Kazue Uyehara and the Wrath of Styx

II: Sunshine, Lollipops, and Jazz Boys Falling From Trees

The inside of the cabin was cozy—warm silvery walls decorated with oil paintings and the comforting musk of dried wood—but the nice decor didn't make me feel any better. I flopped into a bed in the far corner and pulled the animal pelt blanket up to my chin, but I couldn't fall asleep. I stared at the cabin ceiling for hours upon end, regretting how I'd snapped at Hana, wondering what sort of fate could break even Artemis' will, and hoping that the knot in my stomach would untangle itself and leave.

I wanted to march outside and scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to yell so loud that even Artemis could hear my frustration from...well, wherever she was, but I knew that was a bad idea. I would wake the Hunters and many of the other campers, and my okaasan would probably be even angrier at me than she already was, but I didn't want to keep lying there feeling sorry for myself, either. So I did what I always did—sneaked out.

I had so many worries swimming around in my head that I had vertigo. When I tried to get up to leave, I nearly toppled out of my bed, but I steeled myself, put on my usual clothes, grabbed my bow and quiver, and quietly managed to get out to the porch.

It was just before dawn as I stepped outside, maybe 6:30 AM or so. My night vision made it easy to see my surroundings in the dark, but I pulled a compass from my cargo pants pocket just to check my bearings.

To the East was a forest similar to the one I'd run away to at Mount Tokachi, minus the snow. A giant, golden statue of Athena and Nike towered over the trees, but how it got there, I didn't have the energy to ponder. I started toward the forest, making sure not to be seen or heard.

I passed a small pavilion, an amphitheater, and a strange cave before wandering into a stretch of woods highlighted by a huge pine. A sleeping dragon was coiled around the trunk of the tree, its nostrils smoldering with smoke as it snored. A golden mass of wool hung from the pine's lowest bough, glittering in the dappled light of the rising sun. I could hardly fathom that I was looking at the Golden Fleece itself, but before I had time to think about it, I heard someone begin to sing in the distance. It was soulful and loud, with little sounds of effort randomly punctuating the lyrics.

"I see skies of—hup—blue...And clouds of white..."

I turned away from the Fleece and stepped curiously toward the sound. Who besides me would be awake at this hour? And singing of all things?

"The bright blessed day...The dark sacred night... Hngh!"

I followed the music further into the woods until it was right above me.

"And I think to myself...What a wonderful—"

Then the singing turned to screaming.

"AHHH!"

A teenage boy fell from the sky, slamming front-first into the grass with a thud. I reflexively drew my kunai from my belt.

He lay there motionless for a second, looking rather dead, then rolled over, sat up, and groaned, stretching his arms up over his head. The boy's beaded necklace had left three round indents across his nose. He looked up to find me still looming over him, considering whether stabbing was the correct reaction to a stranger suddenly falling out of a tree. I wondered if this was how Hippolytus had felt when I'd landed in front of her.

The boy broke into a wide smile, which was surprising considering he'd just fallen fifteen feet onto hard dirt and I was holding a knife in his face. "Morning," he said, then stood and offered me a gold iPod Shuffle with Louis Armstrong still playing. "Ya like jazz?"

So clearly, I was dealing with a genius.

Sunshine patches were sewn onto the shoulders of his yellow hoodie. He was tall, partially thanks to his white platform Doctor Martens, but his baggy, light-wash jeans made his long legs look thin and wobbly. His skin was slightly tanned, his wavy blond hair was tousled and strewn with leaves, and his smile was absent, like the only thing going on behind his big blue eyes was the Nyan Cat song on loop.