Author's Note: So apparently, according to my girlfriend, I squeak with excitement when I see someone new has faved this story. So thank you everyone for helping me discover something new about myself!
Alexa moved through her forms with ease and grace. Around her were dozens of straw dummies in Greek armor, all in varying states of death; two were decapitated, several were stabbed straight through the heart, one was neatly bisected through the middle, and three were on fire.
Alexa cleaved one's head from it's shoulders, and followed the momentum to her next set of targets. She tightened her grip, focused, and "Crrrrrrk!". Blue white light leaped from the tip of the sword, zigzagging through the air and striking three of the dummies' metal weapons. The electrical current immediately set those three dummies on fire as well, plumes of smoke rising from their stuffing.
"Nice shootin', Spits." Alexa turned to find Jazz standing at the edge of the sparring area. A small grin spread across Alexa's face.
"After that last Capture the Flag, I thought it'd be a good idea to practice working on groups. Dummies are the first step." She explained. Their last game of Capture the Flag had not gone well for Alexa. She had been overwhelmed by a combined force of almost the whole Apollo cabin and had been taken out pretty quickly.
Jazz took another step closer and, not for the first time, Alexa felt a little sad. Jazz was 18 now, which meant this would be her final summer at Camp Half-Blood. She'd be going to college in Wisconsin, close enough to take a bus to her mother's. Now that her grandma was out of the house there was no real reason not to camp out there to save money on boarding. Still...Alexa wished it wasn't so far away.
Jazz had been trying to make the transition easier on the 10 year old she had taken under her wing, and Alexa had tried to console herself. She'd be fine, and it wasn't like this was goodbye forever. She'd write.
"Yeah, well you nearly missed the campfire, miss one girl army!" Jazz pointed out with a smirk.
"I wouldn't have missed it!" Alexa insisted
"Uh huh, and I'm a satyr!" Jazz teased, grabbing Alexa and dragging her away from the arena. Reluctantly, Alexa returned Lightning Bolt to charm form and slipped it back onto her wrist.
She glanced around, surprised by how late it had gotten. She had only meant to slip off for some after dinner practice. How on earth had it gotten so dark so quickly?
She and Jazz took a seat on one of the logs near the campfire, the blaze already glowing blue, green, and red in anticipation of the songs. Rose was just one log over, she smiled at them awkwardly and gave the pair a small wave.
The songs began just the same as they always did, with a rendition of This Land is Minos' Land. When the final verse was done, and just before they were going to launch into the next song, the fire blazed up.
A thick perfume of roses filled the air, just in time for all the campers to gasp and immediately start coughing. The fire turned hot pink and continued to roar before dying down again. From it, stepping forward as if off a step, was the most beautiful woman Alexa had ever seen.
Everything about her screamed beauty, from her hair, to her clothes, to her bare feet... however, looking back later, Alexa wouldn't have been able to tell anyone the slightest bit about her appearance.
"Aphrodite…" All the boys in the crowd let out a collective groan of longing.
"Mom!" All the kids from Cabin 10 squealed.
Aphrodite offered the campers a small smile, then turned her attention to Chiron and Mr. D, the latter of whom was still rather loudly crunching on a s'more.
"I'm afraid I'm not here on a social call." Said the goddess watching with disdain as a few gooey crumbs fell from Mr. D's lips onto his hawaiian shirt.
"Why would you be?" Asked the wine god, his mouth still stuffed with chocolate and marshmallow. "If I were to make a social visit this place would be somewhere near the bottom of my list."
Aphrodite responded with a roll of her eyes. "I've come to issue a quest." This earned her a hushed whispering which the love goddess soaked up. She, rather dramatically pointed a finger... right at Jazz.
Jazz blinked. "M-me?"
"Yes, my sweet, if you choose to accept it." Aphrodite said with a smile.
"I do!" Jazz said with barely a moment of hesitation.
"Excellent! Here's the problem; my dear, sweet, Jeff left here about, oh, two years ago for reasons we won't discuss..." Aphrodite's eyes flicked to Alexa and a cold feeling of dread washed over the girl. The goddess had already shown she is perfectly capable of taking revenge if she wanted to in the stories... Alexa didn't even want to know what sort of beast Aphrodite would make her fall in love with if she truly managed to tick her off. Jeff, however, was not something she was ashamed of. She pulled a prank, he couldn't handle it, he ran away, and the camp had been better for it. Even now she could see most of the girls in the crowd bristle at his name.
"It seems more poor Jeffy has fallen in with a bad crowd. A couple of monsters, a few hapless mortals, and a witch." Aphrodite explained. More whispering. Aphrodite seemed to swell from the attention.
"A... witch, my lady?" Chiron prompted.
"Hmm? Oh! Yes! A demigod, a girl trained under Circe herself in the magical arts; potions, conjuring, metamorphosis, candy making, and necromancy. Don't ask me how she made her way up this far, I don't care to know, but she's taken up some real estate in Maine, and she's filling it up with animals, mostly transformed humans and monsters, for reasons I'm not entirely clear on, and using my little Jeffy as bait!" She places her hands on her hips and stomps her foot, her heel digging into the dirt.
"My son is not about to stoop to the level of some siren just because he's stuck in a cage!" Aphrodite hissed, partly to herself. "Beauty as honey for the trap? What is this, the middle ages?"
"So... you want me to go to Maine and... rescue Jeff?" Asked Jazz, as if every word pained her.
"I want you two to make up! You'd make such a cute couple. But that ship sailed thanks to my poor sweetheart's incredible lack of tact and discretion! Flaunting your new girlfriend is such a tacky way to break up!" She glanced at Rose. "No offense, dear. I know you had nothing to do with it." Alexa found herself relaxing just a hair. At least his mother could see that Jeff was a jerk for how he had handled things.
"I... guess I can go…" Jazz said slowly, reaffirming her commitment to the quest.
"Wonderful! Now if you excuse me, it's quite late and I need my beauty sleep! Have fun!" With that Aphrodite disappeared into a small flurry of rose petals.
The assembly of campers stood there for a long moment before Chiron cleared his throat. "Councilors, emergency meeting in the Big House. Jasmine...I think it's time you visit the Oracle. If you're sane enough to come downstairs afterwards, we'll be waiting for you in the rec room"
Jazz hurried to obey setting off for the Big House with Alexa hot on her heels.
"I can't believe you finally got a quest and it's to save his sorry butt!" Alexa griped. "At least it's Maine, not that bad of a trip. I can't wait! It's supposed to be really nice this time of year!"
Jazz said nothing, she just stared ahead like a man approaching the gallows. Alexa frowned.
"You're worried about going, aren't you?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah... among other things." Jazz muttered in response, not looking at Alexa. Alexa in turn offered her a slight, encouraging smile.
"You'll do great, I know you will!" Alexa said, pausing on the Big House's front porch. Jazz gave her a small smile and started up the stairs. Alexa waited for what felt like days as, one by one, the councilors entered the building.
The meeting started... or at least she assumed it did, she wasn't allowed to attend. Sapphire was their head councilor now, after Otto failed to come back this summer. Alexa continued her silent vigil until finally a good pounded from inside the rec room and the councilors began filing out.
Alexa beamed and immediately fell into step next to Jazz. "So what's the plan? When are we leaving?"
Jazz refused to meet Alexa's eyes. "I got the prophecy... me and Rose are going to be leaving tomorrow at first light and we're going to be heading north to Maine."
"Rose?" Alexa asked, momentarily distracted from the obvious.
"Yeah, no one else wants to risk their lives for Jeff. She's only going because she feels guilty." Jazz explained.
"Well that makes three, and that's still a perfe-" Alexa started to say but Jazz cut in in a sudden rush.
"Spits, you're not going!" Alexa's heart and feet stopped at those four words.
"I…what do you mean?" Alexa asked quietly, ashamed by the slight hint of desperation creeping into her voice. "Jazz... I gotta go! You need me there! We always do the tough stuff together!"
"Not this time... Spits, look, people die on quests, and this one… this one looks like it's going to be bad. The oracle said we're going to be followed by some monster." Jazz explained trying to stay calm as she did.
"All the more reason for me to go!" Alexa cried "Do you think I could stand being left behind not knowing what happened to you? I'd be a nervous wreck before sundown!"
"And do you think I'd be able to live with myself if I took you and something happened on this quest?" Jazz screamed right back, all traces of calm gone. "Damn it Alexa! You're good but you can't pretend like coming home is a guarantee! If I got you hurt I don't know how I'd forgive myself!"
"But Jazz-" Alexa started to protest. How could Jazz not see that she needed to be on the quest? How could she be so stubborn about something so obvious?
"No! Spits you are staying here! End of discussion!" Jazz turned and hurried off, disappearing into her Cabin, the door slamming behind her.
Alexa could only stare at the red Cabin, her eyes glazing over with tears. She sucked it up, took a deep breath and set her resolve. One way or another, she was going on that quest.
She turned and continued down to Cabin 9. She had a lot of work to do by tomorrow morning if her back up plan was going to be ready!