Bless the broken road [Chase, anyone else]

Chase smiled at her, but noticed Adabelle wasn't behind him. "Stay for a second?" he held his hand in a "wait" position, then ran quickly over to Addy. "Adabelle. Dear? Don't be shy." he smiled, congenially. Before she could run to far, he approached her and hugged her. "Meeting new people is what this experience is all about." He took her hand. He was hit by a sudden wave of emotion. Her hand was so tiny and warm, it caused him to smile. With her hand, he led her back to the clearing where the woman was. "This is Adabelle. She's been living on an island out in the middle of the ocean for a while..." he grinned at Addy. "So she's still sort of shy."

"Oh, uhh..." Helen looked to Adabelle. She was beautiful, as beauty of most came. It was a simpler beauty than her own, one that allows more for heart than the body-driven 'beauty' of her own form. "Hello, Adabelle," she said, shaking her hand. There was a bit of lack in her confidence from the way she shook hands with her. She doesn't know how fortunate and wonderful she is, Helen thought to herself. "Siren?" she asked politely, "That's... wonderful. You have your own control over how you sing." It's almost as if she has my curse, but with the gift to control it... She turned to chase, keeping a veil of emotion up from the both of them, preventing herself from being 'seen'. Her veil was so carefully created, used for so long, it was like her second skin. One could barely tell she was hiding within it.

Adabelle started to protest but she knew that nothing she could say would change anything now, Chase had already managed to drag her into the clearing. She took her heels out of the forest floor and jogged to keep up with his pace instead of fighting it. Her hand was limp in the other girls and she had barely begun to shake her hand when Adabelle was already trying to squeeze her hand out of her grasp. When the beautiful girl wondered aloud about the Sirens she simply nodded. It was unnerving her how this other girl was looking at her, she seemed like a starved person but what she was craving Adabelle could not even begin to know. She stood in front of her a moment longer then before anything else could be said to her she skittered behind Chase like a frightened child.

CHase laughed and put his hand on Addabelle's back to keep her from going behind him. With his hand on her lower back, he shoved her a little forward, trying to prevent her from being shy. "So...I don't believe I caught your name, tiny dancer." he said, giving her a nickname like he did with Addabele. The sun was bright against the sky and it was making the girls' hair shine beautifully. He looked kind and welcoming, as he was those things. "Oh, and of whom do you come from?" he added the question on. He himself didnt really want to speak of his own parentage, as he detested Apollo and Artemis really wasn't his mother. He often wondered about the mother he never knew, Cassandra. Why did his father become so infatuated with her? Why was he alive? Why did Artemis, who abhored men, take the babe that he was in to her group of hunting nymphs?

Helen watched Adabelle's reaction to her. She has good judgement... she thought. She made a mental note to let up on the outgoing acting a bit around her. She didn't want to discomfort her too much. She then looked to the man and blushed. 'Tiny dancer'? ...Oh gods, how long was he seeing me dance? "And I do not believe I've caught yours either, hunter," she said. She extended her hand to shake with him. "My name is..." There was her usual hesitation. "...Helen." She never really got over her name. Too many people, when they heard it, thought Helen of Troy, whom Helen did not want to be too closely associated with... first off, because they would be quite close to the truth. As Helen of Troy's looks started a war, Helen feared each time she met a new guy that they would be struck down. She looked to the two to see if they thought of Helen of Troy as well.

Frustrated with Chase’s insistence in keeping her in a prone position Addy did all she could to make herself invisible beside Chase. She tried shrinking back again only to be met with a firm hand on the small of her back. She ended up sliding to the ground, with one fluid motion she was sitting on the forest floor looking up at the pair. She didn’t quite know why but the “little dancers” presence was unnerving her more than it should have. It put every nerve on edge just like danger of another shipwreck on the island, another abandoned soldier cursing her for the very blood that ran in her veins. The girls thing was the last name she wanted to know. Helen she thought causer of wars

"Helen. What a gorgeous, entrancing name. Are you new to our wonderful home?" Chase asked, trying to be as welcoming as he dared under the circumstances of the closed down woman before him. He looked to Addy who had slid to the floor. He tried to convey with his eyes and a grin that she should make herself welcoming also, even though she, herself, was also new. He couldn't understand the hostile aura that he recieved using his psychic energies. She seemed so frustrated. He was ever curious about these wonderous two women that he had happened upon in the same day. It was so...coincidental. He had to wonder if something interesting was going to happen with them.

"Oh, I'm... I guess I am kind of new," Helen said. She was baffled at how he seemed to take her name for something wonderful and not an omen of downfall. She had to wonder. Was it him? ...or was her father already trying to show his "love" of his daughter? She had to hope for the former, but knew that the chances all pointed to the latter. So many kind guys had turned out to be a gift from her father. You would think by now he would realize I don't want those kinds of gifts... She kept her smile, the outward expression of the reverse of her true emotions. With so many years, she was so convincing.

Adabelle stayed put on her spot among the twigs. The spoke of how Helen was a newcomer to the school and Addy realized she hadn’t been here more than a week herself. As much as she hated to admit she missed her mother and the other sirens of the island. Even though they always chided her for not participating in courting marooned seamen they would spend nights running combs through her hair chatting in singsong voices and tying seashells into her hair until she seemed to sparkle. When she looked up at them again Helens smile seemed fake to her somehow and with mild curiosity she realized Helen had ignored an earlier question. “What god did you say was your parent?” Surely it would be nothing so terrible as to hide.

"Ah yes. I believe you didn't answer. We demigods are so easily distracted aren't we?" He said, still smiling ever sweet. He sat down on the grass and motioned the two to join him. "It's a beautiful day. Shall we enjoy it?" he grinned. He placed his bows and quiver next to his body and looked at the two women before him. They were both so beautiful in their own ways, Adabelle in the ways of a gorgeous siren, meant to entrap men, Helen in the way of an almost aphroditic quality. Certainly she had to be related to the gorgeous godess in some way. He smiled after a moment of no one speaking. "Surely you are not to make us guess? But if I had to I would say a relative of Aphrodite in some way, if not her daughter." He said sweetly, his voice showing his admiration of her beauty.

Helen looked to Adabelle, and then to Chase. He seemed so welcoming... but then he said it. "A relative of Aphrodite in some way, if not her daughter." Helen's heart constricted. Either he was a gift from her father or he would be. She had to get away. She couldn't let him become another victim. She couldn't let his heart be toyed with by her father's stupid arrows. She looked to Adabelle again, those eyes that seemed to cut right through her. She knew that she was trouble. Chase would be much better off with her. She had to go. She had to leave him alone. If he was already struck by her father, he would find her and keep finding her. If not... well, his personality seemed to show that he was a kind man. She couldn't let him chase her. It would draw his father's attention. He would try to aid her. Her fears were boiling to the surface, she almost couldn't contain herself. Her outward appearance barely changed at all. "I have to go," she said lightly. "I'm sorry, I need to be somewhere. Goodbye." She then turned and ran. Once she was out of sight, she dashed forward even faster. She had to get away. You're too kind, Chase... I can't let you become my father's gift. A tear fell as she ran.

Adabelle watched her retreating form fearing that Chase, perhaps her newfound friend would bound after. She expected nothing less from his heroism and although it caused her a bit of pleasure she knew it was wrong to judge someone that way. She just couldn’t help it, she’d never had a friend before and this Helen character was already threatening that. “You won’t help her Chase?” she looked at him meekly then back at the ground feeling ashamed that she’d been so unwelcoming. Helen was probably as lost as she was. Addy closed her eyes and leaned her head against his leg whispering lyrics quietly.

He found his hand reaching out to smooth her hair. "Lovely Adabelle, I know her name, I may ask around later to see if she is alright, but for now, I believe she would like to be alone." He said sofly. He turned to Adabelle, she really was quite the beautiful little thing. The way her hair felt, and her voice. It was no wonder sailors left their ships for them. "Those lyrics are quite beautiful, dear. As beautiful as you...no, I take that back. Almost as beautiful as you. Not quite." he grinned at her. "Thank you for following me around. I must seem a terrible clog with all the running around. Tell me a bit about yourself, dear." he smiled in encouragement, his eyes twinkling.

Helen ran. She ran as fast as she could away. She had to escape. She had to escape the chances. She had to escape her fate. She had to save him. She ran and soon found her at the edge of the forest. The Academy was before her. She had escaped.

Addy blushed profusely at his compliments. Back on the island there was shouts, accusations. She looked down at her hands and shivered remembering one of the few times the insults had gone to far. The angered sailor had taken Rika, one of her closest siren friends, and tried to drown her in the sea. It would have taken much longer for her to die, or the other sirens could have helped, had he not slammed her skull on one of the treacherous rocks that had stranded him there. She hadn’t thought people were capable of such things.

“Myself?” she asked confused. No one had ever asked to know about Adabelle Durand. What was excepted to be shared in a situation such as this? She had no idea and to voice this would make her seem foolish and inept. “Th-there isn’t m-much to say.” she stumbled through her speech as she always did when she was nervous, a horrible habit that had angered her mother to no end. She was awed by Chase in this manner, that he always held a surety in all his endeavors whatever they may be. It was easy to like someone so worthy of admiration.

He chuckled to himself a moment, then rubbed her back lightly with his hand. "Come on, Addy. I want to know about you. I already know you're shy, sweet, beautiful, charming, have the most gorgeous voice I've ever heard, and is a little nervous right now by the sounds of your stuttering." He showed her a sympathetic grin. It was still inviting and charming as he was. "Would you like me to go first then? My shy little siren." he added, wondering that if he went first, she might open up to him more.