Three weeks had passed since the new arrivals had come to stay at Camp Half-Blood. A few days after their arrival a majority of the campers left for home or colleges around the USA. Fearing the risks of mortals using cell phones inside the camp, Chiron had arranged Skype calls back home at different intervals to reduce the chances of being found by monsters. It had taken a day and a half to contact everyone safely.
Reassuring their families that they arrived safely and were already making friends eased their families' worry. They had all been surprised to learn that the school most of the time was a dead zone due to unusual circumstances. It felt very uncomfortable for them to not be in constant contact with their children. Each of the kids had to promise they would write lots of letters and would give them a call anytime they were out of the dead zone. By promising to keep in touch the crises had been averted.
So far everything had been running smoothly at the camp. The twelve normal kids were slowly making friends with the year-rounders'. They also worked hard to get up to speed with all the different training and activities sessions. They tackled their duties head on. Most importantly, they cared about their school work. It was now the two hour duty window for the Acolytes and Champions to take care of their responsibilities. Most of them were carrying them out except for one. Maui was in his cabin working on his latest model, an exact replica of the dinning pavilion. He carefully put a tiny amount of glue on the last column when the door slammed opened. "MAUI!"
The piece slipped out of his hands and fell to the floor sticking to it. The model shook, but didn't fall over. The eleven year old threw his hands up in the air and looked to see who had disturbed him. He shrunk back when he saw it was his sister and Chui. "Oh hi." Leilani put her hands on her hips giving him one of her patent big sister looks. He cringed knowing that she was upset by something. "Yes, Royal Sister?" he asked in an endearing tone.
Leilani rolled her eyes and told him point blank that using her nickname was not going to get him out of this. "Maui, I know you love this place. I want to be out there doing all the activities, but school comes first remember? You should be studying for you placement math quiz." She walked over to his shelf and handed him the book.
Chiron was a tough teacher giving very detailed lessons and expected them to diligently take thorough notes. So far they had just been doing review of what they had learned to help determine what age group his satyr friends; Jake, Marco, and Tobias, should be teaching more individualized lessons to. Tomorrow was a quiz in math to help finalize that lesson plan for the age groups. She didn't want her brother to fail such an important subject to help him achieve his dreams.
"Leilani I have time to do it later. We only get so much free time. I was hoping to try cannoning after I finished this," Maui protested gesturing to his model. With careful hands he placed it back on his shelf. He was so curious and wanted to try as many new things as possible. It always got in the way of him sitting still long enough to study.
"Maui, have your forgotten that today your duty is being responsible for cleaning up the ashes from Hestia's Hearth? We need those ashes so we can separate them into the different containers for the ten different uses," Chui reminded the boy. It was an important Acolyte duty when it came to re-purposing the sacred ashes for helpful things around the camp.
Maui sighed, he knew he should be doing his duty as an Acolyte, but at the same time he was bursting with energy. There was so much to see and do. Still, he had agreed to carry out his patron goddess's duties. Getting off his bed, he put on his shawl and hood, picked up the cleaning tools and headed out the door. Arriving in the central green, he walked over to Hestia's Hearth. Not many people were around, the rest of the year-rounders' were off doing activities or spending free time with others. Kneeling a bit he started sweeping up the ashes on the ground humming to himself. There was something peaceful about doing his duty and he was determined to do it right.
Maui was halfway through his job when he heard the sounds of a little kid running towards him, accompanied by the sound of whizzing blades. He jumped back just in time because Harley tripped and his chainsaw Frisbee flew out of his hands and started trimming the tops of the roofs. The Frisbee came back towards the two boys. He gathered a handful of ashes and when the crazy device was about a foot from him, he tossed the ashes. As he hoped, they clogged up the device's navigation sensors. It started falling towards the ground.
The eleven year old used his broom like a bat and hit the chainsaw device into the fire. It caused a huge pillar of fire to rise up and spread causing a huge mushroom cloud of smoke. Ashes started to fall from the sky getting on everything. "This is just great, now I have more work to do."
"Sorry about that. I was just excited to show off my newest invention to you. I wanted to see how clever I was at creating a death trap toy!" the eight year old chatted at high speeds. He was the equivalent of an automaton running on sugar. That was usually okay with Maui when he had free time. It wasn't okay when he was halfway done with his job and had to start over.
"Maybe you shouldn't turn toys into death traps," Maui suggested shivering at the thought of losing his hand. The little boy was hopping up and down pleading with him to come help him with some models for his next invention. "Sorry Harley, but I have responsibilities to take care off. Maybe tomorrow. I have a quiz to study for." The buff eight year old whined upon hearing that and walked away grumbling about how boring school was.
The next day after breakfast Maui went over to Hephaestus table. Nyssa and Harley looked up at the Acolyte who was carrying two big boxes. The little boy pouted and turned away from Maui. "What are you doing over here? Don't you have school to get too?"
"Little brother stop being so rude. We've got our own academics later today," Nyssa scolded the little boy. Wiping some grease off her face, she smiled at Maui. "You brought us a gift Maui? How very generous of you."
The boy shrugged. "It's both the Aloha and Hestia spirit thing to do. I wanted to show Harley here why my job is so important." Opening the boxes he tipped them so they could several freshly made bars of soaps. "One of the things ashes can be used for is to help make soap for our fellow campers."
With the eight year old stunned; Nyssa thanked Maui for his kind gift. They had been running seriously low on soap to clean up after a hard day's work on their projects. With a clever smile, the Hawaiian boy bounced his way towards the Big House to ace his placement test.
It was Sunday morning and Eunice was having a wonderful time cleaning the Big House from top to bottom. The attic needed a lot of work considering how much dust had accumulated up there. It had taken three go-arounds with different air freshener sprays to get rid of the rotting corpse smell. She opened a window to get some fresh air moving in the room.
She started polishing some of the old trophies before placing them back in their cases, when a flare up of pain spread throughout her body. She tried to stay standing, but the flare up was too much. She fell to the floor making a loud thud. She tried to get back up, but the flare up was getting worse. "Why am I feeling a flare up now?" she whispered before she passed out.
She didn't know how long she was out, but when she woke up she was in the infirmary and lying on an exam table. Her pants had been rolled up revealing her scared thighs and knees. Her shirt had been pulled up revealing the scars on her lower abdomen. Will Solace, Nico de Angelo, and Chiron stood nearby talking privately with each other ignoring her. "So, is it normal to be talking with one another instead of the patient?" Eunice asked with a satire tone, not her normal calm one.
The guys jumped, literally as Chiron's hoofs smashed the floor a bit. They all looked at her sheepishly. They had been too busy talking to notice the subject of the conversation had awaken. "Eunice, glad to see you awake. Chiron heard you crash to the attic floor. Nico helped me get you here. How are you feeling?"
"Better, thank you." The girl played with her braids biting her lips. Will stopped his approach sensing she didn't want him any closer. Eunice could tell they wanted an explanation about her old injuries. She really didn't want to talk about her scars. The circumstances of how she obtained them, was very personal.
The head of the Apollo cabin nodded and asked if he could give her an exam now that she was awake. She nodded and gave her consent. She waited patiently answering any questions. Looking up at the immortal centaur, she had no doubt he knew what kind of scars these were and how she obtained them considering he was her temporary guardian. Her caseworker back home had to jump through a lot of legal hoops to allow her to come here for at least the school year.
"Find anything interesting Mr. de Angelo?" Eunice asked in a sharp and warily tone, causing the older boy to step back a bit. She had been talking with Austin of the Apollo cabin the other day and he mentioned Will's boyfriend could see death auras. A creepy yet useful talent. Maybe Nico used that talent to help Will figure out which patients needed help first.
Will finished his exam saying that she appeared to be perfectly fine. To avoid another flare up she needed to take it easy for a day or two. He went over to the pharmacy and pulled out some cream the dryads had made. They all swore it kept pain from coming back after an injury. Hesitating he asked, how often did she get a flare up from her scars.
"Not often, it's been about six or seven months from my last attack. My scars don't usually act up because the surgeons put my insides back together so well. I've been so happy since arriving here, I didn't think a flare up would be possible," she admitted looking away. Another flare up could happen anytime this school year. She really didn't want to end up back in the infirmary. Eunice especially didn't want to go back to Billings Montana Foster Kids Group Home. "Do I get patient doctor privilege here?"
"Anything you say is confidential child. No one has to know about your past injuries unless you tell them about it. I assume you haven't explained them fully to the members of your cabin, but they must have seen them when you share the communal baths inside correct?" The centaur really was wise she thought. Sure Heather and Sidonia have seen them, but they hadn't questioned her. They simply stated whenever she was comfortable about it, they would be ready to listen.
A familiar warmth spread through her body, the warmth of a protective fire that came from Hestia's blessing. The goddess believed in her and shown that it was okay to trust again. Undoubtedly she was reassuring Eunice it was okay to talk about the past. No one here in CHB would ever leave her behind because of her past as so many foster parents had. "My scars are the result of the events that led me to being in the foster care system. My family was normal, we did things that other families did, and we loved each other. Than a few days before my sixth birthday it all fell apart."
Looking directly at the trio she explained how it was a normal day with her family until right before dinner. She had been playing with her toys in the living room, when she heard her mom screaming in the kitchen. Scared, she had run to see what wrong. To her horror; her father was trying to stab her mother to death. Seeing Eunice, he threw his wife away and come at her, only for his wife to dive in front of her daughter protecting her from him. Her mother sacrificed her life giving Eunice the extra minutes she needed to call for the police. When they got there, she was struggling to get up as he aimed to stab her in the heart. Another few minutes and she would have be dead.
"I was taken to the hospital to have surgery to close my wounds and repair any damaged the stabbings might have caused. Since I had no immediate or extended family I was placed in foster care. None of my mom's friends volunteered to take me in. They cited all sorts of reasons, but the main one was they were afraid of me."
Will eyes widened upon hearing that. "Why would they be scared of you? You didn't attack anyone, you were the victim."
"That's not good enough when the police and the experts couldn't find a reason for my father did what he did. All they could determine is that he went into a psychotic break. Didn't help him at his trial, he's serving life in a state penitentiary back in Montana. It was big news back home and a lot of the foster families thought I would just snap like my father and kill someone."
It was a tough life for a six year old. Eunice was never kept up with what was going on or why people treated her as if she was a monster. No family kept her longer than a month before giving her back. Every single time she hadn't done anything wrong. Eunice believed that making sure other people super happy by doing things for them would make them like her more, not less.
She ended up in the group home when she was ten because she had been labeled a "problem" case. That life style taught her to be practical and wary of others. Still she remained hopeful. She started helping out others not only as a way to deal with pain, but show the staff she wasn't dangerous. "I guess I thought that if I proved I was helpful that some staff member would foster me and eventually adopt me. That didn't happen."
The two demigods were still processing this new information as Chiron helped the girl off the exam table after she fixed her clothes. "Well now you know why I get flare ups from my surgical scars. Thanks for the help, I've got to get back to my cabin. Bye!" Eunice ran out of the infirmary holding back tears. She really hoped no one else learned the story behind her scars.
In the middle of the night, Eunice woke by a noise coming from the door. A light tapping. Putting on her slippers, she tiptoed to the door making sure when she opened it, it didn't make any noise. On the porch was a small basket of scar cream to reduce the appearance of scars and a few body pads to wear during training. Taking the basket back to her bed she read the note attached.
A gift from the Apollo cabin and Hades, to help ensure you have a great life here at Camp Half-Blood." Smiling to herself, she pushed the basket under her bed and went to sleep.
Wednesday was Sidonia's favorite day of the week. After lunch instead of heading to combat training first, Hestia's cabin went to arts and crafts. To Sidonia's delight, candle making was an activity. There was a strong demand for them due to the demigods having to be careful around electrical objects. At the moment though she was keeping her end of a bargain she made.
"Hold still! How am I supposed to make adjustments if you keep squirming so much?" Valentina Diaz, daughter of Aphrodite, clucked at the thirteen year old. In order to get access to the many ingredients Sidonia needed to produce scents for her candles, she had agreed to be the dress dummy/model for Valentina's designs. Sidonia felt she got the worst end of the duty. She was happy to get the materials she needed, but she was shy and didn't like being on display much.
"Hmm, that scarf doesn't really match your skin. Maybe instead of red, we should try yellow perhaps?" Valentina thought as she looked over Sidonia. The designer in her wanted to make this girl over. "How do you feel about if we bedazzled your glasses? A little more shine to them will make you stand out!"
"Um, I rea…lly don't like stand…ing out," Sidonia stammered. She turned her head. The wax she had been melting on the fire, was nearly ready for scents. "I really need to go add the scents now before I put the wax in the molds to create the candles."
Valentina muttered something about ruining the flow of inspiration, but allowed the girl to get down from her pedestal. Sidonia quickly took off the scarf, hat, and jacket she had been wearing. "Alright, the color looks great doesn't it?"
"Pink is my favorite color, my mom loves any color is the world. Are you sure you can make the perfect scent for my mom and my other Aphrodite siblings Silverstein?" Opening her make up kit, she started passing the essential oils of rose, grape, and apples. She also had a single dove feather, a small aquamarine gemstone, and finally some cookie cutters in the shape of number five.
"Absolutely, I just have to measure these ingredients right. I hope to make personal scents for everyone's godly parent," Sidonia chimed. It was a huge challenge that Hestia gave her, but she was determined to bring a little bit of the demigods parents into the cabins. She blew her red bangs out of her face before turning her attention back to melted wax.
Concentrating hard, she drip dropped the plant oils into the wax, careful to avoid getting any of it on herself. Next, with gloved hands, she pounded together the feather and the gemstone to powder before adding it to the wax. Once it was fully mixed together, she removed the wax from the fire and poured it into the molds she had set up. Attaching the cookie cutters to the upper part of the mold, she closed them up tight and set them in a cooling spot to form over the next four hours.
Now that was finished it was back to being a dressmaker's dummy. The older teen snatched up Sidonia's glasses asking the other teen to sit down while she bedazzled them. "I know a lot of other demigods don't understand the point of looking good in our downtime, but I thought one you new girls would at least enjoy a little make over, you know stand out from the crowd."
Sidonia squirmed again, trying to hide under the table. It was just easier to talk with her cabin mates or the Champions because all of them were in this together. Hanging out with the demigods or trying to speak up during lessons/activities was turning into a nightmare.
Valentina was going on about how a layered haircut and a bit of makeup would bring out her inner beauty when she paused for a second and looked at the girl in front of her. Sidonia was halfway under the table. Turning her own head upside down she observed the thirteen year old looking ready to bolt. Maybe she needed to use a different approach.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be pushy and self-centered. I inherited some of my mom's best and worst traits," the beautiful girl admitted. She thought about her own family back home. Her father and stepmother worked in the fashion industry. He was a photographer for a fashion magazine and her stepmom was a model. For a time so had Valentina, until the monsters came after her and she had to spend her life at the camp.
Sidonia squirmed back up on to her seat and took back her new bedazzled glasses. Oh well, at least it was a small thing. "I forgive you Valentina. Is…there…something…else we ca ca can talk about?"
Valentina asked what it was like growing up in a big Jewish family in Portland Oregon. For two whole minutes Valentina thought she wouldn't get an answer when Sidonia spoke quietly. "Difficult at times. My family practices Conserved Judaism."
Sidonia explained some of the customs. Ethical law was unchanging, but ritual laws could be altered to fit in with modern times. They believed that the Torah should not be interpreted literally and allow for discussion and opinions of the different texts. That women and men sat together in the synagogue instead of apart.
"I had my Bat Mitzvah when I was twelve, meaning I'm an adult in the community. I'm held responsible for my own actions and must participate in all aspects of Jewish tradition." She blew her bangs out of her hair again and was quiet for a few moments. There was one tradition that she had mixed feelings about. "I have to stay away from others during my menstrual cycle as I perform the mikvah, a ritual cleansing. I volunteer to help beautify the house of worship. I can study higher education if I want, but I must observe all customs when I'm away. Some parts of it are harder than others."
Sidonia's eldest brother was being groomed to take over the family business which is why he was getting a business degree. Her second older brother was in his first year and planned to become a soufer, a writer of the Torah. Her younger sisters had more freedom and got spoiled. As the middle child, it was expected of her to take care of her younger siblings and assist her brothers to ensure their success. Her parents wanted her to take over her mother's job when her older brother took ownership of the business. It wasn't what she wanted to do with her life, but tradition came first.
It wasn't that her family didn't love her, but as the middle child and the oldest daughter, she had to fulfill a lot of expectations. It was a bit much for a girl who was shy and didn't really want to be the center of attention. Her dyed bangs was the farthest she had gone to step into the spotlight to show she was an individual and not just there as a convenient babysitter or helper. "Thanks for listening Valentina."
"No worries Sidonia. I think we can become good friends. I still say while you're here you can look a bit more styled as you make candles." The thirteen year old laughed and said maybe one day she would.
Two days later, Iggy woke up from his impromptu nap stretching and yawning loudly. He blinked his two different colored eyes a few times then looked around for his pet. "Xylon, where are you? Xylon come here boy." He whistled for him. Looking around he didn't see his pet anywhere.
He went outside to see if his pet had gone out to exercise or sleep in his outdoor enclosure, but he wasn't in the fenced off yard. Now Iggy was getting a little worried for his pinto colored friend. Where did he go? It wasn't like Xylon to go too far from him. That's when he saw the destroyed section of the fence. It looked as if a crazed maniac had gone overboard cutting the fence apart. Judging by the hooved drag marks and torn up grass, Xylon had fought hard before being captured. "They didn't! Oh I'm going to tan their hides if they harmed Xylon in any way!"
Ten minutes later Iggy was standing just outside the perimeter of the Ares cabin. He was carrying his backpack and had Xylon's leash in his left hand. In his pockets he had a few treats. "Sherman, Ellis, give me back my pet now!" In response he got shot at with a javelin launcher. Despite the heavy pack he managed to get out of the way.
"I don't want to fight, I just want my pet back. Xylon is not a boar, he's a barrow, (neutered male), so he can't be your mascot," the boy calmly spoke. Again he got shot at with the javelin launcher and had to move. Ares boys kept trying to push him back, but he kept getting closer until he was directly at barbed wire fence. "I'm not leaving without my pet. If you continue to keep him as a hostage, I'll get Chiron and the harpies involved."
Upon hearing that, Sherman Yang, the head of the Ares cabin, came out with a wicked grin on his face, brandishing a Celestial bronze sword. Swaggering over to the fence he waved the weapons inches from Iggy's face. "Are you threatening me mortal? What's the matter Ichabod, can't fight your own battles?"
Sherman laughed cruelly at the boy, continuing to mock him. "You're skinny lightweight, I could toss you ten feet if I wanted to ginger. You think if you stare at me long enough I'll be intimidated by your mismatched eyes? Ha!"
Iggy kept his calm composure not reacting at all to the taunts. "Don't underestimate me, just because I don't have a weapon on me. Now, please tell Ellis to release Xylon or you're going to regret kidnapping him in the first place."
Sherman turned his head back to his bunk mate. Ellis stood in the doorway yanking the chained leash around the pot belly pig's neck causing him to squeal a bit. He already had a few cuts on his skin from being kidnapped. Both boys looked at their prize then to Iggy. "You want him back? Come and get him."
"Okay. Xylon sit!" Immediately the 130 pound fourteen inches tall pig backed up his big rump and sat down on Ellis causing the boy to start screaming about the weight on his feet. "Xylon come!" The pet pig got off the boy and started heading back towards his alpha/owner.
Sherman turned, ready to stop the pet from leaving, when he was hit upside the head with, "The Complete Anthology of Ernest Hemmingway's Stories" crumbling to the ground. Xylon walked right over him and looked at Iggy waiting for his next command. "Good boy Xylon, now dig under the fence and I'll give you a treat."
Grunting in glee, Xylon started to root under the fence, dirt flying. In a short time he dug under the barbed wire and was sniffing Iggy for treats. His alpha rewarded him with some tasty fruits. He stood still as the metal chock collar was removed and his nice soft purple collar and leash was put back on. With a gentle tug the pot belly pig followed his owner on a long walk around the camp, stopping at the infirmary to treat his cuts.
A few hours later, Chui came by the cabin to see how his bunk mate and his pet/mascot, were doing. The fence had been fixed and the outdoor enclosure had been cleaned up with new bedding. Stepping inside, he had to smile at the sight of Iggy checking Xylon over for any additional cuts or ticks he might have picked up.
"Rough day?"
"Nothing either of us couldn't handle. He was mostly stressed out. It took a while for him to calm down. Hopefully those Ares idiots have learned their lesson. Never try to take a fully trained pig." Xylon grunted in agreement leaning towards his master and butted his head against Iggy's. "Okay, that's enough Xylon. Let me exam your hoofs okay?"
Chui was impressed with how obedient Xylon was. "I've never had a pet before. Are PBPs hard to take care of? What's it like to have one as a pet? How long have you had him for?"
"They can be, you need to be just the right person and willing to handle the challenges that come with training a smart animal like him. I got Xylon when I was ten as my birthday present. I had to prove six months beforehand that I was committed to having this pet."
He pointed to his shelf where a book on caring for pet pigs stood. Chui picked it up and started flipping through the pages, eager to learn more about his fellow Acolyte's pet. There was a lot of information to make sure pigs lived a healthy and long life.
There was information about how to train PBPs to use a litter box, walk on a leash, and curb their aggressiveness. You needed a yard for the pet to run around in a get plenty of exercise. How often they needed to have their hooves trimmed, vaccinations, and taking care of their skin. There were tips on what to feed the animal, how often they should get treats. The life expectancy of the PBPs was fifteen years with proper care.
"Seems to me we'll be enjoying the company of Xylon for a long time. Don't worry about Sherman and Ellis. I told Chiron about the incident. He promised if they did a stunt like this again, he'll sentence them to two months of being tutored by you in literature." All the boys laughed at that once again happy.
It was Tuesday morning and school had just let out for the Acolytes and Champions. It was time for the Hestia cabin to head to their morning activity. Today's activity was working at the the pegusi stables. They would have to take care of them, exercise them and getting use to them pulling chariots, either on the ground or in the air. Hopefully, they would soon get to ride one in the air.
Heather was glad she remembered to wear her old clothes today. The pegusi went to the bathroom often. She had just finished tying her hair up when Connor Stoll, Julia Feingold, and Alice Miyazawa arrived. Their half-brother Cecil was having his own private school session with the satyrs to help him catch up with his science and history classes. Connor was in charge of the activity. With that grin on his face and his half-sisters giggling between each other, she wondered how the activity would proceed.
"Alright, it's time to have some fun. These pegusi haven't had any decent fly time so far this week. Today we're going to take them on a flight around camp. I hope you've been paying close attention to my instructions, otherwise you might just fall off, ha ha ha."
"It would be so funny if you six landed in the trees," Julia laughed.
"No, it would be funnier if they landed in poop pile!" Alice cackled.
Upon hearing that Eunice and Sidonia clutched their hands together. Maui was jumping up and down, to excited to be bothered by their joking. Iggy rolled his eyes as Chui stared down the two girls to make them stop giggling. Heather kept paying attention to Connor wondering when he was going to get back to the activity.
"Alright, okay, I guess that's enough laughs for now. Seriously, you need to be careful. Riding a flying horse is a bit different then riding them on the ground. You'll need to use different signals to keep them under control."
Behind him the pegusi snorted and spit at him. They didn't like it when someone tried to keep them under control. A lovely bay colored mare was kicking at her door, expressing her desire to fly already. The others started doing the same tired of being in their stalls. Connor told the pegusi to calm down. He opened the stall doors one by one until nine pegusi were standing in the corral. "Alright, who remembers how to get the tack on a pegusi?"
Heather raised her hand. Connor gestured for her to get to it. Picking up the saddle and bridal she slowly approached the bay mare, whose name was Zoe. Both the mare and teenager kept their eyes locked on each other. Neither one moved until Heather spoke. "Hi Zoe. Can I fly with you today? I've never done it before and I know you can show me how it's done."
Zoe nodded her head and gave out a positive neigh, indicating that Heather could get closer. The fifteen year old stood next to the mare and checked her over completely to make sure she was in perfect condition to fly and the tack wouldn't hurt the animal. A short time later she was up on the pegusi waiting for everyone else.
Connor whistled in surprise. "Zoe's very particular, I've never seen her let someone get on her so quickly. I swear you must have done this before."
"My family would go out to the stables near a state park on the weekends to ride. My mom always told me being kind and gentle will make you a good friend." Heather waited patiently while everyone got on their pegusi. Connor started giving them instructions on how to tell the pegusi where to go when they flew.
"Be careful, you need to use the right amount of pressure under wing joint in combination with pulling the reins in the direction of where you want to go. Keep a firm balance and use a strong clear voice to help enforce the directions. If you want the pegusi to hover in the sky for a few minutes to get your bearings, pull the reins up gently once, then a second time harder."
"Won't that hurt the animal? We don't want to cause unnecessary pain," Iggy told Connor. The head of Hermes said not to worry, the pegusi were tough creatures.
"Getting up in the sky isn't that hard. You just need to flick the reins a few times and say up!" Alice added helpfully.
"Yeah landing the tough part. You do the same thing when you want to land only you need to say to land! It takes a few times to do it gracefully," Julia added. "Hope you aren't afraid of heights. See you up there!" With a few flicks she and Julia were soon up in the air on their mounts.
"Okay your turn you Acolytes. Let's see if you can do better than Bellaphrone did." It took a few tries, but soon everyone was in the air climbing higher and higher.
Heather and Zoe reached the pinnacle of their height before racing across the sky quickly catching up with Alice and Julie. "Hello girls, enjoying your flight?" A part of Heather enjoyed the shock on their faces. "Turns out this flying isn't that hard once you get the basics down. Zoe, can you go up a bit higher?
Zoe let out a positive sound before climbing a bit higher in the air. She lent a wing to help Heather get back into position on her back. She whinnied happily as the teen gave her neck a good scratch. When her rider gave her permission to fly faster Zoe went into a full air gallop. It felt so good to be flying free in the air.
Heather was having fun too. Looking below she kept an eye on how well everyone else was doing. Iggy was having the most success keeping his pegusi at a steady speed and in a flight pattern. Maui was bouncing a bit in the saddle his ride reacting to his rider's excitement. Connor had flown up to his side trying to help the boy to sit still.
Eunice and Sidonia flew side by side, giving advice to another. They were practicing the different commands Connor had shown before, getting enough distance between each other to try before coming back together. Chui made up the rear, he was having a bit of trouble working with his mount.
"I hope he's not in too much trouble. Maybe we should drop back and help him," Heather suggested. Zoe, with some reluctance was going to turn back when her ears picked up something. One of the other pegusi was in trouble. She got fussy with her rider trying to fly in the other direction.
"Whoa Zoe, do you hear something? Alright you take control." Zoe didn't need to be asked twice. They dove down at breakneck speeds leveling out next to Julia and her mount. The demigod was halfway out the saddle and her mount started to buck trying to dislodge the girl. Alice was trying to calm the pegusi down only her energy was making her own mount to start bucking.
"Both of you calm down! Alice, pull back and then land. I'll help Julia." The girl did as she was told. Now it was time to help Julia. "Zoe, get me closer. I need to get her mount to hover. See if you can help."
Zoe matched the pegusi pace, making sure her friend saw her and didn't panic. Heather leaned over on the saddle and told the demigod to calm down and hold on. Reaching out she snagged the reins and tugged the up gently the harder. Remembering its training the mount stopped. Zoe hovered on her own talking with her friend telling him to relax.
"Here let me help you up Julia." Once the girl was back in the saddle she properly she thanked Heather for her help. "It's no big deal. Just take it bit easier next time. Pegusi are smart animals and can sense your emotions. So try to keep your mischief side under control when flying." Heather secretly hoped that doing this would get the Hermes cabin to ease up on their jokes.
If there was one downside to being the head councilor of a cabin, it was the weekly meeting to discuss with Chiron any problems going on with their cabins, their bunk mates, or suggesting new activities for their Friday night activities. It wasn't that he disliked the hard work and flexibility it took to be the head councilor. No, he thrived on that. He was also very smart. The real problem was meetings tended to get out of hand with so many different personalities.
Currently Damien and Chiara, Nemesis and Tyche respectfully, were in a bitter argument over introducing an all vegetarian dinner night instead of complete desert bar every night. Chiara argued that a vegetarian meal would be healthy and it would take a shorter time to make. Damien counterattacked with that they needed to have sugary treats to help ease the body after all that training.
Chui leaned over and whispered into Miranda's ear. "How often do they fight about this?"
"At least twice a month. Usually we just let them argue themselves out," she replied in a whisper. "Personally, I agree with both of them, but no one can get them to compromise on anything. I blame their mothers."
"Vegetarian meals lack any real taste! I refuse to have nothing except raw vegetables for an entire meal!" Damien yelled so loud the other heads had to cover their ears.
"So a galore of pastries, ranging from cakes to donuts is your idea of healthy eating? Having that much sugar in us would not only have us get hyper, but we crash so hard monsters would eat us for their desert!"
Chiron held his head in his hands. "Children, I'm sure we can resolve this matter at a later time. We need to move on to more important things like figuring out what our next all camp activity will be."
"NO I WON'T DROP THIS AGAIN."
"HE'S RIGHT, WE NEED TO SOLVE THIS NOW."
A loud piercing whistle filled the air drawing everyone's attention to Chui. The Acolyte of Stately Order stared at each of them before narrowing his eyes on the two trouble makers. "You two are acting like my adopted little brother. You are not two year olds, but young adults, so act like it."
The two bickers fell silent, no one had ever called them out on their behavior before. Still they wouldn't drop the matter. "We really need to decide on this matter or we're just going to keep arguing about it."
"She's right. It's not in my nature to stop arguing or seek a compromise."
Chui stood up and told them that was too bad because they were going to have to accept it. He proposed a compromise. The first and third Saturday in the month would have a vegetarian meal served for the whole camp. On the second and fourth a huge desert bar would be open for everyone to pick from. "Does everyone agree with this solution?"
The other head councilors eagerly agreed to it. In defeat, Damien and Chiara nodded their heads. Shaking hands with one another, the slid down in their chairs waiting for the next piece of business. Everyone was still looking at Chui waiting to what he had to say.
Chui took a deep breath, centered himself before addressing everyone. "I know my idea might sound old fashion, but from what I've seen everyone needs to learn to get along better. So I suggest a family game night. We can play games like Twister, Trivia Pursuit, and have different card games going." Personally he was partial to Uno. It would give the campers a chance to focus on having fun and work with each other.
Chiron liked the idea and declared he would dust off the old game boards he had in the storage closet. The other heads promised their cabins or if they were alone, would behave properly. Chiron declared the meeting was closed. Everyone gathered their belongings and headed for their cabins.
Miranda joined Chui as they walked back to their cabins. She let out a little laugh. "I can't believe you pulled that off. Ever since those two arrived, it took hours to complete a meeting. You managed to get us done in an hour."
Chui blushed and admitted he was terrified. "They have powers that could really backfire on me if they chose to use them. I'm just glad that they listened to me without arguing back."
"Hestia really knew what she was doing when she picked you as the Acolyte of Stately Order. Maybe you can give me some tips. It won't be long before we get new demigods coming with the school year going on." Chui agreed to help her out. Miranda was happy to hear that and told him anytime he needed a friend to talk to, she be there for him.
Chui entered his cabin smiling at all his fellow Acolytes. Each of them were busy with something. Doing homework, taking care of one of their duties, or just relaxing. September had been a trial by fire for certain. It's a good thing that the Acolytes knew how to tend it. The rest of the school year should be fun.