Caleo - Finding Calypso

17 / Remember Me?

In the few seconds it took me to fall, time seemed to slow down.

The world seemed to sharpen, so I could see each individual wave break against the rocks below me.

My entire life, flashed before my eyes.

Ok, maybe that last part is a little over-kill, but it felt like I was falling for a thousand years before I hit the water.

My body slammed through the surface of the water, sending spray out in every direction.

The water was surprisingly deep, and I sank deep down bellow the surface.

So ends the tale of Leo Valdez. I thought to myself, but perhaps the fact that I am here to tell the story might be a bit of a giveaway that this isn't the end.

I sank slowly through the water, with bubbles floating up around me. Through the water, I could see the cloudy sky far above.

I pulled an arm down. It felt like trying to move through syrup. Time still seemed to be moving more slowly than is natural and my movements seemed oddly slurred.

I kicked a leg, then another.

Pushing my arms up above me and the pulling them back down to drag me up through the water towards that bright sky.

My lungs burned but with one final desperate kick my head broke the surface.

I had a second of seeing the clouds and a gull circling over head, just enough time to draw a gasping breath, before I sank back down beneath the water.

I gave one hard kick and emerged out of the water.

I trod water for a few seconds, taking deep breaths and trying to keep from sinking back down into the icy water.

Only it wasn't as icy and more, it positively warm. And when I looked up, I could see clear blue skies and a sun, shining down on me treading water in the bright blue water.

That fall off the cliff should have killed me.

Perhaps it did? I wondered, Perhaps this us my eternal punishment? I ruled that idea out, I'd heard stories about the underworld and it isn't like this.

Or perhaps it's Nemesis, messing with me. I don't understand what's going on, why did she help Summer banish Calypso, and then lie to me about where Calypso is even after I did the quest for her to hurt Percy?

I begin to think, hard. Very hard. It hurt.

And it came to me.

This isn't about Calypso. Or Percy. Or Summer. Or Annabeth.

It's about me.

Taking Calypso away, to hurt me.

Making everyone forget she existed, to hurt me.

Forcing me to hurt my friends, to hurt me.

Sending Circe after us to stab Annabeth, to hurt me.

Making me think Atlas had Calypso captured, to hurt me.

This has all been to hurt me, why?

When I finally catch up with this goddess, we are going to have a little talk...

I think it must have been Nemesis, saving me from dying falling off that cliff so she can hurt me even more, and sending me here...

...where is here anyway?

I spin around in the water expecting to see the cliff and Mount Tam, but I see a white beach with a forest behind it.

It's not too far away, I swim steadily towards it.

The sea-floor sloops steadily up towards the beach and soon I'm wading through the water.

I staggered out of the water and collapsed onto the sand, exhausted.

I think I slept, I'm not sure. I certainly lay there for a while. After a while, I groaned and rolled to my feet. My limbs all ached from hitting the water and then the swim to the beach.

I scanned the beach. A little way back from the sea, the white sand turned to dirt. Trees grew up with vibes and flowers climbing up them. There was a dirt path leading through the trees.

I started up the beach towards it but something caught my eye.

I changed direction and headed off to my left. In a hollow on the beach was a pile of splintered wood.

In a minute I flash back in time to last summer, falling through the sky to crash onto a table laid for dinner on a beach.

I stand rooted to the ground for a few seconds before I can move again.

Then I spin around and set of at a sprint towards the path through the forest.

I know where to go, I know where I am.

I don't know why Nemesis sent me here, but I am certain she's here.

Not Nemesis, Calypso.

I burst through the trees and see that the path leads up to a gate on a neat wooden fence.

I run to the gate and push it open, going through it into a garden full of beautiful flowers and fruit trees.

I duck under the branches of a tree and jog through the garden.

In front of me, I can see the entrance to a cave. Strange crystals glow in the cave and I can see a table, a bed and shelves.

I run to the entrance and peek in.

There's no-one there.

My heart sinks and I come out of the cave. Despair slowly fills me. Perhaps I will never find her. I always thought we were meant to be together. But them why...

The vegetable garden. That's my last chance. She loves that garden, maybe she's there, looking after the plants.

I jog round to a small sheltered space behind the cave where Calypso planted a vegetable garden.

And there, kneeling on the ground next to a bed of carrots, carefully weeding it, is a girl dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans. Her sleeves are rolled up to her elbows and her long chestnut hair is loosely tied back with a sun-hat on top of it.

She stands up and dusts her hands of on her jeans.

I stand, in the shade of a willow tree at the edge of the garden, 100% paralysed.

This is the moment I've been waiting for.

I take a step forward and open my mouth to call her name -

"Calypso!" A clear voice with a soft British accent calls.

I see Calypso turn and see her smile widely as a boy with messy blonde-brown and warm brown eyes walking towards her carrying an armful of leeks.

He drops the leeks into a basket at Calypso's feet when he gets to her and wraps an arm around her waist.

She puts a hand on his chest and says something which makes him laugh.

I stand watching in horror and shock as the boy leans in and kisses her gently on the lips.

A/N - I am soooooo evil ;)

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I'm sorry the chapters are getting shorter but hopefully this one was interesting enough!

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