Chapter 10: Toni's POV

Here it is! I apologize for the extremely long wait, I actually finished this chapter in October, but didn't have time to type it up, so I'm very sorry for those few who read it! Also, happy new year! I promise to update more frequently this year! Enjoy! This is also dedicated to my beautiful friend CrazyFanGirlOfLots!

As I walked with Lilah, Josh, and Nathan, I wondered about my battle axe. What would it look like? Would they have one in my size or would they have to make one specially for m? Unconsciously, I was fiddling with a piece of wire I found earlier.

"Toni," Lilah said softly, putting her hand on my arm. I looked at her. "What?" She pointed at my hands, and where the wire in my palm, a perfect rose ring replaced it. I looked at it surprise. Huh. Did not mean to do that. I heard Lilah gasp and I mentally shrugged. Why not? "Huh. Here Lilah," I said, putting it on her finger.

Lilah smiled hugely. "Thanks!" she exclaimed, hugging me. I rolled my eyes. "Uh huh, you're welcome, but you can let go now," I reminded her, as she continued to hug me while walking.

"Oh, sorry," Lilah blushed, letting go. The blond one, Josh, looked back. I raised my eyebrow in challenge, as if to ask, Got a problem, buddy? He shrugged and turned forward again. I grinned in victory. The Eyebrow strikes again!

"Here we are," announced Nathan, opening the door to the armory. Josh went in first, me second, Lilah third. I heard her thanking Nathan, and smirking, I shook my head. The door slammed and someone hit the lights. A row of lights lit up around the edges of the room, highlighting the metal of the weapons. A gasped at all of the deadly instruments of death. Yes I know that was redundant. No I don't care. I slowly walked farther inside the room, looking at all the gleaming metal. Lilah stopped at the entrance, hand over mouth, eyes wide in horror. Nathan was trying to make her move, but she wasn't budging. Josh was walking backwards, arms open. "Welcome to the weapons room," he said grinning.

Ignoring him, I stepped closer to one of the swords. "What's this made of? I don't recognize the metal," I asked confusedly, picking it up and running my finger along the edge.

"Celestial bronze," came the answer. "Huh," I muttered, peering at my reflection in the blade. Then I frowned at the face looking back at me. I had missed a spot of grease. I sighed as I rubbed at it, knowing it wouldn't come off. Putting the sword back, I demanded, "Where's my axe?"

Josh motioned behind him. "Door number three," he smirked. I pushed past him, rolling my eyes. Jerk. I want my axe! And there it was. It was beautiful, double-bladed and shining dully in the light. I reached for it, but paused. There was a plain one next to it. I could decorate it as I saw fit! I was interrupted from my musings, "What?" I glared at Josh, hands on hips.

He waggled a finger at me. "Not quite yet," he said in a sing-song voice. "Why?" I snapped. "They're right here!"

"We need to find a mace first," grunted Nathan, who happened to be pushing Lilah in the room. "Eek!" she screamed, running in the room herself. She glared at Nathan. "Not cool." Nathan shrugged. "Got ya in here, didn't it?"

Lilah crossed her arms and looked at the floor. "Why do we need to find a mace first?" I asked. "They are right over there," I pointed. Josh sighed, annoyed with me and my questioning. "Yes, but she is small and we aren't sure if there's a mace small enough for her."

"Oh," I thought about that. "Then let's go find one!" I ran towards the maces, grabbing Lilah on the way. Josh stared after me with his mouth open. I grinned to myself. This was going to be fun, I thought.

"Find what?" panted Lilah.

"Your mace silly!" I laughed at her. What else? "Josh said that we have to get you outfitted first, since they might not have one that'll work for you."

"Why?" she asked, still confused.

"They might be to big for you," I began hesitantly, knowing that Lilah's height was a sensitive subject. She narrowed her eyes, sensing my discomfort. I laughed, trying to play it cool. "Oh, you know." Lilah glared (or what passed as a glare for her) at me. "He said that you. . .that you. . ." I stuttered, not wanting to be the one to release Lilah's wrath.

"Keep talking," she motioned.

"That you might be to small for the mace!" I said quickly and cringed, not wanting her to yell at me for the bad news. Lilah whipped around to find Josh, shyness forgotten in the rage of the height insult. "Hey!"

Josh looked surprised, as if he didn't think that she could talk. "What?"

"Did you insult my height?" Lilah asked in a deadly quiet voice.

Josh raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked again.

"Did you. Insult. My. Height," Lilah asked, still in the deadly quiet voice.

"Oh that!" Josh laughed and shrugged. I winced for him. No one laughs after they call Lilah short. It's alike tickling a sleeping dragon. "I was just saying that our maces might be to big for you," he continued.

Lilah narrowed her eyes. "Strike one." then she continued walking with me to the maces. Almost right away she found it- a silver one with flanges and designs covering it. Once she was done admiring it and proclaiming its name as Miroslava (I don't know why). I dragged her to the beautiful battle axes. Picking up the closest one, I admired, "Wow! Look at the design! The balance! The precision!"

Josh jumped off the table he was sitting on. "Cool! Let's go!"

I gave him a withering look. "Hold on! I'm not choosing this one!" Josh groaned and sat back down on the table. I smirked and put the axe back, looking back at the two axes before. I picked them up and weighed them against each other, getting so absorbed in it that I didn't notice everyone getting restless and Lilah walking over to me. "Why can't you decide?"

I sighed heavily. "This one," I held up the plain one. "is plain, so I could add whatever I want to it and that's cool, but it would take awhile. And this one," I lifted the other one up. "is already decorated and very beautiful, so that would save me time. But I just don't know. . . ." I frowned. This was so hard.

Josh groaned, laying on the table. "Are they weighted okay?"

I made a face at him. "Yes they're weighted just fine." As if I wouldn't know. Internally, I shook my head. Silly boy.

"Then do eenie-meenie-minie-mow and get it over with!" Josh said, exasperated, sitting up and waving his arms around. I watched him idly, calculating when his hand would hit one of the swords hanging from ceiling. 3, 2, 1, and bam! "Ow!" he yelled, clutching his injured hand.

I grinned and winked at Lilah. "Poor Josh," I said sympathetically, walking over to him. "Do you want to go to the nurse?"

Josh narrowed his eyes at me. "You've decided?" he asked cautiously, holding his bleeding hand.

I smirked. "Nope!" Josh groaned quietly. "Of course not," he muttered. I feel bad for him, though I wasn't going to tell him that, and made my decision a little faster. "Got it!"

"Yes!" he yelled. "Finally!" HE hopped off the table once again and started to lead the way out when he noticed that I had both battle axes."Why do you have them both?" he demanded.

I shrugged, pleased with my solution. "I'm going to work on the plain one in my spare time and train with the other one. That way I'll be able to see what I like and don't like and fit it on mine."

Lilah smiled. "Good idea, Toni!" Josh still looked a little suspicious, but let it go thankfully. "Alright. Time to go to the training arena!" Josh said happily, walking a ways ahead. I rolled my eyes. Boys were kinda dumb, as I said before. He completely forgot about his bleeding hand because going to the training area was so cool.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" I asked Lilah, trying to figure out how long it took me to just take both.

"Come on Nathan, let's go train." She avoided my question by grabbing Nathans hand and catching up to Josh.

I laughed. "That bad, huh?" I muttered to myself smiling. I caught up to them, walking by Josh, saying, "Alright, alright," complacently. Then a though struck me. "So, who's going to train us?"

Josh glanced at Nathan and I noticed Lilah was still holding his hand. She let go quickly, blushing furiously. "Well?" I demanded, hands on hips. I am NOT a patient person and I never will be.

Josh rolled his eyes. He seems to do that a lot. . .well, then again, so was I. . .huh. "I'm going to teach you and Nathan will teach Lilah. Okay?" I nodded, happy Lilah was going to be with Nathan. She obviously likes him. Ugh! I frowned to myself That was not an Aphrodite moment I just had. Leave the love stuff to Autumn. She knows more that you anyways. My inner conflict brought me to the arena in silence, which almost never happens.

"Me and Toni will be in the left corner and you and Lilah will be in the right, so we won't bump into each other, clear?" Josh asked, looking at Nathan for confirmation. Nathan nodded and I shrugged. A soft "Clear," came from Lilah and we split into two groups, moving to our corners.

"So what do you know of fighting with a battle axe? Anything?" asked Josh as we reached our corner.

I thought a moment. "Um, not to much, just the usual you know, one or two handed, slicing techniques, the usual."I stared at him. I wasn't dumb, I know my axes.

Josh raised an eyebrow and snorted. "Yep. That's definitely the usual. Lotsa kids don't even know that we have battle axes, let alone know techniques about them." He gave me an appraising look. "But I guess it makes sense that you would know."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" I asked suspiciously, twirling Letter Opener. It's a beautiful name, don't judge.

Josh sighed frustratedly. "That was a compliment, Toni. Take it."

"Oh," I blushed slightly, thanking the gods that my skin was dark and it wouldn't show. "Thanks." I shrugged uncomfortable, not used to getting compliments from cute guys. I frowned again. Autumn must be corrupting me with her Aphrodite powers to make me care about boys, I mused. I must have drifted off because the next thing I knew, Josh was snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"Hey! Anybody home?" he asked, rapping his knuckles on the side of my head.

Scowling, I slapped his hand away. "Yes someone's home. Now can we start?"

Josh gave me a look, but didn't comment. "Okay," he cleared his throat. "Since I'm assuming you know some of the basics, so do you wanna spar so I can get a feel of your skill level?"

I shrugged. "Whatever. I could totally kick your ass," I said smirking, hoping he'd get the message that I was trying to apologize for spacing earlier.

Josh grinned wolfishly. "Oh, you're on!" he said, readying himself and pulling a sword out of nowhere. And I mean nowhere. I walked with him in here and didn't see him grab one or anything. Shrugging it off, I got down in a proper stance. We eyed each other up, trying to figure out what the other would do. I had just decided to attack from the left when Josh yelled, "En garde!" and charged me straight on. I smiled. Josh made a huge mistake taking me head on. Well, let me rephrase that. Josh made a huge mistake attacking me at all. Calculating the distance between us and the reach of his sword, I timed my strike. Three, two, one, strike! I swung!-and. . . missed? Wondering what he was playing at, I turned and faced him, the pretty battle axe held in front of me. As soon as I was looking at him, Josh dropped his sword and reared back, hand fisted in a punch. Automatically, I dropped my weapon and ducked, crouching in defense. Quick as a flash, Josh changed tactics, grabbing my axe and his sword instead of punching me. Josh laughed delightedly, skipping backwards away from me.

"Gotcha! I win!" He grinned victoriously, waving my axe above his head, taunting me.

"Dirty cheat!" I yelled back. "You can't just change from weapons to hand-to-hand combat like that!"

Josh, still grinning, shrugged and winked at me. "All's fair in love and war!"

Seething, I opened my mouth to respond, but a loud horn blew instead.

"Lunch!" Josh yelled, running to the exit. I growled to myself. He was going to pay. . . .

"I'm going to get you!" I shouted after him, right on his heels. "Lunch isn't going to stop that!" I raced after him, but unfortunately he escaped to his table unscathed. Huffing, I sat next to Jake, frowning at my plate. My favorite food- fried chicken- appeared, and I dug in. After, of course, giving a portion to the gods. Contemplating a way to get back at Josh took all lunch, but I finally had a plan.

:Hold on Jake, I gotta get something," I said to him, who was going to teach me how to use the forge, before running off to Nathan. "Nathan!" I called. He turned. "Yes?"

Beckoning him closer, I whispered, "Can you get me Josh's sword? He played a prank and I gotta get him back."

Looking conflicted for a few minutes, Nathan finally nodded. "Yeah. Stay here and I'll be back in a second." Waiting, I waved at Autumn and Marina, keeping a careful watch for Josh and Nathan. A minute later, Nathan was back, clutching Josh's sword. I raised my eyebrows, but didn't ask how he got it and why he was carrying it so openly.

"Thanks Nathan! I owe you one!" I yelled, waving at him as I ran towards Jake. He looked as if he was going to say something, but I was too far away. If it was important, I reasoned, he'll tell me later. Smiling, I caught up with him. "Okay, ready!"

Jake raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. Briefly I wondered if my facial expression had anything to do with it, but I just brushed it off. I mean, I'm sure they've seen a maniacal expression on someone's face before, right? Maybe not as intense, but whatever. I'm sure they'll live. Of course, I forgot about the huge sword I was carrying and, looking back, I'm pretty sure that's why some people avoid as much as possible. But, their loss!

Reaching the forge, no one gave me a second look. Or even a first one, for that matter, they were so involved in their work. Jake led me to the back and showed me the basics. After getting a handle on it, he left me well enough alone, but stayed close just in case. I finished my work on Josh's sword in record time, along with someone else's help. . . . I worked on my axe until dinner, subtly giving Nathan back Josh's sword. Or as subtly as I could with a sword.

"Don't let him use it until we spar again, or when he's demonstrating something in front of a big crowd . . . you'll thank me if you do," I smirked at Nathan, who took it hesitantly, as if it was going to explode. Rolling my eyes, I practically skipped to my seat beside Jake (but I didn't because I'm not like Marina who skips by herself. That looks weird. Don't tell her I said that). Eyeing me carefully, Jake grunted, "Remind me to never get on your bad side. Ever."

I laughed. I wasn't that bad, was I? Dinner was perfect, or at least until I heard Ellie's scream of "NOO! NOT MY DESSERT!" I sighed and pushed ti the front with Marina, Autumn, and Lilah, resigned to the fact that I will never have a peaceful meal with Ellie around.

"Ellie! You know better!" Lilah shook her finger at her, Autumn high-fived her, and Marina was trying to tell her off, telling her to apologize, while I was trying hard not to laugh. Lilah gave her her glare to tell Niall sorry. I poked Autumn, " What happened?" I asked.

Autumn laughed gleefully. "She tackled him when he tried to steal her dessert! Gotta love Ellie and her obsession with food!"

I rolled my eyes, smiling widely. "Typical Ellie."

"No," said Ellie stubbornly to Lilah's demand of an apology. "he stole my food."

Lilah did her magic look and Ellie caved. She took the three steps over to him and shuffled her feet. "I'm sorry for tackling you. You can have the rest of my dessert," she said, looking down. They made up by Ellie glomping Niall. She totally learned that from me, I thought. Now they were eating all the desserts (of course) and we were just staring at them. Everyone else had left when they made up, leaving their unfinished food.

"Do you wanna bet how much they'll eat?" offered Autumn after a pause.

"No!" we protested loudly. They'll probably eat it all, knowing Ellie well enough and Niall by the looks of him eating beside her, matching her mouthful for mouthful. Lilah hugged us all good night soon after and I followed, tired after all the exciting things that happened today. I could get used to this, was the last conscious thought as my head hit my pillow.