Chapter 8 I capture a flag
The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, the key word is almost. Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth with Percy. The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities and training with my void. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but I was not that good at it. I was better than Percy, who managed to shot in the opposite direction he was aiming for.
Foot racing? I did ok at it, I was some were in the middle but Percy was dead last. And wrestling? Forget it. Every time Percy or I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize us.
"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.
Despite that I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire for herms thanking him for letting me stay in his cabin.
Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Every-body from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.
I didn't do that good. I was good with a scythe, a sword was totally different. After the break Luke had Percy fight him to show the class, to my shock Percy won. When they fought again he lost easy.
"Beginners luck?" someone said.
"Maybe," he said. "But I won-der what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."
Friday there was a lot more excitement than usual.
At last, it was time for capture the flag.
When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.
"Those are the flags?" asked Percy
"Yeah." Said Luke
"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"
"Not always," he said. "But often."
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do, repaint the flag?"
He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."
"Whose side are we on?" I asked.
"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help Percy."
The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities-in order to win support.
Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. I started to look for the more dangers people, from what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Most Aphrodite's sons and daughters weren't a dangerous. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island and the biggest threat.
Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.
"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"
He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, ox hide shields coated in metal.
"Whoa," Percy said. "We're really supposed to use these?"
"No, we are supposed to give them to the enemy" I said sarcastically.
Luke laughed and said to Percy "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."
I decided to go without armor so I would be faster than the others. "What will I be doing" I asked.
"You're with me capturing the flag." He said.
Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"
We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.
I followed Luke towards the creek. "Hey why are you not wearing armor?" he asked.
"I don't want it to slow me down" I said.
"Ok but try to not get hit it will hurt."
"Noted."
Annabeth stationed Percy next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of us scattered into the trees.
I followed Luke into the woods preparing for a fight when a horn blew and we were off. Then a feeling passed over me, similar to what I felt when I fought the dark swords men.
A group of the red team attacked us, I willed void into a scythe and blocked one strike and counter attacked, hitting him in the head with the butt of my scythe and he crumpled to the ground. Next I charged to Luke who was fighting two at once. I rammed into one knocking him to the ground, then I slammed the blunt side of my scythe into his head knocking him out cold.
"Thanks man" Luke said.
We charged forward then we reached the flag. Two guards rushed to attack us, Luke slammed the hilt of his sword in ones face and I rushed the other and nocked the spear out of his hand and kicked him in the head.
"Grab the flag and let's go!" I said.
"On it" he said and grabbed the flag.
We ran as fast as we could to are side when a spear flew at Luke hitting him in the leg.
When I went to help him he said. "No get the flag to are side."
So I grabbed the flag and ran as fast as I could that feeling earlier became stronger. I ran through the forest like I was born in it. When the creek was in view I put the last of my energy in and jumped everyone gasped at how long I jumped.
I when landed on the other side, the blue team went wild cheering and ran up to me and patted my back. Then we heard a howl the campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"
I ready my scythe.
There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.
It glared right at Percy.
"Percy run" yelled Annabeth.
I ran forward when the best struck, I let the feeling that had been growing take over. I changed into my snake form and lunged at the best nocking it off Percy and rapped around it and bit it over and over injecting my venom into it.
It howl in pain then slowly disintegrated. I changed back with every one staring at me in shock.
Annabeth was the first to snap out of it "Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... They're not supposed to ... "
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"
"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.
"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."
"I'm okay."
"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."
He stepped back into the water and his wounds started to heal and then a hollow graphic trident appeared over his head.
"It is determined," Chiron announced.
All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.
"My father?" he asked, completely bewildered.
"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."
