Chaos Rising
Nereida's P.O.V.
I loved sparring.
Ondina and I were practicing for Friday's Capture The Flag. I grinned as Ondina took a downwards swing at me, leaving a huge gap in her defenses.
Seeing this as my chance, I rolled out of the way, reached up with my dagger, and then swung it around, her sword flying out of her grasp, and into my waiting hand.
Now, with both weapons pointed at her chest and her throat, I had won. Ondina sighed.
"If this had been archery practice, I would have totally kicked your butt."
"I would have turned your arrows to rubber."
"That's cheating!"
Then why am I allowed to do it?"
I smiled. Gotcha!
Now, for those of you who don't know Ondina, you're missing out on a lot. Not only was she the best friend there ever was, she was also an epic sparring partner.
Usually, neither of us won. Today though, I had gotten my chance. And nailed it if I do say so myself.
Ondina spun around, her long, golden blonde ponytail whipping me in the face.
"Hey!" I yelled. She didn't turn around, but I could almost feel the smile forming on her face.
During my free time, I would always love to just wander through the forest, alone.
Not having to think about Ondina, or camp, or hiding my powers and who I was. It just gave me time to relax, and play around with my powers.
I could still feel myself growing stronger and stronger by the second. Even if I just tried to use normal magic, there was still a flicker of godly power.
I didn't like it.
Don't get me wrong, being an all-powerful pre-primordial goddess was nice and all, but I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to just have a normal, mortal life, you know?
What would I have been doing right now? Probably celebrating my birthday. Today, I turned fourteen. Hey, I may be immortal, but I am simply the embodiment of Life.
I even had a goddess form and everything. But I preferred my mortal form. The form I was born with.
With long, straight chocolate brown hair, and kaleidoscope eyes, I was the average daughter of Hecate. The only thing different about me was that I dyed my hair (and that I was the pre-primordial all-powerful force of Life itself, yada yada yada).
My brown hair was mixed with streaks of deep magenta, bright yellow, and red. Where the red and yellow strands mixed, it gave the appearance of orange streaks as well.
I had never wanted to look like anything else. I had never even seen myself in my true form. I kind of hoped I didn't have any of those fiery eyes or laurel wreaths. That would just be embarrassing.
I saw a cave in the distance. I quickened my pace. Almost there… I thought to myself.
As I got closer, I saw something move inside the cave. What is that? I ducked behind a bush close to the entrance. I heard muffled crying echoing inside the cave.
Somebody was in my secret hideout! Luckily, I had put all my things under a cloaking incantation that only unlocked at my command. Phew! Last time I was there, I had almost forgotten to put up the cloaking spell. I was lucky I remembered!
Time to see who this intruder thinks (s)he is… I crept closer, ducking behind bushes and trees.
I peeked inside the entrance, definitely human. A branch sapped underneath my combat boots. The intruder whipped his head around.
It was HIM. The biggest jerk-face in the world, and my personal nemesis,
Zachary Hillman, Son of Hermes
Zachary's P.O.V.
I was crying. Why? Let's just say I've been through a lot. I had come to my favourite hideout. As far as I knew, I was the only person who went this far in the forest. It was private, quiet, and comforting. I always felt better when I came here. I could just it all out, mask and all.
Let me explain why I was crying.
Schedule of My (Terrific) Day
7:00am Be woken up by all my half-siblings
7:05am Eat breakfast while fighting for space in our cramped area
7:30am Fail at archery practice
8:30am Prank the Ares cabin, and then get totally crushed
9:00am Go to the infirmary and get laughed at by the Apollo cabin
11:30am Steal stuff from the Apollo cabin for revenge
12:00pm Eat lunch while fighting for space in our cramped area
1:00pm Sword fighting. Yay (not)!
2:30pm Back to the infirmary!
5:00pm Get in a fight with the Hecate cabin (again, 'cause this happens every day)
6:30pm Eat dinner while fighting for space in our cramped area
7:45pm Cry alone in my secret hideout over dead mothers and friends, and basically my entire day.
8:25pm Run back to my cabin before curfew
8:30pm Fall into a restless sleep
That was my day, every day. Get it now?
But every morning, I managed to put on my signature lop-sided smirk, and get on with life.
Some days, though, I didn't feel like crying, probably because I'd accomplished something, like getting under the skin of those stuck-up children of Hecate. Mostly my nemesis though.
Nereida. Just saying her name made my mouth feel bitter. She was the worst of them all. She knew just what to say to get under my skin.
She always got so close to breaking my calm, snarky mask that I'd so carefully put into place. It was like she could see through me. I knew that was impossible, though, because she still thought of me as everyone else did. A stereotypical son of Hermes.
My shaggy brown hair fell over my tear-stained eyes. My tanned skin looked even darker than usual in the deep shadows of the cave.
A branch snapped behind me. I whipped around, and saw the shocked face of HER. Most annoying idiot I had ever met, and my personal nemesis,
Nereida what's-even-her-stupid-last-name, Daughter of Hecate.
(No, seriously, what's her last name?)
