Chapter 10
Traveling to Mount Olympus
Connor and I woke up to someone hitting us on our heads with something hard. I opened my eyes to see Hermes standing above us chuckling to himself. Since I never described to you what Hermes looks like, I'll tell you now. He had the exact same, almost creepy, smile that Connor had, and had curly black hair and blue eyes. He had a very athletic build, which made sense, since he is messenger of the gods. He also had a very kind look in his eyes, but you could barely see it if you didn't look hard enough. But back to our adventure.
Hermes yelled, "Wake up wee mortals! I have a proposition for you."
Connor and I bolted up and I almost fell backwards I stood up so quickly.
Connor said, "Ok, dad, what's your proposition?"
Hermes said, "We leave for the moon now."
"Wait," I said, "right now?"
"Yes, right now."
I didn't expect this to happen so quickly, I guess I thought it would be this big, adventurous thing. But we're getting ready to leave and it's happening right now.
Hermes then told Connor and me about the dangers of going to the moon. We'd have to avoid the Aeolus, gods of the winds. The hardest thing we have to do is ask Zeus to grant us passage to the moon. Not because he won't allow us to be able to go through the sky, but because we need to ask him to grant us powers to be able to fly through the sky and space without losing oxygen and other things that could happen.
Hermes told Connor and me just to hold hands and he'd carry us both to Mt. Olympus. That's right, we get to go to Mount Olympus! Percy had told me about it, but I was excited to see it for myself. Hermes said that he's going to sneak us in to have a meeting with Zeus.
Hermes carried us to New York City. I had to ask him what would happen to Luna, so he sent her back to Camp Half-Blood quickly before we got to the Empire State Building. It's so cool that Mt. Olympus exists here in New York. Hermes found the entrance for us and sent us to the 600th floor.
We entered the throne room, and it was huge. Hermes wasn't the same size as Connor and I anymore, he was at least 15 feet tall. The other gods were gone except for Hestia, Hera, and Zeus.
Hermes walked up to Zeus and told him that he had demigod visitors that needed his help. Zeus laughed a little bit, but then I heard Hermes say that the matter involved titans, and Zeus's face became more serious. They then started talking for a while and Hera joined in on the conversation.
After a while Connor and I realized that we weren't part of the conversation, and decided to walk over to Hestia, where she sat by the hearth. Percy had described the throne room differently than what I see. Maybe each person sees their own version of the throne room.
I saw the ground, but it looked like a cloud, and there was some smokiness coming up from the ground and settling around the floor. Each throne had its own design, and in the center back wall of the room, the room was an oval shape, was Zeus's throne. It was gold and had lightning and thunder etched into the backrest of the chair, and the arm rests were seemingly made of lightning bolts that actually glowed and flickered. I saw my mom's throne as well. It had a moon as the backrest of her throne, and right now the moon was a crescent shape, just as the moon actually looked outside. I assumed the moon on her throne must resemble the actual moon every day. For her throne's armrests there were deer antlers and forest animals residing in between the antlers, some were alive and some were just pictures. It was pretty amazing. If I could tell you exactly what all of the other thrones looked like, I would but that would take a long time because each of them were so different and had their own intricate designs.
Anyway, Connor and I walked over to Hestia. She was beautiful, in an understated way. She wore a brown robe, almost like a monk's, but everything else about her was beautiful and fiery. Her hair was a glowing red, that seemed to flicker like fire. Her eyes were brown, but inside of them you could see a warm fire glowing. Her skin was a golden color and her face seemed warm and friendly. She stared at the fire attentively and didn't seem to notice Connor and me coming.
Connor spoke up and said hello. Hestia turned to look at him but didn't say anything. She just gestured towards the hearth. The hearth looked like a normal stone fireplace, but it was huge, probably 6 feet wide by 8 feet tall. Hestia was sitting on the actual hearth, which was also made of stone, but she didn't seem to be burning up. Connor and I sat down on the hearth as well. Surprisingly the fire was just the right temperature for me, and the closer I got, it didn't seem to change. Hestia then spoke, seemingly reading my mind.
She said, "The fire adjusts to whatever temperature is most comfortable for you, it's very nice, isn't it?"
"Yes," I said, "do you ever get tired of tending to it, Hestia?"
"Sometimes, but I know it's my duty because if I didn't the world would fall out of order. You are the daughter of Artemis aren't you? I can tell, you have an almost moon-like glow about you. And you - you must be the son of Hermes, you have that same smile."
I said, "Yes, Artemis is my mother and Hermes is his father. I'm Arrow and this is Connor."
"So, what brings you to my hearth?"
"Well, nothing really, it just looked so warm and inviting. But we are here at Mt. Olympus to ask Zeus favors on our way to the moon."
"Why are you going to the moon, child? That seems a difficult feat."
"We are going to find Selene, she wants to speak to me, for what reason I don't know."
"Be careful, children, titans often can't be trusted. Just a warning for your journey. You should probably be going now; it looks as if those three are done talking."
Connor and I both said, "Thank you, Hestia."
"No, thank you, children, I don't often get visitors at my hearth."
Connor and I walked back to Hermes, who held something in his hand.