Misted Eyes

Candy, Doorsjambs and Tinkerbell

Rose sat across from us, chewing her red-painted lip.

"How often do you hear from your mum?" Lee asked. It had been a welcome surprise when Rose had seen Lee, when they found the Hecate-offspring at the lava wall.

The girl was around 17, and wore vintage-style clothes and dramatic makeup. She had a tendency to bite her lip and narrow her dark eyes thoughtfully.

"Mm. I don't know. Once every couple of months? Usually its to give us a status report on the Mist and stuff, and new tricks." She said, in her thick English accent.
"Have you heard from her recently? Anything seem off?" Ethan asked, drawing little circles on his knee with his finger. His ADHD had shown itself as soon as the adrenalin-high from the jackhammer had faded.

"We haven't heard in her for a while... I assumed it was just- ow!" She clamped a hand to her forehead, looking anguished.

"Are you OK?" Lee asked, reaching forward. Rose made a harsh hissing sound of pain, and dropped her head in her hands, digging her fingers into her hair till the knuckles turned white. Ethan stared at me.

"Rose?" I ask gently, reaching forward to try to awkwardly pry her hand off her face.

"Aaargh!" She cried. I jerked back and Lee jerked forward.

"Apollo cabin!" Lee ordered, and Ethan reached forward to help the pained girl up. Rose yelled something as soon as she was touched, and Ethan withdrew.

"I'll grab Will," he told us, and sprinted away.

Rose started muttering, tiny, indistinguishable things that I almost dismissed. Until I heard help.

I know, I know. So heroic.

I glanced at Lee, but she hadn't noticed. Leaning close to Rose, I tried to hear.

"Dusty-dusty land," Rose yelped, "cage. Help!"

Then, "emu!"

"Hecate's in Australia?" I asked Rose energetically. She whined.

Then collapsed.
I instinctively caught her, and looked up as Will and Ethan sprinted towards us.

"What happened?" Will asked urgently as we reached them.

"She was clutching her head, in pain-" Lee began, but I butted in impatiently.

"Australia. Hecate is in Australia." I looked at Will, "she was having visions, or a weird possession or something. She was muttering, about emus and dust-"

Will scooped Rose up and grunted.

"I'll contact you when she wakes up," He told me calmly, and walked away briskly, carrying Rose like a baby.

"Where in Australia?" Ethan asked, combing a hand through his black wavy hair.

"I... I don't..." I rubbed my neck and growled in frustration.

"Let's go to lunch," Lee suggested, looking excited. I couldn't blame her. This was our first proper clue after the Prophecy.
Ethan hummed all the way to the pavilion, and Lee told us that quest-members could sit together at a table before the quest. We sat at the least crowded - Janus - and talked. Ethan was eating an assortment of sugars in different sizes and shapes. Candy, fairy floss, a donut, a cupcake and a slab of watermelon. I had a horrible premonition that he was a sugar-addict on a permanent high.

"I thought these things only served healthy foods?" I pointed out, eyeing his sugar stack.
Ethan shrugged innocently and offered me a hard-boiled candy chunk.