I woke up to the sound of Mom cooking her eggs, as usual. They were blue, but they were good. That totally tops any wacky statement that anybody ever made. Every time I asked her about it, she said she learned it from Dad. Every time I asked Dad about it he said that Grams did them that way. He always interpreted that Grams cooked them like that to show that anything was possible.
I headed for the kitchen, in the general direction of the heavenly smell wafting towards my nose, and couldn't help but overhear my parents talking. I didn't want to intrude, so I tried to tiptoe away, but I caught some words they were saying.
"….Kallie…by now?" They were talking about me? I backtracked and tried to listen to what they were going to say. It was wrong, I know, but darn it, they were talking about me! Maybe school mailed home my grades. Yikes. That ought to make them talk about me.
"Why don't you think she's dyslexic?" Mom asked. Huh…? Wait a moment! She wants me to be dyslexic? What was going on? I decided to listen in; despite the fact that I knew it was wrong…and against American law, apparently.
"I don't know— you're the smart one!!" Dad wailed.
"Percy!!" Ha! Mom… She's always on Dad's case.
Dad turned somber once more. "Look, Annabeth, I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with not being directly related to them?"
"Maybe," Mom said skeptically.
I had heard enough. I ran to get back to bed without them noticing. I was still supposed to be asleep after all. During the summer, I always slept in—a luxury that many kids didn't have when school was in session. Next year was my freshman year. It was just a few short months until I start high school. It was an unnerving feeling. Time flies by too fast.
I was always winded when I climbed the innumerable flight of steps my house possessed. It didn't matter if I had practiced climbing them for thirteen years, my legs were still shaking when I got to my room. I immediately jumped into bed and tried to pull the covers over my head and blindly felt for my beloved bed mate, Lucy, my stuffed turtle. I felt nothing. A lump slowly crept up my throat. I leaned over to the sides of my bed to see if she fell over in the dead of night, result of my unconscious turmoil. Again, my search yielded no results.
"MOM! DAD!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I didn't care if they were right outside my door, which they probably were. I was right—not a second had passed when they burst into my room wearing panicked expressions.
"What's wrong?" Dad asked.
"Lucy!!" I cried. "She's gone!"
Mom evidently paled. "What?" she asked sharply.
"I don't know!! I looked for her and she isn't here!!"
"Have you tried looking elsewhere?" Dad asked. I shook my head.
"Somebody stole my turtle!" I went out the door to my room, and straight into Alex, my childhood friend. "Alex!" I exclaimed, surprised.
"Hey, kid." He threw me another one of his lopsided grins. Just because he was a junior next year, he thinks he can call me kid. He's so annoyingly arrogant. I'll prove him wrong.
I huffed and said, "I have a name, Alex."
"What ever—you want to find your turtle, Kallie?"
"How did you know that?"
"Meet me at the swings," he said turning his back. "And bring supplies." He handed me a wallet. It was red and had the resemblance of a pouch with clasps.
"Kallie, was that Alex I heard?" Mom asked, her worried head suddenly popping out from my bedroom door frame. I turned to her. Didn't she see him? I turned back to inspect/glare at Alex. He was gone.
"No," I answered. "I don't think I saw him." Mom threw me a worried look.
"Alright…" She abruptly popped back in. What was she doing in there? I shook my head, and headed straight for Mom's closet. What did that dimwit mean by supplies?
I shuffled through the closet and found something hopefully appropriate to wear: a black t-shirt with a golden chariot pulled by pegasi and above knee length black capris. I pulled my raven hair back, inherited from my father, and looked myself over in mom's full length mirror. I pulled my silver rimmed glasses over my gray eyes, which were inherited from my mother. I pulled on some socks and ankle boots and I was done.
I headed towards the kitchen. In turned the wallet over in my hands. It was relatively small, with a gold clasp. I went straight to the refrigerator and pulled out an apple much larger than the wallet. I decided to try and fit the apple in, for good measure. Or just boredom. Maybe both. To my surprise, it fit. I put my hand in there as well. I took it out. Bewilderment danced across my face.
Quickly overcoming the initial shock, I stuffed the bag with some vitamins my mom kept in the closet (she called them magic), and the watch my mom always had. Next I stuffed a hand full of gold coins in and a wad of cash. I wondered why this stuff was always at hands reach, but I didn't question it. I just grabbed and stuffed. Amazingly, the wallet didn't get any heavier. It did have a strange smell though.
I went back into my room, hoping to stuff medicinal supplies when I heard a sudden noise bursting from the kitchen. It was weird, because it sounded like a…naw…A bull...in my kitchen? Then I heard another sound—a strangled yell, snort and crashing of furniture.
We were living on a grassy field, because my parents worked near here. Where, I couldn't imagine, but when I was younger, my parents moved us out here because they said they didn't want to commute. There were plenty of animals around—and the occasional bull—but they were too wide to fit in a door. I stuffed extra clothes in, closed the purse-wallet and went to inspect the noise.
See, weirder things have happened to me in the past, but never as weird as this. As it turns out, there was a bull in my kitchen. And the bull was rearing on its hind quarters battling and invisible enemy. Which wasn't possible…was it?
Suddenly Dad came roaring out of nowhere, swinging this huge blue-hilted sword out of nowhere, and screaming a battle cry. Then with uncanny precision, struck the bull down right in between the eyes, and sighed. The bull made a magical disappearance with a poof into smoke. He then seemed to concentrate on something—as he did, the sword turned into a pen that I recognized. It was the pen that never really left his breast pocket.
Then, Mom popped out of nowhere, taking off her hat. That sentence didn't make sense, but it was true. I saw her pop out of nowhere and her movements resembled a person that was taking off a hat. For further proof, she had a Yankees baseball hat in hand when she really was there. And a rather ancient looking knife, but that didn't seem to be much of importance right now, especially with her having a invisibility hat.
Mom pulled her free hand through her flaxen hair. She sighed and looked as tired as I have ever seen her. Dad came up to her and started massaging her shoulders. She closed her eyes and leaned into him and he wound his arms around her.
"Gods…"
"Annabeth?"
"Percy…this has been the third attack this week! It's frankly a miracle that we clean all this up in time before Kallie sees it!"
"Oh..." He laughed. "Don't knock the miracles," Dad said into her hair.
"I mean it."
"I know. But still, Annabeth, we live near the Camp. An attack or two is bound to happen."
"But…that level of Minotaur…"
"True…but you can't conclude all that from three attacks."
"All the attacks stronger than the next!"
"Kallie's growing up, I guess. The monsters are sensing her."
"But why now? Half-bloods are rarely attacked when they are out of Camp nowadays. Plus we already stopped the Titan Lord, remember?"
"Precisely, Annabeth."
I heard Mom gasp, and that's the last that I heard of them. I got the heck out of there. They were using various names of creatures that occur in mythological references! No way could they be real. I hurriedly went towards the swings that Alex and I played on when we were kids. In those days, we were closer. Pieces of broken memories were all they were now.
He stood there, dirty blond hair shimmering in the sun, reflecting off his showy wrist watch. Of course he was wearing gold on his black shirt. It was a pretty cool abstract design, but you'll never hear it from me. A pair of grunge skinny jeans and converse sneakers completed his look. Damned his rugged good looks.
He smiled his famous crooked grin at me, infamous for unintentionally making girls weak in their knees. I scowled at him. He had answers. I mean, if he didn't, how could he have known I'd lost my turtle?
"Akantha Eumelia Jackson. Finally, you arrive."
I grimaced. My full name. Only a select few knew it. "I want my turtle, Alex."
"Such grace, from such a lady, I think."
"Shut up and give me what I want." I walked towards him, each step bringing a deep sense of dread that chilled my bones and brought my blood to a boil.
"What you want, eh?" His face darkened. "What you want to know is why the hell is things you don't even begin to comprehend are happening to you. Why, why things that you see but refuse to believe because your parents refuse to tell you the truth."
"So what is the truth?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.
"'Daughter of Athena, Poseidon's treasured.'"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you should rethink your priorities, Princess." As he said this is face was contorted into a half-sneer that made his impeccable features shrivel. He even almost spat out the word "princess". Even then I could tell he was holding an immense power back.
"And why is that?" I stepped back, his features frightening me ever so slightly.
I took it as a warning. You could never tell with Alex. When we were still children, my parents told me that he overreacted and accidentally hurt someone. I didn't think much of it, since they were incredibly vague, until I realized that they took my best friend away. I screamed for months after it happened. I hadn't seen him until this very day, seven entire years later.
"Because I know things!" He started pacing. "I know things I don't even want to know, unthinkable things that happened because of an accident that happened, something I didn't even want." He stopped and looked at me, with a smile that made my skin crawl. "And your turtle: the one your parents gave to you holds the absolute key to your future, because it holds your destiny: it holds your life line, your essence, and without it, you would die."
"And you are helping me because?"
"I was sent to help you."
"By whom?" His handsome features restored themselves at this mention.
"By the Gods."
"The what?"
He sighed. "Didn't I just tell you to rethink your priorities? The Gods are here Kallie," he said, reverting to my nickname. "They are alive and well, following the height of civilization wherever it may be, hiding within the human race, passing off as incredibly powerful and influential mortals."
"And where are they now?" I asked.
"America of course."
"And Olympus?" Hey, a giant Minotaur just ransacked my kitchen, my beloved kitchen with my blue eggs that I hadn't even eaten yet, and parents at home, worrying themselves to death about me, because they personally saw the things that go bump in the night. I want answers, damn it, even if they didn't sound exactly sane.
"It's above the Empire State Building."
"Naturally," I said casually, as if I was used to this whole ordeal.
"And what does that have to do with you? You see, your 'honest' parents never told you were that they are in fact demi-gods, half bloods that could exert incredible power if not properly contained. Half-bloods are sired by full gods, as the name suggests. But what is unusual about you is that you are a demi-god, formed by two demi-gods."
"Poseidon and Athena."
"Correct."
"But…I thought Athena was a Virgin Goddess."
"Apparently not." He gestured towards me. "Living proof."
"And I thought that Poseidon and Athena had some sort of hate for each other."
"They did."
"They resolved it?"
"Yes they did."
"So…my parents were a union of two gods holding a grudge?"
"Unfortunately for your parents, the dispute was not to transpire before they got married."
"So what happened?"
"They were punished."
"H-How so?"
"I am not at liberty to tell. Not yet."
"So what are you at liberty to tell?"
He did not reply. I sighed. He was making this incredibly difficult, which was increasingly annoying. "Where are we going, first of all?"
"The Sea of Monsters."
"Currently known as…?" I trailed off. If he said that the Empire State was Olympus, there should be a modern version of the Sea too, something mortals would never see and only make excuses for it.
"The Bermuda Triangle…Boy, do you catch on fast."
I shrugged. "So who sired you? Who is your patron God?"
He turned and started walking away. "All will be explained in due time."
In fact, "due time" turned out to be a rickety old boat (which I named Salem) that was large enough for five, but small enough for one to be claustrophobic. Even though it looked shabby from the outside, once you looked past the Mist, you could see it was really a grand boat, gold trimmings, cozy cabin, the works.
He gave me a crash course in "Mythology Today." Mist is what shields mortals from seeing real monsters roaming around in the street, which, there are apparently enough of them to do so. The gods disguise themselves as normal people but you can always tell them apart with their aura of power surrounding them. Monsters can sense incredible power, and since they are result of small evils, they go for these powerful people, be they Gods or demi-gods. These monsters also don't die: they go poof and regenerate, like in my kitchen earlier today. The strong half-bloods are watched over by satyrs, half goat-men, who take ready half-blood warriors to Camp Half-Blood for training. Then that was it.
Alex returned to his cabin, since the ship magically sailed itself, and his last parting words consisted of telling me to be wary of monsters, especially since Odysseus barely made it out of there alive. Oh, right. The Bermuda Triangle, where all the strange "occurrences" happened was really because of all the things that Odysseus experienced in the Odyssey. He expected me to fight against Cyclops of Old and Circe and all that stuff?! I mean…I haven't even been to camp yet! What a genius he is, huh?
Then again…on the ship was a full armory.
I leaned against the sides of the ship, daydreaming about all the stuff my parents had experienced, all the heartache and suffering they had to go through to become the people they are today. (Alex also told me that Mom and Dad are regarded as eternal heroes at Camp Half-Blood.) I wondered if I would ever be like them someday. And now…suddenly, school seemed pale in comparison to everything I've learned today. And the day still hasn't even ended yet. It isn't even lunch yet.
"We're going to skip the Polyphemus and Circe and the Sirens. What we need to concentrate on is to get to Sylla and Charybdis," Alex began later that day, after lunch. (Which was packed in the wallet-purse Alex gave me.)
"How does that work?" I asked. "Don't people need to get past all three?"
"No. See, Percy, your Dad, escaped Polyphemus when he was about your age, pretending to be Nohbdy and because he later sunk your dad's ship, now Polyphemus thinks that he really did defeat Nohbdy. It's risky with him, because I'm betting he still is gloating about that to his sheep. Circe and the Sirens….well….I'm sure you are familiar with them.
"See, no Charybdis is our main concern. If we toss in one some food, she'll be too busy eating that to eat us. We're all the same size to her. So she'll just spit us out into a remote location that only be reached by being spit out by the giant mouth."
"Won't we be torn apart?" I asked worriedly.
"No. See, Hermes gave us this boat. I'm sure that this—"
"Is Hermes your Dad?"
"—will with stand her. If not, then we'll be on the island anyway. It's a magical island, so we're okay," he answered confidently. See? Him and his pompous attitude. Hubris. Isn't thathow Odysseus almost got killed again in the first place? I swear, if something doesn't kill Lucy, this guy will kill me first.
"Get ready, Kallie!" he shouted over from port side. "There's going to be a heavy level of mist here, so keep your eyes peeled!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, the fog descended upon us. It was like trying to breathe through a book. It was so thick I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. Pfft. Eyes peeled my backside.
Well, you know in novels, a character says something like "Glad that's over!" and the most powerful monster comes out to have them for lunch? Well, that's what happened. We were suddenly bombarded with flying bugs, my ultimate phobia after spiders. And the Mist didn't even lift yet. I swatted and swatted, stepping back with each swipe and eventually backtracked into Alex, who was evidently doing the same thing.
"Into the cabin!" he yelled over the incessant buzz of insects swarming. It was simply a miracle that we didn't get stung to death. Like Dad said, don't knock the miracles. Once we managed to get into the cabin, we exhaled a sigh of relief. My relief was short lived, however.
"We're nearing Charybdis, now."
I swiveled around so fast I heard a whoosh in my ears. "No way! We have to pass the Island of the Cyclops first! And what about Circe? And Calypso? And Lotus eaters? What about all of them?"
Alex smirked. "The mist takes us where we want to go first. It doesn't care. It's dangerous all around anyway…" He paused and gave me a genuine smile. Why didn't that freak me out? "You know your mythology, don't you?"
"Future anthropologist in the making— I'm guilty as charged." I tried not to smile at his praise.
"Anyway…when we get there, Lucy should be----" We heard a loud crunching noise. It sounded like it was the boat. Oh…great…Scylla. We got her first. "Don't fret; we should be heading into Charybdis waters soon." I think that was a vain attempt at a joke.
Being sucked into a whirlpool isn't as fun as you would think. It's a rush, yes, but imagine spinning slowly and yet very fast—like it was entirely in slow motion-fast, and then spit out at a thousand miles per hour, skin plastered against your bones. It's a horrific thrill.
We landed on an island, just as Alex said. It was paradise…especially since I couldn't find him anywhere. It wasn't fair. The one time I need him, he isn't here. The Gods seem to have a twisted sense of humor.
It was amazing though.
I was surrounded by palm trees at my left, and the clear blue ocean shimmering and laughing with all its majestic beauty. The sun was about to reach its zenith and cast a bright radiance over the whole island, shining it's brilliance into seemingly every crevice available.
I walked all around the island, searching for any sign. It was then I saw the caves. I went in, and then saw Lucy lying there, which was great. I immediately picked her up. But apparently, it was booby trapped. As soon as I picked it up, a dozen Alex's popped up. My worst nightmare. Great. I was going to get annoyed to death.
Each one was tied to a chair and screaming at me from all sides. He—they were all crying for help and telling me to release him. Each one seemed to have been tortured in different ways and some were even joyous at seeing me, expecting relief from the horror. It really helped that we were in a cave and each sound was echoed and bounced back louder than ever.
In the end, I just ran out. I felt really bad running out like that, I mean, even though I vehemently express my feelings about him, he was still a human being, a living breathing thing with feelings. I clutched Lucy and welcomed her familiar warmth.
"Kallie?" I heard Alex say. One Alex. I turned around. There was Alex in all his blazing glory and grinning. No scratches, burns, or inanimate objects protruding from his eyes face…I wanted to cry and hit him for all it was worth. "I knew you were smart enough to not to untie any of those guys in there."
"What?"
"It was a test, Kallie! A test of wits. How did you know they weren't me?" He started talking really fast now, becoming excited. "I knew you were the right one! If you had untied one of them, you would have destroyed yourself!! All of them would have explo—Hey, Kallie? What's wrong?"
My pride wouldn't let me answer and my heart screamed at him. I settled for middle ground and bawled my eyes out. "I….hate…you…stole……my…turtle…and…" Oh, while I was in the cave I figured out he stole my turtle. He got into my house many times before, when we were kids, so he still could have gotten in, anytime he wished.
He grinned and hugged me. "Dear cousin of mine, would I ever mean to hurt you?"
I slapped him on the arm. Then I realized something.
"Hey…how are we going to get home?"
He shrugged. "Easier then how we came."
Great. If my internal map was correct, two giant clashing rocks and we're home. Peachy keen. Stupid Alex.
