Finding Pandora (a Percy Jackson Fan-Fic)

Chapter 12; Part 3

***back to Arianna’s POV***

A large smacking sound not far from me is what cleared the dark abyss away from my mind. I became aware of the lingering pain all down my back as well as the hard yet grassy ground beneath me. I wanted to go back into the darkness, to stay lazy and immobile.  But as soon as the fog cleared from my mind I was aware that a loud smacking sound could indeed mean danger.

When my eyes  grogily and slowly opened I saw that I was in a small clearing surrounded by jungle. It was light out but the sun was on the western end of the sky, signaling sundown was near (I suspected a certain god – and father -- was the reason behind me know which side of the sky it was). Even though the sun was shining I could hear the taps of rain drops. I sat up slowly, nausea all throughout me and an uncomfortable stretched feeling on the skin of my back.

I was in something of a camp. There was an platform made of branches and leaves resting in the tree above me (protecting me from the light rain) and a circle of white, medium sized rocks in front of me with ashes in the center. I could remember the plane crash in detail. I could remember the fall, the pain, and Eryx.

Just then he came into the clearing carrying a stack of fire wood. He was soaked, his clothes were dirty and torn, his hair matted, plus cuts seemed to coat his arms and neck. He walked with a bit of a limp, but the damage didn’t seem too catastrophic. As soon as he came into the clearing he took notice of me.

He set the firewood next to the rock circle and heaved a sigh as he sat down next to me. “Nice to know you’re alive.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Eryx, what the hell happened?”

He sighed and started to put some wood in the center of the rocks. “Well last night we were in the plane, and there was this really bad storm-”

“I remember that much, okay? I even remember the fall. But how did we even survive? And why are you so beat up? Have you found any of the others?”

He shook his head and got closer to the rock circle, rubbing the wood together. “I’m not exactly sure how to explain this… but Arianna… you were flying… with wings…”

My hand flew to my back. “What!? But I don’t have wings!”

He nodded with an irritated look on his face as he continued trying to start a fire. “They shriveled up as soon as we landed; correction, crash landed. Which, by the way, jacked up my leg. But that’s not important. I haven’t spotted any of the others. Not to mention this fire is just not happening.” He then threw the wood into the circle in frustration, leaning back afterwards.

I swiped my hand across the sky and watched as a bolt of lightning caused the fire to start immediately. “But how can I have wings? I mean, I wasn’t exactly born with retractable back limbs.”

He sighed. “I did think a little about that, best answer I got is Hera.”

My eyes widened. “My gift. A gift you’d never ask for. Wings. Shit.”

He laughed. “Well what do you expect when you punch a goddess in the nose?”

I shook my head. “Not wings that I had no control using and made me pass out from pain!”

He froze. “Wait. You can’t control it?”

“No! it was like auto pilot, it was helpful but I had no say in what to do, or else I would’ve searched for the others.”

He closed his eyes. “Gods I hope they’re okay.”

I leaned back. “They’ll be fine Eryx.”

He sent me a sharp look. “How do you know?”

I thought about it, trying to find the right way to fraze my words. “We’re demi-gods, right? Wouldn’t there be some sort of give away? Some kind of emotion from the gods or from the earth itself? I don’t know. I just feel like we’d know.”

He smiled. “That’s a nice way of thinking of it. Plus, Kit went at practically the same time as James, it’ll be easy for them to find eachother.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Ryan won’t be too happy about that.”

He looked at me quizzically. “What are you talking about?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t pretend you haven’t noticed.”

His eyebrows narrowed. “Noticed what?”

“Ryan and James are both all but courting Kit.”

He laughed. “James I’ve somewhat noticed, but Ryan is my best friend, he wouldn't do that!”

I gave him a look.

Slowly his laughter faded. “You can’t be serious…”

I nodded. “I’m not even sure what side she stands on when it comes to them, but they’ve both been trying pretty hard. Why did you think they hated eachother?”

“He’s always hated James.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Why?”

“I never got the full story. But Ryan came to the camp when he was nine. We were fast friends. James hated us cause even though we were outsiders, we didn’t play with him and Willow, we didn’t bully ‘em or anything. We just had different personalities and definitions of fun. One day James said something about Ryan sucking and not being able to win a fight even if the world depended on it. I guess the Ares in him came out about that time. Started winning every battle and hating James.”

My eyelids began to flutter. “I didn’t know nine year olds had so much drama in their lives.”

He chuckled. “You have no idea… you’re tired aren’t you?”

I hummed. “Only a little.”

“You did grow and loose wings last night. Go to sleep.”

I shook my head. “You must’ve been up on watch all last night, you can’t do that again.”

He nodded. “I spent that night checking out the forest. There’s literally nothing that can harm us close by. I'm thinking we're pretty close to Machu Picchu”

“Animals?” I asked, my voice already thickening as my eyes closed.

“They all backed away as soon as I neared them. Even the big ones. In an hour or so I’ll go to sleep too. don’t even worry abou-”

And that was all I heard before I dived back into that black abyss with wide arms.