Twenty three year old Esme Carter has recently finished a course in Classics at The University of Manchester, she has recently moved back in to her mother, Juliet, house in Bath. Juliet has recently been diagnosed with MS so Esme moves back in to be her sole carer. After a couple of months the MS is getting worse however Esme had booked a holiday firstly to Rome, then to Athens for the Athens festival that takes place so she has called her brother to come look after Juliet.
In early august she takes a flight to Rome and finds herself in a quaint, rustic hotel, she finds a stairway next to her bedroom where she decides to go, it leads to a roof terrace to views over the city, after unpacking in her room she decides to go explore Rome, visiting the Vatican City, throwing a coin over her shoulder at the Trevi Fountain, looking at the Victor Emmanuel monument while eating ice cream and visiting the Colosseum over the 2 days she is there, eating in small restaurants on side roads.
She packs and looks at the view over the city one more time before going to the airport, she bumps into a classmate from university, James Wright who happens to be taking a flight to Athens also and staying in the same hotel. They arrive early at their hotel near Acropolis, looking out the windows at the beautiful view, they decide to go out for a meal before walking around the lively city centre.
Esme wakes up early and decides on a day of sightseeing, she only has 4 days remaining here. Day 1. Esme walks the streets up to the Acropolis, something she has always been interested in since a child, at university she got to learn a lot more about it but seeing it in person excited her. Her favourite, the Parthenon she went to immediately, gazing at the ceiling and wondering round, she leans against the wall when she heard a bit of rubble crumbling, she sees a brick is looser than the others so she decides to wriggle it, it eases out and she finds a piece of papaya, unwrapping it is a necklace with a silver owl, Esme picks it up and examines it, she has never seen something so beautiful and the mystery of who put it there and where it came from was exciting. Before anyone saw she placed the brick back in place and put the necklace on, suddenly she felt like she knew the place, like she was powerful.
Not far from her she heard some American tourists, a man, his wife and their young daughter, complaining how their guide book didn't have very useful information and didn't explain much so Esme decides to walk over and explained some details of the place, more than she had learnt about in class, about how many workers there were and what it was like when it was being built, the daughter, roughly aged 8, was very interested and said she wanted to pursue a career in Archaeology, Esme explained about all the goddesses that had been there and stories of what had happened in that spot over the centuries, the little girl tells Esme how she wants to find objects that they may have had.
Esme starts having visions of a beautiful woman dressed in a chiton, with long brown wavy hair, she could tell it was a woman of high power. Especially in the Parthenon she felt connected to this woman, she did not know how, she started seeing this woman walking quickly around, behind plinths and when she went to look, nobody was there; as well as this she started hearing giggling and voices, something she had never experienced before. Before going out for dinner with James she takes the necklace off, and everything is normal, she goes to bed and wakes up early the next day.
Day 2. She visits more sights and she eats at this quaint café in the heart of the city, fiddling with the necklace she tries to understand where it is from and the story behind why it was hidden. She's tired from walking all day so she decides to go back to her hotel when up a side street she sees a fight taking place between two men, she runs to try break it up, when she thinks all is calm one of them punches the other and knocks him unconscious, while calling the police and ambulance service she tries to keep the man alive and breathing, using CPR, she had never learnt how to do this but at that moment she knew exactly what to do, she wasn't her normal self, she didn't run away or be scared, she focused on saving him until the ambulance came, the other man got arrested. She returns to the hotel and sleeps until morning.
Day 3. Tomorrow she is catching a plane home and goes to the festival, many people dancing and singing, she joins in, she dances the traditional dance which she never knew she known, getting involved with the people and talking to them, being able to talk some Greek when she had never learnt it before, she wondered how she knew all of this, was it the necklace? she carried on with her day and decided to go to an arts group at the festival, there she designed a picture frame with family memories decorated on the wood and a painting of the family as the picture, for someone who didn't do very well in her art GCSE she was surprised by the quality of the painting. After a long day of walking around and seeing yet more visions of this woman at stalls, she walked back to her hotel.
Day 4. Esme arose to a knock at a door from reception, a bunch of flowers from the man she saved, reception said he was downstairs in the lobby and wanted to speak to her, she went down and he spoke in greek, the receptionist translated, "I thank you very much for saving me, you're my guardian angel, I wish you many happy years, thank you" - Esme beams with happiness as she walks back up to her room. She has to pack for her flight mid afternoon.
Esme arrives back to the airport where she is picked up by her brother, looking relieved to see her after the week, he takes her back to their mothers. After showing her the necklace and talking about her adventure they both go to bed. The next day Juliet has an appointment at the hospital, Esme drives her and sits with her throughout, her MS is progressively getting worse and soon she will struggle to walk. Walking out they stop in the shop and buy a couple of chocolate bars to cheer themselves up, Juliet is struggling to count the change so Esme takes over and hands the shop assistant the money. A poster on the hospital wall advertises jobs, Esme has a quick look and sees applications are open for a manager for an Archaeological dig in Athens, it would last a month and she didn't want to leave her mother but she couldn't resist applying for this dream job opportunity, to work in the beautiful city she had learnt about and loved so much, her mother tells her to go for it. At home that night Esme sits in her room and just prays that her mothers health improves, she hears a whisper "everything will be okay" at this moment she is startled but reassured she looks up about the necklace, in mythology the owl is 'The owl of Athena' she realises it must be the Goddess Athena's, she looks and the necklace and just talks to it, asking for some sort of guidance for her job interview, Athena appears and smiles before disappearing, that night Esme dreams of Athena and the world she lived in. The next day is her interview, miraculously she got the job. Before leaving she says thank you, to the vision she can see of Athena. Before leaving for the dig she takes her mother to hospital, the doctor is astonished, Juliet's condition has improved, taken a step back from where it was, both happy they walk out hand in hand.
In Athens on the dig she returns to the place she found the necklace and Athena appears before her, she looks proud, and walked into Esme, as if they were the same person, same sole.
Changes:
Originally I had an idea for Esme just to see Athena and they were somehow connected, but I did not think this would be a very strong story line, so I changed it so that Esme, every time she wore this necklace, she would possess the same gifts Athena was Goddess off, and she would not realise this until later on in the story. I have also added more details and importance to other characters, like the mother (who has MS, making Esme her carer so like Athena, she's a protector). The plot has just expanded from my original idea however later on in the process I may change the events that happen related to the 'gifts' or traits Athena had to make the plot more interesting.
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