Chapter 4: the Fight
Natalie was now going to stay in the Hermes cabin from now on, with her three half-brothers: Chris Rodriguez, and Travis and Connor Stoll. As far as Natalie figured Travis and Connor were actually brothers they weren't twins but were awfully close. Chris, like Natalie figured, was Clarisse's boyfriend. Connor said that Travis was going out with Katie Gardner, a daughter of Demeter. But Natalie was still just trying to figure this all out.
She was also wondering about her mother, did she know about dad being a god? Would she worry when Natalie didn't come back home? Sure Natalie and her mom weren't on the best terms. Her mom was probably overjoyed that she wasn't coming back.
She picked out a bunk and fell asleep. It only seemed like a few minutes but in the morning Chris was waking her up. "What?" Natalie asked sleepily. She was not really a morning person.
"Breakfast is in five, you need to get changed." Chris said.
Natalie climbed out of bed and got some clothes from her duffel bag. She then realized something, she was the only girl in the cabin. She sure as Hades wasn't going to change in front of them.
Connor seemed to notice. "Oh we had the Aphrodite cabin put this in." He climbed onto a top bunk and pulled off a curtain. It was nice and thick, it was silver and had a caduceus in the middle of it. He pulled the curtain across the room and it left her a space that divided the cabin completely so she had a nice area to change, separate form the boys.
Once she was done changing she pushed open the curtain some and walked back into the 'main' part of the cabin. "Okay guys, and er, girl ready for breakfast?" Chris asked.
"One second." Natalie said. She brought out her hair brush and hair tie and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Kay, now I am ready."
"On the way to the pavilion Chris was discussing the schedule for their cabin. After breakfast they will have archery with a few of the other cabins. After that we will have swords practice with Percy and Nico.
Natalie smiled; she got to work with Nico, again. But Percy was there, would he be mad about last night. Breakfast was good; there was scrambled eggs and turkey bacon, of coarse not as good as regular bacon, but still pretty good. She put some food in the center brazier as an offering for Hermes.
At the archery range, Natalie quickly found out she was not good at it. She nearly hit one of the Apollo instructors. So she tried her best but still rarely it the target.
The sword training went a lot better, she was good at it. Percy was late and as expected he was not to happy at Natalie for making a fool of him last night.
"I want a re-match. Here where neither of us have the upper hand." Percy said.
"Um. Okay, I guess." Natalie said.
Percy brought out his sword, Natalie got a better look at it this time, it was Celestial bronze like most of the demigods at camp weapons. It was about three feet long and a bit of a leaf shape. But what interested her the most was how it transformed. It started out as a normal looking ballpoint pen.
"Will I get a sword like that?" Natalie asked.
"This was a gift from my father, its name is Riptide." Percy said. "You will have to find your own weapon."
Natalie looked on the sword rack and tried to find a sword that looked well enough balanced for her, but it was hard. A lot were way to heavy, some were to long. But then her eye caught on something. The blade was about two feet long and glimmering bronze and gold, it seemed to be double edge. The hilt seemed to grip like a baseball bat in the fact that it was round. She played softball at school and went to some summer baseball camps over the years. She grabbed it and it felt perfect in her hands.
Natalie walked over to Percy, sword hand. "Okay ready."
"What are the terms?" Nico asked, with a bit of concern. Maybe he was worried for some ones safety, but it was impossible to tell whose.
"Anything goes, no killing or intentional maiming." Percy said.
"Kay, let's go." Natalie said.
They sparred for maybe two minutes until Percy caught her hilt with his blade. He started twisting, the sword was going to clatter out of her hands, so Natalie quickly devised a plan. She relaxed her grip on her sword and it fell out of her hands. The second Percy's sword was away from her she knelt into a crouch bend her knees and setting her hands on the ground and swept her left leg into Percy's now unstable legs. He quickly fell flat on his back, his own sword clattered out of his hands.
Natalie quickly grabbed both swords and had one in either hand and set a foot on Percy's chest and crossed the two blades to his neck. He stared up in shock, Natalie looked around and saw that Chris, Travis, Connor and Nico all had the same look as Percy.
"How?" Chris asked.
"Are we sure she isn't a daughter of Ares?" Connor asked.
"How could she beat Percy? Percy beat Kronos." Travis said.
Natalie, now a little embarrassed took her foot off Percy and handed him his sword. He took it in his right hand, and then grabbed Natalie's free hand with his left and she helped him up.
"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Percy asked.
"I don't know, I just did what seemed natural. Why?" Natalie asked.
"The only other person, who beat me, was Luke. I even beat Ares." Percy said.
Everyone looked sad at the mention of Luke. Who was Luke?
"I think this session is over." Chris said.
Travis, Connor, Chris and Percy left. That just left Natalie and Nico.
"Who is Luke?" Natalie asked.
"It's a long story." Nico said.
"I have no where to be." Natalie said.
Nico sighed. "Luke was a camper here, a son of Hermes, so your brother. He felt like the gods betrayed him and so he turned."
"Turned, like to the dark side?" Natalie asked.
Nico stared at her, "I guess, in a way. He got help from the titan lord Kronos. He started a war between the titans, monsters and some minor gods against the Olympian gods. We won, but not with out our losses." Nico said.
"What happened to Luke?" Natalie asked.
"He hosted the titan lord, in order to stop him he needed to die. Percy nearly beat him, but in the end Luke killed himself in order to stop him." Nico said. "He is in Elysium right now, but he says he plans on rebirth"
"So he is like Anakin in Star Wars." Natalie said.
"What?" Nico asked.
"In the third movie, he felt like the Jedi betrayed him, and he feel to the Dark Side with the Emperor. In the last movie he killed the Emperor but his breathing apparatus was damaged so he died. Luke is like Anakin and the Emperor is Kronos." Natalie said.
"If you want to think about it that way, sure." Nico said.
A few seconds of silence passed.
"You seem to be quite good with that sword, why not keep it?" Nico asked.
"Okay." Natalie said, she found a button on the bottom and pushed it. The sword shrunk down to the size of a MP3. In fact it looked just like a MP3 but on the button that looked like that it should be the play button was a picture of a sword.
"Handy." Natalie said.
After about five seconds of silence Nico spoke, "The Athena cabin want to see you."
"Okay." Natalie said. She left the sword arena and headed towards the Athena cabin. When she got there a girl was sitting the porch with a stack of books.
"Um, hi?" Natalie said.
"Hello, I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena." the girl said.
"Natalie, daughter of Hermes." Natalie said.
"Okay, let's get started." Annabeth said.
Natalie took a seat next to her and Annabeth set a book on her lap.
"I can't read, I'm dyslexic." Natalie said.
"Most of us are, but these books are written in Greek." Annabeth said.
Natalie opened the book and saw that she was right. But then something strange happened the letters rearranged themselves and she could read it, perfectly fine.
"I can read it." Natalie said.
"Yep. This book talks about Heracles adventures." Annabeth said. "I am suppose to teach you about the 'stories.' They might just save your life."
When Natalie got to the third chapter in was titled "The Prince of Thieves."
"The Prince of Thieves?" Natalie asked Annabeth.
"Ah yes, Autolycus. He was the son of Hermes." Annabeth said.
"So he is my half-brother?" Natalie asked.
"Taught Heracles how to wrestling, but he stole some cattle and blamed it on him, so Heracles killed him. He is consider the best mortal thief ever." Annabeth said.
"Mortal thief?" Natalie asked
"Well we can't say he was the best thief that would be Hermes." Annabeth said.
"So if Autolycus was the prince of thieves, would that make Hermes the king of thieves?" Natalie asked.
"Yeah." Annabeth said.
"So, that would like make me the princess of thieves!" Natalie said.
"I guess." Annabeth said .
A conch horn blew in the distance.
"That would be lunch. Go catch up with your cabin." Annabeth said.