Julia felt as if she were living in a story from her social studies textbook. Heracles' strength was amazing. No wonder everyone was still talking about him thousands of years later.
Finally she couldn't hold her feelings in any longer. "Wow," she blurted out. "I can't believe I'm sitting here with the real, live hero Heracles!"
Heracles looked surprised. "What do you mean?"
Iphicles rolled his eyes. "What do you think she means, brother? Everyone in Greece wants to meet you. Thanks to Zeus' bragging, you're nearly as famous as the king of the gods himself."
"It's not that," Julia said, blushing. "It's just, I've heard so many of the Greek myths . . ." She realized she was babbling, but she couldn't stop. "And you know . . ."
"Myths?" Heracles looked puzzled. "About me?"
"Trust me, someday you'll perform great feats," Julia replied. "You'll be one of the most famous heroes ever."
Iphicles frowned at Julia. "It's bad enough that Zeus keeps filling Alcides' head with dreams of glory. You don't have to make up even wilder tales."
Julia felt annoyed by his challenging tone. She didn't notice that Brody was also frowning at her. "I'm not making up anything," she snapped. "It's all true."
"How could you possibly know that?" Iphicles shot back.
"Because we come from the future!" Julia retorted. Then she gulped, realizing she'd said too much. "Um, I mean. . ."
Heracles looked stunned. "The future? You are oracles?"
"Not exactly." Julia finally noticed that Brody was making faces at her. But it was too late to take back her words.
She took a deep breath. "Uh, you know Hermes' friend Caerus? I believe he's the god of time?"
"He's the god of opportunity and favorable moments," Iphicles said. "I suppose he has something to do with time as well. What of him?"
Markos spoke up. "He created a crack in his temple. He used the crack to bring Brody here from the future."
"Yeah," Brody put in. "Hermes wanted me to be his champion. And Julia came along by accident."
It took a little more explaining, but eventually Heracles and Iphicles seemed to believe their tale.
"So I will be a hero?" Heracles asked thoughtfully. "That's good. I was beginning to think I might not even survive these Games."
Julia chuckled. "You'll survive. And you'll defeat horrible monsters and achieve great feats of strength."
"Good." Heracles nodded. "What else? Will I marry and have children?"
Julia hesitated. She didn't remember all the details of Heracles' personal life, but some of what she remembered wasn't very good. "Uh, I think so," she said.
"What about me?" Iphicles' dark eyes were sharp and eager. "Will I be famous as well? Perhaps for feats of horsemanship?"
Julia gulped. She'd barely remembered that Heracles had a brother, and she had no idea what became of him. "Er, you like horses?" she asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Iphicles is the finest hand with horses this side of Sparta," Heracles said proudly. He clapped Iphicles on the back.
But Iphicles was still staring at Julia. "Well? What happens to me?"
Julia thought about making up a story, but she could tell that Iphicles was smart. He probably wouldn't fall for a lie.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I'm sorry. I'm sure you will have a fantastic life, though. I mean, you're Heracles' brother, right? That's pretty awesome."
Iphicles frowned and turned away without a word.
Heracles shot him a worried look. "Never mind the distant future," he said. "Right now I'm supposed to be training, and so are you, Brody. Should we practice together for the Games?"
"I guess we could do that," Brody said, sounding a little uncertain.
"Good." Heracles smiled at Julia and Markos. "You can join in too, if you like. It'll be fun."
They started with a running race. At first Iphicles was going to sit out, but Heracles talked him into joining in.
"Ready . . . go!" Heracles shouted.
Julia didn't like running in gym class. But this was different. She was out in the fresh air, in ancient Greece, with a real live hero beside her.
"Yeah!" she yelled as she sprinted with the others.
Brody soon pulled ahead, with Iphicles close behind him. Julia was surprised that Heracles was just keeping pace with her and Markos. She was certain that Heracles wasn't running as fast as he could, but she didn't mind.
"I win!" Brody yelled as he crossed the finish line. He grabbed a rock and threw it at the ground, like a football player spiking a football.
Iphicles stared at him in confusion. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Spiking the ball." Brody grinned. "Hey, that gives me a great idea—let's play football!"
"Football?" Heracles glanced down at his feet.
Julia groaned. "Football? Really?" But she couldn't help smiling. For once, football actually sounded like fun.
Brody explained the rules of the game. The others were confused at first, including Julia, who barely knew anything about football. But finally they all understood enough to get started.
Brody pointed at Julia and Iphicles. "You're on my team. Markos, you get Heracles. He counts as two players."
Heracles chuckled. "Fair enough."
After several plays Julia was laughing so hard she could barely hold onto the piece of wood they were using as a ball. Heracles kept running in the wrong direction. And Markos liked to stop and spike the ball at random times. But nobody seemed to mind the mistakes. They were all having fun—for the first time since Julia had arrived in ancient Greece.
"Okay, that's a first down," Brody called as he tagged Markos. "Now we have to—"
Boom!
His words were drowned out by a deafening clap of thunder. Lightning tore across the clear blue sky.
Heracles gasped. "Quick!" he yelled, shoving Julia and her friends toward the woods. "You have to get out of sight—Zeus is coming!"