Much to our surprise Meg and I were tossed from out cot onto the floor. I struggle to move as Meg tries to get off of me.
"Ugh what the hell was that?" Meg asks me.
"We must have made land, I suggest we get up." I tell her as Meg rolls off of me and stands up.
As Meg and I stand up I see Patroclus coming our way.
"We have made land, come we shall take you to camp." He tells us as he turns around and starts walking.
We follow him to the deck, we watch as the men start taking supplies off the ship. Meg keeps following Patroclus and I stay right behind her. A part of me starts to wonder why the hell we are here. Why this time period?
"Alright, I'll jump off first then one of you at a time. I promise I will catch you both." He tells us as he jumps off the boat onto the land.
"Hey maybe he isn't such a weirdo after all?" Meg says with a smile as she willingly goes over the side and into Patroclus' arms.
"Even in this time period she can't keep her hands off a man. Ugh this is going to be a weird time." I say as I look over and see Patroclus put Meg down and signals for me to jump.
I nod and push myself off the ship. All the sudden I feel a pair of strong arms catch me. I look up and smile at Patroclus as he looks down at me.
"See, I told you that you could trust me." He tells me as he puts me down. "Come on follow me."
We follow Patroclus into the camp and walk for a few minutes but stop at a tent.
"Diana, you will wait in there for Achilles." Patroclus tells me as he points to the tent.
"What of my sister? I can't just let her wonder about alone." I tell him as I cross my arms.
"She is my charge now. I promise you she will be well looked after." Patroclus says as he starts walking again and Meg of course follows him.
I walk into the tent and see how simple it really is. A pile of furs on one side which I am assuming that must be something like a bed? A water basin, mirror (if you could call it that) and some sparse other belongings. I walk over to a chair and sit down to just wait for Achilles. As I start to nod off I hear the flap of the tent open and my eyes jerk open.
"Were you sleeping?" Achilles asks me as he goes to the basin.
"Merely resting my eyes." I tell him as I stand up from the chair.
He looks over at me giving me the "Yeah right" look. He takes the water in his hands and starts to wash his face.
"I have to present spoils from the last raid to the King, after that I will return here where I expect to find you." He says as he barely looks over at me.
"What of Meg? Shouldn't I stay with her?" I ask him.
"Patroclus will take care of her." He tells me very simply as he continues to wash his face. "Are you afraid of me?"
"Uh well sort of, I mean I know you kill people and you could easily kill me. However if you wanted to kill me wouldn't you have done that by now?" I answer his question with my own.
"Clever woman, I do not plan on killing you nor your sister. You can rest around me no harm will come to you from me or any of my men." He says.
Yeah sure, I trust you about as far as I can throw you...which isn't far. I keep my guard up as I watch him.
"Come, you must be hungry." He says as he starts to walk to the opening of the tent, I follow him as we exit and make our way to a much bigger tent. "You can come here and get food whenever you want."
We walk inside and I see men everywhere and the women are serving them food and wine. I just know my jaw wants to drop to the ground. I am not very big on the whole "You're a woman so you must do what I tell you" idea. We walk further in and I look to a corner and see a man and a woman kissing. I quickly turn back to Achilles and walk to a table.
I barely look around when a plate of grapes is placed before Achilles by a brunette who completely ignores me. Well that was a bit rude there. I watch her as she smiles down at Achilles, right now I see why she doesn't like me. She thinks I'm a threat. I just roll my eyes and look the other direction.
"Two new spoils of war?" I hear the woman ask him. "Thought you were done collecting royalty."
"Oh I'm not royalty I'm a mermaid, I was granted access to land to see how miserable humans were. You seem to be just the type to drive a man crazy." I say sarcastically.
"A mermaid? Then don't you have any other sailors to drive to their death?" she asks me barely looking my way.
"Nope, I can't do that in my human form." I tell her with a laugh.
I see Achilles laugh just a little which was enough to make her angry.
"I thought mermaids were beautiful. You look average to me." She says with a giggle.
I look up at her and just glare for a minute.
"Says the whore." I say very simple this was my way of giving a warning.
She must have run out of smart comments and decides to turn and walk away. I really had hope that women since this time had become smarter and it's true we have A LOT. Though I know I have also just made an enemy.
"A mermaid are you?" Achilles asks with a laugh.
"I was only kidding, she took me too seriously." I tell him as I look to see Meg and Patroclus walk inside. "Seems like she was making eyes at you though."
"Every girl makes eyes at Achilles" Patroclus says as he and Meg sit down. "No woman in their right mind would turn away from him."
"Oh there is always one." Meg says as she winks at me.
"Patroclus, eat before the others come and there is nothing left." Achilles says as he goes back to eating his food.
Patroclus is served quickly as Meg and I sit there, eventually Patroclus and Achilles make sure we have food as well. All the sudden I feel something hit the back of my head. I look up at Meg and I can see that she is glaring at someone.
"Some girl just threw a grape at you." Meg tells me not looking away.
"Let her throw them Meg, it's not worth starting a fight. Remember we're not like them." I tell her as she looks down at me.
"Exactly, we could easily take her." Meg whispers into my ear.
"Not what I meant. Even though that is true we could do that. Just let it go Meg it was a grape not a knife." I tell her.
"This time it was just a grape, Di come on now you know that she is a weak link just teach her a lesson." She says still whispering so Achilles and Patroclus can't hear us.
"And do what? Drown her in the ocean? I am pretty sure whoever she sleeps with would notice don't you?" I ask her in whisper.
"Good point, alright just this once." Meg says as she start to eat again.
I just roll my eyes as we eat grapes, cheese and bread. Well this was my diet at college so I really don't have to get use to anything. Wine though, I never really liked the stuff it always made me kinda sick but now it seems that it is the only thing to drink in this place. I look into the goblet at the wine.
"Just drink it, I know you hate wine but maybe this is better than ours?" Meg says as she nudges me.
"Remember the last time I drank this stuff?" I ask her.
"Yes, you got sick but still either drink it or dehydrate." She tells me forcefully.
I reluctantly take a drink as she girl from before stands in front of me and looks down at Meg and myself.
"Another mermaid?" she asks.
I look up and force the wine to go down my throat. Meg looks like she is about to attack. Let's just say Meg is a girl that is always ready for a fight even if she has to be the one to start it.
"Nie Meg" I tell her.
Patroclus and Achilles then look right at me in surprise. Uh oh what did I do? All I did was tell Meg not to start a fight.
"You speak Egyptian?" Achilles asks me.
Oh right, darn me and quoting the mummy movie. Great now how do I get myself out of this mess?
"Only a few words. Not enough to hold a conversation." I say as I look back down at my food.
"How did you learn the language?" Patroclus asks.
Before I can think of an answer they would believe I hear Meg answer "She taught herself." Uh Oh, now what do I do? I have to make up a lie or something.
"You taught yourself to speak Egyptian?" Achilles asks in disbelief.
"Yes, Di is actually very smart-" Meg starts but I cover her mouth with my hand.
"Sister, let's not brag now shall we? I found a book with the help of another slave I learned the language I did no teach myself as my sister claims." I lie to them.
"What was that word you said?" Patroclus asks.
"Nie?" I ask him wondering if that was the word he meant.
"Yes, that's the one what does it mean?"
"It means "No" something I say to Meg a lot." I say as I look back at Meg.
"So the fish knows two languages barely. I speak four fluently." The woman starts.
"You should, after all you have to communicate your price don't you?" Meg asks as she pulls my hand back on her mouth knowing that would be my reaction.
"You two speak your mind." Patroclus says with a chuckle.
"You have no idea." I say as I watch the woman try to make a conversation with Achilles.
Poor girl no matter what she does all she gets is a few one word answers. Achilles mostly keep to himself while he eats. Meg and I finish rather quickly but I mean come on we were very hungry. Now all we did was sit and watch the people around us.
Men were there drinking and we could easily tell some if not most of these women were used for other activities than making food and serving drinks. Meg and I watch as one girl starts a fight with another girl about something we don't know.
"This is very demeaning to our sex." Meg whispers to me again.
"Tell me about it. Like a bunch of kids after prom." I tell her with a small giggle.
"Well what do we do just stay silent and play along?" Meg asks in a whisper again.
"We have no other choice? Unless you have a time machine in you bra." I whisper back to her. "Don't reveal anything though. We make one wrong move and history re writes itself."
"Maybe that's why we are here? To rewrite it?" she ask.
"I doubt that, if so then why us? We barely know anything about the Greeks or the Trojans for that matter." I tell her as I see Achilles push his plate forward empty.
"I'll take my leave, I expect you to be at my tent when I return from the King." Achilles says as he walks out of the tent.
"Seems you have caught his fancy, too bad you don't like blondes though." Meg says with a laugh.
"Meg, try to focus would you? I mean think to yourself these men are thousands of years older than us." I tell her.
Meg quickly looks to Patroclus who is still eating and distracted by what is going on in the room. She then shrugs her shoulders and looks back at me.
"So, still cute." Meg replies with a smile.
My hand makes contact with my forehead and I just shake my head. Oh for the love of god. Really she's gonna go and fall for someone from the past? What if we are stuck here though? There is no way to really get back now is there?
Finally after Patroclus finished eating Meg and I with him walked to Achilles tent. I guess they were dropping me off. I put my hand on the tent and smile back to Meg and Patroclus.
"Night sissy, try and get some sleep and don't do anything I wouldn't do." Meg tells me as she and Patroclus walk away.
Sure, anything she wouldn't do. Wouldn't surprise me if she jumped his bones right when they got into the tent. I walk into Achilles tent and look around again. I decide to go ahead and sit in the chair again and just wait. After what seems to be hours I hear the flap open and I look up to see Achilles looking kind of pissed off. Great what does that mean for me?
"Diana, I forgot you were here." He says as he start to take off his armor.
"It's alright, I'm easy to forget." I tell him with a shrug.
"I did not mean to insult you." He says.
"Really it's fine. What is the matter you look upset?" I ask him as I slowly walk to his side.
"Tomorrow we are going to a temple. Take what we can from there." He starts to tell me. "You know of Apollo?"
"Uh I have heard of him yes but I do not worship him." I tell him as he looks up at me surprised.
"Which of the gods do you pray to?" he asks me.
"That is not a subject to discuss now. Continue with your tale." I tell him as he puts his armor down on the ground.
"We'll take what we can then have to give it all to him" Achilles points his sword to the flap of the tent.
"That doesn't seem fair you do all the work and receive nothing but a small portion of the reward. Though I am just a woman what would I know?" I say as I turn away from him.
"You seem to know more then you tell." He says as he walks up to me and get dangerously close to my face.
"Are you going to make me a slave like the women in that tent?" I ask him.
"No, you and Meg are protected by my cousin and I. Though you could help if you wish." He says as he turns away grabbing his robe and quickly changing into it.
Later that night, I walk out to the ocean. I always loved the ocean. As I sit on the shore I look down at the sea shells that have washed up on shore. Just as I go to grab one I see another hand grab it. I look up and there stands Achilles.
"Why did you leave the tent?" he asks me coldly.
"I just wanted to see the ocean. I wasn't planning on running away if that's what you mean." I tell him as I stand up and knock the sand off me.
"You could have been taken or killed. Unless you are with me or Patroclus do not wander out alone." He tells me as he takes my hand. "I cannot protect you if I cannot see you."