I fell through the air, hitting the ground with a thump and lifted my head, my vision was blurred from the fall, I turned around and stared at the sky, Alec appeared in mid air and fell towards me. I rolled to the side to avoid being landed on, Alec moaned and glared at me, Darius landed on him, causing them both to cry out in pain, I stood up and held out my hand to them. They glanced at each other before each grabbing my hand and pulling me to the floor, Irene screamed as she too plummeted to the floor, we all scattered and she landed on the ground. We stood, bruised and slightly confused, rubbing out heads and staring around at the place where we had been transported to, eventually everyone came to the conclusion that this was somehow my fault and glared at me. I began slowly backing away, turning and running, my friends chasing me through the new surroundings, I stopped, everyone ramming into me and sending us all flying. "And what exactly are you doing here?" Came the booming voice of Dionysus as he loomed over us, demigods peering over at us in armour and carrying weapons, looking like they'd just got off the battlefield. We scrambled to our feet, brushing off the dirt and glaring at the incoming demigods.
"How are we supposed to know?" Darius said with hatred in his voice as he glared at the god of wine. Dionysus looked at us with disgust before walking away, leaving us to the mercy of the demigods.
"Naia," Dionysus yelled, I turned to face him, "Do not tell them of your origin. If they know that you are Atlantean it could bring war." He said, in Atlantean. I held up my hands to him, a sign of submission, he nodded and left. The demigods seemed to have doubled in size, all of them were looking at us expectantly, one of them stepped forward, smiled and said, "Welcome to camp half blood, have you been claimed yet?" The smiles faded from our faces and the reality hit us, we were going to die, if not by their hand by each others. We could not survive in this place, surrounded by god worshipping demigods who don't even know that our island exists. The girl continued to look at us; her perfect hair and makeup suggested she was a daughter of Aphrodite.
"No" Alec said bitterly. "We haven't been claimed." He muttered through clenched teeth, we knew about his temper and the last thing we needed right now was for him to go off. "I'm going for a walk" He said, flames dancing across his fingers which luckily no one noticed.
"We'll put you in the Hermes cabin for now, but you should be claimed soon." Said the girl, her mind was full of pink and hair and fashion but I managed to find that her name was Drew. She led us to a cabin and opened the door, the place was filled with people who all looked a lot alike, they stared at us as we walked in.
"Hey," We turned to see two guys a few years older than us walk through the door. "I'm Travis and this is Conner, head councillors for the Hermes cabin." He said, they both smiled at us. We introduced ourselves to everyone who became less hostile as time passed. "Well as you can see we're a bit cramped, but you're welcome to stay as long as you need to, this is the cabin of the god of travellers after all." He smiled again, his blonde hair glistening in the sun.
"Thanks," Irene said, as always wanting to be nice and courteous, "Hopefully we won't be here very long." We were given a tour of the grounds and then sent off to target practice. We didn't miss a shot, we had all been trained in this since we could walk, and were sent to practice our sword handling, that was where we really shone. Darius laughed and ran off to 'kick some demigod butt' as he put it, Irene sighed and reluctantly followed him to make sure he didn't kill anyone and Alec and I turned to face each other. Ever since I could remember Alec and I had tried to be better than the other, it was a silly competition but neither of us wanted to lose. A flick of our wrists and we were armed, my swords glowed gold and black but no one seemed to notice. The problem with us fighting was that we were both as good as each other and the fight could last for ages, and it did, eventually we gave up, flicking our wrists to make our swords switch to metal bands that clamped around our wrists. I smiled at him and jumped on him, knocking him off his feet and sending us both falling, we fought for a while before stopping, lying on the grass and laughing. We stood and a girl stepped forward, she had blonde hair and grey eyes.
"What was that?" She asked, asking the question that was on everyone's mind, Darius came to stand beside me.
"Umm." I chewed my lip; thankfully a centaur came at that moment. "Chiron, what's wrong?" The girl asked.
"Annabeth tell Rachael I need to speak with her," Chiron said, everyone scattered; Irene came to stand with me, Alec and Darius. "Why are you here?" The centaur asked, we didn't answer. "Who sent you here?" He asked, I was shoved forward.
"We don't know, we just appeared here." I said, hoping he would believe me. He walked off, leaving us to argue about whether or not he believed us. A satyr looked at us with suspicion and confusion before shaking his head and walking away. Everyone began making their way to the hall; we followed, trying to work out what was going on. It turned out that they were going to play capture the flag, and we were expected to participate. Darius and Alec were overjoyed at the chance to attack demigods, Irene was against violence and war and I knew that this wasn't going to end well. Irene was on defence which meant she didn't have to fight and could show off her amazing archery skills, Darius, Alec and I were on attack.
"They won't heal as fast as us," I warned them, "Don't stab them." I hissed, they looked disappointed but agreed to not kill anyone, except me, I was doomed. I crouched in the trees, my eyes on the area, looking for any signs of movement, someone grabbed my shoulder, I jumped, Darius laughed.
"Cool it Naia, we need to go forward, get ready to beat up some demigods." He said, smiling, we moved slowly forward, a sword in each hand, it was considered cowardly to use a shield. I spun them round in a circle out of habit and nerves as a million ways this could go horribly wrong ran through my mind. We walked forward and listened for any sign of movement, there wasn't any, it was like the calm before the storm and we both knew that this meant they were waiting for us to get close enough. We were against the Athena cabin who would beat us when it came to strategy. Suddenly the forest erupted in a flurry of shouting and violence and weapons and war, metal clanging as the two sides clashed, Darius ran ahead of me and soon we were fighting our way through the mass of Athenian campers. They barely put up a fight and we were making good progress, dodging and ducking were necessary and never losing sight of the other. Alec appeared from time to time, but seemed more interested in fighting than getting the flag. Soon Darius and I could see the flag, but the rest of the Hermes cabin were back in the battle and the flag was surrounded by archers and a few swordsmen. I flickered my wrists, I reached for the medallion that was around my neck and it switched to a bow, the medallion changing into arrows that were both black and gold, feeling good at the feel of it in my hands, I aimed and fired, hitting the first guy in the arm, easily avoiding his armour and hitting his skin, he lost his balance and toppled off the rock he was standing on, the other archers were just as easy and me and Darius had them out in a second. I pressed my back against a tree, careful to stay hidden, spinning my swords in my hands, waiting for the right time. I leaped from the trees, my swords hitting his shield and sparks flying from the impact.
"What metal is that?" He asked, shoving me backwards with his shield, and attacked with his other hand.
"Celestial bronze, I just altered it a bit." I said, attacking again with gold and black blades, the bronze fused with light and dark, a gift from my parents for my 12th birthday, just what every girl wants, swords. I hadn't taken them off since I got them, the bands staying strapped to my wrists permanently, along with the medallion around my neck which I had discovered I couldn't lose, no matter what happened or how many arrows I used, it would always reappear around my neck and scare the living daylights out of me. We fought for a while, well until I got bored and took him out in a few moves, Darius smiled at me and together we raised the banner, our cabin cheered, having appeared from the forest with Athena's cabin after them, I smiled.