Uranus and the Bubbles of Trouble

CHAPTER ONE

The Ruler of the Sky

Ten-year-old Zeus and his band of ten Olympians stood on an island in the Aegean Sea and craned their necks to stare upward. The sky above them had started to turn as black as night—in the middle of the day! Obviously, this was no ordinary darkness.

“Guys, this doesn’t look good,” he said. The others—all kids Zeus’s own age—nodded gravely. They had been gathering coconuts and berries before setting sail in a ship they’d stolen—um, borrowed.

“Yeah, something’s not right,” agreed his curly-haired brother Hades. “We just went from day to night in a few minutes!”

“It’s like time sped up,” added their red-haired sister, Demeter.

Besides Zeus, Hades, and Demeter, the Olympian members included another brother named Poseidon, and sisters Hera and Hestia. Onshore nearby were also Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis. With Athena, Ares, and the newest member, Hephaestus, that made eleven Olympians in all.

Black-haired, blue-eyed Zeus was the leader of the group. Though he and the others looked like normal mortal boys and girls, they were actually immortals and their actions were mighty. And they were absolutely determined to stop their giant enemies, the evil King Cronus (ruler of the Titans) and his Crony henchmen, from taking over the world. This was an outcome every citizen in Greece lived in fear of!

What the sudden strange sky had to do with Cronus, Zeus wasn’t sure. But he guessed there must be some connection. No sooner did he think this than a deep voice boomed from overhead.

“I am Uranus, ruler of the sky!”

Zeus froze. Because Uranus’s voice sounded oddly familiar. Also, because the sky didn’t usually talk.

Poseidon—the god of the sea—jabbed Zeus in the shoulder with his magical three-pronged trident, jolting him from his frozen state. “Which guy?” Poseidon asked, confusion showing in his turquoise-blue eyes.

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Excerpted from Uranus and the Bubbles of Trouble by Joan Holub, Suzanne Williams
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