Alexa let out a soft groan as the sun peeked in through the window of Cabin 11. Not for the first time that week the 6 year old attempted to pull the pillow over her head and return to the realm of sleep and, not for the first time, she was prevented by a long, lanky teen with long black ringlets.
"Cabin 11! Up and at 'em!" She cried at the top of her lungs. Melissa Jardine wasn't exactly the best councilor to have if you were a late riser. Had any of the residence of Cabin 11 been told she had rooster blood in her none would've batted an eye. This had been the way they had been awoken every morning since she had taken the post two years ago and it was also how Alexa had started every day that week.
Most campers got out of bed with the chorus of grumbles, groans, and muffled curses. The only exceptions to this rule were Christopher O'Quinn, a pale, pudgy ten year old who could sleep through a hurricane if so inclined, and Alexa herself. The newest member of the Cabin 11 family grabbed her pillow and pulled it over her head. Maybe if she tried to ignore them all she'd be able to start the day later.
Her attempts were met with a woosh and a sudden cold feeling from her neck down, indicating that someone stole her blankets. The culprit was quick to identify themselves.
"Oh no you don't, lazy butt! Up and at 'em! It's a great day!" Melissa said in an annoyingly cheery voice. Alexa didn't respond beyond an annoyed little grunt.
"Come on" Melissa said, poking her in the side with a long, bony finger. "You're gonna miss the bacon if you don't get up soon"
Alexa let out another, a bit more forceful, annoyed grunt, and pressed her pillow a little tighter over her skull.
"Hey! That's two in a row! That's a new record for you! One of these days we'll get you to say actual words!" Melissa teased. This earned her a pillow to the face. Alexa grumbled as she got up, Melissa smiled at her and gave her already messy hair a light tossle before heading a few beds over to aid in the Herculean task of waking Chris. Alexa made her bed, and joined the rapidly growing line for the bathroom.
After taking an all too brief shower and brushing her teeth, Alexa dressed in her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a pair of shorts. She exited the bathroom to find four of the older campers, including Melissa, carrying a still snoring Chris out of his bed and towards the bathroom. Sighing, Alexa helped her fellow Cabin 11 residents clean up. With all of them, it really didn't take all that much.
After Chris had finally been roused with a shower with zero hot water left over, Cabin 11 joined the throng of other campers heading for breakfast. Seated at the Hermes table along with the rest of her cabin, Alexa helped herself to some bacon and toast, hoping that today would start off better than the ones before.
These hopes were quickly dashed by a sausage hitting her squarely in the forehead, bouncing off, and landing on her plate. A cackle followed this from the Ares table.
"Direct hit!" Jazz crowed. Alexa hunched her shoulders and glared down at the sausage, trying to fight down the bubbling anger she felt in the pit of her stomach. "What's the matter New Meat? Not your cup of tea?" Her new tormentor called.
She couldn't continue with the culinary assault, however, at that moment Chiron and Mr. D arrived and began to go over the morning announcements. Even Jazz wasn't dumb enough to try something right under the centaur's nose.
Alexa could say with all honesty that she didn't know what she had done to Jazz to make her hate her like she did. Every morning Alexa found herself under attack by the daughter of Ares; sometimes there was food flung her way, once her face was shoved into her scrambled eggs, and always there was the taunting. It only got worse when they actually went out for the camp activities. Hermes cabin shared two activities with Ares cabin; The rock wall before lunch, and various forms of combat training before dinner. No matter what she did, Jazz made it her personal mission in life to make Alexa's training that much harder. It almost felt like the opposite of a cheerleader; she always had someone on the sidelines screaming that she was never good enough and that she should just quit.
Melissa leaned over and put a hand on Alexa's shoulder. "Hey...it's okay" Whispered the cabin counselor in a rare show of seriousness.
"Just ignore her." She continued. Alexa could only nod her head. There was a slight pause before Melissa asked "Do you want us to put itching powder in her armor?" Alexa couldn't help but smile, but all the same she shook her head.
"There's that smile." Melissa said, her own smile breaking across her face. She gave Alexa's shoulder a little squeeze and went back to eating.
Alexa picked at her own food, eating a bit of bacon and a couple of slices of toast before she got up and took the rest to bonfire and dumped the whole plate in. She said a silent prayer to her father. She didn't want acknowledgement, maybe someday she might, but all she wanted was a bit of help dealing with Jazz.
Despite how the day started, Alexa found a smile taking up residence on her face as she put her foot down on the pedal. After an entirely too boring lesson on the written language of the Ancient Greeks, and a lackluster attempt at archery, the Hermes Cabin had arts and crafts scheduled with the Hephaestus Cabin. Today, they tackled pottery and Alexa found the experience more relaxing than anything she had done at camp thus far.
With every push of the pedal under her foot the ball of clay spun, and Alexa's fingers worked it into shape. The gray lump slowly turned into something more reminiscent of a bowl under the guiding force of her finger tips. True, she was far from the best artist here, but at the same time she was far from the worst.
A few more forceful squeezes of her fingers brought the damp clay upwards, the bowl starting to cave in on itself from the top as she spun it faster, and faster, dipping her fingers in the water bucket next to her to wet the clay as the bowl slowly morphed into something much closer to jar or an urn.
Had she had the option, she would've stayed like that for hours, days even, letting the anger flow out of her fingers and into the clay in front of her. But, sadly, the fates, or more accurately the camp itinerary refused to be so kind.
"Alright everyone, let's start packing it up!" Called the counselor for Cabin 9, a tall black haired boy of about 14 named Otto. "Anyone who has something they want to paint for next time gently carve your name into the bottom of your work and we'll put it in the kiln for-" Before he could finish, one of the Hermes kids chucked a large wet wad of clay at him from across the work space. Otto quickly ducked out of the way while the camper in question scurried off with a wicked cackle.
Alexa quietly scooped up her jar and walked it up to Otto. Otto greeted her with a gentle smile, but in his eyes she could see the unease. The whole camp had been informed of her situation, they all knew what had happened, and some campers, like Otto, tended to walk on eggshells around her.
"Ahh, what a nice jar, Alexa." He said, his smile widening a little. "You certainly have a knack for pottery!"
Alexa's own smile grew a little wider too, as she handed her work off to him.
"Do you want us to fire this up for you?" Otto asked. Alexa nodded eagerly. Otto gave her a gentle pat on the head. "Alright then." He glanced up, finding a lot of empty seats and a lot of clay pots and bowls in front of him.
"You better hurry, you don't want to miss your next activity" He said, gently shooing her out. Alexa sighed, how wrong he was.
She hurried to catch up with her Cabin Mates, her little legs finally bringing her to the end of the line just as Cabin 11 reached the rock climbing walls.
"Well, well, look who thought she could show up late!" Alexa winced and immediately tried to shuffle into the crowd of campers, but a strong hand gripped her by the forearm. "It's the New Meat!" Crowed Jazz as she lifted Alexa off the ground for all to see. The campers of Cabin 5 chuckled appreciatively.
"Jazz, lay off, okay?" Melissa said, stepping up to the pair, hands on her hips. Jazz grinned that barbed wire grin of hers and let Alexa drop.
"Of course. We're all friends here, aren't we?" Jazz said, earning another snicker from the Ares crowd. Jazz then turned to the rest of the group. "Now, for the slower of you who haven't figured it out yet, we're going to be climbing the wall today! The wall is an important part of your training as future heroes! It teaches you speed, sharpens your reactions, develops upper body strength, and some other bull that I'm sure is important to someone."
She looks around the group with a clap of her hands and grin."So, who would like to show us how it's done?"
Alexa looked up at the wall, noting the soft glow from the top and gulped slightly. Many of the older campers were quick to volunteer, and even quicker to scale the wall. Lava poured down periodically from the top, forcing the campers to dodge to one side or the other as the glowing hot liquid rock fell past them, pooling on the ground far below them.
Alexa might've hoped that she could run out the clock, that she could hide at the back of the line and just pray, but Jazz had other ideas.
"You're up next, noodle arms!" She said as her hand once again closed around Alexa's forearm. "Don't worry, we're makin' it nice and easy on ya!"
Alexa gulped as she was shoved towards the wall. With Jazz at the controls, she had no doubt that this was going to royally suck. Alexa shivered, her hands clenching. She could do this...she had to do this. She waited for the go ahead before she jumped up and started climbing. Immediately her fingertips began to ache, her arms began to burn as she dragged herself higher and higher. She had barely made it a quarter of the way before the shaking started.
At first Alexa thought the shaking was taking place in her own arms, a tremor rocking through her as a result of her limited arm strength but the hooting and laughing from below was quick to brush away that thought. She knew immediately that whatever was happening was Jazz's doing. The moment she realized this, a boulder twice her size crested the wall above her. Alexa let out a yelp and scrambled sideways, grasping onto hand holds for dear life. The boulder thundered down, scraping the wall inches from her left hand. She saw the soft orange glow to her right before she felt the wave of heat. A quick glance was all it took; She had somehow jumped within inches of a lava flow, and the super heated rock was dribbling down the rock wall towards her right hand. With a shriek, Alexa promptly let go of the rapidly warming rock she was using as a hand hold. With only one hand gripping the wall Alexa simply didn't have a chance to hold on when the shaking increased. She fell, screaming through the hot dry air. She had no doubt that she would've been seriously hurt had someone not caught her.
"Jazz, that is enough!" Screamed Melissa, carefully setting a still trembling Alexa down next to the rock wall.
"What?" Jazz asked with an air of faux innocence that fooled no one.
"You know damn well what! You turned the difficulty up way too high! Lava's not supposed to come in till level 3 and earthquake mode isn't accessed until level 5!" Melissa fumed, stomping closer to the other counselor.
"I thought she could handle it" Jazz responded, just as flippantly as before. The other Ares campers closed ranks in front of Jazz as the angry black haired teen marched closer.
"Bull! You've been gunning for Alexa since the moment she walked in! Y-!" Before Melissa could say anymore, Jazz pressed through the mass of the other Ares campers, her cocky smirk transforming into an irritated scowl.
"Yes, I have! I've been trying to toughen the weakling up! Look at her! No muscle, no power, no skills worth a damn and we're all supposed to feel sorry for her? Bull crap!" She turns to sneer at Alexa for a brief moment before continuing on her tirade. "News flash, Mel! We're all screwed up here! We all have issues! I'm trying to teach her the shit she needs to know when she leaves those borders! I'm trying to teach her to fight, to survive, to be strong! Hell, maybe if she was stronger, if she wasn't so weak and pathetic, maybe her fucking sister would still be alive right now!"
This caused the exact reaction Jazz knew it would. Hermes cabin was in an uproar, screaming for blood, Ares cabin were pressing in once again, holding back the mob of both claimed and unclaimed demigods. The din was so loud, no one seemed to notice that the always silent subject of the argument had gone very couldn't possibly know that the little girl's heart was beating harder and faster than it ever had before, that a fireball had formed in her gut and had spread its burning tendrils all throughout her body. They didn't know...not for several seconds.
Meanwhile, roughly 100 miles away.
With a casual flick of his wrist Ares deflected an axe that would've cut his head from his shoulders. Planting his sandaled foot into his opponent's chest, he drove his fellow war god back with a powerful kick.
"Nice shot. Unless you were trying to actually hit me." He said with a smirk, looking down at his son, Enyalius. Today, like many days that ended with the letter y, was a training day for the war gods and nothing quite got Ares' ichor flowing like a sparring match with his subordinates standing at attention, watching their poor, unlucky, brethren get the snot beat out of them.
Just as Ares began to march forward, towards his downed opponent, a ripple seemed to pass through the assembled gods. Alala felt it first, a shiver running down her spine and a look of eager anticipation coloring her face, a split second later Enyo perked up exactly like a hunting dog who had scented a rabbit, and that was when it reached Ares himself. He could taste it on the wind;conflict, rage, bloodlust, and an overwhelming inclination towards violence. He breathed it in and quickly sheathed his sword.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a fight to watch." The fight now forgotten, the divines quickly hurried out of the arena to a room Ares generally reserved for observing two things; MMA fights and any fight involving his kids, and the way it felt one of his kids just kicked a beehive.
The flood of Hermes campers was repelled by the living wall of Ares campers. With every move forward the wave of teens and preteens were pushed back by their larger, more muscled counterparts. For as brief as the scrimish was, it looked as if it was going to turn very bloody at any moment. That was precisely when the scream stopped the fighters in their tracks. It wasn't a scream of panic or even fear, this scream was a cry of unmitigated fury. It tore at the vocal cords of the screamer, the anger, pain, and the promise of retribution washed over the combattants and drew all eyes like an ocular magnet. This, and the fact that this awful, horrible noise was coming from Alexa shocked many, but what truly made jaws fall was what happened next.
Without anyone at the controls, the rock wall gave a rumble, shaking and shuddering as if it too were cowed by the force of the girl's scream. Then, all at once, lava spewed from every one of the hidden vents over the wall's surface, shooting from them at once like a series of red hot geysers. The lava pooled around the young girl's feet drawn to her side like a faithful dog. It completely encircled her, raising the temperature in the area to such a degree that by the time she finally stood from her crouched position she was all but obscured by the heat haze. Alexa stopped screaming, panting and red faced, glancing down at the bubbling ring of liquefied stone.
"Haha! Now that is exactly what I'm talking about!" The shout came from the middle of the group of Ares campers. Alexa's eyes, only visible in the haze because of the steam cascading off them, snapped upwards and locked onto the speaker. The gaze seemed to part the sea of campers revealing Jasmine, grinning like a maniac as she appraised Alexa. Alexa felt the ball of rage in her gut grow white hot. As she raised her hands into fists, the lava rose into two graceful arcs, like two serpents with bulbous heads.
Only then did Jazz realize what was coming. The smile faded. "U-uh oh…" She managed to squeak before a screaming comet trailed by two firery tails surged towards her. Jazz quickly backpedaled, barely able to reach up and tap a bracelet on her left wrist. The shield that sprouted from the enchanted band of metal took only seconds to reach full size. Even so, Jazz barely got it up in front of her before the first blast of lava slammed into its polished bronze surface.
The metal quickly heated, the air around Jazz burned, and the strength of the assault caused her knees to buckle. Alexa flung her arms out, one after the other. Each rage fueled punch slamming the liquid stone into the shield.
"You don't get to talk about her!" Screamed Alexa, the first words many of the campers had heard her speak since she had arrived. Jazz stumbled and Alexa capitalized by throwing a wave of molten rock towards Jazz's feet. Jazz was forced to roll to the side, barely deflecting the next blast of rock with her shield. Having stolen her footing from her, Alexa's assaults became faster, forcing Jazz to dodge and weave just as much as block. It was clear, however, that the six year old was starting to gain ground over the counselor. Jazz's face was red, her breathing heavy, her body so coated in sweat that at times it almost seemed like her face was steaming as much as Alexa's was.
"You don't get to talk about Morgan! You mean, stupid, bully!"Alexa punctuated her words by driving a red hot bit of lava into Jazz's shield. The point it struck began to glow, warping from heat and pressure. Alexa reared back her fist, ready to drive the lava straight through the bronze, when something lightly hit her in the back of the head.
Alexa blinked and looked down to find something burning on top of the liquid rock. By the time she found it it had already burnt to an unrecognizable black mass, but she did breath in the smoke. It was a strange smell, like pine and flowers, and...something else. Something that seemed to take the tension from her muscles. She looked up, towards where it had come from and found Chris O'Quinn, surprisingly, standing at the front of the group, his arm still flung forward after the throw. He straightened up, his eyes still locked on Alexa and, for one of the first times in Alexa's memory, spoke.
"Calm down." He ordered. The boy's voice flowed over her, slow and melodious. The two simple words wormed their way into her head, and despite her best efforts to stay angry, she felt the burning heat leaving her. All around her the lava began to darken, a thin shiny black outer layer starting to form on the cooling flow.
"Calm down." He repeated, his words coming out a bit more gently. Alexa lowered her hands, her breathing coming out shallow and ragged. She suddenly became aware of moisture on her cheeks. As the heat haze dissipated from around her everyone could see the thick, fat tears rolling down her face. Even with the lava cooling, the assembled campers were quick to notice that the scene was still bathed in an orange light. Some of the more perceptive realized that the light was coming from above Alexa, not around her. As these few pointed out the sign, Chiron finally trotted up, bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, a look of worry on his face.
The centaur looked up at the sign above Alexa's head, drawing Alexa's own attention to it for the first time.
"It is determined." He declared. The campers quietly kneeled around the girl ringed by volcanic rock. The sign, a hammer and anvil giving off that faint orange light, had begun to fade.
"Hephaestus, Lord of the Forge, the Crafty One, God of Volcanoes. Hail, Alexa Barber, Daughter of the Blacksmith of the Gods." Chiron bowed his head as he finished. The assembly was silent for a short while, until a tired voice broke the spell.
"Anyone else smell burnt bacon?" Jazz groaned.