A Pawn For Time (Daughter of the Olympians #1)

(14) My Parents

*

"Yes?" I replied. I turned around to face them. All, let's see, 10, 11, 12 gods were looking at me with a shocked expression. I assumed they were gods. I know now that I'm on Olympus. Stupid slow brain.

"Is it really you?" The head one asked again. He looked familiar. So did the guy on his right.

"I mean, you said my name which no one else knows." I said in a kind of duh tone. I folded my arms.

The man looked at the woman on his left, which I guessed was his wife, then back at me.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked.

"Jupiter, right?"

Everyone exchanged glances. Did I do something wrong? The head man started to speak in what I predicted was some sort of foreign tongue and the others responded. I just stood there, awkwardly, and waited. It started to get loud and everyone started to argue, again.

"Hello! I'm still here!" I yelled. The Olympians shut their mouths and looked at me again. Why do they keep doing that? They do it in sync, too, which is even creepier.

"Jupiter" cleared his throat and shrunk down to human size. The others followed his action and walked towards me. I set my jaw and avoided eye contact.

"My name is Zeus, child. Why do you know me in Roman?" He stared at me. It felt like he was peering into my soul.

"I just figured you were Jupiter. I mean, you are the kingly-looking god and I was taught that the king Olympian is named Jupiter."

"Taught? Taught where?" He asked concerned.

"Camp Jupiter." Everything went silent. I swear, you could hear a pin drop.

Zeus brushed it off and told me the names of everyone. They were all Greek. These are the Greek gods of Olympus. So many thoughts circled through my head. There were Greek and Roman gods? Weird.

I nodded in respond. They all stared at me, like they were afraid I would run away. I raised my eyebrows.

"Why do you guys keep looking at me like that?" I asked harsher than I meant to.

The man with black hair and green eyes, Poseidon, chuckled. I realized that he was the man from my dream. Zeus was in it too.

"We are just so happy you have returned, my child. We can't believe that you're home again," Hera told me warmly.

I was confused, but then I pieced it together. The way all of them look at me, like I'm valuable. Hera said that I have returned home. She called me my child. My eyes went wide with realization. The Olympians were my parents. I don't know how, but they are. I had that feeling.

"You're my parents. All of you, right?" I asked bluntly.

"How did you know that? We've only been talking for ten minutes." Artemis said, surprised.

"So you are my parents." I hid my grin. "You have tells. In our conversation, you guys left little hints to my identity."

They all smiled. "Smart girl," Athena said," You truly are my blood."

"I knew you would be intelligent, Katerina," Hera told me. I flinched when she said my name.

"Is something wrong?" Poseidon asked with a questionable look.

"No," I mumbled as I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Just don't call me Katerina."

The gods stared at me. They were probably all wondering why I didn't want to be called by my real name. You know, the one they gave me. I just couldn't bear it. It gave me too many bad feelings...

"That's alright dear. We'll settle for Katherine. Whatever makes you comfortable," Demeter said smoothly, calming the tension in the room.

I nodded. My body relaxed and all of my worries faded away. They didn't matter to me anymore. I was home now, with my family. And for me, that was the biggest prize in the world. But for some reason, I still felt the need to be reserved with them. I tried to ignore the feeling.

I don't know why, but I got so overcome with excitement that I went and hugged Hera. She chuckled and hugged back. Soon, it was one big Olympian style group hug. We stayed like that for what seemed like forever until I pulled back.

"So," I said rocking on my heels, "What do we do now?"

"How about a tour of Olympus. To make you feel at home," Poseidon suggested. I nodded and said that it sounded good to me. Everyone followed as Athena led the way.

******

I laughed as we made our way back to the throne room. Everyone was in a good mood, which I guess was rare for them.

In the tour, they showed me the temples to each god, the markets, the villas, gardens, and much more cool stuff. I couldn't help but gawk at the architecture of the city. Apollo told me that's the Athena in me.

Now it was sunset and time for dinner. The Olympians led me to the dining hall. We all sat down. Zeus and Poseidon at the ends of the table, men on one side, woman on the other.

I sat down near the end of the woman's side, in between Hera and Demeter. Across from me was Hephaestus and Hermes.

For dinner, we had Greek styled food and something called ambrosia. I settled for the human food. In between bites of food, we laughed and I got to know each of them.

I learned that Hermes and Apollo are the ultimate goofballs my parents. Also, Demeter has a thing for cereal (I do too, but I didn't mention it) and Ares loves to smash red grapes with his fingers. Dionysus didn't seem so happy about that.

Eventually, we all finished eating but we still stayed at the table. We all joked around and laughed at each other. The harpies came out and served us ice cream. Each of us had our favorite flavors. I had green mint chocolate chip. I loved it.

"Its a special occasion. Welcome home Katerina." Zeus said kindly and we dug in. I guess Hermes said something to Athena because suddenly he had a spoonful of rocky road on his nose. Hermes, being Hermes, threw a spoonful of his ice cream right back at her. Well, at least in the direction of. It ended up hitting Artemis.

It became a full out ice cream fight. Ice cream was flying every where, from every direction. It seemed like we never ran out of ice cream. We all laughed and pounded each other with our ice cream. We all gave up after like a century of throwing ice cream and went to wash up.

I had ice cream all over me. It was in my hair and inside of my shirt. How it got there, I have no clue.

Hera led me to my room, which was down the hall from her's, and pushed opened the door.

She left and I walked inside. I closed the door behind me. It was my absolute dream room. I sighed and walked into the bathroom. I took a shower and put on the clothes that were waiting for me on my bed.

A pair of black nike shorts and a blue t-shirt that had a whale on it. They fit perfectly, and I was to tired to wonder how.

I climbed underneath the covers of my bed and thought about my day.

Sure, it started off crazy with the whole missing 3 years of my life thing. But it got better. I met my parents. Well, 12 of them. I still have one more to meet apparently.

On that note, I smiled and drifted off to sleep.