Before you virtually yell at me...I'm sorry for being lazy and not updating. A lot of my focus has been on a story that I want to get published as a book one day, so I've been thinking about that instead of this. Actually, I'm sorta having issues writing the story because it's not really mine...like, whenever I try to put myself into their world and brainstorm for the story, I can't. Maybe because it's Riordan's?... Sigh. Well, I'm trying. This isn't even a decent chapter ( I suck at attack scenes, let's put it that way). Not to mention the fact that I'm swamped what with girl scouts, academic decathlon, and school. I can think of approx. 10 things that I should be doing right now instead of this.
Okay, enough with the lame excuses. Special thanks to LiLi-GirlwithALOTofIdeas, Annabeth Whitlock Hale, Dessers, and Barbiegirl 22 for reviewing, especially to Des for her ConCrit. All four of them got the sneak preview b/c they reviewed (cough cough hint hint wink wink). Kudos to Seaweed Brain and Wise girl 31 and Grand Immortal Blindmerman for favoriting me/this story.
BTW what do u guys think of me changing my pen name to EatrOfPi? Yes? No? Maybe? Tell me in a review! I kinda like EatrOfPi better, but that's just me.
Oh, towards the end of the chapter, I mentioned a few things involving horses and horseback riding...all of my information is correct, since I ride horses myself. So no yelling at me about incorrect info/terminology! Unless you've ridden in the Olympics or the Kentucky Derby or something...but I find that very unlikely.
I'll stop rambling now. Here's the chapter...
The next two weeks went by fairly quickly, without any word from Hestia or her mysterious advice or the quest that was apparently coming up. I missed my first Capture-the-Flag game because I came down with the stomach flu on Wednesday...thank you, airport germs. The Apollo and Aesculapius campers would've healed me, but I was throwing up a lot, to say the least. And it's slightly difficult to eat ambrosia and nectar when you can't actually keep it down. I had stopped throwing up and was completely healed by that Saturday, but I decided to skip anyways. Pegasus flying continued to be the one thing I excelled at-I couldn't even step in a canoe without making it tip over, and I had a better chance of hitting the target in archery when I wasn't aiming at it. Though it was sorta funny in rock climbing when I was climbing up the wall and the lava couldn't hurt me. Actually, the heat coming off the lava couldn't hurt me. The actual molten rocks themselves could. All was fair in love and war. The Eros idiot had attempted to rape Kiki, but Luke had fixed that. The bastard was still in the hospital wing. Apollo was visiting camp every couple of days. He said it was to spend time with his kids-and he did visit them-but everyone knew it was to see Theo. How did everyone know? The two of them 'mysteriously vanished' for an hour or two each time Apollo visited. I really don't want to know what they've been up to. My only hope is that Theo is still a virgin. Wait, you want me to tell you about my love life? Ummm...Well, I've been hanging out with Joshua a lot. On Thursday, he told me about this really pretty clearing in the forest that he knew about and asked me if I wanted to meet him there for a picnic at noon on Saturday. I said yes.
So, 11:00 on Saturday morning found me wondering if this counted as a freaking date. If it did, then I was going on my first date with a guy that I had met a few weeks ago and was the son of one of oldest Greek entities there was. If not, then what the hell was this supposed to be? An outside-of-curriculum training camp? Half an hour later, I had showered, brushed and braided my hair, and put on a nice-ish pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I am NOT going to put makeup on for a date in the woods, thank you very much. Joshua had told me that Aunt Juniper, of all people, (how did he meet her anyways?) knew where the clearing was, so she was going to meet me outside of the forest, near the lake. I ran out of the Big House and headed towards the lake. Here goes nothing...
I met Aunt Juniper at the edge of the forest at 11:45. She was wearing a floor-length dress that was a tad baggy. Her hands were on her slightly rounded stomach.
"Hey Aunt Juniper," I called out. She waved at me. "Morning, Daphnê. How are you today?"
"I'm fine, thanks. You?"
"Tired, and I need some ice cream for lunch," the dryad replied, laughing. "Chocolate chip cookie dough would be preferable. Come on, your boyfriend's waiting!"
I blushed bright red. "Joshua's not my boyfriend." Yet, I added mentally.
"Oh, if you say so," Aunt Juniper said. "Follow me, and do try not to get lost, will you?"
The dryad led me through the forest, taking a path that was so impossibly crazy that I knew that I wouldn't be able to find my way out even if my life depended on it. At one point, Aunt Juniper stopped walking, and I almost crashed into her.
"Joshua's only a few yards ahead. You can walk the rest of the way by yourself," she told me, gesturing to the dense forest. I thanked her and walked forward.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" I pushed past the final tree branches and entered a clearing. Eight old, majestic oaks defined the border. Sunlight filtered down through the treetops, giving everything a golden glow. It was amazing.
Joshua was sitting in the center with a picnic blanket and a wicker basket. I have to admit, my heart started racing when I saw him. Damn. He waved me over, so I plopped myself down next to him.
"Why, Joshua," I teased, " I never thought that you were the housewife type." Joshua stuck his tongue out at me, and I giggled at the absurdity of it all.
"I'm not. The food is from the dining pavilion, and I borrowed the basket and blanket from the Big House," he told me.
"Stole is more like it," an unfamiliar, oldish-sounding voice called out. (How does one sound oldish? I have no idea.) A wrinkled face appeared in one of the oaks, and I nearly screamed.
"Dryads, remember?" Joshua whispered. I nodded, allowing the breath that I had been holding in to whoosh out of my lungs. "Thanks."
"You be careful with that one, dearie," the old dryad cackled. "He's got more than a few tricks up his sleeve!" What the hell did she mean by that?
"Old one, you shouldn't be filling Daphnê's head with lies," Joshua said. He spoke softly but firmly.
"Bah! Demigods today," the dryad grumbled. "They ain't got no respect for their elders." With that, she melted back into her tree. I stared in astonishment and Joshua rolled his eyes.
"Honestly, that dryad's been driving me crazy ever since I came to camp," he complained. "Do you want some food? I brought ham and cheese sandwiches, soda, grapes, and two slices of chocolate cake."
Even though the ADHD part of my brain said otherwise, (CAKE!) I started with a sandwich and a six-ounce can of Coke. (The no-caffeine rule only applies after five in the afternoon.) The two of us sat and ate in silence. Not an awkward, what-do-I-say-now silence, but a companionable (Whee! Big words are FUN) one, like words weren't necessary or something weird and deep like that. It was nice.
I was licking the last bits of chocolate frosting of my fingertips when Joshua spoke.
"You're wondering about why I asked to meet you here, aren't you?" he asked.
I stopped licking my fingers. "Maybe."
"Well," he continued. "I've heard that you've had a bit of trouble with the sword fighting portion of combat training."
"Oh crap." It was true; I could kinda hold my own in hand to hand combat because I was so much smaller and thus faster than everyone else. Sad to say, sword fighting was a different matter altogether. As in, I was having trouble lifting up the sword because it weighed half the amount I did.
"So, since I can actually hold a sword-" See what I mean? "-I was thinking that I could maybe help you out a little," he said.
"Okay..."
Joshua grinned, a feral baring of his teeth. "Excellent. We'll start now."
The two of us must've trained for hours. I was able to pick up the sword and (kind of) wield it after about half an hour, so we started sparring. My concentration and my grip (on the sword and reality, ha-ha) kept slipping, and it didn't help that the dryads continually made comments and picked sides.
"Okay, last time," Joshua gasped. Sweat was beading on his brow. "I'm just too tired to continue." That's funny. I kinda felt like I was just getting started.
Without waiting for a signal of any kind, I lunged at Joshua with the sword in both of my hands. He blocked my strike easily, and I leaped to the side instead of letting the sword be knocked out of my hands. I swung at his side, and he blocked that too. I slipped under his sword (being short has its advantages) and placed the tip of my sword on Joshua's neck. There was only enough space for the sword between our two bodies.
"You...you beat me," Joshua said slowly. His sword fell out his hand and clattered to the ground.
I lowered my sword, then set it down. "Well, it was bound to happen at one point or another," I pointed out. "You can't win everything, you know."
Instead of responding, Joshua took my face in his hands and kissed me. He tasted like chocolate cake. I think I kissed him back-I'm still not sure.
About five seconds into the kiss, I tore myself out of Joshua's grip.
"I-I need to go," I said. Without waiting for a response, I ran out of the clearing.
"You really need to wait longer before you kiss someone, Joshua," I heard a dryad say. Or at least give a girl some warning first, I thought.
Turns out that running straight through a forest (avoiding trees included, of course) is a pretty good way to leave/escape from aforementioned forest. Until you crash into your older brother's girlfriend, that is.
"Whoa, slow down, Daphnê!" Kiki said, helping me up. "What's wrong?"
"Boy trouble," I gasped, breathing hard. "Can we go somewhere to talk where the rest of your cabin won't be eavesdropping?" Kiki turned around. "Well, you heard her! Shoo! Stacy, can you get Theo for me?" The teen I assumed was Stacy nodded and headed towards the Poseidon cabin, away from her siblings.
"Tell me everything," Kiki commanded.
"Joshua kissed me."
"And you responded by..."
"Running away for no good reason."
Kiki rolled her eyes. "He wasn't touching you or anything, was he? Cuz that counts as a good reason, you know."
"No, that's not it at all, you perv! I was scared because it was my first kiss, nervous because it was my first kiss, freaking out because it was my first kiss, and practically high because it was my first kiss and Joshua's a pretty good kisser," I answered.
"Yeah, you're right. Those aren't very good reasons," she decided. "If you haven't figured it out yet, you're not supposed to run away when you're kissed."
I raised an eyebrow at her. That comment is not worth a proper response.
Kiki sighed in exasperation. "Did you kiss him back, at least?"
"I think so, but I'm not sure," I said. Kiki face-palmed. "Well, let's hope you did, because I'm pretty sure that Joshua will be able to figure out that it was you, not him, if you kissed him back."
Just then, Theo arrived.
"What's up?" she asked.
"Joshua kissed Daphnê, Daphnê ran away," Kiki explained.
Theo shrugged. "At least she didn't punch him."
The two of us stared at her. "Please tell me that you didn't punch Apollo when he kissed you," I asked.
Theo grinned evilly."Sorry, but I can't do that. I only hit him because he tried to put his hand in my pants. Then we set up some rules, and now everything's okay."
"Well, it could be worse," Kiki said. "You could've made sure that Apollo couldn't make anymore demigods." Theo and I slapped her at the same time.
"I really don't get what Luke sees in you," Theo said. I snorted.
"Yeah, I've been worried about him, actually," Kiki said, a frown creasing her brow. "He's been acting really weird lately. Like, he's always distracted, and he's scarily good in combat training sometimes and only average in others. And he never seems to get bruised or anything, like he can't be hurt." Theo and I were saved from responding by the conch horn that signaled dinner at the mess hall.
"Daphnê, you're sitting with me for dinner," Theo ordered.
"Fine." No use telling Theo that I won't be able to get a word in edgewise. She'll just go all sappy and tell Mom and Dad, and everyone will be like, "Oh, Daphnê, why didn't you tell us you feel excluded?" No, definitely not.
Actually, dinner wasn't that bad. Theo introduced me to all of her cabinmates. The leader was a curvy Samoan girl named Elle. She told me that I was more than welcome to stay with the Poseidon cabin whenever I wanted, which I found very nice of her. There were too many jokes about fish (and human!) reproduction for my taste, though I did have fun.
When dinner was over, Chiron said, "The Capture-the-flag teams will be male gods versus female gods, with Athena and Zeus as the leaders. No intentional maiming-" a few kids snorted or laughed at this "-and I will be standing by as a medic."
"Which side is your godly parent on?" Elle asked.
"My mom's," I replied.
"Damn we'll be on opposite sides." Elle sounded dejected. She's way to nice to me, honestly.
Just then, Chiron trotted up to the table. "Daphnê, can you play on the male gods' team? The Eros boy that your bother, um, injured-" Theo choked down a laugh at this "-is still out of commission, so they're short a player."
"Yeah, I'd be happy to," I replied.
"Wait a minute," Elle said. "Not that I've got anything against Daphnê joining our side, but the Eros and Aphrodite cabins never play Capture-the-Flag." A few of her cabinmates nodded. "What are you up to, Chiron?"
He looked suspicious. (Actually, both Elle and Chiron did. But that's irrelevant.) "Nothing, nothing at all." He did the whole strolling away, casually whistling act.
"I've never been able to get anything out of that man-er, centaur," Elle muttered. She raised her voice and addressed the whole table. "Alright, everybody, Evanlyn is this way! Let's go!" She ran off towards what I assumed was the Zeus table. Man, that girl can move fast for someone of her size.
A slim, lithe girl with eyes like chunks of blue ice (If you've read every book that Tamora Pierce has written, you'll know where I got this) was standing on top of a table yelling at people.
"Hermes, Dionysus, half Apollo and half Ares defend the flag. Thanatos, Hades, Phobos, border patrol. Poseidon, you know what to do. The rest of Apollo and Asclepius, work as healers where needed. Hermes, Zeus, Morpheus, Eros, the rest of Ares, and everyone else, hang out wherever you're needed!"
Elle turned to face the cabin. "Well, you heard her! Head to the pegasus stables!" Looking at me, she asked, "Can you ride?"
"I should hope so, as it's the only thing that I'm close to being good at in camp," I replied.
"Good! Stay with me. You normally ride..." Elle said.
"Nessa. Why?"
Elle grinned evilly. "Oh, you'll find out. Let's MOVE IT!" My gods, that girl is like a slave driver or something.
Ten minutes later, I had tacked Nessa up and was standing at Zeus' Fist (called the Poop Pile by everyone else). Guess what the Poseidon cabin does during Capture-the-Flag games? They ride their pegasi above everyone else. Guess who's joining them today? Me. What in Hades' socks have I gotten myself into?
"Alright, let's talk strategy," Evelyn (the leader of the Zeus cabin) said. "Everyone needs to keep an eye out for Hecate campers-I don't trust them not to turn themselves into trees then stab us when we're not looking. Knock them unconscious whenever possible, since that's technically not maiming." There were few laughs at this. "Athena cabin's probably got some over complicated strategy-ignore them, and ruin their plans whenever possible. Poseidon, use a messenger system, and Elle, let Theo do the specifics since she's partially a daughter of Athena. Everyone know what they're doing?" We all nodded.
"Good. Let's go!" With that, the Poseidon cabin and I mounted our pegasi and leaped into the air.
"Daphnê, lead the chain," Theo ordered. "Elle, follow her, then Andrew, Lauren, Stephen, and Alex. I'll go last." Why me first? No time to worry about that now, though. Judging from the blue lights in the sky, I located the other team's flag and turned Nessa in that direction. I nudged her into a hand gallop, with the others following close behind. I made sure to stay out of arrow and spear range-I don't care if Chiron said no intentional maiming, getting knocked off a flying pegasus would be no fun. About a fourth of the blue lights were gone by the time we reached the other team's flag. I circled Nessa above the remaining lights until the rest had disappeared. When they had, I kicked Nessa into a full gallop, turned her into a steep dive, and positioned myself in the two-point position. I judged the timing carefully...Now! I leaned left and grabbed the flag, wheeled Nessa around and up, and passed the flag to Elle. She, in turn, passed it to Andrew, who passed it to Lauren, who gave it to Stephen, who handed it to Alex, who practically tossed it at Theo. Warning: Do NOT, under any circumstances, try this at home. Theo jumped off the pegasus and hit the ground running. Everyone else followed suit. One by one, Lauren, Elle, Andrew, Alex, and Stephen were hit on the head. It was just Theo and I left when Joshua and a beautiful Latina with cold, hard, silver eyes leaped out at us. Theo wrapped herself around the flag and tumbled under them. Huh. All those gymnastic lessons paid off, I suppose. I drew my knife and dove at Silver Eyes. She tried to stab me with her dagger, but I easily sidestepped her and drove my elbow into her stomach. She collapsed, gasping. Joshua bent to help his fallen comrade and Theo ran ahead, sprinting towards the creek. I followed her.
Theo swam across the creek and emerged victorious on the other side. The design on the flag changed to a silver and aqua trident, and the whole team converged upon her, screaming with happiness.
Chiron trotted into the clearing. "And Poseidon won..." he muttered, then looked up at everybody.
"I have grave news," he said. Everyone stopped celebrating and looked at him.
"A quest is in order: One of the god's items has been stolen," the centaur announced. Chaos erupted instantly.
Yeah, this is one of those cliched, overdone stolen item stories. Sorry to disappoint if anyone found this worth reading. If you can guess what the item is, you get cyber brownies! Hint: It's not one f the normal items. Oh...and please give me concrit or flame me (you don't even have to be anonymous...in fact, don't be!) or at least tell me about something that I did well or SOMETHING! I need motivation, not just 'great job, update soon's! Oh and sorry about any typos google docs doesn't work properly on the computer that I'm using.
And on that note, ~Adios~