I was finished packing in ten minutes. I left my tent to go check on the wolves who were gathered nearby. All of the hunters over the age of 15 could have a wolf by their side. Of course, they had to train them by themselves. All of the wolves were wondering around freely, but knowing they had to stay near the campsite. They were eating, playing and some playfully fighting. All except one who was watching the others play. An adult male grey wolf sat looking into the forest as if he was on babysitting duty of all the other wolves. "Alpha!" I called to it. The wolf looked at me and padded towards me. Finally! I was wondering when you would come.I have no idea how but all Hunters can understand wolves perfectly. I rubbed the soft fur on his muscled back. "Come on." Together we walked back to the camp side by side. Most all the hunters have wolves to help them, guide them and keep them company. I don't think there is a more disciplined wolf than Alpha.
Within the hour, all the Hunters gathered their belongings, took down their tents and had their wolf by their side. Artemis watched us from the center of camp. We all lined up in front of her, me on the goddess's right hand side because I was Artemis's lieutenant. "Today we will go and rest at Camp Half-Blood. You have done will capturing Lycaon. Now we may rest in peace for a while." Even I smiled in relief. It took about 2 weeks nonstop traveling to capture Lycaon. Now we can just relax for a while.
The Hunters of Artemis ran through the woods with ease. We weaved through trees and jumped over small creeks. We were trained early to climb rocks, shoot moving targets and every survival skill out there. We were at Camp Half-Blood about a half an hour early. "Alex." Artemis said. "Yes m'lady?" I asked. We were standing at the bottom of Half-Blood Hill looking up at a giant tree that sat on guard just like Alpha. "Please run ahead and tell them we are coming." I nodded and Alpha and I ran to the top and down the other side. I ran through the camp, my eyes darting right and left. Nobody was in sight. They must be at activities or lunch. I headed toward the lunch pavilion which was on the northern part of camp. Since I entered through the south entrance, I ran a bit faster and longer.
When I reached the pavilion, all the campers were sitting eating lunch. I walked into the mass hall where all the campers were stuffing their faces with food. And of course I attracted the attention of all the demigods. I smiled at some of my Apollo friends and walked to the main table. "Chiron!" Chiron was in full centaur form, with his bottom half a stallion. "Ah! So the Hunters and Lady Artemis are early." I nodded. "Good. Please tell them to come join us for lunch. All eyes were on me when I ran out of the mess hall to tell my mom and fellow hunters to come so I could finally eat well deserved lunch.
Artemis led us through the mess hall and we sat the Artemis table that was usually empty. We filled all the seats and looked hungrily at the grapes, cheese, bread, and extra lean, nymph-cut barbecue. We waited patiently while Chiron told the campers that the Hunters of Artemis would be staying for a few days. After 5 minutes, everyone stood to give offerings to the gods. We all decided on a drink and our goblets filled magically. I chose grape juice and then the hunters all raised our goblets. "To Artemis." And we all drank then started to eat. I heaped my plate with bread and some of the lean BBQ.
After everybody was finished eating Chiron made another announcement. "Today may be a Wednesday but because the Hunters may leave at anytime, so we shall have capture the flag tonight instead of Campfire. The Ares kids yelled and whooped, the Athena kids started right away on a battle plan and the Hephaestus kids grinned wickedly. "The Aphrodite cabin must take part in this game." Immediate protests from the Aphrodite table. I smiled. It would be amusing see the girly girls trying to fight my fellow hunters. "And because the Camp has had more campers than ever and overrule the amount of Hunters of Artemis, the Apollo cabin will join the Hunters of Artemis." Murmurs ripped through both the Hunters and Campers. "Is this wise, Lady Artemis?" I asked quietly. She smiled. "We shall see child, we shall see."
The next four hours getting ready for capture the flag was chaotic to say the least. We had to get a battle plan that Athena specialized in not Artemis and Apollo. We managed to get a descent plan in 2 hours, having to rearrange the positions because the hunters refused to work with the boys. I hadn't taken the oath so I didn't really mind. It was a pain in the neck, but we finally figured it out. Then everybody headed to the arena to practice swordplay. I maybe the best archer but I am the worst swords person. I held a heavy celestial bronze sword which was much too heavy for me. I would be one of the two guards ten feet away from the flag. The other guard would be Tristan Spruce from the Apollo cabin. He was tall and heard straight black hair. His hazel eyes were behind thin glasses and he didn't really talk much. Fine by me. All the archers had to get arrows with a dull point so we wouldn't kill anybody but we never said weren't giving anybody bad bruises. I switched swords many times because I couldn't find a stinking sword that would be balanced and not too heavy or bulky.
I almost gave up until I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A celestial bronze sword, (or at least I thought it was) covered with rust and was covered in spider webs but it somehow caught my attention. I went over to the sword and pulled it out by the grip. It was about 50 cm long and the blade was thin like a Katana. A Japanese style sword in a Greek camp? I held it and it was perfectly balanced. I didn't care where it came from. It is pretty good but not as good as a bow. I cleaned the blade with some rust remover and a cloth. Once I was finished I looked at the now polished weapon. The blade was glowing silver and the grip, pommel and cross guard was gold. I walked over to the nearest training dummy. I slashed from my left shoulder to my right hip. It was light, quick and neatly sliced the dummy in half. I smiled and found the scabbard and cleaned that off too. With my bow and arrows on my back and a sword on my hand, I felt unstoppable.
When I asked Chiron if I could use it, he didn't look surprised. "Ah yes. You may keep it. It is important for even a hunter to have a backup weapon if something goes wrong." I thanked him and ran to get more sword practice in.
All the demigods gathered in front of the woods and Chiron went over the rules once more. Last time there was a… incident and a very full hospital. "The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The flags must be prominently displayed and can have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. Guards aren't allowed to stand within ten yards of the flag." All the Hunters were paying close attention and the campers were whispering to themselves. I held the silk banner with a silver bow and arrow on a black backdrop. "The Hunters and the Apollo cabin. You will be taking the West Wood." We cheered and ran into the depths of the thick forest.
As according to the plan, Tristan and I both ran to the far side and we were supposed to place the banner in front of the fist. "Why don't we put it on top? It will be harder to get it from up there." I suggested to Tristan. He shook his head. "There's a rumor that there is a entrance to a maze and a person went down and came up insane." He seriously looked scared. "Well if it keeps away the enemies," I picked up the banner and climbed to the top of the pile of rocks. I jumped back down just as Chiron's voice rang though the woods. "Ready? GO!" I drew my silver bow and 2 arrows. I notched one. Tristan did the same. We could hear metal clashing and the sound of arrows soaring through the air.
"Keep your guard up." I told Tristan. "Okay." He sounded a bit nervous. "Is this your first game?" he shook his head. "It's my third game actually. I have always been on the losing team though." Though I kept my eyes on the forest ahead, I knew he was scared out of his wits. "Not this time." I heard a rustle though a bush to my left. I drew my sword and put my bow on my back. Without taking my eyes off the bush, I reached down and grabbed a fistful of pebbles that surrounded Zeus's fist. I threw them at the bush. Clank!It was faint but I still heard it.
3 Ares kids jumped out of the bushes. One attacked me, the other attacked Tristan and the other went for the flag. Our blades were rapidly whacking and thrusting, looking for an opening. "I got it!" An Ares kid called to the 2 others. That got my blood boiling. I ran forward and slipped the sword into the scabbard. I grabbed my bow and notched a blunt arrow. Since the Ares kid was acting like he already won, I targeted my arrow at his stomach. I let the arrow fly and it hit its desired mark. The kid bent over and fell forward. To our team's luck, the Ares kid crushed the other Ares kid and the banner fell to the ground. I grabbed it and put it back on Zeus's Fist. Tristan managed to fight off the Ares kid or he probably ran off to get help.
"Nice job." I told Tristan who was out of breath and panting hard. He managed a weak smile. "Thanks… What did you do to them?" He looked at the 2 Ares guys on the ground on top of each other. I shrugged. The conch shell blew. Chiron's voice rang out again. "Hunters and Apollo win!" I heard cheers and boo-ing probably from the Ares cabin. I hive-fived Tristan who beamed. "Now you finally won a game." I joked. He grinned.
We headed to the creek, Tristan holding our banner high. When we got there Apollo and the hunters were still cheering. I high-fived my fellow hunters and the Apollo kids. The Ares kid that ran away from Tristan glared at me. He was really buff and really huge. He reminded me of a giant gorilla on steroids. From that moment, I knew we were going to be enemies. He didn't dampen my sprits though.
After going to the Silvery Artemis cabin and washing off, I changed into dark green long sleeve shirt, black jeans and sneakers. When we all were ready, we started for the amphitheater. We were seated next to Apollo because Artemis and Apollo are twins. I sat next to Hope. We were talking about how the ambush on the other team. "So we were running down the middle of the forest as the diversion and-" She stopped abruptly. The Apollo cabin was starting to arrive and Hope didn't want to sit next to a boy. So we switched places. "And then some Ares guy tries to jump in front of me and I just use one of the blunt arrows as a club and whacked him on the helmet. You should have seen the look on his face." We both smiled. "Hey."Tristan sat down next to me. "Hey."
Boom! Boom! We looked up to seeChiron stamping his hoof on the stage. The bright campfire started to glow golden. And the campers and hunters went silent. "Great game played today and congratulations to the Hunters and the Apollo cabin." We cheered and the Ares cabin glared at us. "Now for the sing along." The Apollo cabin started singing songs about how grannies put on armor with funny hand movements. About halfway through the sing along, black dots started to come into my vision. Right when the Apollo kids finished a song, I blacked out.
I've never blacked out much, but this was just plain old weird.
