Mostly Normal: Our Path

Chapter Three: Mages and Quests

The council had met up again shortly after the cherry tree incident. They'd put the Griffins in the stables with the pegasi and the unicorns, which none of the animals minded, which was great.

"All right," said Fred, clapping to get everyone's attention, "Order, order. Percy, Jason, please put those pencils away. Thank you. Are we ready to begin again?"

"Yes, Fred," was the unanimous reply. Fred grinned, happy to be listened to.

"Great," he said, "Actually, let's wait for Taka to come back from his little talk with Cheri. He'll be just a moment."

There was a gentle knock on the door as soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth. "Speak of the devil."

Fred opened the door and let Taka in. The small male dragged Cheri in by the wrist. "I told you before!" she shouted, "You have no right to handle me like some second class spirit! I am worshiped! Which is more than you can say!"

"Shut it. I'm more important than you are. You forget that people ask me for favors and still worship me," Taka said as he shoved her down onto a chair. Her hair was soaked, as were her clothes, making her look even weaker than she already did.

Fred sighed and gave Cheri a stern look. "Shut up, Cheri," he scolded, "let's begin this meeting. Annabeth?"

"Thanks, Fred," the blonde said, stepping to the front of the room. Fred took a step back respectfully as Annabeth took the attention away from him.

Annabeth cleared her throat and stood, "Cheri, do you want to talk about why you are kidnapping our campers?"

Cheri shook her head and then ducked as Taka looked at her angrily, "I told you before. My sisters are missing. I needed those demigods to find them for me. This is about as far away from my tree as I can be."

"You could have just asked people to help you," Annabeth said. Cheri sighed. "I tried that," she said, "People just refused. So I started taking them, forcing them to the quest."

"You can't just do that!" shouted a furious-looking Madeline, "You took my brother and his friend! Where are they?" she sounded almost in tears.

"I already told you, they are in my tree," said Cheri, "Looking for my sisters. Just like all the others. The Valkyries are the best at finding, but even they have come up empty-handed. It's infuriating."

"Why didn't you ask Taka? And why haven't you let them come back yet?" Madeline asked with an angry growl.

"I took them so that they could help me, by the laws of my magic I cannot return them until they have completed the mission I sent them on. Or until someone other than them complete it." Cheri said.

The rest of the demigods looked to Taka to see if she was lying. "She's not lying. That's how all magic works for spirits like us. And we've known it since the gods trained us. Haven't we Princess Cheri ?" Taka said, leaning into the smaller girl. Cheri squeezed her eyes closed in fear.

There was a loud thump as Percy fell backward into a Unicorn pen, though he raised his hand up and asked a question directly after, "What do you mean by 'Princess'?"

Taka sighed and Cheri whimpered. "Why don't you explain how spirits work?" Cheri shook her head, looking down at her lap with a morose expression.

Finally, she sighed and then explained, "Spirits are divided into five different categories. Fruit, Fire, Water, Air, and Vegetable. There were originally four, as Fruit and Vegetable were one in the same, known as Earth, but that is a story for another time. I was born right around the time of the separation. Which was when there was a war that divided the land, spirits that once lived in harmony were now separated forever more. I-I was made Princess, as my mother was Queen. I rule over all Cherry Trees. My sisters Remon and Raimu are like me though they rule over Lemon and Lime trees. Taka is King of the River spirits though he serves under the goddess Bishamonten."