Free GreekQuest by Herbie Brennan Page A

fact, to tell you the truth I’ve already made the arrangements. Come with me and you can watch what happens.”
    You follow him a little sheepishly to find Paris already waiting a little distance from the city walls, his sword already in his hand. Menelaus breaks away from his men and runs towards him, his own sword swinging.
    Within minutes it looks as if Menelaus has the upper hand. Paris slips, falls. Menelaus moves in for the kill.
    But suddenly a cloud surrounds the fallen Paris and he rises upwards to float out of reach over the walls to the safety of his native Troy.
    Menelaus stamps back angrily towards you. “What do you think happened there?” he demands.
    â€œParis has been practising Transcendental Meditation?” you venture.
    â€œNonsense!” snaps Menelaus. “Aphrodite carried him to safety. That sort of trick has Aphrodite written all over it. Now, since that didn’t work, we have three possibilities as I see it - all-out attack, strategic retreat, or cunning ploy. Which do you vote for?”
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    All out attack takes you to 119 . Strategic retreat is at 113 . But if you can think of some cunning ploy that might do the trick, turn to 104 .
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    Please select an option from the previous page.

130
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    With far too little information on your situation in the Brief Guide, you squat down with your back against a convenient tree to do some serious thinking.
    Zeus talked about training and he’s certainly sent you to the right place to get it. But where and how exactly are you supposed to train? More to the point, how are you supposed to let Zeus know when you’re ready to tackle the main job in Troy? All tricky questions.
    After a bit of hard thinking, you come to the conclusion that the place to train is the city of Sparta itself and the way to let Zeus know you’re ready would be at his temple, which a city like Sparta would certainly have.
    You stand up again and wander further down the hillside until you emerge from the trees. Beneath you is a fertile river valley with a clustering of five villages at one end on the edge of a vast, broad plain, but no sign at all of the city you’re looking for. Obviously you’re going to need directions.
    Fortunately there’s a group of yokels working in a nearby field. One is chewing a straw and watching the others, presumably some sort of foreman. You stroll casually up to him.
    â€œExcuse me, good peasant,” you greet him cheerfully, “but could you tell me the way to Sparta City please?”
    He looks you up and down and spits on your sandal by way of reply.
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    Charming! But when in Rome - er, Greece, do as the Greeks do and this one’s obviously spoiling for a fight. It’ll have to be a bare-knuckle affair since you want some answers and there are few forthcoming from a corpse. The way it works is this:
    The yokel making free with his goobers has 35 Life Points. If you can bring these down below 10 without killing him, you can ask him the question again at 6 . If you kill him accidentally, you’ll have to sort out something very different at 47 . If he brings you down below 10 without killing you, you’ll fall over unconscious and wake up at 95 . If he accidentally kills you, go to 13 . Nobody uses weapons even if they have them.
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    Please select an option from the previous page.

131
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    â€œHow very kind of you,” you remark politely. “I could do with a bit of home cooking.”
    Which is exactly what you get when you arrive at Pericles’ (that’s his name) home. The first course is a plate of sea urchins garnished with olives, garlic and radishes.
    â€œA toast to Dionysus!” calls your host, pouring goblets of wine.
    You’re still fighting to keep the radishes from making rude noises in your stomach when the second course arrives - herb-stuffed tuna cooked in sea water and really delicious.
    â€œA toast to love!” exclaims Pericles,