First Encounters ((Aurora))

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It had been a decent enough day for Vince up until the one child decided the lava wall would be quite the party to climb on. Not that climbing the lava wall was forbidden, of course. In fact, Vince genuinely enjoyed the lava wall when it was used properly. It had a decent amount of danger combined with the necessity of being agile in all directions, something Vince believed gave the Greeks under his command a large benefit over their Roman counterparts. The lava wall was, honestly, the perfect training tool for Greek demigods. However, when a newer Greek child, clearly not even a Hoplite in the Greek army, decided that it would be fun to climb the lava wall without anyone there to help in case danger struck, Vince had to draw the line. A loud sigh came from his lips as he approached the kid, who looked as if he was trying to simply keep from being fried alive by the waterfall-like flows of lava oozing from various portions of the wall. "Hey, you," Vince shouted out, "Down from the wall. Get over here." Vince must have startled the boy, as he wheeled around quickly to look at Vince. The Greek boy's face wore an expression as he fell from the wall, landing painfully in the dirt beneath the wall.

The lava stopped oozing as Vince approached the kid, who was holding his ankle in pain as he laid on the ground. Vince got down on one knee, slightly annoyed, and gently grabbed the child's ankle. "Here, let me look at that." Vince muttered, rubbing his thumb around the ankle. From what he could tell, the ankle was fine. Twisted around a bit fine, maybe, but it would feel brand new in a few hours. "You should know that we don't really allow anyone on the wall without someone here to watch out for them. Next time you want to dodge some lava, how about you bring a friend who can keep you from turning into a far more crispy version of yourself?" He grabbed the kid's hands and hefted him up onto his feet. The boy nodded, looking a bit frightened, before wandering off back towards the cabins with a limp. Vince shook his head as he watched the kid go.

Turning, he spotted a girl with blonde hair. He recognized her as a Hoplite he'd spoken to every now and then, but no name came into Vince's mind. Vince, however, was absolutely confident that she was a daughter or Ares. He found himself walking over to her as he searched his head for her name. A surname popped into his head before the girl's first name came to him. Aldenberg, Vince thought, was what he had heard her called at war council meetings. She typically showed up to the dimly lit councils around pool tables with a slightly cold attitude. Vince had liked her personality at the war councils, which usually degenerated into social gatherings for most of Camp Half Blood's cabin leaders. Approaching the girl, he gave her a casual sort of salute, "Aldenberg, please don't tell me that you were watching that kid from a distance to see how burnt he'd get before he decided that climbing alone was a poor idea." He waited for her answer, a half smile on his face.

[Aurora Aldenberg]

    It had been around midday that the juvenile Swede had left what was designated as the cabin area, in favor of wandering around aimlessly through the camp grounds. It was to be little more than a diversion,, intent to keep the girls mind off of things. It wasn’t as if the demigod was unfamiliar to the face of anxiety, but there was some sort of other distraction needed. And color coding all the papers and laundry of her own wouldn’t do, for she had done it in the early hours of morning, only an hour past dawn. Her path tangented from the main roads of the Greek camp, which often led to the Amphitheater and Mess Halls. Rays of vivid incandescent sunlight peered through the thin veil of Aurora’s wispy fringe, the platinum locks covered most of the right side of her face. It was times like now where Aurora had donned a pair of dark sunglasses, specifically a pair of dark aviator shades. Through the tinted lenses, just a faint trace of her scarlet optics could be seen, the vivid incarnadine hues of her irises concealed by the glasses.

    Aurora passed many people, oftentimes far too jovial than she was. That was often the case, many campers acting as though they had won the lottery. Not that there was any real need for the lottery. the chances of lucking out on it were rare, the rich Swede finding anyone to wage savings on its card, believing the game was a credible way to gain fortune, senile in all ways. It was then, that the sounds of gushing molten rock searing against the obsidian that had already clumped the rocks. From what Aurora could see, it was the figure of a young boy, clinging to the rocks for dear life. Aurora adjusted the hold of her glasses on the bridge of her nose, failing to realize that it might have come off as though she was gawking. Se had no real interest on the outcome, whether the kid would succeed in scaling the treacherous obstacles or not. She was just monitoring, it was best that he not find out that he had a spectator. It was only a surefire way to send him skyrocketing down into a puddle of rock to turn him to ash. Leaping behind the nearest shrub in distance, Aurora closely watched the boys movements, many of which mimicked a petrified yard rodent. It was the kid’s own haughtiness which held him to the sizzling rocks, his pride unable to be torn from a fall. It was blatantly obvious that he was not going to succeed, and the both of them knew that.

    The sound of a voice calling the boy down was somewhat familiar, but she could not have recognized surely through the yelling tone of the voice, which sounded to be older and masculine. The crash of a figure leaping into the smooth ground of the wall’s base signified that he was in fact okay. Regardless about the mutterings about pain in the knees. Aurora took this as her sign to leave, standing up from the clearing and merging her path back into the streamline of campers, passing the Lava Wall. Aurora’s layered white hair seemed to be free of any assorted twigs, pebbled or fragments of sand, and her clothes were untainted, as she had leaned over on the balls of her feet, her rear never coming into the contact with the dirt on the ground. Smoothing the bottom of her long coat, Aurora noticed her surname being called out by the same voice that had hollered for the kid. Aurora turned around, staring into the face of the Taxiarhos. If she recalled correctly, his name was Upton, Vince. She always knew first names, yet never used them much, as it was less formal in a martial setting. He was a kid of Apollo, if she remembered correctly.

    “Nej”, Aurora responded, her gaze trailing towards the kid, who by the current time was nothing more than a mere blur in the background. It was unlikely he had seen the platinum haired Swede from where she had perched, concealed beneath the thick verdant bushes that lined the gravel pathways of Camp Half-Blood. “I would not be a fan of this place stinking of singed hair and charred flesh for the next week and a half”, the demigod muttered under her breath, her words somewhat distorted and abstruse from a combination of her heavy accent and the fact that her speaking volume was muted as to where she and the other boy were the only ones who could catch a glimpse of their conversation. She wasn’t in the mood to face the possible repercussions of abasing the juvenile, not her willingness to spare him because of a thought of generosity. In all honesty, she was worn out and just didn’t want to spend her off-time sweeping the pungent pegasus dung from the creaky wooden floors of the stables. Aurora refused to let her physical weariness effect her external poise however, her posture straightened and hour attire smoothened and clean of nearly all debris.

    Aurora turned to face Vince, a small smirk lining her pale lips. “So”, the Swede started, "What are you up to today?", she pondered. Today was almost eerily quiet, most of the younger campers seemed to be off doing activities of the sort, save for that little kid on the wall. It was a weekend, so most everyone's spirits were high. It was somewhat annoying to Aurora. In her eyes, it wasn't like the weekends were much different, compared to, say, a school year.

[Deleted]

Vince nodded at the daughter of Ares's answer. It wasn't that he necessarily believed her, but Vince didn't find that whether she'd been watching the kid or not to make any difference in the situation. The kid had climbed the lava wall regardless of whether Aldenberg had been watching or not. When she mentioned not being a fan of the camp smelling like charred flesh, Vince barely understood her at first. A thick accent mixed in with mumbling caused Vince to have to translate her words. When he did, Vince had to stifle a smile. "No, no, I suppose none of us really would be. Those smells always seem to linger around. Thank the gods that no one's been incinerated lately." He smirked slightly, although he could remember quite a few patients that had come to the infirmary with third degree burns from the lava wall. The children of Apollo had gotten pretty good at treating such burns and moving demigods though the infirmary within a short period of time.

Aurora soon asked Vince what he was up to, and the young demigod had to think back to remember why he had been walking past the lava wall in the first place. The weekly war council meeting had been set up to begin close to thirty minutes from the time that Vince had left the Apollo cabin. Each Saturday as of the past few years had held the meetings, typically held around a pool table with plenty of snack foods provided. As Taxiarhos of the Greek army, Vince was required to be present at each meeting, and usually he was expected to be several minutes early. The council meetings were open to all cabin leaders and military officers within the Greek camp, though few cabins were represented each weekend at the meetings. It seemed that many campers far preferred enjoying their weekends over going to war council meetings that accomplished very little except make others worry about the constantly advancing Roman forces.

Vince rubbed his hand through his blonde hair, "Well, I was on my way to the war council meeting for this weekend. Not really sure what we'll get done except talking about twenty different strategies that we'll never implement, but you should come along with me. You're the Ares cabin leader, correct?" Vince paused, looking at the Swede, "We could really use a daughter of war on the council more often." Vince waited for her response, hoping that it would be a solid yes, though he tried not to get his hopes up. Aurora might have not been interested in throwing away a few hours of her weekend. Nevertheless, he had to hope. Aldenberg was a Hoplite, Vince knew, but he'd always held more of an open ear towards the children of both Ares and Athena, regardless of their rankings in the military. Oftentimes they could point out things that Vince had never even considered a possibility.

The advice of the war gods' children was rarely taken for granted by Vince, though he could hardly say the same for the rest of the council. Though he was the highest ranking officer on the battlefield, Vince had several superiors above him, all stationed in New Athens. They called the true shots for the military, and they often seemed to be at odds with each other. In Vince's opinion, an opinion he'd keep to himself for his own good, the members above Vince on the council had become rusty warriors. They seemed to forget what it was like to lead an army into battle. The bloodshed and casualties were all forgotten when these men and women had left the battlefield and entered a life of luxury in New Athens. Hoplites like Aldenberg were different, though, Vince thought. They understood what it was like to fight beside their brothers and sisters. Perhaps that was why he valued some Hoplites' advice over those of the council members above him.

[Aurora Aldenberg]

“I’ve never seen anyone completely incinerated. Do I want to”, Aurora pondered, “Not sure. I’ll get back to you on that, Ja?”, Aurora smirked. “If I were to guess, you’ve seen your share of burn wounds?” Aurora winced, she had her fair share of burn experiences, not exactly what she would consider fond experiences. Though none of them were from something as absent minded as climbing a wall forged of molten rock without supervision almost the moment you passed through the border of Camp Half Blood. While she had done her share of fairly ignorant things in her past, she had a sense of maturity that often held her back from irrationality. Some people would refer to it in a manner that was almost authoritarian, but Aurora just thought it made her a civilized human being.



“That would be me. Unless you happen to know of anyone else with the surname Aldenberg from Cabin Five”, Aurora responded. She had known the dates of course, but rarely was she ever in attendance of the meetings. Honestly, she had stopped getting the reminders for them on her phone either. The only ones she actually made an effort to attend to were the ones where it was mandatory for all major cabin leaders to attend, usually referring to meetings during a battle of some sorts. Now that Aurora thought about it, there hadn’t been one of those for a while. Not that she believed things would be staying this tranquil regarding the romersk for long. Tensions were higher than a group of teenagers alone in an alley. Which would likely lead to yet another conflict, which meant even more meetings. Oftentimes because it was just a combination of yelling, failed professionalism, and useless ordering of her around. “I usually don’t go. Those things are just embarrassing to meetings in general”, Aurora ranted. “Trust me. Being The heiress of a large business company sets someones standards high”, Aurora replied, rolling her vivid crimson orbs.



Aurora sighed “Oh gods. Are they running out of ideas again to the point where they might need the input of Aurora Aldenberg. I’m honestly not surprised”, Aurora muttered, shaking her head as it rested in her palms. “I give up. Fine, I’ll go”, she added, sagging her shoulders in defeat. In her honest opinion. She didn’t care too much what went on there. Really it was just everyone that was required to go, and probably the younger ones that haven’t realized that just about nothing important actually goes on in the council setting. Whatever really happened in the councils didn’t affect her as much as it sounded like. Her opinions often went unheard of, whether their focus was on the ambience and efficiency of the meetings or something more relevant, say no getting as many of the front lines slaughtered. Part of the reason she never attended was because all she heard was ways on getting people that she might not have exactly liked,but she still certainly knew of, driven to their certain demise. THe platinum haired Swede did have a small facet of compassion, she simply made sure it was veiled under a mask of an uncaring stoic expression.



“How about this. After the meeting, I’ll take us into the city for some lunch, Ja? I’ve got enough cash to feed Olympus. And some hours to kill. It's not like there is really much I do nowadays”, Aurora snickered, her fingers twirling around a leather pouch of drachmas, as well as a few assorted American bills and Swedish krona. Her gaze trailed from Vince, to the money, as she slide it back into her pockets once more. her free hand smoothing the wrinkles in her dark leather coat, lined with metal zippers and pockets.

[Deleted]

Despite the topic of incinerated bodies of their fellow campers, Vince found that talking to Aurora seemed to be fairly light-hearted despite her cold exterior. "No, I doubt that incinerating anyone would be a sight that anyone at this camp would want to see. Also, like you mentioned, the smell would be intolerable for awhile." Vince was brought back to his various times working the infirmary when Aurora asked about burn wounds. Each child of Apollo spent a fair amount of time in the camp's infirmary while growing up. "Yeah," he chuckled, scratching the back of his neck, "I think you'd be surprised how many demigods can't get it into their heads that things that are hot shouldn't be touched in any way." Vince remembered one child of Hephaestus that, for some odd reason, had thought that it couldn't hurt him to stick his hand into a forge simply because he was a child of Hephaestus. The kid's forearm had been covered in nasty burns which made Vince, much younger at the time, slightly sick to his stomach. It now took far worse of an injury to upset Vince's stomach. He was convinced he'd seen it all in the infirmary.

Vince grinned when Aurora talked about the meetings and their lack of professionalism. "You know, I can definitely relate to everything you just said except the whole heiress thing. I can't say I've ever been in that situation before." He grinned at the girl. As she spoke about the council needing her advice, Vince smirked a little bit. He appreciated the aura of confidence that the girl seemed to give off. It was a pleasant change from self-doubting demigods running around everywhere. His grin got, involuntarily, just a hair larger when Aurora claimed that she'd come to the meeting. At least there'd be someone Vince enjoyed present around the pool table serving as their command center.

His ears perked up as Aurora invited him out to eat after the meeting. A trip into New Athens with Aurora sounded really nice. It could have been called pleasant, even, if Vince wanted to stretch the idea out to that. Either way, he thought, it would be far better than the meeting. An idea began to slide into Vince's mind. Not one for spontaneous actions, Vince surprisingly grabbed on to it. Words were coming out of his mouth before he'd really thought them through all of the way. "You know what? Screw the meeting. Let's head into town right now, just you and me. I honestly don't think they'll miss me too much. We can grab lunch and go for a walk or something, I don't know. Whatever sounds best to you." He stopped, his words catching up with him, "That is, uh, if you're alright with that?" Vince felt his ears reddening slightly, his cheeks a tad bit warm. He waited for Aurora's reply, for better or worse.

[Aurora Aldenberg]

“There are a lot of very stupid people in this world”, Aurora muttered, grimacing at the thought of what the Apollo kids might have had to deal with. Aurora was certainly one of the more mellow residents of her cabin, not to say that there weren’t a few incidents to be had. She had seen, and had to deal with the aftermath of a lot worse. Because according to young hormonal teenage demigods, the solution to all your problems were to mangle your enemies with a club in the face. Honestly, Aurora felt bad for the pitiful girl. Daughter of Aphrodite who’d thought playing a prank involving intimate feelings was a wise idea. It was certain that not all of her siblings managed to be the wisest of people. Aurora had her share of ‘moments’ of course. The most infamous one regarding the local orchestra and a cello bow. And restraining orders.



“I don’t feel like many people have”, Aurora stated,changing to another topic quickly. It wasn’t that she was necessarily hiding anything about her upbringing, but compared to most Greeks it was almost unconventional. While her manner of speaking retained it’s chrysostomatic tone, the awkward stringing together of English sentences and accent was just a small fragment of her identity, being endemic to Sweden. Not often was a guesser accurate in their guesses, most approximating her to be German or Russian. This just mights have been just one of Aurora’s minor quirks, her fascination with foreign language. In fact, Aurora’s plan was a major in BUsiness with a minor in LInguistics. After a small grace period for Aurora to learn the language, she could find herself improving on it in places one would find its use unorthodox. Not that it disturbed Aurora much. More often than not, the platinum haired demigod found herself slipping in her native tongue, Swedish. Or occasionally Greek, but the use of Greek was oftentimes reserved for certain occasions.



“Someone’s a bit eager”, the platinum haired juvenile snickered. “I’m down with that idea, not that I exactly planned on attending initially anyways”, Aurora said, the faintest trace of a smile formed at her pale thin lips. The ‘invidious’ idea of a high-rank taking a pass on the Council Meetings would be sure to spark some sort of irritation within the council. There was a slim possibility of Aurora attending the following one, just to assure no retribution towards Vince came. Perhaps the blonde Taxiaharos could feign it off with a minor illness. It was unlikely he’d be missing more than yelling and perhaps even a bonus of somewhat stale Cheez-Its. “I’ll take you up on your offer”, Aurora replied, nodding. “I know of a really nice place. I don’t think we’d need a reservation at this time”, Aurora said, as she started towards the city of New Athens, motioning for Vince to follow her lead.

[Deleted]

Vince grinned at Aurora. She was right in jokingly saying that he was a bit eager. Vince thought up a few ways in which he could pass off his absence as acceptable to the council. Illness, of course, was an obvious answer to the simple question of where he'd been. The son of Apollo felt a small pang of guilt in missing the meeting, as boring as it would be. He was skipping out on his duties to go to lunch with Aurora Aldenberg. As lovely as it seemed to sound to him, he couldn't help but feel like he was failing those around him in a small way. Vince wondered if Romans, surrounded by a society of duty and order, felt this feeling every single time the stepped out of line. To the son of Apollo, it seemed that such a life would be miserable. Vince mentally winced at the thought of having to live under such strict rules and regulations. He much preferred his ability to pop out of a meeting now and then to do similar things to what he was doing right now.

A nice little path paved the way into New Athens as Aurora and Vince walked in the direction of the restaurant that Aurora had mentioned. Vince's stomach, already beginning to protest at having not eaten since early in the morning, was eager to reach the restaurant. Vince, however, disagreed with his stomach's desires. The day was nice, and he saw the decently long walk into New Athens as a chance to get to know the daughter of Ares walking beside him a bit better. "So," he began, "how in the world does Aurora Aldenberg keep herself busy in a place like New Athens?" Vince's question carried a light tone with it, matching the sunny skies above him.

The skyline of New Athens, looming over the two of them, seemed illuminated by the beautiful day. A couple football fields away, Vince could see the crowning glory of New Athens, the city's acropolis, filled with temples to the gods and marketplaces for the Greek citizens present within the city. "It's glorious, isn't it?" Vince muttered, looking at the city that he'd seen almost completely built from scratch in his time at Camp Half-Blood. Many of his mentors and friends had laid the cornerstones of buildings within the city, and Vince never failed to find nostalgic memories looking at it's beautiful streets and white houses.