"Life is either a great adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller
I woke with a start. My surroundings were dark. And I mean dark. I couldn't even see my hand when I put it in front of my face. My head was in a terrible pain because of the darkness, like what happened when I first got my powers for my first month. Yes, powers. Well, more like abilities. No. Not even. More like gift. No. My friends nag at me for that. I guess when I realized I was a half-blood. Or as you might know it, a demi-god. I guess I should introduce myself.
My name is Kanja Packmen. I am a female, with brown hair turning red. My eyes are blue, but they appear gray in shadows and green in intense light. I am 5' 3", and am rather skinny. I have a mortal mom and, don't freak, Poseidon as my father. Yeah, I look more like I was a child born of Athena, but, that's genetics for you.
I was sent to this excuse of a chamber after my father claimed me and my half-brother, Xander. So, Poseidon is one of the big three gods, right? So he isn't allowed to have children because we are too darn powerful. Well, I guess that was what happened. Poseidon fell in love with two different mortal woman and made love with them. Yeah. Gross, right? Anyways, so the bad guys got us after we were sent out on a quest that we were sure to die on. At least that was what I thought, anyways. I mean, this is my first quest, on my first week, on my first month of realizing my demi-godliness, on my first year at Camp Half-Blood. I mean, who does that?! I was thoroughly freaked when I was given this quest.
Anyways, I managed to convince some friends of mine named Sky and Luna to help me. Sky is a son of Zeus, another big three god, and Luna is a daughter of Athena. If you know your Greek stuff, then you know their abilities. And if not, Sky can control basically anything with electricity, and Luna, well; she's really smart and can get you out of any situation. Let's hope it works out for this one.
I heard a loud thud from above, telling me that I was in a metal chamber, making my headache even bigger than it was before. I heard muffled speaking and then something flared in my ear. No. It didn't flare. It was the communicators I gave to Sky and Luna if anything happened. And clearly something did.
I shook my head to clear it and put my hand to my ear. "What was that? I didn't copy. Over." Yeah, I know that was a little nerdy but, what can I say? It worked, because I got a reply.
"I can't bust through the container, Kanj! My lightning won't work!" It was Sky. I tilted my head to think. Why did he sound so scared?
"Kanj. Kanja! Can you hear me?" Now that was Xander. When did he get a communicator? Wait. That voice was in my head. Whats going on?
"Wait. Wait. Wait. Where are you guys?" I asked through the communicator.
Sky was the first to reply. "We are a good twenty to thirty feet away from the metal container just in case I missed it. We are trying to get you two out."
Wait. Two? Who else is in here with me?
As if reading my thoughts Xander replied "Luna got captured, too, Kanj."
That would explain a lot. "Wait. So when did you get her communicator?"
There was a long moment of silence. "Well, I don't necessarily have one at the moment…"
What?
All of a sudden I got really tired. And I mean, really tired. Like, so tired I just collapsed right there on the spot. Maybe I wasn't tired. I don't know. But I was still awake. I started to crawl around and feeling stuff. I poked something warm and soft, and it squealed when I did. I heard scampering to the other side of the chamber.
And that must be Luna. I thought. Luna was also new to this. She has been at camp for a year, but has never been given a quest till now.
"Was that Luna? Is she okay?" Sky asked. Did I mention that he likes her?
"Yeah, she's fine. I just scared her a little. It sounds like she lost her communicator." At least, that's what I think had happened. Because, I was holding something in my left hand. And it felt a lot like a communicator.
Sky let out a sigh of relief. "Thank the gods she is."
I rolled my eyes and stood up, on the verge of falling over. I fell and I screamed in pain as my hand was sliced open on something. How do I know it was sliced open? Well, I felt something warm and sticky, and it wasn't on my hand before.
"Kanj! Are you okay? Kanja!" That would be Xander. Did I mention yet that we were dating before I came to camp?
Yeah. We were going to the same school and at first we were just friends, but then it turned into a dating thing. At the time we were both unaware of our demi-godliness, and the fact that we shared the same father. But then Xander realized he was a demi-god a year before I did, which made it really dangerous for him to be outside of camp. So he had to go there for the rest of the summer and I was stuck at school worrying about him. And then, guess what happened! I ran into a burning house on my way home one day and then-Bam! The fire was out as soon as I started to panic. It wasn't the wind or sheer luck. It was water. From the pond behind the house. Carried by me, the only person on the street. The people inside were soaked to the bone when they came out. And so I was sent to camp and we were both claimed on the same day by Poseidon, which meant we shared the same father. It made things a little awkward, but there are many demi-gods that fell in love with their half-siblings.
Anyways. Back to the story.
I shook my hand and inhaled through my clenched teeth. "Yeah. I'll survive. I'm okay." Just hurts like Hades torture chamber though.
"Don't you dare compare that pain to Hades, Kanj. It's not nice." Okay. I swear he can read my mind or something. And what's with the "be nice" pep talk?
"Just get us out of here, Xander! Stop nagging at me!"
Sky was the first to reply. "We have tried everything we can, Kanja. Nothing seems to be working."
I thought awhile on this. I listened for Luna's breathing and followed the sound to the corner. "Luna. It's okay. It's me, Kanja."
I heard her breathing relax and he started to speak. "Thank the gods. You scared me that first time you touched me!"
Well, no duh, Sherlock!
"We got to get out of here, and you being a daughter of Athena, I'm sure you can figure it out."
"Where are we?"
"In a metal chamber. Sky's lightning won't work, and I'm not sure what else they have tried, but it's not working either."
I swear I could hear the gears turning in her head as she thought about the situation. Wait. Those weren't my imagination. These gears were getting louder as the seconds ticked.
"Kanja. Whats that noise?" Luna asked me while clutching my arm.
I was too scared to reply, so we sat there in the corner huddled together.
There was a sudden loud bang on the side of the container, and something sharp stabbed through(not completely, thank the gods) my leg, causing me to cry out in pain. That will leave a scar.
"SKY! Stop! You're hurting them!" Xander shouted.
I held back the tears. I couldn't cry. Especially with poor Luna here. It will make her even more scared than she already is. And plus, there was now a little light in the chamber.
"Is the sun rising?" I asked, my voice shaky and engraved with pain. Big mistake. Luna noticed the depth of pain in my voice and looked down at my leg.
"Kanja! Your bleeding!" she exclaimed. "Look!"
She pointed to my leg, left one, and I looked down at it. Blood was streaming down the side through a six or seven inch wound about a centimeter deep. Blood was starting to pool around my foot, and I started to get light headed.
"It's nothing, Luna. I'm okay." I said in a shaky voice, trying my best to keep down the fear that was threatening to overtake me. I'm not okay. How could I be okay? I was here, trapped in this metal container with poor innocent Luna, with almost no way out, and bleeding from a six or seven inch long wound that's a centimeter deep that is most likely going to make me bleed to death before we get out. I knew better than to stand. I would only make more blood go to my leg. Which would give me less time to live. But I didn't have a choice whether or not to stand, because at that moment Luna said something.
"Prove to me your fine. Prove it." She said with her hands on her hips.
I bit my lower lip and asked her how I should prove it.
"Stand up. Stand up so that I know you are okay."
I stood up, holding in the gasp of pain as I did. I put all of my weight on my uninjured leg. "There. Is that enough proof for you?"
"No. Take a step forward."
I did and I fell from the pain. That's when I couldn't take it anymore. I started to cry. Yes, cry. I, Kanja Packmen started to cry. In front of Luna. And what happened next surprised me the most.
Luna didn't start to freak out. Instead, the sweet girl hugged me.
"Oh, Kanja. You've been through so much in only your first week here. First it was that hellhound who gave you those three scars on your face, and now this? You poor thing!"
Weird. Just weird. She's acting as though she has been through this herself before. Which she hasn't. Huh.
Luna stiffened all of a sudden. "Kanja, we might want to move." She said before dragging me against my will to the center of the chamber.
Right when she stopped moving me there was another loud bang from where we were a few seconds before. Wow, Luna's strong.
Daylight flooded into the chamber, blinding me for a few minutes. And then before I knew it I was picked up off the ground by Xander, and Sky was hugging Luna breathless. I mean, her face was turning red because he was hugging her so hard. Ha-ha. Young love. Guys are always worrying about the girl.
"How?" I asked as I was carried out. Xander set me on a rock carefully and started to treat my wounds. Oh my gods, I'm light headed. Feel as though I'm about to pass out.
"Sky managed to find an old drill from a mine nearby and started it with lightning. He managed to power it up enough to bust through the container." Xander said as though it was a day-to-day experience. Wait. It practically has been a day-to-day experience for him. What am I talking about?
Xander finished bandaging my leg and asked me if I had any other injuries. I said no, but as I did he squeezed my left hand, the one with the cut, his eyes locked with mine and daring me to lie to him again as I gasped in pain.
I sucked in a ragged breath, and my pride took over. "No. I don't."
Xander squeezed again, this time harder. The pain made tears well up behind my eyes and I tried my best not to cry. "Stop lying to me, Kanja," Xander said in a stern voice, one that I had never heard before, and I started getting a little scared. He never talked to me like that.
I guess he noticed my expression because his face softened, and his hand did, too. He bent his head down before saying, "I'm sorry, Kanj. I'm just… I'm just…" he sighed before looking into my eyes again. "I'm just afraid of losing you."
And that was that. He won. I let him bandage my hand. Luna managed to calm down everyone, and I mean everyone. There was this pig running around squealing after Sky accidently stepped on it.(don't ask me how) And then things started going uphill from there. Literally. The entire hick back to camp was uphill. It was rather tiring. And with my injured leg, Xander had to carry me most of the way. If only I still had my Pegasus, Sky. She was killed during the battle with the hellhound. She risked her life for mine. Oh well. You can't change how things are meant to be.
When we got to camp, the first thing I did was get sent straight to the infirmary. And I spent days there. Xander came to visit me a couple of times, but he was busy with quests. I really only had Luna with me. And Sky. He kept mooning over her. Haha. Get it? Luna. Mooning. Luna, as in the moon. Haha.
A few weeks later I was up and running, and Xander was back from his quest. We spent more time together after that, because, I don't know about him but, I was worried that he wouldn't come back from the quest like those people from those stories I hear from the cams most senior counselors.
I started running laps around the camp to strengthen and stretch my sore muscles. And that was when I saw him. He was coming out of the infirmary, eyes narrowed as he scanned the crowds of people. He saw me and waved. I ran to him. I tripped when I was about two feet away from him, my klutz powers activating. He caught me and smiled. I blushed. And then Luna and Sky came over and asked if we wanted to go down to the beach.
I got up and said to them, "Go? I was born from the ocean! What kind of question is that! I love water! Of course I want to 'go' to the beach!"
We all laughed and started walking to the beach until Sky said "last one there is a rotten egg!"
We all started pelting full speed down to the beach, Luna reaching it way before anyone else. We all started to laugh and splash in the water, and I had the greatest and most thrilling time of my life.
I might go on quests more frequently with my friends. But, being mortal with no powers is just fine with me. The real story: Luna and I got locked in a broken meat fridge and Sky and Xander had to pick the lock. It was dark in there, so I ran into a broken rack and cut my leg. Next I tried to stand up and cut my hand on the same rack. Xander and Sky managed to pick the lock. We got out, Xander carrying me and tending my wounds. We had no communicators. It was just us texting each other. Then I was taken to the hospital for three days while Xander went to visit his family in another country. Then I was at home on crutches for a month. By the time I got off the crutches and walking fine with no bandage, Xander had returned. As a group we went down to the beach. And we splashed. I even got a kiss on the cheek from Xander. I blushed intensely as the sand below me shifted and I fell into his arms. I blushed even harder and he smiled down at me.
I got up and shouted to the group "Who wants ice-cream?" as an ice-cream truck pulled up.
We all got ice-cream and spent more time in the water until 5 pm. That was when we all started to walk eachother home. First we dropped off Luna, which Sky parted with her only after giving her a two minute hug. Then it was Skys turn to part.
"See you two tomorrow!" He shouted as he waved from his front porch.
Xander and I waved back.
We walked in silence for the rest of the way to my house.
Xander turned to me before I could make it to the front door.
"See you tomorrow, Kanja?" he asked.
I felt my face fluster. "Y-yeah. Sure. See ya!"
His face lit up and he smiled. "Okay. Well, night."
"Night."
I ran into my room and wrote about my day.
I guess my imagination of Greek history takes me to different worlds. I wrote in my journal after writing about the day. If I really did go through that, I would surely be freaking over it.
I put my pencil in my journal and finished drawing its cover. A picture of me, Luna, Sky, and Xander in the greatest memory of all that I will cherish forever: When the four of us became friends.