3 Stopping Medusa

The girls kept running until they reached a tall glass wall dotted with jewels. This wall surrounded Sparkle City. There was only one way to get through it. Luckily, the girls had discovered the secret.

Aphrodite took a walnut-size gold apple from her pocket. She’d found it on their last trip to this city. She pulled up on the apple’s stem. Click! The apple hummed a tune.

Artemis and Persephone both grabbed on to one of Aphrodite’s arms. With Oliver safe in her book bag, Athena held on to Aphrodite’s other arm. Then Aphrodite pressed the gold apple against the glass wall. They all held their breath and stepped forward. The glass began to ripple around them.

They magically passed through the wall! Now they were outside Sparkle City again, standing on the Hello Brick Road.

Artemis’s shoulders slumped. “There’s no way we can stop Medusa. So I guess I’ll have to keep on being a scaredy-girl.”

“And I’ll never become likable,” said Aphrodite.

“I’ll always have bad luck-itis,” said Persephone.

“And I’ll never get back home,” said Athena. She looked like she was about to cry.

Artemis felt most sorry for her. It wasn’t fair that Athena was stuck in this magic land where she didn’t belong. She should get her wish, to return home!

“Wait! Let’s not give up yet,” Artemis said. “Does anyone know where Medusa lives?”

Aphrodite shrugged. “In a castle on Mount Olympus.” But none of them knew exactly where her castle was.

“Go ask the Gray Sisters. They’ll know,” suggested a voice. It was coming from a tall Hello Brick Road signpost!

The girls turned to look at the talking sign. “Where can we find these Gray Sisters?” Athena asked eagerly.

“Just walk along the Hello Brick Road, making chicken noises,” said the signpost. “And they’ll find you.”

“Chicken noises?” Persephone repeated in surprise.

“You know, clucking and stuff,” said the sign.

“It’s worth a try,” said Athena.

The four girls thanked the sign and headed down the road. As they walked, they flapped their arms like chicken wings. “Cluck! Cluck!” they called out. It felt silly, but it was also kind of fun!

Minutes later three real chickens flew to sit atop a fence along the road. Their feathers were gray.

“Are you the Gray Sisters?” Artemis asked them.

The first chicken flapped its wings. “Cluck! Cluckity-cluck-cluck!” The other two stayed silent. Likely because the first chicken was the only one that had a beak!

“Sorry. We don’t understand chicken talk,” said Athena.

But Artemis had understood. “They said yes, they are the Gray Sisters,” she told her friends. “They can only speak one at a time because they have to share their beak.”

The other three girls looked at her strangely.

“You understand chicken talk?” asked Aphrodite.

Artemis nodded. “Sure, I can understand lots of animals.”

“Wow,” said Persephone. “Just… wow.”

“Can you ask them where Medusa is?” Athena asked Artemis. “And how we could stop her from making trouble?”

“Umm,” said Artemis. Those chickens’ sharp claws had her feeling a bit chicken about asking.

The chickens had been listening, though. The second one took the beak and put it on its face. “Cluck! Squawk! Squawkity-cluck!” it said.

Artemis pointed at a field beyond the fence. “She said if we walk across that field, we’ll come to a forest,” she explained. “That’s where Medusa’s castle is.”

“But we’ll be in danger if we leave the Hello Brick Road,” Athena said to Artemis. “A tiny flying goddess we met named Hestia said so.”

“Yeah, the road is safe. Once we step off it, Medusa could trick us,” added Persephone.

The second chicken passed the beak to the third chicken. “Bawk! Squawk!” said chicken number three. Then it laid a silver egg atop the fence.

“It said that the egg it laid is named Perseus. It’s for us,” Artemis explained to her friends. “It’s supposed to help us stop Medusa like Zeus asked.”

The girls all looked toward the field. They saw a green glow.

“Think that glow could be coming from Medusa’s castle?” asked Aphrodite.

“Let’s go find out,” said Athena. “Leaving this road is dangerous. But it’s our only hope of getting Zeus to help us.” She climbed over the fence and toward the field.

Persephone and Aphrodite followed her.

Artemis turned back to the chickens. They had flown away! Only the egg remained. She put it in her pocket and climbed the fence too.

“Wait up!” she called.

The girls stuck close together as they walked through the field toward the green glow. They hadn’t gone far when they heard a flapping sound overhead.

Persephone pointed up at the sky. “Hey, look at those weird hairy birds!”

“Those aren’t birds!” yelled Aphrodite. “They’re flying monkeys!”

The winged monkeys swooped down. Before the girls could race back to safety on the road, the monkeys carried them away, leaving Oliver behind.