Finding Pandora (a Percy Jackson Fan-Fic)

Chapter 12; Part 2

***James’ POV***

I looked at her from the corner of my eye for what seemed like the thousandth time sense we started wandering the woods. Her brown hair that looked great even when leaves and twigs were caught in it, her furrowed eyebrows, her lips that were set in a hard line…

No. You’re in too much of a crisis to be focusing on a little crush! I quickly reminded myself before again focusing on what was going on around me.

The night before had been intense and fast. We were just arguing over rather or not it was safe to continue flying, and then Kit was holding onto me for dear life as we were falling through the sky. So fast it was hard to proses what happen, what happened to the plane and to our friends.

I was sure we were going to die, that our bodies would slam into the earth and there’d be nothing left of us. That I’d never be able to talk to Kit again. But the impact we endured was not one of earth, but of water. We fell into a lake, the fall not even hurting us, thanks to Kit's dad. After the shock of still being alive, I had quickly grabbed hold of Kit and began leading her to land. The only thing we waited for before sleep was a nice fire to keep hypothermia at bay. I fell asleep with her snuggled into my arms, purely for heat purposes.

Maybe that was her reason, but we both know it wasn’t yours.

I again focused on the jungle ahead of me. Those kinds of annoying thoughts had started ever sense I met Kit. I remember being called in because it was almost quest time, because we knew another person that would be coming with Eryx, the ignorant jerk (Ryan), and I. When I first saw her, yeah I thought she was cute, but lots of girls are cute, it was when she started talking to me that I-

“Are you even listening to me James?” Kit asked.

I whipped my head to my right only to find she was already staring at me with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m sorry, I was caught up in my thoughts, what were you asking?”

She sighed. “Well , I was trying to tell you that we’ve been looking for about six hours and we still haven’t even found one of them, shouldn’t we take a break? Eat something? I havn’t had anything sense before we got on that plane…”

My palms started to sweat. She couldn’t hunt -- I was the man. Men are the hunters. But hunting wasn’t my thing. Facts, books, resharch, rumors, myths, riddles, anything but aiming and cardio, I could do.

“Ugh… yeah… I think I’ll be able to tell the difference in rather or not a berry is poisonous. Keep an eye out, in a place as vegetation rich as this, they could truly be anywhere.”

She gave me a look and took a few small knives out of where they had been jammed into the leather of her belt. “If we’re gonna be surviving on berries, we’ll be in no shape for fighting. I’m sure there’s some good game somewhere around here…”

I felt my face go red. No avoiding this now…

“I can’t hunt.” I mumbled looking down.

She smiled sweetly. “I can’t either, but I figure it’s like fighting someone, you know? Just to, well, to the death…”

I cleared my throat feeling very awkward. “I can’t exactly fight either…”

She stared blankly at me. “What?”

“I-I can’t fight?” I cursed myself for not only making it sound like a question, but also for stuttering.

She began to laugh and I became red, wanting nothing other than to burry myself into a deep hole. “Oh come on! You’re a demi-god, you can’t not fight! Stop messing with me!”

I began to feel very annoyed. “I’m not joking, now would please just stop laughing at me.”

She face scrunched up in curiosity. “You’re serious. You can’t fight.”

I sighed. “Can we just drop this? You go hunt, I’ll find berries.”

She shook her head. “No. come on, Athena didn’t even give you a weapon?”

I shook my head in frustration, just wanting the conversation to be over. “No. No she didn’t. The only thing she ever gave me was a book. Everyone knows it, I’m barely a demi-god. Can’t fight, can’t run, can’t do anything but memorize book quotes and make my team loose at capture the flag. It’s been established.”

I turned to walk away but she grabbed my arm and pulled me back to her. “So what if you can’t use weapons? That doesn’t make you any less a demi-god, it just make you unique. Gives you more importance than most of us who can’t memorize books.”

I laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, sure, anything to make me feel better, right?”

“Have you ever read the hobit? Bilbo isn’t the biggest warrior, yet he happens to be the main character. The key part of the story.”

“I’m not that important, Kit. Just another demi-god in the crowd. The most pathetic of them all.”

She frowned. “You’re anything but pathetic and you are important. You’re important to me James.”

I don’t know what came over me, but suddenly I was leaning in. I was never this courageous, but never had I wanted to kiss someone like I wanted to kiss Kit. And then her lips were on mine. And she kissed back, without the slightest bit of hesitation.

And never had I felt so happy, even if it came at the worst of times.