three.
"I don't think they're very happy with our handy work, Estevan," Ryu mumbled.
"I'm aware!" said a very distressed Estevan.
All five Cyclopes reached down at the same time, making the three warriors swing their weapons at fast speeds and full force. Although their mighty weapons left big marks on the hands, wrists and arms of the Cyclopes, the three warriors were eventually snatched up by their legs. The Cyclops that caught them shook the three around until they let go of their weapons, then it started walking toward the courtyard, with the other four Cyclops following close behind. Meanwhile, the girls weren't getting very far, fore the ground they walked was very uneven and was full of nasty bug-like creatures that seemed very hungry. But they were always scared away when they heard the sound of the footsteps from an approaching Cyclops.
"Hey, Athena, look at this," said Sabrina.
Athena heard her friend's call and walked over to take a look at what she found.
"It's a hole in the wall that leads out into the courtyard," Sabrina explained as she looked out.
Athena followed her friend's gaze and what she saw made her jaw drop. Their were hundreds and hundreds of Cyclopes all gorging on the flesh of things they had killed and brought back for everyone to feast on. But then the howl of one Cyclops rang out over the others and got them all to pay attention.
"Let's see what the commotion is all about," said Athena, who didn't wait for a response from her friend, but just started walking out into the courtyard.
"Athena..." Sabrina called to her friend, but it was no use.
Not knowing what else to do, Sabrina ran after her friend. When she caught up with Athena, they both ducked down and hurried over to a pile of stone blocks that were scattered all over the courtyard. They climbed up towards the top, but kept themselves hidden behind a block that they would be able to peek out from behind it. Most of the Cyclops had moved beyond the area Sabrina and Athena were in and walked up to the center of the yard. Sabrina and Athena's spirits fell when they saw a wounded Cyclops holding Estevan, Cody and Ryu by their legs.
"Oh no," said Sabrina as she felt tears filling her eyes.
Athena wrapped her arms around her friend to comfort her, but the wolf warrior's eyes were also filling with tears. In the center of the courtyard, there was an opening in the ground full of water. The Cyclops was taking the three to this spot.
"Put us down ya big ox!" Cody shouted defiantly.
But the Cyclops ignored as he and the crowd of Cyclopes that stared intently. On the sides of the water hole, they were three stone thrones that were occupied by Cyclopes that all had the same height of three hundred and eighty feet tall.
"Oh great, we're guests of the king...queen, uh... leader things," said Ryu.
The Cyclops sitting in the middle throne stood up and roared lightly to the Cyclops holding the three men, asking why he brought them before the leaders. The Cyclops responded and told the leaders about the fallen Cyclops that Estevan and the other two killed. The leaders all stared wide eyed before standing up from their thrones and letting out mournful howls, followed by a chorus of similar howls from the smaller Cyclopes.
"So do you think there's a chance they'll let us get out of this alive?" Cody asked.
Estevan looked around at all the angry snarls from the group of Cyclopes. Then he looked at the leaders, who of course had the biggest snarls of all.
"I'd say that's a big hell no, Cody," said Estevan.
The middle lead Cyclops grabbed the three warriors from his lackey and placed them in a cage that hung over the water hole.
"So do you think they're gonna drown us in their pool, or something?" asked a very nervous Estevan.
"I'm not sure. I don't think this is just a pool. I think it leads to some submerged caverns under the island that open out into the ocean," said Ryu.
The three head cyclopes walk over to some stone device that they started lifting and then pushed it back down, creating a shock wave in the water (think "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest). The wait for a response was not a long one, as a huge monster sprung up from the water and let out a wicked screech.
"Oh my gosh, what the hell is that?!" Cody screamed, looking down at the monster below their cage.
"It's The Scylla!" Estevan shouted in fear.
Several tentacles slithered out of holes in The Scylla's chest that started reaching for the cage.
"Well gang, looks like it's a trip up to Mount Olympus to meet Zeus for us!" said a fear filled Ryu.
All the Cyclopes cheered, while Sabrina and Athena looked on in fear, filling extremely helpless.
"Athena, we have to help!" Sabrina cried to her friend.
"Yes, yes, Sabrina, I agree! But how?! There's nothing we can do!"
But Athena's words were drowned out by the roar of a beast, announcing it's entrance. Then The King of Monsters stomped into the courtyard. Godzilla had arrived.
Well here it is. Sorry there wasn't much of an update last month. I was feeling physically ill for most of last month and honestly, I wasn't really into writing this story... which may or may not bleed through in this chapter since I practically had to put a gun to my head to force myself to write this chapter for most of last month. It may have also been from burn out since I wrote and posted 3 or 4 chapters the month before. It may have been from writers block since that can be happen. But another thing is I'm really more interested in writing another Godzilla story I started recently called, "GODZILLA 1: The Golden Shadow Lurking Over Monster Island", which you can tell is meant to be the first of a series. I highly recommend you go to my profile and look for that story. It may not seem like it from the prologue and first chapter, but I guarantee the story and the series as a whole will be better then this story, or any I wrote before. Sorry for feeling uninspired and for the fact that there probably wont be any big updates for this story this month either since they're are a few big things happening for me this month. There's the "Iron Man 3" movie, my stepsister's birthday on the 14th, my best friend's birthday on the 6th and my own birthday on the 15th. Please remember to leave a review after reading. I'm The Guy Who Likes To Write Stuff, signing off.