Thank you all very much for your enthusuasitc - oh dear me, that's not the way to spell it. Simply terrible. I shall have to go back and edit once I've done typing this all up. Typewriters (I mean keyboards, I forgot that this is the Modern Era) are so terribly finicky. You press one little key wrong, and it's all gone to pot. Most unlike writing on paper. Perhaps I'd better just write this all in a notebook. But then how would I get it to you? Ah well. With the waffles duly checked on, I should contineu (oops) with the Story of the AEs.

Day 5, Part 1

Next day dawned fair and sunny. Ariella rose early and went out to the hotel gardens, where she wandered about among the dew-covered flowers and thought tomantically of Rumi.

Tomantically?

Er - ah - yes. Ahem. It means Romantically. R's are written as T's now, hadn't you heard?

Just another typing mistake...

Not at all, 58, not at all. It was merely avant-garde. I am nothing if not a daring artist. Anyway, she wandered about and thought romantically of Rumi, who was her boyfriend and whom she liked very much. This is a common occurence with boyfriends, apparently. And at that moment, Apollo came by, dressed in a black leather jacket and skinny jeans, with his usual smirk.

"Morning," he said. "Have you seen my cows anywhere?"

Ariella hadn't, and told him so. 

"That little brother of mine is just too much," Apollo went on. "This is the second time he's stolen them, and it's not even like he particularly wants cows. He isn't a shepherd boy, for goodness' sake. He just wants to bother me. Have you seen him anywhere?"

"I last saw him yesterday," Ariella said. "We had a lovely time. But I couldn't say where he is now."

Apollo, disgruntled, took his leave, just as all the other AEs came into the garden. They seemed very excited about something, and Ariella took the opportunity to ask Rumi what was going on. 

"Hephaestus is offering a cooking class," he explained, happily. "We're all going to sign up. Imagine learning cooking from an Olympian!"

In his habitual beanie, with his eyes sparkling excitedly, he looked too cute to argue with, but Ariella had doubts about the whole idea. "Hephaestus is the god of  blacksmithing, not cooking," she pointed out.

"Who cares!" exclaimed Kauri, with the usual upbeat energy. "It's all the same. Anyway, he's been cooking for a year now, and he's been chosen to appear on the Godly Goodness TV show! He must be pretty good. Anyway, this is a good excuse to get into the palace again."

"And to not wreak havoc!" said Melon, with her sweet grin that meant exactly the opposite.

That seemed to settle it, and they all rushed off to Mount Olympus, where they were greeted by Hephaestus. 

"How lovely to see you all again! Just put your names on this sheet, please, and let's get started. This is Eros, by the way. He's taking the class too."

They found themselves looking at a short boy with a round face and curly, wispy hair. He appeared about ten years old.

"Mummy signed me up for this," he informed the group with great displeasure. "She said I need to learn to look after myself in case I never find a wife. I'd rather be playing Nintendo. Or working on my business. Did you know? I'm an Ontrepner."

"You're a what?" Typhoon was not at all impressed.

"An OnTREPner," said Eros disdainfully.

"He means an entrepeneur," said Hephaestus with fondness. "Little Eros is the light of the palace. He's the only child in the place now that Persephone's older. It's nice to have him around. Children are so lovely, don't you think? And I'm his stepfather, after all. Since I married Aphrodite. She had a little affair on the side with Ares - feminine liberation, and all that. But that's all over and done with." He was moving about around the kitchen, laying out utensils and bowls. "Now the first thing we're going to start with is cookies."

The kitchne hummed along under oiled wheels, so to speak. Some of the AEs managed the oven, others did the batter, others buttered the pans, and Hephaestus presided over the whole thing, murmuring
things like, "Yes, yes," or "No, add a little more sugar." When the cookies were in the oven, Hephaestus announced that they would move on to waffles.

"Wow!" said Kauri, making for the bowls. "I learned how to make waffles in school! You put the eggs in one bowl, and the flour in another, and you grab the whisk and BOOM!"

BOOM.

After a few minutes of eggs, flour, and a blur of arms and legs that was actually Kauri brandishing a whisk, the kitchen became livable again. The air slowly cleared of flour, and the furious sound of egg-whisking grew fainter. Everyone looked at each other.

Eggs, flour, and utensils were all over the kitchen. A merry Kauri was
still measuring special flavors into a teaspoon, saying, "So then you
need to put in some vanilla or lemon or whatever! This is really
unconventional but i think lemon-flavored waffles would taste good,
don't you?" 

But Ramya and Izzy were nowhere to be seen.

Thank you as usual! And yes, do rest assured that all will be revealed.

Day 5, Part 2

Everyone looked at each other.

"Oh dear," said Kauri, looking around. "The kitchen does seem rather messy."

"Aren't there two people missing?" said  CeCe, who always knew where everyone was. She did a quick count of the group. "Yes, there are! And I could have sworn I saw two people vanish out the window." (The kitchen window was open; Hephaestus said it helped him to cook better to have fresh air.) "Only, who were they? I just don't remember their names. Ida and Roxana, or something like that?"

"Izzy and Ramya," said Hemlock.

Alyssa was standing by the window. "Yes, they disappeared out the window and vanished into the sky."

"How could they do that?" Orion was skeptical.

"They just did," said Alyssa with authority. She looked at Hephaestus. "What happens when you fall off Mount Olympus, so to speak?"

Hephaestus was looking very concerned. "You go back home. Don't worry, nothing serious will have happened to them. But they won't be able to come back to Olympus. I wonder what on earth went wrong?"

Kauri looked sad. "Oh dear, I hope I didn't have anything to do with it."

"No, no, I'm sure you didn't," said CeCe kindly. "It's just very mysterious. And they're okay anyway, so it's all right."

"You know what..." Typhoon had been thinking hard. "I think someone pushed them out the window. There's a steep drop just outside, as you can see. Once they were out, they would have started falling, and then a wind or something could have swept them up and carried them away. The thing is that they got out the window in the first place, and they couldn't have done that if someone hadn't pushed them."

"We're the only ones in this room," said Oriole slowly.

"It must have been one of us," concluded Juniper ominously.

"Well, it wasn't me," remarked Eros, whom nobody had taken much notice of ever since Ramya and Izzy disappeared. "I wouldn't do a thing like that. Would I, Dad?"

"Of course not! Here, I know what, why don't you run along and play. This isn't something you need to worry about."

"Thanks Dad!" Eros beamed for the first time all morning, flung away his apron, and ran off.

There was silence after he left. Everyone was wondering the same thing. Who had pushed Ramya and Izzy off of Mount Olympus? And why? And would it happen again?