Chapter One

THE ARES CABIN GROW UNICORN HORNS

I woke to the sun flashing brightly in my eyes. Gee, thanks dad. Stifling a yawn, I half-climbed, half-rolled out of my bed. The rest of my cabin was still asleep, no doubt tired from last night's capture the flag. We had totally pwned the other team, if I may say so.

"Alright guys!" I shouted with half closed eyes. "Time to greet the day, eat some breakfast, and try not to be shot by Chelsea again!"

Gradually, the whole cabin woke. Chelsea, after stretching, shot me a glance. I smirked. My twin sister may be a daughter of Apollo, but she was about as good with a bow as a rock. Every single one of us has had at least one mishap with Chelsea and her arrows. But she means well, and she's greatly improved than when we first arrived. Then, her arrow had dropped to the ground and the string had lashed her arm. That wasn't a happy day.

Moving about as fast as a glacier, the Apollo cabin shuffled towards breakfast. We actually didn't number that many, only six, and we were all pretty young. In fact, I'm only 12 and somehow I'm the counselor of the cabin. Kinda weird, although I've been here for enough years: four. Same with Chelsea, of course.

Through my deep pondering and still-asleep-feeling, I ran smack into Sydney, the most violent girl I've ever known. Correction, the most violent person I've ever known.

"Watch it, flame head!" she snarled. She may be aggressive, but Sydney needed help in the 'name-calling department'.

"Throw yourself down a well," I retorted sleepily as we walked past her.

Breakfast was uneventful, except for the Ares cabin's colorful insults. They were almost funny. One of them was trying to rhyme the word 'orange'.

Now fully awake, I realized that we were supposed to be at the archery range, apparently working with the Poseidon cabin. Great…

When we arrived, I could see Matthew attempting to string a bow. It looked more like he was wrestling it though.

"Okay," I sighed. "Everyone practice. Emmy, work on the 'split the first bull's-eye with the second arrow thing'. Chelsea, I think you'd better work with me and Matthew."

Matthew was currently the only child of Poseidon, so these lessons are pretty easy… I wish.

"Gimme' that," I muttered as I yanked the still unstrung bow from his grasp and swiftly strung the short bow. I handed it back to him. "Alright, work on actually hitting the target." I shot a look towards Chelsea. "You too."

She grinned toothily before unshouldering her bow and drawing and arrow from her quiver. I sat down in the grass behind them to watch. Chelsea's first shot skimmed past the left of the target. I shook my head, strung my bow silently, and twanged and arrow straight into the middle of the target. "Try it that way!" I laughed.

I yelped as an arrow suddenly thudded into the ground beside me. "Whoops," cried Matthew as he came over to retrieve the arrow.

"How… you… arrow… defy… er… er, physics?" I stuttered before moving well out of range.

I got by for an hour and a half unscathed, thankfully. "Hey Chelsea, want to see was Zoe's up to?" I asked her as we went back to our cabins to put my bow back. It was almost as tall as me, and I didn't fancy trying to do anything with that shouldered on my back.

"Sure," Chelsea replied, so we headed off to the stables. It's rare to not find Zoe there, with her Pegasus Freece. It does help that Zoe's a child of Demeter; she has a way with all that nature-y stuff. Although, there's this one Pegasus named Wisp that I kind of like; she's gray and white and very gentle. Of course, I can't talk to her, but I've gotten Matthew to translate a few times. But they all love him, while we attract mice. Just what we need in our cabin.

"Hey Zoe, Freece." I shouted as we jogged down the hill. I waved as Zoe appeared with Freece by her side. Instantly, a few flowers poked up from the grass. It's a good thing any child of Demeter's not allergic to pollen.

Freece whinnied, and Zoe waved. "Hey guys! Freece and I were going to go for a ride. Want to come too?" she called as we skidded to a stop in front of her. I instantly looked at her like she was crazy.

"It's because I'm sooo good with Pegasi, right?" I questioned sarcastically. Chelsea rolled her eyes; she may not be that great at archery, but riding Pegasi was one thing she was better at.

"Don't worry," Zoe said in that ever-calm voice of hers, "You can ride Wisp. She won't let you fall… again."

I managed a pained grin. Every since I had fallen of my Pegasi early in my first year, I wasn't thrilled to go up there again. Zoe hadn't been at camp for four years, but every camper knew about it. I still here some comments, mostly from the Ares cabin, like 'Hey, do you remember that day when it started raining half-bloods?' followed by, 'How could I forget? One landed in front of our cabin!' I had a sore back for weeks.

"I guess we can go up," I gave in, persuaded by Chelsea's big brown 'Bambi Eyes'. They're a dangerous weapon, trust me.

By the time Zoe had set me up with Wisp, which must have been pretty hard because I was about as helpful as a stiff board, and moved about as much as one as well.

"Everyone ready?" Zoe called out. Chelsea nodded vigorously, while I emitted a strange, high-pitched noise that sounded like a rat being strangled to death. "Let's go!" Zoe cried. All three Pegasi launched into the air at the same time.

Funny, once you get past the eye-twitching heights, it's quite enjoyable up here. Both Zoe and Chelsea kept shooting occasional glances at me. I don't blame them. Anyone who can fall off a Pegasus and manage to plop down right in front of the Ares cabin needs to be watched extremely carefully.

Well we rode up there until I felt like puking, or, 'blowing chunks' as the Hermes cabin says it. At some point in their life, they were all dropped on their heads… a lot.

We waved goodbye to Zoe and figured we'd better check on the cabin. Odds were, they were still making the Ares kids rhyme, and not doubt they were shooting suction-cupped arrows at them.

Chelsea must have been thinking that same thing I was, because we walked calmly through the battle field of rubber-tipped arrows and surprisingly, the Ares cabin happened to be using toilet paper. I just hope those weren't our last rolls…

"Maybe we should stop this…" I wondered out loud.

"Or," Chelsea snickered while handing me one of our suction-cupped arrows. "We could play along with it."

It took me foreverto decide what to do; in a few seconds, the Ares kids were pulling arrows off their foreheads. We were all bent over, laughing at the arrows. Well, it seemed that the noise was attracting other people. Half of the Hermes cabin showed up. I thought they were going to back Ares up, but instead a guy named Trey handed me a small bottle of super glue; he'd probably stolen it somewhere.

He mouthed, 'We were never here,' and they all left, headed towards the arena, probably for sword practice. I set my half-siblings Emmy and Travis on coating our arrows with super glue. I grabbed a finished one, drew back the string, and lined it up with Sydney's forehead.

Soon, we were all gasping for breath as the whole Ares cabin was in chaos, trying to pull arrows off each other with no avail. Travis thought he heard hoof beats in the distance, so we all scrambled back into our cabin and pretended to be busy, although, an occasional giggle couldn't be held in because the Ares cabin's screams of rage penetrated the walls easily, and who couldn't laugh at that?

We stayed holed up in our cabin for the rest of the afternoon, just in case. It was alright, because there was only the one archery practice today, but dinner was a pretty big priority for us, so when the time came for food, we sent Elise outside to check if the coast was clear. It may seem weird, sending a nine-year-old out there, but Elise is so cute, even the Ares cabin just doesn't have to will to throw a javelin at her.

Elise came back with a positive report: no sign of them. Even so, we rushed toward the Mess Hall, with me in front and Chelsea and Travis guarding the rear. We were the oldest, all twelve, while Elise and Nathan were ushered in the middle. Elise was nine and Nathan was eleven, so, besides Elise, we were kind of bunched up in the age group. It also doesn't help that Sydney was fourteen, pretty much finished with her growth spurt. At least, I hoped so. I don't think that girl could get any bigger or taller.

Before entering the Mess Hall, I whispered, "Straighten up, look up, and don't appear as if you're about to pee your pants, okay?" I was answered by their actions, as they followed my commands. After nodding in approval, we entered at a leisurely pace.

We took our seats and took our bearings. The Ares cabin was already here, the arrows still protruding from their foreheads like horns, and they seemed to have a mind of their own; every slightest movement and they went flopping all over the place.

"Look at them!" Elise giggled, her light cheery eyes dancing in laughter.

"They look like unicorns!" Travis sputtered, he was laughing so hard. We all were. Even malice-filled glances from the Ares cabin couldn't silence us. Only Chiron's hoof stomping impatiently quieted us.

Chiron looked like he was about to speak, when he caught sight of the Ares cabin. He raised his eyebrows and looked towards the Hermes cabin first, then us. We all grinned our best 'It-was-only-a-joke' smiles. Chiron shook his head and moved on.

Clearing his throat, he began, "I can see we've had an eventful day. I'd also like to remind all of you that another Capture the Flag will be held in a few days. We'll see who can beat Apollo this time."

If looks could kill, the whole Apollo cabin would've been murdered by the Ares' children, then and there.

After Chiron was done talking, and we had offered our sacrifices to the gods, we began to eat. Healthy food, like always. I can't even remember the last time I had a Mc Donald's Hamburger and Fries.

Throughout dinner, the whole 'Unicorn Ares' thing seemed to keep popping up every two minutes, followed by a one minute laughing fit. And each laughing fit introduced a new shade of red on the Ares cabin's faces.

"They're going to totally maul us tomorrow," Emmy said, maybe a little too cheerily.

"Yah," I agreed, "They'll probably run us through with their unicorn horns!"

"I'm so scared!" Nathan pretended a shudder.

Soon, it was time to go back to the cabin. Suddenly tired, probably from laughing all day, we plopped into our beds. We split Travis and Nathan away from us, mostly because, for some reason, they are the loudest snorers in the world. Once they fall asleep, we'll usually hit them with pillows until they stopped snoring. Oh, and they're heavy sleepers too. Sometimes, we think they're dead, they're sleeping so hard.

"Lights out," I mumbled right before falling asleep. Thirty minutes later, I was woken by the snoring. I was about to climb out of bed and fix the problem when Emmy whispered, "I'm on it."

Two sounds followed: one that sounding like a pillow hitting a rock, and then the sound of silence came. Immediately, I fell back asleep, unaware of the quiet whispers from outside our cabin.