Music for this chapter:
Red Eyes and Tears - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Henrietta - The Fratellis
A/N from SisterGrimmErin: We love you all, especially when you review. Here's Joshua, back in his own adorable, dorky style. My co-writer had the chapter end with him fainting, but I felt he deserved a chance to redeem himself. Also, here's yet another new romance, which we swear is important to the plot.
Warning: We're feeling this story verve into PG-13 territory, just in case you're under 12. There won't be any sex scenes, but there will be implications thereof... anyways, hope that didn't scare anyone away. If you can watch, say, Legally Blonde or The Princess Bride, you can read this. Promise. And this chapter is pretty much on the same level as the others, just in the future.
And Azrael is back with his wise cracks. I must say he's my favorite character. Though Joshua is lovable too.
A/N from music: Hey all! We've just got some quick revised information about the characters' ages. Zoe and Joshua: 17. Astor: 17, Phoebe: 16. Chase: 15. Minerva: 15. Aegle: 14. Leon: 13. Just to prevent confusion in future chapters.
Information about the next chapter at the bottom!
Anyway, without further ado... we give you...
UNCHAINED MELODY
Chapter 9: Down the Rabbit Hole
By SisterGrimmErin and music5692
He could feel the light on his skin. He could feel the warmth, but even more so, he could feel its weightless, trembling fingers upon his eyelids, feel the actual minute pressure of the light. Joshua felt, in those moments between sleep and waking, that he was in a strange, heady, intoxicating limbo. There was the confusing light, for one. And an uncomfortably warm, humid breeze grazed his cheek. And Joshua could smell the rousing, inexplicably exotic smell of strawberries.
"Joshua… Joshua... Please wake up. Please?"
The voice was sympathetic, and worried, and yet slightly garbled to his ears. Joshua liked the voice, and tried to speak, but could only manage a "Mmmmgggufff."
"Hey, the mortal made a noise!" This was a different, deeper voice, and Joshua was sure he'd heard it before. Somewhere.
"Chase, Joshua has a name, for godssake. Would it kill you to use it?" This was the first person speaking again. Now Joshua knew that he'd met these people before. If he could just see them. But everything was so damned dark.
"Yeah, it would."
Joshua heard the muffled sound of a punch, and then swearing. "C'mon, Joshua, please just say something. For me?"
If I only knew who you are, the boy thought desperately. He managed another groan, this time deeper in his throat, and came out sounding like a feral "Grrrrrr…."
"Oh, I think he likes that," someone else (a girl, Joshua guessed) said teasingly. "Rawr. Talk to him some more, Zoë."
Zoë! Everything came back in a rush: the mysterious girl, lunch in the school cafeteria, Central Park, intoxicating music, her house, their escape, and then he remembered only the pain. Joshua could practically feel the burning, searing, aching once more. Pure, undiluted. But he knew himself to be miraculously fine now; he felt himself, in a word, complete.
Well, except for the fact that he couldn't see anything.
Joshua struggled, with labor disproportionate to the task, to open his lips and speak. First there was just more gargles and moans, but then he finally forced his unwilling, leaden mouth to form coherent words and said, "Zoë?"
There was a squeal of glee and Joshua felt her hand, so warm, upon his. "Are you okay? Are you in pain? Oh my gods, Joshua, you're alive!"
"Well, miracle of all miracles," came a sarcastic, deadpan voice from the corner. Joshua recognized it almost immediately- Azrael.
Ignoring Zoë's brother, Joshua mumbled slowly, "I'm fine. Only wait—" Panic rose in his chest like stomach bile. Everything was so dark, and terrible nothingness was all around, engulfing him. He couldn't see Zoë, or her brother, or the other kids. He couldn't see where he was.
"I can't see anything. Why can't I see anything? It's all dark!" Joshua was hyperventilating like a dog on a hot summer day. "Oh God, am I blind?"
"Joshua, no, it's just—" Zoë frantically grasped his hand, trying to calm down his labored, furious panting.
"I'm blind, aren't I? Oh my God, I'm blind. I'm never gonna see again, and I'll have to get one of those seeing eye dogs and it'll have to lead me around, holy mother of—"
"Here, kid. I've got this really revolutionary idea," Azrael said, his voice a combination of smugness and exasperation. "How about you open your eyes?"
"…"
"Oh. Oh. Uh, thanks." Joshua's eyes shot open. He saw first the pristine white ceiling, then Zoë's wide, furiously blinking eyes. There was silence as they stared at each other, Joshua's gaze searching across the girl's raised eyebrows, her tanned skin, the tiny pebble like freckles, her blue irises swirling with a fierce note of green, her curved mouth. Suddenly then they were embracing desperately, and Zoë's impassioned hug pinned his arms to the sides of his body, and Joshua gasped softly, the air knocked out of him.
"Sheesh, get a room, you guys," Azrael remarked snidely. Chase chuckled in a low tone at the comment.
"Well, you know what, Azrael?" Zoë spun around savagely. Joshua heard his back crack at the suddenness of her jerking movement, and felt a twang of pain. "We have a room, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why the entire peanut gallery insists on being in it," she finished, gesturing to the other demigods.
Joshua appraised the rest of them for the first time since he had woken up. There was Azrael of course, leaning against the doorframe. Next to him stood a tiny girl Joshua had never seen before. She had mahogany hair, lightly browned skin and amiable, though shy, green eyes. She looked disproportionately skinny and young beside the tall Azrael. Chase stood a few feet away, next to Minerva. Both twins were staring at him intently, as though he were a new species of animal to be studied. Leon sat on the ground near Minerva, although at a safe distance, too timid to move closer. Phoebe, her dark eyes flashing as usual with indecipherable emotion, had her arms crossed and sat backwards on a chair by an open window.
"Alright, alright, we get it," Phoebe replied casually. "C'mon, peanut gallery, we got other shit to do." She stood up in one fluid motion and sauntered out, gesturing for the other demigods to follow.
The rest shrugged indifferently and left. Azrael gave an indignant "humph" but put his arm around the small girl and exited the room, though not without slamming the door. Zoë sighed and sat down heavily on the bed.
The mortal boy scanned the room. It seemed like a makeshift hospital room. Five cots with white sheets occupied much of the space, and light danced through a large picture window to his right. There was a desk with a few surgical tools, but mostly there just seemed to be a lot of bottles of a strange, golden liquid. Joshua frowned in confusion, his eyebrows knitting together.
Zoë followed his gaze and said simply, "Ambrosia. Drink of the gods. It'll cure pretty much any wound."
"Is that how you healed me?" he asked inquisitively. The wonders of this new world didn't seem to ever cease.
"No, since only demigods and gods can drink it. It would've killed you." Zoë cradled her head in her hands, relief making her knees weaker with every word the boy spoke. He was well and truly safe, thank the gods. Well, thank one god in particular, she thought with a smile.
"Then how did you…?" he trailed off. Whatever that thing was that bit him, it wasn't anything he'd ever seen before. Joshua had just seen a glimmer of green scales and sharp teeth, and then all there had been was pain and Zoë's arms.
"I, uh, called my grandpa. He healed you."
"Sorry, but who's your grandpa again? The Olympian family tree is confusing me a little."
"Apollo. He didn't drive the sports car, thank the gods. That would have been so embarrassing."
"Sports car?" Joshua asked, with a blank look. He was beginning to think all the questions were useless and he should just try to absorb information. It was like he'd been dropped into the middle of a storybook without any warning and without having read the first half of the tale.
"Usually it's a red Maserati. But, like, one time when he needed it to be a van since me and Azrael and Leon needed to get home, it was a van. It's not really a car, though, it's technically the sun, but the chariot just got outdated."
Joshua stared blankly at the girl. "I'm not making any sense, am I?" Zoë asked with a soft smile.
"Not really. I mean, you're doing a great job explaining and all, I'm just having trouble processing the information. It's all getting stuck in my brain, sort of." Joshua grinned back at her and sat up farther on the pillow until their faces were level.
"Don't worry, it'll get easier with time. And Chiron can probably do a better job explaining. So, uh, how'd you like the family?"
There was an uncomfortable silence as Joshua tried to think of something to say. How to put this lightly, he thought, Well, your mom is a goddess who lights on fire and turns into a sixteen year old when she gets angry. Your dad is pretty cool, actually, but he was once dead and is now immortal... Your brother threatened me with painful death. Oh, I just love them. 'I think we'll get along great' just didn't seem to fit very well.
But at the same time, her family was a large part of Zoë. The sarcasm, for instance, seemed to be a defining characteristic of the Eliot family. The unpredictability and passion and utter insanity were all inherited traits, Joshua could tell. And these were all simultaneously the reasons why he loved Zoë.
"Um, they're interesting," he said with a cautious smile.
"And by 'interesting' you mean psychopathic and crazy," Zoë replied flatly.
"No! Well, yeah, I sorta do. They are kind of crazy. But that's okay, I mean, I like them."
Zoë stared at Joshua, perplexed. He should be freaking out, or trying to run away. "My mom didn't completely scare you away?"
With a mischievous smirk, Joshua said, "Not yet."
The girl nodded seriously, her eyes thoughtful and trained on Joshua. "Okay. I mean, she's okay once you get to know her. And when she's not furiously angry and screaming, or anything. It's just… I don't know."
"What?" Joshua asked softly. He could feel his hand getting a light sheen of sweat from having her abnormally warm one on his.
Zoë looked away, out the window. "It's just tough, you know. Because I know that I'm never, ever, going to measure up to her. And that scares me sometimes."
"Why do you say that? Of course you will. I mean, you're really funny and pretty and a great fighter, I guess. From what I've seen in the past two days we've known each other."
"Four days," she corrected lightly. "You've been sleeping for the past two. Anyway, it's kind of hard to explain. But you know, when my mom was fifteen, she destroyed the evil Titan, Kronos, the Lord of Time, who had an entire army of monsters behind him. And less than a year later, she rescued my dad from Hades. No one, in the history of the world, has ever done that before. Not even Orpheus could do it. And then, she was made a goddess and got my dad to be made immortal. All of this, by age sixteen. And I'm seventeen and a half, Joshua. And sure, I'm good at fighting, but I've never done anything like that. Azrael is better at controlling fire, and Leon is artistic. I'm just… here."
"Zoë, that's not… I mean, you'll do even better stuff, I can tell."
"D'you know they tell their story at the campfires? My mom and dad's story. Like, the most popular stories are the Iliad, the Odyssey, sometimes the Aenid, and then their story. It's just… daunting."
"That's gotta be weird."
She was still staring out the window. "Yeah, it sure as Hades is. I dunno, Joshua. Now I've got a quest. I've been praying for a quest since I was five. Praying that I could get one and succeed and prove myself, or something. But I'm just not sure. I just don't know."
"Hey, no, you're gonna be great. I promise, everything is going to be fine. It's all going to be fine," he said, repeating himself faithfully, chanting as if in prayer. Joshua didn't really know what he was saying, but he clutched her hand tighter and rubbed it gently.
He was falling further and further into her world, and surprisingly the mysteries were only lengthening, questions expanding, and Joshua had so few answers.
Standing up abruptly, Zoë crossed the room with long, neat strides. She grabbed the doorknob and looked back at him, grinning out of the left side of her mouth, roguish smirk twisting itself on her lips. "You wanna see the camp?" the girl asked.
Leon leaned against a tree, halfheartedly clutching its branches. He can hear the sea not too far away, its peaceful repetitive swish putting him on edge. He hated the ocean, despised its whispered sounds. All those thousands of miles of nothingness, deep blue expanses, leagues below full of fish and rotting ships and gods-know-what-else.
Leon had gone swimming in Montauk once. Just once, in the two years his family had lived there with the Jacksons. Truthfully, it hadn't really been swimming, since he'd been clinging desperately to an inflatable plastic raft, but it had been the most terrifying experience of his short life. The current had pulled the boy out until he hadn't even been able to see the shoreline, and then he'd been all alone, floating in a body of azure nothingness. Leon had sobbed from the paralyzing fear, because if he was all alone, what was there to prove that he existed? The sea had mocked him with its constant, interminable swish, taunting him with whispers that he didn't even constitute a drop in the galaxy, that his matter and form was entirely negligible.
By the time Uncle Percy had brought him back half an hour later, Leon had convinced himself that the sea was a great alien mass. And alien things terrified him, but Leon knew someone who loved the sea, with all its ceaseless nothing. And so he made his cautious way down to the sand, his small frame ducking around tree branches.
He caught sight of the girl and jogged towards her, his steps made awkward and fumbling by the shifting sand.
"Hi," Leon panted, sitting down beside Minerva. She looked up from her book and smiled, encouraging.
"Hi."
"What're you doing?"
"Reading."
"Oh. Aren't you hot out here in the sun?" Leon asked, secretly praying for a 'yes' so they could go inside, away from the jellyfish and salt water.
"Not really."
"Oh, okay."
Minerva abruptly put the tattered novel down in the sand. "I've been thinking. Chiron said that mortals are fighting against us. Mortals. What could these quests possibly be about?"
"Um, I don't know. Maybe to find their plans, or weaknesses, or something," he said quietly.
"I think you're right," the girl announced. Leon felt his face flush with excitement. "Well, I guess we'll find out everything tomorrow when Chiron tells us."
"Yeah." Suddenly, Minerva leaned her head on Leon's shoulder, a gesture of friendship on her part, and a gesture of so much more on his. She continued talking about the quests, but Leon didn't hear any of it. The rest didn't really matter so much.
Everything was so bright. The people, the buildings, the trees, the very air all seemed so teeming with life, it simultaneously hurt and caressed his senses. Joshua felt the world spinning around him, filled with such rough, confused beauty he felt as if there were alcohol in his system. You could tell that everything was different, stranger and more terrible, far above and below the norm. Zoë was grasping his hand tightly and laughing, towing him along. She met his eyes with a magnetic smile, green freckles in her eyes glinting.
"—And over here's the Dionysus cabin, and next to that, in a row, see, are the Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena and Demeter cabins. And then across from those, from closest to farthest, are the Hermes, Hephaestus, Apollo, Ares, and Poseidon cabins. And those two you see at the end, that are all marble and majestic and stuff, those are the Hera and Zeus cabins, see, 'cause they're the king and queen. And then the black obsidian one to our right, that's the Hades cabin."
"Okay," Joshua said, overwhelmed and, strangely enough, loving the confusion, though his head spun with all the burning images and insistent smells and crazy people.
"Me and Azrael and Leon and Phoebe stay in Hades cabin most of the time. My parents built it just like twenty years ago, when they were here. 'Cept sometimes me and my brothers stay in Apollo cabin, since technically we can stay there too."
Each cabin was decorated in the style of the commanding god, Joshua could see that. Poseidon cabin was blue with wave decorations, and Ares cabin was covered in spears and cannons, and the Apollo cabin was shining and golden. The mortal knew enough about the Greek gods from his history classes back home to be able to see that much.
And suddenly it struck him. Home was far, far away and Joshua was literally in another world. The adrenalin pumping through his veins made him feel like he was standing at the edge of a tall, high cliff and Zoë was smiling at him, in that seductive way, urging him to jump.
It was terrifying and insane and empowering and strangely liberating.
This'll be one to tell the kids back home, he thought, grinning, and then Zoë was pulling him along again. Demigods of every size and shape and color stared at him inquisitively, their different gazes all begging the same question: "Who's that kid?"
Zoë called out to a couple of them affectionately, high-fiving a couple blond girls who looked vaguely like her and rustling the hair of a teenage boy with dark eyes. Joshua saw the way the other boy looked at her and the mortal felt jealous and even vaguely proud.
"Okay, over there's the climbing wall and practice arena," Zoë continued, her every motion bubbly and overflowing with happiness. And to think she was just so depressed and doubting about her parents, the boy thought.
Joshua turned his gaze from his girlfriend to a huge stone wall around a hundred feet away. And on the other side there appeared to be a bubbling, red-brown viscous liquid with heat waves rising off it… lava? Joshua was shocked and couldn't help but smile. A coliseum-like building was erected not far off, and he caught sight of a couple kids sparring with real swords and gladiator armor that gleamed brightly in the sun.
Joshua and Zoë passed Phoebe once, and the other girl winked sneakily at them. And then Zoë was pulling him away once more, toward a large house with white shingles and black shutters.
"There's the Big House," the girl explained, leaning on Joshua a little. "That's where Chiron and Mr. D stay."
"Who?"
"Mr. D is the camp director on paper, but Chiron is the one who really runs everything. Oh, and I should probably warn you. The 'D' stands for Dionysus."
"As in the god?" Joshua gulped.
"Yep. He hates kids. We hate him right back."
"Okay," the boy replied, thinking it was a little weird to be the director of a summer camp if you hated children.
"Well, look who we have here," Azrael said from behind Zoë and Joshua. The mortal boy jumped a little at the surprise, but Zoë just glared at her brother coolly.
Suddenly, a big white horse opened the door of the Big House. And opened in the literal sense of the word, as in 'opened by means of opposable thumbs' because it wasn't really a horse at all. The torso, head and arms of a man grew straight out of the body of a horse, and the strange mix of creatures had a certain ancient grace about it. Joshua rubbed his eyes disbelievingly. The centaur caught sight of Zoë and frowned slightly before cantering up to the two of them.
This isn't happening, Joshua thought. This isn't possible. The horse-man approached Joshua cautiously as if he were sizing the boy up as a potential enemy, but with palms up in a gesture of peace.
Chiron finally sighed and, rubbing his temples, said, "Hello, Zoë. Who is this?"
But unfortunately, Joshua's brain couldn't process the shock of seeing so many strange, brave new things at once. Chiron the centaur was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
The mortal boy fainted dead away, falling onto the grass with a thump, all conscious thought fading into dreams of divinity.
Azrael shook his head slowly, a little patronizing. "Guess we know who wears the pants in this relationship," he remarked with a smirk.
Fortunately, this time Joshua woke up fairly quickly. "Hey, Zoë, maybe you should kiss him!" suggested someone brightly. That got him up. For a kiss with Zoë, he wanted to be conscious.
Unfortunately, it was Chase who helped him up. "All right, let's get him inside before a naiad starts luring him into a lake or something," said the black-haired boy, pulling Joshua to his feet. There were nods of general agreement, except from Zoë, who looked upon him worriedly.
That angered him a little. He didn't want her to worry. He wanted to fit in, like he never had, wanted to twist himself into a pleasing shape for this world, but it seemed even more impossible with each new impossibility.
"Well," said Chiron, "it seems you did not think to warn him about my appearance before taking him up to meet me, Zoë."
The girl flushed a little in chagrin. "Chiron, this is Joshua Sterling Dare."
Joshua, even more red, managed a halfhearted hand-wave. "You're Rachel's son?" asked Chiron with surprise.
"Yes," Joshua said, wondering how the hell- Hades- his mom had gotten on a first-name basis with a half-horse.
"Well, it's been a while since we've had a mortal here, so forgive us for our manners. Let's come inside, and please be polite to Mr. D." Chiron cast a worried glance at Dionysus. Azrael shrugged and began walking up the steps
Following up side-by-side with Chiron to a white farmhouse, the wine god barely looked up as they passed him. Those violet eyes seemed to glare at Joshua and Zoë for a moment, then he went back to his Diet Coke, sulking in the shadows of the porch.
"Now, how much does this mortal know? And why is he god-marked by Aphrodite?" asked Chiron.
"...Aphrodite?" exclaimed everybody but Joshua in alarm.
As for the mortal in question, he raised his hand uncomfortably. Chiron automatically motioned for him.
"The goddess of love?" Joshua said. Azrael smothered a snort. Tonia half-glared at him, like 'cut the poor kid some slack.' Surprisingly, Azrael quieted and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Tonia rested her head on his shoulder. Joshua watched the exchange with some shock- the idea of Azrael being gentle towards anyone, particularly the fragile flower that was Tonia, shocked him.
"And the one that temporarily killed our dad, yes," added in Azrael sarcastically.
"Oh," Joshua said lamely, trying to imagine that. Zoë's frantic grip on his arm brought him back to the present.
"I think," Chiron said clearly, "Aphrodite had planned to get you two together."
Zoë blinked. "But if that's true, why didn't we meet before?"
"It may have been Joshua's mother's protection. The precautions she took on my advice to keep her son from this world were no small matter."
"What precautions?" said Joshua confusedly.
Chiron looked at Joshua with pity. "Joshua, you're only nearsighted because your mother had laser surgery done on you. It's why you haven't seen monsters before. Naturally, you were far-sighted."
The rest of the kids blinked. Poor kid, mused Chase. His mom must really hate the gods.
Joshua's mouth opened and closed. His mother had medically handicapped him at birth? Just to keep him from seeing the world as it was? How much of the mediocrity and frustration that had plagued him all his remembered life had been her fault?
"So why can he see everything now?" Zoë asked.
"My dad took me to get new lenses," Joshua remembered.
Chiron looked up with some surprise. "All right. I think the missions the Oracle requires will be mostly scouting missions, discovering the purpose of the mortals and whether they can be reasoned with or perhaps trying to find allies among the Babylonians."
"The Babylonians?" blinked Minerva. "Their gods aren't around, are they?"
"No, not since they were conquered by the Romans," assured Chiron. "But the people have an ancient magic, drawn from the earth. Things hidden from us may be clear to them. Also, the locals will have knowledge of the mortal's purpose. They are a sort of go-between. The Babylonians have always been, historically, more connected to the mortal world than we have."
"When do we leave?" asked Zoë. "I mean, when are the Hunters coming?"
"In three and a half weeks, on their new lieutenant's birthday." Whoever the Hunters were, the knowledge of their visit seemed to make Chase's eyes narrow unhappily. And here Joshua had thought the boy unflappable.
"I suggest you all get training after lunch. Lord Apollo said you'd be fine once you'd woken up, Joshua, but I'd rather you abstained from practice for today," said Chiron.
"We'll show him the ropes, Chiron," Zoë said obediently. The other demigods left the Big House and sprinted down towards dazzling sunlight. But Zoë stopped to keep pace with him, smiling a white grin at him.
Joshua knew he'd landed into Wonderland, but he was luckier than Alice.
He had a guide.
At lunch, Joshua would have been unsure of where to sit had Zoë not pulled him toward the Apollo table. Phoebe sighed and went to sit with Leon at the Hades table, while Azrael inexplicably chose the Apollo table, looking very out of place among all the golden-haired boys and girls. Of course, Azrael would have looked out of place in many places. Zoë's beauty helped her blend in the mortal world- Azrael was attractive enough (not that Joshua went that way), but his general aura of malice would put most mortal girls off him immediately. Joshua was wondering how two siblings could be so very different when he saw Zoë's head turn towards the Hades table. His eyes followed.
A black-haired boy with blue eyes that crackled like thunder was asking Phoebe something. "Who is that?" asked Joshua in what he hoped was a quiet voice.
"Astor Griffin Maguire, son of Zeus," replied Zoë quietly. Joshua supposed that it was as normal a name as you could hope for in this place, and chose to digest the 'son of Zeus' bit for later. Take it as it rolled.
At any rate, Phoebe was angry, her chin jutting out and hands flailing wildly as she talked to the son of Zeus. "Who are Phoebe's grandparents?" Joshua asked, not remembering the Greek myth family tree in the least but recalling that Phoebe's dad was Zoë's mom's half-brother... and if that isn't confusing.
"Hades, Lord of the Dead, and Eris, Goddess of Chaos and Discord, Harbinger of the Trojan War."
Joshua didn't find it hard to believe that another war was about to start as Phoebe's voice, audible from halfway across the dining hall, shouted: "Just because of your stupid dad you think you can have any girl you want!"
"Just because of your stupid grandfather you think you can kill whoever you want!" snapped Astor hastily back.
There was a deafening silence in the cafeteria. The Dionysus cabin was glaring murderously at Phoebe, but the Hermes kids and some dryads by the wall appeared to be very angry with Astor.
"Don't talk to her that way," said Zoë, getting up angrily. Joshua was torn between tugging her down and letting her help her friend.
Phoebe snapped back, "I can handle him."
Meanwhile, Joshua was wondering why the hell- Hades- no adults were stopping this, but he happened to glance at Mr. D. The man was looking at Phoebe with real malevolence, as though restraining himself from something. Chiron did not appear to be in the room.
Phoebe took out a sword. The design was simple, lacking the shape of a cross, and reminding Joshua of a Spartan short sword like in the movies. It was strong and built for close contact. With the glare in her eyes right now, Joshua was willing to bet she was almost as lethal.
Zoë was concerned now, Joshua could feel it. "Are they going to kill each other?" asked Joshua hushed.
"Naw," said Azrael dismissedly, though his eyes were tense. "We can only break them apart if anyone is about to suffer permanent damage."
Joshua was still confused. Zoë whispered, "It's an archaic honor thing." Joshua nodded, trying to reconcile that with two modern-day teenagers in a summer camp dining hall.
Astor, for his part, took out a Swiss Army Knife that morphed into a Roman golden-eagle sword. Do demigods go armed everywhere? So far we've got school and lunch and summer camp. Does this include the shower? An image of Zoë in the shower came to him completely unbidden. Stop right there, Azrael probably has some freaky mind-reading ability no one's told you about, Joshua told himself, and dragged his attention back to the fight. Astor was waiting for Phoebe to make the first move.
She wasn't going to make it.
After a long pause, Astor turned and struck at random, aiming for a disarm.
No such luck. Phoebe turned behind him and lazily blocked his blow.
Their weapons clashed again and again, neither seeming to gain an advantage until Astor tried to put the weight of his sword against hers.
Phoebe immediately drew the sword out of his grip and twisted away from the strike. Astor was playing strong; Phoebe was playing smart.
Finally, Astor spoke. "So, what, did you freeze him to death?"
She tensed, but he opened to her distracted left. Now the real thing began as she sprung away from his grip, looking for an opening. Circling him faster than he could reach, Astor's blade grazed her shoulder briefly but just as that was about to happen, Phoebe took her free hand and wrestled the sword out of his grip.
Astor's mighty sword clattered to the ground.
Suddenly, someone from the Dionysus table spoke. "What more proof do we need? If she can outmatch him, our best fighter," the violet-eyed boy brashly continued, "there's no question she killed Winslow." Zoë restrained laughter at the thought of Astor as their best fighter. Azrael did likewise. Joshua just watched it all like a Ping-Pong match.
An angry girl with chlorophyll green eyes shot back, "Shut up, Calix. If anyone killed your brother, it was his own stupidity. The only reason I don't tell you how stupid he was is that I do not disrespect those killed near my roots."
Calix shot back, "You could be covering for her." The dryad opened her mouth to speak, but the half-blood was forced to sit down by a sibling.
A long, resounding silence stretched, which not even the Aphrodite cabin broke.
Mr. D.'s eyes were almost sad as he gazed upon his son. But the wine god then bellowed, "This is a lunchroom not a battlefield! Why are you all so quiet? Go eat outside!"
As he was saying this, Mr. D. half-beckoned Calix to him as the entire room filed out, trays in hand.
"How's that for some lunchtime entertainment?" remarked Zoë brightly as they exited the dining hall.
Joshua could only nod, thoroughly down the rabbit hole and thoroughly entrenched in Wonderland.
And somehow, he had the feeling he wouldn't trade it for anything.
Just as this happened, an arrow zinged narrowly past his head as they walked past the archery range. He ducked, but looked up to see a girl who looked a lot like Astor smiling joyfully.
"What is it?" he asked her, unable to be rude.
"I got the exact angle of your head to the tree correct!" said the girl, in the tone one would announce world peace in.
"Aegle," said Zoë dangerously.
"Yah?" said Aegle, leaning down to get another arrow.
"If you must shoot at random passerby, try and tag Calix for me."
The daughter of Zeus nodded happily.
"And in the future, don't throw things at my boyfriend. Only my immediate family is allowed to, and that's on a case-by-case basis."
Next Chapter: Some more information on the prophecy, Chase gets in a lot of trouble with some very powerful people, and Joshua shoots for the moon... sort of. XD