The 13th Labor of Heracles

**Yes I do mean Heracles no Hercules. This is the greek one.**


"Wait!" yelled Eurystheus as Heracles tried to walk out the door after finishing his 12th labor. "Your Labors aren’t done yet!"

"Why not? I’ve done ten labors and some. What do you want with me now?"

"After a long discussion Hera and I have decided that the 11th labor doesn’t count because Atlas got the golden apples, not you. Now for your last labor you must get the magic fairy dust from the queen of the fairies whom know one has ever seen before." ordered Eurystheus.

Heracles let out a great sigh of exhaustion and set off. No one had ever seen where the castle of the fairies was so no one knew how to get there. Heracles wandered around for a year just looking for a clue as to where to look.

One day Heracles was wandering through the woods when he saw a beautiful maiden picking flowers in a field. He approached the girl and asked her if she had any idea where he could find the castle of the fairies. She told him she was not certain how to get there but she did know that the only horse that could make the trip was a horse that live in the field north of this. It had never been ridden and hated all people. So Heracles took off for the next field but suddenly realized he forgot to thank the maiden. When he turned around he saw that she had suddenly disappeared.

When he reached the field he looked around and saw a beautiful white mare peacefully grazing. How could this creature ever hurt anyone? He slow crept up and put his hand on the horse’s flank. Suddenly, the horse’s head snapped around at lightning speed, just missing his arm.

"Okay, maybe this won’t be so easy" he though as he reached out to touch the horse again. This time has he dodged the horse’s attempt to bite him, he accidentally tapped the horse on the nose. The horse threw her head in the air and stood still until Heracles was on her back.

Now that he had the horse, he had to search for the clues to the whereabouts of the fairy castle. He searched for months without finding a clue. One day, he was very thirsty, so he decided to get a drink from a nearby lake. As he bent down to get a sip, he saw a face which was not his own. It was a nymph that lived in the lake.

"Follow the river " said the nymph in her watery gurgle of a voice, "but be warned, there are poisonous serpents in the water that will bite if you move to quickly." Heracles thanked the nymph and started on his way. As he and his horse started down the river, they noticed shapes moving beside them in the water. Suddenly, the horse tripped and Heracles looked into the water nervously. Just then a snake slithered out of the water, over the horse’s withers and back into the water. Heracles breathed a sigh of relief. Finally the river ended, and there was the castle, sitting beautifully on a hill. Heracles and his horse got out of the water and trotted up to the front door happy to be alive. A fairy greeted him at the door and another took the horse and told him to come in for it was dark and cold outside.

Heracles came inside and asked to see the queen of the fairies. The fairies said to wait and then ran off into another part of the castle. After a while, another fairy came into the room. This fairy was the queen of the fairies and was more beautiful than anything that Heracles had ever seen.

"Can I help you?" asked the fairy queen.

"Yes" said Heracles. "I need to get some fairy dust for King Eurystheus."

"I will give you the fairy dust must you must stay the night. It is cold and dark and I don’t want you to get hurt." Said the fairy queen.

"Okay I will stay, but do you know if there is any way to get back to the Eurystheus’ castle faster? I want to be rid of these stupid labors as soon as possible" asked Heracles

"Yes there is one way but it is very dangerous. You have to go to the top of the mountain that is just behind the castle and defeat the dragon that lived in the cave on top. If you defeat the dragon you will be able to go though the cave. When you get to the other side you will be able to see Eurystheus’ castle." the fairy queen told him.

"I have one more question. How will I get the dust back to you?" said Heracles sleepily.

"Don’t worry about that. When you are done with it will disappear from your hands and reappear here. Now go to bed. I will get one of my fairies to show you the way." Replied the fairy queen. A fairy appeared and Heracles followed her to a room where he slept the night away.

Heracles woke the next morning to find himself lying in a field with no castle insight. His horse was there and at her feet was a bag of fairy dust. Heracles was confused. He could have sworn that he had gone to sleep in a bed in the fairy’s castle. Now he was in a large field with a river near by. The mountain the fairy queen had talked about was a long way away from him. He decided it was best to ride around and find out where he was. So he got on his horse and headed into the woods. When he came out the other side of the woods, there was Eurystheus’ castle off in the distance. He set off at a full gallop eager to finish his labor and get on with his life. The problem was that the faster he rode, the farther from the castle he went. Discouraged by this, Heracles slowed his horse to a walk and much to his surprise started making progress toward the castle. Slowly, Heracles closed in on the castle and after many weeks finally arrived.

Heracles entered the castle and found Eurystheus, dropped the bag of fairy dust into his hands and left never wanting to see his face again.

"Wait!" yelled Eurystheus once again.

"I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING MORE FOR YOU!!!!" Heracles yelled back to him.

"No I just wanted to know where did the dust go? I just had it. Where is it?" asked Eurystheus.

"It disappeared, just like I am going to." answered Heracles as he shut the door, got on his horse, which he kept and named Athena, and rode away.