IX I train younger kids
Annabeth and I headed to the arena. We had to train the other cabins, because, firstly, we were the best sword and knife handlers and I currently hold the flag for capture the flag tonight with ares. I have allied with Athena (obviously), Apollo, Hades (nico suddenly shadow travelled into the arena), nemesis, Hecate and Hermes (about 60 people). Ares had allied themselves with everyone else. Annabeth was in a cornet, discussing strategy with the older campers while I was in charge of training the younger kids hand to hand combat. Nico and I took about 15 kids each, and we steered clear from the archery area where Will was training with his siblings. Trust me, an arrow can really hurt. So I took my group of campers, and I started the lesson,as Luke had with me 4 years ago.
"Let's start with the disarming technique," I said, "this might take a while to master, but once done, it can prove to be really useful."
"yeah, like how? How would you know?" asked a newbie. Travis punched him in the arm and said, "Alec, do you even know what he did last summer?"
Most of the demigods were silent. They had all come recently, and I am actually quite glad, because whenever anyone repeats the story, I tend to turn quite red. So I went to get a drink, but I still overheard their conversation.
"you know the freak storms last year in america? With all the earthquakes and such?" said Connor. All the kids nodded yes. Travis continued, "well, that was the second Titan war. And percy here saved Olympus and defeated Hyperion and Kronos." after hearing this, they were all awestruck. They were all quiet and respectful when I came over again, and to be honest, I felt quite uncomfortable. So I just said, "practice the disarming manoeuvre with a partner while duelling. 50 repetitions." they started to get to work immediately. None of them would partner with me, and I finally knew how Luke felt when people were terrified of his skill. So I just went into the corner and practiced with dummies.
Finally, a timid hecate girl came over to tell me they were done. I still had to look at their technique, so I said to them, "find a partner and start duelling. One by one. You are allied to use your powers or magical items." Everyone started grouping up immediately. After 5 minutes, a boy came up to me and said, shaking with nervousness, "M
r. Jackson, sir, ummm, I have to be your partner because there's no one left." It took me a while until I realised that he was afraid of me. So I replied kindly, "Don't worry, which cabin are you from?" He answered, "undetermined." "Well", I said, "just do the best you can. I'll go easy on you. Let's go watch the others first. And call me Percy, will you?" I shot him a smile. He returned it with a happy, "alright!" and scurried off to watch the others. I went over to where they had marked the circle, and the fights began.
The first pair was Chris and Connor. Chris was obviously the sword- fighter, and it's evident that his dates with Clarisse had something to do with sword fighting. However, Connor, being the sneaky guy, provoked Chris's fatal flaw: his anger. Chris had gotten Connor to the ground after a series of slashes and parries, but he wouldn't give up. "Surrender!" yelled Chris. "Never," said Connor, breathing hard, "they really taught you something in Titan training didn't they?" Chris glared at him, momentarily forgetting the sword at Connor's throat. Connor lunged for the hilt and was up again. "Bro," he said, while slashing at Chris, "this is why you never tell anyone about your fatal flaw." after lots of clanging, he finally managed to get a good sized cut on Chris's shirt until Chris kicked him on the floor with a snarl. Hard. In the ribs. Connor fell to the floor wheezing, doubling over and clutching his stomach. Chris pointed his swords and knife at Connor, and said, face red with fury, "You can do anything you like, but never, EVER" he yelled, glaring at everyone in the circle, "say anything about the Titan war. If I don't kill you, Clarisse will."
I decided to intervene. I didn't want campers killing each other, did I? "Chris," I said, "calm down. It's fine. It's just a duel, it's not serious." He looked like he was about to have a mental breakdown like he did after he had visited the labyrinth, so I asked for someone to get Clarisse. Unsurprisingly, she charged in after a few minutes, bellowing, "WHO DID THIS TO CHRIS AND HIS SHIRT! IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT PUNK!" she grabbed a white faced camper who was paralysed with fear. She started to hit him until Chris ran into the arena, holding an ice pack, saying, "It's fine Clarisse. I'll deal with it." "FINE!" She screamed, "but when I find the culprit," she glared at everyone and held her spear menacingly, "I'm going to cream the punk!"
Chris was obviously embarrassed when he led Clarisse outside. But I felt even worse for Connor, because Clarisse was bound to get the truth, one way or the other. The poor guy was positively horrified, because Clarisse was brutal and had no mercy. All the other campers were comforting him, until I calked for order. Then the duels began again. I felt like a teacher, commenting on their duel. But they didn't seem to mind. Finally, it was up to me and the other camper.
As we walked into the center of the circle, everyone was snickering. I felt sorry for the kid, so I whispered to him a plan that I had just made up, because I had a hunch of who his parent was. We both acted as if we were going to start the duel, when I snapped my fingers and created a mini earthquake, everyone but me and the new kid fell to the ground, and their eyes were glassy. I was amazed at how quickly the camper had picked up on his powers. "Good job," I said. "What did you send them?"
"well, I sent them into a dream where they can see us fighting. I've bought us about five minutes or so. I'm Drew, by the way." he said, holding out his hand.
"Percy." I said, returning the shake. "So, how did you manage to pick up on that so quickly? I've never seen a Hecate camper being able to manipulate dreams as well. It's as if-" I stopped and stared. A purplish glow symbolizing Hecate was surrounding Drew, but it had a black outline. At my four years of experience, this had never happened before. So I quickly told him to wake everyone up, and I ran over to the Big House. Only Chiron would know the answer to this. In the end, I ran back, and took Drew with me. Things were going to get complicated. When Chiron answered the door, he fainted as he saw Drew's aura. So we did the obvious. We called for help.
