"Hahahah! I did it! I finally did it, Mother!"

Nyx was surprised to find Eris screaming like a maniac inside the Night Mansion. Then again, her siblings' continuous torture and molesting could have caused that too... Not that Eris was very bright-

"What did you do that has you like a cat that eat the canary, Eris?" One of her siblings asked, which lead to sniggers and bad-hidden chuckles. However, Eris cared little about all that. She was holding a mirror. It didn't have any particular detail around it, but Eris was holding it as if she had found the darkness inside.

She was ecstatic.

"I've create it! Now, Mother, you can go riding across the sky and universe sowing the panic and hatred!" Now Nyx was interested by Eris' explanation. Even her siblings had stopped the teasing for a moment to pay attention. "This mirror, Mother, it can reflect the bad and evil from the good and pure! We'll sow the chaos and nothing and no one can stop us now!"

"Very well done, my daughter." Nyx praised her, which brought tears yo Eris' eyes. "You had done a great service to the Night. Now! It is time to cover the world in desperation and evil!" Everyone cheered after those words and, immediately, Nyx' chariot was right besides her. Eris loaded the mirror while her mother prepared for departure.

Many wanted to accompany her, but one bark from Nyx and everyone subdued immediately. She commanded her chariot out of the Night Mansion and onto the sky. She could see with the corner of her eye how the earth was turning dark and poor. Hostile and even rotten. Nyx couldn't contain a laugh of happiness. This was her ticket to power! The world would be rule by the Night and Dark and nothing could stop her!

She immediately turned her direction to Olympus. However, neither she or Eris knew that, the higher she went, the heavier the mirror got. So, when she was very close to reach her destination, her chariot started to tumble under the weight. Surprised by that reaction, Nyx tried to stabilize her ride, only to lose the mirror!

The mirror began its fall to earth without anything to stop it. The collision was inevitable, breaking into thousands and hundreds of pieces. Small or big, the pieces became invisible and began floating with the winds and right onto the heart of the people! For it had a secondary effect, it could turn the hearts into ice, leaving cold people behind, with almost no cure.

Or so was though...

Unknown to Nyx, many of those shards flew to a hidden city under a bridge in San Francisco.

The people that lived in this city ranged wildly in personality. From the ones that though war was always the answer to those that, if it didn't affect them, was a non-existent problem. However, that didn't mean they weren't ready for it if the situation presented itself. Which is why, to one person in particular, seeing arguments and riots around New Rome was very unusual, not to mentioned that it was somehow dangerous.

Piper McLean had arrived to the city with the intention of spending some time with her boyfriend Jason Grace. She wanted to celebrate the Winter Break with him, as she had missed him very much. She had been away for a while, spending time with her father and his family, but now was time that Piper returned to where she belonged. The world were the Gods were real.

Leaving the dilemma of 'if every single god is real' aside, Piper wandered the streets, looking around the people who were screaming, arguing and, in some cases, grabbing their weapons to turn their opponents demigod kebab. In more than one occasion, in her supposedly short walk, Piper had to use her special talent to break away people. Even apart, you could see the hatred and disgust in their eyes. She immediately went looking for Jason.

To her surprise and sadness, Jason was in the same state as the rest of the people, arguing with two demigods that Piper had never met before. Jason's face was red in either anger or frustration and his opponents weren't better either. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Jason was pulled aside by an irrated and very confused girlfriend.

"Jason, what's wrong?" As soon as the words left his girlfriend's mouth, Jason found a new target to his anger.

"Oh, look who it is! Ms. 'I-can-make-you-do-whatever-I-want-to'." The dark tone of his voice was what shocked Piper more than anything rather than the malicious intent behind the words. "You think you can strut in here, whenever you want and everyone will like you?!"

Piper was extremely upset by the words, but didn't let it show. It was obvious that, whatever had happened here, was making people's behavior a disaster and placing friends against each other. Trying not to take it personal -and also knowing her boyfriend would never say stuff like that to her even if he was angry and she deserved it- she frowned at Jason, thinking of a way to calm him down.

"If you think that of me, you should then walk away!"

"Fine!" With that last word, the son of Jupiter walked away from his girlfriend and, by the way he was releasing steam from his ears, people might think they were fighting... which would be really away from the truth.

Piper, being a rational person, decided to let him cool down of whatever he was going through. But that will also gave her time to look for a reason of what was happening, as apparently she was the only one that wasn't affected. She couldn't find anyone calm enough to discuss the situation, therefore she was forced to do a lot of thinking. She concluded to confront Jason at night.

But Jason never returned.

Knowing something big and probably dangerous could have happened to him, Piper forgot to ask permission to Praetor Reyna Ramirez -who was in a heated discussion with one of her centurions over the gods know what- to grab some weapons and supplies she would need. Because it was obvious that she was going on a solitary quest to recover Jason.

Her first stop was the coast line. Thankfully, there was someone there who could help her. Or so she thought.

"Nereids!" She called them, startling them. The nereids weren't used to have demigods talking to them, the roman demigods feared the water as much as they feared Neptune, their king. So, when a girl approached them, showing her hands in peace, they were confused and a little wary. "I need information, and I think you're the only ones who could help me!"

"Why would we help you?" One of them decided to be brave enough and speak up. Piper sighed softly at this obvious display of wariness.

"Please, my boyfriend is missing -or worst- and, if you want, I'll pay for your services..." She offered, hoping they would feel more secure about her intentions. "I beg of you, he and the people on New Rome had been acting strange and I want to help..." The nereids shared a look, making Piper a little more desperate. She started to look around her things and found a necklace that once belonged to her grandmother. Holding it tight, she offered to them.

"What is it?"

"My- my payment..." She stuttered, hoping to come up with a good explanation when her father asked where was it. One nereid that looked older than the rest pushed her hand back to her.

"Payment is not necessary." Piper blinked in surprise. "We can see what you're doing and we'll help part of the way." With that, she gestured a small boat that Piper didn't waste time to get on. Maybe they'll take me to where Jason is... The nereids did push the boat until a certain point. They were pretty sure arrived until there. And sure it was, as another boat was seen in the distance. "Good luck finding your love one..."

"Thank you! I won't forget you!" Piper promised before continuing her journey. She had no idea where she was, but she knew she couldn't be in Oregon. The nereids didn't took her that far... or so she wanted to believe. She felt the weather change, not because California was a furnace oven, but she felt the slight difference. She armed herself with a coat and began walking.

The city where the nereids dropped her was a little abandoned -that, or the people weren't out their homes for whatever reason. Piper walked around, keeping a careful eye on the look out for Jason while the other eye was for any kind of monsters. She could consider herself lucky that her blood wasn't as powerful enough, but if Jason was around, she could see how that would attract monsters.

Finally, when some snow began to fall down and making Piper believe that she should stop for the day before she was buried in the snow, she saw him. He was kneeling in the middle of a ice-rink, completely alone and with the clothes that he was wearing the day before. Throwing cautious out the window, Piper ran to him, sliding the last yards to be near him.

She began chanting his name, the happiness in seeing him was gigantic. But Jason didn't pay attention to her. His attention was in front of him, on the ice. Piper couldn't see anything there, but she made her mission to snap him out of it. Who know what kind of monsters were lurking around to ambush them. Seeing that Jason wasn't responding, Piper began to cry.

"Jason! Jason, please it's me!" She begged him, hugging him by the neck and holding tight. "Jason, please come back!" The more Piper pleaded, the more she cried. She didn't care if Jason considered a cry-baby when this was over, she just wanted him back. Her tears started to fall on his shirt, soaking it wet. She was starting to lose hope and feared for Jason when the miracle happened.

Jason hugged her back.

"Piper, what's wrong?" Were the words out of his mouth. His voice was full of concern and love, Piper wanted to hear it again. "When did you arrive and why is it freezing here?" She chuckled at the last sentence, pulling him tight to her. Jason obviously deducted that something bad had happened, but as a good boyfriend, he would hug her tight and let her cry on him until she was ready to talk-

"You meddling daughter of Aphrodite!" A cold voice sneered at the distance, making the couple part ways and face the newcomer. There, in all her icy glory, with a spear on her hand, a snowflake crown on her head and glaring cold eyes while floating a couple of yards away from them was Khione, daughter of Boreas and Goddess of Snow. "How dare you to take my prize away from me?!"

"Your prize?!" Jason argued, between his own confusion and his shock of her cheek. "You dare to stand there all mighty after you kidnapped me?!" When Khione's glare intensified, Piper knew she had to come up with a plan fast or both of them would be dead soon. Thinking quickly, she placed her hand on her backpack and found something that surprised her.

"How did you break the spell?! No one could penetrate the cold barrier through your heart!" Jason smirked at Khione, which irritated her to no end.

"That's our secret to keep and you to find out!" As if that was her cue, Piper threw something at Khione's feet that began melting the ice and turn it into smoke. Jason grabbed Piper's hand and immediately took her away from the ice-rink, running for their lives. Their weapons out, in case they had to face some monsters, they made it towards one of the boats, dragging the other one behind them.

Khione didn't follow them and the trip was silent. Jason wondered exactly what had happened before that, but Piper was giving no indications of wanting to talk. He kept quiet, not wanting to bother her, but he refused to let her out the boat until she talked to him. Piper, knowing that had no way out, started to talk.

"I arrived to Camp and everyone was arguing against each other -even you." Jason listened, not interrupting. "When I tried to help, you just-" Piper didn't need to say more, as Jason wasn't as stupid as some would think. He immediately pulled her into a hug and comforted her gently.

"Thank you for saving me back there..." He thanked her, whispering in her ear. Piper blushed and nodded, holding tight to him. "If you hadn't arrived, I'd still be there trying to form the word..."

"The word...?" Piper asked, curious.

"Khione told me that she would let me go if I could spell the word 'LOVE' with the ice. You couldn't see the letters, but I did..." He explained, before she could ask. "I couldn't remember how to form the word and I would probably be stuck there forever, so thank you, Piper..." Piper smiled softly before placing a small kiss on his lips. "I love you, Pipes."

"I love you too, Jase..."

"C'mon, let's get some hot chocolate and you will tell me what's going on with your Dad..."

This is an short adaptation of the tale Snow Queen, by the danish author Hans Christian Andersen.

Good morning/afternoon/night!

First, happy be-later Christmas to everyone! Also, happy Hanukkah to those who are Jew! Yesterday, my house and family were such a ruckus that I didn't have time to post and, when I did find time to post, I was extremely tired and all I did was going to bed with a fully belly...

Also, I want to explain that I didn't post on Sunday simply because it would be great to post everything on Christmas, but even at that I failed, heheh!

Today, I'll be posting more than one chapter! That's right! Besides the usual The First Times chapter, I prepared two Christmas' chapters! Those would be available on the Christmas' Presents book, if anyone is interested... so here we go!

The First Times: 1 chapter!

Christmas' Presents: 2 chapters!

Next Sunday would be the last post of the year and Next Monday, the last day to vote on the poll!

xoxo, SilverHuntresses