ONE

The rush of the waves was soothing. The gentle lapping of the water against the sandy beach and the way it foamed just as it surfaced. It was the kind of soothing that you would get from a sleeping sound app, you know? Gentle white noises that got louder with each breath. Weren't they supposed to get quieter? Above a seagull squawked, its shadow passing over me, riding the gentle breeze that carried the salty, ocean aroma. The sun was warm, but in a relaxing way, although its glare was too much considering, I usually closed my curtains before sleep. Not to mention my bed felt oddly lumpy and scratchy. It was a far cry from the memory foam mattress I'd invested in only a couple of months ago—

Hold on...

I never used those white noise apps. Believe it or not, those sounds actually kept me awake, not put me to sleep. Nor was I anywhere near a beach. I lived in the middle of the prairies which, by the way, was frozen solid by Jack Frost. And, even if I were outside, I wouldn't be lying down on the beach. The only beach close to my house was a small, human-made one that really didn't even qualify as a beach because it rested against a pathetic excuse for a lake.

And I hadn't been sleeping.

At least, I don't think I was.

My eyes fluttered open, and I found myself staring up at a clear blue sky with faint wisps of clouds floating along. The waves' rush was more focused now and definitely real. To my left and, as I had that thought, a sharp, wet cold hit my body. It was enough to fully drag me out of my groggy state of mind and into reality.

Reality being an impossible beach, of course.

"What the hell?" I gasped, scrambling to my feet.

Succeeding in their task of dragging me out of my slumber, the waves retreated. I staggered away from the ocean line and glanced around. A heavy, humid breeze brushed my cheeks, tousled my hair. There was so much salt in the air I could taste it. Beyond the beach lay a rocky terrain, with patches of dark green grass, troughs and densely packed trees. Mountains exploded from behind the trees, looming like a great barrier to unknown lands.

This wasn't real. I was having one wicked vivid dream. I was still in my fuzzy, baby blue pyjamas. Even though they were currently sandy, surely that meant I was still sleeping in bed... right? I pinched myself hard enough that I gasped, the pain from it like a needle jab. A red mark swelled on my arm. Well, that didn't work. I slapped my cheeks.

"Shit, shit, shit, wake up," I muttered.

A slow, creeping panic tried to claw its way through me, a heavy lump settling in my stomach. My head swivelled right and then left. And then right again. To my right was the ocean, which lapped lightly with the incoming tide, a swirl of blue, white and green. Despite the raw panic, the sea was pretty, with the way the sun reflected off its surface. It literally sparkled. In the distance, it connected with the blue sky, a straight cut line running through the Earth. Dotting the waters were silhouetted boats and ships, presumably for fishing and recreation. I couldn't make them out too well, but they didn't look like any of the sleek boats I'd seen.

My toes dug into the soft, hot sand, an absent attempt to wake myself up. It was so pristine and untouched; there wasn't even a trace of litter dotting the beach. Another indication I was dreaming. I've been to a beach before, and it wasn't this clean. There was usually litter, annoying seagulls waiting to steal food. And beaches were usually overcrowded with sunburnt tourists and wannabe surfers and kids peeing in the water. My brain was sanitizing the real experience.

I pinched myself again. Nothing changed.

I turned my focus to the surrounding area. Uneven, rocky, and dense with foliage. It was quite pleasant, really, and very quiet. Very old—That's it! I've been cooped up in my house for so long that my imagination took me on an adventure! Totally believable, but how to wake up? Not by standing in front of the sea, pinching myself anyway.

About ten feet away from where I stood there was a break in the trees, revealing a path. A dirt path that led into the ominous forest, but it looked like a deliberate path, meaning people were nearby. Maybe they could give me answers.

When I approached the tree line, however, I hesitated. Clenched and unclenched my hands.

"Just step in, Alexis," I murmured to myself. "Just take one step. That's it. One step."

My feet refused to move. Maybe it would be better to walk the length of the beach. There were boats, surely there was a dock close by. I was hardly dressed for a trek in a forest, even if it was the cooler option—and my feet were burning from standing on sand. But there were also bugs in a forest. Maybe snakes or panthers or tigers. Or, monsters.

"Stop being a baby," I scolded myself. I forced myself into motion.

I scrambled into the trees, the air closing in on me like a cooling blanket. It was still salty and humid, but as I wandered down the path, it smelled of damp earth, mouldy and decomposing. Thin ribbons of sunlight broke through the canvas above my head. Birds and small critters chittered unseen in the trees. Okay, birds and small critters weren't so bad. I could deal with that.

Leaves rustled dangerously to my left, freezing me mid-stride. Blood rushed to my ears like lapping waves. There had been a growl. A very predatory growl. One that wanted to eat me.

I was not going to become a chew toy for some giant cat.

When the mystery creature rustled the leaves again, I darted out of the forest. The white hot pain of stepping onto the sand grounded me and I whirled around. Nothing came crashing after me. All was still, the only sounds coming from the gentle waves of the sea.

"It's not a bad thing to be afraid," I muttered.

I walked a few feet on the sandy shore before pausing. Was I even going in the right direction? What if there was nothing for miles and miles and miles? The boats dotting the sea didn't give any indication which way they were sailing. The forest had a path at least, and paths usually led to civilization.

"Ugh!" I groaned, and stomped back to the forest path. "Okay, this is fine. Just keep walking and don't slow down. And, hey, if I die, I'll just wake up. Maybe dying is exactly what I need to do."

As morbid as that sounded, a part of me wondered if that's what it took to wake up from the nightmare.

The forest closed in around me once more as I scrambled down the path. Hyper vigilant, I ignored the throbbing in my feet. First thing on my list of things to find—shoes.

I scanned the densely packed trees for any large, sulking shadows that would want to eat me. At the same time, I tried to figure out where, exactly, I was, and how I got there. I was still convinced I was dreaming, but the pulsing pain in my feet and the sweat tickling my spine suggested otherwise. Things were too vivid, too coherent to be a normal dream.

However, try as I might, I couldn't remember what I had been doing before I woke up at the beach. Every time I reached for that memory, it danced away, shaking its hips teasingly.

Eventually, and with all my limbs (and my life) still intact, I broke out of the forest and found a rocky field. Not so much a field as a mini-mountainous region. Wherever I was, it was not as flat as where I came from.

The path curved around some rocky hills. As I rounded them, I was greeted by a high, stone wall about a hundred feet away. The wall was something you'd find surrounding a castle or the ruins of an ancient city—impenetrable, with no windows or gaps, save for the large open entranceway in the middle of the wall. It was so tall and looming the only feasible theory was that it had been built by giants.

The path I stood on flowed into a bigger road that led to the wall's entrance. A trail of people made their way towards what I was starting to believe was a city, except it didn't look like any city I recognized. There were no high rises or wailing sirens, not to mention the sandy coloured stones. Cities were drab and gray, or visually assaulting and loud. And no one drove a car, though there were horse drawn chariots, wagons, donkeys and other livestock dotting the masses. The people were dressed in light coloured dresses and sandals that wrapped around their calves. The women wore long, flowing dresses, while the men settled for something that rested above their knees. Children dashed about between the adults, laughing but taking care not to wander too far from their families.

I didn't know what this city was or who the people were, but the panicky sensation that had been creeping its way up my body now clawed at my chest. The city and its people had a really old vibe to it—an ancient vibe to be exact.

My imagination was good, but it wasn't that good.

"It is something, isn't it?"

The woman's voice came out of nowhere, startling me out of my silence. With a yelp, I whirled around, slipping on a stone. I caught myself before I fell flat, but my face sang with embarrassment and fear.

The woman stood next to the rocky hill and, oh boy, was she beautiful. A freaking goddess with her perfectly sculpted curves, wavy, brown hair cascading around her shoulders under a shining, gold helmet. The helmet sat low over her forehead, the curve pointing a bit to give her a severe look. Her robe was made of a material that shimmered like a trail of sunlight, billowing effortlessly as she approached. In her left hand, she carried a spear, the metal point of it catching the sun.

"W-wh-what?" I stammered. My cheeks flushed with sudden heat, and I had to look anywhere but at this beautiful woman.

"I said, it is something, isn't it?"

"Um... I guess?" I glanced back at the city. "I didn't think I could dream up something like that. Or you, for that matter."

Her slender eyebrows slid under her helmet as her almond-shaped, keen, brown eyes surveyed me closely until I shifted uncomfortably. There was something profoundly wise and deep in her gaze, like she was peering into my soul and tearing it apart to find all my secrets.

"You're not dreaming," she said. "Your minuscule brain doesn't have the capacity to conjure someone like me."

Her voice was lilting and smooth, an accent I couldn't quite place, but maybe European? Her striking accent, however, was offset by her harsh, insulting words.

"No, this is a dream," I argued. Even my brain knew that this was too real to be a dream.

She sighed and jabbed the butt end of her spear into the ground. "This might be hard for you to comprehend, but it is real. You made the foolish mistake of wishing yourself away, and someone heard you. Despite my counsel, he scooped you out of your life in 2020 and plopped you here."

The words were coming out of her mouth—and I heard them—but I couldn't register what they meant. Everything sounded like a bunch of gibberish. But, a prickly sense of recognition nudged at my brain.

I must have been gawking because, with a dramatic sigh, the woman pinched her brow. "This is why we don't mess with humans anymore. I am going to strangle Zeus."

That name stuck out among the gibberish, and my head shot up. "Zeus? Like... like the Greek god, Zeus?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, and I realized she had made a mistake telling me his name. "Well, yes, but you weren't supposed to know that. Rules have changed, and we can't reveal ourselves to humans anymore given your inability to comprehend our existence and, well, Zeus's antics for tricking people."

"Yeah, turning into golden rain, didn't jive well with people, huh?" I raised an eyebrow and tilted my head. "Are you a goddess?"

The silence that bloomed between us answered my question. I was standing in front of a goddess, a very real, gorgeous goddess, and the recognition started to settle in, especially given her obvious accessory choices. She was rude, too, but that was beside the point. Oh, and Zeus was apparently real too.

"Who are you, exactly?" I coaxed, ignoring the prickling anxiety attack that was festering in the pit of my stomach.

"This is why we don't tell humans anymore," she repeated, sensing my distress. "You can't possibly understand the full extent of the universe."

"Yeah, well, you messed that up, huh?" I said irritably. I needed to hear her say it out loud so I repeated myself. "Who? Are? You?"

"I don't see why it matters, but fine." She gave me a tired smile and dipped her head by way of introduction. "I'm Athena, goddess of wisdom, war and handicraft."

Athena. Greek Goddess. Yup. That checked. I was officially going insane.

"Cool," I muttered, "cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, this is fine, this is fine. I'm just standing in front of a literal goddess in a strange place—" I glanced at her again. "Where exactly did Zeus send me?"

"Troy," she said. At least she wasn't cagey with her answers.

Troy. Why was that name familiar? I dug into my brain, slowly letting the pieces click into place.

"Wait a minute... What the hell?" I snapped, rounding on Athena. "You mean to tell me that I'm-I'm... I'm in Troy?! The Troy, with the Trojan Horse and the big war? That Troy!"

I looked around in desperation, but it was still the same old landscape I saw earlier. Rocky hills, large mountains, a road, and a big walled city I supposed was Troy itself. Oh, right, Troy!

"I did say that, yes," Athena replied with an exasperated sigh. Who would have thought a goddess sighed so much. "Why is that concept so difficult to believe? You, humans, are just as dense in your timeline as you are in this one. This is why we made a rule to keep ourselves hidden. But, of course, Zeus was bored and had to mess things up. Again."

"Oh, well, I'm sorry that my peon brain can't comprehend how I time-travelled. You were the one who wasn't supposed to say anything, remember?" I shot back with a hysterical laugh. I was aware I just insulted myself. "Jesus, how am I going to get out of this?"

"Jesus can't help you here," the goddess sighed—the umpteenth sigh— "this is a little before his time... do you know nothing of your world's history?"

My head snapped towards her, and I'm pretty sure my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "Wait, Jesus was real?"

"Come along now," she said with a smile. "We need to find you a place to lie low until I can convince Zeus to take you back. Your presence in this world could have catastrophic consequences if you're not careful, which means avoiding anyone detrimental to this piece of time."

I blinked a few times rapidly as she sauntered away from me. The whole situation left me dizzy but also curious. I don't even know where to start, except that I'm stuck in some ancient city thanks to a bored god. I don't even remember wishing I'd be somewhere else. The last thing I do remember is brushing my hair before going to sleep.

"Are you coming? I don't have all day, and if you get yourself captured because you're dawdling, you're on your own. Not that it wouldn't be entertaining. You'd make a hilarious slave, but like I said catastrophic consequences."

With a gulp, I hurried to catch up. "Can we go back to the thing about Jesus...?"

She smiled at me again, this time with a wink that only sparked a billion twinkling questions. "There's not much to tell, except that he's not exactly what you'd think."

With that mysteriously cryptic answer, Athena glided in the direction I came from. I was barely comprehending what was going on, let alone the revelation that gods, goddesses, and Jesus were all real!

"Hurry up!" Athena called out again.

I glanced back at the city of Troy, and then, with no other options visible to me, I followed the goddess, hoping that I would be safe with her and that Zeus would take me home soon.

If my Greek mythology knowledge taught me anything, Zeus wasn't going to be an easy god to convince.