Magnus Chase and the Wrath of Morpheus

Chapter 4

Some Dude with a Missing Flute wants to Talk Me out of my Own Believes

"Excuse you?" I asked outraged.

So just to be clear: This guy just appears in my room out of nowhere and then asks me where his flute is. First of all, who the hell even has his own flute? And second of all...the indecency. I mean...come on! Who do you think you are? And the weirdest thing was that he had horns. Like a goat! I Couldn't help but stare. I shook my head, blinked twice and looked again. They were still there. I pulled myself together and asked: "Who even are you and what are you doing here?" I asked him. Behind me, I heard Mallory and Halfborn draw their weapons. Surprisingly that didn't alarm him at all, which is quite something regarding the fact that he just appeared here, facing four random people, one of which is now holding two enormous axes. He hesitated then he muttered: "Uhmmm...I'm not sure how I got here, to be honest. Where am I?"

I thought about it for a moment. What should I tell him? That he walked through a giant tree that holds together the nine worlds of Norse mythology? That he landed in Hotel Valhalla, a place where people who died heroically come, just to die again when the world ends? He'd think we're crazy. I turned towards Alex and whispered: "It's probably best to just guide him out of here safely and then leave him. We can't tell him where he really is, he'd freak out."

Alex nodded but still seemed unsure. "If we just let him go we'll never find out what happened to us. Maybe he knows." I sighed. Once again she had a point. "Okay well, let's just calm down, sit and talk. It seems like we all need some help in what exactly is going on here" I went past him and into my room, straight to the table and sat down. He joined me at the opposite side of the table and immediately started talking.

"Okay, listen, this maybe sounds completely crazy but I feel like you guys should know something. I'm being followed by somebody. To be more specific: I'm being followed by a god. I overheard what he's planning and he obviously doesn't want me to tell anyone so he came to...well, kill me isn't the right word. He came to put me asleep for long enough so he can finish what he started..." "We know about the gods" -I interrupted him- "don't worry. You obviously know that all those myths are true so I think we can tell you that you're at Hotel Valhalla. We're all Einherjar." He looked at me confused. "You know about the Gods? Wait, Valhalla? What do you mean? What are Einherjar? The Greek Gods are real but they are on Mount Olympus. They don't know anything about what happens here and we need to tell them!"

TJ, who had joined us in the meantime, added even more confusement to our discussion: "The Gods on Mount Olympus? What are you talking about? Odin is here with us but the other gods are spread out in the different worlds. Nobody really knows where they are and you tell me that they are all gathered on the top of one single mountain?" "Odin? Are you crazy? Am I at a mental hospital? I'm talking about Zeus and Poseidon, Apollo and Artemis. And of course Morpheus. He is the one who's hunting me down."

I laughed. Not this again. I remembered when Annabeth, my cousin, and I met up after being apart for a long a time and she told me about the Greek gods. She was the daughter of Athena and her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, who helped us on a quest we had, was the son of Poseidon. It turned out that not only was Norse mythology real, but also Greek.

"Hold up," Alex said and pointed at him, "You're a demigod too? A Greek demigod, I mean?" She turned to me and nudged my shoulder. "Magnus, just call Annabeth and tell her that one of her friends got lost." The guy jumped: "You know Annabeth?! Why didn't you tell me sooner? That makes things much easier."

"Yeah we know," Mallory said annoyed. "But you need to know something: Norse mythology is real too, not just Greek. That's where you are. You guys have a funny little camp outside and we have a nice hotel with thousands of warriors that meet up daily to kill each other. This is Hotel Valhalla and you just entered it through this tree, a tree that connects all the nine worlds of Norse mythology. And now please go and take your creepy god with you. I'm sure you can deal with that on your own and it definitely doesn't concern us so just do us a favor here."

"I... WHAT?!" He pulled his hair. "Okay, just so I can hear something that doesn't freak me out I think I should introduce myself first..." Mallory cut him off: "Didn't you hear me? We don't really need more problems now that everything has calmed down and Loki is finally gone for a while."

"No, you really should listen," He said. "Trust me this concerns you just as it concerns us. I should probably introduce myself: I'm Grover Underwood. I'm a satyr."

'That would explain the horns' I thought. 

 About two days ago I was in New York and practiced my flute magic with some fellow satyrs when a monster turned up and we had to flee. Naturally, I climbed a tree and hid there because only a few monsters can actually climb so I thought I was safe. When the danger was over I went on with my practice but soon got too tired so I fell asleep in the tree. Hey don't judge me, it was comfortable, okay?! When I woke up the tree was so much larger than before. I just thought that I had somehow made it grow with my magic. It seemed a bit weird because I was practicing an opening spell. Apparently, I opened a door to this giant tree of yours and walked around it for days. Not finding my way out made me crazy but then I suddenly heard a voice. I saw a man talking to someone I didn't see. The man was talking about his plans to overtake the city of Boston. Because of some artifact that was hidden there he said that he would gain powers that would be much grander than anything else. At first I didn't know who the man was but then I remembered that I saw him once. He was the god of sleep and dreams, Morpheus, who had fought against us in the great battle of Manhattan. When I realised that I must've gasped really loud because he turned around, looked up and saw me hiding in the tree. It was the first time I was glad that I had a big tree that could hide me. I ran away from him but I always could hear him behind me. Luckily he was too far away to use his powers against me so I kept running. But then I tripped and you must've heard me." He looked at me angrily. "Because of you I stopped. Finally having found an exit I was so excited that I completely forgot about Morpheus and he caught up and you know the rest of the story. His powers allow him to make everyone fall asleep almost immediately and because he's also the God of dreams he can control and manipulate everything you're thinking when you're asleep. The only thing that kept all of you from sleeping for days were the spells that protected you and me."

Alex raise an eyebrow. "You're telling me that you can play magic music on this stick?" She held up a wooden flute that she must've found during this guy's, no his name was Grover... She must've found it during Grover's story.

"You found it!" He happily exclaimed. "You'd better be thankful! This stick as you call it saved your life." He turned towards me. "Is he always so annoying?"

"She", I said. "Wha-?" He turned back towards Alex. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "You heard him. It's 'her'. At least for now. Or do you have a problem with that?"

Grover got flustered. "N-No. No, of c-course n-not. I-I just... I just thought you..." Alex rolled her eyes. "Chill out man, it's okay. Now you know."

Halfborn decided to tune in after being silent for the whole time. "So what do we do now?" I knew what I would say next and I can tell you that it annoyed me when I heard it the first time. A second time really wasn't necessary, especially if I had to say it myself. I looked up and said: "I think it's time you meet Percy Jackson."