Chapter 4 (2,505 words)

The rest of the day passed in a sort of hazy, waking dream. By the time we got to the archery range after lunch, I was just smiling like a pothead and nodding dumbly to any spoken interaction. I think I might have started talking about the meaning of life and the torture of penguins and their eternal wall-sit, but all that came out was a series of vague words not strung together for any coherent, mortal comprehension. I may have also been removed from the archery range after somehow managing to shoot behind me and hitting the bullseye. By dinner I was so tired I'd looped right back to being awake, if a little insane and still unable to speak human. After dinner, I headed straight for my cabin and conked out. The next day, I missed breakfast, but was feeling a lot better. Still a little tired, but coherent enough to actually go to the Big House for some advice on meditation. Since it was Friday, only morning activities were done with the rest of the cabin, so after some relaxing canoeing and lunch I made my way up to the Big House, where Chiron was playing pinochle with Mr. D in wheelchair form. Going up the steps, I pondered the mystery of Chiron's wheelchair, 'Like, is the wheelchair enchanted? Is Chiron's horsey half magical? Why aren't we taught magic if demigods can use it?'

"Hey Mr. D, hey Chiron!" I waved hello to the camp directors seated around the porch table, holding cards in front of them with chips at their sides and in the centre of the circular metal and glass table. Mr. D scowled my way and refilled his coke, his usually chubby face a little red from the heat, his bloodshot eyes squinting a bit against the sun as he glared at me for daring to interrupt his game. "Why Gwendolyn, what a pleasure to see you," he droned sarcastically, conjuring a pair of sunglasses that matched his leopard print Hawaiian shirt and ice in his drink. "Here to sell us some hair care products?"

"Actually Mr. D, I don't use mortal products! I'm just naturally this pretty," I said, smiling widely. "I wanted to ask Chiron some things though." I turned to Chiron, catching his amused smile. "Are you an autobot or a decepticon? Also, why aren't we taught magic here? Like, we should have a class on the Mist or something, no? Also, you said I could ask you for some meditation tips?"

Chiron chuckled lightly, setting his cards face down and leaning back into his chair.

"Well, Gwyndolin, you are right about being taught magic; I also believe it to be a good tool for young demigods to use," he said, raising an eyebrow pointedly at Mr. D, who just huffed and sipped from his glass. "However, the gods have deemed to not allow demigods be taught too much magic, and as such the most you may learn is manipulation of the Mist to fool mortals when the need arises."

"Wow, that seems a bit unfair, especially to the Hecate kids," I muttered.

Chiron sighed somewhat dejectedly. "Yes, it is unfortunate, seeing as magic could save lives and improve equipment, but alas, 'tis the will of the gods." He looked back up and smiled. "As for your question about meditation, it is rather simple, really, though it depends on your goals. Seeing as you are looking to bring a part of your being under your conscious control, I would recommend sitting in a relaxed position and remaining conscious of your breathing, and following the connection of your breath to your blood. Concentrate on the flow of your blood as it travels your body, how it feels as it pumps through your veins. If you begin to feel greater pain than usual, I want you to focus on the pain, try to follow where it originates, where it goes, and consciously try to lessen it." He had a serious look on his face. "Gwyndolin, you must remember: Your blood is a part of you. And not just because it is in your body. You have a deep connection with a source of divinity, so much so that I believe your very soul is a well of the Phlegethon. You are your own master, and I believe with utmost certainty that you can do it. You are a strong man, Gwyndolin, of that I have no doubt." He finished his piece with a warm smile, and I had to clench my teeth to not cry. I could see Mr. D practically rolling his eyes at us, but I just smiled back and nodded gratefully, rubbing the side of my neck and jaw with my hand. I turned and went down the porch steps, heading back to my cabin to try out meditation and write down what works.

Chiron called out as I walked, "Oh, and Gwyndolin. I am most certainly an autobot!"

I laughed and continued on my way.

I spent most of the afternoon meditating, with a few breaks in between to take a dip in the ocean and do some rock-climbing when it got to be too much. By the time dinner rolled around, I hadn't really accomplished much. I wasn't willing to lose myself in the meditation like last time, since I had achieved no real control then. As a result though, I was able to recognise when I was beginning to lose control, and bring myself back. Dinner was an energetic affair, more so than usual. The loud droning of demigods shifting about and talking with their friends was always greater on Friday nights, just before the weekly Capture the Flag. I was honestly a bit jealous. Everyone was always excited for Capture the Flag, and most everyone always came out of the forest with large smiles and flushed cheeks, win or lose. I only ever participated once. And that was the day we realised we should not let a walking forest fire into the forest. So most of the time, I was on standby just outside with Chiron, working first aid, or I was training in my cabin or the arena.

'Just another reason to get my shit together, I guess,' I thought to myself as I watched everyone suit up and head into the forest to set the flags. I chuckled lightly as I caught Clarisse pointing aggressively at me as if to say, 'What in Hades man? Get that shit under control!' I grinned back and bowed, sweeping my arm back. Luke clapped my shoulder as he passed, and Rob and I fist bumped as I made my way over to Chiron.

"Ah, Gwyndolin! How have you found my advice?" He asked, hands clasped behind him as he turned to me in all his horsey glory.

I smiled back. "Pretty good, thanks Chiron! I'm more mindful of my situation than before."

Chiron nodded, pleased. "Good, good. I do not doubt that eventually, you will reach a point wherein you can call upon your control even in battle," he said, turning his head to look at the campers disappearing in the woods.

I sighed a little. 'Even if he says that, it still feels so far away…'

Chiron turned back to me and asked, "Well my boy, as I will be here, overlooking the games, would you be so kind as to attend to young Perseus? He is still asleep, and unfortunately all other campers with medical abilities will be otherwise preoccupied. I would ask Dionysus, but I fear he may be more inclined to turn Perseus into a dolphin!"

"Sure, I don't mind!" I replied with a smile. "If you don't need my help here tonight, then I wasn't actually going to be doing anything else tonight, so I'm okay with it."

"Very well, thank you. I am sure this game will take no longer than two hours."

"No problem! I'll head up right now, let me just get some things from my cabin."

I threw out a thumbs up and raced over to my cabin, quickly grabbed my Sony Walkman S (paid for with two drachma at a discount from a Hermes' cabin bro), earphones, and a copy of The Book of Five Rings in Ancient Greek (you'd be surprised at how big the market for books translated into Ancient Greek is), stuffed them in my pockets and raced back to the Big House. I stepped into the infirmary, not bothering to turn the lights on yet as the late afternoon sunlight still streamed in through the windows, even at almost 9pm. I pulled up a stool next to Perseus' bedside, checked his pulse and breathing, refilled the sippy cups on the bedside table with nectar and water and sat down. I pulled my book and Walkman out, realised the stools have no backrest, shrugged and just sat on the bed next to Perseus', leaning back into the metal rail at the foot of the bed and extending my legs and opening my book to where I left off to the sound of Eddie Vedder. My mother was the one who had actually recommended The Book of Five Rings, said it was popular with her cohort and had some good advice for bladework tactics and strategy. And well…

'Gods be damned, how can a book be so boring and interesting at the same time?' I asked myself as I sighed and rubbed the inner corners of my eyes with my thumb and forefinger.

At the moment, I was on the Book of Water, and honestly, it was interesting, but also kind of a slog to read through. I sighed through my nose and turned the page, immediately perking up a bit at the next segment.

'Ooh, interesting! There are many enemies?' I hunched forward, attention piqued. And yes, it was interesting. Enlightening, really. Much of the basics I already had down, like 'sweeping broadly with the eyes' and stuff, but I hadn't really considered using another sword in my off hand. You see, while I may be good at sparring and stuff, I knew I was missing out on a lot of experience, especially in true battle with barely any rules. Not being able to participate in Capture the Flag was a huge detriment to my development as a well-rounded warrior. Regulated sparring and training can only take you so far, after all, and Capture the Flag is the best non-lethal simulation for real-world combat we have.

Rob sometimes complained about how I spent so much of my free time training; always in the arena, hacking away at the dummies and doing bag-work (with Luke often joining me), or in my cabin in its gym setting (though admittedly, he and a bunch of older Ares' and Hermes' campers often joined me in my cabin when I had the gym setting on). There's just no substitute for live resistance, for fighting with sharp swords and armour against another guy who wants to win at almost any cost, and the only way I could make at least 1% of it up was by training more than everyone else. So these parts of The Book of Five Rings really excited me. I stood up and paused my music, memorised the page number and stepped out from between the beds.

I stood with my feet around shoulder width apart, shoulders slightly hunched forward, yet relaxed, chin down, eyes very slightly squinted. My hands hung loosely at my sides, and I imagined I was holding a sword in each; their weight, pulling their tips to the ground, the rough leather of the grips rubbing against the callouses of my palms, my pinky and ring fingers tighter than my other fingers, with my pointer finger and thumb feeling the blade, the edge alignment, the tip. I slowly went through the movements: a step with my left leg forward and to the side, twisting my hips with the motion, letting my left blade come up diagonally, elbow loose, fingers feeling out the edge alignment; my right foot forward, my right blade slashing, into my left foot stepping back and striking to my side. I went, slowly, getting a feel for how I would herd opponents into a 'net', how I could group them together, how each movement would fuel the next, how the kinetic chain from my feet to my knees to my hips and finally into my blades and shoulders would let me maximise force and minimise movements. I lost myself in the flow, a peaceful back and forth of the tides, or like when you move in a tub full of water and get waves, but not high enough to splash out of the tub.

"Mnghargh purty angles."

I was startled out of my meditative state by Perseus muttering loudly in his sleep. I huffed lightly and, noticing that it was rather dark out now, went to turn on the lights. I blinked blearily at the sudden brightness, and stalked over to Perseus' bedside.

'Though, now that I think about it, thinking 'Perseus' every time takes way too much time,' I thought as I reached over for the water sippy cup.

"So I'm gonna call you Perry. That cool?" I said as I poked his cheek and brought the sippy cup to his lips.

"Mrrh bull-dude underwear."

"I'll take that as a yes then, Perry," I said. I pulled his mouth open by the chin and let some water pour down his throat. He swallowed instinctively, and after a couple seconds I pulled back and sat back on my bed.

"Hurrreagles 'n horsies."

I chuckled lightly and plugged my headphones back in my ears, keeping the music low enough to hear the outside world. I checked the time and 'Yep, they should be finishing up about now,' I thought, seeing that it was close to 11pm. I sighed and leaned back, thinking about how long it would take for me to get my control down well enough to participate in Capture the Flag.

'A couple months, maybe? The rest of the year?'

I was still thinking by the time Annabeth came to relieve me of my duties, a sour look on her face.

"I take it we didn't win this time," I said, smirking.

Annabeth scowled. "Just get your stuff under control so I can wipe that stupid grin off of Clarisse's face."

"Alright alright, I'm doing my best," I replied, throwing my hands up as I stood from my bed. I smoothed the covers over and set everything back in their places as Annabeth gave Perry one last check. She followed me out, with me opening the door for her (just like mother beat into my skull!) and turned the lights off. We said our goodnights, I nodded and threw a thumbs up to Chiron to let him know everything was alright and waved at the campers I saw making their way back to their cabins. I meditated for a while before bed (no luck though) and went to bed tired, but pretty satisfied.

AN: Oh, hello again. Good to see you guys, I hope you're doing well. Not much to say today, kind of iffy on this chapter, but no matter. Still got exams and studying to do, though I'm going to be picking up the pace soon. In fact, I will try to post something this week, turn this into a two-times-a-week thing. We'll see how that turns out. Between studying, working out 1-2 hours 5-6 days a week and getting addicted to Warframe, who knows. Oh well.

By the way, thanks addalittlesmoke for the reviews, and thanks to you guys who've favourited and followed as well. I'm still unsure how this 'interaction' thing works, and I am rather shy, but still. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, until next time.