text: Ancient greece was a peaceful place. There wasn’t much going on, and war was very rare. There was a very old forest in a village in Southern Athens that was rumored to have been there since the beginning of time and the world itself. It was also said to have an ancient beast that would come out every 44 years, for a whole year, and rampage the whole village. However, the beast hadn’t come out yet, leading many people to believe that it had died. Many years passed, and the beast still didn’t come. Eventually after a while a young boy was born. He was named Erichdymes (eric-die-mes). When he was ten years old he learned how to fight, and even successfully fought off an invasion when he was eighteen years old. By then the legend of the forest had died off. Most people who remembered it were very old, and lived in the village’s house for the old. Along with Erichdymes on the villages defense team were: Theoclymenus (theo-climb-neus), Odious, and Aeolus. They were all head leaders of some division of the town’s defenses. Erichdymes led the cavalry, and was head leader of the town’s defenses as a whole. Theoclymenus led the archers, Odious led the swordsmen, and Aeolus led the navy. Erichdymes was laying in bed one morning, when he heard a horn from the tower. He got up as soon as possible, and got his armor on. The horn meant that there was an intruder of some kind. “Hello there, Erichdymes.” said Odious. “Good morning, what do you reckon the intruder is?” he replied with. “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps that Spartan village again?” Odious said back to him. Erichdymes said bye to his friend, and went to gather the cavalry. He then went on the watchtower to see what was coming. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was one solitary being, a beast to be exact. It was rushing towards the village at a tremendous speed. The thing had huge horns, and was flaring fire from it’s snout. He gave a call to the ground below, “Hold off the attack! The “intruder” appears to be an animal!” All the forces below obeyed his call. He kept watching. It was coming from the forest. “Since when has that been there?” he said to himself. “For many years.” said a voice behind him. Erichdymes jumped. He looked behind him and saw a frail old man. “What do you know old man?” he said, in a mocking tone. “A long time ago there was a legend that every 44 years a ferocious beast would come out for a whole year, and rampage the city. It flared fire from it’s snout, and had horns that could be seen from miles away. He had never came out in my lifetime, but adults told stories of when he did. Eventually they forgot about it, and assumed the beast had died. I always remembered to keep it written down, for if the beast were to come.” The old man replied. This worried Erichdymes. What could he do? While he thought, the gods were watching down upon the city. “It seems Thaulos is back at his tricks again.” Zeus said, with a half smile. “I was wondering when he would come.” he continued. “Shall we do anything about it?” said Athena. “Remember when he went to rampage a bunch of cities, and we had to interfere. What if this happens again?” she asked. “It won’t, trust me.” Zeus said. Little did he know that Thaulos had been gone for so long for a reason. He had been training. Thaulos had built up enough energy to be able to stay out of his forest for years at a time. Not only that, but he could do this in twelve year intervals. This made for a dangerous and deadly combo that would allow him to wreak havoc and destruction wherever he went. Thaulos finally reached the city. By then Erichdymes had informed the town’s defenses of what was going on. They had built up cavalry outside of the cities walls, and had archers lined up on the towers. The navy was not needed, but was at the ocean incase they needed to evacuate the citizens, which were on board the boats. The swordsmen lined the city. Erichdymes talked with his friends. “How are you feeling about the upcoming battle?” Odious asked Erichdymes. “Nervous,” he replied. “We’ve never faced such a huge threat before.” Odious agreed. “It’ll be easy.” Aeolus said. “How so?” Erichdymes asked. “There’s one enemy, tons of us.” Aeolus answered. “Have you heard what he can do?” Erichdymes asked Aeolus. “Whatever.” Aeolus replied, dropping the subject. Theoclymenus stood silent, almost in shock. “What’s wrong Theoclymenus?” Odious asked. Theoclymenus was still silent. He just pointed. The rest of them realized what was going on, and took action. A fire had broken out in the center of town, and soldiers were clumping up in the area. They had forgotten about what was happening because they were so busy talking. They started fighting the beast. The fight went on for hours. By now most of the center of the town was burnt to a crisp. Thaulos had moved on to the east side. Soldiers were dying one by one. Erichdymes made the executive call to evacuate the city. Aeolus said goodbye to his friends, and hopped on his boat. Erichdymes kept on fighting. Night fell, but the remaining soldiers had to stay strong. The death toll was adding up and up. The fire had engulfed the east, west, center, and south. The remaining soldiers were left to fight in the north. Day came, and the war was over. Thaulos had won. He had killed every soldier, except for one. Erichdymes was able to hide in a secret tunnel he had made. He waited a couple of hours before he got out. Eventually he got out to look at the destruction done to the place he had grown up in. It was all gone, not a single living thing around. The trees and grass had burnt up, and were still black from the previous fires. Erichdymes was able to figure out what direction Thaulos had gone in. He prayed to Zeus, and left to find him. Zeus was pleased by his prayers, so he left a horse with a saddle, and a sword and supplies on his trail. Erichdymes saw the horse, and took that as sign that Zeus was on his side. He thanked Zeus, and went north. Meanwhile on Mount Olympus, Zeus and Hera were having a heated conversation. “You have to do something about that beast! You saw what it did to that city!” Hera yelled at Zeus. “I stand by my word; I can not interfere with mortal problems.” He replied in a stern tone. “Fine, then I will.” Hera said, in an angry tone. “Oh no you won’t. If I catch you doing anything about this, I will condemn you to the deepest and darkest pits of hell, do you understand? I will do something if he gets out of control, just me, nobody else!” He yelled. Hera slumped off, disappointed. Back on earth things were getting heated. Thaolus had almost reached the capital of Athens. Erichdymes was not far behind. Erichdymes was known well throughout Athens for being one of the best swordsman, and was well respected. He knew a shortcut to the capitol building. He took it, and before he knew it, he was speaking with the king of Athens. “Oh!” The king said as Erichdymes popped out. “What a pleasant surprise, what seems to be the problem my dear friend? Sorry about my untidiness, I wasn’t expecting guests. I also see that you’ve brought a horse. Lasso it up over there and then we’ll talk.” The king told his friend. Erichdymes did as he was told and told the king everything. The king ordered an evacuation of the city, and readied the army. The battle was about to begin. Thaulos broke through the city wall with the might of a 1,000 boulders falling during a landslide. It wasn’t long before a fire broke out. Zeus watched from above. He didn’t interfere until he saw something that angered him very much. Thaulos was about to ram into the temple where they prayed to the gods. Zeus couldn’t let this happen; he had to intervene. Athen’s army down below was about to lose until something magical happened. Thaulos was lifted into the sky, so far until he reached space. They surely thought this was an act of Zeus. Thaulos was just as amazed, but also angry at the same time. Once he had reached the stars, Zeus made him bigger. He strung his arms together so he couldn’t escape. “For all the trouble you’ve caused, you’ll be forced to watch upon these mortals for eternity, as they laugh in your failure.” Zeus told the beast. Thaulos was angered at the thought of this. He let out a huge jet of fire and flame. Zeus laughed heavily, in a cold way. “I knew you’d do that, so here’s this...” Zeus created an invisible coating around the Earth. When the flame reached Earth, it bounced back at him, setting Thaulos ablaze. Zeus then created the god of light, Apollo. This was so he could watch over Thaulos in case he was to cause mischief. The day after the king of Athens called a state wide prayer to Zeus in thankfulness for saving them. Zeus was pleased by this, so in return he made the grass that was burned full of life, and ready to grow new crops. The devastation caused by Thaulos was tremendous, and took years to rebuild. Erichdymes found his naval fleet resting in a northern city at Athens. He told them that the king of Athens, in thanks for warning him, had rebuilt their city, and that they could come back. The tale of Thaulos the wicked beast and his destruction has lived on for years as a tale that shows evildoers get punished, not rewarded.