Kinard Mythology Anthology Volume III

by Kinard Middle School

  Killer Dog

  By Wyatt Smart

  A vary long ago in a small town with houses of bamboo and roofs of long dry grass that were held on by a rope of tied together leaves, the bamboo was cracked and snapped due to the tropical storms they had undergone. The town had a population of a little over 70 men, women, and children, but the most respected and strong man was, the leader of the municipality, Liam.

  Liam was a very tall and has a large chest and arms, he had brown hair and eyes, and he had great skill with the bow and arrow, that was one of his favorite hobbies. His best friend and another leader of the town was the great warrior, Noah.

  Noah was also one of the leaders of the camp. He was short and stocky with broad shoulders and large quads, but Noah would rather have a battle ax or a great sword than a little bow.

  Then, one cold and rainy night, a scream of terror raised over the town.

  “ Ahhhhh!” a terrified voice screamed “Help! Wait! No!”

  “What was that,” Liam said getting out of his bed like a rabbit quickly getting out of its hole. After about three minutes he was out of bed and prepared.

  “ Liam help,” Noah yelled.

  Liam sprinted as ast as he could to where he heard the cry for help.

  He got there and saw Noah and a few other men looking down at something. His mind was going through all the possibilities of what happened. He had never heard a scream like that in his life.

  “Liam Hurry!” Noah yelled at the top of his lungs while flailing his arms side two side.

  “My god” Liam said is a shocked voice. He could barely make out who it was. He guessed it was Mark.

  Mark was just an innocent citizen. He was the local doctor.

  It was so bad. The man had his shoulders ripped out of his sockets,  his leg was broken, and his stomach was covered in divots and gashes.

  “This had to be something big,” Noah said in a disgusted tone.

  “You don’t say,” Liam sarcastically said.

  The next day, Liam announced what happened to the town.

  “How could we ever feel safe again!” an angry man shouted with his fist flailing in the air.

  “Trust me i’ll keep this town safe,” Liam reassuringly said, “I’m sending out a search party lead by one of my best friends, Noah.”

  “We’ll find this beast,” Noah said after walking in front of the crowd, “and we’ll kill it.”

  The next day the men covered themselves in the nicest leather armor they had, Noah grabbed two large daggers, put them in two sheaths on his belt, grabbed a massive sword and very large shield. The other men grabbed bows, arrows, and spears.

  After the group was suited up and ready to leave, Liam went over to see the group off.

  “Be careful out there,” Liam said facing all the men.

  “Oh don’t worry, I think we're all a little scared,” Noah said while while nodding his head.

  “We sure won’t be letting our guard down,” said another man from the group.

  “Well watch your backs” Liam said with a hopeful look, “good luck.”

  The men left.

  After about an hour, the men were about three or four miles deep in the forest they believed the beast had come from.

  Then, after about another 30 minutes of hiking they came to a very, very large tree that had a huge cave at the bace. They went to investigate but Noah stayed out on guard. The cave hag decomposing animal bodies laying all over the ground.

  “This smells awful” someone from the group said after gagging.

  “This feels weird”,another man said.

  Then faster than the men in the cave could think, the men heard Noah yell,”Run!”.

  It was too late for that. The moment they walked outside they were greeted by a colossal 10 foot tall, 15 foot long, beast with brown and black heads that almost looked like a rottweiler. Noah was fighting it of for a moment but it noticed the men sprinting out of the cave, it went for them. It caught up to them in no time at all and devoured them one by one.

  Noah managed to get away and hide from the killer dog.

  After that, when Noah had the town in sight he yelled “Liam!” while jogging back.

  “What happened,” Liam said while helping Noah into a chair, “Where's the rest of the group?”

  “Dead,” Noah said while holding back tears, “ We should have come more prepared”

  with his hands in his face Noah felt like it was his fault the his men were dead. He thought he never should brought his men near that killer’s cave. That’s why they’re dead.

  “Ok,” Liam said with a determined look, “Gather all the men.”

  After two days of preparation, Liam was ready to end this.He was dressed in extremely tough iron armour, he had a bow slung over his back, and a dagger in sheath secured to his leg. But, instead of going to the beast lair he let it come to his turf. Lima knew that this thing had a taste for blood so he  just waited till the monster came.  And it did.

  Liam heard scream. He could tell the men were getting ripped apart limb by limb. Then, it was silent.

  The silence was then killed and Liam was greeted by a huge man-eater.  Liam jumped out of the way as fast as a fly trying to escape a hand. After trying to escape, Liam drew an arrow, pulled back, aimed, and hit the beast right in the eye. The head grew limp and fell right in front of its chest. Dead. But that was only one head down nine to go.  And just because Liam dodged it once doesn’t mean it was over.

  One of the heads caught him in the corner of its eye and went for him. That head didn’t stand a chance, Noah sprinted in front of the head decapitating the it from the rest of body.

  “I got you,” Noah said while helping Liam into a run.

  Once they got to a safe distance, Liam did something to truly show his skills with the bow and arrow. He loaded up three arrows onto his bow, pulled back, and let go. The arrows flew in a perfect line, then they smashed into three of the huge dog’s heads. Five heads to go.

  He was getting weaker and the men of the village took this to their advantage. About ten men went in with pikes(15 foot long spears) while about five men stayed back and shot bows. They drove their picks into the 10-headed dog but they could only take down two heads before they were devoured. The men shooting bows were not as skilled with the bow as liam so they could not hit the monster as easy as Liam.

  But before the men knew it liam and Noah were back in the fight.

  “Three more heads to go” Liam said while loading up another arrow.

  “Let’s get this killer” Noah exclaimed while throwing his battle ax into a ready position.

  Noah was not kidding, he threw his ax so hard that it actually sliced through the neck of another head.

  Liam was ready to end this. He climbed up the dog’s leg to where he was on the back. He then pulled out two daggers from his ankle sheaths and shoved one in each head. The beast fell.

  Liam stood on top of the fallen beast like and action hero who had just killed his arch nemesis. But it did not just end like that, Liam realized that he had been bleeding out of his left thigh for the whole night. It was all black.

  Liam woke up to Noah sitting at his bed.

  “He’s awake!” Noah yelled to the doctor across the room.

  “How are you doing,” Noah said.

  “Oh just wonderful” Liam said while laughing.

  “Is it dead,” Liam said.

  “Yep, you killed it,” Noah said with a look of great respect, “You saved this town.”

  “It wasn’t just me,” Liam said while about to laugh, “You had to fight it twice.”

  Both men laughed.

  The next day, Liam and Noah hug up all the heads of the 10-headed dog one by one in front of the town hoping that this would scare off any other beasts or monsters from coming in. It did look intimidating. Almost like the gates of hell. But the people inside were still awesome. The citizens of the town felt safe and felt even more respect for their leader,
Liam, they wouldn’t be there without him.

  Hebe’s Mistake

  By Liesel von Trapp

  Once there was a boy named Henry, who was noticeably fast for his young age of eleven, and a girl named Madelyn, with big green eyes and long blonde hair who was also eleven years old. These two children lived in a rickety brown and tan orphanage that was falling apart at the corner of Avenue Drive along with many other children around their age. The strong smell of rain still remained in the air after the long rain they went through the night before. This particular orphanage was located in Edessa, Greece and it was located right next to a big, wide, green, fruitful forest. This forest was very familiar to both Madelyn and Henry.

  “Everyone, why don’t you all go outside and play while I tidy this place up? Let’s go out and have some fun,” said the nice owner of the orphanage, Rey.

 

  “Yeah! That would be awesome,” said Henry in an energizing voice, a big smile across his face.

  “Want to go to the forest, Henry?” Madelyn said, shooting a look at Rey, who smiled and nodded her head, whenever Rey nodded, her long, bright red curly hair bounced up and down.

  “Yes! What should we play this time? Dragons, survivors, or how about explorers where we pretend we are trying to find something, but we get lost?” Henry said, his big blue eyes perking up, little did they know how much their game would come true.

  “Okay, let’s try explorers today,” Madelyn said as Henry pulled her with his strong arms into the forest.

  A few minutes later, Henry and Madelyn were by the creek that they knew so well, it was near the middle of the forest, but closer to the orphanage than the ocean, which was on the other side of the forest. Henry and Madelyn were out “exploring” by the creek when Madelyn saw something move. “Wait Henry stop. I just saw something in the grass move,” she said.

  “I’m sure it was just your imagination, besides grass this long would move in this breeze,” Henry replied also looking down at the grass, Madelyn wasn’t one to lie.

  Henry breathed in the crisp air when he saw it too, but this time the creature jumped out of the tall grass. “It’s a frog! Madelyn it’s a frog!” Henry yelled with joy.

  “Aww poor little guy, he’s limping,” Madelyn replied.

  “What should we do with him?” Henry replied to Madelyn’s observation. Madelyn had always wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up, so she always took pity on hurt animals, and always knew what to do.

  Just then, the frog started hopping, no matter how badly his leg hurt, he wanted to get away from these colossal creatures looming above him.

  “Well, right now we should catch him so that he doesn’t injure his leg even more,” Madelyn said in a rushed tone.

  “I can get it!” Henry said, he started sprinting after the frog, he knew how important catching and saving this frog was to Madelyn. Maybe once the frog is healed, the orphanage could keep it as a pet, Henry thought as he was running after the injured frog.

  This was no ordinary frog, to Madelyn, it was a beautiful frog, it was shimmering in the bright spring sun, and it was a very bright shade of green she had never seen before, she needed to catch it. But Madelyn was falling behind Henry, and she didn’t want to slow him down, so she kept  running as fast as she could. She waited until she almost lost sight of Henry, who was a very fast runner, to yell “Henry! Henry slow down! I’m way back here! Did you catch the frog yet?” Madelyn knew her friend Henry had very powerful hearing, so she did not doubt that he could hear her.

  Madelyn saw Henry stop and turn around holding up a small twinkling bright green thing, and she was proud of Henry, for she knew he had finally caught it.

  When they reached each other, they realized that for once they did not recognize their surroundings. The world around them was dead silent. Then Madelyn broke the silence

  “We need to find our way out of here,” she said, “If we don’t get out before nightfall, Rey will be very worried, and we’re the only ones who know this forest inside and out, out of all the kids at the orphanage, we could walk through here blindfolded,” Madelyn finished.

  “Okay, we should start looking around for rocks, trees, anything we recognize,” Henry replied.

  “Right, good idea Henry!”

  It was now 4:00 pm and Madelyn and Henry had resorted to yelling for help for a while and conserving their energy, since 1:00 pm they had been wandering around looking for any familiar rocks or trees, or even tree roots. “Henry, did you happen to see anything that met the eye while you were chasing the frog?” Madelyn said, breaking the chain of constant yelling from both of them.

  “No, all I saw was a blur of different shades of green and brown,” Henry said, ashamed, why couldn’t I be more observant, he wondered.

  Meanwhile, up on Mount Olympus, Zeus was getting ready to leave to take a new harp to Apollo, one that the mortals had oddly sacrificed to him, they did know that it is not the same as an animal like a sheep or something, right? Lately, Zeus had been sorting the mail that the mortals had sent to the gods. We really need a messenger, he thought to himself.

  “Zeus!” Hebe yelled as she came running around the corner, “Zeus, I just heard some voices yelling for help coming from Edessa, it is two children, and I stopped to see Athena, and she said that they have been yelling for help and running around for the past few hours. Don’t you think we should do something?” Hebe said rapidly, her big brown eyes big with fear.

  “Hebe, I am very busy and about to leave to give this new harp to Apollo, don’t you think they could hold off for a few hours?” Zeus replied.

  “This time they sacrificed a harp, seriously? I mean, why would the mortals do that? We ought to teach them about what to sacrifice, and what not to. Us immortal gods got to eat too y’know. We could die of starvation,” Hebe replied questionably.

  “Hebe, if you want to save these mortals so bad, than why don’t you just go down there yourself?” Zeus asked, “Well I’ve got to run, Apollo’s been expecting this, and don’t tell him I plucked a few strings on it already,” he finished.

  “Okay, maybe I will go down there,” Hebe said to herself as Zeus left.

  It was a sort of bumpy ride from the beautiful, big, purple and gold city of Mount Olympus on the biggest cloud in the sky that’s around 2,477 feet in the air, but Hebe made it down to Edessa safely disguised as a young maiden, she walked the wet, gray cobblestone streets in the town until she came across Avenue Drive and went to the small brown and tan building that looked as if it had been through a lot of weathering, and then, to her right, was a beautiful, overgrown fantasy looking forest, now she knew why these two children loved playing in it, she often saw them having an amazing time in this forest, and now she understood why.

  She went into the forest and soon, the voices yelling “Help!” “Help!” became closer, her feet touched the wet, muddy ground near the end of the forest, and there she saw them, one boy and one girl sitting with their backs against a large laurel tree.

  They looked first at her feet, and then up at her small, oval shaped face. Her long brown hair was curly because of the humidity and her eyes were filled with joy, for Hebe had found them, she had saved these two kids who had been lost in a forest for hours and hours now.

  “Do not be alarmed, for I am Hebe, cupbearer of the gods, and I am here to rescue you,” she said.

  “What’s that cup you’re carrying for?” Henry asked, staring at it, it had three zigzag lines going horizontally across the middle of the cup one was purple, one was a bright sky blue, and one was pure gold, the cup looked like it was one thousand years old.

  “I just told you, I am the cupbearer of the gods, and this is my cup,” Hebe said, wondering if this kid even knew what he just said.

  “Well what does it do, Ms. Cupbearer of the Gods?” Henry asked.

  Then Hebe took off her cloak that had disguised her and set it aside on a big, gray rock to the left of her. “Whoever drinks out of my cup will becom
e a god forever,” Hebe said.

  Just then, Hebe stepped forward toward the kids and she stepped on a great big tree root that was covered with army green moss and was connected to a massive oak tree. Hebe started to fall and it seemed to be a long fall for her, but to the kids, Madelyn and Henry, it was as quick as a lion pouncing on it’s prey. Hebe’s worst nightmare had just happened, her cup spilled, Zeus had said that if she spills it and makes somebody, anybody, a god, that he would take her cup away from her.

  “Are you ok?” Henry said as Hebe’s cup was falling, and as Henry was saying ‘ok’ seven drops of the nectar inside Hebe’s cup landed in his mouth. “Yummy, that nectar tastes really good!” And then Henry realized what had just happened to him, “Oh my gosh, Hebe I’m so sorry, will Zeus get you in trouble now that I’m a god and,” Hebe cut Henry off.

  “It’s going to be okay, Henry,” Hebe interrupted “Don’t worry about it,” she finished.

  Back at Mount Olympus, Zeus was back to sorting the mail again, “Gee, we really need a messenger these days, I’m tired of sorting through the mail these days,” he said.

  Soon after, Aphrodite came skidding around the corner and she said, “Zeus! Hebe just spilled her cup!” Being the tattle tale she is, Aphrodite, out of all the gods, for they all saw the incident happen except for Zeus, who had his nose in the mail box separating the mail for all the gods and goddesses, just had to tell Zeus what Hebe had done. “Oh great, now another thing to deal with, Aphrodite, some mortals sent you some dark chocolate while you’re here,” Zeus said, standing up.

  “Oh yay! Those mortals really do follow directions well!” Aphrodite squealed, Zeus got a confused look on his face, then he just shrugged his shoulders, he did not want to deal with Aphrodite today, he had enough on his hands today.

  Meanwhile, Hebe was pacing the muddy, tree bark and moss covered, wet soppy forest floor. Hebe was so very worried what Hebe would do to her, for not once had she ever dropped her cup. “Madelyn, you’d better go back to the orphanage, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Henry said. Madelyn turned around with her head down and Hebe guided her to the orphanage using her telepathic powers to lead Madelyn in the right direction. Madelyn felt a little nudge at every turn she needed to take, and in no time, she was back at the orphanage and everyone was already inside. Madelyn whispered to Rey that Henry was with Hebe in the forest still, but he was safe. The essence of oregano and pasta sauce was in the air, Madelyn was so starving that she could almost feel her stomach churning underneath her skin.

  Then, all of a sudden, Zeus’ voice thundered from the top of Mount Olympus “Hebe, Hebe! Bring the boy up here!” Hebe and Henry both were now scared, what would happen to them? Nor Henry or Hebe could be killed or hurt for a punishment, so what would Zeus do?

  This was the very first time, and maybe the last time, Henry experienced the ride up to Mount Olympus, so Hebe had to go through the whole procedure that Zeus had done to her on her first time on the ride up to Mount Olympus.

  “Please keep your hands and feet inside the air current at all times, you will experience the air pressure getting more overwhelming as you gain incline, but you’ll get used to it,” Hebe said as she was pointing out where she wanted Henry to go.

  “Okay,” Henry said, looking straight up, now that he was a god, he could spot Mount Olympus from anywhere, to mortals, it was hidden.

  When both Henry and Hebe got up to Mount Olympus, Zeus was standing there waiting for them.

  “Hebe, you know what I told you about your cup, and the list of rules I gave you, where is that exactly?” Zeus finished, glaring at Hebe.

  “It is hanging up on my wall in my bedroom,” Hebe said, hesitantly, this was true, anyone who walked in Hebe’s room could see the poster hanging on her wall.

  “Okay, and what happened exactly?” Zeus said, looking at Henry now.

  “I went to save the kids and then when I finally found them, I came forward and tripped and Henry was in the middle of saying something and a few drops of nectar fell into his mouth,” Hebe was talking very quickly and her big brown eyes got bigger.

  “Okay well now that Henry is a god, we need to make him a god of something so that he can help the mortals out. Say, what are you good at young man?” Zeus said, looking at Henry.

  “Well,” Henry answered, “I’m really fast,” Henry finished, looking up at Zeus.

  “Hmm,” Zeus thought about it, what could he be useful for, he thought to himself  “what do you like to do, what are you interested in?” He finished.

  “I really like to run and I’m very interested in sports,” Henry answered.

  Zeus considered this, “Okay, so you’re fast, you like sports,” wait, he thought, he’s fast, so he could deliver things fast, so that means he could deliver the mail! “Have you ever ran a paper route Henry?” Zeus asked.

  “No, but I’m a quick learner,” Henry said, confused, why would Zeus want to know that?

  “Okay, Henry How would you like to be the messenger of the gods? You will get to see all the gods every day and there is no limit on how fast you can run,” Zeus offered.

  “Great! That sounds fun!” Henry said with an excited look on his face. Wait, what would happen to Madelyn then? Henry thought to himself. “Wait! What about my friend Madelyn?” He asked.

  Zeus thought about this for a while, then he answered, “How about Hebe and I dress up as mortals and then pretend to adopt you?” Zeus looked down at Henry and he could tell that he was thinking it over, but Zeus could also tell that Henry was worried.

  “Ok. I wonder who Madelyn will play with after I get adopted,” Henry proclaimed, deep in thought.

  “Look kid,” Zeus said, putting his hand on Henry’s shoulder, “It’ll be fine, you can always disguise yourself as a mortal and play with Madelyn,” Henry could tell that Zeus really cared about the two of them.

  “Ok. Let’s do it,” Henry responded, confidence and eagerness in his voice, “I will walk up to the orphanage as if I have returned and then you two stroll by and say you would like to adopt a child, and it turns out to be me. Ok? You guys are good actors, right?” Henry added.

  At the same time Zeus and Hebe responded, Hebe said, “Yeah, I guess you could say that,” she said.

  Zeus, on the other hand, replied, “Umm, so so, actually, not really, but we can make it work,” Henry was now a little worried about this plan and if it would work or not.

  They all went in the descending air current and within minutes, they were at the orphanage, Henry walked up to the door while Hebe and Zeus waited in the bushes. Henry walked in and through the window, Zeus and Hebe saw Madelyn throw her arms around him. Hebe and Zeus waited about seven more minutes until they went up and knocked on the door and a tall and skinny girl with long curly red hair answered the door.

  “Hi, my name is Rey, come on in,” she exclaimed, Rey had always been elated, especially when they had visitors.

  Hebe and Zeus were disguised as an older couple, Zeus had a brown old trench coat on and a grey hat, Hebe had a shawl over her shoulders and was wearing a green dress with assorted colored flowers across the bottom. Zeus and Hebe walked in and they said that they were interested in adopting a child. Everything was sticking to plan, so far.

  They went into a small office with a big dark brown desk with papers scattered all over it. “What are your names?” Rey asked the both of them.

  Hebe couldn’t say that her name is Hebe, just make one up Hebe, just make one up, she thought to herself. Hebe looked up and the first thing she saw was a chair, “My name is, umm, it’s Carla, Carla Chairman,” she replied.

  “And my name is,” Zeus continued, “umm,” Zeus looked at the pen on the desk, “my name is Paul Pennyworth,” Zeus finished.

  “Ummm, you guys don’t have the same last name?” Rey said in a confused tone.

  Hebe shot Zeus a look, “I kept my maiden name,” Hebe replied immediately, she saved
the whole plan. Zeus had a look of relief on his face. Thank you, Zeus mouthed to Hebe.

  “Are you looking for a boy or a girl?” Rey asked the couple.

  “A boy,” both Zeus and Hebe said simultaneously.

  “A boy who’s not too energetic and rowdy, we have a lot of breakables at our house,” Hebe said, she smiled sweetly.

  “Okay, there is one boy that I think you might enjoy, hold on one second. Henry! Henry come here please!” Rey yelled. Hebe glanced at Zeus and the grinned at each other. “Henry is very energetic, but he’d rather spend his time outside,” Rey finished.

  “He sounds good to me,” Hebe said.

  “Me too,” Zeus proclaimed. Henry smiled at both of them.

  Once the adoption papers were filled out and Henry said his goodbyes, they were off to Mount Olympus.

  All the gods held a ceremony to celebrate their new member, and at the end of the ceremony, Zeus announced “Henry for now and forevermore, you will be known as Hermes, messenger of the gods, thanks for helping us all out,” he exclaimed in an excited but calm tone.  Hermes has been up on Mount Olympus delivering letters and gifts to the other gods ever since then, and he still goes and checks on Madelyn every once in awhile, who is the only one who knows what happened on that long day in the forest.