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I was scanning through the large mass of people on the red team in front of me to find the easiest escape route. Percy and I both were going to make a run for the flag while the other team is fighting so they won't notice we left. I crouched slightly, ready for the whistle to signal the start of the game. If you looked over at Percy, you would see him excitedly bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to run.

3

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1

Bleep!

Not even a second after the whistle sounded, people collided with each other and swung their swords around. I dodged through the crowd to follow Percy, who was already a ways in front of me. We weren't taking the paths, which were lighted. Instead, we were running through the trees, and I could tell I just got some bruises on my legs and I was expecting more.

I finally caught up with Percy and we sprinted along side each other for awhile. Pretty soon, the forest began to get too dense to run through and we had to move to the path. There, we were very easy targets, but the fighting was a long way away from where we were. I could still hear the shouting coming from the Ares' cabin.

Suddenly, Percy came to an abrupt halt. There was a fork in the road, meaning we'll have to split up.

"I'll go to the right! You take the left!" Percy said and ran off on the path to the right.

After running down my path for I don't even know how long, I had to stop and rest. I was starting to think the flag was in the direction Percy went, anyway.

I took off my helmet and ran my fingers through my hair once so it would stop sticking to my head with sweat. It was too hot outside to be wearing full armor.

It was too quiet, also. I couldn't hear the sounds of battle anymore and it was strangely eerie to be just sitting and listening to silence. Every small sound made me jump a little.

I got up and walked down the path instead. I would meet up with Percy soon because I knew these two paths connect somewhere up front. I don't remember where and it's too dark to recognize the other path. This is also when I noticed there were no torches here.

No sign of Percy, or the road, for that matter. And my eyes were already adjusted to the dark and I still ended up tripping over rocks.

Then, there was the sound of a twig snapping behind me. I whirled around but saw no one. Shrugging it off as some sort of animal, I kept on walking. There were a few times after that I heard sudden sounds. They were too consistent for me to think of them as just animals now. It was started to make me feel anxious.

Then I saw it right in front of me. The red team's flag and there was no sign of Percy anywhere. I dropped my helmet and ran up to it, ready to hoist it and run back to my team's side. Well, that's what I thought I would be doing, but plans changed.

There was a thud behind me, like someone had just dropped out of a tree.

"Drop it," a harsh voice behind me said. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't place who it was.

I turned around only to see a sword pointed at my throat. It looked too big for the wielder. I took my own sword out and swung it in the person's direction. I felt our swords collide multiple times. They were a defensive fighter and I knew they weren't going to throw any attacks of their own at me. Just reflect them all.

There were times where I had almost disarmed the fighter. Almost. I wasn't swinging fast enough. I took one final swipe at their feet and then I heard a gasp of pain. Next was the sound of a sword clinging against rock.

"Stop!" They said.

I did stop swinging but I didn't put my sword away, in case this person was just acting to get my disarmed. I could faintly make out the figure of a person sitting on the ground, clutching their ankle. Their helmet lay discarded on the ground too and I could see the person who was injured was female. I guess I should have realized that when she had spoken, but I was too caught up in the game to notice.

"Are you okay?" I asked. It's been quite awhile since she dropped to the ground.

"I'm fine!" she snapped. "I don't need your help."

She started to try to stand up off the ground, but it took more than one try to get all the way up. When she was up, you could clearly see she wasn't putting any weight on her right leg.

"Are you sure? I could help you get back to camp," I offered.

"Yes. And I don't need your help. I'm perfectly fine," she said and started to limp down the path. Camp was a long way so I followed her anyway, much to her dismay.

"I said, I didn't want any help," she snapped again.

"Oh, I heard you. But it's a long way back to camp, you know," I said.

She sighed in frustration and continued to limp down the path. "Shouldn't you be going back to get the flag?"

"My teammate will get it," I said and took her helmet and sword from her grasp.

"Give those back," she said. She was getting really upset now.

I shook my head. "No. You're having enough of a problem with just walking."

She gave up trying to get me to leave after that and we just walked in silence. I still couldn't see her face, and it didn't help she was refusing to look at me.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"You already know it," she said. The girl sounded a bit tired from the limping down a hill.

"Can you tell me anyway?"

"Illia," she gritted her teeth.

I looked at her more closely and saw that wasn't very hard to believe.

"Ah, you're the girl with the gossiping siblings," I smirked.

"Shut up." Illia almost fell, but I caught her by the arm. She shoved me away roughly though.

"So, what was up with the short conversation earlier?" I asked just to poke fun at her some more. Illia got irritated very easily and I thought it was sort of amusing in a way.

"We thought you were a child of Zeus. I just making sure you weren't." she said and then stopped in the middle of the road. We still had a long way to go and she was stopping now?

"What's wrong with Zeus?" I asked.

"I need to sit down," she said, but I could tell she was avoiding the question.

Illia sat down on the nearest fallen log and started to take her right shoe off. I could see it was badly swollen and she gasped in pain when she gingerly touched it. I sat on the ground next to her.

"Why did you need to know if I was Zeus' child or not?" I tried again and she sighed. She did that a lot.

"Zeus hates my mother and all of her children. A son or daughter of Zeus would automatically hate my siblings and me and we would have to leave," she responded without taking her eyes off her ankle.

"Why?" I asked.

"You ask too many questions. I don't know why. The eldest of our group, Matthew, said so," Illia said the name with disgust.

I don't think she liked him very much by the sound of her voice. Illia put her shoe back on but kept it untied. She started back down the path and I once again followed. We didn't talk much after that. Occasionally, she would stop and sit down from time to time, but only for a few minutes.

We finally got back to camp and I saw the game had ended way before we got back. It turns out Percy had gotten to the flag after all. I saw a bunch of my teammates celebrating and people on the other team sulking from the lost.

I felt like an idiot now.

No one noticed Illia and I come, but I didn't really want them to. I didn't want them I turned down a chance to get the flag earlier but turned it down to help someone on the opposite team. We weren't even friends!

Pushing those thoughts behind me, I lead Illia to the infirmary. She was exhausted so she leaned on me on the way over there. I thought that was pretty surprising because before she was determined to get back to camp all by herself.

One of the nurses took her from me and laid her down on one of the beds. The nurse took out bandages and started to wrap up Illia's foot and ankle. I think she had injured it more by walking on it down a hill. It was very swollen by now and purple. Obviously she didn't break otherwise she wouldn't have been able to walk by herself, but she did sprain it pretty good. Or, I should really say I sprained Illia's ankle pretty good.

"You should leave," Illia said softly. I turned my head towards her when she said that. I thought she would be asleep by now because she hasn't uttered one word since we got here.

"Leave the infirmary? I will in a few minutes if you don't need any help getting back to your cabin if. That is, if you're free to go," I responded but she shook her head.

"I meant leave the camp."

I gave her a confused look. Why would I do that? Sure, there were some days it was very boring, and I've always said I would like to leave sometime to do things I've always wanted to do. Not sure what, but something cool. Like…professional wrestling or something like that.

"Why?" I asked.

She shrugged. "It would be a good idea if you did. I won't be leaving, though."

I thought for a moment. Why would it be a good idea to leave the safest place in the world for a half-blood? I was going to ask why again, but Illia sort of…fell asleep.

I got up and walked back outside, where many people were still celebrating. We take capture the flag very seriously here at camp and I have a feeling my team will be celebrating their victory for a considerable amount of time. I'm not much of a "party animal" myself, though.

I spotted Percy and I was going to go up to him and ask him about the ending of the game, but he was sort of occupied at the moment. By occupied, I mean he and Annabeth were making out under a tree. Jeez, talk about PDA. There are children present.

Whatever, I'll ask him about it tomorrow. I felt really tired from all the running, my one-sided battle, and then walking all the way back down a steep hill with an injured girl. That was not how I was hoping this game would go, but what can you do?

I got to my cabin, threw my armor and sword in a corner, and collapsed into bed. I'll just take a shower tomorrow morning. I felt too lazy to right now, anyway. And I was still kind of miffed I didn't get the flag. Percy always got the flag!

Maybe next time…when there isn't an injured person who needs help getting back to camp.

A/N: How was it? Good? Bad? Let me know, please. I made this chapter longer than the last. :)

~W