Sorry I haven't uploaded. I'll try to write a lot this week, but hold tight. Enjoy.
Chapter 26:
After splitting up, Mr. D immediately assigns us into groups. "I'll try to keep the cabins as together as possible, but no promises." In the end, the Demeter, Persephone, and Dionysus cabins make up one whole phalanx, while the Hermes cabin alone makes up another. The Hephaestus, Aphrodite and Iris cabin make up the third, while the fourth and fifth phalanxes are a mixture of all the smaller cabins and the Athena cabin.
"You all will have designated weapons, the shield and the spear," lots of people groan at having to surrender their weapons. Mr. D rolls his eyes. "Fine, you whiners. You can keep your weapons with you, but you must learn to use these, or the whole phalanx is ruined."
Mr. D keeps talking about precision and teamwork until almost noon. Finally, he lets us split into our respective groups once we get our ow spear and shield. "These four satyrs fought beside me in the glory days of Greece, and will help guide you to be the best," Mr. D snaps and four muscular, and surprisingly good looking, satyrs pop into existence next to Dionysus. "I'll handle the last phalanx." They each take a group of campers and introduce themselves.
"Hello," the satyr for your group flashes a perfect smile. I can't help but notice his defined muscles and structured face. "I'm Jamie, and I'll be you're captain, kind of." He pauses to think. "I'm here to teach you guys what a phalanx is, if you can't tell."
He seems awkward talking to a large group, so he quickly gets to work. He orders us to get into rows of eight, with the biggest and strongest in the front. Jamie adjusts everyone's stances until they're all perfect.
Just standing out here in the sun has gotten me sweating. It doesn't help that I have to carry a ten foot long spear and a heavy shield. "First two rows!" Jamie shouts. "Lower your spears!" Before, all 48 spears were sticking up, out of the way. Now, the front of our phalanx was a wall of shields and a thicket of spears.
I am near the back, so I can just rest the spear on the ground, while holing it straight up. There's a blade at the bottom of the spear, which fits nicely into the dirt of the Arena.
"Now, when you advance, you have to be in sync with everyone else. The only way the phalanx is effective is if you work together," Jamie reminds us for the twentieth time. "When you march, always start with your right foot. Take small steps, but don't shuffle. Get in a rhythm with the people next to you and you'll do great. Precision is everything."
We keep drilling for a couple of hours until no one runs into anyone anymore. Lots of people are grumbling about their aching muscles from carrying the spear and shield, but Mr. D doesn't seem to care. When he finally calls a lunch break, a collective sigh of relief could be heard, along with dozens of shields being dropped to the ground.
"Be back in 2 hours!" Jamie calls to our phalanx. "And now that you're a team, you'll all be eating together." Half our phalanx turns back to Jamie to see if he's joking. Lots of the smaller cabins don't have many siblings, so they get close to lots of people out of their cabin. I don't care, really, because I'd rather be alone for a while after being in such close proximity with so many people. All their sweaty bodies aren't my favorite things to be next to.
Lou Ellen is sitting at our table, and hails me over. "Hey Nico, I didn't know you were in our group," she seems pleasantly surprised. "This is Pat, one of my siblings." She introduces me to him, and he gives me a smile.
"Hi," I give a small smile back and sit down next to Lou. "So what did you think of that training?" I'm not the best at conversations, but I'm going to try.
"I thought it was great. We can finally be effective on the battlefield, like the Romans," Lou explains. Pat rolls his eyes in response.
"Not all of us want to be spending half our day training to be in a bloody phalanx. We did perfectly fine against the Titans in Manhattan, why should we change? If it isn't broken, why fix it?" Pat responds. It catches me by surprise that he has a British accent, not something you hear at Camp.
"We had twice as many casualties as the Romans in the battle with Gaia, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to be one of them." Lou's one of the only people I've heard that actually likes this training. The person next to me is grumbling about the time commitment and the girl across from me wants more breaks.
Sooner than I thought, Jamie calls us back onto the field. "Phalanx four, get back into position!" When someone asks what we'll be doing, he responds with a dangerous smile, similar to Mr. D's. "Drills. More drills. And once we're done with those, even more drills."