The following morning, Alana woke up and lifted her head, waking in the same position she'd slept; facing the ceiling. As she looked around the room, which was now flooded with the dim sunlight that filtered through the thick draped walls, part of her was overwhelmed that she hadn't dreamed it all. She slowly slipped out from beneath the covers and walked over to the grand wardrobe, opening it and, to her surprise, seeing things in there that hadn't been there the night before. There was a brand new set of armour, including a breastplate and helmet. She regarded them casually, but didn't touch them. She went for another white vest top, and picked a magenta and gold patterned long skirt. It was the 'boho' and 'free' sort of flowy look she usually went for. As she was strapping her small feet into her gladiator sandals, she looked up to see Percy cautiously pulling the curtain back.
"Um hi." He greeted, "I didn't know if you were decent and I didn't really see the point in asking because of the, well… you know." He went to point to her mouth, but thought better of it and put his arm down. Alana nodded, smiling at his blunder.
"Anyway, today we're playing Capture the Flag, so you're gonna need your armour." He informed her. Alana looked back at her wardrobe and reached in, pulling out her helmet. There was a red plume of fur on the top.
"They put you in the red soldiers, huh?" Percy mused, "You're with Annabeth, then. I'm blue." He revealed his own helmet. Alana nodded as she strapped herself into her breastplate. She tucked her helmet under her arm like Percy and walked over to him.
Let's go. She signed, pointing to the entrance of the cabin. Percy nodded.
"That much I can understand. C'mon." he agreed.
They walked together to the centre of the camp where the students were all surrounding Chiron, much like they had the previous night at the end of the feast. Percy and Alana found Annabeth, who was wearing her red helmet. When she spied Alana and the colour of her own helmet, she beamed.
"Ha! Tough break there, Perce. Looks like we just got lucky." She jeered at him, whispering so Chiron wouldn't hear her. Perce rolled his eyes and smirked.
"Okay, for those who haven't played before, blue teams against reds. Fight in search of the other team's flag. The first team to have a member capture the other team's flag wins. To your positions." Chiron ordered. Annabeth clasped Alana's wrist.
"C'mon. Just do what I do, okay?" she told her. Alana nodded, leaving Percy and following Annabeth while she fastened her helmet under her chin. She and Annabeth stayed at the front of the pack by the Sons of Ares, who bounced athletically on the balls of their feet in anticipation.
"You and me, we're gonna break of and defend the flag. These guys take care of the warheads with little skills who just wanna bash swords for a bit. The really challenging ones will filter through towards the flag, and with the skills you showed yesterday, I think we could be unbeatable together. You got that?" she asked.
Please! You couldn't give me a bigger challenge? She signed with a cocky smirk. She then lifted her skirt and removed the silver dagger from its thigh strap, pressing the ruby so it grew to a sword. The blue team members flinched slightly, having not witnessed her performance yesterday.
"Okay, tough girl! I'll tell you what: I'll go and defend the flag on my own, I'm used to that. Lebron, Tito, take some of the other guys and create a diversion. Alana, I want you to go and get the flag on your own." She challenged. Alana nodded confidently and signed that's more like it.
"Their flag is usually on the south of the lake, so I want all you guys heading that way with everything you've got. Alana, you head east and go the long way around. The blue's usually keep their muscle up front so you shouldn't have a problem."
"Ready, warriors?" Chiron bellowed over the noise. "Ready? FIGHT!"
There was a mighty roar as the two sides ran towards each other. Alana went right to work, chopping and slashing away next to Annabeth. One of the blue sons of Ares took a swing at her. She ducked out of the way, rolled away so she stood again behind him and slashed him across the back causing him to fall down. An enraged group of siblings turned on her and attacked. She held her defence beautifully, but she could see a group of blue soldiers peeling off to the south. She tried to signal Annabeth, but she didn't know how since she was busy fending off 4 attackers. Another red soldier must have sensed her distress, as he cut in and began drawing her attackers away.
Giving the other red a grateful nod, Alana began cutting a path towards Annabeth. As she reached her, she jutted out her sword, which collided with that of a blue soldier, blocking it from Annabeth's head. They fought together, cutting and weaving. Alana stepped down hard on one soldiers boot, knocked his head with the hilt of her sword, and then cut him down. She then dropped to the floor to duck another blow, and swung her legs around in a circle, tripping over two more.
Alana then saw a vine dangling from a tree, and got an idea. Yanking it down, she threw one end to Annabeth and made a circling motion with her hand. Annabeth and Alana wrapped the vine around the remainder of their attackers, and then ran behind a large tree trunk, backs pressed to it, and pulled sharply. They heard all the blue soldiers crash against the other side of it loudly. Alana then handed her side of the vine to Annabeth as well and began to sign.
There's some Blue's peeling off to the south. My best guess is they're going to guard the flag. I'm gonna need a diversion so I can go after them.
"Okay, I got your back." Annabeth said as she struggled with the vine which twitched as the blue soldiers tied by it tried to free themselves. Alana took her end again. Annabeth counted to three and they jerked hard on the vine a final time. After this one, there was no more struggling. They then dropped the vine and ran back around into the battle. Annabeth made quick work of a couple more blues, and then they fought to the edge of an embankment. Annabeth looked knowingly at Alana, who nodded. They let the blue's advance on them, and made them think they had the upper hand. Alana, who was fighting a son of Hermes, let him take a jab at her and jumped off the embankment, making it look like she had fallen. Once she was down, she ran around to the east to find the flag and Annabeth leapt into life, now sending the blue soldiers back with deadly swings.
As Alana reached the south side of the lake, she crouched down and hid in the bushes as she observed the blue's she daw earlier patrolling around the flag. There were three, and they were walking around the flag; pacing slowly in a circle. Alana edged as close to the water's edge as the concealment of the bushes would allow. With her over sensitive nymph senses, she could just about hear what they were saying across the water.
"The blockage is holding strong. Not one of the reds has made it through." One said to the others.
"Now we just have to wait for the messenger to tell us we've made it to the red flag so we can watch Percy win for us." One of the others laughed, causing the others to guffaw too.
Alana smiled knowingly to herself. Thinking quickly, she slowly reached a slender arm into the water in front of her. To her delight, it itself transform into water, and she proceeded to slip the rest of her body in, it too turning into water and blending into the lake. In her new invisible form, she glided to the other surface of the lake, and thought how best to distract her opponents. Possibly the only positive thing about living your whole life in your head was that you grow an incredible sense for thinking of all possibilities for all situations.
After deliberating for a few minutes, Alana looked out to the north, where the other reds would be coming from. There was some shrubbery in that direction that leaned over the water. She stretched out a watery arm and caused a little jet of water to shoot up from the lake and make the bushes rustle. The blue soldiers reacted like lightening.
"Hey, let's go and make sure they're not planning a sneak attack." Once of them said as they all headed over. As they disappeared from view, Alana rose up from the water, reforming into flesh and bone, and walked cautiously over to the flag. She was just reaching out to claim it when a blade rested on her hand, preventing her. She looked around and saw that the three guards had some back, this time with Percy in tow too.
"You know, the best thing about having the son of Poseidon on our side is, he can wait in the water and let us know when we're being tricked." The guard who had stopped her said, removing his blade from where it rested on her hand and pointing it at her throat. Alana looked at Percy once again and saw he was wet. He must've been in the water too, probably in case she came along. He smirked at her smugly. Alana pretended to look cautious, then whipped out her dagger and pointed it at the blue soldier, the blade extending so it met with his. He flinched momentarily, and then went back to looking smug.
"I'm not fool. I saw your performance yesterday." He continued, sliding his blade against hers as he got into battle stance. Alana looked up as she saw the other reds and blues approaching along with Chiron. She then looked back at the blue soldier. "That's why I wanted an audience to witness me beating you."
Alana didn't shy away from him; she merely held her ground and cocked her head to the side as an indication for him to make a move. He raised his eyebrow, and then swung harshly. Alana fought back, meeting him strike for strike. She began forcing him back with her enthusiasm and with a violent swing, sliced open his cheek. He coolly wiped away some blood with the back of his hand and stopped the other blues from cutting in.
"No, it's alright. I got her." he assured them. He pulled off his helmet and got back into position. Alana pointed her sword at his throat and shot him a testing look. He gave a throaty laugh then attacked. This time he was a lot more violent. He forced her back, further to the side of the hill where the others stood watching. Alana fended him off as best she could, but it was difficult seeing as his arms resembled cobras and hers looked like noodles in comparison. Her skills and experience couldn't really match his strength.
Once her back was against the side of the hill, she could only defend herself from his blows without having room to attack. She looked up at the cliff edge and saw amongst the crowd Annabeth, who looked worried and flinched every time their swords collided. An idea began to form in the back of her mind. She was suddenly snapped out of her train of thought as the blue soldier jabbed his sword at her. She dived and it sank into the side of the wall. She kicked him away and weaved under his arm, trying to run as he attempted to pull his blade out. He, however, left his sword and held her back, putting her into a headlock and kicking her sword out of reach.
"No, no!" Percy exclaimed under his breath, not wanting one of his teammates to hurt Alana even if it was to win the game. He had said it when he first played the game and he still thought it was true: these kids take camp way too seriously.
At first Alana tried to fight against his hold. He was unmovable. Instead she wrenched off her helmet and looked up to meet eyes with Annabeth. She began to make a series of gestures to her. Seeing them, she nodded subtly and snuck away from the crowd. The blue soldier thought she was just flailing at lack of oxygen and didn't want her to pass out. Then it would mean he would win by default. He at least wanted his opponent to be fighting when he beat her. Throwing her to the floor, he pulled his sword from the cliff wall and began circling Alana. She had a hand clamped solidly over her mouth and wretched, coughing and trying not to moan so as not to hurt anyone. Percy looked down on her, feeling as though he should do anything, but he couldn't.
Alana then recovered and crawled towards her sword. She got up and raised it towards the blue soldier, who had his back to the flag. He looked her up and down with an impressed expression on his face, blood still dripping down his neck from the wound on his cheek and dirt covering most of his body.
"You are persistent, I'll give you that." He gave her. She cocked her head to indicate she wasn't interested in his approval. She then threw her sword at him, catching him off guard. He dropped and rolled away to avoid the flying blade, in the process dropping his own. Alana then attacked in hand to hand combat, throwing punches and blows that betrayed her small frame and weak appearance. Her tactic was to blind him with punches in the hope that he would be too confused to fight back, but that hope faded when he threw a lucky blind punch that hit her squarely in the jaw, knocking her away. She made not a sound, not even a grunt.
"Don't think anything you can do will distract me. Nothing can break my focus." He boomed as he stood over her lying on the ground, sword in hand once again. She looked up at him smugly, and pointed behind him. He turned around and, to his horror, he saw Annabeth holding the blue flag above her head. Everyone else, who had been watching the fight between Alana and the blue soldier and had missed her claiming it also, looked up. The red soldiers broke into an eruption of cheers and cries. The blues all sighed angrily; the one who had fought Alana threw his sword down angrily. Percy smiled proudly and went to congratulate Annabeth as she threw the flag away. She, however, wasn't interested in congratulation or victory for once. She strode over to where Alana was still lying on the floor in pain, and offered her a hand. She took it and Annabeth hauled her up.
"We were some team, huh?" she said with a smile as Alana caught her breath. She nodded in agreement.
Next time how about you get the flag before he sucker-punches me, though? She signed to her. Annabeth laughed.
"Fair enough." She chuckled, pulling Alana into a hug. Everyone cheered again.
Later on in the day, Alana sat on her own by the lake watching her new friends as they practised more swordplay. Percy came and sat next to her on the patch of rocks she was perching on. He took a deep, satisfying breath of the afternoon air and looked at his sister.
"You did good today." He told her. She looked back at him but stayed silent.
"You know that it's just a game, right? I didn't want him to hurt you, and I couldn't do anything to help even though I wanted to." He said, asking for understanding. Alana nodded furiously and gave him a look that said 'Of course I understand!'.
"Good." Percy sighed in relief. He then saw the bruising on her jaw and down her neck.
"You know, you can fix that." He said, pointing at it. She cocked her head to the side, interested.
"It's easy, look. Come here." Percy beckoned her down to the water's edge, and they sat together on the ground next to it. Percy took her hand and placed it in the water.
"Now think. Try to heal yourself. Focus on where the pain is, and it'll make it go away." Alana nodded, and then closed her eyes, concentrating. Percy watched as the water travelled her arm, across her torso, up her neck and over her jaw, healing everything in its wake. When the pain was gone, Alana opened her eyes and inspected herself with a shocked smile. Percy smiled back.
"See. I know it's weird but no matter how much you think you know, you always have power that you don't understand yet. You'll get there though. In time." He told her. They shared a smile and he helped her up. As they did so, a voice caused them to turn their heads back towards the camp.
"Hey there. Percy can we have a minute?" it was the blue soldier that Alana had been fighting earlier. Percy eyed him suspiciously and looked at Alana, but yielded with a nod.
"Sure man, no problem." He mumbled as he walked away.
"My name's Anthony, son on Hephaestus. Sorry about earlier. It's just a game though, I hope you know that. And I'm sorry I got a little carried away. My father's the god of fire. Needless to say I can get a little hot headed." He apologised. Alana nodded in a begrudging acceptance, her face still sour. No one who's just hot headed jeers at people and taunts them like he had her.
"I've heard your story. I don't suppose there are many here that haven't. I know you're not really looking for anyone's approval but I for one and impressed." He continued. Alana gave a sarcastic smile and stalked past him.
"Hey, I know you're not all that crazy about me right now but I'd really like to hang out with you sometime." He called after her, causing her to stop for a moment and look back. Anthony added a nod to show his sincerity and Alana continued to walk away, feeling slightly confused and uneasy.
