Finding Athena

Meeting Mother Earth

  “Breathe please dear, the last thing we want is for you to collapse when you step out of the lift.” Athena chastised me. I blew out a shaky breath that I hadn’t realised I’d been holding for so long. The journey was taking forever, and I was starting to shake so much my teeth were rattling. This wasn’t the impression I wanted to set. So I closed my eyes, imagined I was the majestic woman stood next to be and held my head high. I was not about to collapse into a bundle of nerves. I was not going to be the laughing stock of Mount Olympus.

Then I heard the lift ‘ding’. And I knew that I’d have to open my eyes at some point soon. Athena touched my shoulder.

“Here you are Tory. Welcome to your new life.”

I opened one eye, then gasped and opened both. When I imagined living like an incarnate Deity, I never imagined my school/home to look like this. The Greeks had certainly gone all out on making sure their successors were comfortable. The Entrance Hall was vast and lavish, with marble floors, columns and statues of all the 12 Olympians lining the walls and looking down on us. The floor was gold and green marble, with Greek letters emblazoned in some of the tiles, and the walls shimmered in gold paint – though knowing the Greeks it would be actual gold. The statues looked nothing like the classic ones I had seen in museums, but how the Gods actually looked. I knew this from the remarkable likeness the statue of Athena had to the woman next to me. Looking at the statue I was a little bit pleased to see a resemblance to myself... The shape of her eyes and nose looked like mine, though I knew I inherited a lot of my biology from my human parents. With me still gawping at my surroundings and Athena striding confidently, we walked down the hall to where the reception was located. The receptionist, whose badge stated she was Clio, the Muse of History, looked up and smiled at Athena,

“My Lady Athena” she gushed, “what honour brings you down here?”

Athena smiled serenely at Clio, before guiding me forward to the desk from where I was hidden behind her. “I have found my daughter. Clio, this is Tory, Athena Olympus Incarnate. Would you let Gaia know she is here?”

Clio then looked at me and gasped. “Oh, this is a wonderful day. We have found the last Olympian!” She winked at me “You were very hard to locate you know. You really ticked off that Mermaid. If it wasn’t for our warriors, you still wouldn’t be here!”

I frowned at Clio, confused. “What has that awful Mermaid got to do with my location? I’ve been living in the same place for 11 years...”

Athena turned to me and said “Yes, but the home we had down was your parents, and not your Grandparents. And then when you finally received your dreams, our Mermaid either refused to surface, leaving you with a dream of a lake and nothing else, or she tried to grab you. It took a lot of spiritual strength to get into your dream and find you. Once we had found you, and your Grandmother knew about us, we brought you in. As you can probably tell, we won’t be employing that Mermaid again.” Athena and Clio laughed, but I scowled at the floor. How could they turn one of the most horrific dreams of my entire life into a joke? Athena seemed to sense this and put her arm around me. “But no matter now, as we have you safe and sound now daughter.”

The reception phone rang then and Clio picked it up. “Okay, yes, thank you very much. I’ll bring her through now.” She put the phone down and then smiled at me. “That was Gaia, she says you should come through now, and leave Athena to go back to her divine duties. So if you’d like to say goodbye and follow me, we can get you settled in your room.

I looked at Athena in shock. “You’re leaving me so soon? But you said I won’t see you again properly until my training is complete! That could take years!”