Necklace Shopping

Six years ago...

Aria

Recover the cursed necklace born of forge's fury,

But permission to proceed shall be granted by maternal jury.

A balance of misfortune to luck is needed

But suspicions about one will be seeded.

Slay the vulpine who cannot be bound by cage

To gain passage to greed's inevitable rage.

Those words resounded in Aria's mind as she, Felix, and AJ rose chariot over the clouds as they headed west. Just as she had been settling into a new routine at Camp Half-Blood, she had been picked for a quest. She was just leaving the mess hall after lunch going to watch Felix practice his knife throwing, only to be cut off by a red-headed girl in a zip-up hoodie and torn blue jeans. The girl said that it was important that she talked to her. Aria didn't know the girl and sure didn't know how the girl knew who she was, she had never seen this girl before since arriving at camp. Whoever she was though, everyone else who was leaving after lunch stopped and stared.

What had happened next Aria could only describe as being out of an Exorcist film. A trail of green smoke was expelled from her mouth as a completely different voice left her mouth, telling her the prophecy about necklaces, luck, and vulpix (and she didn't even like Pokemon).

After that, the whole camp was abuzz. Chiron told her that she had been issued a quest, her cabin mate (sorry, siblings) were talking about 'The Necklace of Harmonia' and trying to force information down her throat, and the older campers where trying to give here directions on where she should go. The important information she got were as follows:

The Necklace of Harmonia was a gift cursed by Hephaestus in retaliation for Aphrodite's affair with Ares (that would explain why the Cabin 9 kids were avoiding her now). It bestowed eternal youth and beauty, but the wearer would be struck with a terrible fate.

She was allowed to bring two people with her. Since 'luck' was mentioned in the prophecy, she decided on Felix, and since AJ was part of her 'posse', she let him come too.

Going off the line 'Greed's inevitable rage', the older camp members were directing towards Plutus, the personification of greed, and his newest home, the Mall of America

The head of AJ's cabin, Butch, had set them up with a chariot and pegasus and sent them off.

Looking up from the clouds, she looked at Felix and AJ. Felix was shuffling a deck of cards, lost in thought as AJ sat a bit aways from the other two. Ever since Aria had brought him along, there was something off about the child of Iris. Normally the three of them were inseparable, but now that they were on the quest, AJ looked like he was trying to put distance between them.

"You okay Rainbow Dash?" Felix asked as he sat down across from him. Aria knew that the only person allowed to call AJ that and walk away without a black eye was Felix.

AJ looked up, "Yeah, I'm fine Lucky. Got any marshmallows I can munch on?" Again, AJ was the only one allowed to call the son of Tyche a cereal mascot without having his karma out of whack for the day. Aria rolled her eyes as they started to play Go Fish as she had the pegasus lower through the clouds towards the mall.

She didn't question how the chariot managed to fit into the parking spot, but according to Chiron, the Mist would make the chariot look like an SUV. Again, she didn't question.

"What's our first move, of fearless leader?" Felix asked as they walked towards the mall. Aria looked between her teammates, Felix's sash of throwing knives was looking like a hazy strap for a messenger bag while the sica hanging at AJ's side just looked like a large rainbow keychain. As for herself, her rapier had shrunk to a hair pick that was safely stashed in her bun. Again, more Mist to keep them hidden.

AJ shrugged, "We're looking for a necklace, right? So let's start with the jewelery stores. If we split up, we can cover more ground and get supplies."

Aria had to admit, it was a sound plan. The campers had managed to pool about $150 for them, plus Felix had an extra $100 from his less-than-legal poker games (turns out those Nike kids really like to gamble). They had split the money up between them, just in case one of them lost their money. Also, they didn't stock well on supplies, so it wouldn't hurt to do some shopping.

"Okay, each of us takes a floor, looks for anyplace that might have jewelery, and buy any supplies. we might need." Aria said as they entered the Mall.

Felix smiled, "So, it's a shopping spree of fate then..."