Finding Pandora (a Percy Jackson Fan-Fic)

Chapter 13

The leaves smashed soundlessly beneath my feet as I treaded forwards. The jungle had a thick eerie feeling hanging over it. There was a fog, so greatly dense, that it was impossible to see more than two feet ahead of where I walked, and there were hardly any animals around to create noise – my guess due to our close proximity to Pandora.

Even though my wings had vanished into my back, there seemed to be a difference in me from before they had made their appearance. I didn’t trip or even stumble when I walked; instead I walked silently with more grace and speed.  My senses weren’t suddenly fantastic, but my eyes caught onto things quicker, made me aware of my surroundings.  And yet, to me, nothing seemed to have changed.

Eryx and I had been walking around the jungle sense the break of dawn, our hopes high that maybe we could find our friends and finish the quest. But it was almost noon at this point (as I somehow knew from the suns position in the sky) and we hadn’t found a trace of any of them. Instead we were meat with disappointment and a constant light drizzle of rain, which eventually managed to soak us.

I sighed putting my hands on my knees and leaned over. We may not have been running or fighting, but after the wing incident, sleeping on the ground for two nights, and walking around for hours – my joints felt like they were on fire.

I looked up at Eryx. As always, he had been walking silently too, and had not said much over the morning. “Can we take a break, it’s about the time we need to get lunch anyways.”

He looked me over with worry, as he had done a lot over the course of the day. He had been more than reluctant to let me come with him to search for everyone, but in the end acknowledged that as long as I could function I needed to continue on with the quest.

“I guess…” he said hesitantly, he had agreed mostly because I wasn’t the only one struggling. Eryx’ leg wasn’t terrible, he could still walk on it, though winced with most steps. Both of us needed a little ambrosia more than anything, but we’d have to live until we found the others, or got back to camp.

I sat on a white rock a few feet away and thought. “So lunch?”

Eryx craned his neck and searched the area until his eyes trained on one tree in particular. “I’m on it.” He said taking one of the vines near him and pulling it from the tree.

I pulled my knees up and grabbed onto them, huddling into myself as I let a few thoughts consume me. “So when we do get the others what so we do? I mean, we have practically no supplies, which means we’re pretty much gonna have to run in and save Pandora and high tail it before we die.”

He took out his sword as I talked and tried one end of the vine to the hilt before he responded. “We are pretty short on time, so we’re gonna have to find them quickly. And we’ll just have to hope actually saving Pandora, doesn’t take too much effort.”

As soon as the words left his mouth he threw his sword at the tree that had been receiving his attention, smiling when I heard the thud of it hitting something. “Okay but still, how are we supposed to find them. Or ambrosia. Or the map. I really don’t wanna be cursed for nothing.”

He pulled on the vine and the sword came swinging back to us, a bundle of bananas caught around it. He took one from the bundle handing it to me – which I took very gratefully – and took one for himself. He took a bite out of his before he talked again. “We find our friends and I’m sure we’ll find some supplies.”

I shook my head. “We’ve been looking for our friends all day. It’s obviously not working.”

He sighed and threw his banana peel to the side (how do men eat so fast?), he began to rub his head, a face of deep thought falling upon him. “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re right. Why don’t we finish lunch, then split up. We’d cover more ground and it would be faster.”