Hey guys! I was a little busy packing for Japan, a few plan's here, and working on an original story, so I haven't posted for a bit. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Allison Song
The second Allison's hand touched the doorknob of the nearest empty tiny house, she saw a faint light in the corner of her eye. It didn't look like sunlight and besides, the sun had already set, so she looked around to see what it was. When she glanced up, she saw a white skull wreathed in a black glow hurtling towards her with diamonds scattered inside it and gold in the eye sockets. She tried to duck out of the way, but she wasn't fast enough. It clunked off her shoulder, nearly dislocating it.
"What the HADES?" She screamed. Allison clutched her bruised shoulder. She tried running. The skull flew even faster behind her.
"STOP IT!" she yelled at the skull. It flew at her face and this time Allison managed to barely jump out of the way of it. It seemed to look at her quizzically before dropping to the ground as a regular old inanimate skull.
Allison picked it up carefully. It didn't seem to be anything other than what it appeared to be: a human head bone with some rich people jewel gem stuff embedded in it. She saw her friends come running towards her.
"I heard you scream!" Saya called.
"You good mate?" Jasmine said in her horrendous Australian accent.
"Yeah, I didn't just almost got knocked out by a floating skull chasing me or anything," Allison said sarcastically as she lifted up the jeweled skull.
Saya backed up, appearing to be alarmed. Jasmine just looked mildly curious to the casual observer, but Allison noticed her eyes moving quickly, assessing if it was still a threat, and if so, how she could kill it so that it wouldn't hurt anyone.
"Where did it come from?" Jasmine asked.
"I dunno. It just came flying down from the sky at my head."
"How could you guys be so calm? Jewels… Skulls… Allison, you're a child of Hades." Saya worked out quickly, furrowing her eyebrows.
Allison looked at Saya strangely and then thought about it for a moment. I've never been afraid of skulls, death or the dark, and most Hades's kids hold grudges. She remembered that she had hated a classmate that had had a crush on her in kindergarten and didn't forgive him for it until the middle of the sixth grade when Jasmine resolved everything. She was usually the peacemaker of the group unless the issue was fandom related. Then, she was the general of the fangirl army, raging furiously as Saya planned payback on whoever insulted the fandom. The daughter of Hecate was very protective of her friends and her books.
Allison's eyes widened. Saya was right. Well, she was a child of Athena, the sassy and intelligent one. She was probably going to be right most of the time. Ugh, why did I have to be claimed right now? I'll have to walk all the way over to the Hades cabin just to go to sleep.
Sleep. That seemed like Elysium at the moment. Allison started to sway, almost drifting off to sleep while standing.
"Usually, bedtime begins in a bed," Jasmine reminded her. Allison rubbed her dark brown eyes under her large, dark blue glasses and yawned widely.
"You should probably get to the Hades cabin, then," Saya said thoughtfully, seeing Allison's tired demeanor.
"Yeah." She wasn't all that excited about living in the cabin of death, but sleep was more important than sketchy omens at the moment.
"We'll go tell Chiron for you." Jasmine offered.
"That would be nice. " Allison yawned.
"Okay. Get some sleep. Big day tomorrow." Saya smiled.
Her friends walked away, towards the Big House. Allison pinched herself to stay awake and stumbled towards the cabin that was painted black with green torches in the front. Even exhausted as she was, she could recognize the Hades cabin.
She knocked on the door tentatively. It was opened by a pale teen dressed in all black and an aviator jacket. Nico di Angelo.
"So, I'm your half-sister? Just got claimed."She held up the offending skull.
"You're the new girl from the tour, right? The quiet one, not the scared one," Nico inquired.
"Yeah. Allison Song." She chuckled. "The scared one would be Jasmine."
"Come in." He stepped aside for her to enter.
"It really does look like a vampire's lair," She said in wonder. The beds all looked like coffins. She carefully placed the bedazzled skull on the shrine to Hades and picked a random bunk on the side of the cabin that was partitioned off with sheets, presumably by Hazel, and flopped down on top of the crimson covers. She was asleep before her head hit the pillows.
One might hope that after such a traumatizing day, good dreams would await. Alas, this was never the case with demigods. In Allison's dream, she seemed to be flying, but uncontrollably, being buffeted by malevolent wind until she fell to her death. Allison woke up to a bird screeching loudly in her ear.
"Wassat?"Allison mumbled drowsily. She found Hedwig pecking through her short, tangled black hair and swatted the owl away. "It's too early," She spoke into her pillow."Stop it.. no Sickles for you."
At the foot of her bed was a black backpack with a camp T-shirt and jeans, as well as a canteen of nectar and ambrosia and, helpfully, a book with all known Greek monsters in it and how they were beaten. Camp Half-Blood had gotten more organized. She changed into the clothes and started to pull back her hair, then decided against it. Last, she clipped the scabbard of Black Crow to her belt, feeling like a real demigod. Which she was, but still.
She checked her watch. It was 7:58, meaning breakfast scheduled to start in two minutes. She glanced around the cabin to make sure it wouldn't utterly fail at cabin inspection and walked over to the other side of the cabin, meeting Nico at the door. Hedwig followed.
"I thought that thing was that Athena kid's." Nico pointed at Hedwig.
Allison shrugged. "I sleep in a lot. Saya probably sent Hedwig to wake me up."
"Well, come on. I'm not missing breakfast because of you. Will would kill me." Nico announced.
Allison smiled. Solangelo was dysfunctional but cute at the same time. She followed Nico out of the cabin and made her way to the dining pavilion. She saw her friends grabbing plates and rushed to catch up. Allison grabbed a bowl and instantly tripped over a crack in the floor. The bowl flew out of her hands and nearly shattered, but Saya caught it midair. Allison stood, brushing herself off. She saw the other campers whispering. Whatever, she thought to herself. This happens a lot. Don't get worked up about it.
Saya grinned. "Good job, Allison. You've succeeded in life. " She handed Allison the bowl as she walked over to what Allison was assumed was the Athena cabin table with her bowl of oatmeal. Jasmine was already sitting at the Hecate table chatting with the counselor, who she guessed was Lou Ellen, while eating her pancakes. Allison poured some Lucky Charms without milk and headed off to where Nico and Hazel were eating their breakfast.
"Have you discovered any Hades powers?" Hazel asked.
"No." Allison picked the marshmallows out of her cereal and ate them, leaving the actual food.
"Summoned any gems or bones? Shadow traveled to China?"
"No." Allison dropped a rainbow marshmallow into her mouth. The only Hades powers she had was stopping a flying skull from smashing into her own head.
"Are you good at using your sword?"
"I guess I'm good at swords in general. Never tried this one." They had pretended to fight with bladed weapons that were, in actuality, sticks, but never anything that could hurt anyone, and of course never anything made of magical metal.
"Then we'll go to the arena after breakfast to see what level you're at," Nico replied.
Allison nodded as she picked at her leftover cereal. "Great. Can Jasmine and Saya come too?"
"Sure," Hazel said. "Annabeth can teach Saya how to use her dagger and I can help Jasmine with the Mist. Besides, Jasmine sort of needs a melee weapon as well."
"Yeah," Nico agreed. "You can't shoot something right in front of your face."
They finished up their breakfast and Jasmine and Saya joined them walking down to the arena. Jasmine and Hazel started geeking out about the Mist. Occasionally, something random, like a Maserati or a chicken nugget would appear in front of them as the two witches showed off.
Left lying in the dust was an open silver switchblade with an ebony handle. Jasmine snatched it up. The other side of the blade glinted with celestial bronze. "This is mine now," She declared. "Can I have it?"
Nico shrugged. "You could put it in lost and found, but if someone doesn't care about it enough to remember it, then they probably don't deserve it. Go ahead and keep it." Jasmine closed the blade and tucked it into her back pocket, going back to magicing with Hazel.
Allison noticed that Annabeth had a sort of haunted look on her face. Of course, Allison thought. Luke's sword had the same design. She wondered what to say. She may have been the daughter of death, but talking about death to someone who has seen it firsthand? She had no idea how to do that.
"So. Try to attack me," Nico encouraged.
"Um. I don't know how," Allison said nervously.
"A monster isn't going to wait for you to Google it," Nico pointed out. "If I were a wild Cyclops or something, what would you do?"
"I dunno." She held her sword awkwardly. "Stab and try not to die?"
Nico sighed, acting like he was about to sheath his sword. "You have to-" Mid-sentence, he attacked.
"You troll!"She yelped, trying desperately to parry the bigger sword. Within seconds, Black Crow clattered to the arena floor. "That's not fair."
"Monsters don't follow the rules," He countered. "Now try again."
"That's how it's gonna be?" She asked, and tried to be on the offense that time. She actually felt like she could win this practice fight when she tripped on a random tibia sticking out of the ground. That wasn't there before, She thought. Nico.
Allison stumbled back while continuing to block Nico's attacks. She tried pushing forward, but Nico used his own sword to twist hers out of her hand. Black Crow fell to the ground for a second time.
They sparred again and again, and every time, Nico won without any visible effort, criticizing her every move. She sort of should have expected this, knowing his reputation. She didn't care. Each defeat made her more determined to win, but she never did. Meanwhile, Saya and Jasmine were having a great time succeeding with the Mist and knife fighting, and when they messed up, they seemed fine with it, which irked her even more.
She stared at the ground. "I CAN'T GET ANYTHING RIGHT," Allison screamed in frustration. Out of nowhere, all sorts of things came bursting out of the ground. They flew around her, making a tornado of bones and precious metals. Saya and Jasmine ran as close as they could to Allison without getting hit by the cyclone. Nico dodged a piece of debris flying towards him.
"I'll go get Chiron," Jasmine said quickly and dashed off to fetch him.
Soon, her anger faded, the bones and metals rattling as they fell in a circle around her. A tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto the dusty earth.
Hazel was the first to approach her.
Allison felt the older demigod's hand on her shoulder and looked up. "What?" She asked quietly, her dark, unbrushed shoulder-length hair surrounding her face like her own personal cave that she could retreat into.
"No skill worth having comes quickly. It took me seventy years to go on a successful quest," Hazel reminded her gently.
Chiron came trotting into the arena. "Oh, dear," he said. "Hades powers."
Nico casually raised a hand and put all of the bones Allison had summoned back into the earth where they belonged. Hazel fixed the rest.
"Well," Jasmine said, "At least we know you're powerful. Now that the Greeks and Romans are working together, does that mean that Hades can give his children some powers of Pluto as well?"
"Possibly," Chiron mused. "Do you still feel able to go on the quest?"
"Yes." She said firmly. She wouldn't lose again.
"Good," Jasmine grinned. "We are not throwing away our shot."
"Oh," Chiron said. "You're quoting that musical by Apollo's old head counselor. He was a handful."
"Lin-Manuel Miranda was a demigod?" Saya asked, then corrected herself. "Of course he was." The daughter of Athena casually disarmed made the Mist put a big bushy Italian mustache on her face. Allison smiled. Saya had no idea. She still had a triumphant look on face, reflecting her habit . "You never said it was over," Jasmine added a bright red goatee. "Why is everyone laughing?" She asked. "Jasmine… "
"Fine." Jasmine waved her hand over Saya's face, erasing the facial hair, but changing her normally long, thick black hair to a cotton candy swirl.
Unfortunately, Saya knew their friend too well, even before they had learned of her Hecate powers. "All of it." Jasmine finally took away all of the Mist she had placed.
"That's… an interesting way to practice your powers," Chiron smiled. "I haven't seen that kind of effortless skill with the Mist since I met Hecate."
"Thanks," Hazel muttered.
"Not quite effortless," Saya remarked as she slapped Jasmine gently to keep her awake.
"You know what my motto is?" She asked sleepily. "HOLY SCHIST! IT'S A DUCK!" Jasmine looked around. "Did I just say that aloud?"
"Emphasis on loud," Allison told her.
"I would turn you pink, but I like sleep," Jasmine made it sound like she was making the hardest decision of her life.
Strangely, Allison felt barely tired at all. It was almost like the morning had made her less fatigued for some reason. Her hand drifted toward the handle of her sword and she felt a spark of energy from it. Stygian iron.
The three questers got their backpacks from the edge of the arena and left. Chiron followed to tell them goodbye. As they got to Thalia's tree, a little blond boy in a plaid shirt and green athletic shorts ran up to them.
"Don't go yet, Saya!" he squeaked. His eyes widened as he saw Jasmine. "Annabel? Aren't you in the mountains this weekend?"
"Um…" Jasmine said awkwardly. "My name's Jasmine."
His face fell, but he brightened soon enough. "Ok!"
"Looks like you've got yourself your first fanboy," Allison said.
"Are you the new Hades kid?" He said in awe. "I'm Eric."
"I think he found a new favorite character," Saya contradicted. "This is my genius little half-brother."
"Is it true that you can open a door to the Underworld in two seconds?"
"No. Not yet, at least." Allison was kind of enjoying the attention. Usually, when someone noticed her, it was to pick on her. Hero-worship was quite new.
"I ship it," Jasmine snickered. "Ericson?"
"Go to Tartarus," Allison dismissed her comment. Jasmine could be so annoying.
Saya patted Eric on the head. "We have to be going soon, but we'll bring you a souvenir."
"Yay!" He ran off to tell all his friends, but suddenly tumbled into what Allison assumed was a sinkhole.
"Schist!" Saya ran to the edge of the hole. "We'll get you out! Stay calm."
"What's the length of a triangle's hypotenuse when the other two sides are 5.3 and 7?" Saya yelled down to Eric. He sat down, beginning to think.
"Why?" Allison questioned, confused.
"Keeps him busy."
"Anyone have a rope or something?" Saya asked. Tully ran over with some string made of grass. Saya looked at it disdainfully and cut it into three pieces with her dagger. She tied it in a knot at the end and braided it, her hands flying faster that Allison could follow.
"Um, guys?" Jasmine tried to get their attention. "Look."
"Just a second." Saya tied off her DIY rope.
"No, look," Jasmine pointed down at Eric. "That's no sinkhole. That's the entrance to something way worse."
Did you enjoy the chapter? Please give feedback! We would really appreciate it! Well, I don't have much to say, so, Goodbye my little sushi rolls!