Leo Returns: After Blood of Olympus [COMPLETE] [#Wattys2015]

Chapter 17: Calypso

Calypso stroked Sami's hair, her own tears falling freely now. Sami's body was wracked with sobs, and Calypso hugged her tighter. She heard footsteps approaching them, and heard Leo's cheerful voice pipe up, "Well I rigged up a shelter, it's not a palace but-" His voice cut off abruptly as he saw the two weeping girls. "Oh. Umm... you know what I'm going to go over here somewhere... Uh... Yeah. I guess I'll take over cooking while you two do... Ummm... yeah."

Calypso smiled through her tears, and she felt Sami's sobs subside. She let go of her death grip on Sami, and held her at an arm's length. She smiled at Sami, both their faces red and blotchy. Sami smiled back, and slowly, they both began to laugh. It was small at first, giggles, but it turned into full out guffaws, both of them holding their stomachs as they gasped for breath as they tried to recover their composure. Calypso recovered first, and she stood up. Sami followed her example, and Calypso slung her arm over Sami's shoulder. "Shall we check on Leo, make sure he hasn't burnt the camp down?" Sami giggled again and said, "Sure, but don't you think he would notice if the camp was burning around him?" Calypso winced, and laughed. "Oh I wouldn't be so sure. He wouldn't even be bothered by it. You see, he is immune to fire and heat of any kind. The thing is, have you ever heard of the Greek gods?" Sami nodded, confused, "Yeah, like Zeus and Hera and all that myth?" Calypso nodded.

Calypso grabbed gauze and started wrapping it around Sami's  cut, binding it effectively as she talked. She wished they had some ambrosia or nectar to help heal the wound, but she would have to make do with what they had.

"They're real. All of it. The gods, monsters, heroes." As Calypso was speaking , Sami's eyes got wider and wider. "The gods sometimes have children with mortals, and their children are called demigods. That's what you are." Sami nodded thoughtfully. "This explains a lot. So are you and Leo demigods too?" Calypso shook her head. "Leo is. He is a son of Hephaestus, an he is also the first fire user to be born in hundreds of years. I'm a goddess, daughter of Atlas." As she said this, Sami eyes her up carefully. "A daughter of Atlas? Wasn't he one of the bad guys?" Calypso sighed. "Yes he was. In the first Titan war I supported him, but when they lost, I was punished. I was exiled to an island called Ogygia. Leo was the one who rescued me." Sami smiled, and she said "So what happens to demigods? Do they-we just wander around like you and Leo?"

Calypso shook her head. "No. We are on a quest to rescue Loe's friend Piper who was captured by Khione, the snow goddess. She has a palace in Quebec City, and that's where we think she has Piper. There are two places demigods can go. The gods have different aspects, Greek and Roman. Until recently, all roman demigods went to a camp in San Francisco called Camp Jupiter. The Greeks went to Camp Half-Blood in Long Island sound. For hundreds of years, the two camps were kept apart, each with no knowledge of the other"

"So what happened?" Sami asked. She was leaning forward, eagerly awaiting for the next part of the story.

"Hera happened. You see, Gaea, the goddess of the earth, is evil."

Sami interrupted her with a giggle. "Evil Mother Earth? I thought she had birds doing her laundry."

Calypso smiled, and said "I don't know where that came from. Anyway, there was a prophecy about the demigods who were destined to defeat Gaea. I think it went like this:

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call

To storm or fire the world must fall

An oath to keep with a final breath

And foes bear arms to the doors of death"

Calypso could practically see the wonder and amazement in Sami's eyes. "So seven half bloods. Who were they?" Sami asked. Calypso replied. "Percy Jackson son of Poseidon, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Piper McLean,daughter of Aphrodite, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Frank Zhang son of Mars, Hazel Levesque daughter of Pluto, and Leo."