The Ambassador of Athena

Canoeing on the lake was awesome. The magic removal even thought about my swim shorts and beach towels, so I didn’t had to borrow something.
I wore one of the orange shirts as a protection from the war June sun, and so did Rachel over her bikini. We got canoes and set off to the lake. The water was clear, so clear you could see the ground and the naiads playing underwater-volleyball and weaving baskets out of sea grass. We paddled across the lake, Rachel ahead of me. I thought I saw a Greek temple in the middle of the lake, but I had no time checking it.
“So, Florian, where do you come from?” she asked me.
I told her what I have told everyone else before, but she wasn’t confident with that.
“Give me more information. I’ve never been to Europe. How is it to live there?”
I laughed, but I gave her more information:
“I grew up in a really small town, at least according to American measurements. It only had around 4.000 inhabitants. My parents own the local pharmacy, the only one in the whole valley, so we were well-off. I visited high school in the next biggest town, this one had 15.000 inhabitants. After High school I went to University, I studied Ancient History. My special looks were on Greek and Roman Mythology. I’ve read every story about the great heroes and the gods.”
Rachel turned her canoe around and stopped it next to mine.
“Really? I LOVE stories about heroes. I’ve read everything I could get about them.”
I laughed. “I am sure you didn’t know that Odysseus really lived on Ithaca.”
She really looked as if she didn’t know. “No way.”
I smiled.
“Really. I helped digging up his palace, that’s how I got here in the first place.”
I saw her questioning look and laughed. “I’ll tell you the whole story.”
And so I did. When I finished she looked at me in awe.
“You really fought that boar all on your own? With no training at all? Impressive”
I blushed. “I am a member of the archery club at home, so I had training.”
She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders.
“If you say so. But it is impressive. Many campers here would kill to be in your place, literally. Since Gaias uprising a few years ago the most spectacular events are the horseraces and capture the flag. Most ‘great’ monsters were killed in the war, the rest is hiding. Not many are coming back from Tartarus since the Doors of Death are closed.”
I was confused. “Isn’t that good? I mean, it makes life easier for a demigod?”
She shrugged her shoulders again and said:
“Yes, of course. But we demigods quickly get bored and want to fight. And there has been no Quest either, so no action.”
I had an idea and thought about realising it, but first I dismissed the thought. Then I thought a second time about it and came to the conclusion that I had nothing to lose.
So I put my master plan into effect:
I tripped Rachel’s canoe with my paddle so she fell into the water.

Long story short, we ended up both in the water. After a while of fighting each other we both got reinforcements: Percy and Annabeth joined us, though Percy was a one-man army. He crashed down on us on a tidal wave while Annabeth just paddled behind him. When I came to the surface again Percy just sat on the water, literally. His legs weren’t sinking into the water.
“Cool move Percy” I said and hold on to my canoe. Rachel’s has floated away so she climbed on board of mine, her blonde hair dripping wet and hanging into her face.
Annabeth rowed next to us and hit Percy softly on the back of his head with her paddle.
“Excuse my boyfriend, he is a complete show-off. We just came to tell you that you can sit with the Hermes’ or Athena’s cabin tonight at dinner. It might seem unimportant for you now, but it is, trust me.”
I flinched and looked shortly at Rachel, but then I caught myself again and said: “I’ll stick with the Athena campers if you don’t mind.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Ok, then see you in three hours for dinner.” And she paddled off. Percy winked at me and followed here, casually walking on the water after her.
Rachel just stared at me. After a second I had to ask:
“Why are you staring?”
She slowly shook her head.
“You know what Annabeth and Percy did? They saved the world. Twice. They are the celebrities here at camp. They are around the whole time, but only those of us other demigods who knew them before they saved the world again a few years ago dare to talk to them like they are one of us. It’s not like they forced us to do, but after they flew over to Europe and single-handedly saved the world it kind of felt right.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, and my face must have expressed that pretty good, because Rachel sighed and said: “Look, it’s as if you would come to Hollywood where the stars are living, but they are around you permanently and acting normally. Their old friends from school time are around you too and they act normally towards them, but you can’t, because they seem so outstanding and special. Do you understand now?”
I did, and I continued her thought: “And I am the stranger from outside who has never heard about the celebrities and acts around them as I would around everyone. I understand now.”
Rachel looked at me still strangely. “And now that you know what they did you don’t praise them? You don’t think they are superior?”
I thought a bit about that before I answered.
“No. I don’t think other about them. My first experience of them was normal, so I will see them as normal, even if they saved the world. It’s not like they are half gods… “
Ok, this was not the best joke I’ve ever told, not even close to a good one, but it was so silly Rachel laughed anyway, and I joined in. When we finally stopped laughing we have floated over to the pier.
“Let’s head on to the climbing wall.” Rachel suggested when we climbed on the wooden planks and pulled the canoe out. “I want to see with my own eyes if you are that good at climbing.”

We went directly to the climbing wall, still in our swimming clothes. The sun was burning down, so the wet t-shirts were really helpful with cooling. When we marched up the hill towards the wall Rachel walked by my side telling me how she came to camp first when she was 15, pretty old for a demigod. She said that she isn’t one of the extremely powerful demigods, that is also why she hasn’t had any problems with monsters before she found out that her mother was Athena. Her only power was that she was excellent at school, especially in Maths and Physics, and at the moment she was studying these subjects at the University of New Rome. That reminded me of my best friend back at home, Clemens, who was studying the same subjects at my “Alma Mater”, in Innsbruck.
“You would definitely like my friend; he is the same kind of freak like you.”
She looked clearly offended and I worried that I went too far, but when she saw my expression she cracked a smile and punched me in the shoulder.
“Maybe I will meet him someday. I ever wanted to go to Europe.”
“Then you have to visit me. If I can go back of course. Clemens is the smartest guy I know; he is definitely the smartest kid of his 3 siblings.”
She looked curious and asked: “He has 3 siblings?”
I nodded. “Yeah, an older and a younger brother and a younger sister…” my voice faded and bad memories started to come up. I quickly suppressed them, but I had bad luck.
“You know, a half-sister of me has three brothers too, and she’s from Austria too. Any chance you know her? She was here before I came here, but she came here every summer. Her name is Johanna.”
I swallowed hard and cleared my throat before I said.
“I know, or better knew her pretty well.”
My voice must have sounded bad, because she just mumbled “Oh…” and said nothing more.
I’ve had that reaction before when people mentioned her in my presence. I could have the best mood and haven’t thought about her for weeks, but as soon as someone said a comment like: “It’s good to see you in a good mood again.” or “Good you finally forgot about her” changed my mood immediately, mostly because I knew that those were lies: I haven’t been in a really good mood ever since we broke up, and all my jokes or other smiles were just acting. I became better with the time, but every time I saw her by accident I turned around and got drunk in the evening or just buried myself in my room and read or sleep.
But enough of my situation, let’s get back to the action.

The climbing wall still wasn’t a challenge for me. A short warm-up, stretching and off I went up the wall. I was faster than Rachel, but she was pretty fast too. At the top I sat down and looked down to her.
“Oh, come on, you are better than that!” I called down to her.
“Oh, just wait till I get up there!” she answered. She made it to the top, heavy breathing and already sweating, even though she wore the wet T-shirt over the red bikini.
“You are that good as the others were saying.” She said when she sat down next to me.
“Who do you mean by others?”
I could swear she blushed and tucked a stray of hair behind her ear.
“Well, eh, we, I mean the other campers, we decided to kind of follow you and Rachel when she showed you around so we could see what the new one was like…”
She really looked ashamed, but I just smiled.
“So, what were your findings?”
She clenched her hands, but she told me.
“Well, first the Apollo campers who were playing volleyball described you to us as shy but witty, even quick-witted. Then Rosie, the daughter of Tyche said you were interested and not easy to surprise when you were at Arts and Crafts. Then Marc and Patrick followed you to the climbing wall and saw you climbing it easily. That was very impressive they said. The campers you met at the cabins told us where you came from and the other details Rachel gave them. Then the Ares-kids that got beaten up by Frank said you looked strong and swift, but not trained like a fighter, but with potential. One of them, Henry, he can judge people pretty good by their physics, an Ares thing, and he said you are more a distant fighter type. The Hephaestus-children you passed at the forges told us you have a magic shape-changing bow together with an even more magical quiver. And finally the Aphrodite-girls said you were cute and handsome with a nice smile…” Now she really blushed. I laughed and asked:
“What do you think about me now that you have talked to me in person?”
She didn’t look me in the eyes but she said: “Well, they were right; you are a good climber and are quick-witted.”
“And am I handsome and cute?” I asked with a smile.
Her head became even redder if even possible, but I saved her from answering that question.
“You don’t have to answer that question; I know I am the best-looking guy on the northern hemisphere.”
She smiled, and then she burst out laughing. “Oh, come on, no one has that high self-esteem.”
I smiled. “Who knows? Ready for a rematch?”

We climbed up the wall over and over again till the sun started to sink. We first stepped by at the Athena’s cabin so Rachel could change. I expected that it would take her at least half an hour to get changed, but she surprised me when she came out of the cabin after only 10 minutes. I have to admit that I was impressed. She didn’t only change into jeans, white blouse and red Converse; she even combed her hair and dried them, put on a decent touch of makeup, barely noticeable and wore a necklace with an owl on it. I was sitting by the fire pit when she left the cabin and came over to me.
“Nice outfit.” I said when she stood in front of me. She smiled and turned around one time so I could see her from all sides. I have to admit she looked really good, pretty. I pulled myself together and said: “I have to change too, so come on; I’ll show you my house from the inside.

I told Rachel to make her comfortable in the living room whilst I got changed. I found my favourite jeans in a drawer, but there was no sign of my T-shirts anywhere, so I searched the drawers in the bathroom and the kitchen, but I all I found was toothpaste and pots. So I went in the living room to search there. Rachel sat on the couch, her legs crossed and reading in one of my historic books, one about the Medici-family.
“Did you know that the Medici were the most-gifted descendants from Hermes?” she said without looking up from the book “They were excellent with money and intrigues.”
I was rummaging through the drawers beside the door and didn’t look up when I said:
“It doesn’t really surprise me. They had one of the biggest collections of antiques and were founders of the Renaissance.”
Rachel looked up from the book and looked at me curiously.
“Why are you rummaging through a drawer in the living room, topless?”
I didn’t answer and just pulled out my favourite T- shirt I just found under the mass of magazines about history.
Now Rachel looked more confused than curious.
“Why is a T-shirt in the drawer in the living room?”
“Magic delivery. Don’t ask.” I said and pulled the T-shirt over my head. When I finally managed to straighten it down I caught Rachel staring at my shoulder. “What’s the matter?” I asked her. She still stared at my shoulder, so I had to repeat my question. Rachel shook her head and whispered: “That’s her owl on your shoulder, isn’t it?”
Now I was confused, really confused. “Which owl? Athena’s?” I asked her, and she nodded.
“Yes, it is Athena’s owl. I am her ambassador.”
Rachel’s jaw dropped. “You are the Ambassador of my mother? No kidding?”
I shook my head and showed her the owl again. “I am, but I have no idea what that means.”
Rachel laughed, and it sounded a little bit hysterical. “Oh, it just means you are chosen from the goddess of wisdom. You have great power here at camp. Your word counts as if the goddess herself would say something. The whole Athena cabin will stand behind you and follow your lead if they find out who you are. They will fight for you, they will listen to you, but most of all they will look up to you.”
I made a face and said: “Ok, now I am a little bit concerned.”
Rachel smiled and stood up. “You don’t have to be.” She said and laid a hand on my arm “You will fulfil all that; otherwise Athena would not have chosen you. You’ll see.”
She took my hand and dragged me to the door.
“And now let’s go to the dining pavilion, I have a feeling tonight’s sing-along will be great.”

Notes

I hope you like it, its a little bit long.
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