Welcome Home?

[Harper Jones]

The snow crunched beneath Harper's feet as she walked through the forest. It seemed like forever since she was able to roam safely within the borders of camp. Then again, she was away from camp for over a year. She readjusted her scarf and pulled her knitted hat down a little bit more before she wrapped her arms around her body. Being in the Golden State for that long had really thinned out her blood. It was only hovering around freezing at the moment, but that chill got to her bones.

She frequently checked over her shoulders as she walked. Chiron didn't know she was officially back or any of the other campers. Hell, she wasn't even supposed to be inside of camp boundaries quite yet. Xenos had them set up a little away outside of camp, but she just couldn't stay away from her second home. Harper paused when she saw the rest of camp just beyond a couple of trees. She sighed as she took the view all in.

Camp. It barely looked like it changed since she was last here. Her eyes glanced over at the cabins and her eyes teared up a bit when she saw her cabin. Demeter. She chuckled a bit as she swiped at the tears in her eyes. "The traitor's home guys," she muttered to herself as she shook her head.

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia stepped out of the Demeter cabin and stretched. A new day had dawned for her to do nothing useful with her life and waste time away in this place. Great. She rolled her eyes at herself, "Oh lighten up," she muttered. She glanced around the circle of cabins, nothing really seemed out of the ordinary today. Which was a shame becau- she stopped mid thought. The a small cluster of trees seemed to be whispering to her, passing a messages through the grass. Something was over there, something they wanted her to see. At least, that's what she assumed the message was. She probably just imagined it, grass couldn't really talk. The Satyrs would disagree about that though...

She stood, slowly making her way over to the area that she felt was calling to her. What was it? A monster? She hadn't even grabbed her weapons. She had nothing but her cam shirt, shorts and a few plants around to help her out. She had become pretty good at using plants as a defensive technique, though, so she'd probably be fine. As the picture started to become clearer Accalia stopped about twenty feet from the scarfed person who peered at her through the trees.

"Oh my gods." Accalia muttered, breathlessly.

[Harper Jones]

Harper stood there for a couple of moments as she took in the sight of all the cabins. She readjusted her arms so she hugged herself a little harder as a shiver ran down her back. Despite how much she tried to swipe at them, the tears seemed to keep streaking down her face. She sniffled a bit as she shifted in her spot. However, she froze as she heard snow crunching out by the distance. Someone else was there by the cabins. Harper's gut feeling was to move a little to the side to hide in the shadows, but her feet didn't want to seem to cooperate.

Harper's breath caught in her chest as a girl came into a view. It wasn't any girl, but her sister Accalia. Her heart ached a bit since it was so long since she was around her siblings, but nobody was supposed to know she was here. Harper opened her mouth slightly as she attempted to say hello, but she panicked and turned on her heels to run into the forest.

[Accalia Phillips]

Seriously? She was running away? Accalia had a split second to decide. Should she run after her and demand to know why she was here, why she abandoned her cabin and her duties as cabin leader, why she left in the first place (though, Accalia did know a little about that) and why she was running like a coward? Or did she just stand there and let her run? Who needed her anyway? Accalia felt a tug at her heart. She loved her sister, somewhere, but Harper was also one of the reasons Accalia had been so bitter lately.

Accalia decided to will the plants around Harper to try and slow her down by wrapping vines around her legs or swinging branches at her. Not enough to really hurt, but hopefully to slow her enough for Accalia to catch up. Granted, Harper could easily counter the plants, but Accalia hoped she caught her sister off guard. Accalia began running after her.

[Harper Jones]

A sob caught in her chest as tears streamed down her face as she ran deeper into the forest. It was a mistake to come back to camp. Maybe she was just better off being completely miserable in California or maybe she could just move to Antarctica and live with the penguins. Except, Harper had a feeling that the penguins would hate her too for whatever reason. Her vision blurred as she dodged the trees and the snow crunched underneath her feet.

Except she really didn't notice that the surrounding plants were working against her. She felt something wrap around her ankle and she looked down to see a green vine wrapping itself around it. She slowed down as she tried to shake it off while doing an awkward hop while trying to manipulate it. Either Harper was really rusty with her powers or Accalia had gotten stronger, since Harper was having a difficult time getting that vine off of her. She was too busy trying to get the vine off of her that she didn't notice that a branch swooped down just enough to strike her across her gut.

Harper groaned as she keeled over as she grabbed her stomach and toppled over into the snow. She mentally cursed herself for getting into this position and scrunched her face up as she waited for Accalia to come over and yell at her for all the things she did. Harper didn't blame her. She deserved every last thing Accalia would scream at her.

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia saw as Harper struggled. She really wasn't expecting that. She should tell the plans to pull ba- too late, a branch knocked Harper to the ground. Accalia caught up and stood over her sister. About a million things rubbing through her head. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears.

She could just leave her down and have it out. But... Was Harper crying? Her eyes looked misty and wet. Accalia couldn't kick her while she was down. That just wasn't fair. Plus, she must have guns back for a reason and she had to at least hear her out... Right?

Finally, she held a hand out, "get up." she said.

[Harper Jones]

Harper scrunched up her face as she felt her sister tower over her. She prepared to be yelled at and even preemptively flinched as she heard her sister's voice. However, it was not yelling, which completely confused Harper. It wasn't nice either. Whatever it was didn't sound like the Accalia she knew. She took a deep breath as she rolled over to her back and took Accalia's hand up.

Once she was on her feet, Harper brushed herself off of the snow, trying to stall the conversation with her sister. She knew where it was going to go and she didn't like the idea at all. She wasn't supposed to be seen. What would Xenos say about it? But once the last bit of snow was off of her, Harper couldn't avoid conversation any longer. She sheepishly looked up at her sister as she avoided eye contact. "Hi," she mumbled as she glanced down at her feet.

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia did see her sister flinch, and she also saw the look on her face as she rolled over and took Accalias hand. Accalia lifted her and quickly dropped the hand, dropping her arms to her sides. As Harper brushed herself off, Accalia just watched, waiting for Harper to make the first move. What could Accalia say to start to conversation? All of the thoughts swimming around in her head were just confusing her, and she wasn't pleased with that feeling. It was clear that Harper was also trying to avoid speaking first, but Accalia didn't mind waiting.

Soon, Harper mumbled a greeting and suddenly became very interested in her feet. Accalia waited a moment longer, letting the silence sink in, before speaking. "What are you doing here?" she asked. The question wasn't necessarily as harsh as it could have been, seeing as Accalia tried to take on a bored tone as she spoke.

[Harper Jones]

Harper pressed her lips together as she waited for the yelling that Accalia was supposed to do, but apparently didn't get the memo. She could tell that Accalia wasn't happy with her, because she was the hugging type and the only hug Harper got today was in the gut with a branch. What are you doing here? For some reason, the tone of those words were almost as painful as that branch.

Harper took a deep breath as she finally gathered the courage to look up at her sister. "I..." she said as her voice almost failed on her as she choked up a bit. "I decided I needed to come home... I just... I missed everyone. Everything." She lifted her hands up to gesture to everything around her. "It's just not the same. California had none of this. It didn't have everything I missed." She lowered her hands and bit her lower lip as she looked at her sister as she waited for some sort of response.

[Accalia Phillips]

The eye contact was almost as hard for Accalia as she was sure it was for Harper, but Accalia held her gaze. She refused to look away, and look weak. She was done with that sort of thing. No, she was going to stand up for herself, the camp and the Demeter cabin against their leader. In fact... no, that thought would have to be addressed later. First, she had to hear her sisters explanation.

The excuse was valid enough, missing everyone. Accalia nodded, but only once, as she contemplated what to say next. Truthfully, she didn't know how she felt about that comment. "You... were in Cali?" Accalia finally asked. Then, she was suddenly reminded of who Harper had run off with. Accalia looked around a little, "Is Xenos here, too?" she said this harshly, for Xenos was not good in Accalias books.

[Harper Jones]

"I was," Harper said softly as she nodded her head. Had she really been caught up in the whirlwind of being engaged and moving withe Xenos to tell her siblings where she was? Did they think that she just ran away like she did those many years ago? I guess this was a habit of hers. Run away when you can. The next thing that Accalia said made Harper flinch a bit from the tone.

"He's... he's not in camp," Harper said guardedly as she clenched her left hand into a fist and stuffed it in her coat pocket so she could hide her engagement ring from her sister even if it was underneath her gloves. "He doesn't know I'm here. He's not here; he knows he's not welcomed back." She took a deep breath as pressed her lips together and glanced off to the side before looking at Accalia. "So how is... everyone?" she hesitantly asked.

[Accalia Phillips]

Accalia nodded at the explanation that Xenos was not here nor did he know that Harper was here. Good. Let him stay away. It wasn't wise for her to be here let alone her traitor of a boyfriend. Granted, Accalia could respect Harper for sneaking into camp without his knowledge. It showed that she really did care about the camp and about... about her siblings. Still, Accalia didn't show any sign of respect on her face. "I see. He's probably worried about you," she said with a lighter tone, but not by much.

Accalias eyebrows knit together in thought as she contemplated Harpers question. "Well... Dawn left. Charlotte seems to be doing well. Jacob left," she felt her voice crack just a little on that last one, "but... people are happy, I guess. I've basically been running the Demeter cabin while you've been away."

[Harper Jones]

Harper pressed her lips together as she suddenly felt very nervous, like someone was watching the two of them. She didn't know who, but she didn't want to risk a glance either. "Probably," she muttered as she toyed with her ring in her coat pocket. "But he's always a worrier. He needs to learn how to lighten up."

She bit her lower lip as she carefully studied her sister's expression, but her own face fell once she heard the news. "Dawn... left?" she stammered as she felt tears well up in her eyes. She pressed her lips together as she looked off to the side while blinking back the tears. "I.... I'm sorry," she muttered as she glanced down at her feet. "I'm sorry... I should've been there... I have no excuses... I should've been there."

(Since Charlotte was supposed to post, but didn't and I had all the muse )

[Accalia Phillips]

{i'm so sorry at how late this is!}

Accalia wanted to comment on just how much Xenos needed to lighten up, but she actually kept her mouth shut. She could see the pain in Harpers eyes, in her stance, and she didn't want to make it worse.... at least, not in the Xenos discussion.

Harpers way of taking the news that Dawn had left made Accalias heart hurt. Accalia actually had gotten to say goodbye. Whereas Harper... but whose fault was that!? Accalia wiped any hint of pity off of her face for the moment, even as Harper started to apologize again. "Well..." Accalia started, her voice softening a little, unlike her expression, "What are you going to do about it?"

Harper Jones

[Harper Jones]

Harper pressed her lips together as she kept staring down at her feet. She took deep breaths as she blinked back the tears. "Well... What are you going to do about it?" Accalia's softened voice caused Harper to look up at her sister. What was she going to do about it?

"I... I..." Harper's voice caught in her throat as she tried to think through it. She couldn't help Dawn. There was no way she could make that right. "Immovingback," she managed to blurt out at once. She took a deep breath as she felt her heart race with Accalia's impending judgement. "I'm... moving back. I'm coming back... to camp... I'm coming home."

(tag: Accalia Phillips)