GODDESS OF FIRE

m-m-m-m-m-monsters!

alternate chapter title: Athena Is The Smartest

i know it's been a while since i last updated....apologies! i didn't get many notifs about comments which im sad about. if you're reading this right now, leave a comment! i love to hear from my readers (no matter how small a group it is)!

"Does anyone have any ideas on how to deal with this?" Athena asked, smoothing out a map of Mt. Everest on the conference table. "There are no bad ideas!"

"I say we do nothing and wait for Hestia to come to her senses," Aphrodite said.

"There are no bad ideas-except for every idea that the Olympians come up with," Athena muttered. She faced Aphrodite. "No."

"Let's kill her!" Ares said. Then, realizing what he had just said and how happy he'd said it, Ares cleared his throat and rephrased that sentence. "Let's eliminate her." He still sounded overjoyed, but it would have to do.

"Okay," Athena said. "That wasn't as bad as Aphrodite's idea, but it still has room for improvement. Anything else?"

Everyone looked at Athena expectantly while she looked at them expectantly and Zeus just tapped his fingers to the tune of some jolly Christmas song he heard on the radio that morning.

"I'm always the one that makes the war plan!" Athena shouted. "It's been your turn for 800 years!" She stood up, taking a key out of her pocket. "I'm going to lock you inside until you've come up with a decent idea!" she stomped out of the room, locking the door on her way out.

"Well," Hermes said, leaning forward. 'What d'you got?"

"Taylor Swift might get another cat," Aphrodite suggested. "Of course, it would be a kitten, but-"

"Not interesting." Apollo waved her away.

"Can I have some crackers?" Zeus asked.

Demeter pushed the box into the middle of the table.

"Yummy yummy in my tummy!" Zeus murmured, mouth full of whole-wheat crackers.

"There's gonna be a dog wedding," Poseidon said. "How many of you wanna come?"

Everyone started shouting.

"Me!"

"Me!"

"ME!"

"Okay," Poseidon murmured. "Eleven tickets-plus Amphitrite, plus Eros and Psyche, so, let's see,-"

"STOOOOOOOOOOOP!" Hera shouted. "We'll be in here for centuries! If we don't make a plan, Athena will be mad at us and Hestia will take revenge and-and-"

"Fine!" Athena shouted from the hall. Footsteps echoed, then the door swung open.

"Oh thank goodness!" Hera wrapped her arms around Athena.

Athena pushed out. "Okay," She said, "Let's make a war plan."

Zeus interrupted them by racing down the hall and turning into the first door to the right.

"Hey! That's my room!" Athena shouted, taking off after him. "GET OUT!"

The rest of the gods followed, wondering if there was anything worth gossiping about in Athena's room. When they arrived at the open shiny redwood door, each god followed the one in front of them inside.

The room was white, with a loft bed in the corner. Underneath, there was a spotlessly clean white desk with labeled organizer boxes. Across from the bed and desk, the wall had a square-shaped thin crack.

Athena slid her fingers into the crack and pulled gently. A large board came out of the wall. Athena then walked over to her desk and pulled out a blank piece of paper, a big mound of clay, and three pencils. Back at the board, she laid everything out neatly.

"Okay," Athena said. "This piece of paper is where our war will take place. So where do we want our war to take place?"

"Here," Hermes said.

"Here," The others murmured.

"Wrong," Athena sighed. "We know this place well, but if we fight everything will be destroyed!"

"Oh."

"So we want our battle to take place on Mt. Everest," Athena said, writing Mt. Everest at the top of the sheet of paper. She then dumped the clay on top of the paper and molded it into the shape of a mountain. Athena seemed to think of something, and walked back over to her desk, grabbing tiny colored flags.

She labeled them and stuck one into the mountain. It was called 'Entrance'.

"This is our way in," Athena said, sticking more flags into the clay mountain. "It may very well be our way out, so we must not harm this place too much."

Zeus nodded, though he was not paying any attention to her. Athena was the sort of person that you didn't want to cross.

She stuck the second flag at the tip of the mountain. "I have identified this as the weakest point of the mountain. If worst comes to worst, Zeus can blast us out from here." Athena labeled that 'Emergency Exit' and whirled around. " No one is to use this unless I say, alright?"

Athena arrow-eyed Zeus and crossed her arms. "Especially you. Bring your Number Ten lightning bolt, but never use it under any circumstances unless I say. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Athena." Zeus chanted. She nodded her approval and turned back to her clay mountain. Grabbing another paper flag, Athena used its point to draw a dotted line from the entrance to the base of the mountain then switched to a pen and continued the line to another lump of clay. She molded this piece into a perfect replica of Mt. Olympus.
Athena scratched more lines and marked an O where it ended and an X where it began.

"This is our trail. Everyone is to follow this and never, ever, ever, ever, stray from it."

"Never ever ever ever," Zeus mumbled.

"Yes." Athena plopped a few more pieces of clay on the sides of the path and shaped them into hideous monsters.

"These monsters will be waiting for us if we step foot from the path." She lied. Of course, only Zeus would take this threat seriously, which was her plan.

Hermes gave her a big wink and said in a whisper-shout: "WINK-WINK."

Athena glared at him and studied Zeus' expression. He didn't seem to notice, although no one could say they were surprised. He was too busy running around like his butt was on fire and whimpering, "M-m-monsters! M-m-monsters!"

"But this isn't enough information," Athena continued. "I'll go scout the area tomorrow and spend the rest of the day planning. The day after tomorrow I share our war plan with you. Sounds good?"

Zeus nodded.

"Ok. Tomorrow it is."

that's it everyone! i don't know if i need to mention KOTLCWATERGIRL01 and MrSnuggles222 again..but check them out!!