Day 1. 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
which she decides to explore, it leads to a roof terrace to views over the city
and Esme immediately falls in love, it’s so peaceful and like you’re in another
world completely. After unpacking in her room she decides to walk and find a
restaurant to eat in, round the corner she finds a busy, typical Italian,
restaurant and gets a table. Sitting there she just watches as all different
walks of life pass her and she is dumbfounded at the beauty. She has a meal
before strolling back to the hotel and getting some rest.
Day 2. Esme wakes up early and decides to 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 in a
small ice cream shop and visits the Colosseum before eating in small
restaurants on a cobbled side road. She packs her bags 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 late evening at their
hotel near Acropolis, looking out the windows at the beautiful view, they decide
to go out for a meal and catch-up of what their summer entailed before heading
to bed.
Day 3. Waking up early Esme walks down to breakfast to find
James already there, she joins him and they have as much as they can from the
continental breakfast. They head off
into the lively city centre, it is scorching hot but very beautiful. Walking
along the streets they see stalls of crafts and vibrant colours everywhere with
beautiful traditional music coming from street performers, this is exactly what
Esme imagined it would be and she feels a part of the culture and country.
James and Esme decide to stop for lunch after a morning packed with culture.
After lunch they walk into a street, a man with a guitar starts to play the
song ‘Zorba’, a man from the crowd walks next to him and starts to dance,
before you know it many people from the crowd start joining in, people from a
range of countries all trying out the traditional dancing, Esme loves the
culture and atmosphere of the event. Her and James walk back to the hotel and
have dinner on the terrace, overlooking the Acropolis, it is the most beautiful
sight and Esme decides to visit there tomorrow, while James is visiting a
family friend.
Day 4. Esme awakes to watch the sunrise from her window over
the Acropolis, she gets dressed and has breakfast and leaves the hotel early to
visit the Acropolis, she walks around the ruins all day , looking closely at
all the features and structure. She especially is fascinated in Parthenon, she
believes it is the most intriguing and beautiful. While in Parthenon, she hears
giggles, she looks around and dismisses it as some other tourists, although it
sounded particularly faint, when she turns back she sees a fast movement to
something going behind a plinth, again she dismisses it as nothing. Esme heads
to lunch at the hotel and to read a few books about Parthenon, she reads how
there are areas that have never been uncovered there and so who knows what
treasure lies, but in the new year there is an archaeological dig planned. She
heads back to Parthenon and to her surprise she can still hear the giggling,
she turns and sees the fast moving object again, this time it looks more like a
person, a woman, Esme walks over to the plinth and finds no one is there. She
forgets it and wonders around again, finding the site the archaeological dig is
meant to take place. Esme walks back to the hotel and meets up with James, they
have a meal together before packing their bags ready to fly home tomorrow.
Esme lays in bed and drifts into a sleep. – She wakes up in
this plush bed in a large room, with doors open, a woman walks in with a jug,
covered in beautiful images. She pours some water to drink. Esme decides to go
over to the doors, spotting a lake at the bottom she decides to walk down and
bathe, she wasn’t herself, it was impulse. She looks down at her body and hair
and realises she is not Esme anymore, she looks at her reflection in the lake,
looking back at her is Athena, is she Athena? She bathes when suddenly a man,
Tiresias walks along, for this any other Goddess or God would have killed him,
but instinctively she spared his life, but she made him blind but gave him the
power of prophecy. After bathing she walks back up to the bedroom, the servant
is still there, tidying the room, she gets a white, floor length dress, or
Chiton as Esme recalled and dressed Esme in it, it had beautiful gold
embellishment and hung from one shoulder. A golden crown, was placed upon her
head and a beautiful necklace, with a silver owl was put on. A man comes in
saying you’ve got to go into the town and see the people, she follows and is
lead into the ancient town, people washing their clothes in the street, kids
running around, everybody stops and stares as she walks through, sitting down
on a throne in the town, people came up to her, asking advice and help, asking
for their families health to improve. Poseidon walks up to where she is sat, agreeing
how they would decide who would be the Patron deity of Athens, (by giving Athenians
a gift and them picking which they preferred) with a crowd gathered, Poseidon
grabs his trident and hits the ground, creating a spring of water, for means of
drinking and trade which was useful, however the water was salty and so no good
for drinking. Athena offers an Olive Tree, that brings wood, oil and olives
which is accepted and she becomes the patron of the city. A man comes rushing
up to her, telling her the Trojan war has broken out, she hurries to the battle
site and makes each team swear an oath of peace, and that they will not attack,
which was broken shortly and war broke out. Although she hated war she was
angered and fought, her necklace being ripped off, she fell to the ground, the
moment she hits the ground Esme wakes up, panting and afraid she looks over at
the clock, it’s just before 5am, she has to get up for the plane. Esme gets
breakfast and while on the plane home, tells James about her dream and how
realistic it was.
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. Juliet is intrigued by Esme’s dream as Esme discusses and tells
her mum everything she did, what she saw and what she did. They relax and watch
television together before heading off 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. While
reading the paper waiting for her mother, she comes across an advertisement for
the archaeological dig, the one she read about in the paper in Athens, they’re
looking for someone to voluntarily assist and Esme is interested although it
would last a month so she is worried about leaving her mother but it is her dream
to do that and so later on she tells Juliet about the opportunity and she tells
her to go for it and fulfil all her dreams while she can. At home that night
Esme sits in her room and just prays that her mother’s health improves.
A few weeks pass and there is a call, they want Esme to go
on the dig! She researches for the months running up to it, about every
possible object they could find and found out Tiresias became one of the most renowned
prophets in all of Greece. The time came and she says bye to her mum, who has
miraculously improved and hasn’t been unable to walk. While on the dig she
decides to dig in a place that is slightly further than all the others but
something was pulling her to go there, she starts a dig and sees something, she
pulls it out, it’s a necklace with a silver owl on it, exactly the one that was
put on her in the dream, she places the necklace around her neck.
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