Chapter 9 - Taking a plunge.
“Well I didn’t expect you to do it first time,” Hollie told him. “You keep practising and you’ll be able to do it.”
Hollie walked over to Claire and they all got down to practicing the light spell.
Then, after about half an hour, Hollie had them throwing and catching balls of light in pairs. There were a few instances where the light didn’t stop when someone tried to stop it, and Hollie had to quickly catch it herself, but it was quite fun.
After an hour they would change to a different spell, and then practise that. Jay mastered some and failed others. He perfected the opening spell and the fire spell, but couldn’t manage the rain curse. All he kept doing was sending single water droplets upwards into the sky.
Then when they finished the hour on the protecting spell, they left the fighting area for some well-deserved lunch at their cabins.
“How many spells are there?” asked Jay when they reached the campfire.
“Billions, some are useful,” answered Broudie.
“And some are really not,” Liam said, pacing out of his cabin with his bow and arrows at his side. “How was your training, any good?”
“Yeah, and guess what. Jay can do the control spell!” Broudie said.
“Wow, really? Well I best be off, were going to see the demi-god tribe in Snowdonia. I‘ll seeya the day before you go,” Liam told them as he stumbled off towards the river.
“They are so unlucky, you’ve never had to try and talk to a demi-god nicely have you?” Broudie questioned.
“No, I don’t even know what one is.”
“Well, basically, they are the children of one god and one mortal human, so they have a few powers that they get off their godly parent. The gods don’t know they have a child but when the baby demi-god is born, the god or goddess runs away from the mortal parent.”
“Goddess doesn‘t know the child is going to be born? But she would tell because she’s got the baby inside her? Right?”
“Oh no, not all baby demigods are born the same way,” Broudie gave out a small laugh and then continued, “Some emerge from the mortal, some pop out of fires, some get built by rocks and so on, quite…peculiar, I suppose is the word.”
“So they are basically like us except they have parents and their parents are gods?”
“Definitely not, they’re arrogant and horrible. They didn’t used to be though. And they don’t have magic they can just control stuff like water if they are children of Poseidon.”
The two boys strolled off into their cabins.
Jay was greeted by the same cosiness of the warming house, then the tastes of a lovely meal, which he definitely deserved. After his lunch, he went back out and met Jordan.
It didn’t seem weird settling into a new regime and not having to worry about schoolwork, it was different, but it felt right.
“Hey, d’you want to have a duel, no weapons just powers,” Jordan asked.
“What do you mean?” questioned Jay, as they reached the waterfall. Jay was holding his homemade shield and Jordan was holding his. Jordan’s shield however was like a tiny cloud with a strap on the back, it gave you a headache just looking at it.
“You know, no weapons. Just your powers, so you can use fire, and I can use the sky.” he levitated off the ground big-headedly. “Oh and shields are not allowed either,” he added.
“But what if you lift me up and drop me, then I break all my bones,” Jay muttered warily.
“If only we had some phoenix tears, then we could do some proper battling.”
“Phoenix tears?”
“They can heal anything and cure anything, except they cry very rarely.”
“We should buy a phoenix,” Jay proposed.
“It’s a wild bird Jay.”
“So that’s that idea gone.”
“We could practise still, if anything goes wrong we can just get Liam to sort it out,” Jordan decided.
“It’d be good for the quest.”
“Can you use your powers without magic?” Jordan asked.
“Eh, no,” Jay replied, “What does that mean?”
“It’s easy, don’t say anything, just picture a flame in your head and a flame will appear. Throw your hands in front, whilst thinking of fire, and you can shoot fireballs. Experiment, and remember no spells.”
“Ok, can I try the flame thing first, before you send me flying?” Jay questioned.
Jordan nodded and Jay cleared his head of everything, which wasn’t too hard seems as it was quite quiet now there were only five at camp.
He closed his eyes for concentration, pulled his hands behind his back, remembered the time when he was sat staring at the fire in his old house, the care home, and then slowly re-opened his eyes.
He forced his hands forward and everything went into slow motion. His hands felt like they were trying to compress a giant steel spring and the air somehow turned thick and gloopy. Then he could smell the smoke, he kept running over the picture of the flame in his head, the yellow and orange flames, flickering on top of the black chunks of coal.
Slow motion was turned off and two balls of fire emerged from Jay’s hands, the sensation was prickly and warm. The two fireballs flew at Jordan at super-speed.
Jay had a moment of panic! What if Jordan got burnt? What if he killed him, but just then he was blown off his feet by a strong wind.
“Excuse me, you cannot throw fireballs at me,” Jordan said, as Jay lifted himself to his feet with ease. He took one look at Jordan then took in a gasp of air, he had a burn mark on his chest. His shirt was ripped and his chest was red raw.
“Jord, I-I’m so, are you alright?” Jay rushed over to him.
“I’m fine,” Jordan cringed.
“I burnt you,” Jay panicked.
“Look, if I want to go on this quest I need to stay strong even when a Chimaera’s sent my chest on fire.” Jordan’s eyes tightened at every word, as if he was struggling to speak.
“We need to get that checked out.”
“Good job I always carry something out with me then.” Jordan nudged to the rucksack that he had bought along.
“You’ve got something that can heal that burn?” Jay questioned.
“If you could get it that would be great,” Jordan urged as if he was really in pain and that Jay should shut up and get the first aid rucksack.
Jay opened the grey bag and foraged threw to find a small jar. He pulled it out and Jordan told him to bring it over. Inside was a murky blue liquid like cloudy seawater.
“Open the lid,” Jordan ordered.
Jay did as he said and the stench of the liquid hit him terribly. It smelt of rotting carcasses with a tinge of fresh lemongrass and some sort of spicy orange.
Whatever it was, it smelt disgusting!
Jordan scooped out the thick paste and spread it on his chest. He continued cringing as he spread it over the redness.
It was like light blue gunge. It was disgusting. But Jordan just lathered the slop all over his chest in heaped scoops, smothering it all over and letting it drip down his clothes and on the floor.
The scary thing was that when the drops of potion touched the grass, it literally burnt, leaving a strangely poisonous red mark on the ground.
Jordan finished and Jay could see the redness fading. He reopened his eyes and struggled some words,
“Drench, me.”
“Drench you?”
“Yeah.”
“I have no water,” Jay said confusedly.
“Gold, fish, mem-ory? Aquamarnias,” Jordan mouthed.
The sound of a splash and Jordan was covered head to foot in water, dripping wet.
“Oh, you need to wash it off,” Jay realised, just stood there casually watching Jordan helplessly.
“Yeah, thanks for the help,” Jordan laughed, shaking his head.
“Well shouldn’t you have just waited till you got back to your hut, you could’ve showered then, instead of getting your clothes soaked,” Jay wondered.
“Good job there’s a drying spell then.” Jordan whispered something that sounded like ‘eggs oh thee us’ and the water was sucked from his clothes leaving his dry shirt tattered and his blonde hair back in place.
“Do you feel anything?”
“No, brand new am me.”
“What was that stuff?”
“Anti-burning treatment.”
“Who d’you get that off?”
“Liam, he gave me some. He brews up loads of helpful things. Good if you’re ill.”
“So he’s like a witch?”
“Yeah, say that to him next time we meet.”
“Ok, so how about this duelling thing, or are you not up for it?” Jay asked.
“Let’s try target practise.”
“That’s not duelling?”
“Well if I go stand over there it is.”
He walked over into some open space and yelled for Jay to try and hit him.
“What if I burn you?” Jay questioned.
“You’re not going to, I’m more powerful,” Jordan said.
“So what happened before?”
“Caught me off guard.”
It took Jay at least twenty fireballs till he actually got a hit. Well he called it a hit, but really the fire was about to hit Jordan and he extinguished it. Bit of a letdown.
After that they changed over and Jordan had to use his wind controlling skills to soar a tiny leaf at Jay from a long distance. The first time he missed, the second he cheated - curving the leaf as it went off course. Then when he got it dead on target, Jay ducked and started laughing. He felt a gust go under his legs and he was swept off his feet.
Then they tried doing some target practise near the trees and Jay managed to set part of a nymph’s tree on fire. She screamed really loud and Jordan used some of the burn cream to repair her hair and her broken branch.
Finally they had a go at reflecting each other’s hits. Obviously Jordan had to show off and deflect every single one whereas Jay ended up with about fifteen pierces in his arm from the spiky thorns. The boys finished off and strolled back to their huts after about an hour. It had been a fun and interesting day. Now he was looking forward to learning some more spells and fighting skills…Wait! What did he just say?
‘Can’t wait to learn???? Shoot me now!’ Jay laughed to himself.
The next four days were packed full of learning spells, battle strategies and how to kill specific creatures. For example, if you met the Chimera, you needed to shoot a lead-tipped arrow into its mouth. Shame when Jordan and Jay faced it all they had was a rock.
Jay was rubbish at shooting, and even if he was, where was he supposed to get a lead-tipped arrow from?
Apparently the Chimera was the creature Jay had met when Jordan saved him. ‘Exactly!’ Jay thought, ‘No lead-tipped arrows to help us were there?’
Jay also read some of his books and came up with lots of spells for the quest group to learn, most of which were really hard. But although it was tough work he was getting on with his new acquaintances and he was enjoying life a little more.
The next day the rest of camp arrived, back from their journey to Snowdonia.
“Any luck?” Hollie asked hopefully.
“What do you think? There was twenty of ‘em all together, and not one even looked at us when we were talking to them,” Amy said moodily.
“At least it’s another star we can put on our map of demi-god camps that don’t listen to us,” Bobby said.
“Not one listened? What about any demi-god children of Athena, they usually listen,” Claire asked.
“It was a camp of all male demi-god children, they didn’t want to let Amy, Bobby, Philippa or me in, but Philippa just walked straight in and ignored them,” Alice told them, recalling the memory with a chuckle.
“Well, that’s what they’d do to us,” Philippa quite rightly said according to all the nodding heads and laughs.
“Well we’re off today at twelve, as you know,” Hollie said excitedly.
“C’mon, you’ve got an hour, get your weapons, you need a shield and sword, knife or spear. Everyone meet at the entrance to camp. Oh, and any stones or plants you think could help, bring them along. Liam, they might want a potion too,” Amy instructed, as the group split up, some to the temple, probably the weapon room, and some to the cabins.
When Jay arrived at his cabin he wondered what he should do. What should he take? Did he need food or water?
He decided to take a bottle of water in his pocket and all the money he had. Then he picked up his shield and strutted off to the temple.
When he got there, there was no one about, so Jay tried to think back, what did Broudie do to open the door?
He walked over to a blank space in the wall, and then he said something, a word. It was the opening spell, it was something beginning with A, aderium, no it had a ‘P’ in it, aderperium, no…aperium?
“Aperium,” he shouted.
Then, just like before, a crack appeared at the bottom of the wall, and it travelled up, across then back down, outlining a door. There was a little rumble and the door knob emerged out of the wall. Jay reached for the handle and turned it to enter.
There was an eerie squeak from the hinges of the door and Jay was now facing three people, each were rustling around in boxes and running their fingers along the walls of swords.
“Hi.”
“Oh, hi. What ya looking for, sword, spear, knife?” Jordan questioned.
“Sword, I think,” Jay answered, as he entered the room. He walked around the centre block and took a look at the wall of swords.
“Aha, got it.” Claire picked up a small curved knife, which had a gold handle. “I love this knife, it’s amazingly quick. I haven’t seen it in a month. Oh, I must’ve dropped it in here after I had personalised it. Well, I’ll see you at the entrance.” Claire skipped out of the weapon room leaving the two boys and Hollie.