Snowballs

It was times like these that made all the scrapes with death worthwhile. The sun was high and bright, but still behind them, not yet in their eyes. It had snowed last night—again—and the temperature was well below freezing. Thank the gods for enchanted jackets, Thalia thought, more grateful than ever for her warm, silvery parka. It was nice to take a break from the tense, endless stalking once in a while. Such reprieves were few and far between, and having Artemis with them made it that much more special; with all the ancient monsters stirring, they hardly saw their goddess at all these days.

Up ahead, Ari froze. "Thalia," she hissed in a low, urgent voice, beckoning her lieutenant forward.

Hurrying to her side, Thalia ducked under a low branch and peered into the forest. "What's wrong?" She turned to Ari just in time to catch a glimpse of her trademark devilish grin before the young prankster tugged on the snow-laden branch, sending a deluge of the stuff tumbling down onto Thalia's head. "You…you little…get back here!" she spluttered.

Cackling demonically, Ari scampered out of arm's reach. Thalia rolled her eyes, shook the snow out of her hair, and retuned to her position at Artemis' side with as much dignity as possible. The goddess raised an eyebrow pointedly.

Thalia sighed. "Okay, okay, you were right. I never should have let Ari have coffee." She paused, then added somewhat testily, "Though you might have mentioned that before she drank three double espressos."

"I have found experience to be the best teacher."

Ari materialized at Thalia's elbow. "I did not drink three double espressos!" she said indignantly. "I drank two double espressos and a cappuccino and part of Phoebe's latte when she wasn't looking. You know, Phoebe's latte wasn't very good. I mean, it wasn't bad. I've had, like, really bad coffee, so compared to that it was good, but then so is like, mud." Without so much as pausing for breath, she continued, "You know, your hair really has grown out, Thalia. I think it looks nice, but if you don't think it looks nice you should ask Kim to cut it, which may sound stupid because she's, ya know, blind, but she still manages to make people look really good because Aphrodite's the goddess of beauty. I mean she's never, like, killed anybody, which is always a concern with sharp objects near throats and spinal cords and all, but there's always a first time, so I can see why you might just want to grow your hair out instead."

There was a short pause.

"Anything else?" Thalia asked.

At that precise moment, Thalia stepped on a small twig. This wouldn't have been worthy of notice if the twig hadn't been the trigger for one of Angela Wilkins' many types of traps. The daughter of Hephaestus was quite new, but very talented. She could make a snare out of anything; with the right materials she could build intricate traps that Thalia doubted even Annabeth could understand. This particular trap served only to launch a large amount of snow straight at Thalia's head, and it performed its duty with gusto.

"Nope," said Ari. She gave an impish wink before scurrying over to Angela and slapping her an enthusiastic high-five.

"Why me? Thalia moaned, brushing snow off her shoulders. She had been aiming for a joking tone, but the bitterness in her voice was impossible to disguise.

"It's nothing personal, Thalia," Artemis said quietly. "On the contrary, Ari is very fond of you. You're just the only one not yet familiar with her tricks."

Nodding acceptingly, Thalia watched Ari and Angela. They were laughing, picking their way arm-in-arm through the thick snow. The lieutenant's electric-blue eyes turned calculating, and she scraped up a handful of snow, packing it into a ball.

"Thalia." The rebuke was gentle, but it was still there.

Thalia sighed and tossed the snowball harmlessly to the side. "Sorry. Kim! Careful!" she called suddenly.

"It's okay, Thalia, Tori's got me," Kim called back. The Hunters were carefully crossing a frozen creek, using slippery rocks as footholds rather than trust their weight to the ice.

"After you," Artemis said, indicating the creek. There was a strange look in her eyes, but Thalia moved ahead all the same. She was just about to start the crossing when a decent-sized snowball hit the back of her head. She spun around, expecting to see Ari, but the only one there was Artemis, looking innocently puzzled as to what Thalia's problem might be.

Shaking her head incredulously, Thalia decided that maybe scrapes with death weren't all that bad.