the warrior of olympus [ the heroes of olympus ]

chapter eleven

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙰𝚁𝚁𝙸𝙾𝚁 𝙾𝙵 𝙾𝙻𝚈𝙼𝙿𝚄𝚂༉‧₊˚.[𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙾𝙴𝚂 𝙾𝙵 𝙾𝙻𝚈𝙼𝙿𝚄𝚂]

chapter eleven: i undeniably feel like a huntress again ! but it also brings back lukewarm (ha) memories lawl

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ASHANTI WAS so relieved she could cry.

in fact, she felt the tears bubbling up as the adrenaline in her system came down. her chest heaved, her hand clutching at the material of her hoodie over her heart, utter relief drowning out everything she could possibly feel, or hear at the time. the others appeared worried as she slumped back to the ground next to the campfire, trying to catch her breath. her anxiety had been driving her insane as she scrambled for some way to save her friends that didn't result in losing one of them. jason, maybe the most concerned, took a shallow step toward her, but his older sister intervened with a hand in front of his body, silently shaking her head. the dark haired girl had plenty of ashanti experience, and knew when she just needed a second to recollect.

in the background, she heard the siblings trying to piece together exactly how they had gotten separated from one another, thalia cradling jason's face, studying all the details she remembered when he was lost versus how he appeared to her in the present. internally, ashanti was excited for the pair of them, never noting that she had known the siblings at the exact same time, even considering them her best friends completely separately without ever knowing they were related. of course, some instances she noticed some similarities between them both; the way they articulated their words, their piercing, electric blue eyes, and of course the hair. technically, that was a detail the prewett girl had been sworn to absolute secrecy, but ashanti had been the one to mix the awfully cheap l'oréal black box-dye in a bowl in the middle of the night, carefully going over the honey blonde roots that stubbornly grew into the grace girl's head every three weeks. "i'm going to look like i'm balding if you don't," she'd always say as some sort of explanation as to why she was at ashanti's cabin door at two a.m., her arms filled with supplies she'd gotten from reluctantly going into the mortal world to keep her secret, well, secret.

ashanti knew when to be quiet, and ask no questions. so, when thalia grace admitted in confidentiality that she was a natural blonde, she knew not to go running to the hills with such sensitive information. some things didn't need explanations; with some basic assumptions, the dionysus girl understood that keeping her natural, long, golden locks, she'd look too much like a famed starlet named beryl grace - their mother. unfortunately, ashanti coouldn't run from her own mother's appearance if she tried, the fact that thalia was able to succeed kept her mouth zipped shut on those nights when they were tucked away in the dionysus cabin's bathroom, rinsing the black dye in the tub, and effectively washing away any evidence that thalia grace was a natural blonde.

at the cave entrance, one of the white wolves barked sharply, once, twice, then a pause, then a third. ashanti understood immediately what that meant - they had to start moving soon, or thalia would lose the scent of the others. the dionysus girl took a final deep breath, nodding to herself as thalia translated her wolf's message, "my wolf is telling me i don't have much time, and she's right." the zeus demigoddess offered a glance to her friend, the leader of the quest shooting back a thumbs up, indicating she was good, her little meltdown effectively over. thalia smiled, then turned back to jason, her excitement glimmering in her blue eyes as she held his face delicately, as if he'd disappear, "but we have to talk. let's sit."