The Olympian Games 2: First and Last
Jessica Stele
"Jessica Stele?"
I spun around. "Who.." Then I saw him- a man in a uniform like one of those guys that delivers for UPS, tapping a cell phone impatiently. My mouth fell open. "Lord Hermes?"
"Yes. yes. Sign here, please, I am in a hurry." He handed me a pen and electronic writng pad.I stared at the miniature green snakes writhing around them in amazement. "George and Martha?'
Always nice to be recognized a female voice wrang in my head- Martha.
Do you have any rats? George said.
"Uh... no. I'll, um bring some next time." I replied awkwardly.
Hermes gave me a confused look. "How do you know their names?"
"Well, they're only featured in like four of the books!" I exclaimed sarcastically. Yes, before learning I was a half-blood, I had been a bit of a 'Percy Jackson' fangirl. "Sea of Monsters, Last Olympian, uh, they might have been mentioned in Titan's Curse, I'm not sure, and then of course Staff of Hermes-"
"Staff of Hermes?" he asked. "Never heard of that one."
"Well, yeah, that's the one about when you lost your-" I blanched. "Oh... no one was supposed to know about that, were they?"
Hermes' face turned red. "He published-" the messenger god clenched his fists. "When I get my hands on that man-"
"Uh, Hermes? You had something for me?" I quickly scrawled my signature across the screen and handed it to him.
He pulled an envelope out of thin air and handed it to me. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find someone." He dissapeared in a flash of light.
I opened the envelope. Sparks flew out, and into the Hearth in the courtyard a couple of feet away. The flames rose to the height of about 4 1/2 feet, and when they fell again an eight-or-nine year old girl stood there, dressed in plain brown robes, with red-brown hair and eyes of flame.
"Lady Hestia?" Wow, I thought, Two gods in one day. "Uh.. were you just inside an envelope?"
She smiled and stepped out of the fire, but didn't respond. "I am here because I would like you to represent me in a competition the other gods and I are holding, called 'The Olympian Games'. Have you heard of it?"
"No."
"Well, each of us chooses a champion, to battle against monsters and other half-bloods and such. Whoever the winner represents gets- well, various things, chiefly bragging rights."
"And you want me to represent you?"
"You sound surprised."
"Well, it's just, I would assume you'd pick Stella." Stella Michaelson, a daughter of Hebe who also happened to be my best friend, carried the Blessing of Hestia.
"My brother has forbade the choosing of our own children, or Blessed." Hestia replied.
My spirits slightly fell. "So you would prefer her."
"No, I still would have chosen you."
I looked at her. "Really?"
"Yes. I see potential in you."
I brightened. "Thank you, Lady Hestia."
Hestia began to turn toward the Hearth, but stopped. "Oh, I've almost forgotten."
She knelt beside the fire and pulled out a celestial bronze dagger, still glowing from the flames. "It won't burn you." She handed me the knife. I read the engraving- "Primum et Ultimum?"
"'The First and Last'. Each of my siblings and I were gifted with weapons in honor of our victory at the close of the first Titanomachy, but we rarely use them anymore. Posiedon gave his to a sea goddess he favored, Pleione, but it's now somehow ended up in the hands of his son. Hades is loning his to his champion, and I decided I'd do the same."
I stared at the blade in my hands with awe. "I'm honored, Lady Hestia. Thank you."
"Good luck, my champion." Hestia said, then stepped into the Hearth and dissapeared.
I walked back to the Erebus cabin exitedly. I couldn't wait for the competition to start.