Danny was beginning to think that she should just stop having ideas. Either she was just awful at planning or the universe truly hated her; either way, it would probably be safer for everyone if she just stopped doing things.

Case in point: the Adonis Festival and Hunt. She had thought it would be a fabulous idea to bring her girlfriends, but to get there early, while the Summer Society was still setting up, so she could introduce them to her Summer sisters. It was perfect – how could it have gotten so incredibly screwed up in just a few hours? It was actually mind-boggling. Her mind was officially boggled.

Everything had started well. They'd left the dorm at nine, Carmilla bitching the entire way about the inhumanity of it all, and had made it to the sacred springs pretty fast, only getting stopped once by a bridge troll (he had waived the usual toll once Danny had told him that she was a Summer Huntress going to the Hunt). It had been easy to find the springs, the Society had actually gotten there early for once, and there was even coffee.

Danny had gone to fetch that most necessary of beverages for them, leaving them in the hands of her assistant Alexia for the moment. She had expected some light conversation, her girlfriends getting to know a few of the Society before she got back. An ice-breaker, she supposed.

It took her four minutes and fifty-two seconds to collect the three coffees and return. In that time, almost every member of the Society had abandoned their jobs and clustered around her girlfriends, forming a fairly large circle. Laura looked slightly taken aback, but Carmilla looked downright homicidal. She didn't like crowds, and she hated tight spaces, and Danny gave it about two more minutes before she vamped out and started throwing people around.

The redhead shoved her way through the ring of bodies, not being especially careful with where the hot coffee splashed and subsequently getting through much faster than she would have otherwise. As soon as she broke through, she grabbed Carmilla's hand and pulled the vampire to stand behind her, trusting Laura to handle herself slightly better than the other girl. She leveled her Huntresses with her fiercest glare. "What in Artemis' name is going on here?"

The girls shifted, glancing around the circle, none of them meeting Danny's eyes.

"Well?" Her voice was like ice. She quickly darted a look around, stopping when she found Alexia. "Alexia, what is this? I left you to introduce yourself and I come back to, what, a lynch mob? I expected better of you, arktoi."

The other Huntress shifted nervously, head down and blonde hair spilling over her face. "I had to, Danny. They're just so…"

"So what, hmm? What were they just so, Alexia?"

The girl looked up. "So cute!" Danny blinked. Of all the possible things to come out of her mouth, that hadn't even occurred to her. Alexia looked completely serious, too. This was unexpected.

The Huntresses surrounding them all broke out in smiles, nods, and soft chatter, reaching forward to touch Danny's arm or shoulder before returning to finish setting up the Hunt. Angry squealing broke the air for a moment before one of the younger girls managed to slip the muzzle back onto the sacrificial boar.

Carmilla sighed from behind Danny. "Why am I not surprised that your merry band of talking trees are as freakish as you, buttercup?" The words came out in her usual drawl, but Danny could hear slight relief under it.

Next to her, Laura was smiling happily. "I like them. They seem nice!" Danny could only shake her head in frustration. If she wasn't careful they'd end up crowning Carmilla the Willow Queen, and god only knew what mayhem the vampire could create in a year's reign.

Yeah, she really needed to stop making plans.