Okay, okay, confession time. This chapter didn't get posted last week. I am EXTREMELY sorry about that. I feel so bad. My story has not been updated when I said it was going to. I am very sorry, although this is kind of my fault. Two weeks ago was testing week for my school, and I was reading two really great books, and I just couldn't get myself to put them down. Also, two weekends ago, my mother took away all my electronics for a week for fighting with my sibling, although she never took my tablet. So, sorry again. That's my fault, not my mom's.
A shoutout to awesomesauce90 for getting the ferret reference right! Yay! For the weasel thing, I was actually thinking about how weasels are the only thing that scares basilisks, but it doesn't matter. Cookies! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
None of the rest of you tried? *starts to cry* I'm all right. But it was kind of sad.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. PJO and HOO belong to Rick Riordan.
Sorry, this author's note is going on way too long. Storytime!
Butch's POV
Percy, the rest of the Hephaestus and Hecate cabins, and I sat crouched in the bushes near the river. We watched as the Aphrodite cabin crossed the stream, and headed into the woods. Once they were gone, we quietly slipped across the border, and onto the other team's territory. We headed left, while the other team went right; both heading into the forest in different directions.
It was dark in the forest. I could hardly see two feet in front of my face. As the sun sank over the edge of the horizon, the shadows lengthened even more. I was beginning to wonder how we were going to see in the dark since none of us had any sort of light. I was just about to ask Percy that question when some Hephaestus guy took out what looked like a celestial bronze flashlight. It was about eight inches long. He turned it on, and its glow illuminated the woods in a three yard radius.
We continued to trek through the undergrowth. As we progressed through the forest, I could hear shouts and the sound of metal clashing on metal from the right side of the territory. From the sound of it, Jason's patrol had encountered some enemy campers. I was beginning to worry that maybe we were walking into a trap. We hadn't seen any activity of the blue team since we had crossed the border, and we were already a great deal into their side of the woods.
My anxieties were put to rest when we continued to head into the forest, and came face-to-face with a group of startled Nemesis campers. We quickly dealt with them. There weren't very many of them, and we had the element of surprise. All of us drew our weapons, and we instantly attacked them. They could barely hold off against us. I striked, parried, blocked, and slashed with my sword, aiming it toward the Nemesis girl I was fighting. She stumbled on a root, but caught herself before she could hit the ground. She parried my thrust from a kneeling position, and then launched herself up at me with a flip, her sword slashing toward my face. I blocked her attack, but was taken by surprise, stepped back a few feet. She pressed me hard to make sure that I didn't try anything tricky. I had to admit, even though she didn't look like much, this girl was good.
I scowled in concentration. I jabbed at her side, but she blocked my thrust. I started to go on offense instead of defense, and began to relentlessly rain blows at her. She could barely defend herself. I backed her up to the trunk of an oak, and she raised her sword. The Nemesis girl made a feeble attempt to attack me, but I had the upper hand. I knocked the girl's sword away, and hit her over the head. She crumpled onto the floor of the forest like a rag doll.
I felt someone standing behind me, and I turned just in time to block a blow headed towards me from another Nemesis camper. This time, it was a boy who was attacking me. He thrust his sword toward my face, and I ducked on pure instinct. I could feel his sword scarcely passing over my head, the blade brushing the very tips of my hair. I rolled away from his sword, and came up in a crouched position. I began to aim my blows at his unprotected legs. The boy couldn't block them, so he jumped away.
I sprang up from where I was crouching in one giant leap, and attacked the boy. The Nemesis camper was taken by surprise, and was barely able to parry my thrust. He fell back a good foot or two. I quickly dealt another blow to his side, which the boy couldn't block. My blade scraped past his armor, barely drawing blood, but still making a thin red line appear. He looked down at side, shocked. That was just the distraction I needed. I quickly clubbed him over the head with the butt of my sword, and he fell onto the forest floor.
I turned and from the corner of my eyes, i could see Percy fighting with four Nemesis campers at once. He was sweating a great deal, and was barely able to hold off their attacks. On his own, he could have dealt with three of them easily, but four was pushing his limit. They backed him up to a tree, and were about to attack him once again when everybody heard a great roaring sound. All the campers: on our own patrol and from the other team, turned to Percy. He had his arms raised above his head. The roaring continued, growing louder and louder. Percy yelled, "Grab onto something!" at us, and I just had enough time to fastened my arms around a beech tree before the huge wave of water cascaded over us.
I turned to Percy. He was standing in the surf like it was no big deal. The water currents rushed past him; flowing around his legs. He wasn't even affected by it. The other campers, however, were a different story. Most of the demigods on our patrol had managed to grab onto something, but the demigods on the other team weren't so lucky. They were totally unprepared for the twenty-five foot tall wave bearing down on them. Many of them screamed, and most of them tried to run, but they hadn't even taken three steps before the water came down over their heads. The remaining Nemesis campers grabbed their unconscious siblings as they were swept away out of the clearing like leaves in a flooded river.
I clutched the beech tree even harder. The water swept past me, and it took all of my strength not to be swept along with it. All around me, people clung to their anchors, desperate to stay where they were as the force of the water flowed around them, tugging them backwards. One Hecate girl lost her grip on the low hanging tree branch she was holding on to, and got pulled backward with a scream. A yard or so down, one of her siblings caught her and secured her with his anchor. She sent him a grateful look.
Our patrol waited until the flow of the currents died down. When the water had more or less leveled out, and the force of the water wasn't as strong, I let go of the tree. I stood up, my shoes sinking into the ground. My clothes were covered covered with mud, and I was dripping wet. Everybody around me looked cold and miserable. We shook ourselves, trying to get all the water we could off of us.
Percy was the only one who seemed even slightly happy. He was standing in the middle of the clearing, grinning from ear to ear as angry campers sent death glares his way. His expression never wavered while all around him, people tried in vain to clean themselves off, but with no avail.
"Here," he said. "I can help." He walked up to a Hephaestus girl, Nyssa, I think, and gently touched her arm. Her clothes were immediately dry, and she stopped shivering. "I can't do anything about the mud, but I can remove all of the water on you." I looked back at Nyssa. The mud that had once covered her from head to toe had turned to dirt.
Percy moved around the clearing, removing all of the water on our clothes. When he got to me, I could feel the water roll off as he put his hand on my arm. The mud caking my body flattened out, and became lighter. I watched as the dark brown color of the mud lost its cocoa bean color and became the shade of the sand in an Arizona desert. When Percy removed his hand, I was completely dry.
I was easily able to wipe off the dirt. It clung to my clothes, but with a little scraping and a few broken nails, I was able to get most of it off. After I had removed the mud from my clothes, I bent down and picked up my sword. I had dropped it on the ground while I had been hanging on to that beech try. My weapon was sitting a few yard away, and it was cloaked in mud. I picked it up by the handle, which was the cleanest part of it, and peered at it in distaste. All around me, people were doing the same. Campers groaned when they saw that all of their weapons were covered in mud.
I looked around quietly, trying to find a water source to wash off my blade in. We were in an isolated clearing, with no evident stream or brook near it. I groaned. Percy had probably called the water over here from all the way back at the border. I sighed. I would have to make do with what I had.
With much searching, I finally found some water. It wasn't very much; just a puddle, but I could live with it. I crouched down next to it, careful to not get my clothes muddy again, and gently washed off my blade. The mud came off easier than I had expected, even though it was almost dry. I expect it had something to do to Celestial Bronze being a magical metal, but if it really was special, shouldn't it have expelled the mud? I heaved a sigh. Nothing in the demigod world was simple.
The water in the puddle was cold. Just like the rest of the water in the brook, it was freezing this time of year. I washed my sword off as quickly as I could, and pulled it out. The blade shone in the dark, and it looked as good as new. I stealthed it in my belt, stood up, and turned around.
Everybody had already recovered their weapons, and were ready to continue into the woods. We exited the clearing and walked on into the forest. About a half a mile away, we found the Nemesis campers. They were lying on the forest floor, cold, wet, and half drowned. Many of them were passed out, whether from the force of the wave that had descended on them, or from getting clubbed over the head by us earlier. The ones that were conscious were groaning, and lying on the ground next to their sibling. We carefully stepped around them, and moved on into the woods.
We were totally surprised when the tree branches surrounding us turned toward us and smacked us across the glade.
Melissa's POV
I stood, clutching my knife, and stared up at the Ares cabin. I turned to Jason, wondering what to do. His face was tight and strained, and he had his Imperial Gold gladius out. He face instantly told me we were not going to surrender. I gulped, and I felt my legs start to shake. I had never been the best at swordfighting, and I doubt my patrol had a chance against the Ares cabin, even though we were slightly bigger than them.
A big girl in the front of the patrol, whose name I didn't know, snarled at Jason. "You'll never get past us, Grace," she said, sneering at him. She clutched a long spear in her right hand that crackled ominously. The spearhead was covered with yellow light.
Jason said, "We'll see, Clarisse."
She glared at him, and her beady brown eyes glinted maliciously. "In your dreams, punk." Then, she charged.
She came toward Jason at an incredible speed, slashing her spear at him in a deadly arc. He barely blocked it with his sword. Clarisse aimed a blow to his side, and Jason step-sided her stab. He rolled away on the ground, and came up standing behind her back. He attacked her, but Clarisse predicted his move, and intercepted it at the last moment. She tried to slash him across the chest, but Jason dodged once again.
I watched the fight, wide eyed while all around me, the Ares cabin started clashing with the demigods from my patrol. Campers surrounding me on both sides suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a son or daughter of Ares. I looked all around me. Lou Ellen stood, dagger in hand, facing an Ares girl with jet black hair. In her other hand, she held her old fashioned reed torch, twirling it in like a baton. Each time the Ares girl approached her, she stabbed at the girl who dodged every time, and swiped her torch at her face. The flames on the top of the torch came so close to the girl's head that every time she did it, the Ares camper had to duck, the fire at the end of it just barely singeing her hair.
The girl growled at Lou Ellen. In her right hand, she clutched a wicked looking bronze sword. She feinted to her right, and then quickly changed tactics as Lou Ellen moved to block her left side. The camper caught Lou Ellen by surprise and opened up a gash in her right forearm. She gasped, the blood from the wound dripping onto the hard dirt of the forest floor. The black haired Ares girl quickly disarmed her, and held her blade to her throat.
Lou Ellen clenched her teeth. She brought her left hand up toward her face, and I saw she was still clutching the reed torch. She lifted her right hand to the fire at the end, and blew softly, as if she was blowing a feather out of the palm her hand. The flames on the top of it immediately blasted outward in a great column of heat and energy. The Ares girl jumped back, but she wasn't quick enough. The fire caught her right between the eyes, and when it died, the Ares camper had a huge, third degree burn covering the expanse of her face.
The demigod must have been more surprised than hurt, but it still must have been plenty painful, because the bigger girl advanced slowly with the murder plain on her face. A blood vessel had popped near her right eye, and both were twitching uncontrollably. Lou Ellen backed up as speedily as she could, but she tripped on a root growing on the forest floor. She hit the ground, the flame on her touch immediately disappearing as it made contact with the dirt. The Ares camper approached, sporting a triumphant grin on her ugly face.
I looked away, not wanting to see what happened next. I turned my attention back to Jason and Clarisse. They were locked in a fierce sword against spear fight, a little away from the rest of the crowd. Their arms were a blur as they blocked, parried, and tried to attack each other all at once, leaping back from the other's blows. They dodged and twisted, feinting to the left and right as they tried their best to get under the other's guard. Once, Jason had surprised Clarisse with a blow to the side, which she had barely fended off, and had attacked her shoulder during her moment of weakness. Clarisse's attack had drastically decreased and Jason had taken full advantage of the situation. He had tried to snap her spear in half, but had only managed to take a little chunk out of it, before Clarisse recovered her wits, and had sent blow after blow at him more forcefully than ever. Jason fell back a foot or two.
I turned away from them, about the focus my attention on something else when a flash of light caught my eye. I turned around a saw a huge Ares camper coming at me. He was about six feet tall, and covered with gleaming bronze armor from head to toe. He was clutching an unrealistically large sword in his hand that was about four feet long. His helmet was on, so I couldn't see his face, but I could already guess that it was contorted in a gruesome smile with just a hint of teeth. Humph. It was just like children of Ares to go after the weakest, most vulnerable kids in the group. A.k.a., me. Big meanies.
I looked around the area surrounding me, frantically trying to search for some way to escape, but people were blocking me on all sides, fighting against their own opponents. Naturally, the path leading to me wasn't clear, so the big Ares camper shoved his way through bunches of his siblings and other demigods from my patrol, knocking them to the ground. He came toward me, swinging his big sword like he was born for battle which, I guess, he was. I could just imagine he was smiling even wider from underneath his helmet, thinking he was going to win an easy victory.
I gritted my teeth, and frantically looked all around me once again, searching for an escape route. There wasn't one. I was too small to force my way through the crowd of sparring demigods. I was too inexperienced win fight against this camper. I had to save my energy in order to put the two guards protecting the flag asleep, so I couldn't fight away. Using my powers really drained me, and I was still weak from already using them once tonight. I wasn't even sure I had enough energy left in me that I could put the demigods guarding the flag to sleep. I couldn't overexert myself.
The Ares camper kept approaching closer and closer to me, and I just kept backing away farther and farther from him. This went on for several minutes, but then, from underneath the helmet, I heard a deep growl. I could tell that the demigod was starting to get impatient. I quickly turned around to see how much room I had left to retreat, and stopped in my tracks. A dead end met my eyes. I whipped back around, and tried to edge past the Ares kid, but he caught me easily. He extended the arm holding the sword, and with one smooth stroke, knocked my knife out of my grip. Great. Now I was weak, powerless, and weaponless. I felt so stupid, I could have kicked myself if I hadn't been so scared. I promised that I would do exactly that when the time came, and I wasn't in this situation.
The son of Ares crowed with triumph. He swooped forward, to do what I wasn't sure, and I started to get edgy. I hated being trapped. I turned my head to the side, expecting to feel a blow on my body, but surprisingly, I didn't. It never come. All I heard was a blast of the impact of something hitting something else, a sharp zap, and a high pitched, yell of pain. I turned around in surprise, and what I saw shocked me out of my skin. Literally.
The Ares camper's whole body with covered in electricity. Bright volts of it arched from one place on his intricately engraved armor from the other. At first, I wondered how this had happened, but then realized it was quite simple to figure out. I turned to Jason, smiled at him, and mouthed a, 'Thank you.' He nodded, but he looked really tired. Calling down lightning must have taken a lot out of him, just like putting people to sleep did for me.
On the ground next to him, Clarisse lay face down in the dirt, her body slightly smoking. I realized that Jason had split the lightning he had called down: sending half of it over to the camper chasing me, and directing the other half at Clarisse. It felt good that I had been noticed, and that somebody had been watching over me. I watched as Jason strode over to Clarisse, bent down to pick up her spear, and snapped it in half. I grinned at the sight, glad to see the end of Maimer the Lamer.
The Ares camper in front of me continued to yell. The electricity covering his body had dissipated, but the kid still cried out in pain. He wobbled for a moment or two on his feet, and then collapsed into the dirt. Well, two down, twenty more to go, I guess you'd say. Ugh.
I looked all around me, and took everything in. My patrol was in bad shape. Many of the demigods around me were either knocked out, or unconscious, and lying on the ground. In total, there was about fifteen Ares kids left to defeat, and we weren't doing a very good job. Most of the demigods on my team were injured or wounded, or incapacitated. The Ares cabin could defeat the ones that remained as easily as you would a swat a fly. I knew we were in big trouble.
I threw a glance around the clearing. Camper fought against camper, and there was the sharp clang of metal on metal resonating throughout the hollow. Jason was fighting against an Ares boy, his sword a golden blur in his hand. Lou Ellen was still sparring with the black haired girl. Everywhere I looked, I could see the signs that we we losing this battle. We needed help. Badly.
I took one more glimpse of the scene in front of me, and then slipped off to the side of the clearing. I entered the shadows, and peered out to see if anybody had noticed my absence. No one had. That was one of the good things about being small and shy: people never remembered you. Of course, that could always backfire, but it was worth it.
I quickly and quietly turned around and headed into the woods. My patrol needed help. And I knew just where to get it.
Nyssa's POV
I flew backward and landed on my back with a thud. Pain jolted up my spine, and the impact of tree roots hitting my back caused bruises to appear immediately. All around me, the rest of my patrol groaned, and dragged themselves to their feet. I did likewise. People started to withdraw their weapons, and everybody looked around the clearing warily, as if they expected our attackers appear out of midair. And appear, they did.
A group of about twenty to thirty campers of various different ages materialized from the shadows. Two girls, both with wheat colored blonde-brown hair, but one with sharp green eyes, and one with deep brown emerged from the group, and placed themselves at the head of the rest of the demigods. They smiled, looking at us with humor in their eyes as we scrambled to our feet, and brandished our weapons in a defensive position.
"Well, well, well," said the girl with the brown eyes. "What do we have here?"
The second girl smiled. "Did you really think our team wouldn't have a better defense?"
Over to my right, I heard Butch growl, "Demeter."
The two girls continued to smile. "Why, of course," said the first one. "Who else did you think can manipulate nature?"
Percy said, "Move out of our way, Miranda."
The first girl laughed. "You can't tell me what to do. Even though you're the twice dubbed savior of Olympus."
"Yes," the girl with green eyes said. "You cannot pass."
I scrunched up my face. "That's because you're protecting the flag, isn't it?"
They looked over at me in annoyance, and I ignored their death glares. They continued to talk, completely ignoring my question which I suppose, was a good sign.
"The point is," the first girl, Miranda said, "is that we won't let you pass. It's our job to make sure that you stay here, and won't progress any further into our territory."
They turned around and looked at their siblings. I saw each of them give the other nods.
"Guys!" I just had enough time to yell, "I think it's a trap!" before the Demeter kids all snapped their fingers. Vines grew out of the ground at an incredible speed, curling around our bodies, and lifting us high into the air, flailing. All of us tried to get our weapons within range to cut the plants, but the weeds just coiled around us even tighter than before, pinning our arms to our sides. The vines covered our bodies from head to toe. They grew so they were so thick around that we couldn't have broken them if we had tried. They continued to grow, their leafy tendrils stretching out into the darkness, forming a sort of great wall with my patrol and I as the center piece, located inside of it. Once it had finished growing, the mass of plants was about twenty five to thirty feet tall. It almost reached the tops of the trees but not quite.
The green eyed girl stepped forward. "Now, that's better," she said.
"Let us go!" Somebody shouted, struggling against the vines. I couldn't tell who it was in the dark, but I didn't recognize his voice. Miranda sighed, and snapped her finger again. The plants covered the boy's mouth, and their grip on him tightened.
I tried to get my sword into a position so I could cut the vines, but it was futile. The plants covered every inch of my body, and I just couldn't get my sword at the right angle. From the noises surrounding me, I would say that the other campers were attempting the same kind of thing. However, none of us were having very much luck.
"Katie," I heard Butch say. "Come on. Let us go. Please?"
The green eyed girl laughed. "And why would I do that?" She asked. "You guys are trying to steal our flag. I'm only protecting our own."
"So are you!" I exclaimed, but Katie just waved her hand, and vines began growing over my mouth, their small, sharp, prickly leaves digging into my flesh. The tendrils reached out and took a hold of my sword. "Mmffh!" I protested as they dropped it into the mass of plants below. My weapon fell about a foot or two before it got tangled up in the rest of the vines. I struggled to reach it, but the plants just tightened every time I tried, so I eventually gave up.
"Nyssa makes a good point," somebody said, but I couldn't figure out who. I would have smiled at them if my mouth hadn't been covered, and I hadn't been so upset about losing my sword.
"Well, then," Miranda said. "You're trespassing on our territory. We're protecting ourselves. Does anybody else have a sensible argument to that?"
"What happened to no maiming?" Somebody else yelled.
"We're not maiming you," a Demeter boy, from the back, said.
"Thank you," Miranda said, turning around to smile at her half-brother.
I struggled against the leaves, and their grip on me began to tighten the more I moved about. If only I could get to my sword! Then I could use cut the vines, and be out of here in an instant! All around people seemed to be thinking the same kind of thing. I wormed one of my hands around the vines binding it. I felt into my pocket for anything that might help me escape from the plants. Below me, the argument continued.
Someone asked, "Isn't there a rule that said prisoners can only be disarmed and not bound or gagged?"
Miranda smiled. "Yes."
"We're not prisoners!" Somebody else shouted out. "We're just stuck in this stupid web of plants!"
I searched around in my pockets to see if I had anything that could help me. I had all sorts of random things in the pockets of my jeans, but nothing that I could really use to cut myself loose from these crazy vines. I withdrew a rubber bouncy ball, a toothpick, about six inches of coiled wire, an oil stained cloth, a few buttons, a three inch long piece of white porcelain, and a few clothes pins. Wait, porcelain? That was perfect! I gathered the remainder of the items I had on my lap, and deposited them back into my pocket. Who knew, they might come in handy later on tonight. I gripped the porcelain tightly in my right hand, and got to work, quietly and carefully sawing at the vines binding my left arm.
"Well, there you have it," Miranda said. "Congratulations, you have just answered your own question." There was a deep sarcasm located in her voice.
Katie smiled. She turned to Miranda. "This is boring. What are we supposed to do, watch these guys all night?"
Miranda shrugged. Katie sighed. "I'm going to secure the perimeter," she said. "Make sure they don't escape." She turned on her heel, gestured to some of her sibling, and headed out into the woods. If the vines had let me, I would have smiled. Now we had less Demeter kids to deal with.
I continued the use the piece of porcelain to cut through the vines covering my left arm. Each tendril was was about five inches long. The shard of glass I was using was sharp, but it was also small, and couldn't slice through the vine all at once. I had to continuously keep slashing at the plant with the blade in order for it to make a difference. Leaves, stems, and other assorted plant materials flew everywhere.
In about three minutes, I succeeded in cutting through the first vine. It broke into two thick pieces, falling apart from each other, but still staying in the 'web of plants' as the other camper had called it. I prayed that the Demeter kids wouldn't notice the difference in their plant wall, or felt that I had sawed through a vine. I knew they all had an affinity for plants and nature, and a connection to them, but I wasn't sure how deep it was.
I continued to cut through the rest of the plants binding me. If I had a sword, especially a Celestial Bronze one, cutting through this mass of vines would have taken no time at all. However, I didn't had a sword, or even a dagger. All I had was this puny little piece of porcelain, but I was grateful also the same. Once I got through this, I promised to myself that I would train to be more resourceful in the future.
Within a least fifteen minutes, I was done. I had just finished sawing through the last of my vines when I heard a loud cry. I looked down at the Demeter campers, expecting them to be staring up at me, but they weren't. Instead, they were looking to the left of where I was. I turned, as did every demigod on my patrol in time to see Percy Jackson leap from where he was sitting on the plant wall. In his right hand, he held his sword, Riptide, and in his left he was clutching a vine. He swung down to the ground with a great cry, performing a backflip once he was about twelve feet off the ground; just to show off, I assumed. He landed in a the middle of a crowd of Demeter campers, startling them out of their wits.
I quickly shoved the small piece of porcelain into my back pocket, and crouched down to pick up my sword. I curled my hand around its hilt, and stood up just in time to see a hoard of about fifteen demigods amassing to the left of me, where Percy had escaped from. They grabbed a vine each and, yelling their heads off, swung down in an angry, cankerous mass of figures. They landed behind Percy in the group of Demeter's cabin, all of them holding their weapons.
From up above them, in the plant wall, the rest of the demigods still covered with vines and I watched them begin to fight. If Demeter's children were good at making traps, then they sure weren't good at hand-to-hand combat. The thing was, while they were very skilled at using their powers from a distance by surprising people, they weren't very aggressive in a real fight, and mostly used more defense than offense. I watched intently as our little troop of campers easily took down the sons and daughters of Demeter. After about a few seconds or so, and turned to my right, and began cutting people loose from the plants holding them. As soon as they were free, most of the demigods immediately grabbed a vine, and swung down to aid our little group in fighting the Demeter cabin, although three half bloods stayed behind to help me free people.
Pretty soon, everyone was gone except us. The plant wall wobbled slightly, and tipped to the right, throwing us all off balance. I nearly fell off the entire thing, but caught myself at the last moment. A Hecate girl screamed in my ear, "Their power is wavering! The Demeter cabin can't spend anymore time or energy holding up these plants! It's going to fall! We have to get out of here!"
She was screaming so loud, I nearly went deaf, but I nodded to let her know I understood. I gestured to all of my companions to find a vine, and I grabbed the nearest one to me. Together, we swung down to the ground just as the plant wall shriveled up, and collapsed behind us. We landed on the ground rather clumsily, but the alternative would have been to fall from about thirty feet in the air onto our butts, so I wasn't that annoyed.
We got there at the exact moment that the group of demigods on the ground knocked out the last Demeter kid. We sorted ourselves out, since we had become all discombobulated when the Demeter cabin ambushed us. I walked straight up the Percy, who was getting all kinds of pats on the back from the guys, and compliments and thank-yous from the girls. I asked quietly, "How did you escape?"
He turned toward me. "I dropped Riptide on purpose."
"You what?!" I said, in complete disbelief. Wasn't Riptide his sword?
"I dropped Riptide," he answered. Then he saw my face. "It's magical. I can never lose it, because it will always go back to my pocket."
I thought about his statement. That was actually a pretty cool feature. I would have to remind myself to make a sword like that someday.
"So you dropped your sword," I said. "And it went back to your pocket."
"Yep," he said. "So I took my sword out of pocket, uncapped it, and cut the vines surrounding me. I was going to attack the Demeter cabin then and there, but I saw you were also escaping, so I waited. Then I had this brilliant idea to free the rest of demigods near me, so I did. And here we are."
I snorted at his 'brilliant idea'. That would have been anyone else's first thoughts as soon as they escaped: to go get back up. But I nodded at the rest of his story. Everything else seemed logical.
And it was at that exact moment when Melissa ran up to us, gasping, wheezing, and holding her side. "P-Percy!" She cried. "Th-the Demeter cabin is co-coming!"
My eyes widened. I had no idea how Melissa had got here or why, but it was obvious to anybody that had eyes that she had sprinted all the way to us. I yelled out at the campers surrounding us, "The Demeter cabin is coming!"
The result was instantaneous. Demigods immediately drew their weapons: people unsheathed their swords, pulled out their knives, and retrieved their daggers. Two Hephaestus kids ran to the side of the clearing the other half of the Demeter cabin had disappeared in, and two Hecate campers ran to where the previous half of the cabin lay unconscious.
About a minute later, the first Demeter kids burst into the clearing, swinging their swords. Our two patrols immediately clashed together. The second half of the Demeter cabin lingered in the shadows. They stretched their arms out, and manipulated all of the plants in the glade to assist them, and to attack us. I narrowly avoid a shrub as it arms tried to trip me as I ran by.
Melissa had retreated to the back of the clearing. She had looked exhausted when she had arrived, so she had chosen to sit this battle out. She hasn't told us what why she had come to find us, but we would have plenty of time to talk about that later after we thrashed the Demeter cabin. I slashed, stabbed, dodged, and rolled, attacking the Demeter campers, and defending myself all at once. We easily defeated them, just as we had with the first part of their cabin, despite the plants that were making things very difficult.
Once all of the Demeter campers were unconscious, I turned back to Melissa. She had recovered, and was breathing normally again. Percy, Butch, and I approached her. She was sitting on the ground of the forest clearing, playing with her knife. I asked, "Why are you here?"
"Oh, that." Melissa sounded kind of sheepish, but she continued with her explanation, her head held high. "The last time I was with them, my patrol was being attacked by the Ares cabin." She paused, letting that sink in. "They were losing badly. So I came here, seeking your help."
There was dead silence. Then Percy suddenly said, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go help them!"
We all shouted, shaking our weapons in the air, and hurried over to the rest of our patrol. We quickly explained the situation to them, and then rushed off, leaving them very confused. They followed us, however, into the woods as we sprinted in the direction that Melissa had told us the other patrol was in. We all ran as fast as we could, without stopping even once for anything.
We got there in record time. As soon as we were standing outside of the clearing, Melissa gestured for us to crouch near the ground, and creep forward. We crawled along the forest floor, stealthily avoiding branches, and anything else that would make a loud noise if we stepped on it. We carefully maneuvered around obstacles, and slunk up to the bushes surrounding the clearing. I peered out over them, along with Percy, Butch, and Melissa.
I saw about five, tired battered demigods with the red horsetail-plume helmets that showed they were on our team, fighting against eight campers of the Ares cabin. I recognized Jason immediately by his bright gold gladius. I also saw one of my friends, Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin, fighting against a dark haired girl with an evil sneer on her face. I noticed that the other four half bloods didn't look so good. Their attacks were weak, and they could barely defend themselves. They looked as exhausted as Melissa had when she had appeared to ask for our help, perhaps even more so.
I turned to the others. "We've got to help them," I whispered.
"Yes," Melissa answered.
"On the count of three," Percy said. "We'll rush out there to help them. One."
We all with draw our weapons.
"Two."
We tensed up.
"Three."
We ran out there.
*This is a Line Break Just In Case You Were Wondering*
The Ares cabin didn't know what had hit them. One moment, they were kicking the other team's butts, and the next, they were they ones being creamed. All of a sudden, from the bushes came a loud battle cry, and about twenty five to thirty new, random campers sprinted out. The Ares cabin tried to fight back, but the other force was too strong. They quickly defeated the Ares cabin, clubbing each and every members over the head, knocking them to the ground.
Clarisse was the last to fall. She had been knocked out by Jason earlier that night, and she really didn't look forward to it happening again. She fought with a deep fury at the campers who had dared to attack her and her siblings. She wounded a few of them, but within time, their sheer numbers alone overwhelmed her. She was tired from her fight earlier with multiple demigods on the first patrol. Her body ached all over from the lightning Jason had blasted at her. She was angry at him for breaking her spear, but she couldn't motivate on just raw emotions alone. Her blows we getting weaker, and she was exhausted. The demigods from the new patrol cornered her. She raised her sword in one, last, valiant effort, but she didn't get the chance to land a blow. Percy clubbed her over the head with the butt of his sword, and she collapsed.
And here ends the story of Clarisse, counselor of the Ares cabin, for now.
*This is Just Another Line Breaker. Again*
I took a deep breath, trying to slow my beating heart. I sheathed my Celestial Bronze sword, and walked over to where Jason, Lou Ellen, Melissa, Percy, and Butch were gathered. The unconscious bodies of the Ares campers lay scattered all around us. It had been easy to defeat them. We had streamed out of the woods, surprising them out of their wits. They had tried to fight back, but it had been pointless. All of the Ares campers had been extremely tired once we had arrived. We barely had to do anything. In less than ten minutes, all of the enemy half bloods had been knocked out.
I walked up to where the five other demigods were standing. When we had first encountered them, Jason, Lou Ellen, and the rest of the people on their patrol had been exhausted. However, they had soon recovered, and everyone was fine at the moment. All of the campers were conscious. I stood off to the side as Lou Ellen, Melissa, and Jason thanked us for our help. Percy told him not to worry about it, and he would have done the same for them, and the rest of the protocol. Then Jason thanked Melissa for getting Percy, and she smiled and told him she was just helping her team, and everyone began to talk in earnest about what we were going to do now.
"I'll admit," Lou Ellen began. "That this has not gone exactly the way we had planned. However, since we are all together now, I think we should get the flag."
"Yes," I agreed. "Let's win this thing."
Jason nodded. "I think that's the best option."
Percy said. "Yeah." He turned to Jason. "Hey, man, who'd you run into on your way here? Which cabins?"
"Hermes and Dionysus. Lou Ellen and the Hecate cabin turned most of them into ferrets and weasels."
Lou Ellen smirked at that. "I got Conner Stoll pretty good."
Melissa smiled. "That reminded me of Harry Potter. Remember, in the fourth book, when Draco got turned into a ferret?"
I grinned. "Yeah. That was so funny."
Jason looked at us quizzically. "What on earth are you talking about?"
"Nothing," I said quickly. I didn't have time to explain Harry Potter to Jason. I was surprised that he didn't know what it was already. Almost anyone who reads books nowadays has read at least one Harry Potter book. Then I remembered that Jason had lived his whole life in the Twelfth Legion, away from the modern world. He wouldn't have known what Harry Potter even was. And somehow, that seemed really sad.
"So," Lou Ellen said. "Who did you run into?"
Butch growled. "Nemesis. And Demeter."
I could hear the resentment in his voice when he said the word Demeter. I figured he was going to hold a grudge against them for a long time. We all were.
"Okay, guys," I said, trying to get us back on track. "Let's go get the flag."
Jason said, "Okay. Melissa, are you ready?"
The girl visibly paled, but she held her head high. "Yes," she said in a brave tone of voice. "I am."
"Great," said Percy. "Let's go get that flag."
Malcolm's POV
I stood ten yards away from Zeus's Fist, guarding the flag. Next to me, on the right, Piper stood, clutching the handle of her dagger, Katoptris. I had been a little apprehensive at first to be standing so close to the pile of boulders that was supposedly, "cursed", but I had quickly gotten over that fear. It was just a pile of rocks, I kept reminding myself, over and over again. Just a pile of rocks.
From outside of the clearing, Piper and I had heard the first sounds of battle: the clanging vibration of metal hitting metal, the sharp cries of the demigods fighting against each other, and the calm, eerie quiet the forest held as its trespassers fought against each other. Piper and I had both gripped our weapon tighter, determined to stay alert if anyone defeated the Ares cabin. That was highly unlikely for a little patrol to manage, but as the saying goes, "Better safe than sorry." I had learned that lesson the hard way, many years ago.
As time went on, the sounds of battle grew softer and softer, and I sighed with relief, thinking that the Ares cabin had defeated the intruders. I was greatly mistake. About ten minutes after the noise had died, it started all over again, this time louder, and more furious than ever. After a little more time had passed, it stopped abruptly. I took that as a bad sign.
And indeed, it was. About five minutes after the silence had started, a group of people emerged from the undergrowth. I could tell instantly that it was not the Ares cabin. I immediately spotted the figures of Jason, Percy, Butch, and Lou Ellen. They were flanked by two girls. The first was strong and muscular looking, with dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. I had seen her around camp before, and I struggled to remember her name. I knew she was a daughter of Hephaestus. Nora? Natalie? Natasha? No, I suddenly thought. Nyssa.
The second girl had a petite figure. She had long, light brown hair, and deep, cloudy blue eyes. Her was short for her age, and had elfish features. She radiated a quiet aura, but even from a distance, I could feel how powerful it was. She walked up with the rest of the demigods, flanking the four demigods on the right of them. I knew she must be important if she was with them, and even though she didn't look like much, I couldn't underestimate her.
Piper and I gripped our weapons just in case they decided to attack us, but they didn't. In fact, they did the exact opposite. The group of demigods approached us. Their weapons weren't withdrawn. They weren't carrying any kind of items used in a battle such as a shield, or the equivalent of it. They just walked toward us, completely unafraid as we squeezed the handle of our weapons even tighter.
The demigods walked forward until they were about five yards away. There, Percy, Butch, Jason, Lou Ellen, and Nyssa stopped approaching, but the other girl continued forward. I started to get edgy. I still couldn't place the girl's name or face, but she still seemed kind of familiar. I hated not knowing something, and not being able to identify this girl was killing me.
The girl strolled forward until she was about a foot away from us. We could have easily have defeated her, since we had weapons, and she did not, but for some reason, we didn't. We just stood there, staring each other in the eye: my gray eyes staring deep into the girl's dark, pure blue ones. The demigod turned to look into Piper's multicolored ones, too.
She stepped back a foot, and closed her eyes. Her forehead furrowed in concentration, and she took a deep breath. Her eyes snapped back open, and I was surprised when I saw them. They were a mixture of ice blue, and mist white. She advanced forward, stepping closer to me. She placed her pointer finger and thumb in the center of my forehead, and my eyes immediately began to droop.
Piper noticed what was happening, and turned to the girl. "Stop," she said in charmspeak, clutching Katoptris in her right hand. The girl immediately stopped what she was doing, and removed her fingers from my brow. My mind cleared instantly, and I furrowed my forehead in confusion. What had just happened?
Instead of turning back to me, the girl turned to Piper. She scrunched her forehead in what looked like deep thought, but I knew it wasn't. She was gathering her energy for something. The girl reached her hand out, and touched Piper's forehead. Her eyelids began to fall, but Piper struggled to keep them open.
The other girl's forehead crinkled even deeper in concentration. The pressure her fingertips exerted on Piper's forehead increased, and Piper's eyes began to droop, just like mine had earlier. She tried to stay awake, but couldn't. Piper swayed gently. She tried to fight it, but it was too strong. The daughter of Aphrodite gave one last effort to stay conscious, but it was no use. The force extruding from the girl was too powerful. Piper stood still for a moment, then her eyes closed, and she fell to the ground fast asleep.
The girl now turned to me. She looked terrible. Her blue eyes were dull, and clouded over more than usual. She rocked on her feet, like she was the next one who was going to fall asleep. However, nevertheless, she was still conscious. She reached over before I could stop her, and placed her fingers on my forehead once again. My mind was filled with images of everything that I felt comforting in life. I couldn't help my eyes from drooping.
I looked down at my feet, and discovered I was swaying. I tried to stop myself, but I found out I couldn't. The girl next to me still had her fingers in the middle of my forehead. I peered up at her, and in my dazed mind, I suddenly recognized her face.
She had arrived here at Camp Half-Blood about six weeks ago. She was fairly new here, so she had stayed in the Hermes cabin until she had gotten claimed. I had forgotten who she had been claimed by. There were so many new campers nowadays that all of their faces just seemed to blur together in my mind. As soon as I thought of it, however, I could remember her claiming as clearly as if it had taken place yesterday.
*Flashback*
The girl sat at dinner, eating in the dining pavilion with the Hermes cabin. All of the campers had just sacrificed a portion of their meal to the gods. The girl was sitting at her table, isolated at the end of the bench. She was shy and quiet, avoided eye contact with anyone, and rarely spoke. She seldom laughed at the jokes the people at her table told, or even smiled.
Suddenly, a gasp went up from the demigods in the dining pavilion, and everybody turned to the girl, their eye wide. The girl's forehead furrowed in confusion. Why was everyone staring at her? She looked around at all the astonished face. Everybody seemed to be looking at her head.
She looked up and her mouth gaped slightly. Hovering above her was a symbol. It was of a plain white tree branch dipped in a milky white substance that dripped off one drop at a time. Red flowers, poppies, surrounded it on both sides. As the girl looked up, the sign faded before her very eyes. All of the demigods were left astonished, their mouths gaping. Then the first ones began to kneel.
"Hail, Melissa," Chiron's voice echoed in the girl's head, faint, as if it were coming from a long distance. "Daughter of Hypnos, god of sleep."
*End of Flashback*
I peered back up at the girl. Melissa. Well, that answered all of my questions. Melissa still had her fingers on my forehead, and my eyes had begun to droop even more. I tried to fight it, but, like Piper, I had no success. The girl's sleep powers were just too strong for me to resist. My eyes closed gently, and I slumped to the ground, fast asleep.
The last thing I saw before I hit the forest floor was the figure of Melissa pitching toward and hitting the ground next to me.
Nobody's POV, Third Person
After Melissa had fainted, and Nyssa had volunteered to carry her back into friendly territory, all of the demigods on both patrols gathered in the clearing in which the flag was held. All five of the main demigods gathered in a circle in the clearing. They laid Melissa down on the ground between them, and told the others to watch her for a moment. Then they turned back to Zeus's Fist.
The demigods walked over the the pile of rocks, and peered up at the top. Both Piper and Malcolm were asleep in front of it. Jason looked regretfully at Piper, who was sprawled out on the ground, but he didn't move to wake her up. She just simply took her dagger, Katoptris, out of her hand, and slid it into her belt. She didn't even stir.
The half bloods looked up at the flag. It glowed faintly in the darkness with a slight metallic color. They quietly discussed who would go to get it. In the end, it seemed that Percy was the winner. The son of Poseidon sighed, but quickly and quietly scaled the rocks. He got to the top in record times and climbed back down, careful not to make any sort of loud noise.
The flag was pure white, with the emblems of a gray owl and a bronze dagger on it. Percy gave it to Jason, and he held it in his hand.
The red team had the flag.
Wow. That was way longer than I thought it would be. Sorry, once again, for the long wait. I feel so bad! Does this chapter make it up to you? I really hope it does! It is is super long, and took a while for me to write.
So, let's get down to business. Do you want Drewgo to happen? (Thanks, awesomesauce90!) If so, if you haven't already, please review!
Even if you don't want to answer the Drewgo question, can you review anyway? Please? Reviews always make me feel so good, and they help me write faster. So if you want to next chapter to come more quickly; review!
Gosh, what is it with me and long author's notes? I hope you aren't getting too bored listening to me ramble about semi-important things. We have one more thing to cover, and then we're done. Probably.
So, even if you guys choose not to review, the next chapter will HOPEFULLY (I'm not making any promises) be up by next Friday. So stay tuned.
I'm outta here,
snowflake45
P.S.: Including the long author's notes (sorry everyone!), this chapter was a grand total of 9434 words. Shocked, right?