Victorious

Cleo

Cleo woke up falling.
Last thing I remembered, I was sleeping on the couch. Now, I was falling, with Alex still unconscious and Carter screaming in my ear.
"TURN INTO A HORSE!" He screeched repeatedly. "TURN INTO A HORSE!"
"HORSES DON'T FLY!" I yelled back.
"WELL THEN TURN INTO SOMETHING THAT DOES!"
"STOP YELLING!" Alex yelled in his sleep. "IM TRYING TO SLEEP."
I concentrated, trying to change mid-air, but couldn't. I was falling from the sky and had no way to protect myself or my friends.
I thrashed wildly in the air, even though I knew I wasn't a panther right now. With a sudden realization, I patted my back and found that rucksack Aphrodite picked out.
At lease we have ambrosia when we fall, I thought to myself. I threw my hand down, and I saw the glint of an arm bracelet-type deal.
I'm not very good at describing jewelry, but I'll give you this- it wrapped up to my elbow, kind of like what Cleopatra would wear, (the Egyptian pharaoh, not me,) and it was like a bracelet. Arm circlet, maybe? In any case, it was that magnificent regal bronze staff I was admiring in the weapons cabinet. I knew it had magical properties but I hadn't activated them.
How far was I from the ground- 20, 30 feet?
I wrapped the arm circlet off and it turned into that beautiful staff. As my feet hit the ground, I surged the staff before me, so I ended up on one knee holding it.
Save me, I thought.
I closed my eyes. The pain from the fall hurt me and probably broke my foot, but that pain subsided. I felt a wave of something shoot past me twice from my staff. I looked, opening my eyes, and let go of the staff, letting it tumble. My ankle hurt like heck, so I grabbed the medical wrap out of my bag. The boys looked fine, and very bewildered.
"How did you-"
"Magic, boys." I said, spinning around my staff, smiling. "This staff is magic."
"Wonderful," Carter said, grumbling. "The last thing we need is unreliable magic."
I caught his eye as I wrapped the rest of the tape around my ankle, standing up. Was I going to mention how I got this sudden source of magic power? No. Was I also going to comment that he had a magic aura? No. Those are things he can figure out on his own. You have to let magic in before it can help you.
"Come on," I said, grinning while standing. Part of me was told to keep going, but the other part of me wanted to stay back and read. It's a little dodgy to say you're enjoying a book the goddess of love gave you, but it was about magic. It wasn't anything too hard, but if I kept learning so quickly I'd have to get a new one. I hadn't told the boys, either, given Carter's vile reaction to magic and that rapid indoor windstorm Alex set off yesterday.
I used my staff as a walking stick as I lead the boys and myself into the jungle.

Side note: DO NOT let Aphrodite pack your bags.
"Can't we just have Nectar?" Carter complained.
"Shut up, man." Alex shot back.
"That's for sure situations." I commented, setting the bottle of nectar next to me on a log.
"I never thought I would get dehydrated in a jungle." Carter said, plucking a giant leaf off a plant and tipping the end into his mouth to get all the water. Alex smacked it out of his hand.
"Hey!" Carter complained.
Alex grinned. "Payback starts now."
"You know I was going to give you extra water- right?"
Alex grumbled. "Oh, whatever."
"Shut up!" I snapped irritably, pulling out a bottle of perfume. "Ugh! I can't drink perfume!"
"Maybe you can. Work some of that magic." Carter said.
I gave him the look people in the office give to the cameras.
"That's not how it works."
"Says who?"
I spat as I pulled out another perfume bottle.
"When would I use perfume on a death defying quest?" I complained.
"You may not use it, but I know someone who could." Carter said. He snatched the bottle and crept over to the spot where dead animal compost spread, and sprayed.
I shook my head.
I pulled everything out of my pack- even my book, which I hoped Carter or Alex wouldn't take interest in.
"Man," Carter said, holding the empty bottle of perfume as he sat down, holding his nose. "That stuff reeks."
"What- the perfume or animal compost?" Alex asked.
"Which one?" I commented, throwing all the stuff back into the bag. "No water." I commented.
"Where's Kenzie when you need her," Alex commented.
I frowned. "Kenzie?"
"Mackenzie Jackson."
The name said it all. Even though I had spent not nearly enough time at Camp Jupiter, I knew my praetors. Percy Jackson was one.
"Let's keep moving." I stated, throwing my backpack over my shoulder and gripping my staff. Carter eyed it suspiciously.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked. "Wouldn't walking make dehydration worse?"
"No," I said. Lie.
"Are you sure there's no water?"
I grumbled. "Look, you guys can go through your packs again, but I know there's nothing in mine."
"Except a book."
I turned and scoffed. "I need something to read. Problem?"
"It was a magic book."
"How do?"
I looked over at Alex and realized he was watching this conversation like a tennis match. Carter walked behind me and opened up my backpack. I slapped his arm in the process, a clear get out of my backpack slap, but he ignored me.
He positioned himself next to Alex, in front of me, holding the book.
"It says Magic on the cover." He said, pointing to the letters of the alphabet I didn't learn to read.
"How can you understand that?" I asked. He walked over and stood next to me, pointing at the letters.
"That's an M," He said, pointing to the first letter. "That's an A, G, I, C." I ran my hand across the cover of the book. How he could understand those, I don't know. Maybe you could feel the letters underneath. I ran my hand across the letters and for a split second, Carter's hand came in touch with mine. Electricity sparked up my arm. We jerked away instantly, and I gave him a dirty look.
I opened the book, shuffling through pages and pages of different types of magic. Healing powers, fire powers, a page or two on invisibility, magical barriers and,
"Wait!" Carter said, slapping his hand on a page I have just flipped, turning it over.
"Water!"
"Carter, that doesn't say water."
"Yeah, it does!"
"No, it doesn't."
"You two are giving me a migraine!" Alex interjected.
I took the book in my hands and looked at the page closely. If I can draw that..
I shoved the book at Carter and drew the symbol to the best of my abilities. I lifted my staff, satisfied, until I looked at the book and realized I made one line shorter than the other.
Carter compared the symbols.
"It'll be fine," Carter said. "It's not that precise."
I grunted.
Then, it started raining. Here's the weird part- it started raining dead animals.
Vultures, lizards, geckos and flamingos all landed on the beautiful jungle ground, ruining the scene. Luckily, there was no bloodshed for the dead animals, but simply just lifelessness.
A gecko landed on my head.
"No preciseness, huh?" I said sarcastically to Carter.
Alex cleared his throat and threw a raccoon.
"Let's keep moving. The cloud won't follow us."
"Unless it's the glow cloud." Carter said eerily, scared. Alex lead the lead and I followed, turning to Carter.
"What in Hades is a glow cloud?"
Carter face-palmed. "It's a welcome to night vale thing."
I looked at his shirt again. Remind me never to listen to that show, I told myself as we crossed over some rocks.
"Guys," Alex said, brushing a (live) baby iguana off his shoulder. It crawled back on.
"There's a waterfall over here."
"What? Out of my way." I stumbled over some rocks and past through the hasty rock wall, and it was as if all the rest of the jungle was gone. Instead, there was actual peace and tranquility.
A large waterfall fell calmly into a beautiful pool of water. Tropical birds perched on tall trees. It was like I was in some kind of music video or something. All the colors were beautifully vibrant, and my surroundings just made me want to sit down and say "kumbaya."
Naturally, I resisted.
This actually would've been a cool place to hang if there hadn't been a red haired freak show with nature clothes on scouting out looking at the pool.
I held a finger to my lips as I signaled for Alex and Carter to crawl through.
"Who the actual heck is that?" Alex whisper-shouted.
"He has backwards feet." Carter pointed out. "He should at least wear shoes." Alex said. Carter and I looked at him weirdly.
"Sorry." Alex responded.
"I'll go first." I said, approaching the red haired freak.
"Cleo Hylla Ramírez-Arellano," the red haired freak said, turning.
The closer you got to him, the more he looked like a regular 14 year old teen.
Well, a regular teen in a shirt that said 'save the panda bears,' khaki shorts and sandals.
"Yes?" I responded, tired of people knowing my name.
"I am the curupira, and I am here to grant your wishes and give you guidance!" He said, raising his arms up. All the tropical birds around him landed on his arms.
"Eccentric." I muttered.
"Curupira?" Carter said. "You mean chimichanga?"
The red haired freak lowered his arms, causing the birds to fly away. He stepped a bit closer to Carter, which meant he stepped a bit closer to me. Up close, his eyes were too many different colors to count.
"What is a chimichanga?" The red haired freak asked.
"Some type of food." Alex said quickly. "But that doesn't matter. Is there anything else we can call you?"
The red haired freak thought about it for a second.
"You may call me Peter." He said, raising his arms to the gods. "Peter, the genie of the jungle!"
I looked at the boys for a second, and we all shared the same look. I was waiting for Alex to literally say 'what the actual heck.'
"Hold it right there!" A voice boomed. Suddenly, a girl popped down from the tree. Her shirt said, Save the Buffalo! And was dressed similarly to Peter. She even had red hair which led me to the fact that I thought they were twins.
"I am the genie of the jungle. Call me Piper and cower at my name!"
She thrust her arms up, and instead of a flock of friendly birds, we got a load of lightning.