Olivia Smith and the Titan's Curse

The New Lieutenant

Song For This Chapter: I Follow Rivers - Lykke Li (I love this song for Olive's decision)

Ch. 29: The New Lieutenant

    The warm, salt water crashed against my calves as I ran, heart beating erratically, lungs trying to keep up with the movement. The closer I got to the depths, the more human I began to feel. I had started to forget what I was like to grow physically tired when I was a goddess, for my body to need a rest. It was amazing. 

    Slick, grainy sand slipped between my toes the further I ran, and, as the sun hit the direct center of the sky, my body was hurtled up ward, vision going black. 

    It was as being pulled through a vacuum of space, there was no oxygen and there was nothing to see. My head began to wail in agony as my lungs protested the sucking sensation, craving air, but none was to be had. I was going to suffocate on my way back up to life. Was that possible? Could I die on my way to live?

    Hurtling through space, I suddenly was filled with the sensation of my back slamming against a hard, smooth surface, as if I'd fallen on my back from a tall height. No longer able to take the rushing pain in my chest, I opened my eyes and shot up into a sitting position, gasping for a breath of life. 

    I let my eyes adjust to the room around me as my breathing slowed, brain's pulsing subsiding to a numbing rush. "Olive," A caring, soft voice breathed out and my eyes flickered towards the entrance of the great hall where Percy was standing beside Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover.

    A slow smile spread on his face and the way Percy's eyes lit up made my whole decision seem all the more right to me. His eyes were filled with joy. 

    Grinning back at him, I felt my strength return. It was small, as if I'd been sleeping for a year. My muscles ached and my joints were soar, but as I locked eyes with him, my heart fluttered happily in my chest. "Percy."

    There was a gruff sound of someone clearing their throat, and I glanced up to see all twelve Olympians staring down at the five of us in mild amusement, but calculating brows. Something big was being deliberated. I honestly couldn't believe they had all gathered for this occasion.

    Zeus seemed to be considering something that had been said before I had come back on the scene. His eyes drifted to his daughter Thalia. "And what of the risk? Kronos knows full well, if one of you were to sacrifice the beast's entrails, you would have the power to destroy us. Do you think we can let that possibility remain? You, my daughter, will turn sixteen on the morrow, just as the prophecy says."

    At first, I was uncertain about what Zeus had meant, but as my gaze roamed the Olympian's meeting hall, I found that Bessie was floating, quite contently, in a bubble beside me. In fact, as I looked more carefully, I realized that I was sitting high up on a platform above a hearth in the middle of the room, almost chest level with the gods on their various, high platformed thrones.

    How was I going to get down? I could no longer morph from human size to god size. I was stuck until on of the gods decided I was worthy enough to be placed down. Stretching my sore arms above my head, I caught sight of my skin and nearly flinched. 

    Pale, silver light was radiating from my very pores, it wasn't merely the average glow that I would take on at night, but the vibrant shimmer that my mother, Artemis herself, had showcased every day and night. I was officially the full daughter of Artemis. 

    "You have to trust them," Annabeth's regal, but obviously panicked, voice spoke up. "Sir, you have to trust them."

    Zeus scowled, electrifying eyes narrowing at the sight of Athena's daughter. "Trust a hero?"