Lost_Labour_of_Heracles

“Phew, I suppose this marks the end of my 12 labours!” Heracles heaved a sigh of relief as he returned to his abode after capturing and bringing back Cerberus, the multi headed hound. “Hmm' What’s this'” he remarked as he removed the note stuck onto his wall. The note simply stated: “Rejoicing already' That’s too soon, my dear. You have a final task: To fetch my lightning spear. Location: Mount Olympia. Deadline: Dawn. -King Eurystheus” “No way! Another labour'” Heracles groaned. Yet he had to comply. He began his journey up Mount Olympia. It was not before long when he reached its peak. However, the spear was nowhere to be found! It was almost noon and his search had been futile. Despondent, he took a short rest under a tree. Much to his surprise, nailed to the tree was another note. Was Eurystheus mocking him' An infuriated Heracles ripped the note down from the tree. It said: “Can’t find it' Let the pheneus show you the way. Good luck.” At that instant, Heracles felt an ominous shadow looming above him. Without as much as an upward glance, he knew what it was. He instantly took out his bow and arrow and got ready to aim… But he was too slow. Much too slow. In an instant, a pheneus came swooping down and tore at his vest. Heracles then geared up his defence mechanism and strangled the carnivorous bird with his mighty strength. He proceeded to take the wings of the pheneus and attached it to himself. A ferocious air battle commenced. Heracles may have the power, but neither did he lack the brains. Noticing through the battle at how the pheneus followed their leader, he merely defended himself against the other pheneus and targeted an attack on the leader of the pack. The leader of the pheneus, though, was not to be trifled with and despite Heracles great strength and courage, his first attack to the leader was only an hour before dawn. This was when something truly amazing happened. As Heracles slashed the pheneus with his only weapon – a sword – a drop of the pheneus’ blood dripped onto the peak of Mount Olympia. Unbeknownst to Heracles, Eurystheus had injected all the pheneus with corrosive blood in the hope that the birds’ blood would splatter on Heracles and cause him to trigger his own downfall. What Eurystheus did not think of was that the blood could drip on the mountain to reveal his lightning spear. And that was precisely what happened. The first drip of blood, an indication of what was to come, caused a small corrosion. Heracles, seeing what happened, drained the pheneus leader’s blood onto the mountain. A bigger corrosion occurred. The rest of the enormous pack soon ended up with the same fate as their ringleader. It was a pretty simple affair actually. Just slash, drain, and toss aside. No more struggles were needed. The pheneus pack simply lost all hope once their leader was gone. They were no longer the fast, furious and aggressive pheneuses; instead, they resembled a herd of lost sheep. The corroded area of the mountain formed a hole which expanded rapidly as the “sheep” were killed. The hole soon reached the centre of the mountain where the lightning spear was hidden. Heracles, impatient to get the spear, forgot to toss the last pheneus aside. An errant drop of blood then fell onto the lightning spear. The blood in the hole began to bubble and without warning, spurted high up into the sky! The lightning spear shot up together with it and Heracles snatched it without effort. He then flew to Mount Olympus and arrived in front of Eurystheus with the spear. Dawn came seconds after he arrived. As for the corrosive blood that overflowed' Well, it soon spread to different parts of the world and caused other mountains to corrode too. And this was also how volcanoes were created.