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

fun!” she stood up and walked to the curtains, she was about to open them when, as an afterthought,
“Don’t tell anyone about this,” she whispered, and she opened the curtains and went to find her friends.
Carl fell back onto the cushion less bed and stared up at the cracked ceilings.
Pompeii. This is the 1st century! He smiled and took a deep breath of the musty air.
He stood up and looked out of the window, just as he did in the boarding house, and watched the frantic people buying and selling in the markets, beggars sat next to what he supposed were altars, begging for a copper, or anything close to it.
He sat back unto the bed and stared at the curtain that separated him from the rest of the world.

On the other side of the curtain, Raven was laughing with her friends, she was happy, but there was a nagging feeling inside her, but she didn’t seem to be in tune with what it was saying. She shook it away and concentrated on the girls who had decided to peep in on Carl, Raven looked with them and saw Carl had fallen asleep with his blanket covering his mouth. Raven sighed gently and walked to his bed, carefully lifting the blanket from his face and covering him with it, just as he had done the night before. She turned back to her friends who had been watching this attentively, as she came to their sides, Diana glared at her, “What?” Raven asked.
“You said you didn’t…you know,” Diana glowered at her accusingly.
Raven sighed, “I guess I like him, but not in that way,” she said earnestly, she turned to Cartillia, looking for help, but found her glaring at her with the same distaste.
“If you don’t like him that much, what was that about?” she said, folding her arms defiantly.
“I don’t exactly want him to suffocate! I’ve known him a long time, OK?” Raven lied, then sighed and watched their anger deflate. They both shrugged and went back to giggling helplessly.
“You guy- I mean girls, go on ahead of me, I’ll meet you later for lunch,” she waved them off and they shouted their goodbyes before giggling away. Raven smiled outwardly, but inside, she was brimming with rage and mistrust for the two girls.
“Total fakes,” she muttered furiously, clenching her fists.
“Aren’t they just?” a voice said sincerely. She turned around quickly and found Lupus leaning against the wall, watching her. He smiled as he watched the anger vanish from her face.
“Aren’t you gonna give Carl his clothes?” Raven asked, reminding Lupus of his task. Lupus shrugged unconcernedly, “I can do that later.” Raven nodded, and then looked at him awkwardly,
“Well, um, did you want to talk about anything?” she asked conversationally.
“Nothing much, just, why do you both think you’re gods?” he asked, amusement glinting in his eyes. Raven scowled, then thought again as a simple but effective idea blossomed in her mind.
“Oh, of course, like, I’m the daughter of Zeus, and Carl is son of Hermes and it’s like, so amazing because we fly around places, and we just happened to land in Pompeii!” she laughed, the malice glinting in her eyes as she waited for Lupus to realise she was being sarcastic. He glowered as he took it in and Raven laughed,
“Listen, it’s just a game me and Carl came up with, it’s childish, I know, but it helps us feel better about ourselves. Just don’t tell anyone, please?” she pleaded. Lupus nodded significantly and Raven grinned,
“Thanks, it’s kind of embarrassing anyway,” she opened the curtain and went to sit on the stool next to Carl’s bed, and looked up as Lupus stood next to her. She closed her eyes and shook gently, giving the impression that she was about to cry.
“What happened to you guys? How did you get here?” Lupus asked gently as he watched Raven wipe a fake tear from her dark brown eyes. Raven looked up at him and smiled shakily, “I don’t know, one day, we were sick and in the…place were we get treated. The next thing I know, I’m here. In Pompeii. In a Roman hospital.”
Lupus smiled reassuringly, “I’m sure me and father could find a way to get you and Carl home.”
Raven shook her head, “Oh no, we don’t want to go home. We’ve been sent here for a reason, it’s a matter of life and death,” she shook her head again, wide-eyed.
“I thought you were upset?” Lupus asked, frowning bemusedly. Raven smiled again at him, “Me and Carl are on a mission, we don’t know what it is. Life wasn’t great, let’s say, going alright one day, then the next we ended up here,” Raven shrugged her shoulders and turned back to look down at Carl, lying pale on the bed, “I just don’t understand how it could have made him so ill?” she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning back to Lupus, “When he wakes up, tell him I’ve gone to find, um… Chiron,” she stood, patting Carl’s head, before grinning at a confused Lupus and leaving the room to find hers, and enter the realm of sleep in which Chiron lingered.

Carl was drowning.
Deeper and deeper into the blue depths of the bottomless waters. His mouth was open for he had long since given up on holding his breath, and he was screaming, letting the oxygen that was left escape from his lungs. Carl looked down and saw the dark, sinister ocean floor becoming closer and closer. He closed his eyes and felt his body become limp and weak. Suddenly, hands grabbed his arms and started to pull him up, higher and higher, towards the sun. One of the hands let go of him, and floated before him, it was Raven and she was smiling… underwater. She held something out to him, it looked like a clam, before he could try to ask what it was, she put it to his mouth, covering it like a breathing mask.
Breathe, she mouthed, waiting for him to take a breath.
Carl took a deep breath and found none of the water had gotten into the clam. The air in the clam seemed to be endless, and when he had finished breathing, Raven took it from him and indicated to the person above to let go of Carl. He looked up, and caught a glimpse of the face, before they quickly averted their face, using their hair to cover their features, and nod at Raven.
Carl felt the hands slip from his shoulders and watched as Raven and her; companion swam towards the light. He looked around the waters, and then followed Raven to the surface.

Raven lay on her back and stared at the ceiling, counting sheep so that she could get to sleep. Chiron would know what to do. She closed her eyes and her breathing slowed as she fell asleep.

“Chiron! Where are you?” Raven called, pacing around the dream room.
“Over here Miss Raven!” he called, and Raven followed the sound until she found Chiron standing in a stance with a bow and arrow, the arrow was notched in the bow and he looked about to shoot.
“Oh, sorry, you look busy,” she stepped back.
“Oh no, I am always here for you and Carl,” he put his bow and arrow down and turned his attention to Raven, “What is the problem?” he asked.
Raven sighed and sat heavily on the floor,
“It’s Carl, after we got, teleported here, he’s been feeling really sick and I don’t know what to do. Do you?” she asked. Chiron had been nodding thoughtfully,
“I think this is what you might call jet-lag, just without the jet.”
“Oh, OK”
“Carl is exhausted, he obviously wasn’t feeling very strong when you both made your wishes.”
Raven nodded, “He did look exhausted.”
But I had just been whipped, I’m not sleeping. Come to think of it, my back doesn’t hurt anymore
“He just needs a few more hours sleep, and you both can get to work.”
Raven nodded again, then paused midway,
“Yeah, about that. What exactly do we have to do?”
Chiron raised his eyebrows, “You mean you haven’t figured it out?”
“Well, I think I have, I just need to make sure.”
“A daughter of Zeus never needs reassurance, she goes with the flow, as they say in your time,” Chiron smiled, baring his teeth that were strong and broad. An almost horse-like appearance.
“I knew I was the daughter of Zeus!” she grinned, “But, who is Carls father?”
Chiron smiled again, “I think he can work that out. In fact, I believe he knows. Goodbye Raven! For now!” he waved, and Raven watched as his figure became fainter and fainter.
She felt herself get sucked to the surface and thought; Carl knows who his father is?

Carl opened his eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room, he sat up quickly, but felt hands gently push him back onto the bed.
“It’s OK Carl, it’s only me,” he looked up and found Raven smiling down at him.
“How long have I been out of it?” he murmured.
“All day,” Raven replied desolately.
“What!” Carl sat up again, and this time, Raven only smiled.
“You did wake up once, when we were having lunch, you wanted to join us but I think you were babbling,”
“Oh,” Carl sighed wretchedly.
“But don’t worry,” Raven said cheerily, “Me and you are going on a field trip…” she paused and looked around before whispering, “ to find out who your father is.”
“Do you know who yours is?” he asked.
“Yep, Chiron told me,” She nodded.
“Oh, you saw Chiron?” Carl asked.
“Yeah, he didn’t tell who yours was though, he said you knew,” Raven stared at him carefully, before shrugging and leaning back against the wall.
“I don’t know who my father is,” Carl scowled, “But…”
“But what?” Raven jumped excitedly.
“In my dream… I was drowning. But you and, and this man came to help me. You gave me some sort of, clam and it helped me breathe, but when I looked up to see the mans face, he turned away. As if he couldn’t bear for me to look at him, like he was ashamed. But I caught a glimpse of it.”
“Well, Lupus left a tunic here for you, so, put it on before it gets dark, he’s gonna show us around.”

Carl walked out the room, gingerly looking left and right before presenting himself to a grinning Raven.
“Carl! This look suits you completely!” she exclaimed, she stepped closer and examined the golden hem of the green tunic.
“Lupus was kind to give you that one, all I got was this amber one,” she stepped back and grinned at him.
“And it looks great on you,” Lupus said, stepping from the dark shadows of the opposite room and beamed at them, “How about that tour?”

Raven stood before the tall, majestic statue of Zeus, reverently touching his face, tracing the soft contours of his imperial features, trying to find a resemblance. She looked down at her mahogany hands and sighed as she looked at his, she knew he looked nothing like her.
“Raven! That’s him! That’s the man!” Raven ran across the empty dark courtyard, following Carl’s voice. She found him stood before another statue, however, it was more detailed and the man stood with a trident in his hands, and waves rising behind him.
“That’s him Raven, that’s the man I saw,” he said his voice barely above a