"Brody is amazing!" Markos exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat. "He's become a really good wrestler."
Julia nodded. Brody was wrestling with Demeter's champion.
"He's pretty good at all of the events," she admitted.
Then she glanced at Heracles, who was standing on the sideline with the other athletes.
"He's definitely not as good as Heracles, though."
"Nobody is as good as Heracles," Markos replied.
He looked around and then lowered his voice.
"But that's no surprise. After all, Heracles is half god."
"Yes," Iphicles muttered. "And if the other gods knew the truth about him, they'd—"
"But they don't know the truth," Julia reminded him quickly.
"And we'd better hope they never find out—for Heracles' sake."
"Right," Markos agreed.
Julia glanced uneasily toward Hera, who was seated in her golden chair with the other gods.
Did Hera already know that Heracles was Zeus' son?
Was that why she hated Heracles so much?
A roar went up from the crowd as Brody threw down his opponent again and won.
Agon stepped forward and declared him the winner of the round.
Next Heracles stepped up, along with Athena's champion.
The two of them shook hands before getting into position.
"We got lucky with Heracles' opponent," Julia said.
"He's Athena's champion, and Athena is the only god who's playing fair."
"But that won't stop the other gods from interfering." Markos looked glum.
"I know," Julia said. She watched as the match began.
Heracles quickly overpowered the other athlete.
Just as Heracles was about to toss him again, Julia saw Artemis step up to the sidelines and point her bow.
"Here it comes!" Julia thought. "Be ready, Heracles!"
Suddenly Athena's champion changed shape, growing larger and becoming very hairy and muscular.
A second later Heracles was wrestling a huge bear!
The bear roared and slashed at Heracles with its sharp claws.
Heracles had already ducked low, dodging the bear's swipes in the nick of time.
Athena's eyes flashed with anger. "What is this foolishness?" she cried, striding toward Artemis.
"How dare you tamper with my champion? Outrageous!"
She pointed her spear, and the bear instantly changed back into her mortal champion.
"Wh-what happened?" the athlete gasped.
"Never mind." Athena glared at Artemis, who smirked in return.
"Take a moment to recover. Then the match will continue."
"Yes, yes," Zeus said mildly. "Enough of this nonsense."
"Huh . . . ," thought Julia. "That was a pretty dangerous prank!" she said to Markos.
"But Zeus doesn't sound very mad. He sounds amused instead."
"He probably is," Markos said. "The Games are always like this, Julia.
The gods constantly play pranks and make mischief.
Zeus doesn't really care because Heracles just keeps winning."
"Everyone is already acting as if my brother is the greatest champion of all time," Iphicles muttered.
"He is a great athlete," Markos said.
Julia was surprised by Iphicles' comment. Maybe he got a little jealous of Heracles sometimes, she thought.
But Iphicles had to be really worried about Heracles.
After all, the more people praised Heracles, the more the gods—especially Hera—were eager to defeat him.
Soon the match resumed. It wasn't long before Heracles was declared the winner.
A short while later, he was also declared the winner of the pentathlon as a whole.
"And thus my champion remains undefeated," Zeus exclaimed, clapping Heracles on the back.
"And he will remain that way tomorrow as well. Mark my words!"
There was plenty of grumbling from the other gods.
But none of them said anything directly, except for Athena, who congratulated Zeus and Heracles.
Markos jumped to his feet. "Come on," he said to Julia.
"Let's go find Brody and walk him home."
She pointed to Iphicles, who'd gone over to try to talk to his brother.
But Zeus had whisked away Heracles so fast, Iphicles just stood there alone, looking annoyed and a little lost.
Julia felt sorry for him. "Why don't we see if Iphicles wants to come?" she suggested.
"Good idea," Markos agreed. "Perhaps he will stay for dinner."
Later that night Julia had trouble falling asleep.
She kept thinking about the next day's events.
Had she and her friends figured out all the pranks that were planned against Heracles?
Would they be able to continue to stop them?
Iphicles had assured her that his plan to get them home was foolproof.
But what if Hermes caught them? Or something else went wrong?
They couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
Julia tossed and turned and then finally got up.
She went to the window and stared up at the moon for a while, thinking about her family and friends back home.
Did they miss her? Had her parents been freaking out?
Suddenly something below caught Julia's eye. To her surprise two shadowy figures were huddled together.
Julia squinted at the figures. "The shorter one looks like Iphicles," she thought. "What's he doing out there?"
The taller figure, who was facing away from her, wore a long robe and a hood. Still, Julia could tell it was a god.
"It's definitely not Zeus," she thought. "He or she is too slim.
It's not Hades or Poseidon either. But it could be almost any of the others."
She watched as the god, or goddess, leaned closer to Iphicles.
The two of them appeared to talk quietly for a moment.
Then they parted ways and hurried off in opposite directions, disappearing into the night.
"That was kind of weird," Julia murmured aloud.
Maybe she'd ask Iphicles about his moonlit meeting tomorrow.
She yawned and realized that she finally felt a little bit tired.
A few minutes later, she climbed back into bed and soon fell asleep, dreaming about serpents and bears—and home.