The Daughter Of Olympus

Chapter 3: The Golden Chariot

Luna lead Zan and Snowball into a large chamber. The roof glittered like the night sky, and in the middle of the room was a very bright throne with a lady on it. This lady was Artemis. she wore a silver toga with a golden belt, and her hair was made greek style.

I wonder if this is how she looked when the gods brought me to life, Zan thought as they made their way into the chamber and toward Artemis. There was a cylinder with candles on top of the arm of Artemis’s throne- It looked familiar.

Suddenly there was a searing pain going through Zan’s head. She stopped walking and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the pain to subside. She’d been experiencing these for the last week every time she 'recieved' piece of information, and so far, this one wasn’t nearly as painful as the others.

She heard Luna gasp and run toward her. Luna put her hands on Zan’s shoulders and looked at Artemis, “What’s going on?”  she asked frantically.

“She’ll be fine.” Artemis stated, waving her hand.

The pain finally subsided. Zan looked up to see a calm faced Artemis and a worried Luna. The first thing Zan should have said would be something along the lines of I’m ok, but instead she said something no one was expecting.

“Birthday Cake.” she blurted. Well, no one except Artemis. She smiled and nodded.

“Yes, good job. I’m glad you’re knowledge is coming in. That will come in handy.” Luna looked between Artemis and Zan, confused. Zan remembered that she told her that she was a child of only Zeus. Luna had no clue what was going on. Zan wanted to tell her that she had knowledge from different time periods and people flowing into her brain slowly and painfully, but her current location didn’t seem like the place to start explaining.

“Anyway,” Artemis said, changing the subject, “Today you will embark on your journey, have you prepared yourselves?” She asked. Luna nodded while Zan looked at her bag of items, then back at Artemis, who was staring at her with an eyebrow raised. “You are prepared, aren’t you?” She asked Zan, leaning forward in her throne. No, a little horse distracted me until the last minute and now I have a bag full of random things, Zan thought, but she nodded. Artemis leaned back again and smiled, “Good, now follow me.”

She got up and walked gracefully down her throne, past them, and out the door, with the birthday cake floating behind her. They followed her, the cake illuminating the narrow hallways as they walked. Can I eat it? Said Snowball’s voice,  I’m really hungry! Hermes doesn’t feed his mail. He complained, walking right behind the cake.

“No.” Zan muttered, picking up Snowball and putting him behind them.

Soon they reached a old wooden door with a large padlock on it. The hallway would have been pitch black if it weren’t for the candles on the cake- and the weird aurora Artemis was giving off. Artemis pulled a small golden key out of her belt and stuck it into the lock, she paused, “I feel compelled to warn you that Elafi is eating his snack, so be careful.” she said, turning the key. Zan looked questioningly at Luna, who was smiling.

“Who’s Elafi?”  Zan whispered to her.

“Artemis’s pet.” She answered, turning back to the door. Artemis opened the lock and the door swung open. She turned to them and put her finger to her mouth, then walked inside. They followed her closely- well, as close as they could get without touching the cake.

Inside was a large empty cave. They walked forward watching for stalagmites and anything else that could hurt them in a cave that had been locked up. Suddenly they heard a loud whinny. They turned and saw Snowball holding up his hoof. I stepped on a stalactite, He whined, walking on his three good legs toward them.