My day was going pretty well - until we all got kidnapped. I was with my 8 year old cousin Luke, his two friends, Eli and Dominic, and my two best friends, Falon and Anya at Luke's house. We are all pretty good friends, so Luke decided he wanted to get together with all of us and have a huge sleepover, considering his room takes up a whole half of his upstairs. We were playing hide and seek in his blueberry bushes, and I was it. I had suddenly seen a flash of dark blue behind a bush and sneaked up on it.
"Boo!" I shouted, even though I am 13 and too old to be saying stuff like that. Luke jumped.
"Hey!" he had yelled.
"Found you," I said.
"Why did we have to play this stupid game?" he grumped. "Who's idea was this, anyway?"
"Yours," I had replied.
"Oh, well… oh…" he said. And that's when his eyes widened at something behind me, and I looked at something behind him. It was a guy with a buzz cut and a mean look in his face. He had just appeared there! He wore sunglasses, a leather jacket, black jeans and black boots.
"Uh, Luke…" I trailed off in fear, and at the same time Luke said, "Uh, Elizabeth…" We each raised a shaking hand to point at something behind the other, and as we each turned around, huge canvas bags were thrown over each of our heads. As it went over Luke's, I just had time to notice that he had grabbed a ripe blueberry. Why would he think about food at a time like this? Then, something came over me and I started to collapse. I was really tired. I needed a nap…..
I wake up with a start. For a moment, I am confused, then I remember the sleepover, the game, the strange biker man and the blueberry. Sitting up, I rub my eyes and survey where I am. I'm in a rectangular room with my favorite color on the ceiling, a shade of aqua, with alternating small silver owls and silver rearing horses on the trim. The floor is a reddish brown, and in the center there is a compass made of darker and lighter shades of the floor. I stare in shock when I see the walls, a huge mural of everything I love. On the north wall, there is a wintry scene in which some kids - my friends that I was having a sleepover with, except we all look older and different, were sledding down a hill in a pasture, snowboarding, having a snowball fight and making a snowman. A horse looks out a barn window, and smoke billows out of a chimney in a huge grey house. From inside the window of the house, I can see a cat and a dog warming up by the fire, and wet snow stuff drying next to it. In the kitchen, a woman is making hot chocolate for when the kids come in. On the east side, the door is in the center of the looks like it's spring, and the six kids are taking care of baby horses in a paddock, feeding the goats, cleaning the cow's shelter, washing the pigsty and the sheep, and gathering some of the eggs from the ducks and chickens, but leaving some to hatch. Some dragons fly in the sky, and unicorns and pegasi are mixed in. They all look happy, and the scene is beautiful, with all the blossoms and green grass. on the south side, (I have to swivel to see it, the bed is leaning against it) we are playing in a creek, in summer. Half of it is in the woods, and the other half depicts a fenced in field, with horses of all different kinds and colors grazing, chasing each other, anything you can imagine. More dragons fly overhead, and mixed in with the horses are some more unicorns and pegasi, and one black alicorn with a white star and sock. In two more smaller fields are cows and goats. In the last scene, we are in the woods riding horses. Luke and I are riding alicorns, Anya and Dominic are riding unicorns and Eli and Falon are riding pegasi. It is autumn and all the oranges, yellows and reds surround us. Squirrels and chipmunks race around, gathering nuts, and the dragons are settling down into caves to sleep. Birds fly, and the creek looks so real I can almost hear it. In some places of the room, plants and fountains are placed on the walls, and ivy curls around the edges of the walls and ceiling. A huge fish tank, about 50 gallons, is sitting on a painted table, with red, blue, orange, yellow, teal, and aqua fish in it. A green chair is on the left side of the door, a bay window is placed in the west side of the room, a desk and spinny chair are placed in the center of the winter scene, and my bed is to the right of the door, against the south side, with the headboard against the east side. It is aqua, and has built in shelves in the headboard, with some of my favorite books and tokens. The alarm clock reads 9:00. It isn't shaped like a rectangle, it has a curvy shape, and there is a side that is shaped like a wave on the wall side. Some bookshelves are in the other corner of the south side, and next to them is a dresser with a large mirror. The whole room is comfortable and airy, with a nice naturey feeling, like if you went for a quiet walk in the woods. I decide to get up and walk over to the dresser. I notice something next to it that looks like a button. I push it and a whole little doorway, no taller than my waist, appears and the section of wall pushes in and rolls to the left. Lights blink on as I crawl through, and as i stand up, I find myself in heaven. It is a small room, with a beanbag in one corner, and the walls are all made of bookshelves except for a door on the left side. I open the door and suddenly find myself in a totally different place: weapons line the walls on every side. A shooting range is to the right, next to another room full of training dummies. Walking over to the front wall, I see a hair tie. I pick it up, wondering if it was for a slingshot or something, when it pops into a silver bow and arrow, with a quiver full of arrows. I will it to turn into a hair tie again, and it obeys. I replace the one in my hair with it. Moving down, I grab a pen and tell it to turn into its weapon. It transforms into a Greek sword, with swirling metals so strange, I have to take a closer look. There is information on the wall where it came from, so I skim through it. It is made of a mix of Celestial bronze, Imperial gold, silver, iron, diamond and Stygian iron. I guess it can kill all - monsters? - it says in the guide, at least. Huh, useful, if you are having a bad dream! I turn it into a pen again put it into my pocket, just in case. Picking up a watch, it springs into a shield that I twist to see. I immediately drop it and shriek. Then I blush, embarrassed, because it was only a picture of Medusa printed on the front. I can see why it's so terrifying and good to have on hand, though. I put it on and go on to the next thing, a ring, which turns into a dagger. It says the dagger is the same thing as the sword, except it is modeled after Helen of Troy's Katoptris. I put it on and walk back out of both rooms, push the button on the trapdoor, and it rolls back into place, putting the head back onto a fish swimming in the creek. I notice another door on the north side and look in - a bathroom with all things from the sea. Shells, sea glass, coral, it even is painted with a picture of the beach! I look in the drawer of the dresser and find a bunch of clothes, so I grab an American Eagle grey shirt,, grey Aeropostale sweatshirt, light blue jeans, and two necklaces - an owl one and a native American pouch holding a bunch of other special pendants and odds and ends. Funny, all my stuff seems to have been ported over to this room, with some even better stuff, because there are some pieces of jewelry and clothing I've never seen before. I go into the bathroom and brush my teeth, get dressed and everything, and go outside to find a woman, in around her thirties, sitting on my bed, inspecting my Mark of Athena book.
"Hm," she says without looking up. "They didn't even make it look like me," She points to a picture of the Athena Parthenos. "Well, they've never seen me in person before, so they didn't do too bad." She looks up at me. She has startling grey eyes, blond hair, and a look on her face that marks her as very intelligent, and it also sends out the message that you do not want this lady as your enemy. She is wearing jeans and an owl t-shirt, not unlike another one of mine.
"Who are you?" I ask, trying to mask the panic in my voice. But I think I already know the answer to my question.
"You don't know me? I thought you of all people would. I'm Athena."