𝙼𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚒𝚊 (𝙇𝙚𝙤 𝙑𝙖𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙯 𝙓 𝙊𝙘)

δεκαοχτώ

χαρμολύπη(char-mo-lee-pee)

Origin: Greek

Sweet sorrow conveys the idea of bittersweetness and having mixed feelings about something.

*****

Until Elena had met the exploding statue, she was almost certain that she had been prepared for anything. Behind her, Annabeth had been nervously pacing the length of the deck, triple-checking that everything was in order. Her most recent victory was subtly encouraging their war-crazed chaperone Gleeson Hedge to take some time off to watch mixed martial arts championships in his cabin- nothing big but hey small victories.

For most parts, Elena had felt rather relaxed, on her hip her little brother babbled incomprehensibly, and she smiled at him.

"Aren't you the cutest baby?" She cooed, tickling his stomach making him giggle. Annabeth did not seem to share her relaxed disposition. She stood beside Elena and gripped her shoulder tightly.

"Annie," Elena said, "Calm down, it'll be fine."

"What if the Romans panic and attack us on site?" Annabeth fretted, "The ship looks less than friendly and-"

"Annabeth, seriously, calm down."

"Elle, the ship is-"

"Big and terrifying and definitely not appropriate for a neighbourhood meet and greet, I know." Elena replies, "But Leo sent a message beforehand and- if you had let us- would have painted a very big 'we come in peace' sign on the bottom of the hull."

"I don't think the Romans would share our sense of humour." Annabeth says, chewing her lower lip.

"It's alright Ann," she responded, "Humour or no humour, we're here for Percy and that's all that matters."

Annatbeth took a deep breath before squaring her shoulders, "You're right. Let's get ready to land."

Elena nodded at her before signalling their crewmates to get into place.

Jason stood at the helm, his knuckles white on his sword. He was just as nervous as the rest of the crew. Piper paced back and forth reciting her lines, mumbling repeatedly, the charmspeak getting stronger with each word. Annabeth stood by her side looking at the city below them. And Leo, her marvellous and creative boyfriend of six months, stood at the steering wheel, or what he called a steering wheel, pressing buttons and pulling strings, getting them to land safely.

She watched the crowds of demigods stream out of the buildings to gawp at their ship. She could tell Annabeth wanted to land quickly but their ship was still several hundreds of feet in the air. Annabeth seemed to be looking down, hoping to catch a glimpse of Percy.

Then, something behind them went BOOM!

Elena had enough time to create a black smoky screen that stopped them from going overboard before she found herself eye-to-eye with an angry statue. The statue began to yell. In her arms her little brother began to giggle. It was almost a relief that he was giggling and not crying. Had he begun to cry she would have ripped that statue a new-

"I will not have weapons inside the Pomerian Line!" he announced in a fussy teacher voice. "I certainly will not have Greeks!"

"Pomeranian line?" Elena whispered.

Jason shot them a look that said I got this.

Jason did not in fact got this.

The statue seemed to be getting more and more irritated as time passed, yelling at them. Beside her, Annabeth seemed lost in a daze. Maybe she'd been spooked by the armless statue.