The Ambassador of Athena

The dreams started as soon as I fell asleep again.
The tuxedo-guy was sitting in the back of a huge plane, the statue strapped on a cart with wheels and covered with a tarp that read “Antonov Airlines”. Holding onto ropes that dangled from the ceiling were the centaurs, all of them slightly green in the face. The intercom crackled, and a voice with a heavy Russian accent said:
“We are soon starting our descent, General. Shall we order something for your arrival?” The man touched the speak-button on his headset and answered.
“Order a transport helicopter that fits our… parcel. It has to be delivered as fast as possible.”
“Of course, General.”
One of the Gorgons stumbled across the room, her face worried.
“Master, I know we discussed this, but what if the fox failed?”
The man sighed.
“Look, Stheno, he is destined to never be caught. There is no chance they killed him, and if he isn’t killed they are.”
The gorgon still looked worried.
“But, we once met a demigod that couldn’t be killed.”
The stare the tuxedo-guy gave her made even me flinch, even though I knew I was safe. When she returned to her seat the dream dissolved.
The next dream formed almost immediately. I was in the black nothing again, and in front of me, typing into his phone again was…
“Morpheus?”
The god didn’t look up, he just said:
“Hold on a second, I just have to send this thought to that inventor in Sweden… Always busy when it comes to Scandinavia.”
He hit the send button and made his phone disappear. Morpheus looked up and smiled at me.
“Sorry for that. I am here for two reasons. First, could you be so kind to fill out this form?”
A clipboard appeared in my hands, on it a sheet with a poll on it, titled with “Morpheus’ dreams customer support poll’. I read a few questions, among them such as: On a scale from 1-10, how would you rate the accuracy of the dreams you received? (1 – totally inaccurate, 10 – totally correct.) or Describe the effects the dreams had on your everyday life? (100 words only)
I was confused, but I just took the pen and started to fill out the paper.
“Ok, finished.”
Morpheus looked pleased and took the clipboard.
“Thank you. This will help me, and it will shut up my boss about me being too generous when it comes to dreams.”
I laughed.
“I guess your boss is Lord Hypnos, and I definitely know how fathers are, I’ve got one too.”
At first Morpheus looked strange, then he started laughing.
“You are not a regular mortal, Florian. Every other mortal is cautious in the presence of gods, ignoring that we are intelligent beings too. But you are not that cautious, you act almost naturally around us.” His smile faded and he looked serious again.
“But be cautious with the next visitor, better not upset him. He is known for his short temper.”
I was confused, but as so often, I could not ask who my next visitor was. Morpheus just dissolved and the scenery reformed to an old Greek temple.

The scene remembered me of an old Disney movie. The columns, the bronze braziers, the throne with the big statue on it…
The statue looked exactly like the one we just discovered in South Dakota, but this one was glowing in the dark. It took me a few seconds before I got what was going on and quickly fell to my knees.
“It’s an honour to meet you, Lord Zeus.”
The statue moved, laid down his bolt and leaned forward.
“Athena, my daughter, was right about you: You are smart and polite, unlike the other demigod, my brothers’ son.”
He stood up, almost hitting the ceiling with his head. When he came closer to me he changed: He shrunk, and his toga changed into a pin-striped dark blue suit. His beard was black; with a few grey strides in it, but the most remarkable thing about him were his eyes. They were steel-blue, sending out sparks and looking like miniature thunderstorms.
“I know why you called me to you.” I blurted out. Zeus raised an eyebrow, which looked really cool, but terrifying at the same moment.
“I know you want to tell me to better not fail with our ambush and I better bring that that statue.”
The father of the gods just stared at me, sparks flying from his beard and hair. I expected to be blasted to ashes the next second, but Zeus just started to laugh.
I was astonished and did not know what to say.
“You dare to say what others don’t even dare to think. In ancient times I would blast you for just assuming to know what I think, but mankind has developed, they became more self-confident, they dared more, and they reached more. They stopped explaining everything by blaming us.”
I relaxed a little and thought about what he said.
“This is true, Mylord. We started to think on our own, we stopped saying ‘Oh, Zeus is angry’ whenever a thunderbolt hit a tree, we thought about a more logical explanation.”
Zeus smiled and pointed at me.
“Actually, most of the thunderbolts that hit something are from me. But anyway, I think you are a mortal unlike all other mortals, and if I say so, it has to be true. You got what I want from you, you better not fail. But if you succeed…”
He winked at me and smiled.
“I am normally known for being harsh and too quick with thunderbolts, but I also reward my favourites, and if you save Olympus by saving my statue you will be one of my favourites.”
I bowed deeply.
“I will not fail, we will not fail.”
“Great. But if you fail…” Thunder rolled.
“I understood, Mylord.” I had to suppress a smile, because Zeus was not only the master of thunder and lightning, but also the master of show effects.
Zeus returned to his throne and sat down, back in his huge statue form again.
“Now catch some sleep, you will need whatever strength you possess to regain the statue.”
I bowed one last time, and then I turned around and walked towards the exit, the dream dissolving around me.

Notes

This will be the last Chapter for a while, I'll make holidays in France, so no time for writing. But I am already collecting ideas and background information for a sequel, so stay tuned ;)