Eos the Lighthearted

by Joan Holub

  Eos had gotten in trouble, of course. The kind that meant a visit to the principal’s office and worse. Even at that young age, she’d figured she deserved it. She’d known that mortals could not only get hurt; they could actually die. Though her threat had been a bluff, and she wouldn’t have dropped the wiggly girl on purpose, she might have done it accidentally.

  As punishment for her actions, she’d spent every lunchtime and recess for the following two weeks in the principal’s office. Even worse, Tithonus’s mom hadn’t allowed them to play together until she felt she could trust Eos again. It had been a horrible time!

  After that, Eos and her mom had made a plan for keeping what had happened from ever happening again. It had been Eos’s own idea to make it a rule never to fly at school. A rule that had the added benefit of making her seem less different from other students. And she’d made a promise to herself to never harm a friend (or even a foe) again. Had she blown it today, with this one lapse?

  She glanced sideways at Zoe. Catching the girl’s eye, she did her best to smile. After a moment’s hesitation, Zoe gave her a half smile in return. Eos dared to hope this little episode wouldn’t become legend, the way the one with Nefili had. The story of what had happened with that girl was probably one of the first things new students heard about when they started at Oceanus Middle School!

  But whatever gossip this episode with Zoe might inspire, deep down Eos knew that, despite all her efforts to blend in here and to participate in as many school activities as possible, the other students would always remain cautious around her. Even as they befriended her and played with her on teams and joined her clubs. And knowing this made her feel like an outsider.

  4

  Searching for Grasshoppers

  EOS WAS RELIEVED WHEN SCROLLBOOK Club finally ended. She quickly scooted out of the library and through the school’s front doors. Only when the school building was no longer in sight and no students were around did she unfurl her wings and fly toward home. A thrilling feeling of freedom washed over her once she was airborne. And the lightheartedness she’d felt that morning returned.

  From the sky she spied Tithonus roaming around in a field of tall grass behind his home. Every now and then he cocked his ear toward the ground as if listening intently and bent over the grass to look at something with his magnifying glass.

  Eos set down in the field instead of continuing on to her house. Dropping her schoolbag, she waded through the grass toward him. “Hey, Bug Boy. Funeral over?”

  Tithonus jumped in surprise. “Yeah. Where’d you come from, Busy Bee?”

  “I spidered you from the air,” she joked. “Looking for insects?” It was a reasonable guess.

  He grinned at her joke and nodded, causing his cowlick to flop forward. “Yeah, which means I’m not looking for spiders. They’re arachnids, not insects, ya know.”

  She grinned back. “Yeah, I know. Eight legs instead of six, blah, blah,” she teased. He’d told her all kinds of stuff about spiders before.

  “I’m looking for grasshoppers.” He smoothed back the wayward lock of hair, and his eyes darted to the field again. “They feed here. Sometimes you can hear the chirping sound they make when they rub their hind legs against their wings.”

  Eos noticed that he was holding a glass jar with a wide mouth. “Is that going to be your new pet’s home?”

  “Yeah.” He held up the jar so she could see it better. “After I capture it, I’ll be able to observe it up close.”

  They walked through the grass for a minute or two, and then suddenly Tithonus stopped. “There’s one,” he whispered, pointing to a grasshopper clinging to a blade of grass. “See it?”

  Eos nodded. The grasshopper was green with brown spots. Its short antennae quivered as Tithonus approached it. He moved slowly, till he was within arm’s reach of the insect. But as he moved to place the jar over the top of the grasshopper, it hopped away.

  “Oh, too bad,” Eos said. “That little guy was fast!”

  “Yeah. Its oversize hind legs allow it to jump long distances.” Tithonus’s eyes searched for the insect but didn’t find it. “I’ll look for another one. And maybe try using my hands next time.”

  It wasn’t long before they spied another grasshopper feeding on a stalk of grass. “Hold the jar for me,” Tithonus whispered. Eos took it from him, nodding.

  Like the first grasshopper, this one had a large head connected to a long, sturdy-looking body. “That one’s even bigger than the first one,” Eos whispered as she cradled the jar. “Hey, why are we whispering? Can grasshoppers hear?”

  “Yeah,” Tithonus murmured. “But not with ears. They hear through an organ called a tympanum at the base of their hind legs.” He moved closer to the new prospect. “This one’s probably a female. They’re bigger than the males.” Once again he approached the grasshopper slowly. His magnifying glass dangled from his belt. Grasshoppers were large enough to be plenty visible without it.

  This time Tithonus kept his hands out in front of him, holding one on either side of the grasshopper. Then, before it could notice what he was doing and hop away, Tithonus quickly brought his hands together, trapping the insect between cupped palms. “Gotcha!”

  “Pink!” Eos cried out in delight. While she held out the jar, he transferred the grasshopper into it. To keep it from hopping right back out, he took a piece of loosely woven cloth from the pocket of his tunic. After laying it across the top of the jar, he fished a piece of string from his pocket and tied the cloth scrap around the neck of the jar.

  “Um, is that insect poop?” Eos asked, pointing to a wet-looking brown stain on one of Tithonus’s hands.

  He shrugged. “When grasshoppers feel threatened, they release a brown liquid. Perfectly harmless.”

  “Ugh.” Eos wrinkled her nose. “I mean, you know I don’t mind bugs and insects, but . . . no. That’s just . . . no.”

  Tithonus laughed. “You get used to it.” Bending down, he rubbed his hand on the grass to get rid of the stain.

  Shaking her head, Eos declared, “I wouldn’t! I’m okay with insects and all, but that’s just plain gross-hopper!”

  They both laughed. Before they started back across the field, Tithonus picked some fresh-looking grass shoots. Carefully lifting one edge of the cloth, he slid the shoots inside the jar. “So Melody will have something to eat,” he explained.

  Eos lifted an eyebrow as she handed him the jar to carry. “Melody?”

  Tithonus grinned. “Good name, huh? I chose it because of the chirping sound grasshoppers make. Look at her munching away already.” Without looking up from the jar, he said, “Hey, you missed a good funeral today. The twins came up with some killer rhymes and songs.”

  “Yeah, sorry I missed it,” she said. And she really was. Track practice had been fine, but Scrollbook Club had been a disaster! She would have gladly attended the bug funeral instead. As they started back through the field, she added, “How long do grasshoppers live, anyway?”

  “Out here in the wild, only for a couple of months,” Tithonus told her. “Cold weather can kill them. And they get eaten by spiders, birds, snakes, and rodents. Cats, too,” he added as his pet cat, a calico he’d named Bugs, came toward them through the grass.

  “Wow, that’s not very long,” mused Eos. She stooped to pet Bugs. But the cat—a girl, like most calicos—spotted something interesting across the field and soon scampered away.

  Tithonus shrugged. “Probably seems that way to you, especially since you’re immortal. But from a grasshopper’s point of view, maybe that’s a long time. Anyway, Melody could actually live for a year or more, since I’ll be keeping her in a warm, safe jar.”

  “I’m glad,” said Eos. She stared at him as he studied his bug—er, insect. Tithonus likely thought the life span of mortals was a long time. Compared to the life span of insects and bugs, it really was. But, as had occurred to her in the school hallway only that morning, a mortal life span was super short compared to an immortal’s. An
d, just as it had before, a wave of sadness swept over her at the thought. Someone as awesome as Tithonus should live forever!

  “I wish I could make more people care about insects,” he said, breaking up her melancholy thoughts. “They’re so important to the environment. And so interesting, too. They’re way underappreciated.”

  Spotting the schoolbag she’d dropped upon landing, Eos dashed a short distance away to retrieve it. As she bounded back, she thought about what Tithonus had said. The upcoming science fair suddenly flashed into her head.

  She snapped her fingers. “I just had the greatest idea, Tithonus! Why don’t you do a science fair exhibit about Melody with all kinds of information about grasshoppers!”

  Tithonus’s brown eyes lit up. But then he frowned. “I don’t know. It’s next Friday, right?”

  Eos nodded. “A week from today.”

  Tithonus rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s not a lot of time, especially for the writing part. . . .”

  Eos could’ve kicked herself for momentarily blanking on the fact that Tithonus had trouble with writing and spelling. He was so mega-smart in other ways that it was easy to forget.

  “I’ll help you,” she said quickly. “You can tell me what you want to say, and I’ll organize it and write it all down.”

  “Really?” His brown eyes lit up again. “I can make the diagrams and sketches,” he said with growing enthusiasm.

  “Perfect! You’re great at that stuff,” Eos said. Which was true. Tithonus was mega-good at drawing. “We can get most of it done over the weekend.”

  “What about Nyx’s statue unveiling tomorrow, though?” Tithonus glanced over at her as they left the field and walked toward her house. “You’re going, right?”

  “Well, I don’t have to,” Eos replied. “Ephesus is so far away. She’ll understand if I can’t make it.” At least she hoped Nyx would understand. Besides, Eos hadn’t even asked her mom about going.

  Not that her mom would say no. It wasn’t as if the two of them had plans to do anything together this weekend. Which was okay. Only there were times lately when she kind of missed her mom. Too bad they couldn’t spend more time together. But Eos was busy with school and clubs. And her mom had her hobbies and volunteer efforts for various charities, plus weekly visits to the Underworld (which Eos never joined her on).

  “You should go,” Tithonus urged. “You’d have fun. Plus, you could be around other goddessgirls and godboys for a change. While you’re gone, I can think about what I want you to help me write and start on my drawings and sketches. We can work on the science fair project Sunday.”

  Eos looked at him in surprise. Had he guessed that she often felt like an outsider, being the only immortal at school and in their neighborhood? Maybe she should go to Ephesus. She wanted to support Nyx. And hang out with her too, since that was something she never really got the chance to do. There would probably be so many gods and goddesses at the unveiling that she could easily avoid Zeus—if he even came.

  “Yeah. You’re right,” she told Tithonus, just before she split off from him to head into her house. “I’ll go if Mom says I can.”

  That night, when Eos asked for permission to go to the unveiling, her mother barely looked up as she nodded her approval. She and some other ladies she’d invited over were busy putting together care packages for mortals affected by a recent earthquake on the Greek island of Crete.

  “Ephesus is a long way to go,” Eos reminded her mom. “I would be back really late.”

  “That’s fine,” Theia said distractedly.

  Ye gods! Eos knew she should be glad her mother trusted her to go on such a long journey alone. But couldn’t she show a little more concern? Moms were supposed to worry about their kids. It was proof they cared deeply about them!

  “Take your cloak, though. It could get chilly,” Theia added.

  “Okay, I will,” said Eos as she headed for her room. That was a little more like it. Still, she wouldn’t have minded if her mom acted a bit more, well, mom-ish sometimes. Like Tithonus’s mom, who was always in his business and totally focused on taking care of him.

  Eos made her way through the house to the center of the courtyard. After vaporizing herself, she corkscrew-dove into her urn-room with a whoosh. Then she quickly donned her favorite striped orange-and-pink pj’s. Since she’d done all her homework at school, she grabbed some old issues of Teen Scrollazine and plopped onto her bed with them. Though she figured she wouldn’t have much trouble recognizing the various goddessgirls and godboys she’d see at Nyx’s unveiling tomorrow, she leafed through the pictures in the ’zines anyway, just to refresh her memory.

  She smiled to herself as she snuggled down in her covers a little later, thinking about hunting for grasshoppers that day with Tithonus. Bugs—er, insects—were interesting. But mostly it was just hanging out with him that made things fun!

  Suddenly her lighthearted thoughts turned dark. Someday when Tithonus was old and she was still young, he wouldn’t want to hang out with her and do stuff like bug hunting anymore. That would be so not fair! If she and Nyx could stay young and live forever, why shouldn’t he?

  She rolled onto her side thinking of how she’d be meeting lots of goddessgirls and godboys from MOA at tomorrow’s unveiling. Hey! Maybe one of them knew a way to make Tithonus immortal. And maybe they’d tell her how to do it!

  5

  The Temple of Artemis

  WHEN EOS ARRIVED AT HER usual spot in the sky Saturday morning, ready to bring forth the dawn, she looked up at Nyx and waved the notescroll her friend had given her. “Yes! I can come see your statue!” she shouted.

  Nyx flashed Eos a smile, already reeling in her cape. “Hooray!” she whooped. “I’m going home to sleep for a few hours and then Hades will give me a ride to the temple at Ephesus. He’s got four stallions to pull his chariot, which means his can go much faster than mine!”

  At the mention of Hades, Eos paled. A student at MOA, he was also godboy of the Underworld, where Nyx lived, and where mortals like Tithonus would go when they died. It was also where some unlucky immortals were imprisoned right now—those who had fought against Zeus in battle or defied him in some other way. As a matter of fact, her sad-mad-dad problem was all tied into the Underworld. Because one of those immortal prisoners was her dad, Hyperion, the god of light!

  “Hey! Eos! The dawn?” With a start, Eos realized Nyx had finished reeling in her entire cape and was ready to ride away.

  Oops! Swallowing the sudden lump that had come into her throat at the thought of her dad, Eos went into action. She had a job to do! Quickly, she raised both arms over her head. Concentrating on her work, she flicked her wrists and sent her glistening rays of pink, purple, and orange toward the horizon.

  “See you this afternoon!” she called out as Nyx swept past in her chariot, taking the night with her.

  Nyx smiled down at her. “Yeah! Can’t wait!”

  About a half hour later, job done, Eos set off for Ephesus. She had brought a backpack with snacks, a lunch, and the cloak her mom had advised her to bring. She planned to take breaks whenever she grew tired of flying. Even with the breaks, she was pretty sure she could make it to the celebration on time.

  Pumping her feathery white wings, she rose high over land, trees, and rivers to head farther east. Now that she had an additional big reason to go to the unveiling—namely, to discover a way to make Tithonus immortal—she was very glad he had convinced her to attend.

  She made her way over the Aegean Sea between Greece and Asia Minor, switching back and forth between wing travel and vapor travel. The breezes blowing up from the sea were chilly. Halfway over the sea, she pulled the cloak out of her backpack and put it on, glad her mom had reminded her to bring it.

  Once Eos had crossed the Aegean, she soon spied Troy in Asia Minor—Tithonus’s birthplace. Sometime before the famous Trojan War had been fought here, he had lost his father, brothers, and a sister to a terrible plague. Probably to get away from
unhappy memories, his mom had moved Tithonus and herself to the other side of the Aegean.

  Tithonus himself had no memories of that dark time, he’d told Eos once. He’d been a toddler when they’d moved. About the same age she had been the last time she’d seen her dad.

  Eos let her wings take her lower to land in Troy. Then she sat on a large boulder and took her lunch out of her backpack. As she munched her sandwich, she reflected on how, whenever she felt sorry for herself that her father was a prisoner in the Underworld, she had only to remind herself of Tithonus’s losses. Things could be much worse for her, she realized. Though she couldn’t bring herself to visit her dad in the Underworld, at least she knew he was still alive.

  Taking to the air again, Eos banished thoughts of him and continued winging and vaporizing her way south, approaching Ephesus at last. She gasped in awe when Artemis’s temple came into view. It was gigantic! Rectangular in shape and built of gleaming white marble, it was surrounded by columns on all four sides.

  Eos touched down a short distance from the steps that led up to the temple and folded her wings. Several Mount Olympus Academy chariots were parked nearby, each bearing an MOA logo with a thunderbolt emblazoned on their sides. A quick peek at a sundial showed that it was a little before two in the afternoon. Yay! She’d made it here on time!

  As she moved toward the temple, Eos gazed up at it. It was even more impressive viewed from the ground than from up in the air. Its columns, many of them decorated by carvings in relief, had to be at least forty feet high! And even more carvings adorned the triangular area under its peaked roof.

  She spotted several goddessgirls and godboys she recognized from Teen Scrollazine and the Greekly Weekly News milling around. Though excited that she would be among so many fellow immortals, Eos slowed her steps, suddenly feeling a bit shy and unsure of herself. Then she saw Nyx arrive with the dark-haired, serious-faced Hades and a goddessgirl with pale skin and long red curls. She was Persephone, the goddessgirl of growing things and also Hades’s crush. Regaining her confidence, Eos rushed forward, waving.