Sasha Silver

Sasha Silver

 by Emma J.

I woke to the sound of snorts and hoof beats at my door. 

“Whisper, hold your horses, I just woke up,” I moaned to the door.  Whisper, my pegasus, wanted to get going on the day.  I know that right now you are like whoa...! A what is at your door?!  But yeah, a pegasus.  Hey! A special kid has to have special pets.  Whisper is huge and black with beautiful peacock feather wings. She has a long, flowing mane and tail that I permanently tied peacock feathers into.  I found Whisper when she was a starved little foal, since then, we two have been inseparable. 

But enough about Whisper and a little more about me, Sasha Silver.  I am sixteen and would say that I am perfect, but the more you read this the more you will see that I am not.  So let’s be straightforward. Like I said before, I am special, actually very special, because, well, I don’t have a Dad, I only have a Mom, Hera, queen of the gods.  I’ll be honest, I am mildly self-centered, but I care about other people.  And I am a very good leader.  I am nice to just about anyone, but to stay on my good list don’t criticize me and you can’t have Zeus’ blood.  Zeus, ah that guy – he really gets under my skin.  Enough about Zeus.  I have long, straight black hair that is past my waist – I am very proud of that fact.   And black eyes that are snappy and fierce – like a viper my Mom says.  I am naturally tan and Aphrodite thinks I have a graceful figure. 

I tumbled out of bed and threw on skinny jeans, a green tank top and cowboy boots.  I checked my nails -- good green -- the same color as my tank top.  I smeared on lip gloss and put on some green eye shadow and some mascara.  Good, I looked perfect.  Whisper poked her head in and nickered as if to say “Will you hurry up?”

“Give me a minute – will you Whisp?”  I grabbed my leather jacket and made sure that my pistols were inside and my lipstick that turned into a spear when opened – a special gift from Mom. 

            And yes, I said pistol and spear.  I get attacked and you need self defense if someone tries to chip your nails – I mean – right?  So, today, Whisp and I are going to go visit Hebe, my sister, over in Greece.  Whisper wanted to go soon because Hebe always gives her a special treat like carrots dipped in molasses. 

“Whisper, you really are a pig,” I said as I jumped on her back.  We started down the hall.  As we went past the kitchen Hera called out, “Sasha, get breakfast before you leave.”

“Fine,” I scoffed, and no, it is not godly-awesome to have a god for a parent. It is godly-awful. 

“Good morning.  Want waffles with whipped cream?”  Hera asked as she gave me a good morning hug and kiss.  Okay, okay I love my Mom. 

“Yeah, that sounds great.”   She clapped her hands and perfect golden waffles with mountains of snow-white whipped cream, topped with strawberries, appeared on the table.  My mouth watered.  I dug in.  Each bite tasted better than the last. 

“And now when you go to Hebe’s…”   I rolled my eyes, here came Hera’s daily speech on what to act like when at another’s house.  “Remember your manners, say please and thank you, Mom. I know. I know. And to always act like a little lady,” I said. 

“And that means that not interrupting when one is speaking,” she said, looking at me pointedly.  “Oh, and be careful of that Hercules.  Although he is married he is just like his father.”  

“Don’t worry, Mom. I won’t let him come with in three feet of me. And I am very quick to shoot when faced by a son of Zeus.”

“Did somebody say something about me?” Zeus asked as he entered.

Oh, great.  Just what I needed an early dose of Zeus medicine.  Eeek. 

“Bye, Mom.  I am going to go now,” I said, making my escape from Zeus.

“Bye, honey, say ‘hi’ to Hebe for me.”   Hera waved. 

“Okay!”  I jumped on Whisper’s back and cantered out to the field.  And we were off.  Whisp soared straight through a cloud with mist swirling around us and the wind whipped through my hair.  I felt amazing; there was nothing holding me back.  I was free with no schedule and no dumb husband like Hercules or Zeus to stop me.  I threw my arms out for joy and Whisper must have sensed my happiness because she neighed gladly and went straight through a cloud.  It felt strange to be wet and dry at the same time.

 Soon Hebe’s and Hercules house was in view.  Well, actually it was a huge mansion on a private drive between the pillars of Hercules.  We landed and knocked on the door.  Hebe opened up.  “Oh, Sasha! I am so glad you could make it!”  She gave me a hug. 

Hebe looked like me and my Mom, with black hair and eyes set on tan skin with perfect features, except her eyes were big and soft like a fawn’s, not like miniature bombs ready to explode.  And her hair was curly. 

“Whisper, I got you a treat!”  Hebe brought out a bucket and my stomach did a flip.  It was a dark liquid with orange, white, red and green chunks in it.  And then what looked like peppermint candies were bobbing at the top.  I thought I was going to puke.

“What is that?” I moaned. 

“Oh, it is molasses water with chopped apples and carrots and some peppermint candies in it.”

“Oh.”  Whisper started digging in.  My stomach was doing acrobatics. 

“Sasha, follow me.  I’ll show you the house,” Hebe said. 

I was thrilled to get away from that sloppy concoction that was apparently delicious for horses. 

Hebe’s house was amazing, though not as amazing as Olympus.  Each room was huge, with marble floors and walls.  There were beautiful tapestries, paintings, and animal skins in each room.  We were in a corner and, to my dismay, there was Hercules leaning against a huge marble column.  He wore basketball shorts and sneakers and a tee shirt.  Hercules was big and burly with bulging muscular arms and legs.  He had brown hair and his eyes were like thunderclouds.  Hercules would have been handsome, I guess, but even the thought of him made my blood boil. 

“Hey Sasha, how’s your Mom?  Whose life has she ruined lately?”

It was just like Hercules to switch to the topic of how awful Hera was and how his poor little mortal life had been ruined. I was so angry at him I wanted to take out my pistol and make him look like a pincushion.  But Hebe wouldn’t like that and anyway he was an immortal god and I was just a sixteen-year-old kid. 

“Oh, Hera-cules! You poor baby, did you get beaten up by a girl?”  I smothered my voice with sarcasm. 

Hercules’s face became as red as a beet and he clenched his fists.  “How dare you?  I swear I’ll rip you apart with my bare hands!” he threatened. 

Hebe rushed to his side and tried to calm him down.  How she put up with that guy was beyond me.  “Now dear, don’t be so violent.  Calm down, dear,” Hebe cooed.

After Hercules calmed down Hebe showed me their yard.  It was beautiful, with exotic plants of every color.  Huge, garden statues that almost seemed real. We reached a cliff that was about thirty feet high, over a beautiful shimmering lake.  The beach below us seemed to have golden rocks and sand.  I stepped forward to get a better look.  I wasn’t looking where I stepped, just watching the beautiful sailboats that almost seemed to be flying over the glasslike lake.  I tripped and fell.  I screamed a blood-curdling scream as the knife-life rocks were coming closer and closer.  I reached, grasping for anything to stop me. I grabbed a dead bush that had been growing out of the rocks.  I was so scared.  Not daring to look down, I looked up.  Hebe was rushing to get help.  My knuckles were turning white with the effort of holding myself up.  I was so tired and my body was getting no lighter.  I felt beads of sweat trickling down my cheeks.

“Sasha.” I heard a voice and looked up.  There he was, Hercules, coming to my rescue.  He reached out hand, “give me your hand,” he said, his arm outstretched about ten feet, probably some godly power.

“No,” I said, my anger giving me strength. “Why would I let you help me?”

“Because you will die if you don’t.”

Which only made me more angry.  With a quick glance at the spear-sharp rocks I quickly grabbed his hand, but he didn’t pull me up. 

“Your life is now in my hands,” Hercules said.

I couldn’t believe it, I was dying and Hercules was going to go boasting about how he had murdered me. 

“I will save you, but in return you will bring me the three heads of the Chimera.”

I knew what the Chimera was and the fact that it had a fire-breathing head of lion in its front, with a head of a goat in its middle, and instead of a tail there was a poisonous serpent head.  And I also was aware of the fact that Hercules was using my life to make me serve him.

“Why on earth would I do something for you?” I fumed. 

“Because I will save you life,” Hercules answered matter-of-factly, which made steam come out of my ears. 

“No, I’d rather die.”

“Fine, then.” 

Thankfully he didn’t let go.  Well, not yet anyway.  I glanced down at the rocks and my vision tumbled, because if he did let go, I would die.  A gruesome, horrible death.  And worst of all I’d have to be buried with a shattered body.  I’d be hideous.

“Oh, fine, pull me up and I’ll bring you the three heads of the Chimera,” I grumbled, not wanting everyone’s last look of me to be ugly. 

“Now just swear on the river Styx, to seal the deal,” Hercules ordered. 

“I swear on the river Styx to bring you the three heads of the Chimera,” I said.

 Now there was no backing out of this.  Because if you broke an oath sworn on the River Styx, well, there are worse things than death. Hercules finally pulled me up.  I’d never been so happy to stand up before in my life. 

“Now go and bring me the heads by this time next week,” Hercules huffed. 

“What!?  I just almost died and now you are going to make me go?  No! I should at least get a cup of hot chocolate!” I yelled, astonished. 

Whisper came cantering over and nuzzled me lovingly. 

“It’s okay, Whisp, come on. Let’s go,” I said, petting her velvet-soft nose.  I easily swung up onto her back. 

“You are not a real hero Hercules,” I said, giving him my you-are-totally-a-loser look.  “A real hero would save people’s lives just because they know it’s right, not because they want payment.  You, Hercules, are a snobby, self-centered, careless fraud, who will never lift a finger to help anyone else but yourself!”  I turned Whisper to the sky and took off. 

When I looked back I saw a look in his eyes and I didn’t know if it was a look of anger or shame.

            Darkness filled the sky so we could fly out in the open.  Athens lay under us glistening with city lights.  I was over a park when I saw what looked like a boy hitting a rhinoceros with a toy light saber.  Then I recognized the beady, blood-red eyes and razor sharp fangs of a hellhound from the Underworld.  As we got closer I could make out what the boy looked like. His longish, blond hair was swept to one side and he had blue eyes and was tall, lean, and muscular.  In his hand was a glowing, gold sword, not a light saber, although armed, the boy was losing the fight horribly.  I signaled Whisper to go down to them.  She turned and dived right before we crashed into the hellhound.  Whisper let her feet fly, hitting the hellhound square in the nose.  The hellhound yelped in pain.  I sprang off Whisper’s back with my spear in hand and landed on the hellhound’s head.  I stabbed my spear and the hellhound shrieked in agony once more and died.   The boy, who had watched all this, sheathed his sword and walked towards me. 

“Thanks,” he said “but, really, I didn’t need any help.”

I was too tired to argue.  I jumped off the hellhound’s head and went towards him.

 “Who are you?” I asked. I assumed this guy was a demi-god. 

“Alex Stone,” he said, “Son of Hermes, god of thieves, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.”

I shook his outstretched hand.  “Sasha Silver, daughter of Hera.”

“Demi-god?” Alex asked. “But I thought she only had kids with Zeus?”

“She does. I don’t have a dad.”

“Really?”  he asked, looking very confused. 

“Yeah.  I’m special that way.  How about you?  Are you an immortal god?  Or just a teenager who gets attacked by monsters?” I asked. 

“Teenager.  I am seventeen. Immortal.  How about you?” 

“I am sixteen and mortal.”

Alex turned to Whisper, “Nice Pegasus,” he said.

“Thanks. Her name is Whisper.”

He stroked her neck. 

“Alex, do you know a place where I could rest?”  I asked.

“No, I just arrived today, wanted to see what Athens really looked like.” 

“Oh,” I said, disappointed.   I was about to leap on Whisper and go when Alex yelled, “Don’t go.  You just saved me and now you are going to go and not let me repay my debt?  Gosh, what kind of gentleman do you think I am?”

“Actually, it didn’t even cross my mind you were a gentleman! But I have to go.  I have a tight schedule I have to keep.” 

“Why? Do you have a quest?”

Okay, he was definitely a child of Hermes, sticking his nose into matters that aren’t his business. I just simply shrugged. 

“Listen,” he said. “I’ll admit you just saved my life and the least I can do is help you on your quest.”

“No, I don’t need your help,” I said, hoping to offend him so he’d back off. 

“Oh, everybody needs Alex Stone’s help,” Alex said smiling. 

“Well, I don’t,” I said firmly and Whisper leaped into the air. 

Alex kept on yelling protests but I blocked them out. The last thing I needed was a boy who couldn’t even kill a hellhound.  I thought about the best place to sleep, a place with no monsters and a place where a pegasus was welcome.  No place came to mind.  I thought about my mom and how she’d be waiting for me and was now probably very worried.  I was so deep in thought that I didn’t really realize the warm body slip behind me and say gently, “Let’s land there in the woods. I’ll watch while you sleep.” 

I was in such a sleepy, dreamy trance that I thought I had heard my mom. 

“Okay,” I murmured. 

Soon Whisper slowed to a complete stop and somebody carried me off and set me in the soft grass.  I was asleep in seconds. 

I woke to Whisper nuzzling my check. 

“Hi, girl,” I said, petting her. 

“Good morning, Sasha,” said a male voice. 

I leaped to my feet, grabbed a pistol and pointed it a boy who was browning toast over a fire with a gold sword. 

“Alex, what you are doing here?”  I asked, astonished, once I recognized him.

“Chill out,” he said and I put away my gun. 

“I said I was going with you so I went with you.”

“Wait a minute. That was you last night? How on earth did you get here?!” I asked, baffled. 

“My shoes, they are a special gift from Dad,” Alex said.

“Oh, they have wings?”  I asked, because Hermes had winged shoes but Alex’s shoes looked like just normal Nike sneakers. 

“Yeah.  To have the work all you have to do is jump,” Alex demonstrated.  He leapt into the air and little dove wings spread from his sneakers.  And miraculously they were able to carry him.

“Cool,” I said. 

Alex landed. 

“I stole some breakfast for us,” Alex said, throwing me an apple and another one to Whisper.  “I made some toast for us, too.”  He gave me a slice.

“Thanks, Alex,” I grumbled, not happy to have a boy doing the cooking. 

“You, being the daughter of Hera, I got you these.”  He tossed me a bag.  Inside was a hair brush, a bottle of perfume, and some lip gloss.

“Wow, thanks,” I said, brushing the grass and knots from my hair.  I put on some perfume and lip gloss. 

“Ready?” I asked.

            “So I can come with you?” Alex said, surprised. 

            “Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep you back,” I said. 

            We both got on Whisper so I could tell him about Hercules and my quest.  It felt weird when he put his hands around my waist.  I almost pushed him off Whisper, but then I realized he’d slip off if he didn’t hold on.  I told Alex all about yesterday.  It felt so good to get all my pent-up anger about Hercules out. 

            “Wow, Hercules really is a jerk,” he said when I was done. 

            “Yeah, he really is,” I said.  Then I asked, “So has anyone killed the Chimera before?”

            “What do you mean, killed it before?  If it is alive now, how could it be killed before?”  Alex asked, confused.

            I rolled my eyes.  He was such a newbie. “Monsters don’t have souls like you and me. So you can kill them for a while, but once their body heals they’re alive again,” I explained. 

            “Oh, but if you cut off a body part what will happen then?”

            “They are like starfish.  They’ll just grow another one.”

            “I once read about some guy named Bellerophon who killed a monster named the Chimera with a spear and Pegasus, but that is just a story.”

            “No, it’s not.  I remember it now. And he did have a spear and Pegasus.”

            “Well, that is good because you have those,” Alex said. 

            “Yeah, but he had help from the gods and we don’t, and we have a deadline of six more days to find out where the Chimera lives, kill it, then bring its heads to Hercules.  Do you have any idea where to look for it?”  

            “Well, in the book it did mention that the Chimera lives in a cave.”

            “Great, so in six days we have to look in every cave in the world!”  I said, wishing for the hundredth time that I’d just stayed in Olympus and not gone to see Hebe.  “Let’s start with all the caves we know of,” I suggested. 

            “Okay, how about the Himalayas?  The biggest mountains must have caves,” Alex said.

            “Yeah, they probably do have caves, but the Chimera breathes fire and for fire to start you have to have oxygen, and the Himalayas have a very low oxygen content because they are so high,” I explained. 

            “Oh, how about all the gold mines in Arizona?” 

            “Okay, let’s try that,” I said. 

            In a few hours we landed in a quiet Arizonian wood. 

            “You stay here, girl,” I said to Whisper. “If I whistle, come to me.”

            Whisper bobbed her head up and down.  And yes, Whisper understands everything that I tell her. 

            Alex and I walked toward the sound of cars on a road.  In a few hours a city was in view.  As we went down the streets, Alex kept looking around.

            “What are you looking for?”  I asked.

            “Imagine how much cash those tourists have!  We could be rich,” Alex said, rubbing his hands together like he was getting ready to start picking pockets.  I elbowed him.  “Ow!  What was that for?” he said, rubbing his side.

            “We have to be serious,” I said.  “Here we are.”

            “Why are we stopping at a hotel?”

            We went in. Alex went towards the desk and bumped into some guy. 

            “Oh, sorry, sir.”

            Alex came towards me.  I turned to the brochure holder and grabbed a few that were about caves nearby. 

            “Let’s go.”

            We went outside and Alex whispered to me, “Look at what I got.”  He pulled out a brown leather wallet.

            “Alex, that is so horrible!” I said. “How on earth did you get it?”

            “When I bumped into the guy.” 

            “Alex!  Go return it right now.”

            “What!  You can’t do that.  I’d get put in jail or something.  Anyway, now we can get lunch.”

            “I won’t eat stolen food.”

            “Fine, because I will.”

            “Oh, no you won’t!” I said, grabbing his arm and pulling him around to face me. “You are not going to be a thief while you are with me!”  I spat. 

            He chuckled and I almost punched him.  “Whatever, Mom!  But I am not going to go until I get a fresh cheese pizza and root beer and ice,” he said, shaking me off.   And he headed towards a Pizza Hut. 

            “That’s just fine with me,” I said to his back. 

            He turned. “Have fun fighting the Chimera on an empty stomach.”

            I stalked off.  Here is one rule I always follow.  Don’t ever steal, pickpocket, rob, whatever, and don’t hang out with people who do.  I walked down the sidewalk looking for a shady place to look over the brochures.  The sidewalk needed to be repaved. Gold sand was spurting up through the cracks and some cactus’ were peeking out, too.  The small town’s shops and houses looked cute and fit in perfectly in the Old West town, like the Cowboy’s Coffee Cafe.  But the Pizza Hut and McDonalds were totally out of place.

  The smells of food streaming out of restaurant made my mouth water.  I thought about going and getting lunch with Alex, I couldn’t get in too much trouble, could I?  I pushed that thought away as soon as it came.

I found a bench under the shade of one of the few trees and looked at my brochures.  One was on a turquoise mine only a few miles away but it was still being used for mining.  Nope, no monster would live in a cave that was bristling with mortals, although they were good for food.  Monsters were a little skittish around huge machines.

Next was a brochure on an old coal mine. It said that it was only five feet high.  Nope, not that one, way too small.  The last one was a gold mine about ten miles from here.  That’s okay, Whisper flies faster than a plane.  It was ten by six feet and was in a state park and was used for tours. As I read on, it sounded even better, because at the bottom it said, “Warning:  A few deaths have been caused because of cave-ins.”  To narrow-minded mortals it might seem like a cave-in when it actually might be a Chimera attack. 

            “You plannin’ to go there?”  somebody asked me. 

            I looked up.  An old man was peering down at me. He had a bushy white mustache and beard.  “Uh, maybe?”  I said.

            “Oh, I wouldn’t.  The park is probably going to be shut down.” 

            “Why?”

            “People who go in never come out.”

            I definitely was going there!  I ran back to Whisper as quickly as I could.  She whinnied, glad to see me alive.  “Come girl, we’ve got to go.”  I said breathlessly, scrambling onto her back.  In a few minutes I could see a big wooded sign that read, “One Vision State Park.”  Whisper landed.  I decided that if the Chimera did live here then Whisper should come with me.  Whisper was dancing around like someone had wound her up then let her go wild.  I guessed that meant  she smelled monsters. 

            “It’s okay, girl.”  I calmed her down.  The park had a few rides like a Ferris wheel and spinning teacups.  On a sign it said that the cave was past the food court and animal display.

            “Come on, Whisper.  This way.”  We headed towards the food court, which was filled with ice cream shops, bakeries, and hotdog stands.  I considered opening the abandoned shops and getting some food. 

            “Whoa, Sasha, you have been hanging out with Alex way too much,” I muttered to myself.  We entered the animal display.  There were eagles, hawks, cougars, snakes and lizards.  None of them were moving, except for their chests slowly moving up and down and their bad eyes following me as I looked closer.  I could see that they had no water or food.  “Whisper, I’m going to set them free,’ I said.  I didn’t care how dangerous they were. No animal deserved to be starved, but I didn’t really want to be attacked by a cougar or something, so I leaped on Whisper.  We flew up a few feet. With the butt of my spear I shattered the glass cases the animals were in.  There was a rush of birds flying over my head and slithering snakes on the ground and jack rabbits hopping off to grassy spots.  The cougar began chasing one rabbit and caught it.  Oh, well, that is how it was in nature, I told myself.  I hoped that when I found the Chimera that I would not end up like the jack rabbit. 

            Finally the cave was in view.  It was obviously out of order. The wooden beams that I assumed had once been holding the cave mouth open were rotted out and had caved, so I’d have to crawl to get in.  I looked at Whisper. There was no way that she would be able to come with me any further.  I stroked Whisper’s strong neck. “If I don’t come back Whisper, I want you to know that you were my best friend and tell my mom,”  I started choking up, “tell her that I love her and that I’m sorry for all the times I made trouble for her and I also want you to kick Hercules in the face.”  That thought made me feel better.   “And Whisper, tell Alex that I hope his pizza was good.” 

            I began crawling into the cave. Whisper started whinnying and pulling at my tank top.  “No, girl, stay!”  I said, trying to be firm.  I crawled out into the dark.  I could stand up now, but I didn’t dare move because I didn’t want to meet the Chimera by walking into it.  I could hear Whisper whinnying and pawing the ground frantically. I felt bad for her but not as bad as I felt for myself, being alone in the dark, having to fight an unknown enemy any minute.  I waited for my eyes to adjust to the dark, so everything had a grayish look, instead of black.  I uncapped my lipstick. Oops it was ‘Dior-rose-in-bloom’ lipstick. That’s the problem with a spear in disguise as lipstick because if you open the spear hoping for lipstick you might accidentally end up spearing yourself in the head.  I quickly stuffed that lipstick in my pocket and brought out my four-foot-long steel spear with leather grips and a deathly sharp point.  I cautiously moved forward, being careful not to trip on the bars and planks of wood that the mining carts once rode on.  I walked on for a few more minutes. The cave opened up into a huge cavern that was lit up by an opening in the roof where a single ray of sunlight spotlighted a lion head the size of an elephant’s head or bigger.  I could see huge fangs the size of my middle finger. Around its face was a matted blood-stained mane.  Past that was an enormous goat head with horns sharper than my spear’s. The goat head was slumped over, asleep.  Past that was the serpent. It was about four feet long and green scaled, a fork tongue dancing between two shiny fangs.  And instead of lion back legs to match the massive paws and claws in the front there was the shaggy behind of a goat.  This creature looked like a really messed up puzzle.  I was glad I found the Chimera when it was asleep because it took my eyes a few minutes to accept that the thing in front of them was real.  I was about to throw my spear like a javelin and kill it, but then its six eyes popped open. 

            The monster sprang to its feet and opened its huge lion mouth, the disgusting aroma of moldy, burnt meat almost knocked me off my feet.  Out shot a column of flames. I leapt aside just in time. The flames missed me just by an inch.  The intense heat made my lips crack and the skin on my face peel.  Suddenly, I saw the figure of a boy wearing winged shoes and carrying a gold sword fly over my head.  I’d never admit this out loud but I’d never been so happy to see an annoying boy flying around.  I charged the monster as the beast blew another arch of fire towards me.  I stabbed my spear in the ground and used it spring myself onto the muzzle of the lion.  I reached in my jacket for a gun, but grabbed the perfume. The Chimera began trying to scratch me off.  I sprayed the perfume into the monster’s eyes and nose.  It began gagging.  A huge paw reached up for me. The three-inch-long claws raked across my thigh.  Pain shot up through me. I screamed and fell off the lion’s head.  I crashed into the cold rocks.  I sat up. Alex was swerving around the fire.  I ran to help him. Well, more like limped. 

            “We need water so it can’t breathe fire,” I yelled at him. 

            Alex nodded. He tossed me a bottle of water. Where he got it I didn’t know or care.  I ran forward, ignoring the pain in my leg.  While Alex kept the heads busy I dumped the bottle of water in the lion’s mouth. The flame spurted then died. I stabbed my spear through it. Blood spattered over me, but I didn’t care.

Alex flew towards the goat head. He was about to cut the head off but the goat tossed his horns into Alex and hit him out of the air and sent him crashing into the cavern wall.  Alex crumbled to the ground.  I ran to him but the serpent head sprang out and sank its fangs into my shin.  I felt as though my blood had turned into lava.  Finally it released.  My vision was fuzzy and I was stiff, but with my gun I was able to shoot the head off.  One down, two to go.  I had to stop the poison from getting to my head.  I tore off a piece of my tank top and tightly tied it above the bite.  Yellow and black dots were dancing in and out of my vision and I felt as though the cave was spinning.  I reached for my spear and used it for a cane.  I hobbled close to the beast and rapidly shot the monster.  Alex was in the air again while I occupied the lion’s head with my gun.  Alex dove in and sliced off the goat head.  The monster bucked and kicked Alex and sent him flying into the ground again.  Alex’s spear clattered to my feet.  I picked it up.  I shot the monster’s back. The monster turned its last head around and I quickly went forward and with Alex’s sword I slashed through the bloody mane and the lion head fell to my feet.  Its body crashed to the ground. 

            I collapsed to my knees.  I was so cold, yet my hands were clammy with sweat.  Alex came to me. He was holding his side and blood was trickling from his mouth.  I smiled weakly. “We need to get out of here,” he said. With one arm he picked me up and flew through the cave. By normal standards I would have been freaking out about him carrying me, but I couldn’t even see straight much less than walk straight. I tried to wipe some blood from my tank top but I was so tired that just moving my arm felt like I was carrying a truck. I passed out.

I heard a shrill and scared whinny. My eyelids flickered open and I found myself face to face with Whisper. I was lying on the ground under a tree Alex was lying next to me. I could see something sticking up through his shirt. It was white and bloody. When I realized that it was a rib I almost puked. Alex tried to sit up. His face was as white as chalk. He winced and lay down again. I took out my supplies of Advil but it wasn’t normal Advil, it was a pill that Asceius, the god of healing, had created. One pill could cure any injury or sickness in a few minutes. I popped the lid and swallowed a pill first. I felt dizzy, then I felt as though I was sinking through Jell-O. Then      

the feeling faded away. I sat up. I felt great, all my wounds had healed and I didn’t even have the slightest scars. I untied the piece of cloth from my leg so I won’t cut my circulation off. I looked over at Alex. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head.

            “Alex,” I said. He didn’t respond.  I guess that he had fainted.  I opened his mouth.  Ugh, I really wanted to wash my hands.  Gently, I placed the pill in his mouth. It slowly dissolved.  The blood on his chin faded away.  The rib sank back into place and color flooded back into his cheeks.  Alex took a deep breath and propped himself up on his elbow. 

            “What happened?” he asked.  He looked over himself.  “I’m healed and I don’t even have scars!” 

            “I gave you some special medicine,” I said.  “So I take it that you didn’t get lunch.” 

            Alex shrugged.  “Well, I thought that you might want help so I followed you.” 

            “Alex, thank you.  If you hadn’t come I would have died,” I said, gratefully.

 Alex looked at me. “I know, and I didn’t want you to die.” 

I smiled at him.  “Come on, we need to go get the heads.”  I crawled back into the cave.  In the huge cavern the heads lay on the ground, blood was splattered everywhere.  The headless body was still seeping blood.  I scooped up the snake head and the goat head and Alex dragged the lion head behind him.  We pushed the heads through the hole. 

“How on earth are we going to get these to Hercules?” I asked.

“Well, my dad gave this to me.”  Out of his pocket Alex pulled a white envelope. In red cursive letters it said, “Hermes’ Express.”

“Yeah, like those huge heads will fit in that little thing!” I said, thinking that Alex couldn’t be that stupid.

“Watch this.”  Alex flipped open the envelope and held it out to the heads.  The envelope sucked one in at a time, like a vacuum.  The envelope didn’t even expand.  Alex stuffed it back into his pocket.

“Well, that takes care of that problem,” I said, hugging Whisper.

Alex came astride Whisper behind me.  Whisper flew smoothly through the clouds.  In an hour we were standing in front of Hercules’ house.  Before I knocked on the door Hercules opened it.   “Where are the heads?” he demanded.

I took the envelope from Alex and handed it to him. 

“Sasha, I’ve been thinking about what you said about me not being a hero.  I think that you’re really right and I’m really sorry, so I got you this.”  He pulled out a shiny black new leather jacket. In the back, instead of tassels, like the ones on the coat I was wearing, now there were peacock feathers.  I smiled. “Well, Hercules, you are not as dumb as you look.”  I was not about to be nice to Hercules.

His eyes narrowed into tiny black slits.  He was about to say something mean but Alex began laughing. “It’s okay, man!  That’s a compliment coming from her!”

Hercules began laughing, too, and I had to join them.  I glanced over at Alex, saw his blue eyes sparkling, and thought that maybe, just maybe, all the trouble might have been worth it.