Poseidon and the Sea of Fury by Joan Holub

Author:Joan Holub
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER SEVEN

On the Island

LUCKILY, THE GIGANTIC WAVE DIDN’T do Zeus in. But it did wash him and the Stinker all the way to the shore of a nearby island.

Standing on the beach, he looked out to sea. Thunderation! Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything through the rising steam. He could hear Oceanus and Poseidon battling it out, though. Splash!

“Ow!”

“Take that!”

He wanted to be out there too! At the Delphi temple in Greece, Pythia had called him a hero in training. But a true hero would be in the sea right now, helping Poseidon fight Oceanus.

Zeus righted the boat. Then he pushed it back into the water and hopped in. P.U.! It stunk inside. Clumps of rotting seaweed had gotten twisted around its broken mast. “Stinker” really was a good name for the boat now.

Its sail was in rags, and its broken mast was useless. He started to paddle, but soon the boat began leaking. It had a hole in the bottom the size of his fist! No way would he make it without repairs. He turned around and dragged the Stinker back onto the beach.

Then he rushed inland to look for something to plug the hole. Up ahead in an out-cropping of rock, he saw something sparking.

“Bolt! Is that you?” he called. The sparking grew brighter and more frantic. Running over, Zeus found the thunderbolt stuck in a boulder, tip first.

“Calm down,” he soothed. He grabbed it with both hands and wrenched it out of the rock. It was easy—like pulling a knife from a block of cheese.

“If I can do this so easily, why couldn’t you get loose on your own?” he wondered aloud. “For the same reason you couldn’t get out of that cone-stone back in Pythia’s temple? Maybe certain kinds of rock are like thunderbolt traps, huh?”

The thunderbolt didn’t answer, of course. But once it was free, it darted here and there. It did flips and pinwheels in the air around him, glowing and sparking.

“Happy to see me?” Zeus asked, laughing. He tugged his belt away from his waist, making a space. “Small!” he instructed. Instantly Bolt shrank to dagger size, dove for his belt, and slid under it. Then the thunderbolt went still.

Zeus got back to business, hunting for sap, reeds, and bits of wood. His thoughts were racing. Now that he had Bolt, he could use it to fight Oceanus. But though his aim was improving with every throw, he couldn’t risk hurling Bolt over the water. He might electrocute every creature in the whole sea. Including Poseidon.

Swimming was out too. He wasn’t that good at it. Not like Poseidon had turned out to be. No, his only hope was to fix the boat. And fast!

He ran back to the Stinker and flipped it over. Then he plugged the hole in its bottom with the stuff he’d collected.

Out at sea the battle raged on. Clack-clack! Splash! “Ow!” Now and then Zeus caught flashes of the golden trident through the steam.

Minutes later the boat was ready. By rocking it back and forth, Zeus managed to turn it upright again.

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