The story of Achilles

Chapter three

I had been at camp half-blood for a few weeks now and I started to get much better with my new sword. Chiron had told me that I was really good with my sword for such a short amount of training and practice. I had already defeated the best swordsmen in camp and I was still getting better. The last week was probably the best week of my life, I had great training, I enjoyed staying at camp half-blood and best of all, Patroclus had arrived at camp as well. When I saw him arrive I felt a happy feeling all over my body. I didn't realize how much I had missed him over the last weeks at camp. I'd spend all week with Patroclus and now we are laying in the grass, looking at the clouds. We had a break from all the training and we went down towards the lake and we where having a really good time. All was good until I heard a women's voice. "Achilles, stand up and go to the forest, I need to have a word with you. Walk to the forest edge and you'll see me standing there. Don't worry about Patroclus, he won't even notice that you are gone." I didn't want to go there, but there was something about her voice that made me understand that I couldn't just ignore this woman. I still had no clue who she was. She seemed so strong, so powerful, I simply couldn't resist it. I stood up and walked towards the forest edge just as the voice had told me. When I looked at Patroclus I was surprised to see that he was frozen in time. "What kind of person can do this? I can't possibly have been talking to a god, can I?" For the first time in my life I felt a bit scared. Chiron had told me in one of his lessons that heroes never are scared, but I couldn't help it. Maybe I'm not meant to be a hero after all. I arrived at the edge, I looked around. Then I saw her. A beautiful woman was standing there, between the trees. I quickly closed my mouth. "Hi madam, you wanted to speak with me?"

"Achilles, yes, I did want to speak to you. You have grown since last time I've seen you. Look at you, you have much more muscles then last time. Remind me to thank Chiron for training you this well. But enough about this now, I have come to speak to you about something important, Achilles. I've been deeply insulted by some "boy" named Paris. You are going to revenge me one day, Achilles. I will guide you. You don't know how yet but you will know when the time has come. Revenge me and you will be a great hero, your name will be known for millennias." Then she disappeared, she just vaporized in midair. I looked in shock at the place where she stood a few seconds ago. I realized that Pallas Athena had just spoken to me. Quietly I walked back to Patroclus. The second I lay down again, he came back to life. He looked at me and asked: "Is something wrong, my love?" I wasn't sure what to answer. Yes, there was something wrong, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to tell him. "No, honey, all is fine. I guess I just saw a weird cloud or something." That was it, I wasn't going to tell him, not yet. Another few weeks went by. I was almost going home again, back to my mother and father. Of course Patroclus was also coming with me.

We were walking towards our own cabins, at the point we had to split up, we kissed each other goodbye. Then I was walking alone to my cabin. I didn't have many cabinmates because my mother doesn't have many children. I walked inside, I was alone. The other kids were somewhere outside. I walked to my bed and sat down. After the goddess Athena had spoken to me, I felt more alone then before. I wanted to think about what she said. The last few weeks I grew a lot in my fighting skills but still, I didn't want to believe I had to revenge some goddess. There where so many half-bloods in camp who are so much, stronger, smarter, older and wiser, they could fight much better then him and I started to doubt myself a lot. I didn't want to disappoint a goddess but I had the feeling that I was going to let her down. "Stop it now!" I said out loud to myself, "You are going to be a hero, whether you like it or not, don't act like such a baby. I'm sure you'll be fine." And with that being said, I started to pack my bags, I was ready to go home again.