The
Heroes of Olympus Book 1: The Lost Hero. Another thrill was presented with the eruption of this
book. Right after Percy Jackson and the Olympians ended, a new series was
presented. A new series that goes with new faces, more challenges, and of
course, more moral lessons.
The first book starts with an
intriguing mystery. A new hero, named Jason Grace, was presented. And the
famous leader of the Greek Demigods during the war with the Titan King Kronos,
Percy Jackson, is nowhere to be seen.
If we skip directly to the last
part, (**SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!**) it was then realized that Jason is
from a Roman camp, where they think Percy is in, and that they were swapped to
somehow unite the two camps to face a bigger challenge, literally bigger,
because they are to fight with the giants led by Mother Earth herself, Gaea.
So, too much for that mini-summary. And
since this whole reading log requires us to scrutinize books, I will try to put
more emphasis on values, and for this case, the value of trust.
Just like what I’ve said, Jason just
appears out of nowhere. He doesn’t know where he is, nor where he’s from. The
only thing he knew is that his name is Jason. And what’s worse, he appeared on
a place, where someone is her girlfriend. And again, he
doesn’t even know that he has a girlfriend.
But he managed to pull it over. He
managed to know things, with of course the help of some Greek ‘friends,’ and know what really happened
to him and all of those were basically because he put his trust on people which
he thinks are capable of helping him.
Imagine yourself trying to rely your
whole identity to someone you just met. And worse, he has to rely on a total
strange demigod and satyr– or to someone even if that someone is a centaur. I
don’t know how to describe this but, we are lucky we are living in a world free
from centaurs, free from instant teleportation/ losing memory in the process.
But I guess that is exactly what the book is trying to say.
If Jason was able to survive those
superb unimaginable, almost-impossible kinds of problems, how much more to us
if we are living in this world, that has lesser problems compared to
Jason’s. Jason managed because he
believed in his instinct. He believed that someone godly, is supporting him. He believed that his father Jupiter will
help him. He believed that if he put his trust on somebody that has the great
potential to help him, he may be able to withstand any things placed on his
path.
Integrating those things for
real-life situations, we may also be able to withstand pressures in life if we
have trust. Now, this may sound easy to do. But I tell you, trusting someone
with your whole life isn’t easy. But if we trust in God, with the capital G,
and not the ‘gods’ with the lower-cased ‘g’ in Jason’s world, we may as well
manage everything with ease. Trust those persons whom you think deserved to be
trusted, and you might as well be like Jason who survived even the hardest part
of his quest.
Now, going back to the story, why is
there a need to swap leaders of two camps? What in the world is happening to
the world ~ err, to Gaea. What is wrong with her? Why is she rallying the
giants? And will Percy be able to survive the standards of a Roman Camp? Will
he be able to go back to Camp Half-Blood alive?
With this questions stirring up the
readers of this series, allow me to end this post right here, right now. (See
more of these similar stuffs in my next posts. Better watch out for it!)
This may sound so ‘nakakabitin’ but that is exactly how I felt when the book ends. So
I wanted to share the feeling with you guys, so, have fun reading my 2nd part!
J
PART
TWO
Camp Expose: The Lost Hero
Life at camp became so quiet after the
mysterious disappearance of the only child of Poseidon, Percy Jackson. Everyone
started to ask anyone they met about any news regarding Percy, but no one has
any answer. It’s as if the whole camp is mourning. It’s hard to see anyone
laughing inside the camp the usual way campers do. The whole camp was engulfed
by this whole ‘Percy-Jackson-Missing’ news.
But of course, we campers still have
to go on with our lives. But this time, the harder way. I’ve been in this camp
since I got kicked out of the last high school I’ve been to, when I was in
Grade 8, so that is roughly 4 years ago since I got here. I’ve experienced a
lot of hardships here, a lot of challenges, but I can definitely say that this
was indeed the camp’s saddest moment. And it even became more intriguing when a
guy named Jason Grace entered the scene.
On a regular supposed-to-be-busy-day,
everyone is doing their regular chores while waiting for Annabeth who was said
to be in an expedition and is attempting to find Percy, when suddenly, someone
knocked on our door.
“Hey guys!” our head councilor, Will
Solace, came in and shouted. “I got news from Chiron. Annabeth will be here
soon!”
Murmurs filled the air. Annabeth had
been so busy looking for her boyfriend now. And hearing news like this is
essential for the camp.
“Hey, listen up.” Will held his hand
high, and everyone stopped talking. “Line up and let’s meet the rest of the
campers at the circle.”
At least twenty campers filled the
place. Our cabin, Cabin 6, was almost complete in the circle. Well, basically
because, Annabeth borrowed our precious chariot, and with that, we always see
to it that stuffs related to our father, Apollo, are always returned to us.
We were patiently waiting for Annabeth
to arrive when we heard something crash in the nearby lake. We all rushed in
and were shocked to see the chariot, well, wreckage of the chariot, scattered
around the place.
Will then ran to Annabeth and yelled,
“Annabeth! I said, you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”
“I’m sorry. I’ll get it fixed. I
promise.”
 |
| Piper , Jason, and Leo |
We then realized that Annabeth is with
three other demigods. One tall dude. This one, i don't know, but it appears to me that this guy resembles some Roman features. I'm not quite sure. Maybe I am just hallucinating that moment. One funky not-so-tall guy with a bit messy hair. the way he acts seems like he's a master of all boasting techniques. And the last one is the pretty little girl. If this girl will be claimed, I really think that she's a daughter of Aphrodite.
“These are the ones?” Will asked.
Annabeth answered him with a shrug.
“Well, any sign of Percy?” Will asked
again.
“No.” Annabeth admitted.
Campers around me muttered. Even me,
could not help it but think deeply about what really happened.
“They haven’t been claimed yet.”
Annabeth broke the increasing noise.
“Uh- can someone please tell what
“claimed” means?” the girl who’s with Annabeth spoke up.
And at that moment, their funky
companion was claimed. A fiery hammer, somewhat like a hologram, appeared on
his head.
“That is claiming.” Annabeth pointed
out.
-------
Hearing nothing related to Percy,
everyone started to go back to their cabins.
“Hey Kim!” my
friend/brother/cabin-mate Andre tried to catch up.
“Yeah?” I stopped and waited for him.
“Let’s uhhm, relax a little bit. Let’s
play some hoops first. C’mon.” he said as he led me to the basketball court
just near the cabins.
--------
We exchange turns on shooting the ball
while talking about Percy. Then Will and the newly claimed guy passed by the
court. Will gave us a smile and then went on.
“You know what,” I told Andre as I
threw the ball high up in the air from mid-court and drained the shot (Perks of
being an Apollo child. With him as the god of archery, we are accurate enough
in playing basketballs too) “I don’t think Percy is totally missing.”
“Uh-huh?” Andre said.
“I mean, look at what is happening
now. The camp’s a mess; even Chiron is a little bit unstable.” I said as I
drilled another shot. “There must be some sort of a plan. A plan for a bigger
war, maybe?”
“Yeah. You might be right. But where
is he now? We need him here.” Andre said and started throwing the ball.
“Dunno.” I said. I threw one last shot
from the opposite side of the court and drained the shot again. (perks of being
an Apollo child again) And we went back
to our cabin.
---------
After couple of weeks, news started to
spread that the new three guys was able to accomplish their quest. And what’s
more interesting, Jason was able to somehow realize that Percy is in the camp
where he’s from, a Roman camp, and was swapped on purpose by the Goddess
Hera/Juno.
As a camper, I could not get more
excited than this. I sense another great war coming up, and we need a leader
like Percy here. He’s the centerpiece of this camp. The usual plans about the
defense and the offense of this camp rely greatly on Percy. And without him, this
camp is not the same as the usual Camp Half-Blood that I got used to. This camp
will never be the same if someone as valuable as Percy is not here.
---------
Only then I realized that I was just
dreaming. I woke up and found myself in front of my laptop. Nothing written on
the spreadsheet but the black and bold: “Camp Expose: The Lost Hero” I sighed and smiled.
I then started typing what I saw in my ‘dream’.
____________________________________________________________
(Special Note: Everything written for
the 2nd part of this entry goes with special visualization and
auditory, even sensory and olfactory, effects. Included in these so-called
effects is the ‘dream’ portion. But did I really saw those things in my dream?
It’s for you to believe and for me to discover.
HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE and enjoy your
Valentine’s Day! Let us all help Greek God Eros and Roman God Cupid spread the
love these weekends.)
