Hi, Dani here. Tommy, Nicky and I have been at it again. In case you don't know what it is, last year my best friend Nicky and I had to do a history report on Gilgamesh. No big deal you may think, but as part of our research, we came across an incantation that sent us back in time. How far back you ask? Nicky, my little brother Tommy and I went to somewhere in neighborhood of 2500BC. We met King Gilgamesh of Uruk, went with him on a quest to obtain the secret of immortality, and helped him to understand that living forever wasn't the only way to become immortal.

This time we were studying Ancient Greece. Our assignment was to pick a god or goddess and do a report on them. This time, I picked Hermes before anybody else could get it. I didn't want to get stuck with somebody lame like Hephaestus. Get it, lame, because Hephaestus is crippled. Anyway, I knew as soon as Mr. Reed, our World History teacher, said report, we would go back in time again to get the details. After all, if Gilgamesh and his gods were real, why wouldn't Zeus and his kids be real?

That afternoon Nicky and I waited on the front porch for Tommy to get home from soccer practice, so we could tell him about our assignment. He was instrumental to our very survival when we went to Sumer, so even though he just turned 11, we wouldn't consider going back in time without him. After dinner that night, which just happened to be Friday, we went to my room to do research on the Internet, or so we told our mom and Nicky's dad. See Nicky and his dad live in the bottom half of our duplex in Sarasota. Mom, Tommy and I live in the top half.

"So are we going to go now?" Tommy asked, so excited he was actually bouncing on my bed.

"What if one of them comes to check on us?" Nicky asked.

"Look, I think we should really do our homework first this time. We'll find out what we can about Hermes tonight then tomorrow when Mom goes to the grocery, we'll go back in time," I suggested. Last time we didn't know anything about Gilgamesh when we went back in time, but luckily I had a book about the king in my hand when we read the incantation, so we crammed before we found him. This time, I wanted to have a clue before we left.

We found a lot of information about the son of Zeus on the Internet. We learned about him being the messenger, delivery boy if you will, of the gods. As it turns out he was also a messenger between the gods and mortals. We found out he help Perseus get to Medusa, he gave Odysseus some magic herbs that cured his men when Circe turned them into pigs, he also made Calypso let Odysseus and his men leave her island, he killed Argos, the hundred-eyed guard, he took the King of Troy safely across the battlefield to retrieve his son's body, and he created the ram with the golden fleece to save a couple of little kids from being sacrificed. We also learned that Hermes had lots of kids including Pan, the god of the wild, and Hermaphroditus, his part son/part daughter that he had with Aphrodite. By far though, the most interesting thing Hermes did was what he did just after he was born. We decided that was the time we wanted to return to.

It was hard for me to sleep that night. I was excited and a little nervous about what we were going to do the next day. The first time, we didn't have time to think about what we were doing. No sooner had Nicky found the incantation in a dusty old book then we were in Sumer walking through the desert. This time was different. We would be going into this quest with a lot more information, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous. Hermes might be immortal, but we certainly were not. When I finally did fall asleep, I had a strange dream. I was walking up a steep path on a mountain. I was almost to the top, when I heard a sound. I stop and waited to see if I could see anything. It was very dark. I only had the stars in the sky to light my way. After several minutes of not seeing or hearing anything else, I started climbing again. When I finally reached the top, I stopped to catch my breath and took a seat on a rock near the opening of a cave. I was still sitting there when an animal came out to the cave. No, not an animal, a man. He was wearing Greek robes and had curly black hair and a full beard. I thought he saw me, but before I could say anything, he turned into an eagle and flew quickly away. Once it was quiet again, I heard a woman's voice coming from inside the cave. I went inside to see if she was alright because it sounded like she was crying.

I found this beautiful woman lying on some bedding in the back of the cave. She was startled when she saw me, but when she noticed I was a girl, she relaxed. "Are you alright?" I asked her going to her side.

"Yes, little one. You should not be here," he said softly.

"That man, did he hurt you?" I continued ignoring her warning.

"Hurt, no though I did not ask for his visit," she said. "I thought I had hidden myself far enough away. I was wrong."

"Was that Lord Zeus?" I asked since he turned into an eagle.

"Yes, now I must worry about Lady Hera and her rage," the woman said sounding scared.

"You are Maia," I said, "Daughter of Atlas."

"You know much little one," she said, "But knowledge is not always a safe thing."

"I'll be okay," I says, "After all, I'm not really here. I'm asleep in my bed at home in Florida."

"Florida," she says like she's never heard the name before. "Is that close to Sparta?"

"No, it's a long way from Sparta," I said with a chuckle. Just then I woke to a knock on my bedroom door.

"Dani, you need to sort out your laundry," my mom called from the doorway. It took me a few seconds to realize that I had just been dreaming.

"Sure thing, Mom," I called back then got out of bed.