No More Olympus

Chapter 15

"What in Tartarus was that?" Aphrodite demanded as we took in what just happened, standing in the bare remains of the camp.
"Worse than a Disney movie!" Ares shouted at the sky as if King could hear him, "You come back here, and I will show you a damn Disney movie!"
"That was Wallace King," Athena explained, "He was asking us to bring back the pantheon and take our 'rightful' place as ruler of the world, assuming that would fix all problems ever made. When I refused, he had a temper tantrum and turned himself into..."
"Satan?" Aphrodite guessed, "At least if you believe comic books."
"More like a brand spanking new god," Athena corrected.
"Yet another reason we should not be denying our true purpose," Ares grunted, "This mortal speaks sense."
"No!" Athena snapped, "Do not side with the manic who just turned himself into that. That is not an appropriate reaction to literally any situation!"
"At least we have the box," Aphrodite remarked, analyzing the piece of metal in her hands, "Huh, what's this weird bronze pen-looking thing?"
"Don't ask," Athena warned, taking it from her before it vanished from her hands and into her armoury, "Let's just focus on closing the damn thing."
"How hard can it be?" Ares asked, pulling it from Aphrodite's hands, "It's a pithos."
What followed were several minutes of the two goddesses watching Ares grunt and strain with all his might to move the lid of the jar that, despite all his strength, remained firmly in the upright position leaving him with nothing but the need to catch his breath.
"Are you done?" Athena asked dryly.
"Damn thing is broken," Ares growled as he handed it back to her.
"It's not broken," She corrected, "There's just some other trick to it. Hopefully, the mortals found the instruction manual, and hopefully, Hermes can find it."
As if waiting for his cue Hermes suddenly appeared in front of the three of them with a trash bag over his shoulder. His tunic had since magically repaired itself from his burns and the slashes and now appeared brand new.
"Did you find anything in the box?" Athena asked.
"No such luck," He shrugged, "Either the answer was destroyed, they never figured it out either, or it's in here."
He unceremoniously dumped the contents of the bag on the ground before them.
"Wow," Aphrodite nodded, "That's a lot of crap."
"It's not all crap," Hermes defended.
The four knelt down to rummage through the pile.
"I got a cup here," Ares commented, lifting it by the stem and taking a closer look.
"I've got one of Ares's daggers," Athena remarked, handing the weapon to Ares, who tucked it in his belt for safekeeping.
"I got a ring with..." Hermes trailed off as he read the inscription, "Demeter's name on it, wonder which poor sod gave her that."
"Oh, look at this," Aphrodite grinned, "It's some of Apollo's old poetry."
"Found another dagger," Athena said, once again handing it to Ares.
"Wow," Aphrodite continued as she began to read the pages, "This is really bad. I remember it being better."
"Another dagger," Athena repeated.
"This is very graphic," Aphrodite blushed, an action which seemed to be impossible for the goddess of love, who was believed to have seen and done it all.
"Dagger," Athena repeated.
"Dear Gaia," Aphrodite sighed, "Exactly how many pages are there?"
"Dagger," Athena said once more.
"Hey Athena," Hermes began, grabbing her attention, "This is yours, right?"
He handed her a simply made jewelry box.
"Yeah, it is," Athena faintly remembered, running her hand over the lid.
"What's inside?" Aphrodite asked, putting down the stack of poetry.
"I don't remember," Athena said, flipping open the box's clasp and peering inside.
The only object in the box was a necklace made from the highest quality gold and decorated in black onyx stone with a true-to-life carving of an owl in the centre.
Athena paused for a moment as she ran her fingers across the image, her breath catching in her throat.
"What's that?" Hermes asked, leaning over to look at the necklace, "Some sort of magic jewelry?"
"No," Athena smiled as she shook her head, "I just never thought I would see this again."
The three of them then lost interest in the necklace and returned to sorting through the pile.
While no one was looking, Athena quickly wrapped the necklace around her neck and hid it under the collar of her shirt.
"Anything else?" She asked.
"Hermes, why did you grab all this crap?" Aphrodite asked.
"I just put it all in the bag," He shrugged, tossing an empty fountain drink cup over his shoulder, "I didn't bother looking at what I was grabbing."
"Clearly," Ares sneered, holding up a piece of tattered cloth that was once a perizoma, an Ancient Greek piece of underwear decorated with lotus flowers, "Does this belong to anyone?"
Hermes and Aphrodite shook their heads. Ares turned toward Athena.
"Okay, number one, if that were mine, I certainly wouldn't want it back," Athena began, "Number two, I know who that belongs to. In fact, I wove it myself..."
Athena paused for dramatic effect. All three sets of eyes were on her.
"It's Hera's," She grinned.
Ares's hand recoiled at the thought he was holding his mother's old underwear. Athena quickly plucked the piece of cloth out of the air and tossed it away.
Aphrodite and Hermes audibly laughed at Ares's over-the-top reaction.
"I don't think what we're looking for is here," Athena thought aloud, bringing the group back on topic.
"Yeah, I'm not seeing it," Hermes agreed.
"Then that leaves us with one option," Athena sighed, "We need to go back inside Olympus."
The four of them stared at the entrance with dread.
As anyone would attest, it's not an enjoyable thing to return to one's childhood home and find it in ruins, even a home with as many mixed feelings around it as Olympus.
"How much of it do you think is still intact?" Aphrodite asked.
"Father did manage to seal it quite smoothly," Ares answered, "Despite the massive reshaping of the mountain, I would assume all damage done would be from mortal excavation."
"If anyone wants to stay outside, they're more than welcome to," Athena offered.
No one took her up on her offer.
"Alrighty then," she sighed, slipping her jewelry box into her pocket, "Ares, grab the box, let's head inside."