Pyrrhic

━━ IV

SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE WARNED HER ABOUT THE ECCENTRICITY OF CABIN TEN. While she had had contact with some of the members of it (for example, Aurora Franklin and Georgina Amoretti, who had happened to come to the stables just a while after their sister had left in tears again, finding a deeply upset Lyra because the pegasus named Blackjack refused to let her pet him, ultimately ending up in a conversation about the pegasi's different strong personalities and how Blackjack had always been a bit of a wild card), she had never entered its premises. She had seen the cabin from outside, of course, she was not blind.

The outside was ornamented with pillars, a blue-and-white checkerboard deck with steps, pink walls, a pink door, white lace curtains with flower patterns and potted carnations by the window. That was actually cute. It was well decorated and seemed like a pretty place to step in, or maybe stay outside in its porch.

The problem was when you entered the perfumed nightmare. She had never smelled so many fragrances at the same time, she could not even distinguish what half of the scents were (although she was able to recognise more vanilla than anything, which probably meant they were using the special perfume Aurora told her about—one which smelled like the fragrance you loved the most) (so far, from what she had the pleasure of smelling, vanilla had become her favourite).

Although the visuals were not as overwhelming, they still made an impact in one's line of vision: the inner walls of the cabin were pink with white window trim, with pastel blue and green curtains and beds. Unlike Apollo's cabin, they all had bunks, and two long rows were separated by a curtain—judging by the names in each camper's chests, the curtain separated the boys' section from the girls'.

The good thing was that, once she had been inside for a minute, her nose got accustomed to the strong fragrance(s) and, as that sense became unclogged, her vision could concentrate in finding the beautiful daughter of Aphrodite who had told her to come to her the day before for a lesson in makeup (specifically, that marvelous bright pink eyeliner), yet had left in a hurry, leaving a confused Lyra behind.

Luckily, she did not have to search too extensively for her, as the minute Aurora approached her and loudly exclaimed her name, asking her why was she there (and if something had happened to Sol—which it had not, and Lyra did not know why she had randomly asked that question out of nowhere), the pretty dark-haired girl appeared from behind a curtain and walked towards them with a bright smile.

"Lyra!" She exclaimed. "You came!"

She grinned, and nodded. Aurora seemed to realise she was not there to look for her, and after reassuring her that her best friend was safe and sound practicing her archery skills, she left the two girls to chat. Drew dazzlingly beamed and grabbed her hand, dragging her towards a bunk with multiple photos surrounding it, and a drawer full of makeup (not a strange sight in that cabin, though), while saying: "I'm so glad you actually came! I thought I'd scared you off, sorry about that, but it seems I'm as alluring as ever, thank you mom."

They reached the bed, and Drew signaled her to sit down in the drawer's chair, her slanted eyes framed perfectly with, this time, a beautiful magenta colour. Her lips were permanently in a small smile, filled with a soft pink colour, a natural shade, and Lyra thought she had made that choice to not make them clash with the eyeliner (Marisol had taught her that when Lyra said she would like to try bright green eyeshadow paired with a scarlet lipstick—she had almost cried when Lyra did not understand why they could not go together, given her argument that roses had the same colour scheme, while Sol was adamant in saying those could only go together at Christmastime, only suitable to use in the holidays) (Lyra disagreed, but it was Marisol's makeup, so they had to agree to disagree).