You know when you feel like you only have two options: laugh or cry? Yeah, well Stella was having one of those moments. The more Isabel spoke, the more actual feeling returned to Stella’s body as her sister returned her embrace- the more Stella felt a laugh rise up in her throat. She was alive. She was alive! She was going home. She was going to get to go back home. For the first time in a long time she felt like she’d welcome the trees and the cabins and the dirt of Camp Half Blood because it was home- it was a piece of home anyways. She wanted to tell Isabel she loved her and she understood. She really understood. They had just gotten each other back and not in the sense that Isabel wasn’t going to die anymore- it was so much bigger than that. They’d gotten each other back as sister, as best friends and it was literally like the other half of her heart had been firmly re-attached.
Kendall was okay. Thank gods, he- And Drake. He was okay too. Annabeth Warrior Princess would be okay as well . Stella nodded eagerly as her sister snatched up the hide. She went to move forward but then stopped. The laugh that had been building up her throat came out much to her surprise.
"You- I can’t believe you’re really here. You’re really here. You came back for me,” she felt her throat tighten ever so slightly as the laugh started to twist itself into more of a strangled sob, “You all came back for me.” Her hand touched her lips briefly as she told herself to calm down because this so wasn’t the time but still. Still.
"O-Okay, leaving," she said again reaching for her sister’s hand before pushing her way out off the leaf-curtains. Isabel hadn’t been kidding about her- the Cannibals being distracted either. They were nowhere in sight but she was also right about them not having much time. She kept Isabel close, finding her legs weren’t as steady as she’d hoped and for the first time since she’d woken up at Camp Cannibal she started to really feel the presence of what she was wearing. Of how matted her hair felt. Of the body paint. Paint (fingers crossed) on her skin. The bruise and grazes. Her bare feet brushing the terrain. That whole ‘laugh or cry’ thing started to creep up on her again as they moved, “I look- I look like some sort of cheap Tiki-girl stripp-,” Stella’s words were cut off by the echo of something- of a scream? Of- Her eyes locked onto Isabel’s.
“Annabeth?”
With the hide tucked snugly in her satchel, her sister latched firmly onto her arm, and a ‘we-are-getting-out-of-here-alive-if-I-have-to-sacrifice-my-firstborn-for-it’ grimace on her mouth, Isabel pushed through the grass entryway and into the near abandoned village. All they had to do now was find Annabeth and hightail it out of there. They were in the homestretch. Nothing could go wrong. (Except for maybe Annabeth being eaten by Crazy Pants, Crazy Pants’ village eating her boyfriend and her Disney buddy, and none of them ever being able to leave Africa ever but hey. Minor snags. Minor snags.)
"Of course we came back for you," Isabel said in response to her sister’s ridiculous exclamation, pausing her scan of the terrain for a glossy blonde head of hair to give Stella an ‘are-you-psycho?’ look. "Not coming back for you wasn’t even discussed. As soon as Kendall told us all we talked about was how we were going to bust you out of this place."
She had to hold back a snicker upon hearing the beginnings of the phrase ‘tikki girl stripper’, but the smile quickly fell from her face as the sound of what seemed like some sort of scream reached her ears. Almost immediately her eyes darted to her twin’s identical ones, and she breathed the same word just a beat before her.
"Annabeth".
And then she was running, dragging her sister by the hand behind her, and there were too many people to worry about and Isabel’s usually huge heart seemed to constrict so it was the size of a ping pong ball and even breathing hurt because of all the dust in the air. “Annabeth!” Should she be quiet? Would her yell attract all the cannibals back to camp? …Oh, whatever. “Annabeth! Where are you?!”
Almost getting mauled by a hoard of literal man-eaters, being shot by poisoned darts, currently getting stabbed by a lunatic heiress... this was so not listed in the Safari guide Kendall had insisted on making her buy at the airport. As excruciating and somewhat triggering as the abrupt pain on her upper arm was though, Annabeth knew that it could've been worse. That was always the thing about being a demigod-- you're always able to be subjected into more pain. And, ironically luckily for her, she was a pro at ignoring it.
Gritting her teeth, Annabeth mustered up every ounce of her strength. The Amazon woman had gone suddenly limp the second her dagger made contact with her stomach, and it only occurred to her now that she's felt that kind of weight before. It was panic more than anything that willed her to finally shove the other off of her. No matter how many times she's encountered it, no matter how many times she's had to be the instigator, she still could never truly get over the death of an actual being.
"Thanks, mom..." she managed to croak, unsure if they could even hear her in Olympus from there but not really bothering to care about anything other than the fact that she was alive. And as soon as that thought registered, their voices started to chorus.
It was almost overwhelming the amount of happiness that surged through her entire body. Disregarding the sharp pain that screamed from her arm, Annabeth only allowed a wince to betray her before stumbling toward Isabel and Stella's voices. "Guys!" she half-called, half-sobbed. She wasn't exactly sure how much time had elapsed between when they had split up and now, but she figured that the lack of girly screams meant that Drake and Kendall were still alive and distracting the tribe. Even then though, Annabeth could only manage to bring her voice up to a sort of scratchy shout.
"St-Stella! Isabel! I'm here!"
