Chapter Eight: your reputation for hospitality is becoming a legend

"It'd be rude to refuse a gift from a goddess."

-Moana, Moana (2016)

Her dreams were weird.

It started a week into her new life, living with Cinderella and Kit. They watched the news about Evie and rage-filled Uma at what some people thought about her cousin. They did not know her or any of the children from the Isle that came to Auradon. The dreams, she wished they never began yet they did. It began the day when Evie's secret was unleashed onto Auradon.

She was on a brown horse riding through with her men, overlooking the sea. They were riding to see someone they needed for war. A great war, She thought to herself. When she finally arrived she could see sparring and then as she arrived she saw a spear fly inches away from her. It hit the tree just as she was turning to the opening of the sea and the ruins of a temple. She cursed the demigod that threw the spear as she finally saw the two blondes. Uma got off the horse and pulled the spear from the tree, walking towards them with a smile on her face.

"Your reputation for hospitality is becoming a legend!" He told one of the boys who looked no older than Jay. He had muscles like Jay as well, Uma thought. The one with the arms and holding the sword introduced the scrawny blonde as his cousin, Patroclus.

"Patroclus, this is Odysseus, King of Ithica," He smiled at Uma. Her brain tried to wrack any information on Odysseus but she got nothing. She hated it when she knew nothing.

The dream ended with that. It changed with the same scene as she begged Achilleas to fight for her. "Fight for the Greeks. Fight for me. My wife will feel much safe knowing you are by my side. I'll feel much better."

Patroclus was a bright-eyed boy asking her about some warrior called Hector. She smiled, telling him about the warrior. "We could use more men like you from Phtia," She had told Patroclus. "I hope you join us Patroclus, we could use a strong arm like yours." Until blonde muscles pointed the sword between them. He gave her a tight smile that had "Play your tricks on me. But not on my cousin."

"You have your swords. I have my tricks. We play with the toys the gods give us."

The scene rippled like water and then she woke up.

What. In. The. Holy. Fuck?

The next night, she was in a tent eating while a fat man in shiny armor yelled his head off. She was amused by him as he said, "Like a whipped dog!"

"The men thought we came here for Menelaus wife," He said eyeing the King. "Guess we won't be needing her anymore."

The King turned on his heel and looked at her. Well at Odysseus. He snarled at her, "My brother's blood still wets the sand and you insult him!"

"It's no insult to say that a dead man is dead." She was still cheeky to one of the villains, she probably would have been killed. Here, she probably insulted a King but he did not make any moves to chop her head off. "He is still breathing Agamemnon, is he not? Just licking his wounds."

The old man who sat in front of her spoke up. "If we leave now, we lose all credibility."

Uma picked at her cuticles focusing on that as she spoke, "If we stay, we stay for the right reasons. To protect Greece, not your pride. Your private battle with Achilles is destroying us!"

"Achilles is one man!" Agamemnon yelled in his face.

She shot back at the fat King. The other man sitting in front of him nodded in agreement with her words. "Hector is one man! Look what he did to us today!"

"Hector fights for his country! Achilles fights only for himself!" Agamemnon said to his face.

"I don't care about the man's allegiance, I care about his ability to win battles!" Uma told him, feeling battle tired, worn down from this verbal battle as well. She lost a battle by Hector. He was part of the Trojans, a great warrior she remembered her words that she had told Patroclus.

"He's right," The old man said to the two men. Uma forgot that he was in the tent with them, too busy verbally sparring with the stupid King Agamemnon. "The men's morals are weak."

"Weak?" She scoffed. "They're ready to swim home Agamemnon. Did you know that?"

Her dream ended there with the King sneering at her. She was getting tired and more confused about these dreams as they came. But another thought came to her as she woke up.

Was Evie getting the same types of dreams, all weird, confused, and old?

"We are going on vacation!" Dizzy sang around Uma's room as she packed. Uma ignored her, too sleep-deprived from the dreams to care about the young girl's singing. The dreams were every night and every night it was war. The war against the Trojans to get Helen of Troy back. She thought it was a foolish plan, a stupid foolish fight after it was made clear by Hector and Paris that Helen was now Paris' wife.

But what she did not know was that why was she getting these dreams and as Odysseus of all people! She remembered the tale of Odysseus, King of Ithica who had gone on a voyage for ten years to return home all because he had been the target of Poseidon's wrath. Blown off course and with the help of Athena, his patron and he as the champion of the goddess got to Ithica by the tenth year.

"Maybe it is irony?" She said out loud causing Dizzy to reply to Uma's self said the question. "What's irony?"

Uma shook her head as she shoved another shirt into the blue bag that she would take with her on the trip. "Nothing Diz. Just thinking out loud."

"You excited?" The little girl's giddiness was a brightness. "We get to go see Ariel! King Eric and Queen Ariel! Then there's her dad Triton and the other gods and goddesses of Olympus coming to celebrate this day in Andersen. Isn't Triton and Ariel related to you like Evie is?" Dizzy did not stop talking.

Uma could still hear the roar of horses hoves beating the sands of the beaches of Troy, the roar of thousands of Greek men fighting to defeat the Trojans and take back Helen in her husband Menelaus' name. Blood, death and absolute chaos are what she saw and still heard. If she closed her eyes, she could see Achilles, proud, tall, muscular and golden ready to fight after the Greek's pride was wounded when Hector defeated them.

They were packing to Andersen where Belle and Aurora were heading in a day after they get there since they were still in DunBroch as guests of Queen Merida. Now she was going straight to a family that hated her and her mother. The day the Olympians and other gods of the Ancient Lands came to celebrate apparently was an old celebration for the people of the Ancient Lands, a big one as Chad could describe it.

As they flew from the airport, Uma and Dizzy's first time flying, she felt this sense of dread as the plane began to lift off. Children that were not of Zeus, especially ones that were children of his siblings were in a bit of danger in his territory. She told Cinderella and Kit about this but they reassured her like the naive mortals that they were. Uma just prayed to the Gods that her mother cursed and hoped that she wasn't shot down by her cranky great-uncle.

The plane landed safely in Andersen. They drove to the castle and when they got closer anxiety and fear started clawing at Uma's heart. She remembered the lessons Uncle Hades taught her and Evie all those years ago when they were in his care.

Each lesson the god drilled into them was a history lesson. Uma complained once as to why they were taught this instead of swordplay as Perseus or Hercules did with Chairon. Hades arched an eyebrow, his blue eyes lifting to meet her own brown eyes, his attention away from an old large book that was in greek. He always kept a large book in greek for them to read from, muscle memory for their tongue to learn the language. "History is a weapon to both of you. Sometimes, our history can be repeated twice, very dangerously repeated and all the fates would do is laugh as they cut the string. Use your weapon and choose it wisely Uma."

A rather chilling thing to say to a five-year-old but after that, Uma never complained about the lessons Uncle Hades taught. The fates, maybe they had a hand as to why Uma was getting plagued with these dreams. It must be something significant to dream about being Odysseus.

Why else would Uma be dreaming about the hero that was an enemy of her grandfather and the infamous ten-year war of Troy?

They arrived in Andersen when daylight was slowly seeping away from the sky and the night-its darkness was slowly bleeding into. It was late for introductions, Cinderella and Kit would greet their hosts but the children needed to sleep. Dizzy was disappointed but Uma was more than glad to avoid meeting her relatives yet. That night, the dreams continued to plague her.

In the morning, she dressed well and walked out with Chad. They were going to be introduced to their hosts.

Being introduced to Ariel, Eric, King Triton, and Ariel's sister were awkward. They were charmed by Dizzy but with Uma, they looked at her as if she had announced that she was going to release the worst of scum from Tartarus. Cinderella and Kit had tried to break the tension, Uma was grateful for them. They were taking care of her and she was a bit fond of them. It was tense in the room and when Melody, who seemed to stubbornly want to bridge the gap between Uma and the family, she announced a tour for the guests. Cinderella quickly agreed and Uma was glad to flee the room with her mother's side of the family.

Her mother's side of the family. Oh, Uma knew too well about them, hearing Ursual scream to the heavens towards her godly parents Poseidon and Amphitrite to end her life. Sometimes, drunk, the sea witch would hiccup and tell Uma a tale about her life as the second child of Poseidon. She would weep and Uma would hide that secret because seeing Ursula shed tears made Uma see that some monsters were turned by the people they loved. That is how Ursula was banished by the people she loved, Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Triton, twice in her life, leaving the sea witch broken-hearted and much crueler to her own kin. Her own daughter.

"Uma?" Chad swam into Uma's field of vision that for a moment she had almost called him Gil. They had almost the same blonde hair, just the coloring seemed different now that she was looking at them both. She ached to see Gil and Harry, along with the rest of her crew. Evie especially, always having her blue-haired cousin with her since they met all those years ago in Hades' underground home.

Chad sat next to her by the fountain observing Uma with what appeared to be concern etched on his face. She was lazily manipulating the water, having discovered that just a few days ago while she took a bath. She could even breath underwater, something that Uncle Hades alluded to her once when she was a child.

"That was rude of them," Chad said making Uma slightly loose concentration on the water. "How they reacted to you being here, it was rude of them."

Uma shrugged. She knew this was bound to happen to her. If Evie was getting a hostile reaction from Auradon it seemed fair for Uma to get the same thing with her mother's side of the family as well. "My mom wasn't nice to them. I don't blame them."

If anything, she was too distracted to care. Her sleep was evading her from the dreams she kept having. The last one of being Odysseus was by far the most horrifying. The fire and smoke still burned all of Troy as daylight broke, Apollo's chariot shining over them. She remembered walking away with Hector's widow, Andromache when a cry pierced the eerie silence of the area. She knew-Odysseus knew that Hector had a son. An heir to Troy. Agamemnon had raged to find the babe and when they did find them, ordered Odysseus to murder the babe. She refused, with Andromache pleading with tears in her eyes to not bring harm to her child.

"Take me, kill me," She had screamed at the Greeks. "Kill me in his place, just spare him please!" It fell on deaf ears. Uma wanted to say no but her legs betrayed her and the screams of Andromache continued as she took the babe up to the walls of Troy, black from the fires.

Don't make me do this, please! She had screamed but her voice could not be heard as if she lost it.

She held it dangling from one foot and let go. Andromache screamed and Uma woke up. When she did wake up, she stumbled out of her bed, to the bathroom and promptly threw up. The next day, she was introduced and the same wave of nausea wanted to erupt all over the marble floor. Instead, after Melody gave them a tour, Uma fled to the pretty balcony overlooking the sea and where a fountain was placed.

"I just haven't been sleeping well," She told the blonde son of Cinderella. If Uma told him the truth, he would think her insane. "That's all."

It wasn't and she knew it.

On their third day in Andersen, Poseidon came and her dreams shifted.

Instead of dreaming about Odysseus, she was someone else.

"Troy will burn!" She yelled to a man in pretty rich red silk robes and a woman with a chiffon gold dress. They both wore crowns on their heads and jewels. She pointed to a woman so beautiful that Uma thought she was Aphrodite for a moment but the woman could not be Aphrodite. "She will be our downfall. Paris has brought our downfall! Don't let him back in! Don't let him back in!"

"Guards take her back to her room and keep her there!" The man roared and Uma screamed more, louder as she swung her arms wildly not wanting the guards to take her back there. She could feel the rise of hysteria in her chest as she screamed and made her way to Paris, getting in a scratch on his face before Hector grabbed her by her middle. "Why did you bring her here? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO US!"

"She is my bride!" Paris said like some petulant child who won a toy. "She is a Princess!"

"You brought a curse!" She screamed. In the back of her mind, she could see the fires that would envelop Troy. See Hector, her beloved brother, dead. "You are our downfall Paris and the gods know it! I should have killed you when you were born!"

"ENOUGH!" Priam yelled as Hecuba wailed for her child, her daughter who seemed to have lost her mind. But Uma knew she never lost her mind. They just did not believe her. "That will never happen! Troy will hold itself high with the might of Apollo behind us, the walls will protect us!"

"You are a fool, Father! A FOOL! Troy will burn and the blood of our people will be on your hands Paris! Blood as black as a crow and fire!" She screamed as Hector hauled her away.

"Stop it-"

Uma woke up, groaning as the sunlight hit her face. Blinking once, then twice she pushed the duvet away and could feel the arms of a ghost on her body as she got up.

She wasn't Odysseus this time, she was someone on the inside and from what she remembered of the dream it looked to be the early stages of the war before actual war broke out on the beaches of Troy. At least this time, Uma did not throw up which she saw as a win.

Getting out the door, and heading to find the dining hall was a small adventure. Tucked under her arm was a book she had found in the library yesterday with Dizzy and Chad. Melody found them and told them that they could read the books here. "Just return them when you are done, okay?" She told them. That was something Uma took, finding a book on the Trojan War and Odysseus' voyage. It wouldn't say anything that Uma saw in her vivid dreams. Her dreams seemed to envelop her into the real words of what those people lived through and now she just had to figure out who was dreaming about again.

The dining hall was brought from the sunlight and the only people present were Ariel's family much to Uma's chagrin. She had half a mind to turn around and walk away but her pride and stubbornness would not allow that.

("That stubbornness will get you both killed one day, mark my words. It is one of our flaws, especially with the older gods," Hades had told them one day. Uma remembered that day clearly. "I can say that very much, both my brothers and I, more like my siblings and I are all stubborn. That may be one of the many reasons for our somewhat fractured relationship.")

She could see Ariel's bright vivid red hair, her daughter Melody's laughter along with Ariel's three sisters that came from Atlantis and King Triton. Across from Triton and his daughters were Eric and the last two people Uma would ever get to see.

Lord Poseidon and Lady Amphitrite, the King and Queen of the seas, the godly parents of Triton and Ursula. Uma's grandparents were sitting there, if it could not be even more obvious, the holy grail of weapons-Poseidon's triton, forged by the cyclops during the Titanochamy was leaning next to Poseidon's right and Amphitrite's left. She could feel its power, raw yet greeting her, tugging her towards it like something akin to familiar. Or course it would be familiar to her, she was Poseidon's granddaughter, as were all of Triton's children. The difference between them was that Uma was half a god unlike Ariel and her sisters. She was half a god, half-mortal like Evie. It was one of the many things that linked both girls together.

She remembered the games both her and Evie used to do back in the safety of Hades' home. As her great uncle took a nap or played cards with Baron Facilier, Uma and Evie would pretend they were the heroes of old from the stories that Hades used to tell them. Once she was Theseus, the defeater of the Minotaur and Evie was Princess Ariadne but then when Hades told her about how Theseus dumped Ariadne on a little Isle, she proclaimed that Theseus sucked.

For now on, she would play the only other descendant of Poseidon that she found fascinating- Orion. Evie would be Artemis and Uma would be Orion. They always bugged Hades with questions about the dead son of Poseidon but Hades just gave them a smile tinged with sadness telling them, To this day, Uma still found the story of Orion fascinating, if not tragic as all of the stories of the Ancient Lands was ultimately tragic.

Uma sat down as Ariel spotted her. "Good morning Uma," The red-headed Queen said with a bright smile on her face. Uma still did not know whether to see it a genuine or fake, yesterday's smiles and greeting seemed fake to her, as, for today, it was still up in the air. Uma kept her bite down and greeted Ariel with the same sugary-sweet tone and smile she reserved for people she trusted wholeheartedly. "Good morning," She replied then sat down in front of nobody as the seat in front of her was empty. Cinderella and Kit were not awake yet, nor was Chad or Dizzy. She swallowed the anxiety was building up rapidly and focused on piling some food on her plate.

Everyone around talked again but Uma could feel their eyes on her, all full of judgment or anger that she was one of the children allowed.

Paranoia, Uma thought suddenly hearing Hades voice crystal clear as if he was sitting in front of her. Paranoia my dear niece is the second downfall of ours, my siblings and I have it greatly. Along with stubbornness and paranoia, our tempers are what mortals fear from us. It is a downfall to any man or woman. Just ask Zeus and Poseidon, they will dance around the question but I say yes.

Did she even feel paranoid? Not really. Anxious, yes but paranoid? Nope. Sleep-deprived? Fuck yeah.

Once the food was on her plate and a glass of milk in her hand, Uma opened the large book she had acquired, opening it. The chapter she was on, talked about Odysseus. She ate her fruits as she read the passage. A throat cleared and someone asked her a question, "You found something good in the library?"

It was Melody, looking at her with curious blue eyes. No judgment or hidden anger, just curiosity in her cousin's eyes as she waited for her answer. Uma did not say anything but she just nodded her head silently as she put a piece of bacon into her mouth. It was crispy and warm.

"What kind of book did you pick?"

Uma swallowed it before answering her question. "A Greek Mythology book in Greek."

It was a silence that followed her answer and Uma wished she had lied instead of answering Melody's question with the truth. "Who's your favorite hero?" Amphitrite asked her. Uma blinked looking at her grandmother.

On the tip of her tongue, she should have said Orion or even Theseus. She should have said it but the anger and lack of sleep seemed to be her undoing that morning. It was the anger she felt over how they were treating Evie on the news and the way Ariel's family seemed to react to her like some wild animal from a zoo. It was the lack of sleep from those stupid dreams about her being a Greek King and a Trojan girl who seemed to have lost her mind.

"My favorite hero is Odysseus," The sentence seemed to have stopped every conversation at the table and direct everyone's eyes towards herself and Poseidon. Uma boldly directed eye contact with her grandfather.

Poseidon looked around the same age as Hades. His dark brown eyes that Uma inherited pierced back to her, as he studied her face after she uttered the heroic Greek nemeses of the god. She could feel her cheeks burn but she wasn't going to stand down and take it back. Instead, all Poseidon did was raise a single eyebrow at her. She waited for her skin to erupt in flame or be turned to ashes from what she proclaimed. The worts that Hades did for punishment for both girls back on the Isle was reciting poems of different heroes or gods by memory. It was a better punishment than the spoon beatings her mother gave her if she messed up in the restaurant or being incinerated by literal god.

"Odysseus, eh?" Poseidon said. "And what makes Athena's famous champion so appealing to you?" No hints of anger just amusement except for when he said the name, Athena, as if he swallowed something bitter.

All she could think about were her dreams when she was Odysseus. "He didn't want to kill that baby, he had guilt over the death of Hector's son's death."

Nobody spoke but in the eyes of the two older gods, Uma saw clarification then so much grief in Poseidon's eyes it was possible to be drowned in them. She tore her eyes away seeing Cinderella, her husband, Chad, and Dizzy all walking inside. Once they sat down, smiles on their faces not knowing the conversation that began between them.

Smiling, Cinderella asked them all, "What did we miss?"

Uma kept her mouth shut after that as Ariel said that it was nothing. Nothing was missed because mortals were oblivious to this unless you dragged them into the battles of the Gods.

"Uma," Cinderella began as conversation erupted once again at the table as if Uma never said a single word before the others came down. "Chad mentioned to me that you have been having trouble sleeping?"

Dammit, Chad! She cursed in her head but shook her head to give away her thoughts. "No. Everything is fine," She told the older woman. Cinderella did not seem convinced. "Just nightmares from the Isle, that's all." Cinderella nodded her head in sympathy and Uma relaxed slightly. She bought it, they all did. Maybe not all of them, her grandparents certainly did not buy it at all.

The sea was something Uma never thought she would see. Certainly not the blue of it, the way it licked her feet and ankles. The beach surrounding the castle below was a comfort and solitude for Uma that she needed now. Away from her family and Dizzy's endless questions that she was in no mood to answer. The lack of sleep and endless dreams was tacking a toll, the breakfast that happened mere hours ago was a perfect example of that disaster.

So here she was, by the sea reading up on the ten-year war called the Trojan War.

All that she had found was some of the history lessons Hades taught her and Evie years ago. The story of Hercules defeating the Hydra, Narcissus, and Echo, Midas' curse with gold, the entrapment of Aphrodite and Ares. So many that she knew, some that she did not know, yet not of anything yet about the Trojan war. There was an interesting chapter on Achilles before he went to join the Greeks in Troy (and died there). An invulnerable hero and amazing swordsman, she remembered from her dreams and reading it, it seemed he was a literal god having been dipped into the river Styx until the only spot, his heel was left unmarked by the Styx, that an arrow from Paris bow was what ended the famous hero of the Ancient Lands.

The waves crashed down on the sand as she turned another page and landed on something. Finally, on the Trojan war as it talked about Priam, the last king of Troy. Apparently a seer foretold the downfall of Troy that one born (Paris) of a royalty of the Trojans would bring such a downfall on the kingdom. Priam and his wife Hecuba could not kill the child thus sent him away at the order of one of their soldiers to kill him outside the gates but even the soldier could not do it. He left him on Mount Ida only to be found by his adopted parents. Thus, keeping Paris alive brought the ruins onto Troy.

"Cassandra, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba," Uma read out loud. "Was cursed by Apollo after rejecting the god's advances to see the future but when she told someone or anyone, they would not believe her."

"That will never happen! Troy will hold itself high with the might of Apollo behind us, the walls will protect us!"

"You are a fool, Father! A FOOL! Troy will burn and the blood of our people will be on your hands Paris! Blood as black as a crow and fire!"

She was dreaming of Cassandra. The Princess Cassandra of Troy who was cursed with the sight and only she saw the downfall of her home. She was dreaming of Odysseus, a King who fought for ten years and would go on a voyage for ten more years with his family thinking him dead in Ithica. What did this all mean to Uma?

Troy was gone, a memory in the Gods themselves.

What was it? A warning for her, not be like Cassandra or doom herself like the Princess? Or something much more ominous behind the story she was seeing?

Why was she dreaming about Odysseus and Cassandra? Two of the most different people in the Trojan War and who's allegiance were too different kingdoms?

What was she not getting? What was the bigger picture and why was she in this to begin with?

NOTES: Alright, this took a while and took some research on the Trojan war. Some (most of) the lines from the first two dreams are taken from the movie Troy. Along with one of the lines is the title for the chapter. The movie kept plaguing me and it helped with writing this chapter. Writing this was actually fun! Ironically, the quote I used summarizes something in the chapter, ha!

I kept listening to this song as I wrote it and finished this chapter, Centuries by Fall Out Boy.

Not to worry folks, the next chapter will be picking up where this chapter left off. So you don't have to die in agony over what will happen with Uma and how this connects with Evie's dreams (obviously they do, pretty obvious dots to connect). I hope you enjoyed this chapter!