Chapter Fourteen: The Beginning of the End

The next morning, we left the city. Kida gave each of us a crystal and many different pieces of gold and other ancient artifacts. Each of us said our goodbyes to Milo, who decided to stay behind, and the Atlanteans took us up to the surface as promised.

"So anyone know where we are?" I asked as we walked around the village we were dropped off at. We all shot a glance over to Tia, who merely shrugged.

"I would have to hear someone speak the language to give you a rough guess of where we are," She told us, "But guessing by the architecture, we're somewhere in Scandinavia. But there are no people around, so I have nothing to confirm that."

"So what do we do?" Audrey asked.

"I don't know about you all, but I'm going to go see if there's a pub or an inn or something, figure out where we are and how we can get back home." Tia responded.

"That's a good idea." Cookie replied, "But we don't have any money."

"No, we have something better." Tia gestured to the crates, "And something they might actually accept other the American dollar."

Cookie and Mole opened their mouths to argue, but Tia spoke up before they could, "I really don't give a shit if we have to give things up to get back home and neither should you unless you want to live here yourself." She looked around at us, "Anyone staying here?" We all remained silent. "No? Good."

Knowing we could not argue with her, or at least respond with an argument she would listen to, we followed her through the village until she found an inn.

"God kveld" The inn keeper greeted.

Tia smiled and greeted him in return, "God kveld, har du tilfeldigvis en telefon som jeg kunne bruke?"

He shook his head, "Nei, vi har ikke en her."

"Vet du hvor jeg kan sende en telegraf?"

"Jeg kan sende en for deg." He replied, handing her a piece of paper "Skriv ned meldingen og hvem den er til, så sender jeg den."

"Tusen takk" Tia wrote something on the paper and gave it to the inn keeper. He then walked away. She turned to us, "We're in Norway. No telephone, but a message is being sent to my grandfather now. We may be here for a while, I'll try to see if there are any rooms available when he gets back and if he'll agree to a barter."

After the inn keeper came back, Tia talked to him in Norwegian for a short while and then he went back to his office.

"So he is willing to give us room and board." Tia informed, "But he doesn't want a trade, he wants free labor. Half of his staff is sick. Vinny and Mole, you'll be in the garden, cleaning it up, he'll give me a list of everything the two of you have to do so I can translate it. I'll be in the kitchen with Cookie."

"What about us?" Audrey asked her, referring to the two of us and Packard.

"That's all he needed done." She replied.

"Do you cook?" I asked her.

"No, but I can prevent Cookie from just serving grease."

"I serve the four basic food groups!" Cookie argued.

"There's five." She corrected, "Fruits, vegetables, protein, dairy, and grain and I believe only two of which you actually served on the expedition."

"You ate all my fruits and vegetables."

"You weren't using them."

"What else was I going to leave you to eat?" Cookie retorted, "You wouldn't eat anything I made."

Knowing someone should speak up before anything else came out, I asked, "So what are the rooming arrangements going to be?"

"Two to a room with me on my own. Sweet, you're will Mole, if you could reintroduce him to soap, the inn keeper thought he was our pet. Audrey, you and Packard are bunking together. Vinny, you're with Cookie."

The inn keeper came back out with the keys and led us to our rooms. We stayed in the inn for three weeks before Professor Whitmore was able to have a ship bring us back to Washington D.C. When we returned, we were met with not only payment for our services, but new clothing, room and board, and an evening of food and festivities.

Tia's POV

"You've really outdone yourself." I told my grandfather, standing next to him, watching the people dance, "You usually aren't fond of these parties."

"It was Miss Corey's idea as a way to welcome you and the team home." Grandfather replied, "I believe she mentioned something about having them introduced to society."

I rolled my eyes, "Really?"

"I think she had more of interest in meeting the team." Grandfather responded, "Things did not work out with Mr. Collis."

"They never do with the suitors her father chooses."

Grandfather looked at me, "Then maybe you should introduce her to someone." Then looked to Anna, who was sitting at a table on her own, "I'm sure you know of someone, you've spent enough time with them."

I nodded, "I think I just might." I then made my over to Sweet, who was making small talk with Audrey and Mole, "Do you mind if I borrow Sweet for a moment?"

Audrey and Mole shook their heads.

"Where are you taking me?" Sweet asked.

"I'm about to change your life." I told him with a smile.

"Then by all means lead the way."

I lead him to Annabeth, whom upon seeing him, lit up, "Dr. Joshua Sweet, may I introduce you to my friend, Annabeth Corey. Anna, Dr. Sweet was the medical officer on the trip I was on." I introduced them, "I'll leave you to converse."

As I walked away, I heard Sweet ask Anna, "Would you like to dance?"

While I was heading up the stairs, I ran into Cookie, who was on his way down.

"Cookie, have you seen Vinny?" I asked.

"Probably in the library, he just finished talking to the Professor a while ago." Cookie responded, "Surprised you're looking for him, thought you'd be a little upset about him being your bodyguard."

"I'm sorry, what?" I seethed, before he could say anything I headed to the library to confront him.

"It was all a lie, wasn't it?" I asked upset. Vinny turned around looking at me in confusion. He opened his mouth to reply, but I continued, "You were only around me cause my grandfather was paying you money?"

"No, it started out that way," I turned to walk away, but he pulled me back, "but everything's different now. Something I hadn't expected, I-"

I pulled my arm away. "Stop it! From the very beginning you lied." I retorted and pushed him away. "And I not only believed you, I actually..." I turned and started to walk away. "Ugh..."

He went in front of me. "I'm sorry I lied. Mr. Whitmore wanted me to look after you, sorta like controlled freedom. But something happened along the way-"

"No kidding!" I retorted furiously.

"You gotta believe me."

"How can believe anything you say at this point?" I retorted.

He sighed, "That is what I'm trying to tell you. I didn't plan for it to happen, but it did. I'm in love with you, Tia."

"You can go to hell. You and my grandfather both." I retorted and ran away.