I tilted my head, listening in the sunlit woods. The warm sun made me feel like Daddy was on my side, but I couldn't focus on that quite yet; Capture the Flag had only just started. I closed my eyes, feeling my white-blond hair tickle my face. I smiled slightly, opening my sky-blue eyes as I silently knocked an arrow into my bow and crouched behind Zeus' Fist, one eye closed. The other eye stared out with absolute concentration. The newcomer was being quiet and attempting to be sneaky but failing under my watchful ears. I saw a shadowy figure appear in the woods, sprouting a blue plume. I smirked as I saw the two new unclaimed children. I lowered my bow slightly, knowing they weren't worth an arrow. Instead I stood, saying loudly, "Hello, boys!"

The two boys jumped; one of them dropped their sword. The other showed a little bit more grit, gripping his battle axe and lifting his pointed chin in the air, despite the tremors running through his little body. "Relax," I said smoothly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Then how come you have a bow and arrow?" the axe boy said, his voice shaking as much as he was. At least he had spoken; the other boy had shrunk behind him, terrified, his eyes huge.

"It's a game, silly. Don't worry about it. Is this your first game?"

They had stopped shaking so violently. The axe-wielder said hesitantly, "Yeah. Why are you talking to us? You're on the red team!"

"I'm a friendly soul," I said conversationally, leaning against Zeus' Fist, still scanning the forest with my eyes.

"Oh," the little boy said awkwardly. I noticed his eyes zero in on something; he elbowed his friend as I heard a twig crack to my left. I readied myself, smiling a little.

"It's nice to know that he's upped his game," I said quietly. I dropped the knocked arrow and pulled out another, shooting it at the feet of the distraction that the blue team had sent. The boys screamed, sounding more like a girl than I had during this game. A figure had run into the clearing right as the arrow hit the dirt and exploded in a flash of light. I scrambled up the rock, almost slipping on the top as my friend and enemy grabbed my skinny ankle. I kicked my foot, knocking it against the pile of rocks; the had withdrew and a voice filled the air as the light began to fade. I had knocked three arrows into my golden bow, a replica of Daddy's, and had them aimed at Luke Castellan's face.

"Fancy seeing you here," I said casually.

"You've upped your game as well," he said with a grin, his sword on the ground and hands in the air. I didn't move. The two little boys were fleeing through the woods when I heard a growl to the left and behind me. I glanced over there, keeping my arrows trained on Luke, who was edging around the rock.

"Chimera," he said softly.

"Would you like some help?"

"No."

"Let's do this."

I whirled around in time to see a chimera emerge from the trees, its eyes glowing yellow, its teeth bared. I crouched and Luke dove from behind Zeus' Fist, his sword now in hand. "Plan number four?" I asked, my eyes on the beast.

"You bet."

I shot the three arrows at the chimera's eyes. One arrow hit, but the beast flinched, jerking its head to the left. If it had jerked to the right, I would've hit its left eye on the dot; the chimera had oddly flinched in the opposite direction of most, which made my second arrow lodge into its nose. The third arrow, however, hit its target of in the beast's mouth as it roared. Luke then charged forward, slicing at its legs and paws. I distracted it with my arrows and occasionally jabbed with the sides of my bow, which I had, had a son of Hephaestus – Charles Beckendorf, since he was the best – weld the ends of daggers. I had cut his hind leg open, and the chimera glared at me. He opened its mouth to breathe the fire of Hades at me when Luke snuck up behind it and cut the monster's throat. Its dying roar echoed in the forest of Camp Half-Blood. I winced, and the chimera swiped it paws feebly one last time. Luke, who had been standing over the monster as it died, had his arm ripped open by the beast's deadly claws. He cursed and kicked the chimera as it dissolved into a gold and red dust.

I stood panting for a moment, sure that I had been about to be fried, when Luke cursed again; thunder rumbled across the sky. I ran over to Luke; he was bleeding badly. I ran over to a nearby tree and pulled out the red flag and carried it over; Luke was dabbing at his arm, wincing.

"So, I guess you are part of the red team," I joked as I tore of a piece of the flag to wrap around Luke's wounds.

"Is that the red team's flag?" Luke asked, eyeing it.

"Don't even think about it, Luke. One little red strip of fabric isn't enough to win the game. And it doesn't really matter if it's bloodstained after this; no one but the Aphrodite girls would ever notice or care that it's bloodstained."

We heard a cheer swell up from the woods woods. "And I think my team just won the game as it is," I said smugly, tying the fabric around him arm neatly. "So it doesn't really matter. Have fun on bathroom duty."

"With this injury? Nah, I can just play up my arm," Luke said with a matching smirk as we walked through the woods. He took off his ridiculous metal helmet and carried it with his good arm.

"We better go find Chiron," I said as the cheering got louder.

"Probably," Luke said. "Don't tell me what to do."

"I'm older than you, little boy!" I protested with a grin. "Respect your elders!"

"You're older than me by about a month, Ellie. I don't have to listen to a word you say."

"I would listen to a daughter of a god of medicine," I said as we stepped into the clearing, where my friend Lizzie was jumping up in down, waving the blue flag triumphantly. "Go Lizzie!" I called. She met my eye and gave me a knowing grin that I ignored.

"Of course," he grumbled. "You get special powers and gifts from your dad."

"What are you talking about?" I asked Luke in confusion. Before I could press Luke for any more details, Chiron cantered up.

"What happened?" he asked as the rest of the campers headed back to the main part of camp for the post-Capture the Flag bonfire.

"There was a chimera loose in the woods," I said as Luke held out his arm.

"My dear, is this… Is this part of the red team's flag?"

"There wasn't exactly anything better around, Chiron."

Chiron looked like he was in disapproval, and like he was trying to not laugh. "Well, Luke, let's go to the Big House and get you fixed up. Ellie, you should go to the bonfire and explain why the red team's flag is ripped in two."

"Of course," I grumbled. I gave Luke a look, but he was staring off into the woods, his brow furrowed, ruined by the scar he had received last summer. I sighed heavily, slinging my arrows over my back and kicking a pebble as I walked to the fire pit in the falling night. Luke and I had been best friends up until last year, when he had gotten his quest. And it was a repeated quest, he had complained bitterly to me at the end of August last year. It's a damn repeated quest, and I didn't even do as well as Hercules. The gods mock me. Me, and everyone else.

It wasn't true, I thought as I balanced along the rotting log that was halfway submerged in the river, separating the North Woods from the South Woods. The gods did care. Apollo was more like a big brother than a father to me, but he had been there when a griffin gone bad had attacked me when I was eight.And he had been there for me when my mother died. I prayed to him every night. He hadn't abandoned me. But Luke would then talk about all of the unclaimed kids, and the kids who had been claimed but weren't favored. I was lucky, he had always said. Apollo had liked me from the start. Still, that didn't matter… the gods were always there. They were always with us, especially in the darkest of times. I saw Luke's downcast, almost darkened face as he had pointed out that Apollo liked me in my mind's eye. I pushed the thought of his rippling scar out of my mind as I left the woods, walking to the fire that was burning high and proud into the star sprinkled night, thinking of gods and curses and my poor, dead mother.