More Greek Times

The Living Legend

Days came and went, and soon, three weeks had passed since I've been back in school. But this particular Friday afternoon, was not another school adventure. Today was the day I helped Hercules with his training by participating in the one monster-fighting exercise I actually knew about and was most excited about: Dragons. I absolutely loved dragons for the longest time, so when I found out Hercules was going to be training to fight them, I immediately asked Phil if I could help out. Thankfully, he agreed, and using what I've read in books and watched from movies, I was able to help Phil come up with the perfect training exercise that -sure- didn't involve a real dragon, but still gave Herc that rush of the fight. Two words for you readers: Mechanical dragon. Courtesy of one Daedalus and one Icarus.

I watched from the sidelines as Hercules swung his sword at the head of the mechanical dragon. Phil was on the dragon's back moving levers to get the mechanical lizard stomping around the training grounds of his island to simulate an actual dragon fight. Well, a dragon fight where the dragon has no wings. That's technically called a drake fight.

"Stay on your toes, kid!" Phil called out to Herc. "A dragon has a wide turning radius!"

"Go for the tail!" I yelled out some good advice. "A down dragon's a dead dragon!"

"Hey, who's coaching him, Creepy-Eyes?" Phil snapped at me.

"Well, pardon me, Mr. Moody-Goat." I said offendedly.

Phil rolled his eyes and used the levers to make the dragon attack Herc with its tail. Hercules dodged the tail swing -ignoring my earlier advice, ran back towards the front end, and used the hilt of his sword to knock the dragon's head away. Forcing the machine to fall in a sitting position, and almost forcing Phil to fall right out of his seat. Not a bad tactic for fighting a dragon, but I personally would've gone for the tail to knock out it's balance that way.

Hercules gave a cocky scoff. "Heh, easy enough."

"They loaded?" Phil asked me.

"You bet." I gave him a smirk.

And with a pull of a switch and a snicker from Phil, the wooden dragon's mouth opened up to reveal a pipe, to which shot out several ripe tomatoes right at Hercules to simulate a real dragon's fire breath. A lot less -y'know- hot and murdery and a lot messier, so it's fun in that sense and provides for a very capable teaching moment for training. Icarus was the one who thought that little idea up, by the way.

"Bleach!" Herc groaned in disgust at the sight of the tomatoes on his person. "Aw, man."

"Hero rule #72: Assess the situation." Phil reminded him as he got out of the mechanical dragon.

"Situation assessed." Hercules said as he wiped off some tomatoes. "I'm battling a dragon that breathes vegetables."

"Rookie, a tomato is a fruit." Phil corrected as he ate one of the tomatoes. "Where would you be without me?"

"Probably not knowing his true destiny." I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?" Herc asked.

"I said I need a ride home soon." I rephrased myself. "I promised my mom I'd help sell her tea at the Arcadian County Fair."

"Tea? What's that?" Phil asked.

"It's a drink." I explained. "Some people think it has some weird stress-relieving abilities, but I just like it because it tastes good and it soothes sore throats."

"I could fly you over to your house if you'd like." Hercules offered. "We needed to go to Athens anyway."

"Yeah, to get the kid some new training sandals." Phil explained.