new chapter :) i'll try do add a couple a week, hopefully i can finish the book before 1-2 months. I broke away from my original rough story line, mainly to add a more definite role for some of my characters, the ones originally meant to just be accessories. And C'mon guys, R&R, make me happy. Tell me if you like it, its gonna be a lot of fun at the end, plus its gonna be pretty deep and kinda cool (i hope :P). Nd Skywriter5, thanks for the love :P, knowing I have atleast one regular reader is great :).
I'm planning on rewriting all the chapters when i'm done to make them flow smoother, so assistance is greatly appreciated if you tell me what works for you, and what puts you off. Yes at the end of the chapter, I make Percy seem more human, why?, because this book is about Alex Bolden, he's the hero, so Percy's not gonna be the awesome guy who saves the day anymore. He's gonna have serious character flaws which will be seen in the rest of the book. (feel free to message me or drop a review if you want my opinions on why i'm gonna do this.)
Chapter 9:-
As we entered the dining pavilion, I noticed most of the other cabins were there. Well all of them except the Hermes cabin. I caught Victorie's eye and she smiled. To her right, Kylie gave me a wink. The morning suddenly seemed so much brighter and eventful.
"Late again, Percy" Chiron noted as we walked to our table.
"Give me a break, Chiron, I had to show the new guy the ropes."
"I'm sure. And dont forget what we discussed last night. You should get started right away."
Percy nodded and led the way to the table.
"What was that about?" I asked him.
"Well, we think its time to start your training. Normally, we wouldn't go so fast, but seeing that you're probably gonna be caught up in the prophecy, Chiron thinks its best to start preparations early."
"So I get to hear it?"
Percy laughed. "Not yet"
Then at the sight of my disappointed face, he added. "Look, don't worry about it. Hearing a prophecy doesn't do you any good. And besides, during the titan war, I didn't hear the prophecy till right before it began. So just relax and train. You're gonna be in the crash course, so don't expect any of the instructors to take it easy on you."
"Crash course?"
"3 months and you'll be killing monsters like you've been doing it all your life. You'll be at the same level as the campers who've been here 2-3 years."
"And Victorie?"
"You're really into her, aren't you? A word of advice, you should really tell her how you feel soon."
I blushed. "I think she already knows."
"Does she? But you never know, girls can sometimes be harder to understand than Ancient Greek. But yeah, she'll be taking advanced training, too. Though I doubt you'll share more than a couple of classes together."
"Why?"
"She's Nike, and Nike's always with Athena, she'll be following their schedule. You'll be following mine. Anyway, Tyson said he was coming up today."
"Who's Tyson?"
"My half-brother" Percy grinned. "And just a heads up. He's a cyclops, so don't stare." And smirking slightly at my incredulous expression he walked over to the fire in the middle to give his offering to the gods.
It was at that moment that I saw the little girl standing next to fire. She was watching me, and I got the feeling she was not looking at me, but rather inside me. She smiled and faded away.
"There was a girl over there," I pointed out where the girl had been standing to Percy. "She disappeared."
"Lady Hestia" Percy nodded. "Last of the Olympians, and the one most easily forgotten."
"She seemed to be analyzing me."
"Was she? Well she is a goddess, she must be trying to figure you out. Don't think too much on it. Gods and Goddesses do mysterious things, we don't need to dwell on what they do. If its important they'll let us know.
Breakfast finished, and the campers all filed out. I caught up to Victorie before she left.
"You doing okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, thank you, Alex, you're a really good friend."
"You're welcome, but you don't have to keep thanking me. I didn't do anything."
He gave me a thin smile, "It meant a lot to me."
It was getting kinda awkward, so I decided to change the subject, "So did someone tell you about this crash course training thing?"
"Mhmmm... I want to learn how to fight, be able to take care of my self. Especially since Annabeth made me feel like I was a major part of the prophecy."
"Excuse me, Alex, but I need to take Victorie and go." Kylie slid up next to Victorie. She smiled at me, and I found myself smiling back.
"Umm...yeah, sure... cya, girls"
"Bye" they called running after the rest of their cabin.
I was turning away when I sensed a wave of discontent wash over me. I cautiously looked around and found myself face to face with a bunch of guys, all giving me evil glares.
"Ummm...hello... I'm Alex"
"Cut the crap. How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Don't act stupid. How'd u get so friendly with them?"
"Kylie and Victorie? I dunno...we just met yesterday."
"Exactly, you've been here a day, and already like two of the hottest girls our age are suddenly talking to you? Something's wrong."
"Easy, guys, its not his fault." Glen and Chris were walking up.
"Besides," Chris added, "Theres still Cassandra, from Aprhodite. Lucca, too."
"And Cathy" a guy in the back added.
"Belinda."
"Monica"
"Kimberly"
"Dude, that's my sis!"
"Sucks for you, bro."
"Oh, and Danielle."
"Aw yeah, Danielle."
"Yup, see, all is not lost. Still plenty of girls for the rest of us." Chris grinned.
There were grunts of approval. "Hey new guy, Alex, sorry bout this misunderstanding. But you know, we have to make sure if you're okay and stuff. You know, to make sure our interests are protected."
"ummmm... right... I'm gonna go now, cya guys around."
"They're not all that bad" Glen said, smiling slightly. "They're actually pretty cool once you get to know them."
"Yo Alex," Percy called."Get your butt over here, first class is sword-fighting, in 20 minutes. Lets go back to the cabin, before that. You still gotta meet Tyson, he's gonna be our cabin mate while he's here."
I told my new...friends, I guess... that I would meet them later and jogged over. "Who's the instructor?" I asked.
"Me. Don't expect me to take it easy on you."
As we entered the cabin, I heard a big shout. "BROTHER" and then a huge figure came running out and grabbed Percy in a giant bear hug.
"Its good to see you, too, big guy. How's dad doing?"
"He's good, Palace is nearly complete again. How is the shield?"
"Its fine, still works atleast. Getting a bit rusty." Saying this, he pushed the face of the watch he was wearing and a shield around 3 feet in diameter spiraled out. There was a loud screech as the last piece slid out."
"Don't worry, I'll fix it." Tyson said immediately, taking the watch from Percy.
"How long do you get to stay, Tyson?"
"All summer" Tyson beamed. "Who is this?" he asked, noticing me.
"This, is Alex, Alex Bolden. He's gonna be staying in our Cabin. Alex, meet Tyson."
I stared awkwardly up at the imposing figure, right up at his oddly proportioned skull with the single solitary eye, gulped, and said. "Hey."
His mouth broke out into a rough grin. "You are Achilles' brother, no? Daddy wanted me to give you this." He reached into his pocket and withdrew a thin gold chain, with a shell pendant.
"Ummm... thanks..." I said, taking it. "And thank you, too, Lord Posiedon," I said looking up at the sky, figuring that was probably the right thing to do.
"Daddy's not in Olympus," Tyson told me seriously, "he's down there," he pointed towards the beach.
"Oh, right, thank you, Lord Posiedon," I said, facing the beach. "So what does it do?"
They both looked at me with confused expressions.
"What do you mean?" Tyson asked finally.
"Does it turn into, I dunno, a helmet or something?"
Tyson shook his head. "Just a good luck charm. Belonged to Achilles."
"Oh" I said, slipping it over my head.
I figured I would let them catch up, so I headed to the back porch of the cabin, where I had sat with Victorie the night before. I pulled the chain off my neck and examined it. So this had belonged to my step-brother. It looked pretty ordinary, even the shell. Except it was made out of gold. A good luck charm, Tyson had said. Can't have been too lucky though, I thought. Achilles still managed to take an arrow to his heel, unless Paris had a charm even luckier? I slipped it back on when I heard Percy coming towards the back a couple of minutes later.
"Hey Alex, you ready?"
"Yeah, lets go."
"Tyson'll stay here." Tyson called, "Go down to the forges later."
"Sounds good, big guy, cya in a bit."
...
"Good. Definite improvement" Percy told me as I slashed and stabbed at his orders. He was a tough teacher, and his sword skills were impressive. In no time at all I was panting. I put my hands on my knees to catch my breath.
"That's all you got?" Lucius scoffed. "Why in my age, even kids half your age could last longer in a fight. And you're using celestial bronze, too. Try real bronze, I doubt you'd even be able to lift it."
"Shut it" I growled. Ares told me this sword was superior to all the others in the armory, but so far it seemed like any other sword. Albeit one that had a knack for insulting me.
"That's really good for your first time with a blade. But lets try some more dynamic targets."
I looked around but all I saw were the stationary straw and wood practice dummies. "We have moving targets?"
"Yes" Percy replied, touching his watch face, "Me"
He slung his shield over his back, capped riptide, and put it back in his pocket.
"Don't worry" Percy laughed, "I doubt you'd be able to hit me. Swing."
I slashed downwards, but Percy sidestepped easily.
"You're gonna have to be much faster than that."
I slashed downward again, reversed the blade and swung upward again, but Percy was always one step ahead. Where ever I wanted to swing, he was able to dodge easily. Ducking and weaving through all my attacks, I always seemed to strike at the position he was a second ago.
After about a half hour of this, Percy called for a break.
"Good, very good," He said. "You definitely kept me moving."
We were sitting at the edge of the sword fighting arena, moping up our sweat. Percy grabbed a bottle of cold water from a cooler at the edge, drinking half, he poured the rest over his head.
"Well I'm ready, lets go."
"That's not fair, you get like instant energy from the water."
"Ya, well, I'm the teacher, remember. Up, up, up. Lets spar a bit."
"Spar? With real swords?" I eyed the pen in Percy's pocket a little apprehensively. "what if there's, like, an accident."
Without saying a word, Percy uncapped his sword and slashed me. I threw up my hands instinctively to protect myself, but I didn't need to.
"Riptide, won't hurt you. Celestial bronze. He said, tapping it gently."
"Oh yeah."
"And..." he swung Riptide at his own arm. The sword just stopped. "I'm invincible. Like you're half-brother. So you don't need to worry."
"That is so cool," I thought to myself, "I wonder why mom didn't do it for me when I was a baby."
After about 15 minutes, my sword went flying out of my hand for the third time.
"You're hesitating," Percy told me. "Trust your instincts. Don't try to hold back what you're body naturally wants to do, because you think you might not be able to do it. Just let yourself go."
I went over and picked up Lucius.
"Again" Percy called, and he started forward.
"He's going to feint." Lucius' lazy drawl spoke in my mind.
"What? Lucius can speak in my head?" I thought.
"Apparently"
"You can hear my thoughts?"
"Not now, he's feinting, you'll want to block your left. But do it too soon and he'll pull back and you'll lose your advantage."
"How do you know he's feinting? And why are you helping me"
"Because, I have experience," he snapped. "And I don't want to fall on the ground again, its filthy! And the amount of times you've dropped me, it's surprising I haven't lost all my brain cells."
"You don't have brain cells."
"Immaterial. Just do what I say, what do you have to lose?"
I grudgingly gave my consent.
"Good," Lucius said, "When he stabs, look at his feet. If he was going to lunge, his feet would have comitted his body more, he's going to attack from your left. You'll need to flick your wrist and tap his sword outward. Push in the direction of his swing, not against."
"When."
"Wait"
"Now?"
"Wait"
"He's pretty close."
"Now."
I followed what Lucius said. I saw Percy's sword stab towards my right, then at the last second swing outwards towards my left. It was like watching in slow motion. I turned my blade slightly, and struck his sword lightly. Causing Percy's hand to waver a little towards the left.
"Good. now step in. Don't give him time to pull back his blade."
I stepped forward, this time extending my sword slightly as I moved. It ended up exactly in front of his neck.
The world seemed to speed up and Percy and I were face to face, panting, his sword still clutched in his hand, extended uselessly behind me.
"That's enough for today"
"Already, but I finally managed to do something right!"
"I said it's enough, go take a break, you got an hour and a half, and then you got archery with the Athena cabin."
He seemed very tense. And a little angry at me, so I got out of their sharpish, grabbing my stuff as I headed out. I didn't even stop to sheathe Lucius.
"Whats his problem?" I asked nobody in particular.
"He's a sore loser. He's mad because you beat him." Lucius answered. "Don't worry, give him some time, and he'll be back."
"How do you know?"
"Because Achilles was much the same the first time we met. That was the first and only time I was able to beat him."
"You knew Achilles?"
"Knew him?" Lucius snorted "Once he calmed down after that little incident, he was my best friend."
