Twisted Wonderland

Awake Again

You open your eyes to a blinding bright light. You shield your eyes until they adjust to the light. Looking around, you see fluffy clouds all around you. It feels as if you're floating forward and you see a golden, towering gate. It has golden lightning bolts and clouds on it. The gates open and you float through. What you see beyond the gates takes your breath away. The clouds have shaped themselves to form a large structure. It looks like a huge, grand temple.

A castle in the clouds.

The temple rushes towards you and you're suddenly inside. The floor is still made of clouds. In fact, everything looks like it's made of clouds. You hide behind one of the cloud pillars.

You gasp when you see people everywhere. But what surprises you the most was that everyone's skin was glowing with a variety of different colors. Glitter shimmers from their hair and clothes.

Just where am I?

You hear laughter and you look up to see an incredibly beautiful woman holding a baby. The baby grabs her crown and plays with it.

"Hercules, behave yourself." She takes the crown and sets the baby down in a cradle.

A very tall and muscular man approaches the cradle. "Oh, look at this. Look how cute he is."

He babbles and waves a finger at the baby. The baby giggles and catches the man by his finger and lifts above his cradle.

The man laughs. "Oh, he's strong! Like his Dad, hmm?"

Wait, the baby actually lifted that guy?

"Whoa! Excuse me!"

Looking back to the crowd, you see a shorter man zipping through. "Hot stuff coming through! Excuse me one side, Ares."

He stops in front of the woman and holds out a large bouquet of glowing flowers. You see he has wings on his shoes, making it so he can fly.

"For you, lady Hera."

The woman takes the flowers. "Why, Hermes, they're lovely."

Hermes shrugs. "Yeah, you know, I had Orpheus do the arrangement. Isn't that too nutty?" He flies over to the man. "Fabulous party, Zeus. You know, I haven't seen this much love in a room since Narcissus discovered himself."

You notice the baby has grabbed hold of something. It looks to be shaped like a lightning bolt. Hera notices too.

"Dear, keep those away from the baby."

Zeus holds Hera close and laughs. "Oh, he won't hurt himself. Let the kid have a little fun."

Hercules brings the lightning bolt to his mouth. It sparks and the baby's hair stands on end.

That's an actual lightning bolt?

Hercules throws the lightning bolt away in frustration. The crowd jumps away from the bolts path. A woman in armor hits it with her sword, sending the lighting bolt flying to the pillar you're hiding behind. You duck as the bolt strikes through the pillar but the clouds immediately repairs itself.

Zeus laughs and gestures with a hand. "Oh, on behalf of my son, I want to thank you all for your wonderful gifts."

You look to where he's gesturing and your eyes widen at the massive golden pile of toys. Hera looks to Zeus. "What about our gift, dear?"

Zeus brings a hand to his chin. "Well, let's see here..." Zeus grabs at the clouds around him. "We'll take, hmm, yes, a little cirrus, and, hmm, a touch of nimbostratus, and a dash of cumulus."