-"Ever heard of the Minotaur? the Titans? Gaea? They are all real." explained Chiron, a white stallion from the waist down, but middle-aged brown haired man from the waist up, activites director of Camp Half-Blood.
Oh, I should introduce myself first. My name is Bryan Rodriguez, I'm a 12 year old demigod with no idea who my godly parent is. I'm from Mexico, but when I turned 6 we moved to New Jersey, for "work reasons" my mother said. I've been in Camp Half-Blood for a month, and it's been a year since the Giant War. And no, being mexican does not equate into being Latino. I'm thin, with messy black hair, fair skin and onyx eyes, and I wore the simple, Camp Half-Blood orange shirt, with some shorts and sneakers.
I had been staring blankly at the small, greek-styled classroom we were in, until Chiron called my name.
-"Mr. Rodriguez." he called, which popped my bubble of thoughts.
-"Yes, sir?" I answered, while the other 3 kids turned around to face me. A brunette girl about my age with green eyes, then a blond kid with stormy gray eyes, probably a son of Athena, and finally, a short, stubby kid with simple black hair. No idea who his parent could be.
-"Can you explain to us what I just said?" he asked. Of course I didn't know the answer, not like I had been paying any attention.
-"You were explaining..uh..how to kill a giant?" I tried, maybe if I was lucky..
-"Correct, and how do we kill a giant, Bryan?" I mentally sighed.
-"Stabbing them?" I said, making the other kids laugh, and even Chiron gave me a sideways smile. The Athena boy raised his hand and Chiron pointed at him.
-"You need a god and a demigod working together." he answered proudly.
-"Correct, Mr. Stevens." and the kid smirked, and turned around. "You should pay more attention, Mr. Rodriguez. It could save your life someday."
Yeah, whatever. I thought.
-"Also, Bryan. Remember: monsters don't die. You can kill them, but they don't die." he finished.
Seems legit.. then he dismissed us and we went out to the main campus, heading to our cabins as it was almost dinnertime.
-"Monsters don't die, Bryan." whispered the Athena boy in my ear while he walked by my side, then he rushed to his cabin. Showoff, I thought. I simply kept walking to cabin Eleven, Hermes. Any kid who isn't claimed by their parent must stay there until they are, so I was currently stuck in it, which was always overcrowded.
I went to my bunk, just to check if there were any announcements. The cabin counselors, the Stoll brothers came in, along with the rest of the kids.
-"Okay guys, we're going to dinner. Capture the Flag against Camp Jupiter after it, so make sure to get your magical items, and whatever let's just go!" said Connor Stoll, and everybody else other than I cheered. We went to dinner, which was pretty boring anyways.
Camp Jupiter was another demigod camp, just that it had roman demigods instead of greek. Both camps were enemies for some time, but then they became allies during the Giant War and they've been doing training sessions and stuff since then. I saw a lonely guy in another table, the Hades table. It was Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades, probably the only person who's been friendly to me in camp. He had a boyfriend, (yes, he was gay) Will Solace from the Apollo cabin, but we weren't allowed to be in other tables during dinner so I figured that's why he was alone.
Dinner was over soon, and everybody had already changed to their battle armor, as we walked outside to the huge forest where we played Capture the flag. I wore a Celestial bronze chestplate, a medium-length Celestial bronze sword plus my bronze helmet. I imagined it would be very intense, considering it was the whole camp against the whole other camp. I could see a pegasus rider with a purple toga up in the air, probably the roman leader or something. Many other Camp Jupiter legionnaires were dressed in full Imperial Gold armor too, wielding their golden weapons and waiting for orders.
I didn't have any magical weapons, other than my Celestial Bronze sword and the usual armor. Since it was the entire camp, the Athena and Ares kids made a temporary alliance. Malcolm, the Athena counselor, explained the plan to everyone: we'll surround the romans and then force them into the center of the forest, while another group searched around for the flag. The Ares kids would be leading every small group to make sure no one got into trouble.
I was now at the left side of the forest, defending my post along with some Apollo kids and the Ares guy who lead us. Nothing had happened for the first minutes, which seemed like hours.
-"I think you should search for the flag, we'll be okay here." explained a girly voice, though I couldn't tell who they were because of their armor. I simply nodded and trailed off into the vast amount of trees. For some reason, I was always comfortable in the darkness. I could see perfectly fine, I felt faster and slightly stronger I'd say. In the distance, I saw a small clearing illuminated by the moonlight. I turned around for a second to see if I was being followed, and then THUMP.
-"Ow!" I groaned as I fell back to the floor. I had bumped into someone else, a little roman legionnaire, about ten or eleven years old. He was barely my chest-length, but I couldn't recognize him because of the armor.
-"Greek! Please don't kill me! I'm only a little kid, please!" he pleaded, though I wasn't even near drawing my sword.
-"Uh..alright..where is the flag though?" I got up.
-"I'll take you to it, but please don't kill me!" he kept going on and shaking with fear, as if I looked like a psycho sadistic killer about to mutilate him. Then, a devilish smile formed in my face. I had a pretty good idea on how to get the flag now..
-"No, I won't kill you, just take me to the flag, okay?" I held my hand, and then the kid got up too.
-"Follow me!" he rushed off. He was small, but he was pretty fast.
It seemed like forever, but we eventually got to a small clearing where a purple flag, with the S.P.Q.R letters on it stood proudly, guarded by about 4 armored legionnaires. They were all taller and stronger than me, looking like quarterbacks of a football team.
-"That's my brother." said the kid while pointing at one of them. "He's a son of Venus, centurion of the First Cohort." he continued. "Well, good luck kid!" he patted me on my back and disappeared into the forest before I could track him down.
I hid over a tree, looking at the roman squadron keeping the flag safe. Would they notice me there? About 5 minutes and nothing happened, until..
-"Graecus!" yelled one of them, looking exactly at my direction. All of them turned around, and I knew they had noticed me. I rushed off while one of them ran on the opposite direction, followed by another one chasing me. In no time, they were already surrounding me, their huge swords and spears drawn and ready to..hurt me, I guess?
-"Who brought you here?" asked one of them with a deep voice.
-"Uh.." I stuttered, since I didn't even know the kid's name. "Some kid told me to come here and take the flag." I answered.
-"Michael?" asked the same one to the one behind me.
-"Probably Aeneas again.." I noticed that was the same one the kid had pointed to me. "Well, there's nothing we can do." he said, which gave me a burst of hope. "Except taking you prisoner." he finished. Before I could react, both of them had grabbed me by the arms, and took me away. I had felt completely useless right there, and probably a shame to Camp Half-Blood, when everything turned pitch-black. I mean, darker than it was in a dark forest in the middle of nowhere. It was so dark, I couldn't see a thing even with my perfect sight. Then, the darkness like, vanished or something and I fell on my feet. Both legionnaires were on the floor, but they were both getting up already.
That was my chance, I thought as I rushed without a doubt through the trees, lept and snatched the flag, as the other legionnaires yelled. -"Hey!"
I somehow rolled in the air and landed, then kept running while the legionnaires chased me. Someone threw an Imperial Gold spear at me, which luckily sailed past as it nearly split the tree in half. Someone else slashed me but I had already drawn my sword and parried, probably the best sword move I'd done in my life, then I saw my old post, with the Apollo kids and all. Just that they were being attacked by a bunch of legionnaires, and they were losing badly. I felt guilty running past them with the flag, but if the romans caught me it would be over, plus there were already like ten or fifteen of them tailing after me.
-"Bryan!" I heard the same girly voice calling my name, as I saw the girl being attacked by 3 legionnaires in golden armor, but I just kept running. Sorry, no regrets.
-"Catch the Graecus!" yelled the centurion. Then I saw the huge battle in the forest: Clarisse la Rue, counselor of the Ares cabin, was heatedly fighting Jason Grace, the son of Jupiter. Usually Jason was in Camp Half-Blood but this time he sided with the romans to make it more "fair". They parried and slashed each other perfectly, and none seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Meanwhile, there was a random rhino charging at the Hermes kids, my cabin. Nico had summoned some zombies to even out the battlefield, but the romans were beating us badly.
The rhino noticed me with the flag, and then he..turned into a guy. Then I remembered: Frank Zhang, one of the roman leaders, son of Mars (Roman Ares). Someone had told me he could turn into animals or something, but I found it hard to believe. And I realized, he was coming straight at me with a spear bigger than myself, shouting orders in Latin. All the other Romans came at me.
-"Protect him!" ordered Clarisse, and the Greeks charged at the romans. More spears and then arrows flew at me, and then I felt a sharp pain in my left arm, the one holding the flag. Someone had shot me with an arrow, and it was already bleeding, making me feel exhausted faster. If I could pull out some darkness trick again, maybe I could get to our post, but I still didn't know what had happened. Eventually the romans will surround me and take their flag back. I veered to the side, trying to hide between the trees and the darkness, but the romans had covered everything. I gasped for air, completely exhausted from running so much. Clarisse was fighting 2 legionnaires at the same time, Jason and Frank were already gone so I felt relieved.
-"Hello there." said a voice which I recognized, of course it HAD to be Jason Grace, who somehow had found me. He had already drawn his Imperial Gold gladius, though I could only see his electric blue eyes in his roman helm. He slowly walked to me, Terminator-style, looking completely intimidating in his muscular build. His gladius sparked with electricity, ready to shock me to death. "Now, just give me the flag and we'll get over this already." he demanded, though I didn't answer. He didn't really sound much threatening, and he probably wasn't used to do so, so I wasn't scared at all. My wound was getting annoying, it felt like a bee sting only about a hundred times worse.
-"Grace!" called Nico's voice as he seemed to come out of nowhere. He gave Jason a crooked smile, as he drew out his Stygian Iron sword. This thing could take your soul if it cut you slightly. "Hey, Bryan." he greeted me, and Jason looked more excited than annoyed to beat the crap out of di Angelo. "Run, I'll hold him off." he said and I obliged. Blue sparks alighted the forest, though I knew Nico wouldn't lose as easy. He and Jason were old friends, but there was always this uncertainty on who would win in a fight between two sons of the Big Three (a.k.a Zeus, Poseidon and Hades) oh, and Percy Jackson too, but he was in college.
Finally, I saw the clearing where our flag was, with some Demeter and Aphrodite kids, a few zombies, plus the usual Ares kid commanding the group, about 30 feet from me. They cheered as I ran to them, the moonlight making the path clear. Then, lightning boomed from behind me, straight from the direction Nico and Jason were fighting. All the zombies crumpled down, and dissolved into dust. Had Nico really lost against him?
I was only about 20 feet from them, when a legionnaire guy tackled me from the side, brusing my badly and making me fall to the grass, which in turn, scratched my arms and bruised my waist even more, but I got up quickly. He tried to stab me, but I reacted and parried his gladius.
-"Give me the flag!" he demanded, while he hit me with the hilt of his sword on my hand, making me drop my Celestial bronze sword.
The Ares girl was already rushing to help me, which risked our flag to the other team, knowing the Demeter and Aphrodite kids weren't doing anything against the legionnaires.
-"Run along!" she shouted, while she attacked the legionnaire. In less than 5 seconds I heard a scream. A girly one.
My legs were hurting. My arms were bleeding. My hand was tired of gripping the flag for so long. My brain was telling me to drop on the grass, but my body just kept running. I reached the boundary line behind the clearing, slightly past where our own flag was and everything became fuzzy from there on.
-"We have a winner!" Chiron blew the conch horn, marking the end of the game. The entire forest burst into cheering, and then the pegasus rider also blew her horn, shouting orders in Latin which I didn't get. I collapsed along the grass, as everything shifted into darkness when I passed out.
Every now and then, the darkness cleared and I could see some glimpses of what was happening: I was being carried by the crowd's shoulders, though I couldn't recognize any face. Then a blonde guy with bright blue eyes was attending my wounds, and finally, I woke up in my Hermes bunk. My hair must have been very messy because it was covering my eyes.
-"Hey! You woke up!" said someone in the room as I rubbed my eyes. "I'm Erin, the Apollo girl you left in Capture the Flag."