The Mechanic of Ogygia

Calypso - An Abundance of Strawberries

A small crowd of children in bright orange shirts had gathered in a gigantic field of red berries, staring at the sky. The children were staring at the sky, that is, not the berries. Where do you get all those strawberries? I wondered. As Leo and I touched down, Leo took a leap off of Festus, saying "Festus! We're home! We're home, boy!" I giggled. I wasn't sure if I had ever seen him happier.

He walked up to the crowd with a nervous smile on his face, the great bronze dragon trailing behind him.  The dragon kept gesturing his head at the forest. Leo patted him on the snout. "Go ahead, Festus." Festus bounded towards the trees, almost running into a great black- dog?

"Mrs. O'Leary!" Leo shouted. "Who's a good girl?" he cooed. A thin figure wearing all black jumped down as the dragon and dog went to play in the forest.

"L-Leo?" the figure stammered. "Oh great, I've lost control of my ghost-summoning powers."

A blond head popped up next to the boy. "I don't know if that's a ghost, Neeks."

"Nico!" Leo yelled. "Long time no see!"

"No kidding," said the boy, Nico. "It's
been four years!"

Leo's face lost all of its color. "F-Four?"

"That's right, Valdez. Four dang years of thinking you were freaking dead! I- I didn't believe it. I never felt your soul enter the Underworld, but everyone said that my senses were just overloaded with all the deaths from the war." A grin broke out on the boy's face.

The blond one ruffled Nico's dark, messy hair. "Hey Chiron! You're gonna want to come see this!" he yelled in the direction of the huge house. Nico ran to Leo and gave him a hug.

"Wow, you're really alive!" Nico laughed.

"So, what did I miss? You and Will became a thing?" Leo said. I assumed Will was the blond boy.

Nico blushed. "Well-"

"Yes," Will said, kissing him on the cheek.

A centaur, a pretty blond girl, a muscular girl with dark brown hair, and a boy- I recognized him- came out of the big house.

"Percy Jackson?" I marveled.

"Leo!" The biggest smile I had ever seen broke out on Percy's face. "How? Leo, I- it's been four years-"

"What Seaweed Brain means to say is 'Leo, welcome back," the blond girl chimed in.

Percy, the blond girl, and Nico all pulled Leo into a hug.

The centaur grinned. "Leo. Glad you're back. We'll leave the explaining for later. Who did you bring with you?"

"Calypso," Percy interjected before Leo or I could answer. "How did you get here?"

"You two know each other?" the blond girl asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Annabeth, remember when you thought I was dead after the explosion in Mount St Helens? Well, I went to Ogygia, and Calypso cured me, and she had a crush on me so it was hard to leave but I've always loved you, Wise Girl."

"Excuse me?" I said. "I had a curse that forced me to fall in love with any hero that came to my island. Only one love truly lasted." I looked at Leo. He smiled.

"Gee, I guess I'm no one's type," Percy said, shooting a look at Nico. I guessed here was some kind of resentment there. Then he laughed. "Well, other than Wise Girl over her." He smiled. "And that's all I need."

"All right, let's save the mushy stuff for later," Leo said. "I need to know what's happened. Any more prophecies? News from the gods? Malfunctioning metal dragons? Anything?"

"I think we're all dying to know how you-er-didn't die."

Leo launched into the same description he had told me when he first saved me from Ogygia- he had thrown himself into the explosion to save everyone else, Festus gave him the death antidote, he used his device to find Ogygia and save me, and then we landed in a place called Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and made a mechanics shop. "We've only been there a few days- just to figure out where we were and how to get to camp."

In reality, we had been there for nearly two months. I think Leo was afraid, but I managed to convince him.

"You're lucky," the centaur said. "Time flows differently in magic places. You could have gotten home twenty seconds, months, or centuries later. It was only four years."

"We should go find Thalia and Hazel! Jason is in New Rome helping with some praetor stuff and Piper went with him. I think Thalia is in the Zeus cabin. An you can meet Coach Hedge's baby!"

Leo seemed to like this idea, so they all went to giant rectangle of houses.

"Calypso, why don't I show you some modern stuff? I'm guessing you don't know what a boom box is!" suggested the centaur.

Everyone groaned. "Don't listen to All Time Greatest Hits of Dean Martin," Annabeth advised. "Trust me."

"It's great music- a classic!" the centaur protested.

"It's for your own good," Annabeth told me. I followed Chiron to the big house, listening to him mutter something about 'no one appreciates great music'.