The Olympian Games 2: Find the Fruits

The Olympian Games 2: Find the Fruits

Lissa Altanik

I stood with the crowd of the other sixteen challengers.

I could sense the raw power as a figure that I assumed was Zeus rose from his throne. "Heroes! Welcome to your first Challenge!" Everyone began cheering and clapping until Zeus silenced them all with one wave of his hand. "Today your challenge will be to find a certain item that one of us has left in a maze for you to locate. When your name is called please select a scroll with the item you are to locate."

Finding an item in a maze, I thought. A pretty straightforward challenge... There had to be a catch.

I watched and listened as Zeus called out the names of the competitors. Each walked up and took a scroll from the table where Zeus stood. When he finally announced "Lissa Altanik!" I walked forward and grabbed one of the four remaining scrolls and opened it.

Fred Dagbert

Every single competitor got a scroll and vanished the instant they picked it up. Probably some sort of spell that teleports us into the maze.

I looked around and proved myself right. In every direction were brick walls, about twice my height. I peeled open the scroll and looked inside to see what I was looking for.

There was a picture of a bright red sphere hanging from a tree branch. Just beneath the picture were the words "Fruit of Tantalus. Return to Hades."

Looks like I was doing this competition for my dad.

Lissa Altanik

When I opened the scroll, the scene around me changed. Instead of the elegant images of Olympus, the walls here were solid brick, more than ten feet high.

The inside of the scroll had a picture of an apple made of solid gold. Under the picture, in bright calligraphy, were the words "Aphrodite's Golden Apple". The "i" in "Aphrodite" was dotted with a heart.

I thought a bit about what Aphrodite was like during the interviews. Then I tried to remember the myth with the golden apple. Aphrodite had competed with Athena and Hera for ownership of the apple. They basically asked a mortal named Paris to judge and Aphrodite bribed him with a woman named Helena... who was already married.

I rolled my eyes even though nobody was around, and then I started walking.

Fred Dagbert

Step one: Get moving through the maze. Now, there were two paths right off the bat: I could go forward, or turn right. I chose the third option. I pulled two explosive spheres from my bag and tossed them at the wall. "Ékri̱xi̱!" I shouted. The spheres exploded and took a chunk of the wall with them.

I jumped through the new opening, where another competitor just stared at the wreckage. "What the...?"

"That would be my fault," I said to her. "Tuesday, right? Fred Dagbert, nice to meet you."

My very brief conversation with her was cut short by the giant claw that emerged from the wall and started attacking us.

Lissa Altanik

I hid behind a wall and watched the two monsters around the corner. Yes, there were other paths, but I felt like going this way.

It didn't look like there were more than the two of them. I judged which of the two seemed weaker - the telkhine, not the harpy - and figured now was the time to go in.

I ran quickly and shoved Dead Heart into the telkhine's stomach. It started screaming angrily before dissolving. The harpy saw me and prepared to attack.

"What are you doing?" I asked, layering my voice with compulsive magic. "I'm on your side, remember?"

The harpy tilted its head sideways. Not understanding, but not killing me either. Which was good.

"We agreed earlier that I'd disguise myself as a demigod, pretend to kill the telkhine, and then you'd get me to the golden apple of discord. It was part of a really complicated plan. You do remember the details, right?"

"Of course Scier remembers," the harpy said. It didn't, because there was no plan. But pride mixed with magic made it think there was, so Scier lied. But at least Scier believed its own lie.

"Great," I said. "So let's go. Lead the way."

Fred Dagbert

"What the...?" Tuesday asked again.

"Some sort of creature straight out of Tartarus," I said. I grinned. "Perfect."

The claw grabbed at Tuesday. I pushed her out of the way and got a few scratches on my chest for my troubles. "Get out of here," I told her. "I'll take care of this."

After Tuesday left, I grabbed a couple more explosives and threw them at the claw. "Ékri̱xi̱!" The explosions blew the claw apart and it faded away, back to Tartarus.

I looked at the hole in the wall it came from. Well, if there were any way to get one of Tantalus's fruits, it would be in Tartarus.

I jumped into the hole, then I tossed six explosives into the air and made them all blow up while I was falling. Why? Just because I could.

Lissa Altanik

The harpy - Scier - led me through the winding tunnels into a brightly lit cave. Scier pointed to a golden light in the center, on a pillar surrounded by thin waterfalls. "There the apple of discord. Go get for complicated master plan."

"Thank you, Scier," I said. I was still a bit weary from using magic to manipulate her thoughts, but I walked onward.

As I passed through, images swirled around me. My friend Lily. Chris. Hecate. Starting with them, everyone I cared about surged through, their likenesses appearing in the water.

"Lissa, help me!" Lily's voice cried. I saw her again, only now she was in chains and bleeding. Bleeding a lot.

"The path is crumbling," a voice that seemed to come straight from the apple said. "There's about twenty seconds before your last chance at me goes away..."

''"Ah!" ''Chris's voice. "How did I even get here? And why are there stakes in my arms?"

My magic. I could heal them if I made it. But there were less than twenty seconds to get the apple...

Fred Dagbert

Why the gods actually thought ahead and put a second, completely different maze right freaking underneath the first one, I will never know. What I do know is that monsters are everywhere in Tartarus. Whenever you get rid of one, all that happens is... it stays there.

I tossed a few more explosives at hellhounds and skeletons, at this point letting my mind wander. How was Tuesday doing? Did she manage to find her item? Was she in trouble? Why was I thinking about that while getting attacked by monsters?

I caught a bit of a break long enough to see a lake with an island in the middle. On that island were a man and a tree. Tantalus and his punishment tree were in my sight.

Lissa Altanik

I ran up to Lily's image in the water. But the instant I touched it, not only did the floor collapse, but the image shimmered away.

An illusion, designed to make me turn away from the apple. I remembered that this was after all a challenge from the goddess of love - The people I saw were all my loved ones. And I totally and completely fell for the trick.

And now I was falling for real, who knows how far. I shoved Dead Heart into the side of the pillar. It slowed my fall to a stop. I put on some compulsive magic again.

"Scier!" I cried. "Can you help me get the apple? I didn't quite make it in time."

"Okey-dokey," Scier said. It soared across the gap and kicked the apple off of the pillar. The apple fell off... and kept falling right past me.

"Oh, no, you don't," I said. I took Dead Heart out of the pillar and free-fell until I caught the apple in my free hand.

Victory.

Fred Dagbert

"You want the fruit?" Tantalus asked in a weak voice. "It can't be touched! Good luck, demigod."

"I may not have any powers, but I am still a son of Hades," I told him. I threw four explosives into the air. "Ékri̱xi̱!"

The explosion shook the tree and caused a few of the fruits to snap off the branches. Gravity did the rest of the work, until one of the fruits landed in my outstretched hand.

Victory.