Later, Calypso went to rest her feet in the fountain.

She hadn't realized how bad they were until the stinging became unbearable, and she was forced to look down. When running through the forest, back to her garden, she must have stumbled over a rock, because her large toenail was broken. Bending down to touch it, she cringed.

So Calypso seated herself on the edge of the fountain, not caring if her jeans got a little wet. She dipped her feet into the clear blue water, and hissed.

The pain was instant. Calypso had once heard a phrase, 'to bleed just to know you're alive.' If this was a reminder, then Calypso wasn't sure she wanted it. It felt like someone had taken sandpaper to the soles of her feet, and scraped it against them.

After several minutes, the initial pain receded, and Calypso leaned down to examine her feet. She swished the water around, and it started turning gold with the ichor that bled out of her. Gingerly, she rubbed the scratches. Small granules of sand rubbed with her, and she winced and drew her hands away.

"Curses," she spat aloud. How had she managed to get so much sand under her skin?

After trying and failing several times to clean them out, Calypso gave up. She leaned back on her hands and settled for swirling her feet back and forth. She tilted her face back, feeling the night air. If memory served her correct, by the slight lightening of the eastern sky, the sun would rise soon.

It would be her first real day here without Leo, she realized.

Despite the rather upsetting gravity of the situation, she smiled again. It was hard, not to smile, when thinking about Leo Valdez.

She remembered, fondly, how much she hated him when he first arrived. Well, arrived was not the word for it. Crashed. Leo had crashed into her life in a burst of flames, and had continued like a wrecking ball right up until he left. There was nothing but destruction in his wake. Calypso rather liked it.

And he promised to come back.

It came upon her like a tidal wave, the urge to squeal. Calypso had never squealed before. She did not squeal. And yet, here she was, clutching her hands to chest and feeling giddy.

Leo had promised her to come back. And even though Calypso told herself not to think about it, because the disappointment would be unbearable, she thought about it. She thought about him returning on his dragon, Festus. She wanted to see Festus. She desperately wanted to see the camp, and all of Leo's friends, and-

She had to pull her feet out of the fountain to wrap her knees up to her chest. Her skin tingled from excitement. She imagined climbing onto the back of the dragon and flying across the world to have grand adventures with Leo. For the rest of their lives, they would-

Calypso stopped.

Everything stopped, all at once. Her heart missed several beats. She ceased to breath. Every muscle in her body froze. And her thoughts ground to a halt, leaving Calypso sitting on the edge of her fountain like a marble statue.

How stupid was she?

How much of an idiot was she, that she let herself think like that? Had she forgotten the most important thing?

Calypso was immortal.

Even if, by some miracle, Leo returned and managed to release her from Ogygia, what would it accomplish? Eventually he would age, and die, and she would remain in the body of a fifteen year old. What if they did try to have a life together? When Leo was twenty-five, or thirty, or older? Would he still want anything to do with a girl who still looked like a girl?

And then, when Leo died, as those without immortality always did, Calypso would be left alone again. And this time, she did not think she would be able to heal.

Calypso raised her head to the sky. She had been wrong, she thought wryly. Sending that 'charbroiled runt' was not her punishment. This was.

Dimly, she wondered if Leo, if he came back, could be persuaded to stay. But immediately she knew he wouldn't. What person would choose to stay here, when they had friends and family waiting for them? She wouldn't. Calypso wouldn't choose this life in a thousand years. And if Leo did decide to stay, what would happen if another hero washed up on her shore? He would never be released, because Calypso would never fall for him. Lives would be ruined by her selfishness.

No, she thought. Even if Leo came back, Calypso could only tell him to turn right back around where he came. Hopefully he would forget about her before then.

She put her feet back in the fountain. This time, she barely felt the pain as she began rubbing the sand away. She washed her feet until the bleeding stopped, and the wounds began to heal. Then she pulled them out of the water, and waited until they dried. White scars ran along her soles.

Calypso summoned a servant to bring her sandals. After so many days without them, her feet felt strangely cushioned.

She still didn't cry. She was a little too hollow for that.

The sun had risen over the ridge. It was a new day on Ogygia. Calypso did what she had always done; the only thing she knew how to do anymore. She sat down on the beach and waited for the next hero to arrive.


Weekly updates are probably something to expect, yo.

ALSO. The amount of people that followed and did nothing else. Like...I want to be mad but honestly that's what I do with drabble series too pfff