Brody dived behind a boulder and so did Julia.
Markos flattened himself on the ground nearby.
With another blast of thunder, Zeus appeared in the clearing.
"Heracles!" he exclaimed. "There you are. Come with me, boy.
Poseidon still doesn't believe you're as strong as I say you are.
Let's show him exactly how wrong he is. He's at the agora right now."
"Yes, Zeus." Heracles grabbed Iphicles, and then Zeus made the three of them disappear.
Brody stood up. "Okay, why did we have to hide?" he asked, his ears still ringing from all the loud thunder.
Markos stood too. "Because Zeus may not like Heracles mingling with the other athletes."
"Yes, and Zeus knows that everybody in Olympia is trying to sabotage Heracles," Julia added.
"He never would have believed we were just playing football together.
Maybe Heracles was trying to protect us." Julia's face suddenly turned gloomy.
"What's wrong?" Brody asked.
Julia bit her lip. "I didn't tell Heracles everything I know about his future."
Markos frowned. "I'm not sure it was wise to tell him your secret either."
"I know," Julia replied. "I didn't mean to say anything—the truth just came out.
But I don't think he or Iphicles will tell anyone else about us."
"I think you're right," Brody agreed.
Markos was watching Julia's face. "You said Heracles would become a great hero. What more is there to tell?"
"Yes, that part is true," Julia said.
She wandered back into the clearing and sat down beside the stream.
"He'll free Prometheus, as I said before.
He helps the Argonauts search for the Golden Fleece.
He defeats lots of bad guys, helps lots of ordinary people, kills some nasty monsters, and does many other things.
And of course there are the Labors of Heracles—12 very difficult tasks that he completes.
But I definitely didn't want to tell him the reason he must perform these Labors."
"What's the reason?" Brody asked.
Julia shook her head. "Brody, didn't you pay attention at all last year?"
He smiled sheepishly. "I had social studies class at the end of the day. I missed it a lot for football games."
"Right—football." Julia's tone was sarcastic. "Well, Heracles has to complete the 12 Labors as punishment for killing his own children."
Brody gasped. "Really? He kills his own children?"
Markos looked shocked too. "No wonder you didn't want to tell him that."
Julia nodded. "Yes. But he only kills his kids because Hera uses her powers to drive him insane," she added.
"That's no surprise," Brody said. "She already seems to hate him."
"Probably because she has guessed that Zeus is Heracles' father," Markos said. "She is very jealous."
Brody kicked a stone into the stream. "Then why doesn't Hera tell everyone that Heracles is half god?" he asked.
"Wouldn't he get kicked out of the Games then?
Having a half god compete against the rest of us would be like having a professional football player compete in a high school game!"
"That's actually a good analogy," Julia told him with a smile.
"Thanks." Brody wasn't sure what an analogy was, but he didn't want to admit that.
Julia rarely complimented him, and he didn't want to ruin the moment.
"It's a good question too." Markos looked thoughtful. "Maybe Hera isn't sure she's right yet."
"Or maybe she has a worse punishment in mind," Julia said grimly.
"Like the stuff we heard about her wanting to send Heracles to Tartarus."
Brody didn't like to think about that, especially now that he knew what a nice guy Heracles was.
"Let's go back to Olympia," he said. "I don't want to stay out here too long and make Hermes think we're trying to run away again."
"Okay." Julia stood up and looked around. "Which way is Olympia from here?"
She and Brody both looked at Markos.
"I'm not sure," Markos admitted. "I could probably find it if we could get back down that cliff."
"But we can't," Brody said.
"And we don't want to." Julia shuddered.
"We would have to go past Hephaestus' forge that way." She bit her lip.
"What if we can't find our way back before dark?"
That reminded Brody of something. He squinted up toward the sun. "I think I can find the way."
"You can?" Julia sounded surprised. "How?"
"I used to go camping with my cousins a lot before I got too busy with football."
Brody smiled, thinking back on those days. "It was a blast! My cousins are older, and they taught me a lot.
One of the things they taught me was how to use the position of the sun to find my way around."
"Good idea!" Markos looked relieved.
Julia seemed skeptical, but she shrugged. "Okay, it's worth a try," she said. "Lead the way, Brody."
"I will." Brody remembered all the times the sun had made him squint while trying to follow the javelin or discus he'd just thrown.
He used those memories, combined with the sun's current position, to figure out which direction to start walking.
And it worked. Within half an hour, the kids found a wide dirt road.
"I recognize where we are," Markos said with relief.
"It's just a 15-minute walk to the agora from here."
"Wow." Julia looked impressed. "Good job, Brody."
Brody smiled. "Thanks." Before he could say anything else, there was a shout from behind.
Several young men were hurrying along the road.
Brody recognized one of them as Apollo's champion.
"Are you on your way to the agora to see Heracles?" Apollo's champion asked Brody.
"Um, I don't know," Brody said. "Why?"
"Haven't you heard?" One of the other youths grinned.
"Zeus is showing him off again. We can't wait to see what he does this time!"
"Yeah." Brody exchanged a look with his friends. "We can't wait either."