The Olympic Games of Greece

THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF GREECE
WRITTEN BY
JORDI ORTIZ
ILLUSTRATED BY
MIGUEL ÁNGEL SAURA

THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF GREECE
WRITTEN BY
JORDI ORTIZ
ILLUSTRATED BY
MIGUEL ÁNGEL SAURA

Hi!
I love to read
and learn new things.
And now I can visit every
CIVILIZATION in history.
CHRISTINA
Hey! How're you doing?
I'm not as smart as Christina
or as strong as Seldon,
but I love ADVENTURE.
VICTOR
Can any of you guys
think of a bigger thrill than
traveling through time?
•6•

Hey! I make sure my
cousin Christina and my
pals, Victor and Ibis, don't
get into any messes.
The Olympic Games of Greece
MEET THE GANG
But I have to say that
I'm not keen on
that TIME MACHINE
at all.
Tee-hee!
Me and Cali are
real, real old.
She's sixty-five million years
old, and I was born in Egypt
FOUR THOUSAND, FIVE
HUNDRED years ago!
SELDON
CALI
IBIS
•7•

Hmm. There's no doubt that
I'm the most important
GENIUS in the world. I've
made time travel possible!
But I didn't foresee that Eternal
Maleficent would try to interfere
with my plans. I fear that the
Explorers may be in danger.
PROFESSOR
SOCKRATES

The Olympic Games of Greece
…AND US TOO
What were Sockrates and
his bunch of brats thinking?
Nobody can get the better of
Eternal Maleficent, the greatest
scientist in all HISTORY! Ha, ha!
They should be shaking
in their shoes!
I can become whoever I like,
and they'll never find me out. If
I had a soul, I'd even feel sorry
for them! BWAHAHAHA!
ETERNAL
MALEFICENT
•9•

THE
OLYMPIC
GAMES
OF
GREECE

TO GREECE BY LIMOUSINE
Seldon yawned as he waited to go into Cadaqués High. Victor
looked around to make sure they couldn't be overheard and
whispered to him:
Haven't you got
over the VIKING
adventure yet?
No, I haven't.
Last night I dreamed that I was
ROWING the drakkar all by myself
from Greenland to Iceland.

The Olympic Games of Greece
“And when I got there, I realized I'd left my BREAKFAST sandwich
behind and had to go back and get it,” Seldon went on.
“Jeepers! You have such tiring dreams!” joked Victor.
Seldon yawned again.
“Hey!” Christina warned as she ran over to them, pushing her way
through the noisy crowd of students.
“What's up?” her cousin asked.
“The CANDIES!”
“The candies? What…?”
Christina had no time to explain any more. All of a sudden, she
heard the sound of a CAR HORN honking insistently. All the school
kids immediately ran over to see what was going on. Christina held
on to the two boys to hurry them along.
“The candies! It's Archie, he's come to pick us up.”
“Cool!” exclaimed Victor.
“We've just got out of one MESS, and something tells me that
another one's right around the corner,” objected Seldon. He put
his hand in his pocket, pulled out a handful of licorice candies that
Gertrude had made, and put them in his mouth.
•13•

“Come on, animal,” Victor rebuked him. “One's enough.”
“Mmm. Yum, yum. Gertrude'll give me some more.”
A very long, pink LIMOUSINE was blocking the street where the
school was.
Hooooonk!!! Honk! Hooonk!
The glass panel in the roof slid open, and Ibis, who was standing on
the back seat, stuck her head out. She immediately CLAMBERED
UP onto the roof and sat there with her legs dangling inside. Cali
tried to stand up next to her friend, but she kept slipping down.
Archie, in a chauffer's cap and the black and red striped WAISTCOAT
he always wore, opened the door and got out. He looked around for
the children. Ibis waved her arms about so they would spot her.
The ornithosaurus, who still wasn't over the chill she'd caught by

The Olympic Games of Greece
plunging into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic, sneezed
and broke wind at the same time.
Ibis cupped her hands and yelled, “Christina! Victor! Seldon! We're
over here!”
Cali tried to REPEAT this, but with little success. “CHRISTINA!
ACHOO!!! VICTOR! PFFFT!!! SELDON!"
“Coming!” replied Christina, dragging her friends to the limo.
Seeing dozens of NOSY classmates blocking their way, Victor
groaned, “We'll never get through.”
“Oh, won't we?” Seldon asked slyly. “We'll see about that.”
Seldon pushed through in no time at all. He looked like an
AMERICAN FOOTBALL player player crossing the other side's
defense. Victor followed him, as cool as a cucumber.
Archie dipped the peak of his cap in greeting and opened the
middle door to the limo.
“Miss Christina, please be so kind as to climb in.”
“Thank you, Archie.”
•15•

Holding the door open, Professor Sockrates' butler said, “I am
pleased to see you again, young Miss and Masters. Have you eaten
the candies?”
“You bet! They're real good, Archie,” replied Seldon. “I'll sit next to
you; I get CARSICK if I don't ride shotgun.”
Victor thought it was great that Ibis was sitting on the roof, so he
climbed up the back to be with her. She clapped her hands and
laughed as she waited for him. He sat down next to her and said,
“Ready when you are, Archie.”
“If you don't mind, Master Victor, I should feel much happier if
you and Miss Ibis did the journey seated inside the vehicle like the
others, not on the roof.”
Feeling a little disappointed, Victor and Ibis sat next to Christina.
Cali fell into the car headfirst. The butler then closed the door, put
two fingers into a POCKET on the right-hand side of his waistcoat,
and took out some green powder. He threw it into the air, and it
•16•

The Olympic Games of Greece
dispersed slowly, like a mist. The children around the limo stood
stock-still, as if suddenly turned into blocks of ice.
The green MIST slowly spread out and had the same effect on
everyone that was enveloped by it.
“That's awesome!” Victor exclaimed.
“I guess we're protected thanks to the licorice candies,” said
Christina, who was just as surprised but much more given to
reflection. “But when the effect of the powder wears off, we're
going to have a lot of explaining to do. Also, anyone who comes
across these human statues will get a shock.”
“Don't worry, Miss Christina,” Archie reassured her. “The TIME-
STOPPING powder will spread out over the whole town. Cadaqués
will be cut off from the world in a few minutes. When you come
back, you'll have to throw a dose of time-starting powder to make
everything normal again. Oh, excuse me. It would be convenient
if nobody remembered this little incident. Allow me to use the
FORGETTING powder.”
The butler took a pinch of pumpkin-colored powder from his other
pocket, the left one, and blew it so that it spread out over the group
of teenagers who had been so excited moments ago. He put his cap
back on and climbed into the limousine.
“Professor Sockrates is expecting you,” he said and set off
immediately.
“Archie,” said Victor. “Have you got any of that powder left over?”
•17•

“If what Master is hinting is that he would like to use the timestopping
powder and the forgetting powder for his own PERSONAL
ends, I regret to inform him that Professor Sockrates will not
entertain the idea.”
“Oh. Pity.”
“Archie, can you honk the horn?” asked Ibis.
“Naturally.”
Hooonk! Hooonk!
“Archie…”
“Yes, Miss Christina.”
“Is everything ready for our next MISSION?”
“Yes, he has done all the calculations. I have the pleasure of
informing you that you are going to Greece today, to the Olympic
Games in the year 556 BC.
Go back in time!
The Time Clock takes you there
through the Bibliochronohistories.
Explorers, do you know what year
the first modern Olympic Games
were held?
1896.
Pierre de
Coubertin, founder
of the International
Olympic Committee
will share his dream
with you on page 160.

THE HERO'S WREATH
The Olympic Games of Greece
•19•

•21•
The Olympic Games of Greece

Go back in time!
The Time Clock takes you there
through the Bibliochronohistories.
Zeus.
Explorers, do you know which
god ruled over all the others,
according to the Ancient Greeks?
The writer Agatha
Christie will tell you
about Greek mythology
on page 163.
•22•

•23•
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•24•

•25•
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•26•

The Olympic Games of Greece

•28•

A GENIUS DRAWING
ON THE GROUND
The Olympic Games of Greece
However accurate the coordinates put into the Time Machine
were, there was no way of knowing beforehand exactly
where the exit to the Time Tunnel would end up. It was usually
someplace HIDDEN. Too well-hidden, sometimes.
“This cave is real narrow. I can barely move,” Seldon grumbled
when he came out of the Time Tunnel.
“It's not a cave,” said his cousin. “It's a CRACK in the rock. If you
look up, you can see the sky. Don't fret, we'll be out in a minute.”
“I hope you're right. Meanwhile, Ibis, can you get Cali off my head?
Wretched critter!”
“Tee-hee! Be a good girl, Cali.”
Once they were outside, they looked around to see where they had
come out.
“What a RIDICULOUS mountain,” jeered Victor.
“It's not a mountain,” explained Christina, “it's called the Hill of
Cronus. It's just a little hill above Olympia.”
“Very little,” Seldon pointed out. “That's why there's no room for
even one decent cave.”
•29•

“Look!” cried Ibis, breaking into a run. “There's the path. Come on,
Cali!”
They had walked less than fifty yards around the hill when they
saw a view that left them SPEECHLESS.
“So that's Olympia,” marveled Victor. He turned to Christina and
asked, “You wouldn't happen to know what all those buildings and
things are, by any chance?”
“Of course, I do. I bothered to do a bit of research at the
HYPERMEGASUPERBIBLIOMUSEUM while you were busy trying
on sandals.”
“It was Seldon that tried one pair after another. I found some that
fitted straight away.”
“What am I supposed to say to that?” asked Seldon defensively.
“They all squashed my feet! It was real hard to convince Gertrude
to get me some bigger ones. She thinks I have feet like a flea. And

The Olympic Games of Greece
Victor was no help, laughing all the time. By the way, I've brought
a bag of walnuts. Want one?”
“But we've barely even digested the language beans yet,” protested
Christina. “I don't know how you can be so hungry. Ha, ha!”
“I'll wait till we get to the STADIUM,” said Victor. “When I'm sitting
comfortably watching the Games, I might feel like a little snack.
How many spectators does it hold, Christina?”
“Around forty thousand.”
“Wow! Awesome! There must be folks there from all over Greece.”
“Yeah. In fact, there'll just be MEN,” Christina said unenthusiastically.
“Men?” Seldon was surprised. “What about the women?”

“We're not allowed into the stadium.”
“You must mean they can't compete?” Seldon tried to get his head
around the situation.
“No, I mean we're not allowed to access the stadium. It's
FORBIDDEN. Unless we have some bright idea, Ibis and I will have
to stay outside.”
Seldon stopped dead and gave the two walnuts he was holding in
his hand a hard squeeze. Tiny pieces of shell and nut fell to the
floor.
“Just a minute. You must've known that BEFORE we got into the
Time Machine…”
The professor and I didn't
say anything because we
didn't want to worry you.
•32•

The Olympic Games of Greece
Seldon rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead with the hand that
wasn't holding pieces of crushed walnut in it. Victor tried to calm
him down.
“Come on, Seldon. It's only a little HITCH. There are lots of places
you're allowed into, right Christina?”
“Well, I'm not sure,” Christina admitted.
They carried on walking along the path that went down to
Olympia. Seldon was muttering non-stop that the mission would
be a DISASTER. Ibis and Cali came running back. While Cali pecked
at the bits of nut that Seldon had dropped, Ibis said, “We went all
the way to the end of the path. There's a gate into the city that's
being watched by two guards, and there are lots of people walking
along a wide street that goes over a river. The guards let the men
through but not the women. Weird, right?”
“Huh!” muttered Seldon.
“Oh,” the little girl went on, “and there's a very MYSTERIOUS guy
near the entrance.”
“Mysterious?” asked Victor.
“Yeah. He's sitting down, drawing on the ground with a stick. Come
on! You'll see.”
•33•