Destination Calabria

iI left my job, my boss, my car and my home
I'm leavin' for a destination I still don't know
Somewhere nobody must have beauties at all
And if you like us you can follow me
So let's go!
Follow me and let's go!
To the place where we belong
And leave our troubles at home
Come with me, we can go
To a paradise of love and joy
A destination unknown!

-Destination Calabria, Alex Gaudino ft. Crystal Waters /i

watch?v=kYNVvcoog-M

The trip inside the sack was even more unpleasant than the last time he'd been shoved in a sack and kidnapped. That one had only lasted a few seconds, thanks to the portal. The landing had been less than pleasant, but at the moment Jack would have taken another trip like that every day for a week rather than another minute of this one.

The satyresses and the spirits directing them didn't have portal at their disposal, though they did have some way to eat up the miles and travel over water, obviously, since satyresses tended to stay in Europe if they could.

They kept trying to grope him through the heavy sack, too, though the sack itself was foiling most of their efforts. Jack certainly wasn't appreciating them, giving the sack a nice layer of ice and frost in addition to giving frost-nips to wandering hands.

The satyresses squealed each time he did, but they didn't stop. All in all, it was almost a relief when the sack was dropped onto a hard surface and the ties at the top loosened.

Jack could hear metal grinding and clanging against metal and the sound of their hooves scampering away as he fought he way out of the sack, gasping at the fresh air hungrily. That sack was stifling.

He glanced around and bit back a groan. They'd dumped his sack in a icage/i, of all things, one of delicate looking bronze bars in twirling, curved filigree, not straight bars, like something out of Tooth's palace.

Deceptively delicate he decided a few seconds later, shaking his sore hand. Very solid bars, and an equally solid lock.

Looking out over the rest of the room, he tried to figure out where he could be. The room was lined with Grecian pillars, floored with white marble, and he had the impression of a Greek temple.

His cage was up off the floor, and if he had to guess he would say it was sitting on the altar. It was...an odd sensation, knowing he was caged on an altar like some kind of sacrifice.

The spirits and satyresses had clattered off already, leaving the room quiet as he looked around, though he could faintly hear them returning, a clatter of hooves on marble and muffled voices.

"Enough," a feminine voice said through the chatter, clear through the heavy door. "You may play with him once I have finished with him. The how shall have to wait until then, when we see if he will cooperate or not."

Jack fought back a sudden surge of nerves to lean back against the bars of the cage, projecting nonchalance as hard as he could.

The door opened and a woman in ancient Greek chiton slipped through, closing the door firmly behind her. Her dark hair was piled high on her head and caught in a golden net, the light sparkling on the gold as she made her way across the floor to Jack's cage, her walk as graceful as a dance.

She looked vaguely familiar, and Jack realized she must be one of the muses, since he recognized the resemblance to Melpomene, Thalia, and Erato after a few confused seconds.

"Hello, Jack Frost," she said, stopping at the side of his cage to look up at him with eyes that were vaguely amused, angry, and covetous all at once.

"Hey, Terpsichore," he replied, making a quick guess and propping his staff against his shoulder. "What's up?"

"Oh, you do recognize me?" she asked instead, crossing her arms and glaring up at him.

He shrugged. "The walk gave it away. Yanno, if all you wanted to do was talk, all you had to do was ask."

She glared at him again before turning with a huff, gliding across the floor to a throne against the wall. Sitting in it heavily, she crossed her legs and propped her elbow on the throne arm. "Maybe I should just keep you in there," she said, "at least you're pretty to look at."

Jack tried to hide the surge of panic the idea gave him – he was not having an easy time being caged as it was, despite his nonchalant attitude being trapped inside the cage was already starting to wear on him, like a fist around his heart – but failed.

"What? Why?" he cried, scrambling to his knees to grab at the curls of bars surrounding him. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, though it wasn't working. "Terpsichore, why did you kidnap me? What do you want?"

"Spirits don't come to me for dancing anymore," she snapped. "Every time a spirit starts talking about dancing, it's all 'Jack Frost this' or 'Jack Frost that', and how they can find you and get a dance and comparing who got to dance what!"

...okay, Jack decided, that earned some confused blinking, and he suited action to thought.

"I...have no idea what you're talking about," he said. Terpsichore ignored him, too far in her rant to hear him.

"And then, to cap it all off, you've never even approached me! I'm the muse of dance, if you're going to try and make a reputation as a dancer than you could at least come talk to me! You even danced with my sisters before me! Unless you want to be both the spirit of winter and the spirit of dance, and I'm not giving up my role without a fight. If you want out of that cage, than you'll have to prove you've earned that reputation," she finished, glaring at Jack angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, hold up! I'm not the spirit of dance, that's your gig," Jack said, pointing and waving his open hand for emphasis. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about!"

Terpsichore paused, looking Jack over thoughtfully. Her glare faltered as she met his eyes, seeing the honest confusion there. The corner of her mouth twitched.

"You...really don't, do you?" she said, and Jack shook his head vigorously even as she broke down laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, it's hilarious," Jack rolled his eyes, settled back into his former position. "Care to let me in on the joke now?"

Terpsichore smirked, standing and sashaying back over to the cage. "Let me let you in on a few things, Jack Frost..."

A/N: And so appears Terpsichore, Muse of Dance! And Jack may finally get a clue, even if it's delivered with a two-by-four.