$17.49
Author: Coats Lucy
Brand: Grosset & Dunlap
Color: Multicolor
Edition: Dgs
Number Of Pages: 144
Details: Product Description
Is Demon up to the challenge?
Beasts of Olympus is a series of illustrated chapter books set in a magical Ancient Greece where strange things still walk the Earth. In the fifth book, Chiron the centaur teaches Demon to make his own cures for sick mythical beasts. But Demon must put his new skills to the test right away in order to save an ailing phoenix before it’s too late!
About the Author
Lucy Coats (www.lucycoats.com) studied English and Ancient History at Edinburgh University, then worked in children’s publishing and now writes full-time. Her twelve-book series, Greek Beasts and Heroes, was published by Orion in the UK. You can follow her on Twitter @lucycoats.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER ONE: Itchy Griffin
Since the Colchian Dragon had nearly exploded Olympus, Demon had learned oodles and squoodles of useful stuff about mixing medicines and proper animal doctoring from his centaur teacher, Chiron. There was one thing, however, he just couldn’t seem to get right.
“AARRRGGHH!” The official stable boy to the gods and apprentice healer stood up, threw down the slate he was writing on, and stamped on it. Twice. He looked at the book that lay open beside him on the bale of silver hay. The letters next to the beautiful pictures on the pages were all wriggly and squirrelly and squiggly. His own attempts to copy them were even worse. “I’m NEVER going to learn to write properly,” he said, sitting down again with a despairing thump.
A large beak reached down from the roof of the Stables of the Gods and nipped his ear.
“What’s up, Pan’s scrawny kid?” asked the griffin, flapping down through the light of another bright Olympus day. “Why the long face? You look as grumpy as the giant scorpion.” It sat its lion’s rump down and began to scratch under its wing feathers with a sharp-clawed back paw.
“Chiron says I have to make notes on all my new patients now,” Demon replied. “But the letters won’t stay still. They all wiggle and try to run away when I read them, AND when I write them down. It’s giving me a headache as big as a hill.”
The griffin scratched some more. “Sounds like a puzzle for old Heffy to me,” it said. “Why not go on up to the forge and ask him what to do about it?”
Demon looked around him. He’d worked extra hard to get the Stables spick-and-span that morning. All the immortal beasts were clean and munching on ambrosia cake or sun hay. He wasn’t due down at Chiron the centaur’s cave for his lesson till later.
“Good idea,” he said. Then he frowned at the griffin. “Stop scratching. You’ll make yourself bleed.” But the beast just turned its eagle head around and used the pointy tip of its beak to scratch even harder.
“I’ve got an itch,” it said sulkily. “Not that you care, running off to earth all the time like you do now.”
Demon rolled his eyes. “I’ll ask Chiron what ointment to mix up for you,” he said.
“Why not ask that magic medicine box of yours?” the griffin asked. “No need to trouble your teacher.”
Demon sighed. “I can’t,” he said. “Chiron’s forbidden it to help me anymore—at least till I’ve learned much more about proper healing. But he’s already taught me loads and loads of things, so don’t worry. I’ll bring something back with me tonight.”
“You’d better,” said the griffin, swishing its tail. “Or else.”
As Demon set off up the mountain, his book under one arm, to visit the smith god, Hephaestus, he wondered nervously what the griffin’s “or else” might mean. He’d been on the wrong side of a few griffin wounds by now—and they hurt.
* * *
A long arrow-pointed tail, covered in bright purple scales, snaked out of the smith god’s cave. Demon stepped carefully around it and poked his head through the door.
Hephaestus was standing by the Colchian Dragon, scratching it behind the horns with his grimy fingers. The dragon’s eyes were closed in bliss, and happy orangey-purple jewel tears were rolling down its face, dropping with tiny plinks onto the
Release Date: 26-04-2016
Package Dimensions: 10x193x204
