Chapter 21 - Horse-fish.
He couldn’t sleep at all though. He must have been so full of life that it was impossible to sleep.
Jay spent the whole hour and a half with his head on the plane window, staring out at sea. It was boring, but quite relaxing.
After half an hour both Broudie and Jordan were asleep, snoring away. He looked over and noticed that Hollie and Claire were awake and chatting. He thought about talking but decided he would prefer to just take in the views.
Later on the seat belt signs came back on as they prepared to land.
“Broudie, wake up, we’re about to land.” Jay shook him.
“Uugh.” Broudie stretched out his arms, gave out a large yawn and opened his eyes.
“Wake up Jordan as well, and then get him to ask Hollie for some sweets,” Jay instructed.
“Alright, but let us wake up.”
“Hollie,” Jay shouted across, “You got anything for the way down?”
“Yeah, I’ll pass them over now.” Hollie started searching through her pockets. She found what she wanted and pulled out a couple of sweets.
“I’ll throw them over, can you catch?” Hollie asked.
“Number one cricket player me.”
“Ready?” She leant back and then threw the sweets over the passageway between the two sets of seats. They drifted apart and Jay reached out to grab them. He grasped two but the other got knocked onto the floor by Jordan having a good old stretch.
“Jordan, I could have caught all those.”
He didn’t answer.
Then, Jay bent down and saw the sweet under the seat in front. He reached out and his whole body ceased up as he overheard a conversation not of the norm.
“Zeus knows what you’re up to. He doesn’t trust you at all now.”
“Oh yeah, whatever. Did you hear what those demi-gods said?”
“Yeah, they were really up for it, the whole plan and everything.”
“Well they said that they had experience and that they could be useful. Ha!”
“Probably not.”
“Can you sense something now, y’know, it’s radiating really bad now?”
“Yeah, maybe Zeus has sent a spirit out to find us.”
“Or maybe some monsters under your chair.”
Jay quickly grabbed the sweet and sat bolt upright at those last words. Did they know Jay was under the seat? Did they know who Jay was? Who even were they?
He kept asking himself questions. He thought about trying to peek through the gap in the chairs, but decided it too risky. Maybe he should tell Broudie, or would they hear and then slaughter them on the plane?
Jay handed the yawners beside him the sweets and didn’t talk at all on the journey down. He just kept still and quiet.
A few minutes after nervously sucking on his caramel sweet, they were finally on the ground. Then after a walk through the tunnel his nerves disappeared and he told them what he heard,
“Eh, I heard something whilst we were on the plane,” Jay started.
“Why are you whispering?” Broudie asked.
“Because I don’t want them to hear and I don’t know where they are.”
“Go on then, what did you hear?” Hollie signalled to go left towards the exit, wearing a concerned expression.
“Ok, when you, Hol, threw those sweets at me, I didn’t catch all of them and one dropped on the floor. Then when I reached down to get it from under the chair in front of me, I overheard a conversation. It was two men. The one said that Zeus doesn’t trust the other and then the other said whatever, did you hear what those demi-gods said? One said that there was a plan and that the demi-gods were up for it, and then the other one started laughing and said that the demi-gods told them that they would be useful. Then one of them said that they sensed something around, then the other agreed and said it’s really radiating now and that maybe there was a spirit outside sent by Zeus. Then the other laughed and said or maybe a monster is under your chair. At this time I shot back into my seat and didn’t do anything. Who d’you think they were?” Jay rambled, his words, verbal vomit.
“So, two men were having a conversation about Zeus, a plan, demigods and monsters?” Hollie pondered.
“Yeah, they didn’t sound weird though, no hissing or anything.”
“They must be part of the Greek world,” Jordan suggested.
“Or they could just be rehearsing a play to do with Greek mythology,” Claire thought.
“The odds of that happening is like, well, real small chance,” Broudie said.
“Let’s just hope they aren’t off to the islands in search of the temple,” Hollie chirped. She had that look as if she thought something worse but was just trying to hide it from everyone else.
They walked through the passport and luggage checks, and then out into the scorching heat.
“This is so nice, I am in heaven,” Jay said, the golden rays illuminating his smile.
“Heaven? I feel like I’m inside a furnace,” Broudie moaned.
“It’s not that hot Broudie,” Claire told with that bossy tone she carried in her voice.
“We need to start looking for this temple, so no time to moan,” Hollie said.
“Where are we even heading?” Claire asked.
“What did Frederick say?”
“He said that there was only one entrance and it was on San Cristobal, and we are where?” Jordan remembered.
“We are on an island called Baltra, which is just North West from San Cristobal. We’ll have to cross the sea, and I think Hollie will be able to take us across?” Jay asked Hollie, “Could you do something like Jordan does with the air except with water?”
“Someone knows their geography.” Broudie nodded, impressed.
“Waterlling?” Claire put in.
“The blonde is showing again, ha…Well I suppose I could, as long as it’s not too far,” Hollie replied, trying to avoid Claire’s looks.
“Look there’s a map over there, we can find out.” Jordan pointed out a board in front of them with an arrow pointing to a small green dot.
“I guess that arrow pointing to that island is where we are,” Broudie said.
“Yeah, and that there,” Claire pointed to a large island south east of Baltra, “Is our destination.”
“So we need to head for the beach, which way is the beach?” Jay asked.
“I can sense the sea, it’s that way.” Hollie pointed to her right.
“You can sense the sea?” Jay pondered.
“Always have been able to, obviously not before I had the ring.”
“So can I sense fire?” Jay questioned.
“Probably, I can sense love in the air. When it’s in the air that is,” Claire told, uneasily.
“Sense love? That’s just weird,” Jordan thought.
“Oh, thanks Jord, what can you do, sense when someone’s about to pass wind?”
“Actually, I once did,” Jordan replied. “And that was a joke! Before you say anything.”
“Ok, can we get a move on? This conversation is starting to make me uncomfortable,” Hollie said, turning away from the map and striding off towards the exit.
“Hol, are we actually going to walk to the beach?” Broudie asked.
“Eh, with the powers we have, why would we do that?” Hollie answered in an of-course-we’re-not tone.
“Well I really, really don’t want to fly.”
“Well there isn’t any other way. Relacian formalios.” Hollie jumped into the sky and sped off out of sight.
“Invisibility spell? Or do we not care anymore?” Jordan asked.
“No time to talk, Hollie’s probably halfway there now, c’mon.” Claire did a quick run up and then jumped into the air.
Jay followed.
The view from up in the sky was amazing. Evergreen grass plastered the ground, roads were a rare sight, very few houses could be seen, coppices were dotted around, the small market they passed was surrounded by little people, and the last sight before their feet touched ground, was the sea.
The turquoise colour that darkened as you swam out of the bay, and the small boulders that were caked in seaweed and coral were just some of the amazing features. There were small bunches of people strolling or sitting on the silky beach. The sand was not orange or gold, but crystal white.
The five teenagers floated softly through the air for about five minutes before landing.
“Why are we landing?” Jay asked as he stumbled across the sand, some of it seeping into his trainers.
“Because I want to show you my transformation and it’ll be a bit of rest for Brode here.”
“Or is it that if we complete the quest, then when or if the gods congratulate us, then you will get a lot of praise,” Broudie suggested.
“Yeah, that probably is the reason,” Jordan, Jay and Claire agreed.
“It isn’t! Look I’m in charge of the quest and I say we should cross the sea, on the sea. Let’s just leave it as I’ve had a little tip from hmm hmmm hmm,” Hollie instructed.
‘Was she on about Poseidon?’
“Let’s go, c’mon.” Hollie waved her hand forward and started walking along a path. They had landed on a deserted pathway, which lead to the beach. There was green and yellow grass either side of them as they followed Hollie down the sand track.