Okay, I know I've been focusing on Dana for the past few chapters, but this will be the last one, I may add in one more in her P.O.V. or about her but it'll mostly be Percy and Annabeth from the next chapter and onwards; I just need to explain stuff about her because it will link to later stories/chapters. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I had quite a bit of homework and assignments so I didn't have much time to write.
11. Possessions
Dana
Dana stopped at the entrance of the cave. A purple curtain hung over the tunnel opening with two swords that were crossed printed on it, a torch lit with Greek fire hung on the sides of the entrance. Was there going to be a monster? A fire-breathing dragon perhaps? Dana gripped hold of the box in her left hand and held the Reaper in its sword form in her right. She slowly lifted the curtain and stepped inside; what she saw was definitely not was she expected.
Instead of a sleeping fire-breathing dragon or a cave troll guarding some precious treasure, she saw furniture, soft and fluffy carpeted floors and professional artist grade paintings painted on the walls. Multi-coloured lights were installed on the roof, making it look like a dance floor; a massive hi-fi system was installed on the wall that was playing some weird urban-like music that Dana had heard once before…only on Rachel's iPod. A bed with purple sheets parked in the corner of the room and a girl laid apon it.
The girl had flaming-red hair with freckles splashed over her nose and face and her eyes were closed. She wore a blue and white checkered dress with a school crest printed on the front. But as soon as Dana took another step towards the girl, the girl's eyes snapped open and her emerald green eyes bore into Dana's. Suddenly, the two girls gasped at the same time and their eyes widened.
"Rachel?" exclaimed Dana, flabbergasted as her mouth stretched into a smile. "Dana?" said the oracle as she got up and ran to her best friend since primary school.
"What're you doing here? You had both parents so I don't think you're a half-blood…" wondered Dana.
"I'm the oracle, basically I can tell the future." she said with a smile.
Dana's eyes widened once again.
"No way! That's so cool." she said.
Rachel shrugged.
"Well, sometimes when I look at someone, I see how they die and when they do." Dana's smile melted as soon as it came.
"Wait, so, do you see how I die right now?" she asked, a little worried.
But Rachel simply shook her head with a smirk.
"No, it happens at random and it didn't happen the first time we met in primary school so I doubt it would happen now."
"What's that?" questioned Rachel, pointing to the box Dana was holding that she had forgotten about.
"Oh, my mother's stuff." she said in a small voice.
Rachel's eyes widened, she was the only other person in the world other than Annabeth who knows the story of Dana's past.
"Wait, she used to come here?" asked Rachel, slightly confused.
Dana raised an eyebrow at her friend, her lips curved into a small teasing smile. "You're the oracle, aren't you supposed to know these things?" she smirked.
Rachel huffed playfully and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, well, I get visions and dreams of things that I don't want to know about, I can't just go on and ask the oracle of Delphi for things like what will I get in my next calculus test or things like your past." she scoffed slightly.
Dana sighed before she plopped herself down on the carpeted stone ground and placed the box in front of her, Rachel sat down in front of her and the box and Dana began her story.
When she finished, Rachel was silent, before she lifted the flap of the box slightly. "You should look inside." she urged.
Dana picked up the box and tipped it upside-down, the contents of the box poured out of the box and landed in the space between the two girls. Dana examined the items, two blunt and rusted daggers with a 20cm blade, a pair of old-fashioned shoes that were tattered and the sole of the shoes were practically peeled off, an old looking Camp Half-blood shirt with mud and blood stains on it, a weird-looking metal cylinder container, an old and rusted war helm and lastly, Terry's old watch that was now cracked and the leather was falling to pieces.
"Thanks mum, for your junk." mumbled Dana as she sighed and picked up the watch and examined it.
"Great, now I'll need to get rid of this crap." said Dana, a little angrily that all her mother left her other than the ring was just her junk.
"Wait, Dana, What's this?" said Rachel as she took something out of the box.
It was a yellow envelope with ancient Greek written in black letters in the front, 'Dana'. Dana frowned and ripped it open. Thank the gods, the letter was written in ancient Greek.
Dana,
If you are reading this, than I must've died or went missing; I'd go with the died part, I doubt ay monsters would bypass the spell that protected our home.
Dana scoffed at this and continued to read.
You are probably wondering why I didn't give this to Terry, for reasons I cannot say, everything in this box other than the watch I didn't give to Terry. He has a dark path in front of him. I'm not sure if you have been claimed by your father yet, but he's not ashamed of you, don't worry. He does want to claim you but for reasons I mustn't say, he cannot, not just yet.
I hope this box of items would help you when you go on a quest, as it did for me.
Your mother,
Donna Fletcher.
Dana read it again and again. Help me on a quest? She thought, looking at the broken items. It'll probably be the first thing that gets me killed. But she guessed that she could give it a go at cleaning the things and probably fixing and polishing the daggers and things. Suddenly, a conch horn was sounded in the distance.
"C'mon, it's time for lunch; we better get to the mess hall before people start wondering where we've been." said Rachel as she got up.
"Hey, is it fine if I leave my stuff here because I don't want the Stolls stealing them and y'know…" began Dana.
"Oh sure! By all means, you can stay here if you want; you can come in here anytime to get your stuff." said Rachel.
Dana said her thanks and headed out the cave towards lunch.
Dana spent the rest of the day cleaning the helm and, after finding out that she was just as good at working as the forges as the Hephaestus cabin, she sharpened the daggers and polished the helm. She replaced the glass surface of the watch, ripped off the leather and replaced it with new leather. She had no idea how to fix the shoes so she just left them, and headed towards the bathroom and scrubbed the Camp Half-blood shirt clean. That night, she wore her mother's camp shirt which surprising fitted her perfectly and sat down at the Hermes table for dinner.
"Alright, I know that today is not Friday, but since Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Piper have arrived, we will have a game of Capture the Flag after dinner." announced Chiron.
Everyone cheered, especially the Ares cabin, but Dana only glanced over at Annabeth and gave her a confused look. The daughter of Athena, who was sitting at the Poseidon table with Percy, mouthed the word: 'Tell you later' and returned to her meal. Dana sighed and poked at her olive pizza. She looked down and began to wonder, why would a camp shirt help me on a quest? She thought.
Dinner was soon finished and Dana headed over to Annabeth and Percy to ask them about capture the flag or something.
"So it's basically were you have two teams, red and blue. There is a flag somewhere on their side of the forest were we'll be playing in, the objection is to capture the enemy's flag and bring it over to our territory, once we get it across, the game is over and the team wins. The teams for today were already planned out earlier today; blue team, the Athena, Poseidon, Apollo, Tyche, Iris, Hebe, Hecate and Hades cabins on the blue team. Then there's the red team with the Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hermes, Demeter, Hypnos, Nemesis and Dionysus cabins." said Annabeth as she headed into the Athena cabin quickly and returned with some armour.
"Nico is here?" asked Percy.
Annabeth nodded.
"He came just before dinner, scared half of us in arts and craft to death." she huffed. Percy chuckled.
"Alright, I need to grab my armour, Dana you have any?" he asked her.
Dana shook her head.
"Alright…I think a…size 8 would fit you, hold on let me take a look in the armoury, see you guys at the edge of the woods."
And with that, the son of Poseidon walked off towards said place, but not before giving Annabeth a peck on the cheek.
"What team am I on then? The Hermes cabin?" asked Dana.
"Well, ever since the gods made their promise a year ago, there had been less undetermined kids, so now, there's a new rule where the undetermined kids can choose their side, which one do you choose?" questioned Annabeth.
"Blue team." said Dana without hesitant.
Annabeth smiled and gripped her magical Yankee's cap and sheathed knife. Dana felt in her pockets and felt the two daggers and the metallic cylinder container that she'd filled up with nectar earlier. Percy appeared suddenly, carrying a large chest plate and an old war helm.
"Here, sorry, this is all I found, it may be a little big ad I hope you don't mind the smell inside the helm." chuckled Percy as he handed Dana the two pieces of armour. Dana sniffed the helm and dropped it on the ground in disgust. She tried on the chest plate and it weight a million pounds, it reached the middle of her thigh.
"Uh…if I wore this during the game, I'll be captured within the first minute; don't worry, I'll retreat if I have to, I'm just not exactly thrilled to wear this tonight."
Just then, Dana remembered that she did have a war helm from her mother.
"Wait, I'll be right back." she said and hurried towards Rachel's cave were she left her things. She returned with the helm in her hands. Percy and Annabeth raised their eyebrows but said nothing. The first conch horn sounded as a warning signal that the game was starting.
"So, Dana, how are you with a sword?" asked Annabeth as she finished briefing the battle plan and everyone except for Percy, Annabeth and Dana was left in a clearing in the south woods.
"Well, I had one lesson today with the Hermes cabin." she said with a shrug. "Hmm… I wouldn't put you in border patrol because Clarisse would most likely be guarding there, so…why not you come with us? We're going for the flag secretly while the fake one distracts the guards." said Annabeth.
Dana nodded and the second conch horn sounded for the game to begin.
A/N Thanks for reading and reviewing! :)
