#13 Vacation Under the Volcano

Annie dreamed the fire were burning and everything was smoky and dark and the ground was shaking. After waking up, she wanted to go to the tree house. When Jack and Annie met Morgan le Fay in the tree house, she handed a scroll which had a secret code written in Latin , the language of the ancient Romans of Italy. And she also gave them a book about Roman times. She sent them to an ancient Rome to save a story.

When Jack and Annie arrived in Pompeii, Annie felt something strange would happen. But they kept looking for the secret code into the city. They walked around city of Pompeii which seemed not much different from the streets of this time. In the forum, they came across a soothsayer who said that the end was near and wanted them to go home. But they had to find a secret code.

They passed by the public baths and the Temple of Jupiter and the forum where the Romans prayed and discussed politics. After leaving the forum, they saw gladiators walking towards the amphitheater to fight. Gladiators were slaves or criminals who were forced to fight each other or wild animals. Jack and Annie were not allowed to go in the amphitheater. The soothsayer said the library was in the villas of Brutus. In the house of Brutus, they found that books were scrolls in Roman times and they got the right scroll which matched the secret code of theirs.

After getting the scroll, Jack discovered that the Mt. Vesuvius would erupt at noon. The volcano started to erupt and the pumice rained down from the sky and the building started to collapse. Jack and Annie choked on the rotten fumes. They put on the cushion on their head to protect their heads from the pumices falling down from the sky. They managed to go back to the tree house. But the bridge they should cross was gone because of the volcano eruption. They stuck in the pumice and got in trouble. Then Annie remembered what Morgan said right before they left the Frog Creek, ¡°In your darkest hour, only the ancient story can save you!¡± So Annie shouted holding the scroll, ¡°Save us story!¡± Then a giant gladiator showed up and held Jack and Annie in each his hand and placed them on the other side of the stream and said, ¡°Run, before it¡¯s too late.¡± They charged through the olive grove and scrambled into the tree house and came back to the Frog Creek safely. After returning from Pompeii, the sound of erupting volcano still echoed in Jack¡¯s ears. Morgan was deeply grateful that Jack and Annie risked everything to bring the book to her. They rescued a lost tale about Hercules. The gladiator who saved them was Hercules who is the son of Jupiter, the chief God in Greek Myth.