Terrible Typhon

• Jingru Xu, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2019

How did it all happen? Who destroyed the Santa Barbara Waterfront? Well, you could say it was my fault… It all started when my beloved mother died.

Almost unbelievably, she was fatally burnt at sunrise. Oh, everything terrible always at sunrise. My cat died at sunrise, I received my first F at sunrise. Now, THIS?! Mother’s last words were” go to the Statue of Liberty. Swim outside its waters. Go leave me. Take the watch!”
Head hung low, I bought a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty. Hesitantly, I tentatively dipped my leg into the icy water and leapt in. Instead of touching the murky ground, I fell into a marvellous meadow, filled with soft grass and swaying dandelions.
Laughter and the clash of weapons were to be heard all around me. Not knowing what else to do, I cautiously headed towards the cacophony of joyous laughter. All of a sudden, I found myself on the back of a centaur!
“Report to Chiron,” it murmured. “Smells like the human ocean.”
Mere minutes later, I was carried to an older and more majestic centaur.
“Hmm,” he mused. “Poseidon spawn! Interesting."
“Should I…?” began the other centaur, but Chiron cut him off.
“Go upstairs. Ask the mummy about Typhon.”
At the time, I had no clue what he meant. When I trudged up into the dusty attic, I saw it. An atrocious shrivelled up mummy lying in the corner as still as a statue.
Suddenly, it spoke, “I am the speaker of the Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python!” it rasped." come, seeker, and ask."
Green smoke rose from its mouth in the shape of a serpent. I nearly jumped out of my skin!
“Uh, tell me about Typhon?” I uttered.
“Thou shall lose thy two greatest friends,
Thou shall trudge to the place of red tiles,
Thou shall face the monster’s wrath,
and Thou shall save the gods of Greece!”
It rasped, before returning to its original state. Not knowing better, I told this to Chiron.
"Go with Mary and Jake. They’ve been waiting a long time for a quest. The place of red tiles, by the way, is Santa Barbara.

There, I saw it. Typhon, with wings of a demon and a snake for a tail, was holding the carcass of my mother.
“You dare!” I screamed.
I channelled all of my rage with furious flames. It knocked Typhon straight off his feet and into the depths of the black water. That sunrise in the fatal fire, I lost one, my mother. But who else was I supposed to lose?