Chapter 5

The crew of the Atlantis had gathered more closely around Zeus as he outlined his plans for the immediate future. Unless anyone had a better idea, he intended to build a more permanent settlement right here on the plateau and the slopes round about.

"I thought we could start with a large central building for meetings and so on, then build individual houses round about to our own specifications."

"Individual?" Aphrodite was round-eyed. On Home only the very wealthiest people had individual houses.

"Why not?" Zeus smiled. "There's plenty of room." He waved a hand expansively to take in the enormous plateau. "And Hades tells me there is an inexhaustible supply of good building stone. He has, in fact already decided on a site for a quarry and if everyone agrees we could start excavating tomorrow. Hephaestus has agreed to draw up plans for the main building and is happy to help you design your own houses."

There was a happy buzz of conversation as the crew contemplated the prospect of building their own homes. Hera's mutiny seemed to have been forgotten. Some of them even seemed to think the idea of living on this planet was preferable to returning Home.

Zeus allowed himself a small smile of triumph.

"But first," he said, "we shall have a party. It is not every day that we can celebrate such a close escape from death."

~*~

When he got to the entrance of the cave it was deathly quiet outside. No birds sang. There were no rustlings of small animals in the scrub beside the shore. No sounds of living things. Just the sigh of the ocean. He looked up, searching for birds, and there was the sign of the Goddess the sacred mushroom. It hung in the sky like a huge, grey cloud, filling his view to the horizon. The Mother had spoken.

But he had absolutely no understanding of what she had said. He fell to his knees and bowed his head, the bear momentarily forgotten. But then he remembered and, pulling his sack into a more comfortable position on his back, he began to run along the shore, keeping his ears tuned in case the bear decided to pursue him, ready to run into the sea if so. He could never outrun a bear but he might just outswim it.

He had gone perhaps a couple of miles when he heard the first bird sing. The sound lifted his spirits and he ran a little more lightly. The Tribe, he thought, I must tell the Tribe.

~*~

Athena wandered about the camp, watching everyone else get drunk and wondered what it was they liked about it. Nobody noticed her, as usual, so she got to hear a few forbidden snatches of conversation, none of it particularly interesting. As far as she could see being an adult was not much better than being a child and she wondered whether it was worth it, even if it did mean she could get to marry Apollo. She was feeling a little bit disenchanted with Apollo at the moment anyway. Not only had he studiously failed to notice her but she thought he seemed to be taking Hera's side earlier and she had no wish to marry a traitor.

Her wanderings had taken her to the back of the camp kitchen where a man and woman were clasped in each other's arms struggling. She was trying to decide whether to intervene when the woman turned and saw her, glared and said. "Bugger off, Athena, and stop poking your nose in other people's business."

Athena hurriedly made her way back to the main tent. It had been Aphrodite and it was Ares she was struggling with. But not, apparently, fighting with.

Most of the other men were in the main tent drinking wine and singing a song about a girl called Lilli who lived in a spaceport town and did a lot of incomprehensible things with visiting astronauts. Athena hadn't the faintest idea what any of those things were, only that they must be very amusing as every so often they all roared with laughter.

"Want to try any of that?" It was Hermes, the next youngest person in the crew and a complete pain.

"No thank you," she said primly. "I don't even know what any of it is."

That was a mistake. Hermes proceeded to tell her, in minute detail exactly what Lilli and the astronauts got up to. Athena listened, her eyes growing wider every minute.

"And that," Hermes finished triumphantly, "is how they made babies."

"I don't believe you," Athena said. "It's disgusting. And anyway, my Daddy would never do a thing like that."

"Not now," Hermes said. "In the old days. That's how they did it. It's supposed to be a lot of fun."

"Well it sounds like a horrid business to me." Athena got up and stalked away from him, making all sorts of unwelcome mental connections between Lilli and the astronauts and what Aphrodite and Ares were doing behind the kitchen.

She wondered if Hephaestus knew.

Perhaps it wasn't very interesting being married to Hephaestus. He wasn't handsome like Apollo, nor was he very entertaining, but he was a nice man, very clever, and very loyal to her father, which was the main thing.

She thought she might put off being grown-up for a bit longer.

~*~

Mussel shells and the ashes from a fire. Prometheus bent down and ran a small amount of the ash through his fingers. Still warm. The Tribe had been here less than three hours ago. Not far now. As he ran on he wondered whether he could persuade them to take him back.

He had no idea why they had driven him away. All he knew was his mother had died and when he returned to the camp after her burial they chased him off with stones. Atlas was at the head of them. Atlas, shouting at him to go and never return threatening to kill him if he saw him again.

He had run away but he had hung around at the edge of the camp for days. What else could he do? Where could he go? How could he live without the Tribe? It was only when he tripped and sprained his ankle that he had given up. He had been forced to rest it for a few days to allow it to recover. And while he was resting the Tribe had moved on.

He had been an important man in the Tribe. He was the eldest son of the Queen. He was entrusted with the sacred task of carrying the fire whenever the Tribe moved on. He was Prometheus, the Bearer of the Fire.

Then in an instant, he was nothing, not even a member of the Tribe. He had struggled for weeks trying to work out what he had done and he could think of nothing. He had been a loyal son and a valuable member of the Tribe. He was a good hunter. He had never failed in his holy obligations to the Mother, nor had the fire ever gone out whilst he had held the responsibility. He had done nothing wrong, damn it!

He had been hunting when the star fell, looking for meat to sustain him. But hunting was much harder for a man alone. When the Tribe hunted together, a few men and dogs could catch enough food in one night to sustain the Tribe for a week. On his own he had only caught one rabbit in five days. He had been hungry ever since he had been cast out.

Something caught his eye.

There it was. A broken arrowhead lying in the sand where the path divided. He took the upper path, leading to the top of the cliff.