Splitting a Soul~Chapter 5

Jack and I looked at each other for several moments before we were forced to move as another ball of hot lava flew at us. Figuring out my best friend was a demigod would have to come later. Jack pointed his staff forward and blasted the Elemental with a beam of cold energy that hit his arm. I watched as the lava that made up his arm began to cool until it was solid rock. However the rock crumbled and fell into a pool of lava that the creature had formed. The rock melted into the lava and a new arm began to grow to replace the one he lost.

“Well…that didn’t work,” Jack said as he just watched the monster reform. “Any ideas?”

“Ya, move!” I shouted as the lava creature fired another round of blasts at us. I jumped to the side and stabbed my sword into the ground. It glowed a faint green light and two columns of rock shot from the ground and impaled the creature in the chest. It just laughed and the rock in its chest started melting and just seemed to become one with the monster. “Crap.”

“You said it. So you going to tell me why there is a lava monster walking down the street?” Jack asked, giving me a quizzical look.

“Now isn’t really the time,” I said, never taking my eyes off the lava monster.

“This is the first time you’ve been back in almost six months. When would be a good time?” He asked, shooting another stream of ice from his staff from behind a car.

“I promise I’ll tell you later, but right now there is a giant mass of lava destroying the town!” I yelled at him. Jack never took anything seriously, even at moments when serious was kind of important.

“Oh he isn’t going anywhere,” Jack yelled back.

“That is the problem!” I shouted back at him.

“So are you a child of Hades or something. I mean you seem to be pretty good at controlling rock,” Jack said.

“It’s the sword. I’m a child of Pisteuo,” I told him, trying to think of a plan. Jack however wasn’t making it easy.

“Never heard of him. Is he like some kind of super minor god or something?” Jack continued to ask. I was about ready to kill him at this point, but instead I saved him by making another rock wall to block some incoming lava. “Thanks dude. So anything else you can control?”

“Water, but we’re miles away from the nearest river,” I told him.

“I would just grab a garden hose, but I bet all the pipes are frozen around this time of year,” Jack replied, sounding a bit down.

“Burn!” the creature shouted as it started walking down the street. The tires of the cars in the street began to melt and windows shattered from the heat. I wasn’t sure what to do, but just then a stream of water shot out from the side of the street and hit the lava monster. It seemed to hiss in pain as steam rose from its body.

“Need any help?” came a voice from the sidewalk. I looked over and saw a girl pulling her ax from the side of a broken fire hydrant.

“Aisling, is that you?” I asked, even though I know it was. “What are you even doing here?”

“It’s a long story, believe me,” Aisling said with a smile. “All I’m going to say is that there was a lot of paint involved and maybe a few bugs…”

“Who is she?!” Jack asked.

“Ok, there are a lot of questions be asked and not a lot of time to answer them because a giant lava monster is walking down the street!” I shouted.

“Right…forgot about that,” Jack said, looking around. “Hey look, water.”

“What?” I said out loud. When I looked around, I saw what he was talking about. The fire hydrant was still spewing water outward and it was flowing into the street. I had water now. “Aisling, go break open the other hydrants!”

“I’m on it,” Aisling said and in a flash she was at the next one and smashed it open. She did the same with two other hydrants and before long the street was full of water and steam. I ran forward and channeled the power of the Water Elemental into my sword.

“Take this!” I shouted and swung my sword forward. The water responded to me and took on the shape of my sword. It flew forward and consumed the lava creature. It roared in pain as steam consumed it, but I just kept going with slash after slash.

“Jack, freeze him!”

“Sure,” he said and blasted the monster with streams of ice that pushed him back. I kept up my assault of water based attacks and before long, the monster was completely motionless. It didn’t turn to dust like a real monster would, but all the lava was now just rock.

“Watch this,” Aisling said as she ran over and hit the lava creature in the forehead with her ax, causing it to crumble into small rocks that were washed away by the still flowing water.

“Considering some of the other Elementals I have fought, that was pretty easy,” I commented.

“Oh that was just a minion of the Lava Elemental. Some of the minor Elementals are really on the move for some reason,” Aisling said. “Or at least that was what Chiron said.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?” I asked her.

“This was supposed to be your vacation; he didn’t want to ruin it for you,” Aisling said before running up and giving me a hug. “It is good to see you.”

“You too Aisling,” I said, returning the hug.

“Ok, someone needs to start talking soon. What is going on? What was that monster just now? Who the heck is she? Why is your cousin over there just spacing out?” Jack asked, pointing to Kimi who just now seemed to be coming out of her trance. “Wow, who is he?” Aisling asked looking over at Jack. As much as I wanted to tell her the truth, an evil thought popped into my head.

“Oh him, that is Jack Frost, the mystical spirit of winter,” I told her and her eyes seemed to light up.

“I swear Ash, if you call me that again I’m going to…” Jack began, but was cut off by a very energetic girl.

“That is so awesome. Are you like a god or something? Is it true that you spread frost on my window every winter? Do you really work for Father Winter? Is Father Winter real? Do you really nip at people’s noses? If you do I’m going to hit you,” Aisling said, shaking her ax at him.

“Ash, call her off!” Jack said, trying to run away from her, but she was a fast runner and was always right on his heels.

“Aisling, heel!” I told her and she stopped, but gave me a questioning look that turned into a mischievous smile.

“Woof!” Aisling said as she raised her arms up and shaped her hands into paws. “Good girl, now come,” I ordered and she ran over. I then patted her head of long brown hair, pretending to praise her. “Good girl Aisling.”

“Woof woof!” Aisling said again.

“Do you want a belly rub?” I asked jokingly.

“And that is where I draw the line,” Aisling said, returning to normal. “So who is that guy really?”

“Jackson Phrostily,” Jack said proudly. “A demigod son of Khione.”

After hearing the name of the ice queen of the gods, everyone was quiet for a long time. From all the stories I had heard, Khione went around turning people into her own collection of icicles, especially those she had an interest in. When I saw Jack’s power over ice, I was expecting Boreas or something. At least he would listen to you before freezing you to death. I then realized how absurd that sounded when I remembered I had met Jack’s dad numerous times.

“You mean your mom is the Ice Queen of the north?!” Aisling shouted.

“Hey, she isn’t as bad as people make her out to be. She does have a soft side sometimes,” Jack said defensively.

“How did they even meet?” I questioned.

“Oh you know how it is. Guy meets girl, guy makes girl fall in love with him, guy tries not to be frozen for all eternity in her palace, girl eventually leaves guy, and baby shows up on guy’s doorstep during a snow storm. Classic,” Jack said with a smile. It actually did kind of sound like some of the stories I heard from other campers. I mean children of Athena show up in a basket on their father’s doorsteps, so why not Khione’s kids.

“Hey what’s going on? Aisling, is that you?” Kimi said, rubbing her head and shaking it a bit. Aisling ran over and gave her a huge hug.

“Kimi, it has been so long! You have to tell me what you have been up to,” Aisling said with a wide smile.

“How did you even get here?” Kimi asked her.

“Oh it wasn’t as bad as all that. Sure every so often a monster would appear, but I handled them no problem,” Aisling said, swinging her dane ax around. “There was this one last night that even managed to bite me, but I turned him to dust. Then after some nectar, I was all better.”

“Here, let me see,” I said and Aisling pushed her hair back. Right there on her neck were two puncture marks. Normally nectar would heal them, so why didn’t those heal?

“It isn’t a big deal,” Aisling said as she ran her finger across one of the marks. She instantly winced in pain.

“Aisling, you ok?” I asked her, but her eyes seemed to cloud over. “Aisling!”

I moved over to her and grabbed her as she fell to the ground. Her eyes were closed by now and her breathing was shallow.

“Come on, we need to get her back to the house,” I told everyone. Jack and I carried Aisling back, while Kimi just looked at her friend with fear in her eyes.