River dove into the sea, looking to escape from her lonely existence. Swimming among the reefs, she felt at home in this other world. A curious school of brightly colored fish enveloped Riv, obscuring her in a glittering cloud of color. Riv thought of her home, and the fish read her mind. They gathered into a formation of cliffs and canyons, and Riv smiled. Oh, how I wish to just live among the fish, she thought.
James noticed the girl diving into the sea, but he ignored that fact; she was probably a daughter of Poseidon.
Riv popped her head above water and saw the position of the sun. Oh, wait, there was no sun, it was already night. Silently cursing, Riv climbed out of the water and headed to dinner.
James swung his sword at a practice dummy, the head unfortunately being chopped off and sent towards Riv.
"Hey! Watch it!" Riv's eyes flashed silver, and she gave a violent shudder. Then she started to march toward James, almost like a zombie. Riv's eyes turned tri-colored—gray and blue and green all at the same time—and she blushed a deep crimson. "I-I'm sorry…" Riv frantically tried to think of an explanation, but finding none, she spun around and dashed off toward the dinner pavilion. Still embarrassed, Riv sat down at the Poseidon table, hiding her face behind a wall of strawberry blonde hair.
After a dinner of super lean-cut barbecue and some watermelon, Riv headed to the training area. Pulling out her sword, she started to hack the dummies to pieces, venting all of her emotions. I really CAN'T afford to phase out again…
Deciding wearily to get some sleep—possibly also bored of the empty training area—Riv silently crossed the moonlit grounds and entered the Poseidon cabin, again reminded how alone she was when she saw her three male cabin mates—Percy, Tyson, and Aleksandr. She climbed in bed and waited for sleep to find her.
Riv got up and stood by her window, taking in the beautiful winter night. Gods, it's hot...worse than The Terrace...Riv pulled on some jeans and an orange t-shirt, then slipped out the window. Then she ran toward the stables, hoping to soon escape from the heat. Riv stopped in the doorway of the stables and caught her breath. The stables were silent, full of sleeping horses and pegasai, save for one dappled grey. "Hey, Snowfire," Riv said softly to the horse, holding out sugarcubes. Snowfire gently ate the sugarcubes from her palm, ignoring the whinnies of Blackjack. Get your own, Snowfire told him, making Riv laugh. "Sorry Blackjack. I'll tell Percy to get you some sugarcubes later." The pegasus snorted in aknowlegement, and Riv led Snowfire out of the stables. Riv mounted Snowfire, then they galloped out to the beach. After watching the sunrise, Snowfire took Riv back to her cabin. Riv thought she heard some noises coming from the Ares cabin, but quickly dismissed it. If Snowfire doesn't think that is important, then I don't care. For the most part. After thanking Snowfire for dropping her off at her cabin, Riv watched Snowfire return to the stables in the early morning light. Then she climbed back through the open window and silently slipped into her bed before anyone noticed her absence. Riv sat on her bed, doodling on a notepad and waiting for breakfast. She sighed, wishing that there was someone else to talk to. Percy was sound asleep, and there was no one else in the cabin. Not fun... Riv got up slipped out the window again, and headed over to the volleyball court. Then she sat down, the sand shifting between her toes. Riv spotted Ivy by the far side of the volleyball courts and waved to her. "Hey!" Riv called.
Ivy paused. "Um ok...Hi?" Ivy said.
Riv jogged over. "Um, hi!" she said cheerily. "Finallysomeone is awake."
"Got cheetos?" Ivy asked.
"Cheetos...?" Riv asked warily. "No..."
"Dang." Ivy sighed. "What's your name." Ivy asked.
"River. But everyone calls me Riv." Riv answers. "What's yours?"
"Ivy. A guy I know...his name is James… have you seen him?" Ivy asked.
"Yeah. But that was yesterday evening. He cut off a dummy's head and it almost beaned me!" Riv says, and her eyes flash silver, then back to blue. "Not cool."
Ivy laughed. "So who is your godly parent." She asked.
Riv opened the water bottle she was carrying with her. Setting it on the ground, Riv called up the water and made it envelop her hand, tendrils of water snaking out to Ivy. "Poseidon."
James walked on the scene, and put an arm around Ivy. "What's up?" he said to them both.
Ivy yelped. "Water!" She squeaked.
Riv just stared at Ivy. What could be wrong with water?
"I hate water." She said with a scared look on her face, she shadow traveled away.
James glared at Riv. "Are you happy now?" he said, running off to find Ivy.
Riv gives a cry of surprise. "Wait! I-...didn't do anything...?"
Ivy was hypervenalating. All she could think about was drowning.
"Ivy! Ivy!" James called for her.
Riv felt terrible about chasing away her new-and only-friend. Well, at least I know she's a daughter of Hades..."Ivy! Come out! Please?" Riv shouted. "I'm so sorry!"
Ivy's fists clenched and she came back to earth. "Huh. I-I'm here." She said.
Following the sound of Ivy's voice, Riv runs toward her, anxious to make amends for her mistake. "Ivy!" Riv pants, relieved to have found her. "Look, I'm really sorry. I hadn't known that you didn't like water..." Riv trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"It's fine." Ivy sighed.
"Are you sure?" Riv looked into Ivy's eyes, trying to read her emotions. Dammit, I can't read emotions. Well duh, I'm not a satyr. But Riv had this funny dream once... she thought about it, off topic.
Ivy was getting a little creeped out. She tapped the ground twice and a skeleton of a kitten popped out of the ground. She began to rub it's spine.
"Oh, and you're creeped out by me?" Riv asks. She had the whole emotion-reading thing under way after all. "I'm sorry, it doesn't help for me to critisize you. Nice, uh, dead kitten... I love kittens..." Riv laughs, thinking of her friend's eight kittens back home at the Terrace.
"Yup." Ivy sighed.
Riv gives Ivy a quizzical look. "Are you sure you don't want to tell me what's bugging you? If not, I'll leave it alone. But feel free to tell me whenever."
James walked up behind Riv. "Haven't you done enough?" he asked her.
Riv spins around and gives James her best Don't mess with meglare. "If you were here, you would know that I am actually trying to comfortIvy. Gods, get with the program." Riv crosses her arms and. "Humph."
James put on his best death glare. "Maybe you should leave." he said, defending himself, only wanting to help his (unnofficial) girlfriend.
Riv shoots mental daggers at James, still staring him down with her tricolored eyes. Then she looks down at Ivy and her gaze softens. "Maybe we should ask Ivy's opinion." Riv sits down next to Ivy and asks, "What do you think?"
James looked at Ivy, several emotions such as worry, sorrow, and guiltiness running through his eyes.
"Stop fusing over me. Become friend." She shrugged.
Riv's eyes flash silver, then become tricolored once more. "Alright." Riv holds out her hand. "Friends?"
James nodded. He took her hand and shook it rather tightly, signaling he still was not fond of Riv.
Ivy yawned. "I think I should go take a nap. I tired." She said getting up and walking toward her cabin.
Riv wiped her hand on her jeans; she also disliked her new "friend". "Bye Ivy." Riv patted Ivy's back then spun on her heel and walked up to the pavillion for breakfast.
James walked after Riv. "Let's make one thing clear," he said, in a threatening manner. "If you ever hurt Ivy like you did, you won't live to regret it."
Riv turned to face James, a scowl on her face. "In case you didn't notice before, she had asked me a question, and I was answering it." Riv answered defensively. "How was I supposed to know that she dislikes water? Did youeven know that?"
James nodded. "You still didn't need to be a freaking SHOWOFF about it." he pointed out. "I'm a son of Ares, I don't go around killing people to prove it."
Her comeback countered, Riv growls. "Well, excuse me for proving my parentage. Just leave me alone, and hope I don't lose control like last night. It's a good thing I had stopped myself. Next time, you might not be so lucky." Riv spun around and ran the rest of the way up to the pavillion, leaving the threat hanging in the air.
James looked after her, and in his anger, brought our his claymore and chopped down the nearest tree in one swing.