Hello again, fellow readers. I hope you liked the prologue, because here's Chapter 1. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No, I do NOT own Blackjack, Porkpie or Guido, but I do own Boar and Hide, since I made them up. I guess technically I own the idea about the un-dead pegasi that pull Cabin 5's chariot, but I'm easy about. If someone else made it up first and I haven't read it, I'm sorry! But anyway, on with the show!

Chapter 1: Blackjack makes Friends and Enemies

I mean it with the chapter. I made friends - not that hard - and I made enemies. Plenty of them.

As you can guess, I made friends pretty much as soon as I learned to fly, and those two were Guido and Porkpie. Even as a colt Porkpie was huge, but a sort of bulky huge, not tall, where as I was taller, but leaner - not to mention faster.

We were the guys that broke all the rules. We left before dawn, came back at midnight, over and over again. We went out beyond the camp borders all the way to San Fan, until Guido eventually bugged us all to turn around.

We even flew over the Grand Canyon once. It was kind of boring. Just a huge hole in the ground, really. It never ceases to amaze me that mortals spend all their time looking at the wonders of the ground when the sky is so much more fun! I mean, on the ground can you fly? No! You need to be in the air. That didn't make sense, did it? Anyway.

So, I'll start where we met Boar and Hide. They were nasty customers.

I was skimming over the waves. Porkpie was charging at me from the left, and Guido was diving at me from above. They were playing Catch the Pegasus with me, and it was my turn to be caught. I liked it when it was my turn. I'd lead them astray for hours on end.

As Guido plummeted towards me, and Porkpie gathered speed, I shot upwards, then dove back straight at them, who had conveniently collided with each other, and shoved them into the sea.

Porkpie shot out, followed by Guido, even though they were drenched, they were pretty mad at me. Guido was terrified of getting caught in the surf, even though we knew the Hippocampi would never let us die.

I was about to swing around when I heard laughter. Not human laughter, but the type of laughter you get from a short, stocky Pegasus that had some sort of throat problem like he ate way too much barley.

Then there was a different laugh, a high, shrill laugh like from one of those dainty but still nasty pieces of work. Guido, Porkpie and me ground to a stop. On the hill of the camp there were two pegasi: one short, stocky and muscular one with a dull brown coat run though with stripes of silvery-grey, and the other was short, dainty and a dappled grey.

We all knew them. The brown was Hide, and the grey was Boar.

"Well, well, well," said Boar. "It seems that the raven's afraid of the ponies."

Just so you know, being called a pony by a fellow Pegasus is an insult. But Tyson's cool.

And the raven? It was an insult exclusively for me that was made by those two, since I called myself a raven-black colt, they made me a raven. That was an insult. Raven's are just boring.

I stopped and looked at the bulky Hide and the nasty Boar. "I'm not afraid of my friends, Boar. And I notice you seem to lack quite a few of those, piggy."

That was a good one. It seemed to get through Boar's thick skull. "Actually, raven, I do have friends," he gestured to Hide with his tail. "Not to mention many more."

"I mean friends that are capable to think for themselves," I said back. Guido and Porkpie were next to me now. Porkpie looked really upset with those guys. I felt sorry for the guy, too. It wasn't his fault that him and Hide were related. It was like . . . Second cousin or something. You could see the resemblance, they were both stocky, but Porkpie was smart, and he had a good throat and not a hoarse one.

Boar lifted his stout face. "Very funny, raven. I actually have more friends, like the whole of Cabin 5."

Oh dear . . . Was what was going through my head. The only pegasi that like Cabin 5 were the skeleton horses. And it's a very long story of how they come to be, but it involves being a Pegasus that's liked by Cabin 5, and then if you like them back . . . You change to un-dead. I guess you can see why Hide had those streaks on his coat.

It's not gross, all the pegasi retain their mind, but they just physically change, and the change isn't gross either, you just start getting grey streaks, then your coat dulls, and then one day you wake up un-dead.

Boar and Hide looked at us three again. "You've got it under your muzzles, now, have you? Yes, we're going to be part of Cabin 5's chariot soon, we know it!"

"Ah, Boar," I said smugly. "The chariot races finished last week, Chiron decided to ban them after three deaths and twenty-something disfigurations."

Boar glared at me with his silvery eyes. "Then we'll have to bring it back," he said indignantly. Before swishing his tail. I sighed and glared back at him. Guido was glaring at him too, but Porkpie just looked sad. He looked like he was about to crumble or something.

I glared at the two harder. "Just get lost, okay? We don't need the kids from Cabin 5. They're no-goods anyway. Just scram, Boar, and take your mindless idiots with you."

Boar looked taken aback for a moment, and then bared his teeth. "No, raven. Maybe you should scram," he said through his bared teeth.

"As if," I said back. I could swear Porkpie was crying. The poor big guy was a bit of a softie. I was busy looking at the two pegasi. "Can you just get lost?" I yelled at them.

The two smiled right then. "No," they said. "We want proof that you can make us leave. A race."

You have got to be kidding me, I thought. "Okay, who against who?"

"Well, clearly it has to be one of you against one of us. I volunteer to go. What about you guys?"

I looked at Guido and Porkpie. "You," they said in unison.

I swallowed, then looked at Boar. "Ready to race, Bone Butt?"

He smiled slyly. "Always."

Me and Boar were hovering at the shoreline. Hide and Porkpie were standing to Boar's side, and Guido was standing next to me. "Do you know what's going to happen if you lose?" he was asking. "They'll drive us away! Get all their dead buddies!"

"Guido, one day you'll lighten up, okay? How the heck could this guy win? I'm Blackjack, for Poseidon's sake!"

"Blackjack, if you lose, I'm never going to forgive you. Porkpie never will forgive you."

"Yeah, I figured that out."

"No, it's worse for Porkpie."

"That's nice, Guido. But I have a race to win."

"You don't get it, do you? Well, if you lose, then it's likely that we won't see Porkpie ever again."

That seemed to put anvils on my wings. Never see Porkpie again? "But . . . We're buds, why wouldn't we?"

"You should listen more, Jackie."

I would've asked more, but Hide yelled out, "Three . . . !"

I looked from Guido to Porkpie. Porkpie looked on the brink of tears. "Two . . . !"

I crouched down and spread my wings. "One . . . !"

I took a deep breath. "GO!"

We took off right. Well, I did. Boar took off a second before Hide said go. He was an easy length ahead of me. I was fuming. I could feel the winds coming off him and crashing into me. That made me madder.

I pumped myself forward, until I was closing in on his right flank. He looked back at me with a grin. I ground my teeth and pressed harder. Soon I was at his wings, then he started playing dirty.

As we zoomed across the ocean, he whacked me with his tail, right in the face. That wouldn't have done anything, but it caught me off-guard and I ground to a halt. He laughed and then zoomed on.

I was staring at him. Hovering above the waves. I couldn't stand losing. I couldn't stand cheaters either, but most of all I couldn't stand losing a friend.

So I was not going to let that happen.

I launched myself forward with one huge wing beat. I could feel the wind coming off the sea, and began to use it to my advantage - it's a little nifty trick my dad taught me - and caught up with Boar in a matter of seconds. He looked back and bared his teeth at me, and attempted to kick me away, but I was ready, using my awesome skills I corkscrewed away from his kick and shot upwards, before diving down, zooming ahead of him.

The marker to turn around was an oil tanker. I slowed down, and then planted my rear legs onto its hull, before pushing off and then flying back. Straight into Boar.

We plummeted into the sea. It was choppy weather, so it snagged us and pulled us right down. I was desperately trying to get up, and next to me Boar was trying the same. He managed to use his wings and then got higher than me, but I couldn't get anywhere. He tried to as well, but he seemed as stuck as me, so he planted his hind legs on my chest and pushed off me, shooting me down and him upwards, into the air.

I couldn't breathe. Fear was gripping me. I was too weak from loss of air to beat my wings. I yelled for the Hippocampi, but they weren't there. I could feel my chest tightening, I knew that this would be the final moment.

But I was wrong - did I mention that I hate being wrong?

There was this huge current beneath me, and I shot out of the water. For a moment I saw forked lightning cross the sky, and two animals on the far shore. One was a glistening golden eagle, and the other was a huge white horse. They were fighting each other. Through the sea spray I could see another figure - a kid, probably, but I was too far to see much. I could only see that it was a boy with an arm outstretched in my direction, and I was guessing a gaping mouth.

But it only lasted for a spilt second. Then it was gone.

I shot forwards, propelled by the water that had spat me out. I was gaining on Boar, I was a length away . . . Half a length . . . We were neck and neck! Boar's coat was drenched, but I could see through his eyes that he was tired, whereas I was pumped full of energy. I pummelled the air with my wings and drew ahead. I was leaving him in the dust! (or maybe sea spray).

Guido and Porkpie cheered for me as I slammed onto the sand, before hitting the ground with such force that I smashed into it before rolling a few times. I jumped to my feet. "We did it!" I yelled, looking at beaming Guido and Porkpie. Boar landed and fell to his knees, breathing hard. "You win," he puffed. "But this was just for this spot," he said, looking up at us again. Then he fixed his eyes on Porkpie. "Especially you, Porky. Fine, for now you're safe, but when we're part of Cabin 5's chariot team . . ." he grinned. "You'll be sorry."

Maybe this should've scared me, but I had beaten him! I was jumping around with Guido and Porkpie, splashing through the surf and yelling out wings off as the two flew away. "Well, Jackie, we did it!" Guido said happily.

I looked at my two best friends. My buddies. My mates. "You're right," I said. "Not even those lousy un-dead stand a chance now!"

Okay, what did you think? Yeah, it was kind of random, but I had to start somewhere, right? Well, I hope you can review it for me. Ot would mean heaps! Thanks!

Owls.