Evan shrieks, despite the fact that he had been staring directly towards the direction of the voice. He calls me unobservant, but here he is, being surprised by three women walking directly towards him.

I turn around, after my own shout of surprise. (I was more surprised by Evan’s scream than anything, honestly.) I find myself sitting at the feet of three Native women.

The nearest to me, the one that spoke, is dressed in a traditional doeskin dress. Her shawl around her shoulders is a vivid blue in color, and her eyes match the same color. Her braid nearly reaches the ground behind her, and she leans off in one direction with her hand on her waist. I can just feel the waves of attitude rolling off this woman.

I greet her the natural way. “Hi, auntie.” She smiles at that.

Behind her stands a woman that is clearly her sister, and slightly younger, and a much younger woman who might be in her late twenties. Both of these women are dressed in the two other primary colors - the youngest in a bright yellow sundress, a much more modern style than the blue jingle dress, and the middle one in a red tee, blue jeans, and the largest sun hat I’ve ever seen in my life, with a bright red ribbon around it in a neat bow. Unlike the woman in blue, these two have their hair done up in twin braids, each reaching towards their knees.

“Auntie,” I nod towards the red woman. “Cousin,” I nod towards the yellow woman. They both smile at me.

Layla stares at me. “These are… your family?”

I realize suddenly that, for however long that she’s been out here on the prairie, Layla knows nothing about the people who have been here long before.

“No,” I say, shrugging. “But also yes.”

The blue woman smiles broadly at us all. “He greets us with manners,” is all she tells Layla. “Now, what are your names?”

I introduce Layla - the yellow woman in particular is fascinated by her, and pulls out a smartphone from her back pocket, no doubt googling what a lampades is - but the red woman smirks when I introduce Evan. My voice wobbles slightly, and I think she knows.

Then they introduce themselves. The blue woman, as it turns out, is just named Blue. The red woman is Red Cheek, and the yellow woman is Rising Star.

“Those are… interesting names,” Layla says, quizzically. It seems like she can’t quite tell if they’re actually names or just titles.

Evan, on the other hand, has been around me and my family enough to understand these women.

“So what’re you three doing out here?” Blue asks us. From the way she stands and the fact that she’s the one doing all the talking, it becomes apparent that she’s in charge.

“Well…” I glance over at Layla. “How much did you hear?”

Rising Star shrugs. “Pretty much all of it. We’ve heard every word that’s been said near you since, oh, an hour ago?”

“Hold up,” I say. I dig around my pockets, then pull out the crystal ball. “Are you the ones who threw this at me?”

“Oh, by the grandmother, no,” Red Cheek responds. “It was thrown at you?” She sounds incredulous.

“Yes,” I say indignantly. “Reamed me on my front step.”

Blue cracks a grin, but Rising Star rushes forward, her hands out. “That must be why you’ve got the cold cans of…” she gasps. “Is that Dr. Pepper?”

“Uh,” I say. “Yeah.”

The excitement in her face is infectious, and I smile along with her, but not really sure why.

Blue just rolls her eyes. “I’ll pick some more up later, Rising Star. I’m sure your husband would want some, anyway.”

I laugh, then pause, then realization dawns over me.

“Wait… is your name… Blue Woman?” I ask, staring right at Blue. “And Red Cheek Woman?” I look over at Red Cheek.

Red Cheek raises a hand, somewhat uninterested in the conversation. “Guilty,” is all she says.

“Then your husband…” I look over at Rising Star. “Is your husband Fallen Star?”

Rising Star looks excited. “So they do remember! I told you, Blue, they hadn’t forgotten us yet!”

Blue looks disinterested, but I can sense some pride coming from under her mask. “So they do.”

“Come, though,” Rising Star says. “Let’s get you home.”

Blue glances at her two companions, then sighs. “I’ll need to have a discussion with the upper spirits when we get back to camp later, though.” She gestures at me. “We can’t have the stars hitting our candidates at terminal velocity, it could kill them.”

Red Cheek agrees, nodding. “Should see if we can get them to drop them from a lower height.”

“Yeah,” I agree, though I have no idea what they’re talking about. “I do prefer not getting reamed by a line drive to the head. I think your other, er, candidates would approve the change if they knew the alternative.”

Rising Star claps her hands, chuckling. “Oh, I like this one.”

I glance at Evan. “But did you say… an hour?”

“Yep,” Red Cheek says from behind. “Your mother isn’t too worried, though, don’t worry.” Red Cheek glances up at us. “Your dad ate all the snacks anyway, but she’ll be done with dinner in about a half hour.”

I stare at her. “What… how?”

Evan, on the other hand, takes no time to consider. “No!” He gasps out. “My charcuterie board!”

I take a moment to stare at Evan. “That is what my mom was making for you?”

He blushes, and I smile.

Red Cheek waves her hand nonchalantly. “You’ve got until then to ask us all the questions you want. Yes, even you, servant of Hekate,” she notes, as Layla had begun to raise her hand. Layla puts it back down.

I raise an eyebrow at her, and she smiles cheekily and holds up her phone. “We get really good service no matter where we go. Helps to have the god of the internet in your pantheon.”

I laugh at that, and Layla just stares at the three women, slack-jawed.

“You… you can use smartphones?” Layla sounds surprised.

“Of course,” Red Cheek answers.

Rising Star clarifies. “Iktomi is the spirit of the internet,” she says with a chuckle. “He’s, ah, a bit of a trouble-maker, but he means well.”

“He’s a dumbass,” Red Cheek’s voice drawls. “He’s been one for the last, what, three thousand years, give or take a century.”

Blue sighs. “We all miss Kssa, but Iktomi is who we’re stuck with.” She waves a hand dismissively. “Anyway, he’ll keep us updated on what your mom is up to. If she gets worried, we’ll let you know.”

I glance over at Evan, who’s sitting up against the bridge. I stand, holding my hand out to him. “What do y’all say we go somewhere a tad more comfortable?” I say. “Better than sitting on this wooden bridge.”

Rising Star smiles, then gestures us over to the picnic shelter a little ways from the bridge’s entrance. “Come on,” she says. “I’ll make us some snacks, since… what’s your name, dear?” She targets the question towards Evan.

“E-evan,” he stutters out, more than a little nervous. “Um, what are you going to make?”

Rising Star just laughs, a sound that reminds me of the tinkling of bells.

Evan and I walk over to the picnic shelter with the three women, but Layla walks off back towards the gazebo, on the other side of the bridge. I watch in curiosity.

“She’s looking for Clyde’s… next form,” Blue says quietly to me as we walk. “Nature spirits are… they tend to be the same no matter their backgrounds. Clyde died here on the island as a… Greek? Is that what they are?”

I nod.

“As a Greek satyr,” she says, confirming. “But he’ll reincarnate as a plant. However, this isn’t part of the land ruled by the Greeks - Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, them folk,” she waves a hand distantly.

“He’ll reincarnate as one of us,” she says with a smile, gesturing towards her companions. “No doubt as a čanoti, our version of a nature spirit.”

I smile broadly. “I remember stories about them… the little ones, they’re little tinkerers, aren’t they?”

Blue’s lips purse, and I can’t quite tell what she’s thinking. Then she finally responds as we take our seats at the picnic table.

“The čanoti are tinkerers, yes, but they’re not really… let’s just say Layla is going to have a surprise in a few years when the spirit of that… what is she holding?”

The three women crane their necks to see what Layla is holding as she walks back.

“What is it?” Rising Star calls out. “We all wanna know.”

Layla says nothing, but just shrugs as she carefully walks with a pile of dirt in her hands.

When she gets to the table, she holds it up so we can all see it.

“It’s… a pile of dirt,” I say, confused. “Clyde turned into, what, mulch?”

Layla sighs. “I have no idea,” she confesses. “Usually satyrs turn into trees or shrubs, but this? There’s nothing here, but I’m sure this is him.”

Red Cheek nods thoughtfully. “It’s him, alright. I can feel his soul in that pile of dirt, but there’s no sprout yet.”

“So what is he?” I ask.

“More likely than not, he’ll turn into whatever we ask, when we finally decide where to put him,” Blue says decisively, glancing at Layla. “If you’d like, we can plant him back at the camp and his next life can help us set up our more… permanent settlement.”

“Say again?” Layla’s confusion is matched by Evan’s and mine.

Blue sighs. “Why don’t you three come with us? We’ll explain on the way.”

“Wait,” Rising Star raises her hand, stopping Blue. “We should stop and meet Seth’s mom along the way, first.”

Red Cheek’s eyebrow shoots up, and I mirror her. “Why do you want to meet my mom?”

Rising Star tuts. “Darling nephew, you’re just a child. I can understand why my dearest father-in-law would decide to choose someone as young as you, but we still need to get your mother’s permission before doing anything!”

Blue shrugs. Red Cheek agrees with a nod, still on her phone, but doesn’t look up. “You two go talk to her,” she says. “I’m going to stay back and talk with Iktomi and Layla. I’ve got some questions for the two of them…” She trails off, and I wonder if she’s got a lot of questions about the greeks. I would. Do. I do.

Evan pushes me. “Come on, we can talk to my dad, too,” he says. “I know he’ll want to hear about my mom.”

I smile. Evan’s dad is a bit of a melancholy figure, what with his propensity towards midnight strolls and fun magic, but this might explain why he always went all-out towards it.

And hey, Evan learned some cool card tricks, so win-win.

Rising Star and Blue follow Evan and I back to my house.

Now, my house isn’t that thrilling. It’s half a duplex in a dry neighborhood behind a quiet little gas station across the street from the park. I can see gazebo island from my bedroom, which is why Evan and I go there so much. Funny enough, Evan and his dad occupy the other half of the duplex, but it’s a fair bit smaller than our half. Ours is big enough for my mom, dad, sister, and me, but Evan is just him and his dad. Sometimes I wonder if it’s lonely, because Evan seems to spend more time with us than with his dad.

Then again, Evan’s dad works evenings and overnights, so it’s possible that there just isn’t ever anyone home after school.

Either way, it meant I got to spend more time with him. I wasn’t gonna turn that down.

“So your mother’s name is Rebecca?” Blue asks me as we walk up to my half of the duplex. Evan apologizes quickly before running off to his half, leaving me alone with the two women to meet my mother and father.

“And my dad’s name is Paul,” I confirm. “They will be curious to meet you, although… I’m not sure how they’ll take to it.”

As it turns out, they take to it extremely well.

When Mom opens the door, she does so with the reverence of someone awaiting a long-missing family member who’s just now showing up on her doorstep.

Which, come to think of it, is rather exactly how Blue and Rising Star are to her.

It only takes her a single glance at Blue to break down in happy tears, covering her mouth as she cries.

“To Win? Is that you? Are you… are you really here?” She sobs out, staring at Blue.

Blue smiles happily at my mother, then embraces her. “Cousin,” she says soothingly, “it’s been a minute since I laid eyes on you.”

“Sixteen years,” Mom confirms.

“That’s how old I am,” I say, suddenly confused. Rising Star laughs.

“Of course, nephew. You wouldn’t know, would you?” Rising Star explains to me while Blue and Mom catch up like cousins who haven’t seen each other in a long time, since, well, they are. “Blue is the spirit of childbirth and healing, Seth.”

Rising Star gestures towards Mom. “Rebecca Dead-Eye… I remember the day you were born. I came with Blue that day.” She nudges me. “You were a hard birth on your Mom, you big baby. She needed both of us here to keep her spirits up.”

“Oh,” is all I manage as I watch Blue catch up on life with my mom.

Mom looks at me, then looks back and Blue and Rising Star. “I recognize you,” she says slowly to Rising Star, but unsure of herself. “I… I’m not sure I know your name, though.”

Rising Star nods her head, smiling sadly. “It’s alright. I think I had a name once, a long time ago… but I gave myself the name Rising Star, after my husband, Fallen Star.”

Mom holds her hands up to her mouth. “Your husband is Fallen Star?”

Rising Star holds her hands out, as if to say guilty as charged! “We live not too far from here.”

“Come in, come in!” Mom suddenly realizes we’re standing on the front step, and gestures us all in. We gather around the too-small dining room, and I note inwardly that we haven’t had this many people in here in years.

The three women catch up, and Rising Star and Blue explain to Mom what’s going on. I listen in, because they explain some things I hadn’t even realized.

First off, they explain the existence of the Olympians. Apparently Mount Olympus is hovering over the Empire State Building over in New York, and that there’s a similar Roman setup over in San Francisco. Mom nods, taking it all in. I suppose when you see the spirit of birth helping you, you tend to open up and believe it all.

But from the sounds of it, they had to deal with some massive war last summer, and that was where the massive storm system that raged across the entire nation came from. Mom gasps, realizing something.

“I thought I saw people on chariots riding around that thing!”

I look confused at them all, and Rising Star must have understood my confusion. “Evan wasn’t joking,” she notes with a smile. “You really are a bit blind to things, aren’t you? The Olympians ride chariots into battle.”

Blue snorts. “It’s stupid is what it is. You’ve got two people in a chariot and two horses to control, but you’ve only got one person actually fighting. Just put them on a horse each and let them both fight.”

“Yeah, Fallen Star was bemused by that,” Rising Star says lightly, sipping on a Dr. Pepper she’d been offered from Mom. “Then again, we didn’t ride any horses into battle at all. We just used a bit of the No-Touch and shoved typhon away from the heart.”

“The heart?” I ask.

Blue smiles warmly. “The heart of the world,” she says. “The whole reason we’re here. We guard the heart of ȟesapa.”

Rising Star explains as she gets up and grabs another Dr. Pepper. “The Olympians may be the strongest of the mythologies in the US right now, but they are far from the oldest.” She holds up her can to the north, as if in a toast. “That particular honor goes to the Inuktitut spirits.”

Blue shudders. “I tried to have a drink with Sedna last week. All she does is wail.”

“I don’t blame her,” Rising Star snorts as she sits back down with her drink. “Those arctic waters are freezing.”

Blue continues her sister’s story. “The Inuktitut spirits are among the oldest on the planet - they make the Greeks look like infants by comparison. We can’t even place their actual age at this point.” She shakes her head. “Suffice it to say that Raven, over on the western oceans, knew that Sedna and her family were already ancient when he was born, and he is at least in his tenth millennia already.”

“Wow,” I say. “That… that’s old.”

Rising Star agrees. “We’re only somewhere in our fifth… maybe sixth? I don’t remember.”

“Suffice it to say that we remember when the Greeks were born,” Blue says dryly. “We never thought they’d make their home here, but now they have. I think… was it 1860 when they showed up in Manhattan?”

Rising Star shrugs. “Give or take a decade, but yeah.”

“So where is this camp you talk about?” Mom leans forward, her face interested. “Can we see it? It sounds hella interesting.”

Blue laughs. “I dunno about meeting Hela, but the camp isn’t really… well, there’s not a whole lot to it right now. It’s just my tipi and a little cabin we built for the occasional mortal visitor.”

“Hold up,” I say. “What’s the goal with the camp, anyway?”

Rising Star shrugs. “Resting Star conveyed to us that the rest of the upper spirits thought it’d be a good first step towards reorganizing our people. They watched as the Olympians and Romans used their children to make major movements in their own war and realized that they could be doing the same.”

Blue shakes her head. “Unlike the Olympians, however, we are not making this camp to go to war.” She sighs. “True to our roots, we would rather use it to gather knowledge and trade. We’ve already begun with the Olympians.”

“Oh?” Mom looks interested as she sips her drink.

Blue gestures towards the door. A moment later, Evan walks through, holding his own Dr. Pepper.

“Evan here is a child of the Olympians, and his… friend… is a spirit of theirs. With luck, we plan on bringing them into our camp as the first adopted members of our camp.”

Evan stops what he’s doing, his eyes wide. “I’m what now?”

Rising Star waves him off. “Considering that the satyr guardian that was meant to take him off to New York failed, we’ve decided that he’s ours now. There’s nobody else to ensure his safety, so we’ll do it.”

Blue nods in agreement, then points at the crystal ball I forgot I’d been holding. “And that, on the other hand, is the first sign of this camp’s first steps forward - A natural born member of the Lakota. You are Oglala, are you not?”

I smile. “Born wild,” I respond.

Blue and Rising Star both nod approvingly. “Then it is only natural that you are among the first. The Oglala have long been the warriors of the Lakota, have they not?”

Rising Star continues. “The crystal you hold is the blessing of Hihankaga, and I expect it’ll activate once we get you within the camp boundaries.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “Who?”