Vulcan's Furnace by C. Starr (classic literature books .TXT) 📕

of the room and ran through the halls, unsurprisingly, in a straight line. Suddenly, Diane, who stood at the head of the line stopped, and all the girls crashed into each other and looked comically, like a group of lost penguins. Raven, stood at the back, looked around for the reason of Diane’s sudden halt, and saw it. There was a group of boys walking right towards them, and all the other girls, seeing, straightened up and smoothed down their clothing. As they walked towards them, each girl started to giggle prettily, as if trying to attract attention, but Raven rolled her eyes, How very like them to start making a big deal of seeing a few boys.
However, none of the boys glanced in their direction, they kept their eyes straight ahead, but as they passed Raven, one looked straight at her and the ghost of a smile appeared on his face and his eyes lit up before he blankly looked back where he was meant to. She watched the rest go by and then shook her head slowly. Raven smiled to herself, and picking up her bag, ran to her next lesson.

Carl sat at the bench, leaning against the wall behind it. He had seen Raven, and she caused him to become distracted and his mind wandered as he sat on the artificial grass of the artificial field.
“Mister Lauton, can you find it in your head that it isn’t time to sleep? I have told you this once before and if I have to tell you again, you will face the consequences. Now WAKE UP!” Master Albert bellowed before wiping his red, sweating face and turning back to the football game in front of him. Carl was on the bench, again, and as he watched the game, his mind began to wander.
Was she the girl that got whipped?
She can’t have been. She wasn’t standing like she had been whipped.
Carl had seen some of the boys get whipped, and whenever they walked, they always walked with their arms stuck to their sides, and their faces twisted in pain. Whenever they stood, they always slouched to try and ease the pain.
But she was a girl, and girls could deal with pain differently to boys.
Yes but-
“LAUTON!,” Carl shook his head and looked up drowsily, “That’s it! Get up! On the pitch! NOW!”
Carl ran across the field and stood in the middle of it, before turning to Master Abbott curiously,
“What do I do now?!” he yelled.
“Stand next to Mister Garrett and try to kick the ball into the other net!” Master Abbott said worriedly, “And don’t kill anyone!”
“Yes, sir!” Carl saluted before striding to his place next to Peter.
Master Abbott blew the whistle and half the boys sprinted forward each heading for Richie, who was taking them all on head-on. Carl watched in awe with his mouth hanging open, a suitable home for any fly, as Richie danced around each contender until he whirled in a frenzied dance, and his unimaginable control that fused the ball to his feet. He danced on, until he stopped a metre away from Carl and nodded, as if inviting him to have a go at defeating him..
Carl stepped forward cautiously, bent his knees and focused his eyes on the ball, he clicked his fingers and Richie ran straight for him.
Every thought in his head screamed at him to move and every cell in his body ignored them. Carl stood stock still, still staring at the ball until the final moment when time slowed down and Carl stamped hard on the ground
connecting with the grass, half a centimetre away from Richie. Richie pulled his foot back and watched in shock, as Carl flipped twice in the air before using one foot to boot the ball hard in the direction of the opposing goal. It powered down the field literally setting sparks in the air and the goalkeeper, caught off guard, dived completely out of the box. The ball slammed into the back of the net, the force knocked the posts over completely and the friction finally set the ropes on fire. A giant flame sparked on the outside of the ball, and spread across it until the whole goal was enveloped in fire.
Master Abbott stood on the field in surprise, and Richie stood paralyzed, both were staring at Carl as if he were a demon.
“What did you do?’ Richie whispered. Carl looked up from the grass, breathing heavily and shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he answered, his face as pale as a sheet.
“I think we know which team won that game,” Master Abbott stated before striding towards the door to find a fire extinguisher. Richie kicked off his boots in disgust and led his team to the changing rooms. However, Carl’s team was cheering loudly, chanting his name in awe, and lifting him up as they applauded. Carl smiled weakly as a shot of pain stabbed through him.
Suddenly, he felt a gripping pain in his gut and he doubled over in pain, he opened his eyes and saw the ground rushing up towards him and felt his head
connect to the floor before he blacked out.

All the girls stood with a javelin in their hand, all waiting for Master Tuerin to walk to each of them and tell them what they were doing wrong. After he had finished, he blew his whistle and pointed at the first girl, Mary, to throw her javelin. She licked her lips fearfully, and nodded to herself before pulling her arm back and thrusting it forward with vehemeous powerful force. Master Tuerin clapped and nodded at the next girl and the next until it was just Raven left to throw. Master Tuerin ambled towards her and bellowed in her ear,
“Miss Capello, please don’t throw it at me!” he grinned maliciously at her as all the girls laughed flirtatiously. He was a handsome man, but Raven didn’t understand teacher crushes, so she frowned deeply and turned back to her target, the bulls eye, none of the girls had managed to hit it but as Raven lifted her arm, she felt an unimaginable strength throb through her arms, and suddenly, her raw back didn’t hurt. She threw the javelin and watched as her arm blurred and the javelin flew out of her grip. It pushed powerfully through the air and unimaginably, the friction in the air caused sparks of electricity to form on the metal tip.
And the tip connected hard against the bull’s eye, but it didn’t stop, it kept on going until it landed spearhead down in the grass of the other field. Raven put a hand to her mouth in disbelief and whirled around to face her classmates who were staring at her with their mouths open.
Master Tuerin’s mouth was opening and closing, which caused his face to closely resemble a goldfish.
“W-w-wow,” he stammered, “M-miss Capello, th- th- that was extraordinary!”
Raven nodded and leant against a pole, suddenly feeling her knees go weak. Diane ran to her side and gently helped her to the ground.
“Raven, are you alright?” she asked earnestly.
“I’m- I’m fine, I just need a little…” she slowly fell to her back and closed her eyes to the frightened screams of her friends.

“Hello Carl. I trust you are on the road to recovery?” a voice rumbled from the darkness.
“Where am I?” Carl asked, “And who are you?”
“I, am Chiron,” said the voice and a man riding a grey stallion trotted into his view, at least, Carl thought he was riding a horse.
“What are you?” Carl asked, rubbing his eyes.
“I am what you call a centaur,” he replied, grinning.
Carl frowned.
“Half man, half horse,” Chiron explained.
“I know what a centaur is…this is a dream, it’s all a dream,” Carl murmured reassuringly.
“You’re right, this is a dream. I am communicating with you through your dreams, it’s a trick my friend Hermes taught me, but we’ll talk about him later,” Chiron said dismissively.
Carl looked around himself and saw what looked like a mountain, a colossal mountain, “I’m guessing that’s Mount Olympus?” he asked, pointing to it.
“Yes, you’re right, but it’s not the real one. It’s just scenery, I can change it if you like,” and he closed his eyes and whispered a few words in what Carl supposed was Latin. His surroundings began to darken until it was as dark as night and Carl blinked, trying to help himself see. But as quickly as he opened his eyes, he found himself standing before the most enormous throne he had ever seen. It was the size of Mount Everest, possibly bigger, and sparks of lightening flashed from each corner and crevice and glowed in an ethereal ochre.
“Whose throne is that?” he asked, but before Chiron could answer, a voice butted in.
“I’m guessing Zeus,” Carl jumped and looked around furtively, trying to find the cause.
“I’m behind you,” and a finger tapped his shoulder gently; he whirled around and grabbed their wrist.
“Don’t touch me,” he whispered forcefully, before realising who he was talking to.
“Oh, hi, it’s you,” he let go of her wrist and smiled apologetically.
“Yeah, and it’s you,” Raven replied , but she frowned, Do I know this boy?
“Ah, I see you have already met,” Chiron smiled, rubbing his hands together, “Excellent, then this will be easier than I thought.”
“What do you mean?” Raven asked.
“Well…oh I might as well get it over with. You are the children of…” he paused, took a deep shaky breath and started again. Raven and Carl glanced at each other in confusion.
“Right, OK, this might come as a bit of a shock for you. Considering you have no parents and you get whipped even though this is the 21st Century and they shouldn’t whip children anymore. We really need to work on that,” he babbled. Carl rolled his eyes.
“Mr Chiron, you’re babbling, just get it over with,”
“Yes, of course. You are the children of the gods, we don’t know which ones yet, but that’s what we’re working out,” he spoke quickly, then nervously looked up at them, waiting for their reaction.
Raven spoke first, “Yep, I knew this was a dream,” she turned to walk away, as if turning away would wake her up.
“Wait,” Carl grabbed her hand, then dropped it quickly, “if this is a dream, how come we’re both in it? And how come I felt your hand?” he asked. Raven turned to him and frowned.
“OK Chiron, prove it. Give me something to remember you by, when I wake up, if I’m still holding it, then I’ll believe all of this, if not, then this had better not happen again,” she said sincerely. Carl turned to Chiron and nodded, “Yeah, do you have anything?” he asked.
Chiron smiled happily,” Surprisingly, I do,” he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out two amulets and handed one to each of them.
Raven looked at it and her eyes widened in recognition, “It’s like the one I see in my dreams,” she whispered disbelievingly. Chiron nodded.
“These amulets are the one things connecting you to your parents. I believe both of you have been making wishes, especially last night. You both wished three times at the same time, mind you, that you could go outside. I am granting your wishes. At anytime at all that you want to leave, blow on these amulets and make your wish, you’ll leave this place and go on a little adventure. But you must be at the same place at the same time, and your wish always has to be, I wish I could