The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 5: Alec Finally Arrives

Eventually, my tossing and turning paid off, and I fell asleep sometime in the early hours of the morning,  though I could have sworn I had heard a scream just a minute earlier, but I convinced myself that I was only imagining things. Nevertheless, the sound of nervous chattering awakened me much too soon. I could not tell if it was just unusually foggy or if it was so early that the sun had yet to rise, but I got dressed anyway before following Damien and Darius out of the tent.

"This is crazy," Darius whispered to no one in particular, watching all of the Knowing members in front of us race around the mess hall, running between different tables and exchanging knowledge. Had Alec been sighted? No, not yet. But supposedly he would be there soon. Any minute now.

"You can say that again," Hannah muttered as she bounded up beside us in the line for food, grabbing herself a bowl of cereal, and Damien smirked. "Did you hear about anything weird that happened last night? Apparently Jason has another announcement to make, and it doesn't have anything to do with Alec." She then raised her thin eyebrows at us, as if she expected us to be involved in the mischief somehow, but the twins and I shook our heads no.

As it turned out, the announcement that Jason had to make was about the minotaur. He said that he was going to wait until Alec arrived before he sent out more Warriors to look for the beast because it had killed yet another Warrior who had been guarding the camp while everyone was asleep. It appeared as if the scream I had heard was not imagined by my overtired brain, and so I couldn't help but feel a little guilty about the man's death. Perhaps I would have been able to help him.

A few minutes later, once the rest of the camp had settled down as much as they possibly could on such a hectic day, Layna came to sit down with us. Like Hannah's and the rest of the girls', Layna's hair was styled perfectly, not a strand out of place, and she even looked like she was wearing a little bit of eye make-up, making her green eyes seem even brighter than usual. She was obviously ready to impress Alec the minute he walked up. "Hey," she said in English, a cautious smile playing across her soft pink lips.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, also in English, my voice tight. After all, we hadn't been on very good terms since her arrival at the base camp, so I didn't know why she would have wanted to sit with the twins and I. With Hannah, however, I supposed I could understand.

Layna frowned. "You don't have to be so tense, Jace. Can't we just get over whatever differences we have?" she scolded me, stirring her bowl of cereal and milk with a spoon. "I won't be here for long. I just wanted to sit with you guys because Hannah told me that Brady and Alec pretty much hate each other, and so I thought I would have a better chance of talking to Alec if I hung around you guys for once."

"You would have an even better chance if you hung out with Jason. We don't want you using us just to gain popularity," Damien pointed out to her rudely, just as I sent Hannah a questioning look wondering why she would give such information to Layna, who was definitely not a close friend of ours. Hannah opened her mouth to retort, but then I remembered that she and Layna were tent-mates as of the night before. Jason had wanted Layna out of the infirmary before Alec arrived, since the hero usually slept there when he was visiting.

Ignoring Damien's comment, Layna asked curiously, apparently thinking along the same lines as me, "I was wondering, where does Alec live? Why doesn't he live here anymore?"

I sighed, exchanging awkward glances with Hannah and the twins, pondering how much of the truth we should tell her, since we didn't even know the whole story ourselves. When it became obvious that none of the others were going to answer Layna, however, I slowly admitted to her, "Well, Alec lives in the Woods - you know, where the gods lived before they died. You'd have to ask him why yourself. He was never very happy here at camp, but I can't imagine that he's much happier out there on his own. Some people are surprised he's still alive."