The Ambassador of Athena

When I lay in the bed in the cabin they gave me I thought about all the stuff what the girl, Annabeth, had told me, about gods, monsters, heroes and other unbelievable stuff. I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that all I have studied the last few years, all the tales about great adventures, all the people I loved and hated were actually true, have really lived. I was a little bit surprised how easy I could do that. Somewhere deep inside I’ve always wished that the tales were true, that the fates were actually meddling with the humans; that gods interfered with our future. All I now felt was curiosity. I wanted to talk to gods, study monsters and learn the truth about the heroes.
After Annabeth had told me all that stuff she led me to the dining room of the Nautilus. She was a little bit surprised about how good I could manage the knowledge, but I told her that I’ve studied Ancient History and Myths and I’ve always wished them to be true.
“Well,” she said ”You were better off when you didn’t know that they were true. The monsters will now be attracted by your scent. It’s a wonder you have survived so long, we’ve never found a demigod that old before.” I was a little puzzled. “I think that I am not a demigod, definitely.” Now Annabeth looked confused. “But Percy told us that in his dreams he was told to look at the top of that Mountain, Athos, for a person that will be important to save Olympus. I assumed you must be a demigod.” She looked at me more closely. “Are you sure you are not a demigod? No missing parent, no stepfather or stepmother?” I shook my head. “Noup, definitely the son of my parents, I’ve been told that a lot.” Annabeth shrugged her shoulders. “There is an easy experiment to find out” she said and pulled out a bronze dagger. “Now take the weapon and touch the tip” she told me. Now it was my turn to be confused, but I did as she told me. To my surprise my finger just passed through the dagger, as if it was just a hologram.
“You really are a mortal” Annabeth decided and took the dagger back. “What is that thing made of?” I asked her.
“My sword or the dagger?” she asked back and pointed at her white sword that hung by her side.
“Both”
“My sword is made of a splinter form the rib of the Maeonian Drakon, the dagger is made from celestial bronze. The metal is only dangerous to monsters and demigods; it ignores mortals and passes right through it. Your bow is made of the same metal.” She pointed at the weapon I’ve leaned against the wall by the door.
At that moment Calypso came into the room, four plates flying behind her. I have to admit that I wasn’t as surprised as I should, maybe because I’ve already heard about myths being true and was flying at the moment over the Mediterranean to New York in a submarine made of celestial bronze. The plates landed gently in front of each of us, together with forks, knife and cups. The cups were empty, but Annabeth explained me how to use them.
“Just tell them what you want to drink, it will fill with it.” She demonstrated it to me by ordering cherry coke, and the cup filled with a brown liquid. I started to like this new life I was thrown into and ordered mango juice, and it was definitely the best drink I’ve had in my life. Leo joined us shortly after and told us we just dived down into the Atlantic Ocean.
“That is awesome, I didn’t even recognise the diving” I said between two bites of steak. Leo looked pleased. “Yeah, I love the Nautilus like nothing else-“Calypso glared at him and he grinned. “Well, maybe second, or third. Right after the Argo II and Tacos.”
He dived under the table so the piece of potato Calypso threw at him missed him. When his head reappeared at the edge he smiled, this time with more feelings.
“You are out of league, my dear. I could not compare you to anything else. Remember what I did to get you off that island?”
This seemed to please her, and she went back to her food. I tried to remember the story of THE Calypso, but I didn’t dare to ask her about it. There is a time for questions and a time for food, and this was definitely the time for food. Leo told me something about the ship, how it could fly, was built for fast travel and could carry 4 passengers.
“I’ll give you a short tour later. By the way, we’ll arrive around noon tomorrow, so we can sleep. The autopilot will take us right to Long Island Sound. “
After lunch Leo showed me the ship. It was small, though you had enough space for everything. The engine was at the lowest deck, above the storage room, the kitchen, the lunch room and the bathroom. At the highest deck the living room and the four cabins were located, each with portholes that allowed a great view into the ocean. The oars could be used both for above and underwater, and Leo also told me he has installed a new engine, developed together with camp fish-blood. I first thought I have misheard him, but he repeated the name a few times after, so I assumed there really has to be a camp fish-blood.
The best thing was the commando room at the front of the ship. The whole front was full glass; it stretched over the two top floors, so you had the best view in the ocean. A throne was placed in front of an ancient stirring wheel that read “OSM Nautilus”.
“What does that mean, OS Nautilus?” I asked Leo. He laughed.
“Oh, it means Olympic Submarine, the Nautilus stands for Naval Above and Underwater Tactical, Intervention and Lift off Undetectable Ship.”
I stared at him, but he looked dead serious. Then he burst out laughing.
“You should have seen your face. But I should engrave that in the hull, it would look nice.”
He showed me how to stir the wheel, read the location off a screen and, best of all, readjusts the stabilisers, what caused the ship to do a short jump. After the fifth time we did that Calypso stormed into the commando room, her hair wet and wearing a bathrobe, telling us to stop, no one could shower if the ship does jumps every thirty seconds.
“I guess you found someone at least as childish as you, Leo” she said after a short break. When she stormed off Leo and I burst into laughter.
“If I didn’t loved her that much she would be a real nuisance, but I guess I have to live with that.”
I forced a smile. Seeing a happy couple was still hard for me, like it was ever since… Well, you know, I’ve already told you. But thankfully Leo didn’t say anything.

I spent the rest of the day in the living room, talking to the others on the ship, asking loads of questions about monsters, the camp I was going to, gods and everything I could think about. They told me the story about what happened the last few years, the battle of Olympus and the Prophecy of the seven, and I have to admit that caught me off guard. I was speechless, but I admired them. They have lost so much, but were still in such a good mood. I guess you get used to it.
After dinner we went to bed early, me for my part because I fought a monster today, the others mostly because they could sleep as long as they wish. Thanks to the noise of the water against the hull I quickly fell asleep.

Calypso woke me up. I slept in my clothes, the reason for that was pretty simple: I had no spare clothes because my backpack was eaten by a boar. According to my phone it was eleven o’ clock, that survived by a miracle without even a scratch. I decided to take a shower, and after that and a short breakfast I joined the others at the commando room.
Leo sat in the throne, Calypso and Annabeth behind him in chairs that looked like they were stolen from an airplane. I sat between the two girls and fastened my seatbelt.
Leo turned his chair around and grinned at us. “Thank you for travelling with Leo Travels, we hope you enjoyed your stay. Please hold tight when we travel the last few miles above water and make sure you have nothing loose around you.” I was about to ask him why but Leo has already turned around and hit a button at the control board. The ship shot forward, and the darkness outside became lighter and lighter. Finally I could see a small spot at the sky that grew bigger and bigger, and finally we shot out of the ocean into the sky. But we didn’t come down immediately, we kept on flying upwards. After a few minutes the tip turned down again so we could see the ocean below us, and the shore of Long Island.
“If we want to land again we should come down faster.” I said a little bit worried. Leo simply laughed.
“We will not come down here; we will fly over Long Island and land directly in the Sound.”
And so we did. It was a gentle touchdown, and within minutes we docked at a pier right next to a huge Greek warship, a Trireme. Leo unbuckled his belt and rose. We followed him to the main lock which he opened rigorously.
“M’ladys” he said and bowed when Calypso and Annabeth left the ship. When I stepped to the exit Leo grinned at me.
“Nice to meet you” he said and touched his imaginary hat. I grinned too and stepped out into the sun. When my eyes readjusted to the light I could see the crowd that awaited us. Among kids in armour and young adults with orange t-shirts I could see green and blue faces, Dryads and Nymphs I assumed. In front of the crowd stood a centaur, his horse part a white stallion, his upper body bare. His face looked gentle, with curly brown hair, a scruffy beard and friendly brown eyes. Annabeth ran over to him and hugged him “Chiron!” she said. Chiron laughed. “You haven’t seen me for 3 days, how much could you have missed me?” he asked and laughed. He turned to me. “Ahh, here we have our guest. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood.”
He shook my hand, but before I could say anything a voice behind the centaur said: “Florian?”
It took me a second before I recognised the girl that pushed through the crowd.
It was Johanna, and she looked awesome. She wore a sleeveless white shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, around her neck a necklace with an owl as a bead. Her blonde hair was tied back; her blue eyes were wide open. By her side a sword dangled in its sheath.
That was too much for me.
Gods, monsters and flying cigars ok, but seeing my ex-girlfriend again after years of depression, self-hate and remorse was too much.
I simply passed out, falling sideways on the wooden planks of the pier.

Notes

Sorry it took me so long to write the chapter, I've first written the story a little bit further, I now have 70 pages to type ;)
If you have any comments, tips, things to say or anything else, just write it in the comments, I am looking forward to the feedback I get for my first story, and I will also reply to any questions asked ;)
Yours, Flo