I woke up the next morning, and at first had a panic. But then I remembered I was in Cabin One - no longer leading a dangerous quest - and relaxed. I wondered how long it would take for me to get used to this safety again. I checked the time, and realised I was running slightly late for breakfast. Thankfully, I had more time than the other head counsellors to get ready, with no cabin to lead.
Talking of cabins to lead, on the way to breakfast I saw Sofia and Dean leading their cabins, and I grinned. Sofia looked pretty nervous, as though she had never walked from the cabins to the dining pavilion before, whilst Dean looked perfectly casual. I was soon enjoying a brilliant camp breakfast for the first time in ages before I had a horrible memory to the night before, when I agreed to do Kieran's chores for him in exchange for him being on my team. He grinned maliciously as he put a huge pile of letters and messages on my table. I couldn't help but glare at him.
"It isn't too late to chuck you off my team." I threatened. "You're not that vital to it."
"A deal's a deal, Swan. One week."
I made a frustrated noise, before setting to work. Needless to say the rest of the day was a lot more enjoyable, Archery was… well, I was at least getting the arrows in a straight line - with Helia and Chiron's guidance. Sword-fighting was a little bit more boring than normal, as the broken straw dummies had been replaced (after an entire year) and so we were to practice our technique against those, rather than each other. Lunch went fairly quickly, and then Greek Mythology and Monster Maiming went ordinarily.
The rest of the week went like that, although I had more chores than I would usually have, thanks to Kieran. Thursday morning was a bit more bearable. That may have been because I was doing my own chores, not his (Cabin Inspection was always pretty fun as I got to snoop on other cabins) or it could have been because Helia and Dean also had chores to be doing, so we did them together.
But, to my excitement, there was Capture the Flag. Leading a team for the bloody game appeared to be more challenging for me than leading a quest across the country. I had no idea how I was going to go about winning the game. Even though Ares were on my team, I didn't want them taking Alfie's flag, and so I put them on defence… border patrol, to be precise.
I figured that Dean and Sofia would work better together, so I put both their cabins on attack. I wanted them inside the other team's territory, but to hide and attack their defence teams when possible. I was pretty sure that Alfie would put his own cabin on defence, whilst Helia and Apollo went on attack. He had less cabins on side, but I was sure he would use that to his advantage somehow. I just wished I knew how.
I wanted Hermes to be my main attacking team. They were very high in numbers and I also wanted Amber to win the game. Hephaestus would be defending my flag, and I told Adam to come up with some trick.
"Don't worry, Scarlet." He told me. "We have quite a few tricks up our sleeve at the forges."
"Like what?" I asked, but he wouldn't say, which was a bit worrying. But then I remembered I was on their team.
Friday soon arrived, and the camp was buzzing with anticipation. They had never been alive for a game where Zeus had one of the flags, and Alfie told me during Monster Maiming that games between Athena and Zeus had made history… so, not a very big game, then…
After dinner, I was getting my blue team prepared, and told them what I had planned. Kieran was pretty miffed that his team weren't on attack, like they usually were, but I told him he could stick his complaints up his backside, as I was the leader and that is what I had decided. Fuming, Kieran took his team - and his complaints -away to get ready.
I had decided to put my flag somewhere that I could fly up and get, but that the red team wouldn't, which I thought was pretty ingenious, personally. It wasn't up a tree, but it was right up the top of some cliffs, near to where the forest led onto the beach, where our territory ended. I figured they'd have a tough job getting that.
Once we were all helmeted up - blue flumes in the air - we got ready to go. We waited eagerly until Chiron announced the rules we'd all heard before, and finally sounded the conch horn. We were off.
Alfie had surprised me. He had a range of cabins on border patrol, as opposed to one, and I started to see how he had got around the problem he had faced. He separated his 27 team mates into different teams, and we were faced with seven campers from various cabins; I could figure four Apollo campers, two Athena and a Dionysus.
We may have had twenty four Hermes campers, and one of me - giving us practically the same amount on our little section as Alfie's entire team had - but not all of the Hermes campers were skilled. The younger Hermes children and most of the undermined campers were pretty stumped. Amber and I took on the main fighters of the team – Amber against Tommy from the Athena cabin, while I took on Summer from Apollo. I was surprised, actually, to see how Alfie made the Apollo campers fight with swords, when they were best suited to bow and arrows, when - just as I was about to disarm Summer - an arrow flew out of nowhere. Looking around, I realised two more Apollo campers were here, both of them hidden in bushes, on either side of the fight, and they had their best weapons.
Alfie had picked this team well. I managed to disarm Summer, but then another camper came at me – another of Helia's siblings, Uma. This was becoming hopeless, and so I decided to do something truly spectacular…I ran, bringing the Hermes cabin with me.
The fight continued further on in the forest, although I had an idea. Keep half of Hermes fighting the seven campers, and the rest of us bolt off further. I got ten of Cabin Eleven staying behind, so they still had a majority, and then me and fourteen other Hermes campers ran as though our lives depended on it.
I hadn't seen Alfie or Helia yet, which was worrying. I hoped that - for once - the Ares cabin would do something helpful and hold them off until… well, Amber got the flag. It was also worrying how we hadn't come across any more campers on defence.
As soon as I thought that, more arrows flew by us. Four, to be exact. Four Apollo campers were hidden. We picked up our pace to avoid them, but four of the Hermes campers were hit. The rest of us had to haul them up and scarper away, until we came to face the flag. Alfie hadn't done much to make it difficult for us. Amber and I looked at each other weirdly, before Amber just strolled up to the flag and picked it up. Nothing happened.
With that, we began to speed walk back. I figured if we could all just focus on getting Amber back into our territory, we could win the game. I was sure the other team wouldn't be able to get my flag, which made me - and the others once I told them - more confident.
That was until we reached the border and found a massive phalanx formation. A phalanx formation was a line of campers standing shoulder to shoulder, stopping us from getting through, with their shields held up to form a wall. All twelve of the defence team were doing this, and we were doomed. I don't know how Alfie had managed to get them shields, when they didn't have them before, but they definitely had them.
To my utter disbelief, in the distance I saw Helia holding my flag. She was heading towards us, and I knew once she made it to her territory, the game would be won… in her favour.
It was strange, I felt this energy inside me. I got that a lot before my static shocks and electricity power. But this was different - and I wasn't sure what it was - but I instinctively thrusted my hand up to the sky. Thunder boomed, and a strike of lightning fell down to the phalanx formation. They all yelped and scarpered away in a panic. Amber sensed her opportunity and bolted across, but so did Helia. It was tight, but Amber just about won. I should have been celebrating, however I was standing there frozen.
"Scarlet, we won!" said Daniel.
"Hm." I carried on standing there, until Helia came up to me.
"Did you do that?" She asked me, still holding the Zeus flag.
"Yeah…" I muttered in a daze.
"You summoned lightning?"
"I didn't mean to!" I protested, but Helia laughed.
"Anyway…" She passed me back my flag. "Congratulations! Alfie is going to be so pissed at you."
"You guys did do pretty well." I had to admit. "How the fuck did you get my flag?"
"Well," Helia started to explain to me, as the campers began to submerge out of the for forest due to the conch horn signalling the end of the game, "we struggled to get past Sofia and Dean's cabins, as those two have really upped their powers now, but once we did, we saw where you put your flag – which was really unfair… we literally had to climb up the cliff."
"How the hell did you manage that?"
"Easy. We climbed up to the halfway point, where was easy to climb, and then me and my siblings fired arrows at the bottom of the flag – which I'll have you know is hard when you're halfway up a cliff… and we did this until the flag toppled and fell. I then caught it, and we climbed back down and ran for it."
I looked at her - begrudgingly impressed - and then remembered what happened.
"Holy Zeus. I summoned lightning."
"Yeah, your dad's the god of lightning, of course you can."
I shook my head in disbelief, and then Alfie and Sofia came up to us.
"Hey, Alfie!" I cheered. "How was the game? Where's your flag?"
"Don't be smug, Scarlet." He scowled.
"He was telling me he hasn't been beaten in nearly a year." Sofia grinned.
"About time he was then." I shrugged off. "Where's Dean?"
"He's gone to find Lucas. We congratulated Amber on the way, I'm so glad she won!"
"Yeah, same." I agreed.
The celebrations ceased pretty quickly. It had only been three days since the last one, and so campers were tired, and in their cabins by half nine. This was excluding the six of us of course, who were, as usual, on the beach. Alfie was still peed off that he lost, while I was feeling pretty ecstatic. Lucas was also feeling good. Due to his performance as my protector during the quest, the Council of Cloven Elders – three old satyrs that were in charge of the other satyrs – presented him some new reed pipes. He also received seven WM (Woodland Marks), which were like, the satyr equivalent of mortal UCAS points. Satyrs got three every time they brought a demigod back to camp, and more if they performed any tasks that proved bravery as a protector - and going on a quest to the Garden of the Hesperides counted as that. He would continue to gain points until he was eighteen, when he would use them to get a job.
"I now have 16 WM points, way more than others my age." Lucas said proudly.
"Well done, mate." Dean patted him on the back, and we all agreed.
"Don't get used to the quest points." I told him. "Chiron's told me that there aren't going to be any more."
"Shame. Because the last one was so much fun." Alfie responded, full of sarcasm.
"You know, it kind of was." Helia disagreed. It wasn't until I was lying in bed that I thought much on this.
So there was some freaky shit. The Furies at Tesco will always give me nightmares, and the fight against Ladon was one of the scariest things of my life. The Fates cutting the yarn, Eliza, the Laistrygonians, the empousai and even getting arrested. The fever induced hallucination I also had wasn't at all pleasant either, and I still wondered what the ants were supposed to represent.
But then… there were good parts. I'd learnt a little about Helia and Alfie whilst on the train. Busking with Helia was funny… until we got perved on. Sofia and Dean's growing relationship was fantastic to witness, and then we got to go in a flying chariot, and on a massive eagle. Sofia Charmspeaking Ladon was so utterly extraordinary. Then there was staying up on Olympus, in the best hotel to exist, and I got to meet my dad.
I looked at the statue of him, and I raised an eyebrow.
"You look nothing like that." I commented. "Except maybe… the facial expression."
Of course, the statue said nothing.
"You said you were proud of me, huh? Yeah, so you fucking should be."
I continued to stare at it.
"I'll try not to let you down." I yawned. "Don't want your wife killing me."
Silence. Obviously.
"We're getting back to normal, then."
I then threw myself back onto the pillow and kicked off my sheets slightly - due to the humid August weather - and my mind filled with thoughts of Amber and me beating Helia and Alfie, and being back at camp - safe from monsters and from mortals once again. For the first time since hearing about it, I truly forgot about the upcoming, forewarned death.