The Ambassador of Athena

“Dude, wake up. It’s not nice to keep everyone waiting.”
I groaned and turned around.
“Not now…” I murmured.
Someone kicked me in the side and I shot up.
A blonde-haired guy with blue eyes was looking at me concerned, but when he saw I was awake his face brightened up.
“Good, he is alright. Thank you, Asclepius.”
A tall man in a doctors’ coat smiled down at me and closed his case.
“No problem, I am here to help.”
The blonde guy helped me standing up and then returned to the tribune. Chiron was still standing in the middle of the room and nodded at him.
“Thank you, Will, and you too, Lord Asclepius.”
Then he turned back towards Lord Zeus, who was sitting on his throne with a faint smile.
“Where was I…” the Centaur mumbled, and then he remembered: “Ah, yes, our hero. Looks like he is here, so I present him to you, the hero who returned the lost statue.”
I straightened up, realising the pain in my leg has completely vanished. Every God in the room was looking at me again, but before anyone could say something Hades jumped up from his chair and pointed at me:
“That’s the one who shot me!”
I couldn’t help but noticing that his shoulder was bandaged and he looked a little bit pale, or at least paler than he has been before.
Zeus raised an eyebrow.
“Calm down, brother. I had no idea what you were talking about when you first came here with that arrow stuck in your shoulder, and now is not the time to explain yourself.”
He stood up and walked towards me.
“Now is the time to reward our hero like we did in the old days, with honour and with pride.”
He now stood in front of me, thankfully now the size of a normal human being. He wore not his usual pinstripe suit, today he was dressed more like the whole world knew him: Toga, golden chains and a white fluffy beard like Santa.
“As Chiron has already explained to us you had to suffer greatly while recovering the statue and Athena has already told me about the oath she gave to you. I will leave that uncommented.
But as the father of the gods and chief of the Olympic council it is my job to reward you properly, and since we were advised from our PR-Advisor” – he glared at someone at the tribune – “to be more generous and well-meaning we decided the following:
We, the gods, will make you our ambassador. If you accept, you will be our voice among mortals. You will be our messenger and attend the council of the gods and report to us. You will also be the voice of the mortals and demigods among us, an important position. You will have a lot to do, but it will pay off for you: The salary will be good, and travel expenses, danger benefits and also insurance is covered too.”

I was flattered. I expected a pat on the back, maybe some nice words, but not that. I’ve heard enough about the gods to know their way to show their gratitude was by not blasting you to bits, so this was unexpected in many ways.
“Ehhh, I feel honoured, my lord.” I said after a second or two, and added a bit sarcastically: “I accept your offer, it’s not like I could say no to such generousness.”
Zeus clapped his hands and thunder rolled outside the hall.
“Good, so kneel down.” My comment must have missed him completely, but I did as I was told.
Zeus laid his hands on my shoulders, giving me a short shock, and said:
“To make you the ambassador of Olympus we will all give you our blessing, burned into your skin as an eternal reminder for you whom your loyalty belongs.”
I swallowed hard when he said that, now he reminded me more of the Zeus I knew from the tales.
I felt the pain again when the tattoo of Zeus was burned into my skin, but as soon as he lifted his hands it vanished.
“And as my ambassador I will make you another present, if you accept it: I will make you a demi-god.”
Once again I was speechless, but this time the answer was clear to me:
“I feel honoured, Mylord, but I have to say no.”
The other gods and minor gods whispered surprised, but Zeus nodded with a faint smile.
“A wise decision, since being a demigod does not only has its benefits but also lots of dangers. No other demigod would have chosen to be one, and you prove yourself worthy to be our ambassador by denying this curse.”
He stepped back to his chair and looked at Poseidon. The god of the sea stood up and walked towards me, looking as chilled as he has looked when I first met.
“Since you are already my ambassador there is no need for another Tattoo. But I have a present for you. Since you have to travel a lot from now on, take this.”
He pulled a car key out of his pocket and tossed it to me.
I caught it, and when I looked at it I recognised it. It was the key from the Camaro, with a nice golden trident keychain.
“Thank you, Mylord. I am… astonished.”
Poseidon winked at me. “I am sure you will pay it back to me through your service.”
While he walked back to his place and the next one of the Olympians came up to me I thought about what he said.
One after the other the gods came up to me, laid their hands on my shoulder, a short shot of pain and some nice, but hollow words. And every god had a small present for me, but I am sure their motives were not generosity, that’s for sure.
Demeter had a lifetime coupon for Kellogg’s cornflakes for me, Apollo had a set of new Violin cords for me (I have no Idea when he figured out that I played the violin), Hera had a magic pictureframe that would show the best moments from my life like a slideshow and Dionysos gave me a six-pack of diet coke.
The god of war had a new sheath for my sword with engravings of my adventure across America (One scene showed me shooting an arrow at someone that looked like Hades), Artemis gave me the skin of an animal I’ve never seen, light blue with brown stripes, and Hephaestus handed me a pair of unbreakable and never losing their edge ski, an awesome present.
The next god in line was Hermes; he gave me an untraceable IPhone made of celestial bronze with the symbol of the Gods on its back. He explained that it didn’t attract monsters, had a direct link to the Aeolus-Net and a special Hephaestus-TV App. And it had the numbers of all Gods saved, so I could skip the praying and directly ask my questions to them.
Aphrodite was the next one; she touched my shoulder with a smile and said:
“My present is special for you, it waits for you in your house in New Athens. I always loved tragic love stories with a happy end.” I definitely blushed when she turned around, but when Hades walked up to me I quickly caught myself.
He didn’t look that pleased, but he gave me his blessing and a present, a bag of poisonous diamond flower seeds from the gardens of Persephone.
And last of all, Athena came forth, but instead of laying her hands on my shoulder she hugged me and said:
“I knew you were worth your ancestor. My present is something special, you will see when you return to Camp.” And with that she turned around.
Zeus rose again, stretched out his arms and said:
“Gods of Olympus, greet our new Ambassador!”
And the gods, demigods, Cyclops guardians and spirits cheered so loud the clouds hovering under the ceiling whirled.

Notes