Snow and Ice

---

"Mount McKinley. She said Mount McKinley, right?" I said to myself. I looked down at my attire and chuckled. I was wearing a white combat fatigues over a Camp Jupiter shirt (why I wore it, I will never know). The white's supposed to help me blend in.

A bird landed on my shoulder. I scowled and shook it off.

Yep. Supposed to.

I looked around. Snow, snow, snow, and more snow. Not much diversity. Oh wait. Cold wind. What a way to change things up.

Everything's so empty. Where are the ice minions? I turned around. Nope. I tried sweeping the snow aside with my powers. Still nothing. I noticed a big ball of snow and shot an ice spike at it. Still nothing happened.

I sighed and turned around. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And that is when I heard the sound of something akin to an avalanche.

Remember the ball of snow I impaled with a spike? Haha. Yeah. That was an ice minion. Or rather, snow minion.

The mound of snow rose up, revealing a huge humanoid snow man. The ice spike was sticking out its chest.

I laughed nervously. "Hey. Looks like you're impaled."

Apparently, that was a sore subject.

The misshapen snow man roared at me, yanked the spike from its chest and threw it at me. I yelped and rolled to one side.

Just then, someone spoke from behind me.

"I never thought I'd see you again, Daughter of Neptune." I growled, recognizing the speaker.

"Khione. Miss I'm-too-cool-for-anybody. Why am I not surprised?" I glared at the said girl. Her hair was as black as ever. She was still wearing that ridiculous snowy white dress. "Still the Snow Queen, huh?"

Khione ignored me and simply waved her left hand. The snow began to swirl around us.
I scowled.

"What did Gaea offer you?" I asked. I felt my hands becoming very cold. They began trembling due to the build-up of energy.

"Oh nothing much. Just the authority and respect I deserve," she replied nonchalantly.

"You can't get respect this way," I said as calmly as I could. Khione raised an eyebrow at me.

"You should have accepted Gaea's offer." Suddenly spikes of ice were launched in my direction. I launched myself into a series of flips to dodge the spikes. I pivoted to avoid an exceptionally large one. I landed lightly on my two feet.

"How'd you know about that?"

Khione laughed. "Word travels fast."

The snow was swirling more fiercely now.

"That's it, Snow Queen." I summoned Avalanche. I drew the sword and launched myself towards Khione. I jabbed at her face but she batted it aside with an ice dagger.

"Too slow," she sneered.

I gritted my teeth then spun around. I hit Khione's back with my shield. She yelped and blasted my chest with hard compacted snow.

I hissed in pain as I skittered to a stop. Something grabbed my shoulder and I slashed wildly at it. An ear-splitting screech followed.

I winced and fell to the ground. I got up, my sword cutting a circle of destruction around me as I spiraled up.

I glanced around me. I was completely surrounded by Khione's army of snow monsters. I couldn't find Khione anywhere. She probably thought that her army can easily destroy me.
I felt something bubble up from my gut. It came out as a crazy little giggle.

That's either because Khione thinks so little of me or because I'm starting to lose it. Most probably the latter.

"So you think I'm a wild card?" I yelled up at the sky. "I'll show you how wild I can get!"

I yelled and charged at the army.

---

The next several minutes were a blur of snow and ice. All the resentment and bitter feelings just came pouring out. I stabbed and jabbed with all my might. I punched and bashed monsters with my shield arm. I used my shield to decapitate some of them.

A few were able to land some hits on me. I'm pretty sure I had a cut on my left cheek from a monster who tried to shoot ice spikes at me.

I yelled in agony as a snow wolf chomped down on my right thigh. I twisted and stabbed its back.

I stabbed the ground and it rumbled, causing the monsters immediately around me to fall down. I shrugged my shield off and threw it Captain America-style at a monster several meters away from me. The shield cleanly took its head off.

One of the monsters rammed into my side and I was thrown off. My sword was left behind and it only returns to my shield if I'm wearing it. The problem is, my shield doesn't return to me at all.

I was itching to use my bow but I didn't want to use Diana's arrow by accident.

I gritted my teeth.

I had no weapons so I'll make weapons. Two javelins of ice, one on each hand, formed. I twirled the one in my left and changed the way I held it.

"Let's play," I said.

I charged forward again. I used the right javelin to pull a monster closer. I stabbed its head with my left then I whirled around, right javelin outstretched.

I chucked the right javelin down until my hand was just below the icy blade. I stabbed the nearest monster in the gut before letting the javelin's full length fly out behind me. I slashed the monster upward, sending it crashing back to its friends.

I felt the air around me grow colder. At this point, normal humans should be shivering like crazy and feeling sleepy. But not me. I felt myself becoming stronger and more alert.
I laughed again. I laughed and didn't stop. Now, I was sure I lost it. I spike embedded itself in my left shoulder. I merely yanked it off and continued my assault.

The monsters were withdrawing now. Under normal circumstances, I would have stopped and relished in victory. But these are definitely not normal circumstances.

I chased the monsters. I threw my javelins and somehow recovered my shield and sword. I chased them and cut them down. I didn't want to stop until every single one of them was reduced to powder.

I felt a growl emanate from my chest. Despite the fact that I was laughing mere minutes ago, I knew that deep down inside, I was angry.

No not angry. Wrathful.

Damn Khione for underestimating me! Damn the gods for blotting me out as if I was a just a stain in their pants. Damn Octavian for forcing one of the people I loved to choose between me and her duty! Damn Gaea for trying to overthrow the gods and for thinking that I'm just another pawn!

Never again!

Never again will I be used! Never again will people look at me with pity! Never again will I accept sympathy and never again will I allow anyone to walk all over me and treat me like trash!

I yelled and chased after the last monster: a big Hyperborean. I sheathed my sword and created a grappling hook of ice.

I threw it around the Hyperborean's neck and pulled it down with both hands. I jumped and unsheathed my sword. I spun in a deadly tumble. I fell down towards the Hyperborean's neck like a bladed wheel.

The monster roared one last time before disintegrating into shards of ice. A few cut my face and arms.

I stepped back and breathed heavily.

I was alone again in a wasteland of snow. I felt dizzy and I fell down, panting and gasping for breath. I pulled off the white fatigue jacket. It was useless anyway. It had holes and blood everywhere. So was my shirt but there's no way I'm removing that.

A few ice shards were still embedded on my torso. Slowly and painfully, I pulled them out one by one.

Twelve. Twelve ice shards. Amazing.

I chuckled humorlessly and brought out a small Ziploc bag of ambrosia from one of my pants' pockets.

I chewed on a square.

The taste of my mother's red velvet cupcakes was barely there. For some reason that scared me. Maybe it reflected the fact that my mother's memories of me are gone. I shut my eyes and shook my head.

Julius Caesar. This sucks.

I lay back down on the snow and felt my wounds start to close up.

I shoved another ambrosia square in my mouth. A risky move since every single demigod knows that too much of this stuff will set your pants on fire, literally. Well, your pants and a few other things like, I don't know, your intestines.

I shuddered at the thought.

The snow felt comfortable. I closed my eyes and tried to relish this moment. Gration will be showing up any moment now.

On a whim, I began moving my limbs to make a snow angel. It's dorky, I know but it sort of helped me take my mind of things.

Yeah I definitely lost it.

I felt the temperature increase. Never a good sign for me. I ignored it and kept my eyes shut.

Hey, I was tired! Can you blame me?

"That's a lovely snow angel."

Then the snow around me melted. I scowled, stood up, and turned towards the direction of the speaker.

"This is way too cliché," I mumbled and glared at the speaker who was approximately 15 feet taller than me.

"At last Daughter of Neptune. I've been waiting for this meeting."

Notes

Sorry for the late update