Hero Of Olympus

Calm before the storm

I was at home, playing video games and preparing for my SAT. Yes, you heard me, playing games. It was a gift from Hermes. A parcel just appeared one day at my mom's doorstep, asking me to enjoy my teenage years before they ran out. We opened it up to find a decent computer on which I could play games. It also had twelve thousand gift cards on all websites so that I could buy games.

From that day onwards, I always sacrificed some food for Hermes whenever I visited camp.

"Percy, Paul, dinners ready," I heard my mom call out. I immediately closed my game, ran and washed my hands. Remember, always wash your hands. You never know when a nosoi decides to spread some disease.

I sat down with my mom and step-dad for dinner.

"So, when are you going to camp next Percy?" Paul asked.

I shrugged, "I dunno, probably some time this week," I replied.

Paul nodded and went back to his food.

"Isn't today the winter solstice?" My mom asked.

"Oh yeah," I replied. "I forgot about that."

"You're always forgetting Percy," my mom joked, touselling my hair.

"Hey do you think I can go to camp tomorrow for Christmas seeing as you and Paul are going on holiday?" I asked my mom.

"Of course Percy," my mom replied smiling.

I had the best mom in the world.

"What about Annabeth and Thalia? Will they be there as well?" She asked.

I shook my head. "Annabeth is away in San Francisco, while Thalia is probably roaming around the country with the hunters," I replied.

After I finished my dinner, I packed my backpack for camp with my toothbrush, three pairs of trousers, five t-shirts, a thick hoodie because it was cold, deodorant to mask my smell as much as possible, a flashlight, some drachmas, ambrosia, nectar and a towel just in case I get a major wound fighting monsters.

I then fished out some drachmas from my closet and went to the bathroom to Iris message Grover or Tyson and talk to them as it's been a while.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering and show my Grover Underwood, Lord Wild," I said, tossing the drachma into the rainbow I generated from the shower spray and ceiling light.

"Sorry, the user cannot be reached at the moment," a voice said and spat out my drachma.

I tried the same with Tyson and the voice told me the same thing. As a last resort, I tried Annabeth, even though we spoke just yesterday. That didn't work either. I was seriously getting worried. Grover could be doing some lord of the wild work and Tyson could be busy with the Cyclops army, but all three of them?

"O' Fleecy, do me a solid and show me Annabeth Chase, San Francisco," I said, silently hoping that it goes through.

Instead of Annabeth appearing, it was Fleecy. She was currently underneath a tabel of sorts.

"Percy, nice to see you. Listen, I don't have much time, but Iris has been told by the Olympians to cut off all Iris messages from or to you," she said all in one breath and swiped her hand through the iris message.

I was seriously puzzled. Why was I not allowed to make Iris messages? What did the gods tell Iris?

I simply couldn't understand what was going. I decided to just talk to Grover through my empathy link.

I lied down on my bed and closed my eyes and visualised my best friend Grover.

I soon saw him in camp half-blood, at the camp fire.

"Grover," I said.

His face immediately brightened. "Percy!" He exclaimed. "How're you doing? How's your mom? How's Tyson?"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you dude, but I'm not able Iris message anyone. Fleecy, Lady Iris' assistant told me that she had been ordered by the Olympians to not allow me to make Iris messages."

His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "That's odd," he said. "Don't worry, you can come to camp tomorrow, Leo and I are here. We can ask Mr. D or Chiron about this Iris message problem," he said.

I nodded. I said bye to him and went to bed.

I wonder what was going on. I really hope it's not another great prophecy. Why would the gods cut off my Iris messages? I was on good terms with all the gods after the Giant war. All of us were invited to Olympus for celebrating the defeat of the Giants and friendship between the Greeks and Romans. Zeus and Hades had started to stop glaring at me and started to smile, Ares nodded towards me, Athena looked at me in approval and Hera was nice to me.

That night, I had no dreams. No dreams about the gods, nothing about blue cheese, blue pizza or Tartarus. This was odd. Normally, I always have dreams. I guess Morpheus was sparing me today.

As I drifted off to sleep, I heard a feminine voice.

"Unlike last time, what is about to happen to you is not my doing," it said.