Stable Fable

Irene walked into the stables in her short sleeved brown leather jacket, pink loose blouse, and dark blue washed jeans just as the majestic creatures began to awaken; she strolled by and did a quick check up on each pen until she found Blaze's.

"Good Morning Blaze!, I brought you something tasty."

Irene pulled out a few cubes of pure sugar with the initials SSAS on four consecutive sides; the initials stood for San Sebastian Animal Shelter where her father worked as a vet, he had given her a generous amount of animal supplies and treats for her camp days.

"Here you go boy, you deserve them"

She cooed to Blaze as she raised the cubes up for Blaze to nibble on as she stroked his muzzle once more. Content with how happy Blaze seemed, she told him she'd be right back to tend to him once she worked with the other horses on her rounds.

Irene started to clean out the pen of her third horse out of four when she realized she needed to get the brushes ready; she cleared it all out and began to brush the horses mane slanted-wise, distracted with thoughts of how Roy would react to the gift she had ready for him.

I hope he doesn't think it's weird, it's just a token after all.

Startled, Irene whipped around and was more than happy to see Roy.

"Roy! Allo and good morning to you as well!"

Grateful that she didn't smell like animal waste Irene finished up grooming the horse and turned back to Roy. She fiddled with the wooden whistle she made for Gyzmo, tracing the carved in initial G for Gyzmo, and suddenly remembered about her token.

"I made something for you and Blaze, it's not much but I figured it useful and appropriate."

Irene slipped her hand into the pocket of the jacket and pulled out the shell she had picked up from the beach yesterday. It was silver and sea-washed only now it had been carved out into a whistle and tied with leather long enough to wear around the neck but short enough to leave on the wrist or knot together to put into a pocket.

"I read a few books- back in Spain about subtle animal training- the whistle is loud enough to hear through longer distances than the average voice- oh and it has a natural ring to it so you don't startle other animals- some militarys use them for war dogs- you mentioned hunting when we met so- well I just thought that -"

Irene realized she was speaking quickly and with a nervous tongue, she couldn't tell if she was even coherent anymore. The last time this happened she started speaking french and Spanish interchangeably without noticing, this caused a great deal of confusion with her classmates back in Spain.

I really hope I at least kept it all English this time i hate when I ramble I not only sound like an idiot but I look like one as well I hope my face didn't give me away too much.

"Well, here."

Irene let the whistle drop into Roy's palm and awaited reaction, for some reason she felt herself get hot and could feel her chest thudding and started to wonder if it was just her or if others could hear it.

Irene could see the genuine thankfulness in Roy's smile and reciprocated it.

"It was nothing Roy really."

She knew she had done well in picking a token.

"San Sebastian Animal Shelter, my father is a vet there, I did much volunteer work between there and the hospital my mother worked at" Irene's Spanish accent seriously sustained as she spoke, thinking of home pulled out the worst of it.

She started to recall the days at the hospital, the elderly and sick, she could help the sick, but there is no cure for aging, not for the mortals at least.

Shaking off the sad feeling, Irene did a half circle around Roy to get to the adjacent pen, a grey Pegasus awaited to have her wings groomed.

"This is my last pen for the morning, after this there is someone I would like you to meet."

Distracted, Irene picked up the wrong brush to comb the wings and didn't notice the whinnying or the tapping of the hooves the magical creature was making as she worked through the feathers.

'He doesn't like it' Ha- I've worked with animals all my life does he really think-

"No no It's fine I've done this many times before they love getting groo-"

Mid sentence and thought, the Pegasus rose up on it's hind legs until it was about an inch from hitting the ceiling and with it's ungroomed wings, gusted until Irene was sent back outside of the pen. The side of her left arm was cut up from the impact of the wood but other than the slight headache Irene was in one piece.

Looking down she realized that she had the wrong brush and quickly exchanged it for the soft bristled one too ashamed of her own pride to look up at Roy and admit her wrong, or worse find out if he was smirking or laughing. Irene hastily finished grooming the animal with extra care and as a peace offering gave up two sugar cubes to the creature for not being more careful. Giving her one a pat on the muzzle she apologized and turned back to see Roy.

Without much thought, mostly because she wasn't mentally ready to see what he thought of the situation, if he had said anything, she didn't hear it; Irene lifted her whistle and blew twice. It was a near silent whistle, and she knew that it would be a matter of minutes before Gyzmo came running in so she started to walk out of the stables so as not to startle the horses with her loving pet.

"Wait here for a moment Roy, until I say you can come around the corner!"
Irene called back to Roy as she sprinted out of the stables hallway and around the corner just outside. She didn't bother to look back to see if he had heard her much less listened; either way he's going to see my boy so it doesn't matter much.

Surly enough, Gyzmo came running in, two whistles meant it wasn't an emergency and he didn't need to waste energy shadow traveling, happy as ever. His massive black fur coat shed around him, the thick black hairs started to form like a nest.

Alright Gyzmo, be good.

Gyzmo sat down expecting his treat for coming in a timely manner. Irene took out his collar and some raw meat bits and let him have it while she put the collar on. Gyzmo wasn't too fond of this collar, it was comfortable enough to wear but she knew he preferred being loose, just like she was about shoes; his collar was leather and had two long thick braids hanging down that Irene used to steer, and was engraved with GYZMO on the outside and IRENE ORTEGA on the inside.

"Roy! You can come outside now! Come and meet my wonderful boy!"

Aww he is very wonderful, Roy seems like he's unafriad of most things, I'm sure he'll be shocked but I doubt he would scream or panic like the new campers did when they saw Gyzmo.

Irene called without looking back to see if he was already there or not, she had a bad habit of not looking at her surroundings when distracted but it wouldn't have bothered her regardless.

Standing on all fours Gyzmo was about the size of a large bike, reaching up just above her waist , but Gyzmo was sitting down tall, making him roughly the same height as Irene. Although almost 180 pounds, Gyzmo hardly looked intimidating, all that fur made him look like a domesticated, over grown, under groomed, dog and less of a lean muscled blood thirsty hellhound.

Truth was it took years to train Gyzmo and it had paid off, he was docile and loving, however he was also immensely loyal and protective of what is his. As for the grooming, Gyzmo had several layers of long coarse black haired coating, and Irene found it near impossible to groom, instead she let it be and stuck to grooming him once every three days.

Still not looking to see who is listening, Irene hugged and gave much attention to Gyzmo as she spoke excitedly; "This is Gyzmo, he's domestic so don't worry, but he is a hellhound, I got him as a puppy when I first came to camp it's actually a long story so we can talk about it another day. You can pet him if you want"

"Right Gyzmo? Right boy? You're so good and wonderful yes you are."

Irene cooed as she fawned over her pet relentlessly; you could tell Gyzmo was loving every moment, with his tail violently rushing back and forth, and his would be red eyes closed in pleasure with his head tilted upwards.

Irene looked over to Roy, half forgetting he was near and smiled politely.

"He just turned four, I've been training him since he was a puppy to be docile amongst the other half bloods, he comes to me in times of danger and I need only whistle once. He's such a good boy, he's been my best friend at this camp for a while now."

While confident in Gyzmo's training Irene kept a careful eye on Roy as he moved his hand to pet Gyzmo.

Gyzmo seemed more eager to smell than to be touched for he stood up instantly and started to circle around Roy as he sniffed him up and down vigorously, yet harmlessly.

Unable to tell if Roy was tensed up or not she could see he was slightly nervous at the sight of Gyzmo, taking Gyzmo's actions as a cue to intervene Irene stepped forward.

"He just wants to get your scent, it's how he gets to know you, he just wants to make sure you're not a threat to me, hell hounds are surprisingly defensive of what is theirs.- But you're a good boy right Gyzmo, you like Roy right?"

Irene let her hands glide over Gyzmo's fur as he passed her during his circles around Roy; a few moments more of interrogation and Gyzmo successfully categorized Roy as nonthreatening.

Sitting straight and looking up, almost parallel into Roy's eyes, Gyzmo's deep red irises sent out a friendly, if not apathetic message to Roy before letting out a puff of hot air from his snout right in his face and returning to all fours.

"Aww he likes you Roy." Irene stood close next to Roy while petting Gyzmo and caught Roy's natural scent for herself, just like on Blaze Roy smelled heavenly regardless of what they were doing just before; it was almost as if Roy could never smell bad.

"I don't know anything about you Roy Clark, if you have the time and would like to, please enlighten me"

Irene asked with a gleam in her eyes as she sat on the grass near the stables and leaned on the fur of a now resting Gyzmo. Truth was Irene couldn't stand not knowing things on a topic she was interested in, and she was very interested in Roy.

What cabin, how old, any powers (he did mention hunting..), how long, not too long since I've never seen him around, I knew a lot of people but truly befriended few, doing favors for people doesn't really count as making friends.

You could tell Irene started to get impatient with her wide eyed, excited gaze as if she was about to hear the most thrilling secret, she struggled to contain herself as she awaited Roy's response and began breaking near by twigs into small bits out of habit.

Irene's mind processed through the information, son of Polydeuces, he'd be useful in capture the flag, so long as he followed plans as well as he could fight.

Long Travels, rich family, must be either impulsive or drastically under prepared to have been close to dying that many times, or worse both. I wonder how long anyone can tolerate such recklessness.

Irene hushed her judgement, who was she, the girl who walked into the forest without any common sense to judge Roy that way? Irene left her thoughts to dry the moment Roy laughed, it was slightly contagious as she couldn't help but chuckle as well. Having always been a fan of travels Irene was curious to hear more, less interested in the adventure and more interested in the sheer knowledge of the cultures; of course she had read and studies about the world but one thing is reading and another is experiencing.

That's when Roy winked at her. Half shocked, half confused Irene had to think about how to reaction she would show and think twice as hard about how she actually felt about it. Her eyes went distant for a moment and looked like a black storm was forming within them with the way her eyes constricted and dilated at a quick pace.

He's friendly, charming, too charming no doubt, and he's trained his horse to be a show off for a reason, must be something he does often, and with the response he just gave about himself he's clearly not one to exercise humility. Then again, that smile was really genuine a few moments ago, and he has the sweetest smile and laugh.

Irene decided that final deliberation would be reserved for later and for the moment she let out a soft humming 'Hm' and pretended it didn't happen as moved on to her next topic of a response.

"Well, as you know Roy, my name is Irene Ortega, my parents are French and Spaniards, I know both languages fluently, I worked with the ill and needy for a very long time, hmm umm I traveled constantly between France and Spain, though I embrace the Spaniard side more than anything. I learned to play the harp as I was growing up, though it wasn't a talent most of the children from my cabin have a musical skill so it helps with making friends, or at least keeping the peace. As for my godly parent, I think I'll just show you and you can tell me."

With that, Irene sat up and made herself comfortable, and concentrated on the cut on her left arm. She placed her right hand over it, as her eyes glazed over with a soft shine that gave the same glowing warmth as the sun. Within seconds, Irene lifted her hand off to reveal her arm completely healed and not even a scar to remind her of what had happened.

Irene looked back up at Roy with her eyes back to their normal dark brown- almost black color not expecting much.

"No. Not a daughter of Aphrodite, but thanks for the try." Irene looked stern and didn't very much appreciate being compared to the mirror worshipers, though talented as they are, intelligence was rare amongst them and that was what Irene is most prideful of.

Irene could tell his intentions were humorous, she just didn't like it. Irene took a serious long look at Roy as she thought about what to do next.

"Guess again, this time guess as if Athena blessed you for a moment." Irene smirked playfully, as she raised her eyebrows slightly.

Gyzmo was fast asleep by that time and started to hum softly as his tail wagged around. Irene glanced to her side at him and rustled his fur gently so as not to wake him. She turned her head back to Roy and saw the basilisk fang and made a mental note to ask about it later, she had more pressing matters.

Irene had found great fun in riddles, games, and trivia of the sort and couldn't let Roy have a straight answer without working for it. She was very cautious as to how much she let Roy know about herself until she was sure he could be trusted.

Yea, I don't doubt it with someone as reckless as you.

Irene tried hard not to erupt with laughter.

"Lucky for you, you've met me, the solution to all your problems. Speaking of problems, "
Irene let a half smile slip through her lips until she noticed something was crawling on her hand.
She looked towards it and saw a small cockroach and flicked it over to Roy's shoes gently as to not awaken Gyzmo.

After shaking off her hand she let her hair down for a moment and let the tie slip onto her wrist as she finger combed her waving mane away from the wind. Once satisfied she pulled it all up again and twirled it into a bun with the tie leaving only a few fugitive locks to dangle near her face like slightly stretched spiral staircases.

Irene undid and redid her hair throughout the day constantly, hardly ever leaving her hair down unless it's to sleep, the bun reinforced the natural waves and kept it knot free. After her ritual was complete she looked back up to see Roy.

Roy was a witty man. He would have come up with a smart and wooing interjection to what Irene had said, which had so many pick up lines that you could say to it. 'Well, that might make me the luckiest man alive,' or 'Yeah, I've always had a problem with this romance thing,' or even 'I never knew a solution could be so beautiful', or so forth. He could've, and would have been perfectly fine saying those things. In fact, he would have.

Until the roach showed up.

Roy was completely frozen in pure fear. It wasn't quite his luckiest day. Roy would have almost given up his basilisk fang necklace that he would never been seen without for it to be literally ANYTHING else. It could've been the bogeyman, a demon from hell, a freakin' dragon, and still Roy would have chose it over the roach.

It was on his shoe. Dear gods, please, PLEASE just accidentally kill this bug, or teleport Roy to a room filled with living skeletons -- even the chamber with those three hellhounds would be nice. Please, anything.

Roy stared at it, his eyes wide and his face pale, distinct from his normal tanned look. It was crawling up now...Roy was going to die.

And then Roy had to do the unspeakable: get it off. Very slowly, he brought his shoe back, and then flung it with all his might. The monster (for it was no ordinary insect or creature) flew across the stables, and sickly crawled into some hey that a brown horse had for feed. Roy realized his forehead had a haze of sweat onto it, and he wiped it off. He had no clue what Irene was doing, he was just glad THAT was out of the way, now.

Irene looked up and saw Roy having a near heart attack, preparing herself to heal cardiac tissue Irene raised her hand.

I've never seen him act this way before, what if there's something behind us, crap i hadn't thought of it.

Irene turned around braced for whatever may have come at them, at least as braced as she could be with no weapons. After seeing nothing but a woken up Gyzmo hunched over looking around as confused as he was it that she followed Roy's path of vision.


A Roach? Really? It's like the size of his finger at most.

Still Roy seemed really frightened by it and Irene had to be careful with how she treated the moment. Irene stood up and touched Roy's wrist the way she was taught at the hospital to check pulse (just in case) discreetly by making it look like a comforting gesture, only with Roy Irene also meant it as a comfort.

"Roy, did you have a seizure? or is there a story behind this? It's getting closer to noon and I have to get my laundry started before lunch."

Irene cocked her head to the left and gave a curious yet sympathetic look towards Roy as she awaited patiently for his explanation.

"Roaches. Why did it have to be roaches?" Roy spoke gravely, running his hand over his head, and letting out a breath of relief. He really wished Irene hadn't seen him like that: completely frozen in the presence of a roach.

"I have katsaridaphobia -- roach-o-phobia in lay man's terms. It's a story for another time," Roy said, visibly shaking from the memory itself. His words were hoarse as his throat was dry. He was really embarrassed, and felt his face turn red -- hopefully it wasn't too visible.

"We can go do laundry. I'll help you with yours; I did mine when I came here. I'm just not in the mood to eat for the day." He spoke shaking his head.

Irene shook off some hay that had gotten on her and looked at Gyzmo for a brief moment and then back at Roy.

"I have a bucket in my chest back at the cabins, if you would like to join me you can wait for me at the base of the Zephynos Creek near the beach in 15 minutes and I'll bring all the supplies, if you bring Blaze I'll bring Gyzmo and we can give them a- "

Irene looked back down at Gyzmo and back at Roy and winked "B-A-T-H". Irene pressed her lips tightly together and nodded towards Gyzmo, hoping Roy would get the memo.

"So see you there, remember, 15 minutes Zephynos Creek. Come on Gyzmo want to help mommy carry some things?"

With a very proactive character by nature Irene didn't stop to listen to whatever Roy had replied and had assumed it could have been answered with a simple nod and a thumbs up thrown back as she walked back to the cabins with Gyzmo slowly.

Roy waved goodbye to Irene as she walked away into the distance. He looked over at Blaze.

You're doing good, Roy. His horse said. This actually cheered him up, after all, he had just made a fool of himself out of a girl he was trying to court. She seemed a good choice.

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly sure if it's all completely going my way. In any case, I gotta go off to the creek...place...damn, should've asked where that is. Oh well. Take care of yourself, Blaze."

And best of luck to you. The horse said to Roy as it's master walked away to the forest.