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iii. whispers of her deepest, darkest desires..
while riding arion for the... third time in a two-day time period arcana came to the conclusion that she would never get used to it. sure it was fun, but still... not something she would ever get used to. she did enjoy the wind blowing through her hair, but constantly having to swat away the mid-flight birds about to nail her in the face (the jason grace aesthetic was not for her) was not fun in the slightest.
ahead of them lay an island— a line of sand so white, it might have been pure table salt. behind that rose an expanse of glassy dunes and weathered boulders. arion thundered onto the beach. he stomped his hooves and whinnied triumphantly. it reminded arcana of camp jupiter in a way.
at this point, she'd rather not think of camp jupiter. she had been hit with the worst type of whiplash with how yesterday and today had been. she had went from fighting a legion of ghosts, killing a giant, and practically nosediving into an army of monsters just for camp jupiter, went from being praised and celebrated to being disgraced and on the run the next day. it left her with a bad taste in her mouth and a headache that was only getting worse, and with other concerns she had, it was becoming a tad bit too much.
if you just gave in..
oh, and whispers too.
she felt like there was a dark presence in the back of her mind. perhaps that was what the whispers came from. ever since the battle yesterday, they've been plaguing her mind and she hasn't found their mute button yet. all in all, arcana impera was not having a good time.
they soon dismounted, and arion pawed at the sand.
"he needs to eat," hazel explained. "he likes gold, but—"
"gold?" leo asked.
"he'll settle for grass. go on arion, thanks for the ride. i'll call you."
just like that, the horse was gone— nothing left but a streaming tail across the lake.
"fast horse," leo said, "and expensive to feed."
"not really," hazel said. "gold is easy for me."
leo raised his eyebrows. "how is gold easy? please tell me you're not related to king midas. i don't like that guy."
"king midas?" arcana asked curiously. "the dude who has magic fingers? you've met him?"
leo shivered. "yeah. being gold is not fun."
"i'd think so," arcana replied.
leo nodded, humming to himself as he knelt and cupped a handful of white sand. "well.. one problem solved, anyway. this is lime."
hazel frowned. "the whole beach?"
"yeah. see? the granules are perfectly round. it's not really sand. it's calcium carbonate." leo pulled out a ziploc bag from his toolbelt and dug his hand into the lime. suddenly he froze, his body still like he was having a flashback of some kind.
