the girl who was on fire

“Ever heard of Daedalus? Son of Athena? Probably the greatest inventor ever?” she pointed out, though she probably should have been a little more cautious to fact-check someone who was considerably stronger than her and in the process of breaking out of her illusion. Abandoning pretenses of maintaining the net’s visibility in place of the rope’s, she gave one final tug in an attempt to keep them stuck, or trip them up at the very least. The latter seemed to work, and Imogen backed up several paces to stay out of the way once the fighting commenced. Terrifying as it was that reinforcements were  on their way on both ends, she supposed it meant she had done a good job distracting the hunters from their true goal.

Jack did not really care who this Daedalus guy was, and she would not have recognized the name even if someone had brought up Icarus (who she mercifully knew to recall). Pleased to have broken free, she made to move forward into a wild charge, but was tripped up by the wire. Natalie looked down at Jack before getting out of the bindings safely to reach for her bow. Apparently, the campers were more interested in talking than fighting.

Satisfied that the ‘net’ had done its job, Imogen made the agreed-upon owl sound, magically distorting it to come from the tree that Jack and her friend were under. Reinforcements would arrive shortly. In the meantime, she came out from her hiding place, seemingly empty-handed. “Like it? The Athena kids were pretty pleased with their new invention” she lied easily, trying to keep them distracted while reinforcements came over to help her keep them occupied. “I think there are more, but…” she shrugged, moving around them in a wide circle as if to examine the Athena kids’ handiwork. She could make the rope she was carrying (and keeping hidden from view, of course) tie itself around them, but she didn’t really have the skill to do it without fairly close proximity and a  perfect line of sight- at least, not while she was focused on keeping it invisible and a nonexistent net real in their minds. Just a few seconds more, she reminded herself as she started to feel the strain of it weighing on her mind, making her drowsy. In the background, she faintly heard approaching footfalls.

Jack made a face, and grumbled unhappily. “Really? You’re behind this?” Jack said, disgruntled. This was all her fault, so she let Imogen ramble on for a while and do that gloating thing. Not that Jack was a stranger to self-praise, but she did not like to be on the other end of it. Gods, she had not imagined that the weird camper that she had found in the woods had such a proud streak. At this point, Jack and Natalie realized at about the same time that this was a seriously improbable net. They shared a look, and Natalie put fingers to her lips to let out a loud whistle. “Athena’s about strategy, not invention,’ Jack said with more confidence, starting to pull apart the illusion. “If you’d said Hephaestus, maybe that would be more believable. You know we didn’t come here alone, right? You’re not the only one with a plan. And we’re the ones with nearby back-up.” Heavy boot-clad sounds joined the surrounding noise.

Imogen held her hand over her mouth as she watched the two girls deliberate, torn between worry and a strange desire to laugh. No. Focus, she reminded herself, knowing it was important to stay on task. So they were expecting traps, were they? She could work with that. Watching, she waited until the two girls neared the base of the tree before placing an imaginary wire under Jack’s feet, in just the right position for the younger girl to trip it and drop a nonexistent net onto both hunters. The harder they struggled, the tighter it would bind itself around them if all went according to plan, and the magical reinforcements would make cutting the net from the inside all but impossible.

Jack did not like this one bit. Frustrated, she started to struggle at the bindings, which just made everything worse. “Okay, I know we expected traps, but that was just cruel,” she said to her friend, who did not move. Natalie offered up an ‘I told you so’ expression before conjuring up a knife. “Yeah, yeah. Now start cutting us out and be ready to bolt. We are waaaay too close for comfort.” Mumbling her agreement, Jack started to saw at the net. Baffling her especially, the cords were not coming apart with their efforts. “We have freaking super strength and we can’t get out of here!?” she said, waving her free arm around enough to whack Natalie in the head. “Hey! Calm down and let me think.” Jack was not so good with the thinking, so she turned back to trying to make the narrowing net come loose. “You don’t see any campers, do you?” A snort, and: “Well I haven’t called out so they can laugh at us.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “Something’s off... Just... What’s wrong with this picture?” “Well this net is impossibly getting tighter. Hmmm... Oh, that’s weird, isn’t it? Hey, who’s out there? We could pretend you won if you wanted.” She did not expect an answer.

Imogen had to admit, it was kind of creepy waiting in the woods to ambush a bunch of teenage (looking) girls with strange magic. Still, they were after her team’s flag, and they were going down. Maybe she wasn’t as strongly allied to Camp Halfblood as most of her fellow campers just yet, but she was pretty strongly allied to the idea of proving her worth in this strange world of gods and monsters she’d been dropped into. Besides, winning didn’t sound half bad, even if it was a long shot.

Jack happened to look over to her right, and saw the impossible: The Flag! “Natalie, look,” she said, nudging her partner. “It’s not even guarded,” Natalie said with wonder, looking around. “It might be too good to be true,” Jack said with a pout. “Maybe they found something that looks like the flag and-” “But that’d be cheating. Jack. Let’s go get the others.” Frowning, Jack considered her options before starting toward the tree. “We’d be horrible scouts if we didn’t see if there were traps. You’re the one who said it would be cheating to just leave it out in the open...” Natalie made a whining noise before following. “But just a look. If something’s off, we call for help, okay?” 

“Oh, that’s okay. I figured it’d go something like that” she said, shrugging. Artemis’s pack tended to stick pretty close together, if the mythology was any indication. “I’m just glad we’re back in time. Thanks for that, by the way” she added, alright with outright admitting she’d been lost now that she and Jack were getting along reasonably well. “We can always chat tomorrow instead… after lunch, maybe?” she suggested. She knew enough about the camper routine now to know she’d be busy until then.

Jack was glad they were back for food too. Even with enhanced stamina, she had been roughing it on her own for several hours of hard work- and not just wielding a heavy bow. Even if she was pretty dense, she at least noticed that Imogen had thanked her for getting them back safely. “After lunch tomorrow, sure. I’ll meet you in front of your cabin,” she insisted, not wanting to leave room for any back and forth on something as simple as meeting place. Offering a small smile, Jack moved in the direction of her own table and said, “Have a good evening until then.”

“Cool! I’ll introduce you, then” Imogen promised, pleasantly surprised. She supposed this meant that Jack was no longer as annoyed with her as she’d at first seemed, if she even wanted to meet her ‘good acquaintances’. Even if it was just because it wasn’t often she got to meet some new faces she might actually see again sometime, Imogen was still pleased.

Even if she had to be a little wary of the campers as a whole (indoctrination ran pretty strong), this was definitely going to be a different experience than Jack was used to. She grinned at the shorter girl, which turned her gaze toward the direction that camp could be seen from. “Hey, we’re just about there!” she said, gesturing so that Imogen could see. “And if I’m right, it should be close to dinner. Can’t sit with you, though. Sorry.” 

Imogen grinned, pleased that her new acquaintance would be sticking around long enough to potentially make her a new friend. Truth be told, that was a department she was rather used to lacking in. While the difficulty was less pronounced now that she was new among her own kind and people were still trying to make her feel welcome out of courtesy, she couldn’t help but worry that there wouldn’t be too many friendly faces left once the dust settled.

“I’ll still be happy to meet them,” Jack said cheerily. “Most of the others don’t want to mix and mingle, but they’re probably sick of the coming and going. That seems natural, but you aren’t completely foreign to me yet.”

Imogen was quiet for a few moments, digesting what Jack had to say. It made sense, why she would want to be a hunter. She certainly fit the part well, what with all the action and glory. Imogen though? She’d been at camp for a week now, and she’d actively avoided any exercise or weapons training beyond the regularly scheduled regimen. The life expectancy thing got to her, too. Even with a halted aging process, it sounded like the mortality rate was still pretty high- one thing that seemed all but unavoidable in this strange new world she had avoided for so long. “I will” she agreed, though she had a hard time seeing herself volunteering for a life like the one Jack had just described.

Jack thought being a hunter was basically the greatest thing in the world... Plus she was the still the new girl in the bunch after the last two to join flaked out. Artemis tended to go easy on the ones who decided not to stay because they were not about the hunting life rather than the no-boys thing, but she did not go particularly easy on the baby of the bunch. Even if she had joined a little later than average, she was still the youngest of the group. Fresh blood was more than welcome.

Imogen had to admit, Jack made the hunters seem even cooler than how she’d imagined them. It sounded really awesome… and yet, she had to admit she was pretty startled by the girl’s question. Her? Join them? Somehow despite Jack’s brief explanation of how she’d joined up, it hadn’t even occurred to Imogen that she could possibly do the same, if she wanted.

“Like I mentioned, we’re here to recruit. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t put it out there when it’s an option,” she said with less abrasiveness in her voice than previously. “Before you make your final decision, just remember that not all of us can be kids of the Big Three. Even if my name won’t be remembered, I’ll be part of a living legend, and can see more action than most campers.” Tapping her lip, she tried to remember a statistic someone threw her way once. “Life expectancy rate is even better than average for most half-bloods, since I think we’re trained better. But yeah, it isn’t for everyone. Keep us in mind.”

Imogen simply nodded, not planning on going into any further detail on that matter. She was pretty positive that she hadn’t said anything yet that would be even remotely useful in Jack’s hands, and she intended to keep it that way.

Jack had never been the one to go to about strategy anyway, especially when it involved people. She could find a good position, but never knew what to do from it without help. It was nice, sometimes, to have such a unified team to compensate for everyone’s weaknesses.

Sensing the younger girl’s continued confusion, Imogen decided that perhaps she ought to tone it down a notch, or at least explain herself if an opportunity presented itself. Thankfully, the way Jack chose to break the brief silence between them would do just fine.

“Oh? Well that would attract attention, wouldn’t it...” Wow, Imogen really didn’t want anyone to know who her godly parent was. Jack considered that the other girl actually knew without being claimed. Since this girl seemed like the intellectual type, that might actually be the case. Maybe other people were good guessers or something. No matter what, she remained confident that whatever she had managed to disclose accidentally would not help the campers win the game. It sounded like there were some particularly brutal wins.

Imogen knew that she probably hadn’t found the best way to ask her question, but also didn’t particularly care. An answer was an answer, no matter how bewildered the source of information was. She nodded sagely as Jack explained, pretty pleased that the girl’s answer was actually pretty similar to her hypothesis.

At least she got to be right about this. It hit close to home, so she had to know. “No, it’s fine, just...” Jack wanted to talk to someone about whispers that she had heard about Artemis and her last lieutenant, but that seemed like a betrayal of her hunters to talk about with an outsider. Especially if it was just a rumor, she was not about to discredit anybody for having a life. “Not a common question.”

Imogen couldn’t help but grin as the younger girl very nearly let slip who her godly parent was. She was a little disappointed that Jack caught herself, but it was nice to know that her theories about the girl’s godly parentage based on what she knew about her were probably valid. Not that she had a definitive answer, but this certainly narrowed things down a bit, and probably meant that Jack didn’t have too many wild cards up her sleeve beyond what she’d already shared.

It had not actually been her mother that Jack had been concerned about revealing, but she did not usually think bragging about that side was particularly worth it. When there were kids of the most famous twelve and girls who were going to be immortal before joining up, it was not all that exciting to have her mom to brag about. At least she was usually a tricky guess.

“Yikes” Imogen said sympathetically. A giant wasn’t the worst first monster a kid could have, but it certainly wouldn’t have been fun to deal with. She frowned at the girl’s next question. “I mean, yeah? I wouldn’t have wound up here if something hadn’t been after me” she pointed out.

“Cyclopes aren’t so nice. I think they’re almost meaner because they’re overcompensating,” Jack said, for some reason trying to relate to the other girl. Weird alrerady.

“First monster?” Imogen asked, frowning. That really depended on how such a thing was qualified- was it the first one she ever saw, or the first one to succeed at finding her? Because really, that made a pretty significant difference- both in type of monster, and her age.

First monster had seemed like a perfectly ordinary conversation starter. Jack had to wonder if Imogen’s first one had been traumatizing or something. But if the girl had managed not to get into an organized group until seventeen... Come to think of it, that was kind of old to be so new at camp. What was this girl’s deal?

“Oh, I didn’t say that. Just not anything particularly helpful” she answered, grinning. “And anyway, I’m sure you’ve got enough intel to work with already that it’ll be of some use for your strategizing” she pointed out.

No, Jack had learned absolutely nothing of use from this meeting besides the idea that her current traveling partner was halfway to batshit. It was a good thing that she had not led off with any recruitment schpiel, because this girl would have been eaten alive if she had joined up. Plus seventeen year olds were probably all boy crazy enough. Gross.