Cora: The Training Begins

The morning when I woke up, Chiron pulled me aside before breakfast. He asked me how I was feeling and settling in. I told him I was fine. Even though my sleeps had been tormented by nightmares. Mostly to do with what happened at dinner and how I reacted to my Soul Key. Also I had to sleep in my clothes . . . and only then did I realize I had a belt with a pouch and empty sheath. But I didn't tell him that.

He told me after breakfast we would begin training. Not only would I learn to fight, but I would get closer to finding out who my godly parent was. Which would be good since I didn't even know if it was my mom or my dad. He said to meet him at the track. I assumed for foot-racing. What that had to do with anything I didn't know. But I agreed.

Breakfast passed uneventful (thankfully). I wandered down to the track, though I kept glancing behind me, feeling like I was being followed. Weird right? Down there Chiron was waiting with a girl. She had light brown hair, and she looked a little like that girl Grover had been with. Juniper that was her name. This girl looked a little similar.

Tree Nymph, said the voice. I had taken to ignoring it. Yelling didn't make it shut up.

"Good, you're here," Chiron greeted, "We're going to start off easy. Just a race between you and Navarna here. How does that sound?" I blinked. This was a little odd, what would a race against a tree spirit prove?

"Um, okay," I replied. Me and Navarna lined up. When she said go, she took off very fast.

I ran behind her, going pretty fast myself. I was just behind her. My instinct took over. I opened up my stride and ran faster. Soon I was beside her. She started to make herself go even faster. I easily matched her pace. I smiled to myself a how good it felt. I kept going. Slowly I was in front of her. I wasn't even aware of myself running anymore, it just felt so natural. Before I knew it I crossed the line several feet in front of her. As soon as I did, I slowed down and came to a stop. It took a moment, but I realized my breathing had barely changed. It was almost the same as before.

Chiron was looking at me with new interest. Navarna's eyes were shooting daggers at me. I swallowed; she looked really scary like that.

"Thanks, like I needed it rubbed in even more," she snarled before disappearing in a poof of green smoke. I looked at Chiron, I had no idea what that was about.

"Do you know what that was about?" I asked him. He shook his head and started walking away. I followed him, wondering where we were going next.

"Come, the Apollo cabin has archery now, I think that this is a good time to find out your skill with a bow," he told me. I followed him down to the range.

Down there several kids were taking turns shooting at targets. They all had a similar ferrety look. Maybe it was from always looking down an arrow shaft. They were using all sorts of bows. Compound and recurve (no idea how I know that), some were made of metal, while some where made completely of wood.

Chiron led me up to a shed where the bows were all on racks, and quivers were full of arrows. Some were poor quality, while some were beautiful.

"Do you know how to shoot?" Chiron asked me. Seeing the bows, I felt something stir inside me.

"I . . . I think so," I told him. He nodded and looked surprised. But he didn't comment on it.

"Alright, go ahead and choose a bow then," he instructed. I gave a small nod. I looked at all the bows. Suddenly I felt compelled to reach into my pouch. I ignored the feeling. How would reaching into my pouch help me choose a bow?

I noticed one that was hanging near the bottom. It was a recurve (they're the ones that don't have pulleys and other complexities) and made entirely of wood. It looked like it was of fairly good quality. Hesitantly I walked over and picked it up. It was light and strong. But it felt a little off balance. Somehow I knew others wouldn't be any better though.

I walked back to Chiron; he nodded, grabbed a few arrows and walked over to an empty target range. I followed behind him. The Apollo campers were amazing, not a single arrow missed, all hit the bull's-eye. I looked nervously at Chiron.

"Go ahead," he told me.

Taking a deep breath I took an arrow and knocked it. Raising the bow I lined it with the target. I drew the bow, it was light and smooth. I drew far back, behind me head. Taking a deep breath I got that feeling that was getting all too familiar. Without thinking I lined up and released.

The arrow flew straight and true. More or less, it landed with a thwunk sound in the third ring from the edge (the blue one for all you non-archers). Some of the campers nearby paused and looked at me. I turned back to Chiron. He was looking at me with a faraway look in his eyes.

He asked me to shoot the rest of the arrows. So I did, and I wasn't too aware of doing it. I just did it. Like it was a part of me. Only one hit the bull's-eye. The rest landed in assorted places around it. Chiron was lost in thought when he told me to return the bow. I nodded and walked to place it back. This was getting stranger and stranger.

On the way to put the bow back, I wasn't looking and nearly walked into a girl.

"Careful!" she said giggling. "Don't want to bump into to anyone!"

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I told her. I looked up and couldn't help but analyze her. She was slightly plump, and she had warm brown eyes. Her hair was light brown, it was all cut in different lengths, some curled some straight. This gave her hair a spiky affect. I also noticed her hair had glitter in it . . . odd, and kind of cool.

"I can tell. Hey, you're that new girl right? Cora? Isn't it?" she asked. A gave small smile, I wasn't sure if her remembering me from last night was a good thing or not.

"Yea, that's me. Um, you are?"

"I'm Alexandra. But call me Alex," she replied.

"Ok, well, I'd better go. Uh, see you around?" I noticed Chiron looking in my direction.

"Sure! Bye!" she waved and walked off. I nodded and returned the bow. I jogged back to Chiron who was already walking off. Clearly trying to hurry me up. I followed him to the climbing wall. The name is misleading.

The climbing wall consisted of two rock walls facing each other. A couple campers were scampering up them. The shook and clashed together, oh, and you can't forget the lava flowing down. The point was to climb to the top before the lava reached you. Or before the rocks flattened you into a pancake . . . fun – not.

I felt a weird stirring in the pit of my stomach, and it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. For some reason I wanted to do this. Crazy thoughts, wow something was wrong with me. Then again I was a girl with memory loss and red-and-blue hair. So it's not that strange . . . Ah, moving on.

I glanced at Chiron thinking are you serious? He didn't see anything wrong about this. Nor did anyone else, must be me.

"Now I know this seems dangerous," began Chiron. You think? I wanted to yell, but I kept my mouth shut and let him continue. "But it is quite safe; anyone can make the wall stop. As long as they are at the control panel. We'll start on the lowest setting."

We walked over to the wall. Everyone else cleared out; at least I wouldn't have an audience. I walked over to the base, he started it and I grabbed the rock pulling myself up.

Now, I'm sure you can guess what happened next. I knew what I had to do. Without thinking I started climbing fast. Sometimes I swung myself to the next ledge. I just did it. I couldn't have started more than a minute ago. Suddenly I was at the top. The wall stopped shaking and I risked a glance down.

I could have been sick; I was up roughly, oh, 150 feet. Chiron was staring up at me, clearly dumbfounded. Uh oh, I noticed a ladder leading down to the ground. I rushed over and hurried to get back to the earth.

Back on the ground, Chiron looked puzzled. I could have asked him if I had done something wrong, but a conch horn blew signaling lunch. So he bid me goodbye and went off to the pavilion by himself. So I had to walk back alone, real pleasant.

Lunch was boring, and I'm sure that's a good thing. When I asked Chiron what was next, he told me sword-fighting. I followed him to the arena. I had barely walked in when a wall of black fur slammed into me.

"What the - ?" I could barely get the words out before a giant tongue was licking my face. I realized it was a huge dog the size of a truck. The dog had dark red eyes and midnight black fur, as well as extremely sharp teeth. Which were a little too close to my face.

"Mrs O'Leary, no!" a voice yelled. A familiar voice that sent a tingle down my spine. Percy.

"Percy perhaps you should get your dog off Cora. I hardly doubt it's comfortable," Chiron's voice.

"Sorry, Mrs O'Leary heel! Down girl!" Percy called. Thankfully the huge tongue stopped licking and the giant paw came off my chest. I sat up dizzy. I would gladly never experience that again. I blinked and looked around. The mammoth dog – Mrs O'Leary was lying down chewing a dummy. Percy was standing in front of me, and yup. The guy had a glow about him. Maybe he was blessed or something . . .

"You have a giant dog," I said stupidly.

"Yea, this is Mrs O'Leary, my pet hellhound," He told me rubbing the back of his head.

"A pet hellhound? I'm not going to even ask," I muttered. I dragged myself to my feet, wiping dog slobber off my face.

"It's a long story anyways, so Chiron; you want me to spar with her?" he said. Spar? With this guy? Who was one of the best in camp? This was madness.

"Yes," Chiron said.

"I'm sorry, but what are you two talking about exactly?" I asked them both.

"Cora, you and Percy will spar. To see if you have any skill with swords. Or knives and daggers. Don't worry, Percy won't hurt you, and it's almost impossible to hurt him," Chiron explained. I didn't get how I couldn't hurt him. But whatever, I'd find out.

Percy pulled out a pen and uncapped it. Turned out his sword goes around disguised as a pen, that was pretty cool. It was three feet long and made of bronze. Chiron gave me a practice blade, but it wasn't quite right. I tried many, but none seemed to balance right. My mind couldn't help nut wander to the one that had appeared yesterday . . . Forget it I told myself, It was just a weird experience. It's not important. Eventually we gave up and I went with the one that was the best.

We began to spar. At first Percy was winning, whapping me in the side with the flat of his blade. I was a little confused, but after a minute I started to get it. Almost like I was remembering it. Soon it was coming naturally. I could tell when he was feinting, I blocked with ease. More or less, the sword didn't make it too easy.

Finally I found my opening. I was swiping to the left when his blade came up to block. Faster than should be humanly possible, I change my swipe into a feint. I changed the direction of my sword and struck at his right side. But when my blade connected with him, something happened. That strange glow he had brightened. My blade bounced off his skin. I stumbled back thrown off balance.

Dipped in the river as a child, thus was a great hero long ago. Now, here is the gift once again. But this time a different hero, a different destiny, whispered the voice in my mind. I regained my balance but stop fighting. That glow he had, it had to do with a river. It sounded so familiar, if only I could remember!

"Cora?" Percy asked capping his sword. "What's wrong?" I blinked myself out of my thoughts.

"Uh, n – nothing," I mumbled. Percy looked at me strange. Thankfully a cabin came in at the time.

"Hebe cabin," Percy muttered. "We might want to stop now." I nodded mutely and walked to put my sword back. I just got there when someone walked up behind me.

"Hi," said a voice. I turned around and gave a small smile.

"Hey Hunter," I said. "This is your cabin?"

"Yea, so how are things? Chiron's been testing you," he smiled tightly, something told me he had to do this too.

"Good . . . Great actually," I muttered. I placed the sword back with the others.

"Really? Wait, why weren't you using your own?" He asked. I knew he was referring to the one I had suddenly used yesterday. I was about to tell him I wasn't sure where it had even gone to when . . .

"Her own?" Chiron asked behind me. I turned around. Chiron was towering over us. Darn, I was hoping not to mention that.

"Her – her sword . . ." mumbled Hunter looking nervous.

"Cora, what sword?" Chiron asked again. This was not happening; it had to be just my luck this was going on.