Disclaimer – I do not own any of the characters from The Mortal Instruments.

Chapter Three – Maps and Firewood

Caressed by soft grains of sand, Clary awoke to the crackle of sea salt in her overlapping hair and mellow kiss of the early morning sun. The memory of the night sky still hung in the lilac ripples of the dawn, a crescent moon beginning to fade into its surroundings. Next to her lay Jace, who was already awake but facing away from her, sitting further into the sea with water concealing all the way up to his chest, wet hair trailing down drops to the base of his next. Clary couldn't resist cannon-balling her way towards him in an aimless fashion and meeting his surprised eyes as he turned around at the sound, before throwing herself down onto his back and pushing his face into the water while he struggled to register what was going on. By the time he was fully awake and out of his dreamlike state, his signature smirk was placed on his face even though he was soaked through and may have possibly swallowed some of the salty sea water.

"I know I'm beautiful, sweetheart, but there's no need for you to feel the urge to jump me." Clary's eyes widened at his words, but her expression was quickly washed away when a wall of water hit her face. Growling with her eyebrows scrunched together, she began to slowly advance towards him in a murderous way.

"Clary...there's no need for th-" Jace began to back away, walking deeper into the almost transparent water, his words becoming flustered. The petite girl with a menacing glint in her moss green eyes and a perfectly arched eyebrow ignored his pleads, and let out a single battle cry as she launched herself at his torso, leaving him submerged under the water for a few seconds. Suddenly, the flesh she had expertly pinned down was out of her grasp, and she spin around trying to locate the colourful pattern of his swimming trunks. Squinting down at the almost transparent water, she saw the unmistakeable hawaii print by her ankles and a glimmer of gold. In one graceful motion, Clary felt herself lifted into the air as if she weighed next to nothing, water surging with her, before momentarily being suspended in the air as she was thrown before she was slapped by the harsh waves on impact.

Once he had scrubbed off the remainder of the coarse sea salt in his hair, Jace was dressed and feeling rather pleased with himself that he had managed to regain his normal smell instead of picturing seaweed every time he took a

Once he had scrubbed off the remainder of the coarse sea salt in his hair, Jace was dressed and feeling rather pleased with himself that he had managed to regain his normal smell instead of picturing seaweed every time he took a whiff. He had a plain tank top and a pair of dark blue drawstring shorts on, and added a snapback when he saw the weather outside. Walking to the communal kitchen that he and Clary shared, he sat himself down on one of the high swivel chairs at the island, only to see Clary already tucking into a plate of what appeared to be summer fruits smothered in yoghurt in a seat across from him. Shrugging, he walked to the refrigerator to find it brimming of food with bottles of juices lined up at the door. In the cupboards he was received with the same thing, packed tightly with anything he could ever want to eat, from delicate macaroons to pots of instant noodles. He sighed in appreciation, before grabbing a ripe mango from the large fruit bowl and using the peeler to remove the thick skin, then slicing it into fat slivers and placing it onto a plate. Looking in the fridge, he found exactly what he was looking for, and began to tear off the plastic packaging.

As Clary turned around she was sure that a look of disgust was plastered across her face, the fatty scent of bacon being fried mingling with the cherries in her mouth. She pushed away her food, instantly put off. Jace looked at her reaction with confusion, layering the scalding meat onto the mango, before stuffing it into his mouth and groaning inwardly in happiness. Yes, he just ate mango and bacon.

"Stop staring at me!" Jace cried. "They are both equally delicious products which combined create the most heavenly flavour in the history of food, delighting all nerves and providing a nutritious and wholesome meal with both fruits and meat!" He stated in angst, waving his hands around frantically while Clary continued to look at him in silent horror at her friend.

"But, mango. And...bacon." Clary emphasized, fumbling for the words to describe what she was feeling. They were two foods which just weren't made to be consumed at the same time. It was just, wrong. At the same time, Jace wolfed down the last of his food.

"So. Good." She rolled her eyes, finishing her own food.

"Whatever, freak."

"I'm not a freak."

"Of course not. Do you want to know the activity or not, O Godly One?" Jace's eyes widened at this and he instantly nodded, gesturing for her to carry on. "Well, it's two things but they fit under one category so you can't do anything about it. We're going mountain climbing!" Clary squealed, bursting in the excitement she had been holding in since she had woken up. He took a second to digest what the bright eyed was saying before he smiled, his eyes crinkling at the edges like rumpled paper. At the exact same time the two screamed out : "MOUNT OLYMPUS AND MOUNT PELION!", him in realisation and her granting him the answer.

Jace had met Clary at the age of seven during an annual party after a charity convention that both of their families took part in, and while the adults had sipped their tall glasses of wine and talked about things he didn't understand, the boy had wandered off in search of something to do that he might actually enjoy. He knew that he wouldn't be missed. As he neared a small door at the end of the hallway, he was glad to finally have a moment to himself without the loud voices and fake laughs of strangers, without the constant stream of waiters and staff bumping his shoulder frequently as they leaned over him to hand over yet another glass of liquid. Opening the door, he found that the room was actually a storeroom filled with mops and other cleaning utensils that he didn't recognise. But laying on the floor was a splash of red and a tangle of limbs, which revealed a small girl whose face was not facing him intently drawing on a sketchbook in concentration. Jace's curiosity got the better of him, and he reached over to tap the girl, who whipped her head around in surprise in a whirlwind of crimson hair. At first she was hesitant to talk to him.

"What are you drawing?" She seemed unsure whether or not to tell him, weighing either option before choosing to talk.

"I'm drawing the mythological Greek warrior, Achilles." She stated this in a clear yet quiet voice, certain on her answer.

"I've never heard of him. Achilles." He tested the word on his tongue, it feeling strange to him. Slowly, she began to tell him stories of warfare and gods and the age of heroes and quests, gradually becoming more confident as she talked passionately even at her young age. It never occurred to young Jace why a seven year old would know of these ancient legends that were foreign to him, though he considered for himself to be very smart even at that age. Over the years, they had grown up together and changed far from the small children they had each been when they met, but their shared love of Greek mythology had never faltered. Jace liked to think of himself being like Achilles, brave, strong and very much attractive. So when Clary told him that the two of them would be climbing Mount Olympus, the divine palace of gods, and Mount Pelion, the training ground of Achilles, he was thrilled and left grinning as if he was high. The two sprinted off into their individual rooms to change in clothes more appropriate clothing for the rough terrain of a mountain.

Clary met Jace at the door of their apartment in yoga pants that reached just past her knees and a star wars tee, her hair in a piled in a bun at the top of her head in the neatest way she could manage, a pair of timberlands on tied securely over her thick socks. She carried a large travel backpack with a pop up tent inside as well as enough food to feed them for weeks in the wilderness, taking up the entire size of her back to her thighs. A thick stretchy piece of material wrapped around her waist, secured by velcro, two litre bottles dangling off each side as if she was camel preparing for a lifetime in the desert. When Jace, the less prepared one from his lack of knowledge of what they were doing, was in less professional gear, just a small hiking backpack slung gracefully over one shoulder filled with essentials.

"Clary, you can hardly carry a dictionary across a room, how are you going to carry that elephant of a bag while climbing two mountains?"

"You don't understand, I searched wikihow on what stuff to bring and these are all needed." Jace snorted with disbelief.

"Wikihow? You trust wikihow? You can't possibly need to take this much stuff, even wikihow isn't that ridiculous."

"We need to bring everything in this bag!" Clary jumped up in a failed attempt to be able to be the same height as him, only to topple to the ground with the weight of the bag.

"They aren't, they aren't sacrifices for the gods are they?" A look of shock flashed over Jace's face, as if he was scared to hear the answer as he pulled her up from the ground.

"No! And you said wikihow is ridiculous."

"Fine. You can carry this little backpack," he gestured to his black bag which was now in his hands as he offered it to her, "and I'll take the damn bag and waters." Clary looked with indignantly but Jace had already begun tugging the bag off from her and lithely replacing with the smaller bag, that Clary had to admit, felt much more comfortable on her dainty shoulders, the belt already removed from her waist and placed on his hips.

"Well, the man said to follow the markings on the trees I think." Clary looked up from the handbook of Greek phrases in her hands, to see that Jace had already begun walking and was roughly twenty metres ahead of her. She didn't want to risk getting lost in the rocky terrain, with only Jace's underwear providing protection during the night. Speeding up her pace to double his, she quickly caught up with him, her chest heaving up and down with every breath. Before Jace could make a comment about her unfitness, she waved one of the hiking support sticks that looked a lot like crutches to her towards a place where the sun doesn't shine, and he quickly took the hint.

"There's no point in doing things the way people always expect you to. It takes out the fun. And we don't need markings on a tree to tell us how to climb up a mountain. You just go up, for gods sake!" He puffed out a breath as if she was an utter idiot. Clary rolled her eyes.

"You're just not confident on your masculinity. You need to prove yourself in front of a female audience."

"I am practically godly, how am I not confident in my masculinity? I am beautiful, I am glorious, I am incomparable. Clary, darling, I'm pretty much Achilles." He ended this with a suggestive smirk and wink.

"A lot of people think Achilles was gay." Clary tried to keep a straight face and succeeded for a total of half a second before laughing again like a crazed prisoner escaped from an asylum. Jace just shook his head.

While the two walked with their sticks prodding at cracks in stone and denting the earth, they passed banter between the two of them, making the time go past them unnoticeably. It was only until the first streaks bearing the sunset that they realised it was time to set up camp. They'd passed many caves that they hadn't explored as they passed, and quickly found another only a few minutes after they began looking. Jace couldn't make out where the cave ended, which made him feel uneasy, the dark shadows elongating as the sun outside grew fainter. He began searching around the vicinity near the cave, making sure not to go too far and alarm Clary, looking for things he could build a fire with. He had visited summer camp annually for four years, a week filled with survival skills and tough activities that he relished, knowing he was unbeatable. Jace knew the fire triangle, it was drilled into his head. For a sustainable fire, you needed oxygen, heat and fuel. Grabbing piles of twigs around him, he stacked them onto his arms before walking back into the dark depths of the cave, the night already beginning to grow.

Clary was satisfied with the work she single-handedly managed, and continued to walk around and inspect every side. She had built the tent, all by herself. She couldn't resist cracking a smile at the shining yellow tent, which glowed in the dark for a reason she didn't understand. Surely in the area of a wild animal, you wouldn't want to draw attention to yourself. To be fair, the tent wasn't exactly the type which had all the sticks and interlocking pieces of metal. Instead, it simply jumped into position once it had enough space, eager to enlarge its folded edged. Clary shrugged, she'd placed bedding inside, which was more than she could say for Jace. What was the boy doing again? Collecting twigs. He'd been outside for twenty minutes now, a baby in the womb would be able to get some branches quicker. She tutted, just as the said boy ambled in, his face obscured behind all of the twigs he'd found. As soon as he was in a clear space, he suddenly dumped them in a pile onto the ground, before walking away towards the bags without even looking back. Silently, fumbled opened each bag and began to sort through the contents. Looking over his shoulder, he simply shrugged at Clary's raised eyebrow.

Jace had managed to categorise the two bags, placing food into the smaller one along with clean clothes and left the rest into the larger. Every item was neatly positioned and the clothes were refolded to impeccable standards. Clary wondered if this boy had ever worked on a shop floor, before realising it was impossible to even imagine someone like him working on a shop floor. He'd brought a small moleskin notebook, within he had listed each and everything that the two of them had brought with them, estimating the maximum amount of days they could spend. Finally, he turned to look at Clary to see her amused expression. He span around to face her, crossing his legs.

"We have enough food for eleven days and three meals each day. However, we'll be taking vitamins because we won't be physically strong enough otherwise for the ascent. At least you won't be." At this he gave her a sly smirk, and began to talk again before she could. We each have three changes of clothes including what we are wearing now, and it's hygienic to change each day. However, the closest river is about fourteen miles away as the map indicates, but there's a stream in about three." Taking in the information, Clary nodded.

"How about, we collect some water from the stream tomorrow as we pass it and take that opportunity to clean ourselves the best we can. Then, we can hopefully reach the river by tomorrow night and properly wash then." Jace nodded.

"You know, we're going to be washing in a river, together, nake-" Jace had a suggestive smile that was abruptly knocked off as he received a backhand slap.

Okay, I've been gone for a while... I can explain. I went back to school and was suddenly launched back into the horrible cycle of the education system again. Currently, I'm working on this art project which takes up a majority of my end of year grade, so it takes a lot of time off my hands and I find art takes me to longest time ever, as well as the school play and a dance performance. A lot of references to The Iliad were made in this chapter as well as in my other story Ward 14. All I can say for that is I really enjoy that type of culture and can't help myself from including, but if you need any explaining on stories and myths, or if you like that kind of stuff too, feel free to PM me. I'm not sure when Ward 14 will be updated, all I can say is that the more you comment, the more motivated I am to writing things. I hope this cleared things up for you, and that you liked reading this. To the people who commented in the last chapter, your lists are coming soon!