The Ambassador of Athena

We quickly ran back outside, up the stairs, and when my eyes readjusted to the hot Greek sun we saw the reasons for the scream and probably the causer of the bellow:
A huge boar, at least the size of a small car, stomped through our camp. The archaeologists ran away in panic while the boar started to demolish our camp. Pieces of our equipment, artefacts and tents flew through the air. Within seconds all archaeologist were running downhill, Frank quickly following them. Palla and I stood at the first step and looked at the beast in terror. I didn’t felt the urge to flee or run away, I just wanted to shut my eyes and let this all be a dream. The boar recognised us and bellowed again. This time I was sure he made the sound and not a plane crash-landing on top of me. It lowered its head and charged for us.
“Quick, back downstairs!” Palla yelled and we both dived for the doorframe. I hit my knee on the ground what hurt pretty bad, but at least I wasn’t crushed by the boar that now stood on top of the stairs and gleamed with small mean eyes down to us. It was too big to fit the stairs, so we were safe here.
“The bow”
I looked around. “Have you said something?” I asked Palla. She shook her head.
“The bow”
Again, there was a voice. I must have hit my head too when I started to hear voices that didn’t exist. Then I heard the voice again.
“The bow, you moron”
This time I was sure I’ve heard the voice, and I really had to go to a doctor because I now listened to the voice and went for the weapon chamber. Palla stayed back in the entrance room, leaned against a wall, her eyes closed. Every weapon I could find was too old to be useful against a 20 ton monster with tuskers as long as my arm, so I decided I had to try it with the bow that looked the best in shape: Odysseus bow

I carefully peeked over the edge of the staircase where the boar was, the bow in my hands, an arrow ready. I’ve been member of an archery class for a few years now, but normally I wasn’t that good that I hit the target bulls-eye. But I had no choice, because the boar stopped eating our supplies, including the locked chest in which we stored it and turned around. It bellowed again, and I thought that this sound must be a good ringtone, loud and annoying. I inserted the arrow and aimed at the monster. The bow was easy to draw, even easier than those high-tech compound bows we used back at home. The beast fixed me with its gleaming red eyes and stomped a hoof. When it charged I took one last deep breath and let the arrow fly.
I must have been better than I thought, or I had really tough luck, because the arrow hit the beast right between its eyes. It was still too fast to stop before me, and I got ready for the impact. But nothing happened. When I opened my eyes again the boar has dissolved into a pile of golden durst that was blown away from the wind, the only remains the two tuskers. I was completely astonished. First when I heard the voice again I lowered my bow:
“Great. I knew you could do it.”
I turned around and saw Palla standing behind me, but she must have found a costume rental. She now wore a long white dress, and over it a bronze breast plate. In her hands were a shield and a spear, on her head a helmet with a red plume. Before I could say something a new sound caught my attention. I looked around till I found the origin of the sound: A long, narrow… bronze Cigar flew over the woods directly in our direction. I really must have hit my head, because all I knew was that cigars were not bronze and could definitely not fly.
When it came close I could see it better: The tip was made of glass, and on its side were oars that paddled through the air. The other end was shaped like a cross with fins, probably for better aerodynamics. It came to a stop directly over the remains of our camp, a part of the hull opened and a rope ladder was lowered down to us. Two figures climbed down; as soon as they touched the ground they drew two swords. I had no idea what was going on, but I was frozen anyway, I couldn’t even move a bit. The two figures were two girls, both looked around my age. They quickly searched the surroundings and then sheathed their swords. When they walked over to Palla and me I could look at them more closely. One of them had blonde, long hair that fell loosely over her shoulder. Her grey eyes were fixed at Palla next to me, her expression something between astonishment and anger. The other girl was totally different: Shorter than the other one, with cinnamon hair braided over one shoulder and dark almond eyes, her expression calm and interested. They both wore sneakers, jeans and an orange shirt with a Pegasus on it that read “Camp Half-Blood”.
I had no idea what to say, but thankfully Palla took that part for me.
“Girls, it’s nice that you made it here in time!” she said and smiled. The two girls bowed shortly and the blonde one said: “Mother, it’s surprising to see you here.”
Palla laughed. “My daughter, you know I am the patron of all heroes, and this one doesn’t know that he is one. He will do things greater than his ancestors, but without help from camp he has no chance to fulfil his quest. Take him to Pythia, she will tell you more about him.”
To me she said: “You have proven the worth of your heritage, Florian. Not every hero could have killed the Erymanthian Boar. We will meet again.”
And with that she dissolved into thin air. Now I was finally convinced I must have hit my head and was hallucinating now. “Great, my mother at her finest” the blonde girl muttered. She mustered me. “So you are the person we need to save Olympus, again I have to say? You don’t look like much to me.” I opened my mouth to insist, but she cut me off by saying: “We better hurry, I have no idea which monsters are around here beside that boar, and I have no urge to find it out.” She walked back to the rope ladder and started to climb it. I was stunned, but the other girls waved me to follow them, so I hung the bow over my shoulders and fastened the quiver to my belt and climbed up the ladder to.
At the top of the ladder a boy helped me in, on his face a broad smile. “Welcome to the jungle” he said. “Oh, just shut up Leo” the blonde girl said, but she smiled too. While this Leo helped in the brown-haired girl I looked at him closer:
He wore an orange shirt too, together with an old army jacket and trousers hold up with suspenders. His black curly hair looked like it really needed a cut. His brown eyes sparkled when he helped the girl into the ship. She smiled at him and gave him a short kiss, then she hit a button at the wall and the ladder was pulled up and the hull closed again.
“I’ll quickly set the autopilot on home, I’ll join you for lunch in a few minutes” Leo said and darted of through one of the doors. I finally could ask a question that flew through my head since the cigar appeared: “What the hell is going on here?” I said. Both girls looked at me, and the one with brown hair said. “Sorry, we were a little bit rude. We didn’t even introduce ourselves.” She pointed at the blonde girl. “This is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and I am Calypso, daughter of Atlas.” I had a faint idea of what she was talking about, but it couldn’t be true. She continued “The boy is Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus. And this is the Nautilus, our high-speed flying submarine.”
Now I was completely confused, but I could manage to ask the next question:
“And where are we going?”
This time this Annabeth-girl answered:
“We are going to Long Island, New York, more precisely to our Home, Camp Half-Blood”

Notes