@Seadragon, thank you very much! Lovely name, by the way. Answering your question, all will be revealed... we seem to say that a lot, but isn't that rather the point of a ski lodge? You keep reading and eventually everything becomes clear.

@Poinsettia, your post has not yet shown up, but given our brilliance at writing ski lodges, you probably said something complimentary so thank you very much.

Day 6, Part 2

In the Pocket Park, everyone was beginning to pick themselves up. Melon was picking herself up from where she had thrown herself on the ground in terror. Astra came over to her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Quite," said Melon, looking around for her black cat stuffed animal and being relieved to find it just a few feet away. Then she gasped. "Astra! The stage is gone!"

This realization was beginning to be made by everyone in the park.

"What has happened to my stage?" demanded Hera.

"I don't know," said Hades, one of the cameramen (today he was in ripped jeans and a backward baseball cap, attempting to look like a Man of the People). He scratched his head, at which the cap fell off and he hastily stuck it back on. "Maybe it went to Hades. I could give Seph a call and ask her to check."

"Don't be silly!" snapped Hera. "Of course it didn't go to Hades. And don't bother Seph right now, she's busy looking after her mother. You know how nervous Demeter gets if she loses sight of her precious little girl for even a minute. No, it must have gotten jolted off the mountain with the explosion." She turned an accusing eye on Ganymede. "You never were any good with carpentry, you know! I thought I should have hired someone else to make my stage."

"Aw gee," said Ganymede, ruffling his curls. "A guy can't get any peace around here."

Alyssa came running up just then. "Is everyone okay?"

"So it seems," said Rumi, doing a quick count of the group. "Oops, wait - we've got three people missing. Typhoon, Hemlock, and Orion."

"The first two were on the stage when it sailed off the mountain," Alyssa explained. "I was up on that ledge -" she pointed - "and I saw the stage fly off from the force of the explosion, with Typhoon and Hemlock standing on it. They've probably gone back home?" She looked at Hera for confirmation.

"Oh yes," said Hera. "Along with my stage," she added crossly. "But what about Orion?"

"Hey guys," Orion came up at that exact moment. "Everything okay? That was some explosion - I could hear it even all the way where I was."

"Where were you?" asked Melon anxiously.

"Just at the edge of the park. I got tired of all the clothes, so I took a walk."

"Yes, everything's okay," Oriole answered. "But wait a second guys. What's going on here?  First Ramya and Izzy fly out the window. Then two more AEs get thrown off the mountain. There are several things that are suspicious here..."

A long discussion followed, at the end of which several facts had been established:

1. When Ramya and Izzy were thrown out the window, Alyssa had been present, standing by the window. This positioned her in a good place to push them out. After everyone went outside the palace, Alyssa disappeared and then reappeared, looking tired and sweaty. Alyssa strenuously insisted that she didn't remember being in the kitchen at all when the AEs disappeared - she said she'd been taking a walk, and only came back later. This made her suspicious.

2. Orion had felt as if someone were watching him.

3. Hemlock and Typhoon had, according to Ganymede, been given their firework by Orion.

4. When the firework exploded, nobody noticed whether Orion was there, but Orion said he hadn't been there, he'd been walking. Orion also maintained that he hadn't given anyone a firework. The firework, regardless of how it had been obtained, must have been fairly dud, because everyone was all right. Even the stage was intact - just no longer present.

5. Orion had now reappeared.

6. In conclusion: AEs had mysteriously disappeared twice now.  Each time, another AE had allegedly done suspicious things, then reappeared at the group. These suspicious AEs maintained that they had not done suspicious things.

It was all very, well, suspicious. 

No one knew what to think.

Tut tut, there doesn't seem to be any wild applause. Whatever is the reason? Perhaps my writing skills were slipping.  I was staying up very late at nights, trying to figure out what to do about our Impending Financial Situation. However, as the modern generation says, "no pressure"! Applaud or do not applaud, however appears best.

@Sempreverde, we could always bring Hemlock back, if you so desire; however, he appears *peers through binoculars* to be very happy back home. Alas for you, though, for now you will have to contend with his chaos without our help...

Moving on from all that, have you ever seen AEs engaged in housework? It is a fearsome sight. And so this next part is titled Day 7, Part 1: Or, Domestic Duties.

Day 7, Part 1: Or, Domestic Duties

The hall of the Mount Olympus palace was very quiet as Hestia, the goddess of the hearth (and the palace housekeeper/psychologist), headed down it to get out the vacuum cleaner. Zeus, who liked tradition, had originally been throughly opposed to the very idea of a vacuum cleaner on Mount Olympus. He wanted a nice quiet broom, or perhaps a mop. Hestia, always good-natured, had agreed, but then Athena, the self-confident social justice warrior of the palace, had gotten into a rousing argument with Zeus over how he had no right to make someone use a broom if the person didn't want to, and how he was relying on an old and outdated system called the patriarchy, which was designed to oppress women. Zeus was just getting into his stride and thundering back at his daughter when Hera, his beautiful and haughty wife, intervened and said that she agreed with Hestia. She wanted a vacuum cleaner. All the fashion models in her gossip magazines -Goddess Glamor, Godly Gossip, and FREYA - had vacuums now, and it was the latest trend. She was not going to be behind, she said, and Zeus was going to go to the store and buy the latest model - wasn't he? At which Zeus nodded meekly, and that very afternoon he could be seen pushing a shopping cart through the aisles of the nearest Olympusmart.

It did seem as if Olympus was really a matriarchy - or at least, a Hera-archy. Certainly, when it came to a difference of opinion between Zeus and his wife, his wife always won.

Reflecting on all this, Hestia tripped lightly down the sunlit corridor to the closet. A bird twittered outside the open window, and in the distance she coud hear Aphrodite and Eros talking.

"But Mummy," Eros was saying earnestly. "I want to be independent and earn lots of money and get a palace like Grandfather Zeus' - not spend all my time spreading love."

"Don't be silly, Eros," replied Aphrodite languidly. "I don't know where you get these ideas. Why don't you watch some television?"

Instantly the noises of a commercial ("Put your money in Immortalex Bank and be rich forever!") ensued. But they were quiet and far away.

At that moment - 

"HEY! I want the vacuum cleaner!"

"No, I want it! Gimme the handle!"

Hestia watched as her closet door opened and two AEs barrelled out, waving the tube of a vacuum in the air.  

"Whee, this is fun!!" shrieked one of them.

"We're the Vacuuming Team!!" exclaimed the other one.

The vacuum whirred into life. And the Vacuuming Team began to vacuum everything they could find.  Hestia, fascinated, walked back up the hall. AEs were everywhere. They were wielding brooms, mops, and vacuum cleaners, and the energy was terrific.

Astra came down the hall with a duster. "Hi, Hestia!" she said cheerfully. "Don't worry about helping us, you go sit and rest. We'll do all the housework for you!"

Hestia was glad of a rest, and she went to do some reading. The AEs continued to proceed to clean the entire palace. It was like an army marching across a field. Wall by wall, room by room, they advanced, singing as they went.

"My duster lies over the ocean....

My duster lies over the sea!!!

My duster lies over the ocean...

Oh come back my duster to ME, to ME!" they sang, to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean." The CAPTCHAS helped, or thought they did. Some of the AEs worked steadily, enjoying the novel experience of cleaning furniture; the others stopped every five minutes to throw pies, impersonate Admins, dump water on people, and carry out other pranks. Rumi, going into a new room, discovered Ariella, sticking googly eyes all over the furniture.

Just then Kauri whizzed in, brandishing a duster like a paliacate in a Mexican dance. It was a sight: the pink fluffy duster, going round and round Kauri's head, and the googly eyes making it look as if the rocking chair and hte piano stool were watching the goings-on and speculating on them to each other. "Beware of the Duster!" Kauri exclaimed, and charged around the room, dusting everything, even the googly eyes, not at all daunted.

CeCe, meanwhile, was rampaging through the house, in search of sugar. Occasionally she vacuumed a corner here and there, but soon she tired of this and changed into a wall of water. Whenever she saw anyone, she poked her head out and went, "hiiiii!" It was great fun; Demeter was pleasantly surprised, and Persephone went into peals of laughter. CeCe would have liked to go and prank Hermes, but he was still nowhere to be seen. It was very odd.

Astra came upon a door. Most of the palace doors were wide open, but this one was closed. 

"What could be behind there?" wondered Rumi.

"Googly eyes, probably," said Kauri.

Astra pushed open the door - and the AEs found themselves in a gym. It was a new addition to the palace, having been added on about a year ago, by special order of Ares, who was the palace athlete. Slick and modern-looking, it made Astra feel as if she were in her local community center instead of in an age-old palace. In one corner, Ares was doing push-ups, while modern music banged out from a nearby smartphone. A tennis net had been set up in the middle of the gym floor. Here, Apollo and Artemis were playing tennis, with great skill and flair. The twins both loved sports (as opposed to Ares, who just liked gym work) and were very good at it.

"Apollo, I think your fans are here to visit you," said Artemis as she played. 

"My fans?" He dropped his tennis racket and turned, smoothing his hair. "Oh. It's you. They're not really my fans, Artemis."

Artemis was indignant. "Whyever not? Haven't they heard your lovely music? Well, anyway. Hello, AEs, Artemis here." She flashed them a smile. She seemed like the cool, sporty older sister that most of them had never had. "This is Apollo, and that's Ares in the corner."

"I thought Ariella was the god of war...?" said Ares. (Oh dear me no, it's vice versa: Ariella said Ares was the god of war. Don't blame me, it's all these "A" names. Very confusing. And three of them starting with "Ar"!)

"He is technically," said Artemis. "But he prefers to hang out in the gym and make social media videos about his fitness. It's better than real war, of course, but still - you'd think Ares could do something intelligent with his time. But he's never done anything intelligent in all his born days. Come along, Apollo, let's get back to our game."

"And let's get back to our vacuuming!" said Kauri.

They all began to vacuum the gym, to the great surprise of Apollo and Artemis, and Juniper even went up and dusted Ares, who was indignant. "Hey, now you've ruined my latest TikTok livestream!" was his remark. "Well, you wouldn't like to  come out on TikTok looking all dusty, would you?" demanded Juniper, gently shaking a finger at him, and she bounced off.

Astra (another "A" name!) and Oriole, dusting the basketball net, saw someone coming toward them. It wasn't Alyssa (oh dear me, another A) or Orion, the two "suspicious" AEs. It looked like Rumi, but they couldn't be sure, focusing intently on their dusting. A moment later they found themselves falling through the air, borne aloft by the winds of the duster... into their bedrooms at home.