Rose lay in bed that night, tossing and turning. Constantly thinking, how can we do this? We aren’t strong enough.

At some point, she falls asleep for a short while. In her dream, she gets a visitor.

Rose, Athena’s owl appears in her dream. Meet me by beach. The dream suddenly went black.

Rose bolts upright in her bed. Her mother has never appeared in her dreams. But she knows better than to ignore this dream.

Rose silently gets out of bed and slides her sneakers on, along with a hoodie over her orange Camp Half Blood t-shirt. She quietly goes out the door and heads off toward the beach.

When she gets there, she nervously stands there waiting. She doesn’t want to get caught and eaten by the harpies.

After waiting for a few minutes, which feels like an eternity, a warm presence comes up behind her. Thinking it’s a harpy, she spins around, drawing her sword, only to come face to face with her mother.

Immediately, she drops her sword, “My Lady, I beg your forgiveness.” Rose bows so low, she could touch her toes if she wanted to.

“Rise my daughter, you have nothing to apologize for. I would expect nothing less of you.”

Rose stands up, grabbing her sword and placing it in its sheath. “To what do I owe the great honor, mother?”

“I come to give you help in this great hour of need. You feel as if you do not have the strength you need, correct?”

Rose nods, wondering where her mother is going with this.

“You have more strength than you know. You are special Rose.”

“But how? I know that I am smart, but we need more.”

“Do you recall the story of Heracles? Specifically how he gained his strength?”

“I had only heard he was strong because he was a son of Zeus, but nothing more than that. It has always been a mystery to me.”

“No, if every child of Zeus was that strong, your friend Charley would be strong. No, the reason he was so strong was because shortly after he was born, he drank the milk of my breast. My milk is what gave him his strength, I have only done this with one other demigod. Can you guess who that child was?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t heard of any other demigods that had his strength.”

“The other child was not in ancient times. The other child, was you.”

Rose can’t believe what she is hearing. She actually nursed from her mother, something only one other demigod had done, and that demigod was Heracles! But if that is what gave him his great strength, why didn’t Rose have that strength?

Athena gives a knowing smile. “You wonder why you are not as strong as Heracles, when in reality, you are just as strong. In fact, you may be stronger than he was. The reason why your strength is not shown is due to the charm on your bracelet.”

Rose brings her left wrist up, looking at the owl charm on her bracelet. “My father told me I wore it when I was delivered to him, as a gift from you.”

“It is magic, I gave it to you, to protect you from your own strength.”

“So if I take it off, I will be as strong as Heracles?” Rose asks.

Athena nods, “I wanted you to have a chance to be as normal as possible, to protect you.”

Rose takes off the bracelet and she feels a surge of energy. She walks over to a very large boulder and bends to pick it up. She lifts the rock, which looked to be about 700 pounds, but it felt about as heavy as a bowling ball. She then throws the boulder out over Long Island Sound and it eventually disappears.

Rose has never felt so alive. She wants to walk right up to Minos and punch him right in the nose. But one question was pulling at the back of her mind.

As she put the bracelet back on her wrist and feels her power suppressed, she asks, “What made me so special my lady? Why was I able to gain this strength when only one other had the honor?”

Athena waited for a minute, then started. “Shortly after you were born, Aries came into the room in his true, godly form. While you weren’t looking at him, you were still an infant and being near him you were injured. I wasn’t sure if you would make it, and if you did, you would always be weak from your injuries.”

Rose was trying to wrap her mind around this whole story, but finding it hard to grasp any of it. She is still finding it hard to believe that she has had this strength all this time.

Athena continued, “So I went to Zeus and asked his permission to do to you as I had done to Heracles so many years before. He allowed me to help you, due to the nature of your circumstance. But, in allowing me to save you, he told me that I could not interact with you, even more so than the rule already states. That was the price I was willing to give you a chance at happiness. You are special in more ways than you can know.”

Rose wondered what that meant. How else could she be special? “What do you mean my Lady? How can I be more special?”

“That is something that I can not explain right now, just know that you have a great opportunity ahead of you, and I wanted you to have a chance at it.” The look that her mother gave, Rose knew not to keep asking.

“Do I need to keep my strength a secret? Or am I allowed to tell people?” Rose asked.

“The information is yours to whoever you please. Just beware that if word gets around that you have the strength of Heracles, it will attract monsters to you. I must leave you now, I have been here too long. Good luck on your quest, do not expect much help from the Gods, whatever Minos has done to gain power might deplete our power if we enter the Underworld.”

“Thank you mother, I am grateful for all the help you have given me tonight.”

Rose turns away as Athena assumed her true godly form. When her mother was gone, Rose sat down on the beach, thinking about all the information that was given to her tonight. Not only does she share a great honor with Heracles, but she has the same power as he did. A child of Athena doesn’t usually have any special powers. Should she tell anyone?

I can tell Justin. I can tell him anything. I should at least tell him.

“Ro?” she hears Justin come up behind her. “What are you doing out here?” She turns around to see Justin walking toward her, coming from the cabins.

“Me? What about you? Why are you way out here?”

“I was laying in my bed and I heard you talking to someone.”

“How could you hear me way out here?”

“You aren’t that far from my cabin. Quit dodging the question Ro.”

Rose knows that she should tell him everything that just happened, but decides to wait, and only tell part of the story for now. “My mother came to me in a dream, she had some big news to give me.”

Justin looked confused, “What kind of big news? Something for the quest? Or what?”

Rose is fighting with herself, trying to decide whether she should tell him or not. If she can trust him with her life, surely she can trust him with this.

But what if he thinks differently of me? Or what if he expects more of me. What if he thinks I’m a monster?

“Ro, you can tell me anything, you know that.” He knows that she is hiding something from her. A look of concern and pain covers his face. She hates to lie to him, even if by omission, but she needs to process all the information first.

Rose lets out a sigh, “I’ll tell you later, I swear on the Styx.”

Some relief comes to his face, “I’ll hold you to that. Come on, let’s get back to the cabins, we need to sleep, we leave in a few hours.”

They start back to the cabins, slowly, enjoying each other’s company. Walking a lot like they did before, his arm wrapped around her shoulder, holding her close. Rose tries to calm down, knowing that it would be impossible to relax at a time like this. “It’s going to be impossible to get to sleep.”

“You still should try, you are going to need your strength tomorrow. Try to turn off your big brain for once.” She looks at him and sees his teasing grin.

Giving him a playful punch she can’t help but chuckle, “Trust me, I have plenty of strength,” Rose says to herself.

They arrive at Poseidon cabin and Justin gives her a hug. “Good night Ro, see you in a couple hours.” He gives her one of his signature grins, making her feel like things may be alright.

“Good night Justin,” she smiles back, and starts walking towards her cabin.

The walk back to her cabin was a long one. Tonight’s events keep running through her mind. She still can’t believe all that has been revealed to her. She takes off her shoes and crawls back into her bed, and slowly falls asleep.

Notes