Note: First FF so go easy on me. I don't think of myself as a good writer (maybe like average, I don't know), so I'll set your expectations there for this story right now. However, I am a stickler for grammar, punctuation, and spelling so if that's your thing then hooray me too. Anyway, uploads may be sporadic as I'm busy most days and just write for an hour or two when I need to let go of those creative juices. So… yeah… Also I'm trying to keep this as close to the book as possible, the first couple chapters will be from Calypso's POV but I may branch out during future chapters; mostly either Calypso or Percy though. Okay, thank you for coming to my tedtalk and enjoy.

My day started as any normal day would: sun streaming through the cave window, a bowl of oats while looking out towards the sea, and a moment of quiet reflection before heading out across the island to tend to my garden. I had lived this day ten thousand times over and I expected to live it for tens of thousands of days to come. After a moment of deliberation I pushed the light, wicker door to my cave open and padded to my right across the meadow in front of my house toward the arbors of hanging vines and colorful flowers that was my beloved garden. I relished in the feel of the cool, morning dirt on my bare feet and looked to my left at the tree line of cedars that separated my meadow from the rest of the island. Birds, noticing me taking my morning walk, flew down from the high branches and swooped across the meadow to say their morning hellos. Being a nymph, this came naturally to me; nature and all that is my specialty. I raised a hand slightly and a few bright orange birds took it as an opportunity to land on my fingers "Hello little ones." I said gently as they chirped their morning songs to the island. I pushed them back up into the air and they took off back towards their trees. I sighed sadly, this truly was a perfect morning; the only problem being every morning was a perfect morning, and the novelty wears off quickly when you realize you can't leave and every day is exactly the same.

As I reached my garden, I pulled out a straw basket from the small gardening shed and began to stride over to my ripe grape vines. The grapes were so perfectly ripe that they would just roll off my fingers and into the small basket. It would take me several trips to collect them all but I didn't mind, the thought of having these tonight with dinner made it all worth it. As I was nearing my third trip out towards the vines I heard a low whistling sound and a noise that sounded as if someone had thrown a large stone out toward sea. I turned my head quickly at the clammer and began jogging quickly towards shore to see what had landed. I dropped my basket immediately and ran down the worn path through the forest that led down towards the ocean. My feet instinctively knowing where to step and where not to trip. I reached the shore and the breeze picked up as I emerged from the tree line. My light cotton dress picked up and whipped around me and my braided hair flew wild. I could see a small figure down the beach floating in from the waves. I sprinted across the windswept dunes and into the surf to get a good look at the figure lying face down in the surf. I rolled the body over and was met face to face with a black haired, athletic boy wearing a bright orange shirt and jeans. I pulled him by his arm onto the beach and checked to see if he was still breathing. To my surprise he didn't appear to be wet after I dragged him out of the water. "Peculiar…" I thought aloud. But I quickly got back to the task at hand, after a second of observation I noticed his chest rising and falling slightly and with obvious struggle. He had horrible burn marks covering the entirety of his body but other than that and the blood seeping down into his face he seemed alive. "Oh, thank the gods…" I sighed to myself. Not sure if this would be a blessing or a curse.

I had no way of treating the boy on the beach so I began to make preparations to carry him back to my cave. A lot easier said than done. I couldn't resort to dragging him across the dunes and through the woods, he was already in a terrible shape. I gingerly ran my hand through his hair to find the gash, and when I pulled back my hand I found it caked in blood. I needed to get him back and quickly too. With a large amount of effort I managed to somehow throw him over my small shoulders with the help of a driftwood log close by. The first step was shaky and I almost dropped him immediately, but I luckily regained my balance and took another hesitant step. Each step became a little easier than the last until I came to the first dune.

I looked up the dune, it wasn't necessarily a large hill, but with a boy twice my weight on my back it looked a lot more difficult. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other, but I was dedicated to bringing him back to my cave so I focused on the task at hand. If I dropped him out here I wasn't sure I would be able to get him back on my shoulders so I pressed on. Before I knew it I was sweating as the sun bore down from the perfect, cloudless sky. But this only made me focus harder, I needed to get him back. My shoulders ached, my legs were on fire, but I pressed on until I was at the top of the hill. When I got to the top I didn't even look back, I was on a race against time.

The rest of the journey wasn't as difficult as the trek from the beach, up the dune, and into the woods. The shade of the trees felt nicer than the full sun on the beach, but this didn't make the boy any lighter. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other until I was finally in my meadow. As I struggled through the tree line I heard the boy on my back mumble something about an Annabeth and a Grover and a Tyson. I rolled him off my shoulders and onto his back to see if he was at least up but it was just mumble. The boy was still totally out of it. I took a couple quick breaths to pump myself up and grunted with strain as I threw him back on my shoulders to bring him the rest of the way back to my house.

I burst through my wicker door with a swift kick and dropped the boy on his back on my bed. I didn't care if he would stain the white sheets; all I cared about was helping him back to health. I rolled out the aches in my shoulders and quickly got to work finding a jar of dried Anithos for the burns, a batch of Rigani for good measure, and nectar and ambrosia for general healing properties. I was taking the risk that this kid was a demigod. For if he wasn't he would burst into flames the moment he swallowed the stuff. I rummaged around my medicinal shelves, throwing various herbal solutions every which way in search for what I wanted. I cursed myself for being so lazy and not organizing my shelves earlier, the boy might now pay the price for my carelessness.

With a final toss of a large, clay jar I found what I needed, or at least just the Anithos, the Rigani would have to wait. I grabbed the small vial and rushed across the room to find the nectar and ambrosia. But quickly realized I definitely didn't have any on me at the moment; or if I did it was lost in an unknown jar. I cursed and decided I needed to tend to the boy now or never so I quickly rushed to his side. The blood was starting to run down his head and onto the white pillow case. I needed to wrap his head first and decide what to do about his burns later. I didn't have any bandages either so I took a knife off the dining table, cut a large incision at the base of his orange shirt all the way up to the collar, and wrestled it off the boy. I took his shirt and cut a large strip off to wrap around his head. As I gently put my hand under his head to lift it he mumbled again about Anna-something and something else, but I couldn't quite make out what he had said. I went back to my task and continued to wrap his head with his orange shirt until the orange shirt started to turn red. At least it wasn't my white pillow.

After a brief period of preparing my ointment to help with the burns and the pain I slathered the paste over the burns of the boy and for once began to notice how athletic and fit this boy was. Once again it would seem that the fates were dropping another hero on my island to mess with me. I vowed I would let him go without a struggle unlike I had with Odysseus… The memories of him still choke me up from time to time and this wouldn't be like that, I vowed it to myself.

After I had slathered the ointment on his torso I decided I indeed needed to check his legs too, so I did the same thing to his jeans that I did to his shirt and split them open down the middle to apply ointment to the burns on his legs as well. My cheeks burned red as I slathered more ointment over the burn marks on his legs. After I was done I wasted no time in taking a pair of cotton pants and slipping them over his exposed bottom half. Then I took a cotton shirt and slipped that over his torso as well. The boy was alive and hopefully he would wake soon, but until then all I could do was care for him until he came back around. I slowly backed away from the bed and crashed in a dining room chair; all the exhaustion catching up with me all at once. I hadn't noticed but despite the situation I was glad to have company again; even if he didn't stay long.

I sat by him the rest of the day; watching to make sure he would be okay. I found myself staring out my window out towards the ocean and my mind began to race. Why had the fates dropped this unknown hero on my front porch? Why do they torment me so? Haven't I suffered enough? Lost in my thoughts I almost missed the boy stir, roll over, and grumble about not wanting to go to school. I smiled. He was cute. "Curses," I quietly said aloud as I felt my body tense up. I told myself I wouldn't fall for this hero like I had the last. Falling for them only made it harder when they inevitably left. Inevitably being the key word, it was my curse, I was bound to live on this island for the rest of my life; visited only by those who had either no will to stay or had too many reasons to not stay. I turned away from the boy and back out toward the ocean as a tear slowly fell down my cheek. "Curses."

After a few hours of solemn contemplation I decided I needed to get up and do something. Sitting around would accomplish nothing but make myself feel awful. I began to find little things to do, beginning with rearranging the assorted jars and vials on my shelf that I had flung all over the place in search for my remedy. While cleaning I found a vial of nectar, the food of the gods. I was in such a rush earlier I must have completely overlooked it! I knew I had it somewhere! I immediately rushed to the kitchen to grab a spoon and began to spoon out a large quantity of nectar. I set the vial and the spoon on the bedside table and grabbed a cloth from the table. I went outside and ran it under some water from a rain basin and ran back into the house. I began to spoon the nectar into the mouth of the boy when his eyes fluttered open. He tried to sit up but I gently pushed him back down. "Stay still." I said calmly. "You're too weak to rise." He didn't complain but only looked at me with pain apparent in his eyes so I laid the cool cloth on his forehead and spooned a little nectar into his mouth. I could see the relief spread across his face. He was eyeing me up and down trying to assess if I was a threat but apparently he saw nothing major.

"Who?" He croaked in a barely audible voice. But I shushed him quickly.

"Shh, brave one. Rest and heal. No harm will come to you here. I am Calypso." But as I said it the boy's eyes were already rolling back in his head and he was once again unconscious in my bed. I took the cool cloth off his head and noticed the water from the cloth had somewhat healed the cut on his head. "Weird," I said aloud. This hero surely was a strange one.

"Mmmmmmmmm… yeah I'm… I'm… Percy… Why do you… ask?" the boy mumbled from his comatose state. I smiled again, but this time I let myself feel good about it. "Percy…" I said, and the name brought a smile to my face.

After the sun had almost completed its full arc across the sky and was starting to approach the horizon I decided I should probably get around to making something for Percy to eat. So I grabbed all the various ingredients from my store and began to prepare a beef stew. As the mixture started to simmer over the fire I replaced the bandage on his forehead and quickly realized that the water had healed the gash to the point where he wasn't even bleeding anymore. I threw the soiled bandage in the corner to be washed off later and went back to tending my stew. Every so often between the slow continuous stirring I would curiously take a glance at his face. It had definitely seen better days. His hair was slightly singed at the ends and sat on top of his head like a bird's nest, and his cheekbones had sunk into his face like he had aged 70 years in the blink of an eye. He looked horrible. But as far as I could tell he had been in quite the incident so I should be grateful that he was still alive. As I was lost in my thoughts a brilliant flash of light appeared outside my window down on the beach and I ran to my window to see who had appeared on my island. I couldn't tell from up at my cave so I walked to my front door and ran back down to the coast where the figure was.

As I approached I could make out the figure of Hermes, the god of messengers and my only source of news of the outside world for thousands of years.

"Hello Hermes, what brings you here today?." I asked as I approached the small god.

"Good evening Calypso." Hermes responded with a small, melancholy smile. "I see you've met our new hero of Olympus."

"He fell from the sky, and he's up in my house recovering as we speak."

"That's exactly why I'm here, Calypso. The boy… the boy has to return to the real world. He's the prophecy child, and he's needed in keeping the gods in power. He is more dangerous than you might think. He could destroy or preserve the gods in the coming war. We need him." I paused for a moment. I understood why they needed him but I couldn't shake the feelings earlier that I hoped maybe he would stay. I stayed silent. "Calypso… you mustn't try and hold the boy here for longer than he needs." I stared down into the sand. "Calypso…?"

"I heard you Hermes." I said curtly as tears welled up in my eyes.

"Calypso… you know he can't stay."

"And why not?" I said firmly.

"He just can't. He's too important to the gods."

"Why can't he make his own decision about whether he wants to stay or not? Why do you have to decide for him?" I was losing my temper. How dare the gods tell me and this young hero what we could or could not do. But it was a losing battle. I knew deep down the fates would never put a hero on my shore that could stay. They would always need to leave, but I was desperate.

"Calypso… you know why he can't stay. Your curse…"

"My curse, my curse, my curse, I'm tired of curses. Let the boy decide. If he decides to stay I won't make him leave." I was angry now and my tone reflected it. "He has the right to do what he wants to do." Hermes gave me a sad look.

"I wish you well Calypso, but the boy must come back to the real world eventually." and with that Hermes exploded in a flash of a brilliant golden light and he was gone. I sat there looking out toward the ocean as tears streamed down my cheeks. He would have to leave and there was nothing I could do about it. I cursed the fates for doing this. I soon realized I should get back and tend to my stew, but when I turned around Percy was slowly stumbling across the sand down to where I was. I quickly brushed the tears from my cheeks and tried to smile for him.

"Well, the sleeper finally awakes." I said trying my best to sound cheerful.

"Who were you talking to?" He asked in a raspy voice I could hardly understand.

"Oh, uh, just a… messenger." I exclaimed awkwardly. "How do you feel?" It was quite the loaded question.

"How long have I been out?" I thought about the question. Well less than a day here but who knew how long it had been out in the real world.

"Time, time is always difficult here." I tried to explain. "I honestly don't know Percy." He looked taken back.

"You know my name?"

"You… talk in your sleep." I said shyly, and his face went a deep shade of red.

"Yeah, I've been… uh, told that before."

"Yes, Who is Annabeth?"

"Oh, uh. A friend. We were together when — wait, how did I get here? Where am I?" I reached up and ran my fingers through his mangled hair, and he took a cautious step back.

"I'm sorry. I've just grown used to caring for you. As to how you got here, you fell from the sky. You landed in the water just there." I explained as I pointed out to the spot in the sea where he had dropped from. "I do not know how you survived. The water seemed to cushion your fall. As to where you are, you are in Ogygia."

"Is that near Mount St. Helens?" I stifled a laugh and a smile broke out across my face. He was so cute.

"It isn't near anything, brave one. Ogygia is my phantom island. It exists by itself, anywhere and nowhere." He looked confused so I elaborated more. "You can heal here in safety. Never fear."

"But my friends—"

"Annabeth, and Grover, and Tyson?"

"Yes! I have to get back to them. They're in danger!" I touched his face and this time he didn't back away. A warm feeling swept over me and a small smile touched the corner of my lips.

"Rest first. you are no good to your friends until you heal." The boy seemed to want to resist my advice but he began to sway back and forth slowly like he was about to pass out.

"You're not… you're not an evil sorceress, are you?" He asked quietly. The same smile from before broke out across my face again.

"And why would you think that?" I asked as the smile turned into a coy smirk.

"Well, I met Circe once, and she had a pretty nice island, too. Except she liked to turn men into guinea pigs." I stifled another laugh; he was growing tired and his speech was starting to slur. He wasn't all quite there yet.

"I am no evil sorceress. And I am not your enemy, brave one. Now rest. Your eyes are already closing." As soon as I said so his knees buckled and I had to catch him before he landed face first in the dirt. I walked him back to the house; the entire time my face a deep crimson color. I set him on my bed again. "Rest." I commanded and before long he was asleep again.

/ More chapters coming; thank you for reading :) /