We hiked back to Mount Olympus and started climbing. It wasn’t easy. But however bad it was for most of us, it was worse for Demeter, lugging that stone. I had to hand it to her. When it came to pure, dogged will, she had the rest of us beat cold.

“Are we there yet?” whined Po. He’d tried using his trident as a walking stick, but he kept causing minor earthquakes, so he’d had to stop.

“Shhh!” said Zeus. “What’s that noise?”

We all listened.

“It sounds like wings flapping,” whispered Hera.

The sky grew dark then, as if some gigantic winged monster was flying past the sun, blotting out its light.

Which is exactly what it turned out to be.

We all stared in horror as the monster appeared above us in the sky. It had the head of a donkey. A mean, vicious donkey. It had a silver-scaled dragon’s body. Its arms and legs ended in paws. Instead of claws, each paw sprouted huge, writhing serpents.

“It’s Typhon!” cried Hera. “That monster Hyperion told us about!”

Hissing and roaring, Typhon swooped down on us. Hot black smoke shot from his nostrils. As we coughed and sputtered, Typhon opened his mouth wide and spewed red-hot lava down at us.

All the teamwork bonding and the good togetherness feelings we had after we beat the Titans? Gone. Now it was every terrified Olympian for him—or her—self. There wasn’t even time to wonder why the monster was attacking us.

Before Typhon, none of us knew that we had the power to change ourselves into other life forms. But with red-hot lava pouring down from the skies, our godly powers kicked into high gear. Hera instantly changed herself into a white cow and galloped off toward Egypt. (Leave it to Hera to turn into an animal that was worshiped there.) Apollo morphed into a crow and flapped off after her. Artemis became a wild cat, Aphrodite, a boar, and Dionysus, a goat. One by one, the Olympians all turned into beasts and ran away as fast as they could.

And the brave and mighty Zeus? Do you think he turned into a lion? A ram? A bull elephant maybe? Wrong, wrong, wrong! Zeus turned himself into a chipmunk and dove down the nearest hole.

I didn’t change into anything, but I did put on my helmet. Wouldn’t you? Imagine that the world’s biggest, meanest, lava-spewing-est monster was hot on your heels. A monster that makes Godzilla look as helpless as a day-old kitten! I think you’d put on the helmet too.

Invisible, I dodged splashing lava as I ran over to the chipmunk hole.

“Zeus!” I called down the hole. “We have to drive Typhon away! He can’t kill us, but if we get covered in lava, it will harden into rock, and we’ll be stuck inside it forever! Forever is a long time, Zeus. Come out! We have to fight this monster!”

“Nothing doing,” Zeus squeaked from inside the hole.

BLAM! A flaming lava blob hit the ground behind me.

When the coast was clear, Athena ran over to the chipmunk hole too. She alone of the gods had bravely kept her form. She knelt down beside the hole.

“Dad?” she said. “You are so embarrassing!”

Zeus didn’t say a word.

Typhon swooped down and wound his snaky coils around a great boulder. He flew up in the air with it and let it go.

THUD!

The boulder landed inches from Zeus’s hiding hole and covered us with a thick cloud of dust. That was it for Athena. She quickly changed herself into an owl, hooted a farewell, and winged away.

As I watched her disappear into the distance, I heard that squeaky voice again, coming from the chipmunk hole: “Helmet.”

I sighed. “Okay. I’ll trade you my helmet for the Bucket o’ Bolts.” Zeus was useless in battle, so I figured it was up to me to get rid of Typhon.

Zeus stuck his little chipmunk nose up out of the hole. I took off my helmet and put it down on top of the hole. It quickly rose up and vanished, and I knew that Zeus’s invisible head was inside it. A few seconds later, the Bucket o’ Bolts dropped mysteriously at my feet.

I gazed up at the sky. Where was Typhon? He wasn’t circling overhead. Had he gone back to whatever deep crack in the universe he’d come from? That seemed too good to be true.

It was.

Typhon flew into view. His body was ten times the size it had been before! The bloated monster had flown to the sea and sucked up half an ocean. Now he blew it down at us in a terrible torrent. Zeus and I were caught in a swirling flood that swept us from the side of Mount Olympus. I couldn’t see Zeus, but I heard him screaming.

I seized an uprooted tree and held on tight.

“Grab on, Zeus!” I cried.

“Got it!” came a disembodied voice.

Waves broke above our heads as the flood carried us out to sea. Typhon circled overhead. With one hand, I gripped that tree. With the other, I managed to grab a T-bolt from the bucket. I hurled it at Typhon.

ZAP!

The T-bolt bounced off the monster’s leg.

Typhon howled in fury. He angled his wings for a dive.

I grabbed another T-bolt. I took aim at the creature’s belly. I fired.

BAM! Got him!

A river of lava erupted from the monster’s throat. Hot molten rock poured down on all sides of us, hissing horribly as it splashed into the water. But the great storming sea made us a moving target. Typhon could not score a direct hit.

At last our tree ran aground on an island that I later learned was Sicily. I ran frantically around the base of a huge mountain, looking for a crevice, a cave, any place to hide. I heard Zeus panting behind me.

Typhon flew after us. He hovered, getting ready to take a shot.

I quickly grabbed another T-bolt. I took aim.

THWACK!

“Take that, you fiend!” I cried.

The monster swayed crazily in the air, then plunged to earth. The ground shuddered as he hit. He lay still.

Typhon’s eyes were closed. The monster was barely breathing.

“I think he’s—” I began.

“Dead!” cried Zeus.

“I was thinking hurt,” I said.

But Zeus wasn’t listening. He grabbed back his bucket. Then he ripped the Helmet of Darkness from his head. He tossed it in my direction, but it hit the ground before I could catch it. I picked it up and heard something rattle inside. I hoped it wasn’t broken.

“T-bolts rule!” Zeus cried. “I have felled the mighty Typhon!” He strode over to the creature, and planted a foot in his back paw.

BIG mistake.

Typhon’s serpent toes whipped themselves around Zeus, and faster than you can say uh-oh, he was caught in the monster’s coils.

“Uh-oh,” said Zeus. He dropped his Bucket o’ Bolts. “Hey, let go!”

This capture seemed to revive Typhon completely. He managed a jagged-tooth smile.

“Not so tight!” Zeus gasped. “I can’t breathe!”

Now Typhon let out what must have been a laugh. It bounced off the mountain, echoing in the air.

I jammed on the Helmet of Darkness and rushed to help Zeus. But when I came near, Typhon sensed my approach and spat a fireball my way.

Typhon held his captive in the air. Quicker than a flash, his serpent fingers unhooked the sickle from Zeus’s girdle. Then, with its needle-sharp tip, he began to pluck out Zeus’s sinews.

Okay, raise your hand if you know what sinews are.

Take a wild guess.

Give up? No one who hasn’t had the word assigned for a weekly vocabulary quiz has a clue what it means.

But here, take a crack at it. Sinews are:

a) bushy eyebrows

b) rotten molars

c) rubber-band-like things that connect your muscles to your bones

d) little prickly hairs on the back of your neck

If you picked c), bingo!

I know what you’re thinking. Most monsters eat their victims. Or maybe they bounce them around for a while and then eat them. Or they breathe fire on them and toast them like marshmallows. But this sinews thing—that’s a new one.

Well, Typhon had a thing for sinews. He pulled out every one of Zeus’s. For a monster of his gigantic size, he had excellent fine-motor skills. He threw the sinews into a bearskin bag and drew the drawstring tight.

Without his sinews, Zeus couldn’t move a muscle. His head slumped down on his chest. His arms hung limply at his sides. His feet swung in the breeze. He was as limp as a rag doll.

Satisfied with his work, Typhon hooked the sickle back on Zeus’s girdle and tucked the helpless Zeus under one arm. With the other arm, he scooped up the Bucket o’ Bolts. Then, flapping his great wings, he rose into the air.

I could almost hear Zeus crying, “Help! Help!”

But without his jaw sinews, he couldn’t even do that.

I stood watching Typhon soar over the mountain and bank to the right. Part of me, I’ll admit it, was glad to see them go. Both of them—I was sick of Zeus!

But then I heard Mom’s voice in my head: “Look after your brothers and sisters, Hades. Especially Zeus. Make sure no harm comes to him.”

I’d sworn on the waters of the River Styx.

I didn’t have much choice, did I?

It was up to me, Hades.

And so I took off in search of Typhon’s lair.