The next few days were easier, in that the kids were taking to her lessons a little better. The early class had moved from needing help choosing weaponry, to needing medical help after practice. The later class had calmed down to the point where she could actually teach and Courtney in particular seemed to hang on her every word in a reverent way that Alexa found mildly concerning. She had gone from frequent interruptions to threats against anyone who spoke up before she could, and actually thought about her own answers.
Regardless of the progress the kids were making, or maybe because of it, Alexa was still having panic attacks. She was lucky enough not to have them in front of the kids, but she felt so out of her depth that she had no doubt that this wasn't her calling. She could teach, but being responsible for so many, without someone more experienced there to help her, was beyond nerve-racking. She felt like a half corroded support beam on the verge of snapping and bringing the whole structure down.
The only good thing she could say about her time as head counselor was that the borders had held for the most part. Monsters still sniffed around the edges day after day but none had gotten past the usual boundary line. It was halfway through Alexa's ninth day when this streak suddenly ended.
It started off as a pretty good day; the kids in her first class had worked themselves to near collapse regardless of her urging them to slow their pace, and she was in the middle of her second class when she heard the screams. Alexa stiffened, her lesson about spartoi forgotten in an instant.
The whole class made their way for the door but Alexa was the first out. It was their teacher, therefore, who'd receive the lesson on checking both ways before heading out into a fight. The second Alexa's body cleared the doorframe something slammed into her with a thunderous noise. After her experiences with the Hind it only took a second for Alexa to realize what had happened; she had been hit by a large animal, and judging by the continued trampling, it wasn't the only one. Alexa had somehow managed to step into a stampede.
Alexa immediately went into action; covering her head with both hands she rolled to the side, trying to avoid the path of the animals. It wasn't entirely successful, a hoof hit her side and another kicked a rock right into her face. She managed to survive the worst of it, slowly getting to her feet to see the back end of that stampede retreat and the new one composed of concerned campers heading for her.
"Ms. Barber! Are you okay?" To her surprise the one who got there first was Courtney. "Give her some air! Come on, back off!"
Alexa stood unsteady on her feet.
"Sprained wrist…bruised ribs…dislocated shoulder…hold on!" With a shove and a cry of pain, Alexa forced her shoulder back into the proper position. It may have been the pain, but at that moment she saw a figure standing in the dust cloud left by the horses. It was a tall figure, human in appearance but doubled over on itself as if it were laughing. The head swiveled and a pair of eyes, brown and sooty like the dust but glowing apart from the cloud, found her's. The edges of the eyes crinkled in a grin, then disappeared as the dust finally settled.
"I want you kids to help deal with the horses, try to get them to calm down. Worse comes to worst, herd them somewhere where they won't hurt anyone. Now move!" The teens ran off after the horses while Alexa turned in the direction the herd had come from, and the figure in the dust.
It didn't take her long to find something; prints in the dirt on top of the hoof prints. They appeared to be boots, but beyond that Alexa wasn't sure. She spared a quick thought for Sonya…she felt certain the daughter of Aphrodite would've been able to tell her everything there was to know about the boot had she been there. With a grimace, Alexa began to follow the bootprints away from the scene. The tracks led her away from her classroom and down a dirt path that led towards the pegasus stables. There was absolutely no way this wasn't some kind of trap, she could see that from a mile off, but what else was she supposed to do? She was in charge…she had to be the one to spring this trap so the kids wouldn't.
About twenty feet from the stables the tracks suddenly ended. Alexa stopped at the end of the trail and chewed her lip in thought. There was nothing going on here yet, so the trap wasn't sprung yet, but the boot wearing shape had led her here for a reason. She just had to puzzle out why…
"Boo!" The word was soft as a breeze, almost gentle, but it came so suddenly and from so close to her ear that Alexa leaped about a foot into the air and whirled around, grabbing her charm bracelet. She was met by a deep guffaw and a shape materializing in the dust, half transparent. He was short, maybe four feet tall, dressed in blue jeans, a button down shirt, a stetson and the pair of cowboy boots she had been following.
"Well I'll be!" He said with a grin. "It works on horses and demigods!"
"Who are you?" Alexa growled, unsheathing her sword.
"Ah, put away the pig sticker! It ain't gonna help ya none!" The specter chuckled. "M'names's Will! William Braddick! And to head off your next question at the pass, I walked in! Nothin' too tricky about it. Yer wall's about as secure as a toilet paper tent in a hurricane!"
"And you thought it'd be a great idea to just…walk in and cause a stampede…for no good reason?" Alexa asked.
"Of course! Nothin' funnier than spookin' a horse! If'n one of ya fleshies gets in the way, that's a you problem!" William said with a laugh. The condescending disregard for her campers, her kids, immediately sparked the rage in Alexa's gut.
"Yeah? Well I'm going to make it a you problem!" Alexa slashed at him with her sword. To her surprise, William didn't even bother to try to dodge. The sword passed right through his midsection. William laughed.
"I'm dead, you idjit! I told ya the pig sticker was pointless!" Despite the ineffective attack, William seemed perfectly capable of retaliation; He casually leaned against the doors to the stables. Just his presence had started agitating the animals inside. Alexa could hear the snorting, the tossing of heads,the stomping and stamping of hooves.
"Now, I'm a good sport, seein' as you didn't do any damage, I'll give ya twenty seconds." His hand rested lightly on the latch holding the stable doors closed. The horses inside were screaming, throwing themselves against the door with just that action, desperate to get away from William. Alexa grimaced, turned, and began to run, putting her sword away and pulling out the bronze dog whistle.
"One, two, skip a few, twenty!" Cried William, throwing the door open just as Alexa blew the whistle. Luna practically dropped out of the sky but she wasn't quite fast enough. The pegasi broke from their stable and streamed past Alexa like a tidal wave! A hoof kicked her in the side, a neck knocked her sideways, she nearly went down before the metal canine swooped in and grabbed her shirt in her jaws. The next few seconds were a blur of hooves, pain, feathers, hot breath and whipping tail. When it was all said and done Alexa was left stunned, and she was pretty sure her hip was broken, but all she could hear was William's laughter.
"Wooowee! Pigeon horses are way more fun!" He called. "Better luck next time girly, but ya'll'll need to do better to catch me!" William faded from view, only leaving a set of bootprints behind.
"Aroof…?" Luna asked as she started heading for the ground.
"I'm fine…I just…I just need to find a way to fight him…" She said, "But how do you fight a ghost? It's not like I have one of those things the ghostbusters got lying around…"
Maybe it was the recent head injuries, maybe it was something else, but the word ghost bounced around in Alexa's brain for several seconds, hitting memories and lessons like a game of pinball until finally returning to the forefront of her mind with a potential solution.
"...Luna…take me to the dining pavilion." She said firmly.
Thank the gods that Alexa was used to working through pain. In a matter of seconds she had covered the open air portion of the pavilion with canvas, doing her best to blot out the light. She cast the inside of the place in an eerie, blue tinted twilight, casting the tables in shadow and causing the sacrificial fire to seem even brighter. Lucky for her, they had been preparing for dinner when the spirit had gotten in, and the ruckus had prompted those hanging around to depart to deal with it. Which meant no one would be there to see Alexa's latest hairbrained idea.
Dashing from table to table, Alexa gathered up as much food as she could onto a platter, an idle thought crossing her mind that this probably wasn't far off from what Tantalus would be doing in her situation…aside from the fact that he'd likely be trying to eat it all himself. Alexa approached the sacrificial flame, pile of food in hand. She chewed her lip, she hesitated…then she tossed the entire platter into the flames. Falling to her knees, she slapped the floor of the pavilion twice in rapid succession.
"Melinoë, goddess of spirits, shades, and ghosts. Please, hear me and answer my prayer." No one would ever dare to say it outloud, but most demigods understood that the gods were a bit like cats; You got their attention with their names and by offering them a treat in the form of a sacrifice, after that it was up to them whether they felt like working with you or not. Alexa's whole plan was banking off the fact that not many prayed to Melinoë, and she was pretty sure the sheer amount of high quality food provided by Camp Halfblood was the largest sacrifice she had gotten in centuries. She was expecting to speak with the goddess…not what happened next. For two long, tense seconds nothing happened, the smoke from the fire simply rose lazily towards the covered roof. Then, all at once, the fire changed from orange to gray. The room seemed to darken, growing colder as the gray flames cast their light over the room. One by one the tables began to fill up with the glowing, semi-transparent shapes of shades. When no chair was left unfilled a voice crooned from the shadows of the head table.
"Alexa Barber…have to admit I wasn't expecting this when I got up today." The goddess seemed to materialize from the shadows. One side of her face was mummified, black, and leathery, as if that half of her face had been dead for centuries. The other half of her was pale, chalky, with a staring blue eye that didn't seem to blink, as if that side had died a scant few hours ago. She was decked out in a long black dress that seemed to shift and change; one moment there were eyes peeking out at Alexa, the next, teeth grinning at her, then hands desperately reaching out, then finally it'd be fabric once again.
"To be honest, ma'am, the day really isn't going the way I thought it would either." Alexa answered, grimacing as she got to her feet.
"Indeed."Melinoë confirmed, "To what do I owe the pleasure of this summoning?"
"Well…we're having a bit of trouble with a spirit." As if to emphasize her statement, Alexa's explanation came accompanied with the frantic neighing of a horse promptly followed by a shrill cry of "My cabbages!"
"The problem is," Alexa continued hastily "I can't even touch the guy! I just need a way to deal with him, and I thought if anyone would be able to give me advice it'd be the goddess of spirits…"
"Flattery, how charming." Melinoë purred, "I must admit, it's nice to be remembered. My father tends to get these prayers long before I do."
Alexa didn't really know how to answer that in a way that didn't result in her being turned into a smoking puddle, so she opted to ignore it entirely.
"So…is there anything you can offer? Some sort of ritual, or a magic item that can be used on a ghost? I'd settle for a glove that can touch him at this point." Alexa tried not to let the panic creep into her voice, but even now she could hear the sounds of chaos rising. The ghosts around her laughed lightly.
"Of course I have a way to deal with your little Taraxippus problem. The question is…how will you earn it? Unless, of course, you think a simple sacrifice of food is enough for my personal intervention." Melinoë smirked down at Alexa.
"Of course not!" Alexa lied quickly "That was just a gift to get you to consider helping me."
Melinoë smiled. Getting to her feet she started circling the demigod, one step a soft scuff of bare feet, the other a hard rasp as if bone were scraping across the pavilion floor.
"I…was thinking… a shrine." Alexa started tentatively.
"A nice start." The goddess agreed, "You'd never get away with a cabin of my own here, not when Father's children are so unwelcome, but a shrine is always welcome. Where were you planning on having it?"
"The amphitheater." The response was automatic, she didn't even have to think about it. "That's where we have the funerals, both real and ceremonial, so it makes sense to have your shrine nearby."
"And it ensures that it can be viewed at any time." Melinoë added with a satisfied nod. "I expect high grade materials. No wood, only stone or metal."
"Why stop there?" Alexa asked "Why not make something unique? How many gods can say they have a shrine made of volcanic glass?"
Melinoë paused, frowned thoughtfully and then shook her head.
"Think you over reached. If it goes wrong I'll get a pretty rock pile, if it goes right I'll never hear the end of it. Jealous gods are such a pain." Melinoë groaned.
"And not good for my health either…" Alexa added.
"Hmm? Oh yes, that too." Melinoë mused
"Okay…so carved, I'm thinking marble…maybe accented with some volcanic glass. I have an idea for how to work your entourage into it." She waves a hand around the room and some of the ghosts actually began to preem, as if they were readying to pose for the statue Alexa had in mind.
"Anything else…?" Melinoë prompted. "I do have a few things that need doing that could use a…living touch." At her last words, Alexa felt the goddess's cold, clammy finger trace the back of her neck. It took everything Alexa had not to flinch.
"I'm not really in a place to take on any quests right now, with the camp and the Trials…" Alexa said.
Melinoë tutted softly, but before she could begin to speak, a thought popped into Alexa's head. As it so often did with anyone with ADHD, this thought, once birthed, went straight from Alexa's brain to her mouth without checking with common sense's front desk on the way out.
"Tim Burton marathon?" The moment those three words left her mouth, Melinoë seemed to freeze. Her good eye narrowed slightly as it scoured Alexa's face.
"What?" She asked in an unreadable voice.
"W-well I mean…I'm going to be your mother's hand maiden in a few weeks." Alexa explained quickly. "I'm sure you can convince her to borrow me for a night or two in order to binge watch some movies. And…well…" She trailed off as Melinoë continued to stare her down. After what felt like an eternity the goddess of ghosts asked a question in a quiet hiss.
"Which Burton movies?" She asked.
"...Well…as many as we can squeeze in, but I was thinking Nightmare Before Christmas for sure, if only for the songs, and Beetlejuice is a must." Before Alexa could get much further, Melinoë suddenly surged forward, her good eye sparkling with excitement.
"I know! The chemistry in that movie is better than most romances! The Maitlands are so good together!" Melinoë eagerly said.
"And the effects? Awesome! And I can't figure out how they do half of the stop motion for the sand worm!" Alexa agreed,
"And Michael Keeton is hysterical! So crass and yet so charming!" Melinoë gushed. Around her the ghosts were covering their faces and shaking their heads at their mistress going on.
"And Winona Ryder is a goth icon! Really I…" It suddenly seemed to occur to Melinoë what she was doing. A soft blush flooded into her cheeks, causing the mummified cheek to ooze and the less decayed cheek to look downright alive. She quickly straightened up and cleared her throat.
"Ahem…I mean…I find the trade acceptable, mortal." She said, in a tone of someone who is trying to save as much face as they possibly can in a lost situation. "We'll meet once again in my father's kingdom, and when we do I expect the shrine up here to be finished and presentable."
Melinoë raised her decayed hand and snapped her fingers. In a puff of green smoke the cowboy, William, appeared in front of her.
"What in the sam-!" He began to say, only to turn and find himself staring up at the face of Melinoë. "O-oh! Ah…H-howdy ma'am! I know I stayed out a might longer than I said I would but-"
"You told me you were going to a rodeo in Tucson." Melinoë said simply.
"I…might'a said something like that, you're right ma'am. But there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I'm here…see there was this cattle rustler who challenged me to a game of cards, fer your honor, and I couldn't exactly pass up the chance to show him what for! So I-" Melinoë made a zipping gesture with two of her fingers and William's lips disappeared.
"I'm tired of your excuses, we will discuss this later, and determine whether you're fit to be part of my retinue in the future." She then turned her attention to Alexa and gave her a nod of the head. "I will see you in the fall, New Heracles"
The world tilted, and suddenly the fire was back to its normal colors, and the dining hall brightened again. For a moment Alexa said nothing…then she turned to look at Luna.
"Did…I just become friends with a goddess of spirits who took a literal ghost rider down to the afterlife with her?" She asked her metal dog.
"Woof!" Luna answered.
"Okay, good. Just making sure I'm not going crazy." Alexa sighed.