Sitting By Thalia's Pine Tree Thinking

Wincing at the sound that the cracking in half of her target make, Valora dropped her leg and stared at the makeshift dummy. It wasn't perfect, in fact it was far from it, but it was stable enough to stand on it's own and Valora needed to take her anger out on something really really bad. She didn't want to punch a tree - because that was harming nature - and beating up a wall wouldn't go too well and people would question her sanity. Also, the wall would do most of the beating up.

Glancing down at the spectacular bruise on arm that was the cause of her annoyance, Valora sighed and glared at some clouds in the sky. They were perfectly flawless, puffy and white - like most clouds were. Unlike her arm. The bruise mixed in with the tribal tattoo on her arm and now the design looked odd and it stood out among the rainbow of colours. It wasn't meant to stand out. The reason it was light brown was so it could be there but so it wouldn't be noticed if she was just glanced at. Standing out defeated the purpose of it, but it didn't matter much since she forgot what the purpose of it was in the first place. Was it some sort of promise? Or was it a dare?

If it was a promise that wasn't good. She forgot what it was about. But she guessed she shouldn't worry about that, it wasn't really relevant. What was relevant, however, was the fact that some totally adorable dog was wandering towards her. Barely able to contain her excitement, she crouched down and smiled at it. She loved dogs. A lot. And she missed Cinnamon so much now. Why hadn't she brought him along? Some people at camp had pets. Looking up, she squinted and spotted a boy sitting by Thalia's pine.

"Hey there! Is he yours?" She asked while gesturing towards the dog, eyes bright and hopefully friendly looking.

"Copper." Valora repeated, fixing some stray strands of hair before petting Copper, still smiling even though the boy's scowl was making her feel slightly uncomfortable, like she was unwelcome there or something. That was crazy! She had been at this camp for what? Five years? Not even, it was longer than that. Seven years. For seven years Camp Half Blood had been home for her, so why would she feel unwelcome? Brushing it off, she realized that he had asked her something while she was rambling on in her mind. What had been the question again?

Oh right, if she had a dog. "Yeah, a Yorkshire Terrier named Cinnamon. I left him back at home but I visit him and my mom every now and then." She said, smiling wistfully and taking back her hand. Her mother. Ms. Mirabelle Lennox. Every man she had a relationship went through a small series of accidents and was quick to let her know that they liked her and all but the hospital bills were really piling up. Of course, Valora knew who was behind it, her father of course.

Her mother was a middle class citizen, though a bit on the poor side. It was quite worrying sometimes. Valora got a temporary job every chance she could so she could help her mother pay the bills. It was the least she could do, leaving her mother alone. But it was less money that Mirabelle had to pay. Less mouths to feed, less new clothes to buy, less costs for repairs when monsters smashed in the roof of their home. It was better this way, it really was. Camp fed her, kept her fit, and she had enough money for clothes and everything. Why was she thinking about her mother again?

"I'm Valora, daughter of Ares if you haven't guessed from this life sized bruise right here," while she said this, she lifted her left arm and pointed at the bruise. "That one could only get from fighting a monster carelessly, training much too hard, or getting hit by a flying walrus."

Ah, flying walruses. Nobody believed in them but her, but Valora knew that one day she would spot one and she would proudly be able to turn to the person beside and her and say a nice, smug, "See, I told you there were flying walruses." Of course, she would have to travel the world. What type of weather did walruses enjoy? They looked kind of funky, like giant seals or something, if she remembered correctly. Was it that they usually lived in colder places? If so, that was cool. No pun intended. The cold was fine with her, even though her favourite season was the summer. Most of the campers came in the summer.

"Sword? Not amazing at it, no sirree, guess I'm as good at sword as the next demigod. Battle-axes are more of my thing, some are real heavy, but they're intimidating and they keep the enemies a good distance away - though sometimes that's not the greatest thing." She said, scratching her head and staring off at a tree for a moment before her eyes wandered back and she smiled back at him. Battle-axes were harder to find than swords were, good battle-axes even less so. Most preferred lighter, easily swung weapons, but that wasn't the way Valora liked things. You needed strength and guts if you were going to use a battle-axe. Yep, they were not for the fainthearted. Especially because of the gore that accompanied using such a weapon.

Killing wasn't such a pleasant thing, but she had grown used to it. Deaths were daily events at Camp Half Blood, you learned to just move on, keep on going, keep on fighting. It was the only thing you could do. If you let them get you down you would lose grasp of reality, and they would use that opportunity to rip you to shreds, she wasn't even kidding. She had witnessed something exactly like it once. Valora Lennox would never forget the experience. She wouldn't expand on the story, it was a painful memory and completely unnecessary to recall on at the time. Not one for doing things when they weren't really called for, she shook her head and focused on Gerard.

"What about you? You got any odd quirks or tendencies?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows at him and grinning. Eye-wiggles were highly entertaining to watch and they always managed to crack her up. Besides, they were really, really fun to do and they required an intense amount of training and concentration. Most things weren't as easy as they looked.

"That's crazy, I didn't think anybody could do that!" Valora exclaimed, watching as he touched his elbow with the. It was quite captivating to watch, and she knew that it would be in her mind for the next week. Well, it was better than the sight of one of her brothers... she didn't really want to finish that sentence, all she needed to say was that it was bizarre, she had cried from both laughter and total disgust, and she could never look at him the same way ever again.

Electric blue eyes glancing down when she sensed movement, her eyebrows raised when she saw the scar. It was pretty impressive and... big. That's what she said. Rats. Valora chuckled a little bit at the joke and looked back up. It wasn't her place to ask about it anyways. He hadn't asked about the bruise on her arm, so she would ask about the hole in his leg. Seemed pretty fair.

"Yeah. I thought it was impossible. The internet is misleading. I tried doing that once. It didn't work." She admitted, scratching her upper arm before shifting from foot to foot. Valora had forgotten about Copper for a moment, she looked back down at him and continued to pet him. Lucky dogs, they had such easy lives most of the time. Sleeping, eating, getting petted and fawned over. But she had to repeat most of the time the kind of sick people who abused animals did exist and they sure as heck made sure that the animal's life wasn't easy. Just thinking about those people disgusted her.

Biting her lower lip, she looked up to try and remember something but she didn't succeed. "I don't really have any talents other than fighting." It kind of sucks. She added in her mind. If thoughts could sound bitter that one sure would.

(( My mom just placed two cherry tomatoes in my hand and ran away. ))