Take nothing for granted

I walked into the woods, feeling angry. Angrier than usual, anyway. Some other demigod thought it would be funny to call me names. Sure I was used to it, but it always made me angry for reasons unknown to me. People always think it's okay to mess with a child of death. Sure I always wore black and had no friends. I was just the perfect person for them.

I was dressed in a black tank top with a skull and a leather jacket. My black jeans reached right to my ankles where I was wearing some simple black high tops. Pretty typical outfit for a daughter of death to wear, huh? I had some black skull stud earrings as well, but they were hidden by my messy raven hair.

I walked up to a tree, my dog trotting behind me. I sat down against it and allowed the dog to do the same. I pet his back and he turned to nuzzle me in the stomach. It calmed me down and I began to scratch behind his ears, just where he liked it. "Just you and I again." I said. I didn't bother me though. My dog was the only living thing I liked.

Ow, ow, ow.

Kendall was limping through the forest, grumbling to herself in disgust for accidentally, maybe, probably twisting her ankle during her daily jog along the loath through the woods. She had landed on it wrong or something, or maybe she had really tripped over a rock and just had blocked it out of her memory from sheer embarassment. Whichever way, her foot still sort of hurt and that was definitely going to make her trip to the infirmary much longer.

Clad in a black tank top and blue running shorts and a pair of relatively new Nike sneakers (which she had traded to some Hermes kids in exchange for protection from her siblings), she was not very prepared in case of attack in the forest. Kendall had a dagger tied to her hip but that was it -- her sword and boar were back in her cabin, and outrunning anything would be out of the question. She sighed loudly, scratching at a bug bite on the back of her neck: couldn't she ever catch a break?

The path seemed to wind on forever as she made her way back in the camp's direction -- step, limp, step, limp, almost fall, step and grab tree. Kendall snorted loudly -- and then she heard someone talking nearby, a girl. She stopped, her hand immediately going to the celestial bronze dagger at her hip.

Ken raised her eyebrows at the sudden question, but did it really surprise her? A lot of people would be even the slightest bit hostile and suspicious when a random person approached them in the woods. Ken certainly could say she would -- forest or no.

She raised her hand off the dagger to show she intended no harm, just peace. She was in no condition to fight, and it'd probably not end well for the both of them in any brawl. The dog didn't look too bad; it had only started barking when she'd approached, so it might be slightly friendly. "Kendall, daughter of Ares with twisted ankle trying to get back to camp. And you?"

I lowered my guard. I didn't really want to get in a fight with a girl with a twisted ankle. I nudged my dog to stop growling, and he let out one last bark. "Dumb dog." I stepped forward and looked at her up and down. "Well, camp isn't that far from here. Just a little bit that way." I said, nodded my head in the direction of camp.

I frowned when she asked my identity. "Don't really see why you should know. But fine, I'm Alisha, daughter of Thanatos."

"Well, I like to know names. Just in case I need to hunt you down or send you a gift basket or whatever." Kendall shrugged, and then winced when she shifted slightly on her ankle. Gods, had she broken it? That couldn't be possible, it had only been a weird landing instead of tripping over a large root or getting body-slammed by a hellhound. She leaned down to rub it, noting that it hurt much more when she actually flexed it than when she touched it.

"Mind if I sit here for a few moments with you? To catch my breath. I'll be gone as soon as...." Kendall frowned for a second. "Well, a few minutes, anyway. At most."