Eleven: Euna

Fifty Percent Chance of Sunlight with a Ten Percent Chance of Afternoon Demigod Showers

As they were falling from several hundred feet above Camp Half-Blood, Euna didn't just have the wind screaming in her ears. She also had her little sister.

"AXEL PAX I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Joey shrieked.1

After Axel pushed them off the kitchen patio, he grabbed their arms, so they were at least falling in terror together. He tilted his body subtly, pulling them closer; Euna had the distinct feeling he was directing their descent. Maybe he preferred they splat on the water instead of the land-she hadn't really had enough conversations with Axel to bring up, hey-hypothetically speaking-if you're falling from a sky castle, on what kind of surface do you want your brain to explode?

Some part of her mind was thinking about how sad it would be to have a make-up argument with her sister after two years of passive aggressive fighting only to be squashed into oblivion. The main part of her mind was thinking about how nice a Wonder Woman or a Jason Grace would be at that moment.

Then they hit a viscous mass of clouds.

"Make a net!" Axel shouted.

He said it right as their descent slowed. It was like they'd hit semi-gooey marshmallows.

Euna didn't understand how a net would further slow their descent and couldn't really fathom the construction of one at that moment, so was glad when Joey reached into Euna's pocket to withdraw her emergency seeds. Within seconds, Joey-with Euna's delayed help-had crafted a mesh net of instant-grown grass and roots.

The marshmallowy surface under them made disgruntled, alarmed calls as they expanded the net above it. At the time, Euna didn't really understand how water vapors could be caught by a net or complain, but she was content to assume all clouds spoke and held meetings to vote on whose day they would ruin with a torrential downpour.

Whatever they were gliding on slowed their descent so much that-when they got close to the beach-Euna's brain decided it was okay for her to register how close to death they'd been. It wasn't until their water vapory ride bumped into solid ground and she numbly slid off the gooey substance that she felt a postponed panic.

The beach's sand felt like it was moshpitting as she stood, but she suspected that was her body's reaction to falling several hundred feet. Joey and Axel hopped off the roots and vines beside her. Axel immediately went to pull their net off the clouds. The longer Euna squinted her eyes, the more the vapor solidified to look like three beautiful ghostly women, collapsed on the ground, and shouting.

"You heroes and your-"

"If you hadn't helped Hemera-"

"Should have let you-"

Once Axel was done removing the net from over the three semitransparent ladies, he knelt beside one with black hair that snapped around like lightning. He offered her a hand while saying, "I'm sorry-if I thought there was any other way to escape Aphrodite, I wouldn't have done that. That's not an excuse for a hero to act that way-"

As he spoke, he helped up the first one, then moved to the second. He looked genuinely apologetic and Euna reflexively reached to help up the last with honeyed hair. Touching the woman's hand felt more like waving her fingers past a tube of dry ice. A chill ran up her arm.

They looked similar and reminded Euna vaguely of Juniper and Olive. They were pretty, with elfish features and fluttery pale dresses. Nymphs, she realized. Though she didn't really see the point of apologizing. It seemed perfectly reasonable to avoid making a crater on the beach. Especially since the gods might be mad about you ruining the aesthetic of the beach and punish you in the afterlife as well.

The one with honey hair tilted her head to the side. As she did so, her locks fluttered and flowed about, as though she were underwater. "Heroes don't usually apologize to us before we're done yelling at them," she said, frowning. She took a step closer to Euna, as though suspicious of her species.

Joey couldn't seem to stop staring blankly at their crumpled up net. It was weird—she actually looked scared. Normally, she looked so calm or haughty.

The one with dark hair tilted her chin up, like she wanted to stare down at Axel. Due to the nymph's height, Euna didn't think she could, but the cloud spirit lifted to hover a foot off the ground. Her hair twitched more violently with sparks. "I still think we should-"

Ms. Stormy Weather paused and cocked her head to one side, like she was listening to an ear piece. "Hm?" she said to the invisible earpiece, "Yea… safe landing." Her gaze narrowed on Euna, Joey, and Axel like they were the heaviest textbook for the most boring class. "Yea, already done. Reward..?" Skeptically, her gaze slipped to the net on the ground. "Why would you think I would give them the poisonous one?"

Ms. Stormy glared at the smallest of the cloud nymphs, who turned more transparent. Euna had to wonder what poisonous thing the smallest cloud spirit had handed out on Hemera's behalf and if Ms. Stormy had gotten in trouble for whomever had been accidentally poisoned. Did that happen often? Should they not accept a reward?

The fair haired one shook her head sympathetically. "One day Hemera will be organized enough to tell us a chore before it happens. First it was raining frogs in 200 BC; now demigods."

Ms. Stormy righted her head and snorted. She appeared to be off the ear piece since she snapped, "It'll only take another four thousand years for Hemera to buy an planner." She felt around in the wisps of misty material hanging off her dress. Euna had to assume they were pockets. After a moment of searching, she withdrew a vial of contact solution and handed it to Euna.

Euna blinked. The bottle had the picture of a sun and the words, not a gentle formula. Not for daily use.

"They're drops of Hemera's sunlight," Ms. Stormy explained.

The smallest piped up in excitement, "Kinda like an energy boost-!"

She quieted when Ms. Stormy scowled at her. Once the tiny one cowered, she continued, "You drop them anywhere on your skin and it will temporarily shift your half-blood powers to god level. There should be a drop in there for each of you." She hovered an extra few inches into the air, motioning for her companions to follow. "Now don't drop in on people unannounced anymore, alright? Unless you want bad weather days for the next year," she snapped.

That threat made Joey focus. She touched her hair defensively. Axel nodded and apologized again. The smallest of the cloud spirits giggled and floated up with the other. The last with honey hair gave a curtsey before following after. The three drifted back into the sky. Within seconds, Euna had difficulty deciphering them from the actual clouds.

"Now that that is taken care of…" Joey muttered. She pivoted to face Axel, shoving a finger in his face. "What is wrong with you?"

"Wha-" Axel tensed.

"You pushed us off a cliff onto MOVING TARGETS that could have RUN AWAY," Joey snapped.

Out of reflex, Euna went to grab her sister. "Joey, stop being a br-wait…" Euna narrowed her gaze on Axel's sheepish expression. "You did push us off a cliff." Although it was weird to think Joey's whining might be justified, that definitely hit Euna's rare categorization of things worth getting upset about: near death.

"I'm sorry. It was the only way-" he said.

"No!" Joey shouted. "Aphrodite is only mad at you. Euna and I would have been fine. How dare you endanger us after-" Joey attempted to smack him.

Axel sidestepped, grabbed Joey's wrist, and twisted her arm downward into an arm bar. She yelped and kicked at him, but he pushed her further into the hold. Or would have, if Euna hadn't sucker-punched him in the ribs.

Out of the three of them, Euna was the most surprised. After their soppy argument in the sky castle, she was feeling particularly sororal, but didn't realize it was punch-team-captain-in-the-rib sororal. She didn't really feel like fighting Axel, but… well, he did push them off a cliff. Maybe punching him again would feel pretty good.

Axel recovered flawlessly, released her sister, and tried to snag Euna's hand. Although her strike must have winded him, she barely heard a gasp. Euna twisted her hand out of his grip and blocked his next open palm strike, watching his hand come within inches of her face before diverting off to the side.

They paused as Joey righted herself. Euna expected him be enraged, but he looked delighted, his eyes twinkling with childish glee. "You're quick!" Axel complemented with a grin. His posture relaxed and he touched where she'd hit his ribs. "We're going to spar-the three of us. Your technique is beautiful but you don't have enough practical applicat-"

"Oh my gods," Joey said. She had her hands behind her back and Euna knew Joey didn't want to admit Axel had hurt her wrist. "You're so weird! You're as weird as your brother."

Despite her sister's tone of voice, Euna recognized Joey's determined expression. Axel was a phenomenal fighter. Joey often sounded like that when she wanted to learn from someone to surpass them.

Joey's eyes drifted from Axel to his feet and widened. She snatched up something on the ground: the contact solution container. Euna must have dropped it when she hit Axel. She sighed and waited for her sister to yell at her for being lazy and irresponsible.

Joey's mouth opened like she was ready to release Tartarus, but she paused, pressed her lips together, and shoved the container into Euna's pocket. "Be careful with that," she said. "I don't want you losing it right when we need it."

Considering Euna had already dropped it once, she found Joey's choice of carrier weird. Besides, Euna would probably forget she had them until after a huge fight. Too bad we didn't have god-mode powers BEFORE we were in the Underworld This may have been some way for Joey to apologize for being a brat for the last two years, but it was a style of apology Euna didn't really want.

Although she was still miffed about the push-off-the-cliff thing, Euna glanced at Axel and withdrew the drops. "Maybe you should-"

Axel took a step back, like she was offering him a fighting troll that smelled of athlete's foot. "I probably can't use those. You keep them Euna. You earned them on the quest," he reminded. As soon as she'd stuck the container back in her pocket, Joey pointed her finger back at Axel.

"But seriously—no more pushing us off cliffs. I mean—augh! What man runs away from the Goddess of LOVE and DESIRE. What woman for that matter? Aphrodite could have probably asked Euna to clean the grit off her stilettos for all eternity and she'd be happy!"

Euna wanted to disagree, but Joey was probably right. Aphrodite had been quite charming both times they'd met her and her stilettos were very pretty.

"It's—um—complicated…" Axel murmured. "I'll try not to push you off any other cliffs though—" His excitement returned. "But we definitely need to train. Ajax and I hardly get to train with anyone but each other and-"

He froze, puffed up his cheeks, and popped them. Axel pivoted to search around the beach. "Where's Ajax?" he asked, patting down his pockets like his little brother had miniaturized purely to antagonize them.

Once he mentioned it, Euna realized none of their group was there. "Maybe he's at lunch?" Euna suggested hopefully.

Axel shook his head, searching around the sand for—Euna assumed—footprints. "No—no, he wouldn't have left without me. Not unless there was a good reason—I hope he wasn't taken…."

"By who? Wait—no." Joey nodded. "He's pretty annoying. A lot of people at camp already want him dead."

Axel waved her off.

Euna discovered Axel could put more energy into freaking out over the next hour than she had put into living life for the last 16 years. As they followed Axel off the beach, listening to him grumble something about killing the Stoll brothers, Euna's fingers touched the solution in her pocket. She had to wonder what kind of monsters they were going to fight that would require her to have god-powers.


1 This chapter originally opened with Axel's point of view with this line: "Either be the Goddess of Love's plaything or jump off the side of a cliff and try to surf a wind spirit to safety. Axel picked the thing any sane, single, heterosexual man wouldn't do: he jumped."