Author's note: Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good holiday! Took a bit of a break from writing, had a few things crop up and then the holidays themselves sucked out most of my energy. But I'm back and to make up for the absence, today's a two-for-one special!
A fire merrily crackled under the container, now full to the brim with chicken broth. The cyclops hummed under his breath as he sliced up vegetables; onions, carrots and potatoes, each chunk entering the steaming soup to be with a happy little plunk. It would've smell delicious had Jazz not known that she and Rose were going to be the next ingredients added to the pot.
"I'm sorry," Rose said quietly. "I kept him working as long as I could…"
"I know." Jazz sighed. "I'm sorry too. This is all my fault, I'm the one who got us stuck here."
"Not sorry," the cyclops said, his mouth stuffed with a whole onion. Jazz tried to glare at him but she was still turned away so he could safely ignore her war helm. Rose, however, got a full view of his slimy pink tongue snaking out from beneath the onion, his mouth closing, and the wet crunch and eye watering stench accompanying the cyclops biting into the yellow vegetable. Rose coughed and turned her head away.
There was silence for a long moment, but then, suddenly, the cyclops stopped his work and snapped to attention. His head swiveled, the single eye seemingly looking for something. After a moment, the two demigods heard what caused the cyclops' change of behaviour; the faint crackle of the warehouse's PA system. Whoever was on the other end was silent for a second, then in a gentle voice, she began to sing.
"Yo hohoho, yo hoho ho. Yo hohoho, yo hoho ho. Yo hohoho, yo hoho hohoho, yo hoho ho." Although the song was soft, the words echoed off the walls, making the melody and the soft tone all the more haunting.
The cyclops' head swiveled this way and that, his lips pulled back in a scowl filled with onion skin. "Who's there? Come out!" He growled.
"Gather up all of the crew," the music continued. "It's time to ship out Bink's brew."
"What's going on?" Jazz hissed, clearly feeling threatened and on edge.
"Shh!" Rose answered quietly. She had spotted the singer, but she didn't trust herself to speak. Instead she kept her eyes locked on the cyclops.
"Sea wind blows. To where? Who knows, the waves'll be our guide." The singer continued to sing.
A feeling, an odd mix of dread, joy, and intense fury, washed over Jazz like a wave. She recognized the voice, for of course she would, but she had been hoping she had heard incorrectly. Her subconscious had given up on that hope at the first melancholy word, though, and now her conscious mind was losing that fight as well.
"O'er across the ocean's tides, rays of sunshine far and wide. Birds they sing of cheerful things in circles passing by." As the singer launched into a new chorus of 'Yo hoho ho's, the cyclops let out a frustrated roar and launched one of the empty fluid vats in a random direction, completely missing the small figure who was balanced on the very same metal I beam the two older girls were dangling from, an inch or two of space between her standing frame and the roof of the warehouse, where she had entered.
"Shut up!" The cyclops roared. "Stop singing! It's creepy!"
The figure obliged, launching herself off the I beam, and dropping like a heat seeking missile straight at the back of the cyclops's skull. At the last minute the cyclops sensed the danger and turned to face her, only to get a sword straight into his eye. A half second later both bound girls were treated to a bright, arcing flash. Only Rose got to see their captor's flesh briefly turning transparent as the sword's entire stockpile of pilfered electricity was discouraged into the man-eater, turning his bones into black shadows in his blazing white silhouette.
The form of the cyclops began to crumble, and their savior dropped to the ground, grinning like a cat who had caught a canary.
"Sorry I'm late." Alexa said, brushing monster dust off her shoulders, wincing slightly as her fingers grazed the scorpion wound. "Got a bit held up, you see," she explained, thereafter wasting no time in freeing the pair; she grabbed Rose and Jazz by the waist, dragging them along the I beam before she sliced the ropes that held them both up and let them drop to the ground. Rose began to massage her wrists but Jazz wheeled around. Before Alexa even knew what was happening, Jazz took several stomping steps forward, reeled her arm back, and slapped her! She followed this up by grabbing her by the collar and shaking her hard, her war helm dissolving into her giant's hat just in time for Alexa to see the furious look on the older girl's face.
"Malakas!" Jazz swore. "What were you thinking!? You boneheaded, brainless, selfish little idiot! You could've died!"
"Umm, Jazz…" Rose began timidly.
"And you both would've died if I hadn't done anything!" Alexa roared back, her voice oscillating slightly as her body was moved back and forth. Her cheek stung from where Jazz's hand had connected and angry tears were already rolling down her cheeks.
"Girls…" Rose tried again.
"That's not the point!" Jazz screamed in response. "Do you have any idea what would have happened to me if my stupid quest had gotten you killed?"
"The same thing that would've happened to me if you had died!" Alexa shrieked right back.
"Enough!" Rose screamed, her voice, usually so soft now drowning out the arguing pair. Cowed, Alexa and Jazz took a step away from each other, and Rose took the metaphorical space, glaring down at the two like an angry mother despite barely being any taller than Alexa.
"You two should be ashamed of yourselves, fighting like that! Don't you see you're fighting for the exact same reason? You don't want to lose the other, but if you keep fighting the way you are that's exactly what's going to happen!" She turned to face Alexa, hands on her hips, a glare firmly affixed.
"You need to accept that Jazz was doing what she thought was best and you broke her trust by following when she didn't want you to!" Rose then spun on her heel and jabbed a finger into Jazz's sternum. "And you need to acknowledge that she's a strong demigod and not some fragile little kid anymore! We'd both be dead if she didn't show up and you need to realize she's actually meant to be here!" As Rose said this, Jazz found her tongue.
"What? Okay the first one I'll own up to, but how do you figure the second? She just-!" Before Jazz could fully articulate her thought, Rose cut her off.
"Jazz, what's the second line of the prophecy?" Rose asked, her tone a little less heated than it was before. Jazz blinked, the wind yanked from her sails.
"Hounded and pursued by the beast of Pompeii's Bane. But what does-?"
Rose cut her off again. "And who is Alexa's father and what is he the god of?" She asked pointedly, folding her arms over her chest.
It took them a minute, but both Jazz and Alexa reached the conclusion Rose had been leading them to. They simultaneously let out a short "Oh!"
"Exactly, now can we please get back to being friendly so we can get back to work?" Rose asked, her voice falling back into her more subdued tones, if not a bit more exasperated than when she had started.
Jazz and Alexa stared at each other. They both opened their mouths to speak, waited for the other to go first, then Jazz threw decorum out the window and plowed forward.
"I'm… sorry I freaked out. I was just… I was so scared… "Jazz trailed off, her eyes downcast.
"I probably deserved that." Alexa admitted, rubbing her cheek. "I'm sorry too. I didn't really think about what a quest would be like, I just thought...you know…I didn't want you to go without me. If we were going to get hurt we should do it together." After the apologies, they fell into an uncomfortable silence, which was shattered by Jazz reaching out and yanking Alexa into a bone shattering hug.
"Jazz! Spine!" Alexa wheezed. Jazz ignored her request for a moment or two and simply continued to hold her like that, while Rose politely began examining their surroundings. When Jazz finally released her red faced captive, Alexa coughed to return some of the air to her lungs.
"What are you guys doing here anyway? Did big ugly drag you in here on your way through?" Alexa asked with a jerk of her thumb towards where the cyclops had stood. Rose appeared at her shoulder with two cups of steaming soup… soup that had been destined to drown her and Jazz. Alexa raised an eyebrow at her.
"Waste not, want not." Rose responded sheepishly. Alexa shrugged and took one of the offered bowls.
"We were hoping to get a lead on where to go. That's what the prophecy said, anyway." Jazz explained taking a cup herself and sipping it before she began to recite the verses.
"Go forth, children of war and grain/ Hounded and pursued by the beast of Pompeii's Bane/ You will travel north to the lands of the King/ Where passions burn and the victory bells ring/ A mother's love will guide you on your way/ To defeat the witch, the inconceivable one must display." Jazz punctuated the end of the prophecy with a loud sip of soup.
Alexa, meanwhile, was busy digging through her bag. Rhea had somehow managed to recover it from Marshy's saddle, and she had been happy to find it hadn't been damaged. She brushed aside some spare clothes and her alloy collection and finally pulled free some silverware. She triumphantly dunked the spoon into her soup and took a quick bite. As it turns out, the cyclops was actually a decent cook.
"Well I think the first two lines are obvious now, I'm not sure about the third-" Alexa started to say, but Rose raised her hand before she could finish.
"Um...We thought that was telling us to go to Maine...the land of the King. As in Stephen King, the horror writer." Jazz gave an involuntary shiver, and Rose turned to look at her.
"You always do that when I bring him up. Is it the creepy clown?" Rose asked gently.
"Jack Nicholson." Jazz responded with another little shudder. Rose considered this before nodding her head and continuing as if nothing had happened.
"We stopped here because of the mother's love line." Rose said, pointing at one of the large containers. Alexa squinted at where Rose had pointed. A soft lilac colored logo was printed on the metal with something written on it in pink cursive. Alexa hated cursive. It took several long moments to decipher the twisting, turning, acrobatic letters but she thought she got it in the end.
"Venus Amare...Perfumes and fragrances?" Alexa asked, pleased to find both of her companions nodding.
"Venus is Aphrodite's Roman name so we thought we'd find a lead here. But all we got was manhandled by a cyclops." Jazz huffed.
"Well I think I know where to go." Alexa said excitedly. "And it fits in with the mother's love line too! We got to go to Redwood, it's this little town in Maine."
"And how does that fit in to anything?" Jazz asked with a snort. Alexa grinned from ear to ear.
"Wait till you hear this!" Alexa giggled before launching into her tale.