Beggers Can’t be Choosers

It wasn't usual for Christian to reach out to people outside his Cohort. Aspen had been rarity enough, let alone people as high as Sophia Virgo or Liam Davenport. He was reminded quickly of why that was when Liam used the opportunity to put a wedge between Christian and himself and Sophia. Christian didn't have the heart to tell him about what Nick Waterford had done to his sister, and he wouldn't dare betray the trust Rowan had bestowed on him either. Still, Christian had the urge to show him up where he stood for his words on Aspen. Christian was willing to wager his life that Liam knew next to nothing about her.

It wasn't anything new to Christian, but it didn't bother him. It was something that had haunted him for years when he'd first arrived at New Rome, and he was unfortunately aware that the situation wasn't unique to him. Families that were established in New Rome all knew each other, and had the chance to teach their kids how to be Roman and who to know to succeed in the legion. Very rarely did anyone in Cohort Five have family that could teach them that; it was up to the individuals to soak in what they could from Lupa and make it to Camp Jupiter. But even if you did, you might feel like even more of an outsider than you did before. It was Christian's goal to make sure no one that walked under his barracks ever had to feel that way again.

Christian gladly took the end of the line and took watch of what was around them. He was glad to not have the pressure of relations and bonds on his shoulders, if not a little uncomfortable at the same time. They must have walked for hours, spotting various things and dismissing them, until nightfall came, and they were going to have to make a choice soon.

Sophia kept her eyes on the barren snow covered land around her. Not really wanting to talk, because everytime that she tried to start a conversation, Liam and Christian would A) not answer or B) bicker with each other. There were a couple times when she or one of the others spotted something, but most of the time it had been false alarms. She glanced over to the sun that was getting too low to the horizon for comfort. Getting stuck in the middle of nowhere in the dark was not part of the demigods agenda. “We should find somewhere to stop for the night.” Her voice breaking the five hour silence that had fallen between the group.

~~~

Liam had decided that maybe he could have just kept his mouth shut. However, it’s not like he was wrong. Christian didn’t know anything about his family, and as far as he knew the other boy’s only interactions with either Rowan and Aspen had been at Centurion meetings. Liam also knew that even mentioning Aspen in Sophia’s presence usually ended badly. He didn’t feel like pulling the girl off of anyone.

Christian enjoyed the walk, especially the silence it entailed. There wasn't much worse than being who he was and being who he was with; surely a mutual thought among them. The silence was a good remedy to Christian. He didn't want to think about the Waterford tragedy or Aspen being gone. He just wanted to get the sundial and get home for the people who did care about him. Even if ultimately Liam would get all of the credit either way.

"I'm good to keep walking for an hour or two." Christian said, with a shrug. Alaskan nights could get extremely cold, though, even beyond Quebec. "But if we keep going and don't find anything-" Christian let the two finish the thoughts for themselves, because they were also aware of what was going on and what they were facing.

"Lots of stony alcoves, it wouldn't be the worst place to call home for the night." Christian admitted.

“Sounds good to me.” Sophia answered, she hadn’t mentioned stopping because she was personally tired. She had only mentioned it so that they would be reminded that they would need to find some place before it got to dark. Liam just shrugged, he was fine with whatever they chose to do.

Christian took initiative at the crossroads they were facing. His personal decision would have been to keep walking if he was on his own. They knew they were in the right area and it was only a matter of time until they found what they were looking for. But if he'd pushed the agenda to crunch time it wasn't just his own life he was risking, and he knew he couldn't ever play with a decision like that.

He approached an alcove not far away from them. Protection from the windchill and visibility was important; the last thing they wanted was freezing to death or being found by monsters. Not that Christian was eager to sleep after that monster attack, and of course there was still Liam's mystery bite.

Christian began to break out what few tindering he'd collected over some gravel. "Here." He suggested. "Get some rest, start again at first light?" He proposed.

“I can take first watch.” Sophia said, dropping her bag to her feet. “It was my idea to stop afterall. Besides once im asleep, im asleep, you won’t be able to wake me up.” She reasoned, trying a little to lighten the very tense feeling that surrounded the group. The demigod was partially joking, she actually was a very deep sleeper, and usually took first watch, because it took too long for anyone to wake her up for her shift.
She actually wasn’t too tired yet. That, or she was just used to running around with less than average amounts of sleep. She really only thought they should stop before nightfall, that way they wouldn’t accidentally walk right past where they needed to get too.

~~~

Liam came to a stop in front of the alcove, it really wasn’t a bad spot to rest. “You sure you want it?” The legacy asks, but he wasn’t going to fight her for it. Just before this quest, he had been on another quest got back, had to spend the night at his dads house which hadn’t gone well as always, and then the next day he had found himself here in Alaska. Overall, he hadn’t gotten more than the 3 hours of sleep he had gotten in the car, in the past 48 hours.
He figured it was better if he didn’t have watch first. People make stupid, and dangerous mistakes when they’re tired, he didn’t want to make those mistakes also.

"I'll take second." Christian spoke up, but he kept his focus on fire. Not that it was a tough job, he had flint, it wasn't like he would have to make a bow drill. Christian made quick work of the kindling, finding embers. There wasn't an abundance of trees around them, but they didn't want a big fire anyway, so branches would suffice. Christian got up from his knees once there were embers burning and approached Sophia from the side.

"Hey," he whispered, quiet enough to keep out of ear shot of Liam. "We're not gonna wake him up for watch. Who knows if that bite is going to have precautions? If he's poisoned or something, rest could be everything for him. When you get tired wake me up. Does that sound good to you?" Christian proposed.

“Sure.” Sophia says quietly, “but he’s gonna be pissed in the morning ya know?” The younger girl smirks as she moves a bit closer to the fire once it’s lit. She glanced over at Liam, who was already passed out, using his backpack as a pillow. He seemed fine right now, and honestly Sophia was pretty sure there were going to be side effects, then they would have shown up by now. But still, it wasn’t a bad idea to let him sleep. He needed it anyway, probably more than Sophia and Christian did right now.

“I’ll wake ya up in a couple hours then.” She added simply, to let him know he was good to sleep also.

"Yeah, he will." Christian agreed, taking note of Liam already passing out. He figured it had been a long night, long day, and another long night consecutively for the Davenport kid. "Better safe than sorry, he'll live." Christian decided. He'd rather take the heat in the morning than dire consequences later on. He could always lie and say they forgot to wake him up or that he'd lost track of time, but he didn't figure that Sophia would be on board with a plan like that. So he'd tell the truth instead; that he came up with the plan.

"I'm gonna take a peek around, make sure things are safe, see what I can see." He told Sophia, giving her a nod. He didn't intend to travel out far, because that was just asking for trouble. Christian made a quick sweep around, nothing far enough that a hushed yell wouldn't reach his teammates. Christian was just about finished up when he spotted some lights in the distance, far beyond a cliff they were near. Christian didn't think much of it, not until he heard the grunts and rattles from below.

Christian hesitated, but knew ultimately they needed to know what was at the bottom of the cliff. It was hard to see anything without the sun out, but Christian squinted his eyes and tried to make the most of it. He could tell there was some sort of large pit at the bottom, which he'd have to guess was placed by people rather than nature. He couldn't tell what occupied it, other than humanoid sounding grunts and shoving, but nothing over-the-top noisy.

Christian knew it wasn't best to yell to Liam or Sophia, lest he risk alerting their guests, though Christian supposed they didn't have a way to reach them, he wasn't going to risk what could happen. He returned to their makeshift camp, and didn't bother beating around the bush. "There's cabins to the east and a pit of something under our cliff."

Sophia had shrugged her shoulders, as Christian left to scope out the area. She had settled herself against the wall, using her bag as a back rest, and was cleaning the ice zombie blood off the tips of her arrows. She kept her eyes on the enterance to their camp, and kept her ears open. Sophia had just finished cleaning off the last arrow and had just put it back into its place as Christian came back in.

“How close do you think the cabins are?” She asked, she was assuming that the cabins were their destination anyway, so if they had to leave then they might as well. “Could you see what was in the pit?” She asked. Though she figured even if he didn’t get a good look, anything kept in a pit probably wasn’t a good thing.

"Couple hours at most." Christian confirmed to her. He was pretty sure they'd make it there just fine; they'd only face a short time of the fierce cold and winds if they left now. "Night time means less visibility and more cold, but I think we're more than qualified to make the trek." Chiristian mused.

"They had a shape that reminded me of humans, but, something was off there." Christian said. "They didn't hear me, we could leave it right now." Christian confirmed, which he was figured might be Sophia's plan. "Could be a good idea to wait it out though, I wanna get a good luck at whatever is down there.  We could wait until morning; until Liam has gotten some rest, and see what's down there.  What do you think?" He asked.

“It’s probably more of what attacked us earlier...” Sophia added, she ran the different ideas through her head for a bit. “I don’t see the point of trying to find out for sure. They’re in a pit, they aren’t going anywhere, might as well not disturb them. If we think it’s still nessesary later on, we can come back.” Sophia suggests. But part of her would also be down to wait till morning and check it out, but that would also mean possibly putting themselves into an unnecessary dangerous situation.

“Might as well head for the cabins now. Liam will be fine.” She finally says. It’s not like they had many too many choices.

It was sound logic coming from the Virgo child, which Christian couldn't argue with. It wasn't like there was anything to gain from scouting that pit out or even dealing with it. Alaska was uncharted territory for Romans, it would have been the equivalent of stepping on an anthill and considering yourself having done a service to the world. Only this figurative anthill would be a lot more difficult to crush.

"Okay." Christian nodded his head in agreement. "It sounds like a plan to me, but do me a favor and wake Liam up. The last thing we need is me being the first thing he hears." He leveled with her. It wasn't a personal thing, it just kept tension down and what morale they could muster up. Liam and Christian didn't play well.

Sophia smirked, even though it was kind of getting annoying that the two of them couldn’t put their differences aside. “Yeah sure, I’ll wake him up... how about we pack up first, then I will.” It’s not like they had a ton of stuff, just put their gear back on and put the fire out. A couple extra minutes of sleep could go a long way, and Sophia didn’t want to wake Liam up until she absolutely had too.

The demigod pulled her backpack back on, along with her quiver. Lastly she strapped her sword around her waist. Then she eyed Liam, she couldn’t remember if he was easy to wake up or not. Living with Mr. Davenport though, she could assume he was a light sleeper. Sophia kneeled down next to him, and started out by shaking his shoulder, she was awarded with the older boys eyes opening. “Did something happen?” Liam asked, looking at his watch, and seeing that he had only been asleep for around an hour and a half. “Yeah, sort of. Just get up. We got to go.”

~~~

“Yeah...” Liam mumbled, the amount of sleep he’s gotten over the past couple days was an actual tease.
He pushed himself to his feet, he picked up his bag and slumg it over his shoulder. “So what’s the plan?” Liam asked, since he had clearly missed something while he was asleep.

Christian let Sophia work her magic, while he snugged out the fire. No matter what they did, a well trained eye would be able to tell they were here, not that it worried Christian. There were no monsters that were excellent at tracking, and no one was looking for them. But he still felt the sooner the better.

"Cabins in the distance, they look wooden. Makeshift, sorta like those 'Alaskan Bush People' you see on TV." Chrisitan answered Liam. "No signs, no roads, just a group of cabins placed under the cliffs. That's gotta be it. Maybe we don't even have to talk to them to get what we came here for." Christian was hopeful, though he didn't think Sophia and Liam were experienced with thievery anyway.

“Sounds good to me...” Liam answers yawning. He finished strapping his swords over his shoulders. “Alright, lets go.” He says, not commenting on why they couldn’t have woken him up sooner and he could have helped pack, not that there was actually anything to pack, the only thing they had to do was put out the fire.

~~~

Sophia nodded at Christian, letting him now he could take lead, since he was the one to have seen the lights first.

Christian let the worries wash away. If Liam had an infection, there was a good chance there'd be symptoms by now. Maybe there was no chance in the first place, and maybe if there was Sophia took care of it before it infected the tissue. Either way, things were looking up for them. Christian was sure that they were closing in on the right place. He wasn't sure who they were, but he didn't want to get to know people who were crazy enough to call this home.

Christian took lead, and the group made a good brisk pace. "I need to know what both of you think." Christian told them. "These are people, and we represent Rome, so I get it if you want to be diplomatic." He mused. "But they also stole something important. Would it really be such a crime if we did the same thing?"

Sophia and Liam looked at each other. They both Christian was only asking them this because of how he viewed their family and upbringing. What Christian didn’t know, because he wouldn’t bother to get her to know either centurion, was that Liam couldn’t care less about anything his dad was apart of. And the reason Sophia was considered such a great centurion at such a young age had everything to do with her ability to do what she thought was nessesary, and nothing to do with politics, and making sure peoples feelings weren’t getting hurt. Liam just shrugged, letting the younger girl handle it. “It’s ours isn’t?” She answered.

Christian let out a shrug. "Apollo's, I guess." He replied. It all depended on who was asking and answering if it belonged to Rome. Many Romans didn't even like the gods because of how they were dropped and left there. Then many Romans did like and respect the gods. Christian felt that him and Liam were the perfect division on that. Liam's Cohort commonly respected the gods, because their roots in New Rome. The gods paved way for many things in their lives. Christian's Cohort wasn't so lucky, even if by chance, that they hardly got to feel any protection from the gods. Personally, Christian didn't care who it belonged to.

"Doesn't matter whose it is." Christian finally said. "We were told to get it, and we will." Christian said. "Dunno if you two have ever had to steal anything." Christian assumed not. Not even he really had to, he'd just chosen to as a kid. "There's a few ways to do it is all I'm saying, and I think we should be on the same page on it."

“Well what do you have in mind then?” Sophia asked, it wasn’t the first time she had to “steal” something, she didn’t even really consider this stealing though. The Sun Dial didn’t belong to these humans either, so really they were “stealing” from thieves. Which neither she or Liam had an issue with. Or she didn’t, Liam would probably be more hesitant to do anything his father could find out about. But he also would have mentioned not stealing it by now if he had a better idea of how to do this.

"Well, we can only see so much without the sun." Christian began. "But, if we walk in on foot that ruins our element of surprise. And for them to have lived here this long, and lived? They're strong. They know what they're doing. I'm sure they know how to fight." He concluded the stressful situation.

"We aren't their enemies. Yet." Christian presented how he felt. "We will be, no matter how we decide to get that sun dial. But we aren't enemies yet, and getting caught stealing will change that." Their pace was quick, and they were getting much closer to the lights. "So, whatever we do, it becomes the permanent choice."

Liam thought for a moment. “Maybe we should try being ‘diplomatic’ with them at first, they might not attack us then. And then use stealing it as a back up plan... or we could fake being diplomatic the entire time, while one of us goes to steal it, that way stealing it would be easier because the humans that matter would be busy talking to us... we could also just steal it tomorrow once the sun comes up, but then we’d be stuck on the outskirts of the town till morning, and we’d risk getting caught, or freezing to death.” Liam rambled out the different scenarios. “The best choice would probably be the second one, by the way, or at least I think so. Less flaws in it.”

~~

Sophia shrugged, she did like the second one best. Distraction usually worked best, if everyone was so busy paying attention to one or two new comers, then they wouldn’t be paying attention to the third coming from behind.

Christian gave Liam's plan a good listen. In truth, it wasn't a bad idea. You had the best of both worlds. Maybe if things went well enough, no one would have to steal the sundial at all. But if that didn't work, they already had a third party a good listen. There was certainly room for error, but all the other plans had even more room for error. It didn't take long for Christian to decide he agreed.

He gave a nod. "Best of both worlds. Guess that means I'm stealing." Christian half-assumed and half-volunteered. It made sense for it to be him, even if he didn't in particular feel like reliving that part of his life.

“If you don’t want too, I can. Not much for diplomatic relations.” It was true, Sophia wasn’t the type to get along with others. She usually left a... uhh... interesting first impression on most people. She could if she had too, but really she was only good for back up if something went sour, like if they try to kill them for asking for the Sun Dial back.

Liam kind of already knew he’d get stuck with the distraction part, it made sense for the legacy of Mercury to do the stealing part. He couldnt do much for about Sophia’s temper with other people though, so really if she wanted to do the stealing, and Christian didn’t. That would be fine also.

Christian was almost amused thinking about Sophia being the one to steal. Though, he'd give her the benefit of the doubt on this one, everyone had their share of surprises. Sophia was still young, and although Christian couldn't imagine her doing anything like that, he had learned first hand from Aspen that doubting Virgo women was just a bad idea to begin with. He'd wished she was here with them right now.

"I think it might fit my area of expertise better." Christian replied to Sophia. "You're welcome to come if you want though, but that's if Liam is comfortable going solo on the diplomat situation." Christian proposed, to which he would let them talk out and reach their own conclusion.