Piper wasn't sure if she was alright with leaving the seer dead in his cave. However, everyone else seemed more eager to leave than she was. Hazel was the only one who didn't treat the seer's death like some kind of disaster. She was honestly eager to get back and go to sleep. She just hoped that boys had found some place. She wouldn't have minded sleeping in the ship, but staying among the Vikings made it easier to make peace. That was the nature of this mission after all.
Only now with the other side of the prophecy that made things a bit more complex. They were supposed to go to the ancient lands…again. Piper really hoped that didn't mean Greece and Rome. There had been some high points of their trip, but it wasn't one she wanted to make again. However, this could have meant the Nordic ancient lands. Piper wasn't really sure where that was, but she was sure Annabeth would have a better idea once they were somewhere they could speak more freely.
They were about three-quarters of the way back when Piper worked up the nerve to ask Sara a question that was irking her. Sara had been staying close to them, keeping a protective eye over them. Piper appreciated it, but she couldn't help but feel like the girl was trying to make up for trying to decapitate Hazel. Not that that was a problem, it just brought the memory of the girl raising an axe to Hazel while she was defenseless to the forefront of her mind.
"Why is everyone freaked out about the seer dying?" she asked, her voice low.
"Seers don't just die," Sara answered harshly. "I'm sure your oracle person doesn't die."
"They're supposed to," Annabeth answered. "We just barely got a new oracle because Hades put a curse on the old one. Before Rachel our oracle was basically dead."
Sara seemed confused by this. "That's so strange. I imagine it's better though. Strange things happen when mortals live too long."
"Like the seer?" Hazel asked. She tripped over a tree root, not paying attention to where she was go.
Sara stuck her arm out and stopped Hazel from eating dirt. "Yeah," Sara answered once Hazel was sturdy on her feet. "The seer has been live for…at least two-thousand years. Once upon a time he was supposed to be very handsome, a favorite of the gods. A demigod, like us, but he retreated into his cave. Mutilated his skin with runes about the future and the past. He plucked out his own eyes and sewed the lids shut."
Piper couldn't keep the horror off her face. "Good gods," she said.
Sara scoffed, "Yeah, you've got that right. Ah, we're finally back."
Piper and her friends looked up over the trees and saw the bank of the river and the clearing between the cabins.
"Great, now we get to go and tell everyone the good news and watch as chaos takes over the camp."
The voice made them jump and they turned to see Kyrie behind them, glaring down at the camp, an earbud in her right ear. Piper had noticed Kyrie was wearing them on the way up as well. She was pretty sure that these headphones were what the dwarf had given her earlier, but she didn't ask. Plus she couldn't figure out why a dwarf would make headphones.
Sara nodded, "At least we have the Trials by Pain tomorrow. That'll be fun."
"It'll be fun to see your face when I kick your ass," Kyrie said jokingly.
"Oh, it's like that?" Sara asked. It was clear that she was amused by the declaration. "You realize I get a handicap because of my leg."
Kyrie scoffed, "Handicap my ass. Before Bari finished making your leg you spent two weeks walking and fighting and doing everything on your hands because, as you said, you had shit to do."
"You can walk on your hands?" Hazel asked, sounding impressed.
Sara nodded, but Kyrie took her friend's silence as an invitation to brag about her. "Sara was a gymnast before she lost her leg. Got the gold on the beam at World's. She used to rip off skin on her hands on the bars for fun. The Trials by Pain are a cake walk for her."
"Shut up," Sara said, lowering her voice dangerously. Apparently Sara didn't like people singing her praises.
"Um," Piper injected warily, "what exactly are the Trials by Pain?"
"Only the ultimate challenge of badass-ery," Sara said. "It's a chance to prove your individual worth."
"We also have capture the flag to prove the worth of your crew," Kyrie added.
Piper still wasn't sure what to think of these girls. It was easy to prefer Erik to them, despite Kyrie's warning to be wary of him. Once they reached the bottom Kyrie bid them farewell, watching Erik ask she left to make sure he was busy with his responsibilities at the front of the group.
"You guys should probably head to the dining hall," Sara recommended after Kyrie left. "Erik is going to want to give the news about the prophecy to everyone."
"We need to find the guys," Annabeth said.
Sara pointed over Annabeth's shoulder to a statue of who Piper assumed was Odin in the middle of the clearing. Leo was sitting at the base of the god's statue, fiddling with something. Frank was talking to the James guy they had talked to before and on either side of him Percy and Jason were waving at them. "I'll see you later," Sara said before leaving.
Piper and her friends waved goodbye to Sara before moving over to meet with the guys again. Leo waved at them, but didn't deviate from his work. Percy wrapped an arm around Annabeth and pulled her close, but was still talking to James with Frank, Piper wasn't sure about what. Hazel sat on the ground next to Leo and asked him what he was making. Jason pulled away from the conversation and wrapped Piper in a tight embrace.
She sighed once she was in his arms. She didn't realize how tense she was until he held her and she relaxed.
Jason picked up on this and glanced down at her. "You okay Pipes?"
She nodded and pulled away, reluctant to do so. She looked up at him and forced a smile, "Yeah, I'm okay. Just a little overwhelmed."
He smiled and kissed her forehead, "You're doing great."
She smiled up at him. He couldn't know how much his fait in her meant. "Any luck with the locals?"
Jason frowned and glanced away, "No. James here is the only one whose really spoken to us about potential sleeping quarters and he says the only ones who can offer us room and board is one of the high council or a captain offers us asylum. They won't kick us off, but they won't like us staying here without an invitation. The captains are gone and the only other people we met on the council didn't want to invite us."
Piper frowned, but she wasn't willing to give up hope so easily. "The seer gave them a prophecy that talks about five of their demigods going on a quest with us. I'm sure we'll be given asylum."
"If not, James says we can spend the night on the Argo 3 for the night down the river away from the camp and then come back in the morning," Jason said. "We won't want that, though. It's time we could spend building relationships."
"We'll just have to hope for the best," Piper said, though she didn't like that. If she had to she would have to charm speak someone. She was hoping that it wouldn't come to that, though. She wanted to build alliances, but she didn't want to force the Vikings into it. Plus, charm speak could wear off and it wouldn't be good if that happened.
Shortly after everyone made their way to the dining hall. James stayed with them until they were there and Piper and her friends pressed themselves against a wall to try and be inconspicuous. He bid them farewell and joined Kyrie, who had come in with the tall, dark haired boy who had held her bow at the funeral, the girl who had come up to James before the service was done. The younger girl caught Piper looking at her and she waved at her. Piper cautiously waved back.
Once everyone was in the hall, hardly filling the vast room half way, Erik called for quiet near the front. Piper and her friends listened as he relayed the message. Leo and Jason occasionally asked her questions to clarify the experience and she answered them as quietly as she could. The collective reacted about the same way that the captains had. There was discord and outrage and fear. However, as Sara had predicted, everyone became more zealous when the Trials by Pain were mentioned. When Erik (reluctantly) mentioned that no child of Loki would go on the quest three other campers shouted in outrage before they started sulking.
Before the meeting ended Piper cleared her throat and asked if she could have a minute. Erik looked a little taken aback, but he obliged her, stepping aside so she could have the floor.
She stood in front of the group and swallowed before saying, "First off, on behalf of my friends and myself I would like to offer our condolences for you and your seer. We know this is a trying time and we would like to be supportive." She glanced at Jason and he nodded. Piper steeled her nerves and lifted her chin before saying, "I know it might be inconvenient, but my crew and I would be unknowably grateful if anyone would be willing to take us in for the night."
The room went quiet save for low whispers. Kyrie was talking to James and Sara was talking to another girl with black long hair and a seemingly permanent scowl upon her face. Some people just shook their heads. Others were quiet and uncomfortable.
"They have a place in my home."
Everyone perked up and looked for the source of the voice. It was the woman who Percy had met earlier. She looked annoyed that no one else had spoken up, but she stood and brushed off her jeans and scanned the room. "There will always be a place for guests at my hearth. I'm a bit disappointed in all of you."
The group shuffled uncomfortably, but the woman wasn't fazed by it. She held out a hand to Piper. "Come on, dear. We'll get you and your friends set up for the night." She glanced at Erik, her expression challenging, "Unless you have something else to say?"
Erik shook his head and the collection of people started to file out of the dining hall. Piper could have sworn she saw Kyrie mouthing the words 'thank you' to the woman that was leading Piper and her friends away.
Piper had been expecting that they would be going into one of the main cabins, but they went about thirty feet into the woods beyond the clearing and found themselves in front of a house. Just an ordinary, boring two story house with a blue door, white walls, and black shingles. It was a pretty big house, sure, but it was still just a house.
Inside, the house had hardwood floors, a piano and a drum set in the corner of the living room, as well as a few guitars, acoustic and electric alike, and even a mandolin. There was a sofa and a big dining room table and pictures…everywhere. There were some in frames, a few old posters for 'Lupita Revira, the Songbird'. There were pictures of gymnasts, dancers, singers, painters with their work. Piper thought she even saw a DJ. Beyond these were just…regular pictures. Kids at Disneyland. Kids sailing in their Viking boats…whatever the Viking boats were called. She wasn't really sure. There were people snowboarding, there was a family reunion, there were people boating and water skiing. Piper knew that people could be obsessed with posting pictures on their facebook walls, but this was something else.
"Sorry it's a bit of a mess," the woman began once Frank shut the door behind him, being the last to come in. "There's a basement downstairs if you all want to sleep in the big room down there. If not I'm sure some of the kids wouldn't mind sharing rooms with you."
"Kids?" Percy asked, looking at the photos and paintings, "I knew Kyrie was your daughter, but how many kids do you have, Elena?"
The woman chuckled, "Kyrie is my only child by birth, but all the unclaimed kids live here."
As if on cue, the door shot open and a tall boy came running in, smiling devilishly with a dagger in his hand. Piper recognized him as the same boy who had given Kyrie her bow at Aiden's funeral. "You'll never get it back, Elsa!"
The girl from the mess hall plowed through Percy and Jason, sending the boys into the wall. Her black hair, which had once been pristine, was now in disarray. She had seemed so calm and pleasant and kind when Piper saw her before. Now this girl looked like she was consumed by rage and out for blood. A thought that was confirmed when the tiny girl bellowed, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, HARRISON!"
Elena tensed in fury. "Both of you two, stop it!" Elena yelled over the chaos as Elsa chased Harrison around the living room. Elsa thought she'd gotten him behind the drumset, but he was really tall. He hopped on the stool behind the base drum and used the new position to leap over the instrument and peel down the stairs, grinning manically. Elsa screamed in frustration and started after him, yelling more death threats. It was like an older brother and a younger sister in a spat. With their complexion and dark hair they could have been siblings for all Piper knew.
Elena groaned in frustration and buried her face in her hands.
The door behind them shut and everyone looked back to see Kyrie and James enter. James dropped his battleaxes and shield on the floor like an ordinary kid would shed their backpack after school.
"Weapons go in the armory, not on my floor!" Elena scolded James, who cast his eyes down in shame before collection his shield and axes and putting them up carefully in the closet.
Kyrie hung up her sword in the closet as well, but she didn't have a shield to put away. Harrison laughed from below and Elsa screamed again, the sound clear and distinct even with an entire floor between them. Kyrie glanced at James and he sighed. "You make the popcorn, I'll go and take care of Harrison and Ellie."
"Popcorn?" the question came from Leo, who looked confused.
Piper was surprised when Kyrie gave him a small smile. "We always have a movie night before one of us has to do a Trial by Pain."
Without another word, Kyrie went down the stairs and screamed for Harrison and Elsa to shut up. Silence followed and Elena shook her head. "I wish I knew how she got those two to listen." She heaved a sigh before she perked up and looked back at Piper and her friends. "Anyway, I hope you kids like musicals. Make yourselves at home."
Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter's kind of...anticlimactic, but the Trials by Pain are in the next chapter! Or the one after that one. I'm not sure which yet, but one of the two. Those are going to be interesting. Anyway, I'll catch you on the flipside!
