ANEW ||

Outsider

"This isn't going to work," April stated, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yes, it is," Lexi growled, doing up the laces on a pair of normal combat boots. She hated to admit it but Alaric came in handy some days.

"But Mari said-"

"I know what Mari said," Lexi snapped. 

She paused for a moment, collecting herself. "I'm not going to reveal myself." She wagged her fingers in a mocking tone. "I'm just going to pretend I am one of them."

April threw her hands into the air. "This is fucking ridiculous."

Lexi stood, grabbing a jacket off the bed. "Chill, I'll be back in a couple of hours." She was out the door in the next moment and onto the street. She pulled her hoodie up over her head as she slipped into the crowd of people that made their way out of the city every morning. 

This should be simple. Act like a normal teenager in this group of strangers and pretend that she belonged. If she was even noticed at all and asked, then she would just pretend that she was new, didn't know much.

She had faith in this plan. She was relatively good at reading people, this would work out.

Or at least, that's what she told herself. 

Realistically she was nowhere near a normal teenager. Sure, her appearance hadn't really aged at all but she didn't look human, just like how Mari and April and Elijah and the rest of them never really looked human. They just looked different in some way. There was a glow about their skin, an aura that was tricky to spot. 

Some walked alone like she was, others were clustered in little groups, laughing with one another. She followed them into the trees, deeper and deeper into the woods until the cluster of bodies began to spread out.

Nothing happened for a while. People just gathered in little groups, talking amongst themselves.

And then he walked in. The man from before, the one who put his skin in the flames. He was taller than she originally thought, dark skin and pale brown eyes. He could be labeled as attractive she supposed, in human terms, he was a stunning creature. But as an Olympian? Average at best.

And she was fooling herself with the lie.

He grinned at a group of people off to the side, white teeth glinting in the rising sun through the trees.

"Traktor?" He called to the group, that bright smile still on his face. "You go first today."

So he was some kind of leader...

A man stepped out from around some trees if you could even call him a man. He was large, large in height and width. Built like a shit brick house, he may have even been taller than Elijah...

No. Not that she stared at him, no he wasn't taller than Elijah but close. 

The man, Traktor, saluted the dark-skinned man. "Against Kat?" He replied with a grin also on his face.

The girl from the day before, the one they had tracked out here, scoffed from the other side. "So eager to lose?"

She was barely nothing compared to Traktor, barely a spark in the world.

But the years on Olympus taught Lexi not to underestimate the small. Clair was the smallest out of the council, smallest maybe on the island and yet she could toss most of the council on a good day. She even tossed around a god of the island most days like she was playing a game of ping-pong.

"As if," Traktor replied.

And then a clumsy flame leaped from the fire smoldering on the edge. It was uncontrolled, flowing every which way it shouldn't have. His eyes were intent as he tried to focus his attention.

Lexi smelt it then. A small, small flicker of sea salt and brimstone, and underneath? Earth and crisp wind.

 Olympian.

Diluted Olympian. There but not, so faint that if she were April she may have missed it.

Someone here was not like the rest...

Kat counter-attacked with a mist of water coming from the stream on the other side. It was also uncontrolled, sloppy.

Lexi had never seen such uncontrolled attacks... not even when she had helped train the young on the island. Not even when she was first starting.

It went on for a while until both parties were out of breath and sagging where they stood. Traktor walked his massive form over to where Kat slumped out of breath. She smiled at him as she stood, and then he ruffled her hair as she scowled.

"Nice work," the stranger called. "Now how about," he spun almost carelessly and then thrust his finger out at an unsuspecting woman along the edge. "Teeks and Lara."

The couple was embraced, both blonde but completely different in appearance. They grinned at one another.

They fought better than the last two, but not by much. The smaller of the two could make spikes on a rose harden into sharp points. She would then pluck them off and throw them with surprising accuracy at her opponent. The other would use a shitty excuse for a breeze to push them off course and then she would counter-attack with a stronger gust. Sometimes it pushed her partner off balance.

These people were... terrible.

And then she was trying to sneak away, out of the woods and back to April who was probably waiting for her with a hole paced into the floor of their room. She succeeded for the most part until she felt the ground under her feet shift.

The man with his hand in the flames pulled up beside her. He flashed her a smile that she barely bothered to pay attention to. "Done for the day?"

Lexi glanced at him from under her hood. She didn't answer.

"You must be one of the new ones," he stated looking away from her for only a second. "I'm Hellion," he stated calmly sticking his palm out for her.

She ignored him once again. "Alright, not friendly. You must be a fire person."

He sounded fucking ridiculous. A fire person?

She glared at him.

"Oh yeah, totally fire."

What a fucking moron.

"Maybe you can give it a shot tomorrow, I know it's hard for new guys to control it sometimes."

She wanted to laugh, hysterically. She could level this group of stick heads in a few seconds flat. Lexi scoffed, "you know nothing." She kept walking, and she thought he just might keep his mouth shut this time.

"Bring your friend too," he called after her. "Outsiders are welcome too."