We walked silently back to the dining hall. Every inch of my body pounding with excitement for the upcoming game. Sammy looked like he was gonna faint. We walked into the dining hall just in time to see Chiron walking (or trotting) onto a table next to the far wall posing as a stage. It even had little stairs. I thought it would crack and groan under his weight, maybe even split in two but it stayed intact and didn't make a sound.
"As you all know," He started. "We are going to play one of the camp's favorite games, Capture the Flag!"
"Is it?" Sammy said stubbornly, "Is it really?"
But the crowd of campers around him exploded with laughter and chanting. This must be an awesome game! I thought.
"Like always we have two captains who pick their teams. This week's captains will be Eve Phyde from the Hephaestus cabin and Dorene Mars from the Aphrodite cabin!" He and everyone else applauded as the two girls walked on to the 'stage' but I didn't. I wanted to scream and shout and yell at Chiron to get that creature out of camp. I wanted to ask so badly what she was doing here. She is not a demigod... Is she? Sh-she can't be. Sammy must've seen her as well (obviously since everyone's eyes are pointing towards the stage) because he let out a sharp gasp.
"Thats-"
"I know who it is!" I said quickly covering his mouth with my hand. "Wait. How do you not know that she was coming to camp?"
"I've never seen her around," he answered. "Although, most of my time is spent either in the forgery or atop the lava climbing wall."
"Huh." I said, thinking secretly that he had no life. "I would never have guessed."
"Dorene, pick your first cabin."
Dorene looked around carefully. Her icy blue eyes freezing everyone in their spot. "The Athena cabin." She said while flashing that perfect smile. I heard a few groans from the Athena table.
"What are they so upset about?" I asked Sammy.
"Everybody hates siding with the Aphrodite cabin because they go out there in their armor and carrying their weapons looking like they're going to go out there and give it there all but instead, they go out there, find a nice flat rock, sit, take out a mirror and smile at themselves. The Athena cabin dislikes them more than any other cabin. Well, Ares cabin too."
"Oh." Is all I said while the captain of the Athena cabin, a pretty girl with curly blonde hair in a ponytail, tan skin and stormy gray eyes walked glumly up to the stage and stood behind Dorene, her tan arms crossed. Today Dorene was wearing an orange camp shirt with a jean jacket over it and frayed blue jeans.
"Eve," said Chiron, glancing at her. "Your turn. Pick one cabin."
"Hmm..." She said. Eve Phyde had shoulder length black hair with light gray streaks that looked like it was smoldering at the ends. She had brown eyes that were hinted with a look of curiosity like Sammy's. She had a long and hooked nose which was lined with freckles. She wore a white and charred t-shirt and jeans. She looked around and said with rough voice, "Ares." The Ares table, which was blood red with a wild boar head stamped in the middle, shouted supportively and stomped their feet appreciatively. The captain of the Ares cabin, a tall and muscular teen boy with murderous blue eyes and black spiky hair, walked up to the stage, hooting and hollering and pumping his fist in the air.
"They always make a big deal about getting chosen. Whether they like it or not. Luckily, for my cabin, they like getting chosen by the Hephaestus cabin this time. Probably because they don't wanna go with the Aphrodite cabin."
"Huh." I said.
"Way to sum it up."
"Dorene," Chiron's voice boomed out again. "Choose your next cabin."
"Ok. Um..." Her eyes fixed greedily on a table in the back. "Poseidon."
Everyone went silent.
"Oh man!" Sammy whined. "They're definitely gonna win if they have Percy and the Athena cabin!"
Percy. That sounded familiar. Percy is who I remind Stan of... I watched as a boy about 15-16 walked onto the stage. He had wild salty black hair, like mine, I thought. He had sea-green eyes, like mine, I thought. He had tan skin and as he passed me I could smell hot sandy shores and salty waves. The beach. I knew I had to meet this guy. He smiled at the crowd and leaned with his elbow on Annabeth. She pulled away playfully and he stumbled, still smiling.
"Hey..." Said Sammy, looking back and forth between me Percy. "You guys look a lot a like. Do you know-"
"No." I answered cutting him off. "But I'm gonna meet him."
"Eve." Said Chiron. This whole choosing thing went on for about 30 minutes and when it finally ended the teams looked like this:
Aphrodite: Athena, Poseidon, Demeter, Iris
Hephaestus: Ares, Apollo, Hermes, Hypnos
I was with Sammy's cabin which was good because I had no idea how to play exactly.
"Rules," Chiron announced loudly and I thought, that's convenient. "Don't die. Each team gets an hour to get their armor and weapons and 20 minutes to set up their flag. And... Go!"
Well, that was really helpful, I thought sarcastically, now all the new campers know exactly how to play.
"My team," Eve called in her rough voice. "Follow me."
We did. We followed her to the weapons room where armor stood and extra weapons. the weapons room was really cool. I could choose any weapon in the room but I think I wanna use the ones Poseidon gave me. I checked my belt to make sure they were still there. I smiled. They were.
"Choose armor, remember we are the blue team so the armor must be blue, and if you have no weapon, choose one. You know, every piece of armor and every weapon is made in the Forgery by the Hephaestus cabin, including me." She smiled widely. I rolled my eyes and walked over to a rack with blue armor laid upon it. I grabbed a breastplate, a helmet and a shield. Sammy and the others did the same. It was a little crowded, since we had five whole cabins in here. Everyone had to wait in line to get their stuff. Luckily, I was only fourth in line so I didn't have to wait that long. Sammy was #23 in the line so he waited a while. About 45 minutes later all five cabins walked out of the weapons room in heavy blue armor. As I walked the breastplate seemed to weigh me down. I seemed to be shrinking. My legs didn't want to hold my own weight. And then a voice spoke,
"I know what you're thinking. But, please, don't take the armor off. All new campers want to since it's way to heavy for them but after a while at camp they toughen up. Wearing armor is like second skin." It was Eve.
"Oh." I replied. "Ok... But my legs feel like jello! They're all wiggly and wobbly and feel... weird. Like noodles. I don't like noodles."
"Oh..." She said. "That's nice... Just do me a favor and don't take it off. If you do you could get skewered and it'd hurt a lot more if you weren't wearing your armor."
"Oh. I'm sure it would."
"Come on." Eve said but this time loud. So everyone else could hear, her voice bouncing with authority off the Weapons building, which now stood behind us. She grabbed the blue flag which was pushed into the ground to her right and raised it high. "Here's the plan, Campers. A few cabins will guard the flag. Hypnos, Hephaestus and Apollo will do that. Hypnos will guard it from behind. Hephaestus, my cabin, will guard it from the front. Apollo will guard it from the trees.-" She looked at each cabin in turn then rested them on the Apollo cabin. "-If you see any red bodies sprinting towards the flag, take your bow and arrows and shoot 'em. We are going to be the sons to win this week.-" Energetic shouting arose all around me at these few words. "As for the campers who are going to be retrieving the red team's flag I will have... Ares and Hermes. Ares you charge at 'em in the front. Try to take down as many Reds as you can. Make it look like, try to make them believe that you're the only ones who we sent for the flag and that their main attention should be on you. Hermes, spread out and separate. You'll be trying to get their flag from the back. If everyone does their job right then we should end up as the winners. Lets do this." She grinned and said "Let's go." and we all followed her into the woods.
'