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[indent][indent][color=#808080]The transition from the bitter cold outside to the arena's interior was so abrupt it felt like stepping through a portal. One moment, Rae was bracing against the winter wind, and the next, she was enveloped by a soporific heat that clung to her skin like a second layer of clothing. A low thrum resonated in the air, the unmistakable signature of powerful magic at work, maintaining this pocket of artificial summer. Though the constant reliance on enchantment was a little unnerving, Rae had to admit it was a practical mercy. Freezing to death was now off the list of imminent concerns despite her innate abilities, leaving her to worry solely about the athletic trial ahead.[/color]

[color=#808080]She followed Zelia up into the stands, finding a spot that gave them a clear view of the arena floor without sitting too close to anyone else. The benches were pleasantly warm beneath her when she sat, like they’d been sun-soaked for hours instead of iced over minutes ago. The black joggers and cropped hoodie suddenly felt like the right call, too. And she was still adjusting to the effects of this unreal warmth when River stepped out from the edge of the arena.[/color]

[color=#808080]Up close, or at least closer than “camp-wide announcement over an intercom”, he looked… exactly like the kind of person who should be running a place like this and also like someone who desperately did not want a hundred sets of eyes on him. He walked toward the center, exhaled, and Rae felt her own stomach tighten in sympathy. Public speaking in front of a bunch of strangers with god-powers? That would have been a hard pass for her as well. [/color]

[color=#86a8ad]"Good morning, everyone. If it wasn't already obvious, I am River, your new leader… And son of Poseidon, if that matters."[/color]

[color=#808080]Rae’s brows climbed, just a fraction. [i]Son of Poseidon.[/i]
Right. So that was…kind of a big deal, no? What did it even mean to carry that lineage? To have the seas themselves as your inheritance, yet to stand before everyone looking so intensely uncomfortable? A sharp spike of gratitude shot through her; her own confusing encounter with her divine parent was more than enough. She couldn't imagine having that level of expectation placed on her shoulders. [/color]

[color=#808080]She observed as he began to pace slowly along the length of the stands, a clipboard held loosely in one hand, his knuckles white where he gripped it. His gaze was carefully directed just above the sea of faces, skimming the tops of heads rather than making direct contact. Rae recognized the technique immediately. She’d employed the same strategy during school presentations, fixing her eyes on the clock at the back of the room to avoid seeing the expectant or, worse, bored faces of her classmates.[/color]

[color=#808080]He clearly wasn't a natural performer, but he was pushing through it anyway. There was a quiet determination in his actions that made Rae sit up and pay closer attention as he continued his address. He spoke of a boy named Ajax, his late brother, and acknowledged the efforts of a young woman named Andy, his words painting tragic outlines of people and events she had yet to understand.[/color]

[color=#86a8ad]"Now that everyone has had time to recover from the horrors of Pandora’s Box, my focus is going to be on training, the original purpose for camp… Not parties every night or the Greek tragedy that was the Valis’s chokehold on this place."[/color]

[color=#808080]Rae’s mouth pulled to one side.[/color]
[color=#808080]Yeah, okay, so maybe arriving on New Year’s Eve had not been peak timing. The phrase parties every night made a few campers near the front trade looks, the kind that said they’d lived through that aforementioned era. Rae just filed the names she didn’t know away: Pandora’s Box. Valis. Ajax. Andy. Context she didn’t have yet to, of course, get sometime later. [/color]

[color=#86a8ad]"No one likes training, but it’s important," [/color][color=#808080]River continued, pacing slowly. [/color][color=#86a8ad]"The world won’t forget you’re demigods just because you ignore it. We can’t stop things from happening, but I can help prepare you all, so if the time comes, you can defend yourselves."[/color]

[color=#808080]Rae felt a traitorous shiver crawl up her spine despite the magically warm air. [/color][i][color=#808080]The world won’t forget you’re demigods. [/color][/i][color=#808080]His wording was brutally matter-of-fact, stripping away any comforting pretense that danger was just a theory in this place. It was a guarantee. A countdown clock had started the moment each of them was born. [/color]

[color=#808080]Her thoughts, unbidden and unwelcome, flew to the memory of Wes from the night before—specifically, to the space where his right arm should have been. She hadn't meant to stare when she’d first seen it, but her eyes couldn’t help but catch on the way his sleeve fell, limp and flat, against his side. There was a slight, unconscious adjustment in his balance with every movement made, as if his body was perpetually compensating for a weight it had learned was gone. He’d promised to tell her the story later, framing it as a casual anecdote to be delivered with a joke and a shrug. But sitting here now, with River’s grim pronouncements about Pandora’s Box and a world that wouldn’t forget, that promise felt less like a story and more like a premonition. It was a warning label on this entire world that she’d failed to read. Or, better yet, it was one that her father hadn’t even bothered to provide, along with that drawn map he’d given her.  Instead, Hephaestus had shown her molten metal and impossible craft over kids coming back from this place with pieces of themselves missing. There was no brochure section labelled [/color][color=#808080][i]Potential Dismemberment: See Back For Details. [/i][/color][color=#808080]Nothing. [/color]

[color=#808080]River then went on to introduce the obstacle course to them and its purpose today, and Rae watched him move to the starting line, quietly deciding that “example” was a strong word for what was about to happen.[/color]

[color=#808080]And her instinct was almost immediately proven correct.[/color]

[color=#808080]By the time River cleared the last obstacle, clearing the water with room to spare and landing solid on the other side, he looked less like someone showing off and more like someone proving a point, to them all and to himself. [/color][i][color=#808080]I can do this. You’re safe with me in charge. [/color][/i][color=#808080]The thought wasn’t spoken, but it might as well have been.[/color]

[color=#808080]Rae finally dragged in a breath and leaned back a little, shoulders brushing lightly against Zelia’s.

[color=#3b9ae1]“Okay,”[/color] she said under her breath, [color=#3b9ae1] “So, he’s like, some comic book hero or something? Jeez.”[/color]

Her heart was still thudding too fast, but under the intimidation and the very real awareness of her own limits, something steadier curled up beside it: If that was who was training them… maybe she actually stood a chance. Her own goal for the day, however, remained decidedly humble: she just needed to get through her own attempt without becoming some kind of permanent meme. [/color]

[color=#808080]After the first group navigated the course with a mix of triumph and struggle—Rae winced in sympathy as a slender girl with dark hair lost her footing and tumbled onto the floor below—Zelia’s name was called for the second wave. By the time Zelia finished a brief exchange with River and jogged back to her starting position, Rae was anxiously picking at a loose thread on her hoodie. Surely this would be straightforward for her, right? Zelia carried herself with a natural confidence that suggested she could handle anything.[/color]

[color=#808080]The second Zelia stepped up to the tires, Rae’s brain quieted. [/color]

[color=#808080]Her friend moved, not like River, who had torn through the course like a breeze, but with a kind of rhythm to her that made the whole thing look…weirdly fun. Her feet threaded through the tires in quick patterns without a hint of hesitation, like her legs had done this a thousand times in different configurations. There was a lift in her step, too, a bounce that made Rae think less “drill” and more “choreography.”[/color]

[color=#808080]An involuntary smile touched Rae’s lips. Her worry had been entirely misplaced.[/color]

[color=#808080]The next set of obstacles only reinforced the impression. Zelia didn't just overcome them; she engaged with them, turning a test of endurance into a display of personality. She cleared the first log with a smooth, vaulting motion, swung over the second with a cheeky, dismissive kick, and on the third, her footing betrayed her for a precarious moment. Rae’s breath seized in her chest—[/color]

[color=#808080]—until a bright, unfiltered laugh burst from Zelia, and she twisted the near-fall into forward momentum, making the recovery look like part of a planned routine.[/color]

[color=#808080]Rae released a quiet sigh of relief. Somewhere deep in her chest, a warm sense of pride bloomed as she kept her eyes locked on her friend. That was when she noticed the subtle shift as Zelia approached the pool. The change in her posture was minor, but unmistakable to anyone watching closely. And Rae was watching [/color][color=#808080][i]very[/i][/color][color=#808080] closely.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1][i]She’s afraid of the water, [/i][/color][color=#808080]Rae understood with sudden clarity. That unshakeable confidence had suddenly iced over.[/color]

[color=#808080]But then Zelia pivoted and took off along the side, and Rae’s admiration rewired itself into something steadier.[/color]

[color=#808080]Suicides were brutal. Rae knew that much from the mandatory gym class hell years. Watching them from above, though, tracing the back-and-forth, back-and-forth along the length of the water, she could see what it was doing to the other girl—face heating, breaths chopping shorter, shirt sticking between her shoulder blades. Still, Zelia’s form stayed clean, her feet pushing off with that track-bred snap, arms driving even when the fatigue started to creep in. On one turn, Rae caught the tiniest hitch in her stride, Zelia powering through it with cheeks flushed and eyes fixed somewhere just ahead of her own feet. [/color]

[color=#808080]A peculiar warmth coiled in Rae’s chest.[/color]

[i][color=#ebceed]Feed the storm[/color][/i][color=#808080], she remembered Zelia saying over breakfast, and apparently, she hadn’t been exaggerating.[/color]

[color=#808080]The log ladder looked like the point where a normal person would fold, and yet Zelia hit it like she’d been waiting for the next test. And if River had climbed like a soldier, Zelia climbed like someone refusing to let gravity have the last word. Every grab-hoist-plant-rise sequence made Rae’s shoulders ache in phantom protest.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“You’ve got this, Zee,” [/color][color=#808080]she whispered under her breath, testing the casual nickname Zelia had offered. The word felt both foreign and comforting on her tongue. (They were friends now, right? This seemed like a friend-thing to do.)[/color]

[color=#808080]At the top, Zelia rolled over, vanished for a heartbeat, then popped into view on the descent, skipping rungs where she dared, feet thudding a quick pattern down toward the ground. When her feet finally met the earth, Rae unclenched her jaw, becoming aware of the half-moon marks her fingernails had pressed into her palm.[/color]

[color=#808080]One more challenge. [/color]

[color=#808080]Having seen River make it look trivial, Rae now watched Zelia’s attempt with a knotted stomach. This didn’t feel like a foregone conclusion; it felt like a gamble, and Rae was desperately invested in the outcome.[/color]

[color=#808080]Zelia swiped a damp strand of hair from her forehead with her wrist, drew a deep breath, and launched into a final, all-out sprint. For one breathtaking second, she was suspended in the air, silhouetted against the bright light of the arena, her body stretched in a perfect, horizontal line. Rae’s stomach lurched into her throat, a visceral sensation of shared flight and terror.[/color]

[color=#808080]Then, the satisfying crunch of soles hitting dry ground. Zelia landed with a forward skid, her balance wavering for a step before she caught herself, a giddy laugh escaping as she remained firmly on her feet.[/color]

[color=#808080]A huge, relieved sigh escaped Rae. The nervous tension that had gripped her own body dissolved, replaced by a giddy, effervescent energy.[/color]

[color=#808080]When Zelia stood tall and shot a victorious thumbs-up toward the stands, Rae acted without thinking. She cupped her hands around her mouth, her voice cutting clear across the space before shyness could intervene.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“Let’s go, lightning legs!”[/color]

[color=#808080]A few heads turned. Rae absolutely pretended not to notice, dropping her hands and schooling her face into something less proud than she felt. Heat climbed her ears again, but she didn’t take it back. Her gaze, instead,  tracked the flush on Zelia’s cheeks, the way her chest heaved, the bright, wild look in her eyes. Rae felt a little jolt of something like…secondhand victory. Pride tangled with a prickle of intimidation.[/color]

[color=#808080]Because now she knew exactly what River’s “baseline” looked like.[/color]

[color=#808080]And what Zelia’s “I can’t swim, but watch me do everything else” looked like.[/color]

[color=#808080]And somewhere, not too far from where her anxiety was already cataloguing every way this could go wrong, another thought lodged stubbornly in place:[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1][i]Okay. So that’s where their bars are. I don’t need to match it. I just need to get through it. One obstacle at a time. Tires first. Don’t die. Try not to throw up. Simple….right? [/i][/color]

[color=#808080]When River called the next group forward, Rae’s name hung in the air. She drew a sharp breath, forced her shoulders back, and commanded her legs to move. Leaving the safety of the bleachers, she cast one last glance at Zelia’s glowing, triumphant face. At least, she told herself, when she inevitably became a spectacle of clumsiness, Zelia would be there at the finish, probably still smiling.[/color]

[color=#808080]This small comfort, however, did nothing to brace her for the unmitigated disaster that was about to unfold. Not even remotely.[/color]

[color=#808080]River lifted his hand, and Rae stepped up to the starting line. Her stomach was a restless knot of dread, excitement, and the stupid hope that maybe adrenaline would carry her further than her actual skill level could.[/color]

[color=#808080]That hope died about three seconds later.[/color]

[color=#808080]The starting signal seemed to short-circuit her brain. She lurched into the first set of tires with frantic, uncoordinated panic, making it through a grand total of four before her limbs staged a mutiny. Her left foot slid out, her right foot tangled in response, and she pitched forward into a windmilling stagger that barely kept her upright.  So, by comparison, she looked less like an athlete and more like a newborn giraffe on a skating rink already.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“This might be the worst,” [/color][color=#808080]she muttered, breath puffing out. She hated this so much.  By the time she stumbled out of the tire section, her lungs were screaming in protest, and she hadn't even encountered a single substantive obstacle yet.

The horizontal logs were an immediate disaster as Rae tripped over the first, climbed over the second like a confused woodland creature, and half-slid down the third on her stomach. The low crawl under the net, she decided later, was a comparative success, though. Her elbows kept sinking treacherously into the loose sand, but she set her jaw and shoved herself forward, her shoulders ablaze and her abdominal muscles quivering with the strain. When she finally hauled herself out of the trench, she was blanketed in grit, dripping with sweat, and mildly astonished that her arms hadn’t simply detached from her body along the way. [/color]

[color=#808080]She headed to the rope climb section,  wiping her palms on her pants the same way River had, except her hands were shaking so badly that it was just basically smearing dirt around. She grabbed the rope, jumped, and instantly realized why this obstacle had made a few people hesitate. Her arms shook violently. Her grip felt slippery and weak. She managed two pathetic, scrambling pulls before her legs failed to lock around the rope, leaving her dangling helplessly, spinning in a slow, pathetic circle like some forgotten piñata.[/color]

[color=#808080]She tried again. And again. Until River’s voice, firm but not unkind, cut through her struggle, instructing her to move forward. And somehow, on legs that felt like water, Rae obeyed, muttering a mortified [/color][color=#3b9ae1]“thanks” [/color][color=#808080]without looking up. [/color]

[color=#808080] The rope bridge swayed madly with her first step, nearly bucking her off. The rope swing that followed was less a swing and more a desperate, wobbling collision course with the far ledge, which she hit with a jarring thud that rattled her teeth. Then came the balance beams. Three wooden spans: up, across, and down. Setting foot on the incline, her body immediately listed sideways, her arms pinwheeling. Each step was a precarious negotiation. By the midpoint, she was sweating anew, her sense of balance utterly extinct. The flat section brought a misstep and a yelp, while the decline tempted a reckless, disastrous sprint that ended with her stumbling into the dirt in a humiliating puff of dust. [/color]

[color=#808080]Rae remained hunched over, hands braced on her knees, drawing ragged breaths. The threat of tears or nausea was acute, but she fought both down fiercely. She’d already seen one camper succumb to that particular humiliation. She didn’t need to draw any more attention to herself than she undoubtedly already had, she decided.[/color]

[color=#808080]The pool, when she reached it,  thankfully offered a moment of respite in answer to this decision. While no champion swimmer, Rae was at least competent in the water. The simple act of crossing it felt almost peaceful compared to the fiasco on solid ground, and for a few strokes, she wasn’t embarrassing herself for once. [/color]

[color=#808080]This minor reprieve evaporated the second she hauled herself out and faced the final towering structure: the log ladder. [/color]

[color=#808080]It was immense. Daunting. An architectural insult.
She was utterly spent.
Every muscle screamed in unified protest.
Her arms felt like boneless appendages.[/color]

[color=#808080]But Rae made herself grab the lowest rung anyway because what else were you supposed to do when someone you didn’t know was cheering you on at the end of this whole thing? [/color]

[color=#808080]She hauled upward.
A raw, grunting sound tore from her.
She somehow scrambled a knee onto the wood.[/color]

[color=#808080]Each rung was a brutal campaign. She climbed with the sluggish desperation of a wounded animal. In her frantic struggle, she kneed herself hard in the stomach, the jolt of pain making her slip. She arrested her fall only by jamming her elbow into the rough wood, pain lancing up to her shoulder. At the top, there was no graceful roll. She simply flopped over the beam like a sack of grain.[/color]

[color=#808080]Getting down was its own fresh hell. Rae hugged the structure, bracing her whole trembling body against each log and sliding down in graceless, jerking increments. By the time her feet touched the ground, her limbs were practically vibrating with a life of their own.[/color]

[color=#808080]One last thing stood between her and the finish line, yet for Rae, it was merely the final chance for disappointment she told herself. [/color]

[color=#808080]She ran toward the pool, pushed off—[/color]

[color=#808080]And didn’t clear it,  landing right on the edge with one foot, slipping down the slope, and ending up in the shallowest corner of the water with the saddest splash known to humankind.[/color]

[color=#3b9ae1]“Perfect,”[/color][color=#808080] she mumbled through a mouthful of damp hair, hauling herself out to a smattering of applause that felt hollow and distant. But she had crossed the line. On legs that could barely support her. With lungs that felt shredded and raw. That at least she could say she’d managed.[/color]

[color=#808080]In the end, she stood there as a living monument to humiliation: caked in dirt, sand, and chlorinated water, her face blazing with shame. A ragged hitch caught her breath. Her eyes stung with a heat she couldn’t blink away. She swallowed hard, trying and failing to lift her chin, battling to keep the violent tremor in her chest from breaking loose for all to see.[/color]

[color=#808080]But they had seen it all. Every fumble, every stumble, every moment of pure struggle. They had all borne witness as Rae finished in undeniable, uncontested last place.[/color][/indent][/indent]
[hr][sub][color=9b9b9b][b][i]Location: Arena 
Interactions: Zelia, River
Mentions: Andy, Wes, Blair, Nelly [/i][/b][/color][/sub]
[right][sup][color=#3b9ae1][b]#3b9ae1[/b][/color][color=2e2c2c]...[/color]|[color=2e2c2c]...[/color][url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5a/1d/80/5a1d80dbf50b72e4e820733d59cdce06.jpg][color=9b9b9b][b]outfit[/b][/color][/url][/sup][/right]