Athena sighed.

She wasn't supposed to be feeling guilty. She had reason to stop mentoring you. Even though it was mainly because you didn't like paying attention to her warnings or you'd go against her when you thought it was right.

It annoyed her. Yeah, a lot. Why be your mentor if you weren't gonna listen? But she kept her mouth shut for a little. Then, she finally snapped when you refused to kill a monster, and you've been alone, lacking a mentor and a close friend, ever since then. It's been years since that happened. Years.

She's spent her time regretting not being your mentor (and Odysseus's, but he accepted her offer of being his mentor again), and now she needs to ask you if you'd let her be your mentor again.

She's not ready.

At all.

She's not used to this, not in the slightest, but she'll try. And she sincerely hopes you say yes despite the fact she's not interfered with the damage and hurt that's changed you to be into a better person. And she hopes she can be forgiven, but she shouldn't hope too much.

Even so, she has hope. She still hopes for you to accept her apology, hopes to be your mentor. And now here she is, standing in front of you, where you lay in the sand.

You'd fallen asleep at sea. You've been at sea for a long while. Trying to get back home. But you've lost your map and Odysseus, your captain, let the ship be stricken down. By some miraculous work, you're alive, floating on a raft. When you fell asleep, she'd used the waves so you could get dragged onto shore. Bruised and cut up from previous fights against monsters, you were splayed out across the sand while she stood there, almost waiting for something.

"Old friend." She muttered. There wasn't really another way to address you except your name. She waited for you to acknowledge her.

She shifted, only slightly on her feet, and glanced to the side. She didn't want to see you so banged up. She couldn't look you in the eye, or else she'd feel guilt from leaving you for so many years and not even leaving a message.