Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus. All rights and characters rightfully belong to Uncle Rick.
True to Piper's assumption, someone had indeed gotten me some toiletries. They were in a bag tied to a rolled up sleeping bag with a pillow inside. There was a tag attached to it with Percy written on it. I picked it up and walked inside the chaotic cabin.
Inside, it was hectic. I got a chance to atone for my embarrassing fall earlier by having to dodge all the miscellaneous objects being tossed around. People were throwing things like balls, boxes, swords, paper airplanes, food, you name it, I dodged it.
Luke intercepted me halfway through the cabin and brought me over to an empty space on the floor, near the back of the cabin. Empty is being generous though. It was only a slightly less covered space of flooring but was still tightly sandwiched between two other sleeping bags.
I was hesitant to put my things down, and not for the first time did I consider going out into the forest and pitching my tent up in some random clearing where no one was likely to find me. But alas, I eventually put the supplies, that someone from the cabin left me, at the head of my 'space' and sat down next to it soon after.
Luke joined me, sitting down next to me and watching the chaos of the cabin with an unreadable expression.
"It's so crowded," I remarked, trying to break the ice.
Luke hummed in agreement. "Hermes is the god of lots of things. Messengers, travelers, merchants, thieves, medicine. He sponsors anyone who uses the roads. And he's not too picky of who. Here, he shelters any new and unclaimed campers, which is why you're here."
I took a second to digest his words, but they only left me with more questions.
"So, once my father claims me, I'll be out of here and in his cabin?" I asked him.
A grim look crossed his face. "Possibly," he said after a moment.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"Well, the only way you'll move out of this cabin is if your godly parent also has a cabin, and those are reserved for the gods who have seats on the council only. So, if you get claimed by someone like Apollo, or Ares, then yes, you'll go to their cabins once you're claimed. But, if a god like Hypnos, or Morpheus, or even Hades or Hermes claims you, then you'll be stuck here forever," he explained bitterly.
I never failed to catch the animosity Luke displays whenever he talks about the gods. It's concerning, and quite scary because I don't understand his animosity.
I spent my earliest years living with my mother, Lupa, a so-called minor goddess, and I absolutely love her to bits. Then I met Poseidon, who's turned out to be pretty amazing so far, even if he is taking his time claiming me. And Artemis, who had absolutely no reason to take me in, and had even more motivation to cast me out, or even outright kill me if she wanted, but she didn't. Then there's Dionysus. . . I guess only time will tell.
"Have you. . . Met, the gods?" I asked tentatively, not sure how to safely approach this conversation.
To my relief, Luke nodded his head slowly, "Once. I met my dad once."
I waited, thinking he would elaborate. I was pretty disappointed when he didn't.
He turned to face me suddenly, his mood doing a complete 180 as a bright smile now adorned his face, with his eyes dancing with mischief.
"Don't worry about it too much Percy. All you'll have to worry about are the people around you. And everyone here's good people, for the most part. We're all extended family after all. We take care of each other," he said happily.
I managed a slight smile, happy that he managed to change the mood of the conversation. "What about Clarisse?" I asked teasingly.
"Oh yeah! I heard about that that. Nice job by the way," he complimented, shoving my shoulder playfully. "And what I say still goes. Whatever she tried to do is just her way of looking out for you," he said.
I raised a sardonic eyebrow. "She tried to shove me in a toilet," I said deadpan.
He shrugged his shoulders. "She was just keeping your ego in check. Trust me, your pride and ego are the easiest things to take advantage of in a fight. They make you predictable and desperate. Dangerous and vulnerable. By crushing it, she's essentially doing you a favor."
I continued staring at him, deadpan with a raised eyebrow.
Eventually, Luke caved in. "Alright. She does take some enjoyment while doing it," he admitted.
"Some?" I asked jokingly.
He Laughed and started ruffling my hair, causing me to laugh and try to push him off. In doing so, I actually fell over onto my side, knocking my new supplies over.
Turns out, the toiletries bag was in fact not full of toiletries, but instead full of paint! So, it was to the great and continuous amusement of everyone in the cabin, that I walked with them up to the dining pavilion, covered head to toe in pink paint.
If the bathroom was Clarisse' way of welcoming new campers, then this must have been Luke's.
I fell into a routine pretty quickly with the Hermes cabin. I'd get up, earlier than most people at camp to take a shower, and then I'd go for a run around the cabin area. As much as I'd want to run through the forest, I didn't want to attract too much suspicion, which I seemed to be getting a lot of lately.
The campers of cabin 6, that's Athena's children, were always giving me strange looks. They varied between inquisitive, suspicion and curiosity. The children of Ares were always glaring at me threateningly and murderously, probably waiting for a chance to 'welcome me properly' as Luke put it. Most of the others seemed to not care too much about me, but I would occasionally catch Piper and the rest of her cabin throwing me quick glances over their shoulders. I'm not sure what they're doing exactly, but it seems to embarrass Piper quite often.
Unlike most of the other campers, I seemed to have an equal affinity for Latin as I did Greek, whereas everyone else typically has more trouble with Latin than Greek. Otherwise, I can keep pace with the Hermes kids, sometimes even the nature spirits, in foot races, though they're always faster. Clarisse absolutely relished the times we did hand to hand combat and wrestling. She and the rest of her siblings took great joy in giving me special attention whenever I passed by them in the arena.
The head councilor of the Hephaestus cabin, cabin 9, a tall, well build man with dark skin named Charles Beckendorf, kept assuring me that everyone's first project at Arts and Crafts always turns out looking more like a brick than a weapon, and that I'll get better with practice. Next time we did Arts and Crafts, I blew up the forge.
The only areas I do exceedingly well at are archery, where I consistently turn heads among the children of Apollo who were only marginally more surprised than Chiron when I kept splitting arrows back-to-back. I kept having to hold myself back from answering all the right questions in monster fighting classes with the head of the Athena cabin, Malcolm Pace, leading us through all the best tactics and strategies to employ whenever facing certain monsters. I thought that I had learned a lot of this stuff from the hunt, and that I myself was pretty knowledgeable about most of these things. Malcolm seemed to be a literal walking encyclopedia about this stuff. I actually ended up learning more than I thought I would from Malcolm about monsters.
When it came time for sword fighting, suffice to say that I was pretty confident in my abilities, and I let a bit of my confidence show through when we were getting ready. When some of the older campers encouraged me to put on a full set of heavy training armor, I instead chose a set of lighter gear so as not to hinder my own agility. In hindsight, I probably should have at least worn a full set of lighter armor, not just the chest piece. Looking back on it now, a helmet might have been nice.
Luke turned out to be our instructor, and he had us all start off with some basic stabbing and slashing on some straw-stuffed dummies. Nothing extreme, but I found myself wishing more and more that I was using one of my own, balanced swords instead of the spares from the camp's Armory. Luke and I went through every sword in the Armory before he called it a lost cause after seeing that none of them worked right for me, and just grabbed me one that he thought worked the best. They were all either too heavy, too light, or too long.
Halfway through, we moved on to sparring. The biggest obstacle I faced then was trying to make all of my attacks and blocks look sloppy. It turned out to be a real workout, until my sparring partners decided to take advantage of my lack of armor, and started focusing less on my protected torso, and more on my exposed extremities. Every one of my partners tried, at least once, to hit my head, and every time I was forced to forego my attempts at sloppy technique and actually defend myself. Luke went around correcting everyone, and even subbing in to give proper demonstrations when he felt it was necessary.
At the end of our lesson, Luke called us all into the center of the arena for a final demonstration. Throughout my time at the camp, I've been hearing constant praise of Luke's skill with a blade, how he's the best swordsman in hundreds of years, so while I was sparring, whenever I got the chance, I would try and see for myself if there was any credence to the rumors. Suffice to say I was awed with what I saw, and not at all happy when he announced that he wanted my help with his demonstration.
It also didn't help that while I was making my way to stand next to him, everyone else was snickering, suppressing smiles and passing around money and other odds and ends. I swear the brothers, Connor and Travis Stoll, had established a makeshift betting booth in the middle of the arena.
He explained the technique that he was going to demonstrate with me: how to twist an enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that they have no choice but to drop their weapon, disarming them. It didn't make much sense to me when he explained it, so I was excited to see what it actually looked like.
"This is difficult," he stressed, "I've lost spars and fights because of it, so pay attention because it could save your life one day," he said, sobering the smug, anticipating crowd. "So, no laughing at Percy now. Most swordsmen take years to master it, and only very few actually do."
With that, he turned and demonstrated the move on me in slow motion, and with a twist he forced me to drop my sword, sending it clattering out of my hands. I was very impressed with the technique because I had never seen it before. It gave me newfound respect for Luke, because if the older hunters had never showed me it before, it's possible that they didn't know it or how to do it. So, for him to master it within a few years is truly an incredible feat!
"Okay, lets split up into pairs. We keep practicing this until someone gets it right," he says as I go to retrieve my sword. Once I had it in hand, I turned to see Luke looking back at me in a ready stance, "Ready Percy?" he asked with a small smirk.
I wanted so badly to take out Riptide or my silver sword for this spar but decided against it. Instead, I mirrored his stance and with a wordless signal, he charged at me, slashing with a wide diagonal downward thrust forcing me to raise my sword in defense.
We went back and forth like this for a while and somewhere along the way, I started letting my true prowess with a sword show, expertly blocking, parrying, and dodging, then retaliating all of his strikes. At the climax of our spar, the older boy was overpowering me, pushing me close to the brink of exhaustion, so I decided, 'What the heck,' and attempted the disarming technique on him.
My blade clashed against the base of Luke's sword, and I twisted, throwing my entire body weight into a downward thrust, stumbling and almost falling because of my imbalance. But it worked. Luke's sword fell out of his hands and mine was up in an instant, leveled at his chest.
The arena was silent. I hadn't noticed, but everyone had stopped their fights to watch us, and the expressions of awe and confusion were prevalent on everyone's face, even mine and Luke's.
"Uh. . . My bad," I said sheepishly, thinking I did something wrong. Given the way everyone was looking at me, you'd think I killed their wolf.
"My bad?" Luke asked incredulously, his scarred face breaking out into a grin. "By the gods, Percy! Don't be embarrassed, show me that again!" he exclaimed excitedly.
So, I tried it again, but this time, Luke wasn't taking it easy on me, and he managed to disarm me after a few slashes.
"Beginner's luck?" somebody from the assembled crowd asked.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, Luke rose, appraising me with newfound interest, "Maybe. . ." he said, "But I wonder what he could do with a balanced sword."
Friday was a sort of free day for the camp, where everyone could go do their own things for the day before meeting up in the evening for capture the flag, which is taken very seriously around here.
I honesty was expecting most people to be out and about, chilling at the beach, playing volleyball or doing cabin related things. But actually, they all seemed to be getting ready for tonight. A building sense of anticipation was steadily growing at an alarming rate. The camp felt like a time bomb, like, if anyone started a fight or an argument, the entire camp would dissolve into WW3 in an instant.
It put an instant dampener on my mood because I was planning to use the day to finally explore the forest. But I couldn't do that because people were already there, placing traps and other obstacles, or surveying the forest looking for advantages against the other cabins.
So, with nothing to do I started walking around looking for something to keep myself busy with.
I met up with Will Solace, a younger son of Apollo who had been here for a little while now, and he took me to play volleyball outside the big house with some of his other cabin mates and some satyrs. I had never really played any of these sports before, so I spend most of the day being taught be them how to play these kinds of sports.
After lunch, I met up with Grover at the climbing wall and I once again question how these people think that a lave spewing, crashing rocks mountain of death is safer than arrow roulette. Grover scaled the mountain with ease, climbing the wall in minutes. I fell down halfway through, and now my shirt's practically in tatters, I'm now bare of arm hair, and I'm missing my right sleeve. It was burnt away by the lava that fell on my arm. This is also what caused me to fall, because. . . Well. . . There was lava on my arm.
Now, we were sitting on the pier of the canoe lake, watching the Naiads do underwater basket weaving while we were making idle talk.
"What happened with you and Mr. D?" I asked. I never found out what had happened then, but ever since, Grover's been more reserved and morose, and I was getting concerned.
Grover started choking on the water he was drinking. Taking a second to recover, "Fine," he took a few deep breaths. "Just great."
"So, you're not in any trouble, right?" I asked cautiously.
"No! No trouble. Why do you ask?" he said a little quickly.
"Well, Piper mentioned that someone wasn't happy with you, and you've seemed off for the past week. So, what's up?"
Heaving a tired sigh, he started talking, "Ideally, satyr seekers bring demigods to camp as quickly as possible, unharmed, and without attracting the attention of any monsters. But the big thing is, it has to be us. We have to bring the demigods into camp, across the boarder. Not the other way around. And we, you and I, were attacked by the Minotaur of all things! That's the only reason I didn't get in too much trouble. Because we were attacked by such a powerful monster, one that no satyr would ever dream of facing, I was let off easier than I would've been if it were, a cyclops or something else," he said.
"It was determined that I didn't fail, because I did get you to the camps boarders, but I also didn't complete the task because of what I just explained. So really, I'm not really in trouble. Like, I'm not going to loose my seekers license, but I'm also probably not going to be allowed back out into the mortal world to, you know, seek," he explained.
I thought over what he said. He didn't mention it, but Piper had already told me about Thalia and how Grover was also assigned to bring her safely to camp, but obviously, she didn't make it. I didn't want to reopen an old wound, so I didn't press for any details about it, despite my burning curiosity. We didn't discuss anything important after that. Eventually, we went our separate ways.
On my way back to camp, I met up with Piper. It was about time for everyone to assemble for capture the flag, and everyone was making there way towards the Armory, and as much as I wish I didn't, I needed to borrow another one of the camps crappy swords. I also needed armor, and I decided on a full set this time. Well. . . Really, it was cabin 5 and Clarisse's glares that decided that for me.
We were walking past the cabins when I felt a comforting pull towards cabin 8. I stopped in front of the silver-colored cabin which was actually a smaller replica of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, just like how, up close, cabin 6 is a smaller replica of the Parthenon in Athens. Cabin 8 was completely silver in every way, and the air outside of the cabin smelt fresh, like the morning air after a fresh rainfall.
I kept getting the same feeling of welcome from cabin's 3 and 8, Poseidon and Artemis respectively, but I still don't understand why. It was explained that the cabins were for the children of the respective god or goddess, but Artemis is a maiden goddess, so she couldn't have children.
"Piper, if the cabins are all for the children of the gods, then why des Artemis have one? Or Hera for that matter. Hades, cabin 11 is overcrowded with children of minor gods! Where's their cabin?" I asked her, lowering my voice at the end so as not to draw too much attention.
Piper looked around nervously before answering, but there was no one near us to hear what she was about to say.
"The cabins are for the 12 Olympian gods. Each of them get a cabin even if they don't have children. So, while in the past Zeus and Poseidon may have had many children each, they don't anymore so their cabins stay empty. As for Hera, who's the goddess of marriage and, on principal, wont have children with a mortal, her cabin stays empty permanently. And I don't really know how to answer the question about the minor gods. They just. . . don't get cabins," she explained.
"But then, what about Artemis?" I asked again.
"Well. . . she's a maiden goddess, so she obviously won't have any kids, but she does have a group of followers. The hunters of Artemis. Sometimes, they come to camp, and they stay in their Lady's cabin. But those visits are few and far in between. They don't like it here, and we don't like them here, but we put up with them anyway because Artemis is a goddess you don't want to mess with. Trust me." She said while we continued towards the Armory.
"Have you ever met the hunters?" I asked curiously. She seemed to speak about them like she had experience with them before, but I don't remember ever seeing her, or hearing about the hunters visiting camp while I was with them.
"Once, while I was making my way here. The hunters saved me and a few others from monsters, and then offered me a spot among them," she said simply.
"You didn't join?" I asked dumbly, already knowing the answer.
She shook her head no.
"Why not?" I wondered. I knew that the hunters weren't for everyone, but I was still curious to know why she didn't join them.
"Among other reasons, I'd have to leave Luke," she said, and then started walking faster to the Armory, obviously done talking about it, but still leaving me wondering what 'among other reasons' there were.
Quickly catching up to her, I opted to change the subject. "You said that Zeus and Poseidon don't have kids anymore. Why?"
"Because they're too powerful. After World War 2, the big three, that's Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, agreed to have no more children because they, the children that is, had the potential to destroy the world single handedly. World War 2 was a war fought between the children of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, against the sons of Hades on the other. After the war, Zeus and Poseidon made Hades swear on the River Styx to have no more children with mortals," she explained as we exited the cabin clearing.
"But you told me that Thalia was a daughter of Zeus," I said tentatively, remembering that it was a seemingly touchy subject for the native girl.
"I did. And she's a tree now. And by being immortal and the king of the gods, Zeus got off easy. That's why we don't make, or gods forbid break, oaths on the River Styx," she said in a clipped tone.
I raised my arms in surrender, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be insensitive about it. It's just that I'm learning all this for the first time," I told her, which is true. I had never really heard of any of this stuff during my stay with the hunt. I never really needed to know about it anyway.
"It's fine," Piper assured with a sigh. "I've got to go talk to Selina about something. I'll see you before the game starts," she said, turning to run back to her cabin.
I stood there, digesting the conversation, having more questions than people are willing to answer.
Piper seems like a very reserved girl. She was easily cowed by that Ares camper during the bathroom incident, and she doesn't talk about herself much. She doesn't talk much about her past and closes up whenever I mention Thalia. And, despite being a daughter of Aphrodite, she seems to be the black sheep of her cabin. I really don't understand her, but I do want to consider her a friend, so I don't pry too much. If she wants to tell me about herself, then she will.
I was pulled from my thoughts by Luke calling for me over by the Armory. Contemplations about Piper forgotten, I make my way the rest of the way to get suited up for my first game of capture the flag.
That night, after dinner, the air was palpable with excitement. At last, it was time for capture the flag. The plates were cleared, and the conch horn sounded, we all stood at our tables.
I had never felt more claustrophobic in my life. I was pressed shoulder to shoulder with the rest of my cabinmates, wearing a full set of hoplite armor: Celestial Bronze plated Linothorax armor, which didn't fit me properly at all, greaves, and a Corinthian helmet covering my entire face, with a blue horsehair plume. I also wore blue jeans, running shoes and an orange camp T-shirt.
Not everyone was dressed the same though. Most cabins had the same or similar helmets as me, except cabin 6 who all wore an Athenian style helmet, and the children of Ares who had a Spartan variant, making them look even more menacing with their blood red plumes.
Another noticeable difference were the councilors. Luke and Beckendorf, and the various other councilors all wore a much stronger and heavier set: Metal breastplate, shoulder pauldrons, greaves, leather vambraces, and the various helmet varieties. I was assured that because Celestial Bronze is such a light metal, that the weight wasn't as bad as it appeared. And despite offering much better protection than what everyone else was wearing, the bronze breastplates were much trickier to make than the leather armor, so is reserved for councilors.
At the sound of the conch horn, the Athena cabin councilor, Malcolm Pace came running into the pavilion, flanked by two of his siblings, carrying a silk banner. It was about 10 feet long, with a 3-foot cross at the top, making it look like a capitol 'T' in shape. Hung from the cross on either side of the main pole was a large strip of startlingly grey silk, together completing the image of an owl above an olive tree, the sacred symbols of Athena. From the other side of the pavilion, Clarisse and two of her goons came running in carrying an identical banner, but red silk marked with bloody spears crossed behind the face of an angry boar, representing the symbols of Ares.
The entire pavilion was consumed by the campers cheering, as the representatives of both sides of the game met in the center of the pavilion, in front of Chiron. I turned to Luke, having to yell in order to be heard over the noise, "Those are the flags?"
"Yeah."
"Do Ares and Athena always lead?"
"Not always. They just win more than anyone else," he said, casting a grin down at me.
"Whose side are we on?" I asked, even though it should have been obvious given the two colors spread throughout the pavilion.
"We're in a temporary alliance with Athena. You'll see," he said, smiling mischievously at me.
The teams were announced. Athena had made a temporary alliance with the Apollo and Hermes cabins, the two biggest cabins in camp. Apparently, privileges had been traded in exchange for support – shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities – things like that.
Ares had aligned themselves with everyone else. Apparently, the two sons of Dionysus were exceptional athletes. And the forest, and all it's plant life, would be a huge boon for Demeter's kids, though unfortunately, they aren't aggressive by nature. The Hephaestus kids worried me. They were all big and burly from working in the forge all day, and they had all been campers for a number of years, so they clearly knew what they were doing. Their armor was evidently heavier than anyone else's and they were the only cabin to carry axes and war hammers alongside short swords. They would be terrifying opponents, and they are, but there were only four of them. That, of course, left the children – cough – brats – cough – of Ares: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on this side of everywhere.
Chiron stomped his hoof on the hard marble floor and the entire pavilion went silent.
"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. Any and all magic items are allowed. The banner must visible, and prominently displayed, and may have no more than two guards within 10 feet of it. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be gagged, beaten or bound after capture. I am inclined to also remind you all, that captured prisoners cannot be burned, drowned, or looted of personal effects, whatsoever," he said, seeming to look towards table 5 for the first part, before sweeping his gaze over to us at the end. "No killing or maiming is allowed. I, and anyone else wearing a yellow shirt, will serve as battlefield medics. To arms!" he finished as a cheer went out from the entire camp body.
I was honestly expecting the rules to be more like: 'don't hurt each other out there,' or 'safety is our number one priority, so if you see someone on the other team, shake hands and walk away,' so it was a relief to hear that the whole idea of the game was, 'just make sure you don't die an embarrassing death.'
"Blue team, forward!" Malcolm yelled.
We cheered louder, shaking our swords and headed off into the south woods. The red team yelled taunts and jeers at us as they headed off into the north woods.
I made to follow my team but stopped when I saw the entire Aphrodite cabin headed instead over towards the amphitheater. All except one bronze skinned girl, wearing a big yellow shirt.
I ran over to her, curious why she and her cabin aren't participating.
"Hey, Piper!" I called, making her stop and look at me surprised. "What are you doing? Aren't you participating?" I asked confused.
Piper looked down, ashamed. "No. My cabin never plays. Some of us, like me, and Selina to an extent, want to play but then that would mean our entire cabin has to play too, and most people don't want to play, for many stupid reasons," she said frustrated, clearly unhappy that she wasn't allowed to play. "So, after a while of not being able to participate, I got really angry and demanded that Chiron let me play, but he told me the same thing I was already told. Instead, he offered to let me be a battlefield medic with him and some of the nature spirits. It's not what I want, but I guess it's better than nothing," she said uncertainly, like she was desperately trying to reassure herself that she believed what she was saying.
"That's why that one Ares girl called me a cheerleader, the other day. Because that's essentially what I am. No matter how I feel about it," she finished angrily.
I simply stared incredulously, unable to comprehend what she was saying. An entire cabin refusing to play, all for what!? Vanity? It just didn't make any sense to me, and I had no response for Piper, a victim of a defective majority who just wanted to knock someone's face in.
"Uh. . . I don't. . . I don't know what to say to that." I told her, perplexed.
With a resigned and tired sigh, she said, "You should get going. Don't want to lose your team and get attacked by monsters now, do you."
"Oh, right!" I exclaimed, turning around and starting to run but stopped. Turning around, seeing Piper with her head tilted and a confused expression on her face, I asked "You wouldn't happen to have any magic items I can use, would you?" I asked hopefully, not that I needed them, but I figured asking wouldn't hurt.
To my relief, Piper smiled and laughed briefly, any traces of contempt gone. "No. Now get moving!" she said loudly.
With that, I turned and made my way into the forest, hearing Piper yelling "And watch out for Clarisse!" from behind.
'Words to live by,' I thought.
I swiftly caught up with my team, which was pretty easy considering I've only ever lived in forests. I got a few raised eyebrows and skeptical looks from my teammates, but no one questioned me about my sudden reappearance from out of no where.
Luke came over, grabbing at a spot between the breastplate and the pauldron that wasn't very well covered, but couldn't be helped because that was all the Armory had that relatively fit me. He started adjusting my straps one final time as he explained that I'd be on boarder patrol near the creek in an isolated spot in the woods. He assured that the enemy team had absolutely no reason to go my way. But between the son of the god of thieves, and the plan concocted by the children of the goddess of warfare, I trusted Luke's words, and Malcolm's plan as much as I trusted Zoë to adapt to modern times.
Nonetheless, I nodded wordlessly and stood guard by a creek he pointed out to me, then watched as the rest of my team moved further into the woods. Once again, I saw the Stoll brothers taking bets with people and sending no-so-subtle glances back in my direction.
'Yep. If this position is 'isolated' and 'out of the way,' then Artemis has the most kids at this camp.'
While waiting for the conch horn to be blown, signaling the start of the game, I busied myself with checking over my gear one last time. My armor is heavy and uncomfortable, but at least it fits relatively well. The sword at my belt is heavy and keeps pulling my pants down to the floor, so I quickly discard the scabbard in favor of just holding the large, heavy sword. My Hoplon shield is bigger than my other shield and fairly unwieldy, but still offers very good protection and isn't too heavy.
I stabbed my sword into the ground and start checking my other equipment. I can feel my boxed-up tent in my left pocket, and I haven't moved anything from my weapons chest since before I came to camp, so I have a bow and spare sword at the ready, if need be. Though I shouldn't use the bow because it's easily recognizable as a hunters bow. The silver Gladius would be more explainable than anything else and was at the ready for when I will likely need it. Behind the shield, my watch sat comfortably on my left wrist, and ready, if need be. But once again, I was hesitant to use it too soon, because while I doubt many campers would recognize the Roman goddess depicted on it, Chiron definitely would. And it would lead to too many questions from others that I really didn't want to answer. The twin rings were easy enough to spot, so I experimentally flicked my right wrist, summoning one of my blades, before quickly turning it back into a ring. Finally, I checked my pocket where, unsurprisingly, Riptide was sitting innocently.
I finished checking my gear just as I heard the horn pierce through the otherwise quiet forest, signaling the start of the game. I could hear the distant battle cries and the sounds of metal clashing against metal in the distance, but nothing sounded remotely close to where I was standing. And since the start of the game, when one of my teammates came charging past my position, running into the enemy's territory, nothing interesting had happened.
I didn't know how much time had past, but my instincts were telling me that something was coming from the other side of the creek, from the enemy's side. I was just getting settled into a defensive stance, when I heard a low growl coming from somewhere behind me, so quiet that I almost didn't hear it. I turned swiftly to investigate but saw nothing but the forest and a large cluster of boulders.
I would've probably investigated, but the growling stopped just as soon as it started. I decided to ignore it for now and turned back to face the enemy's side of the forest just as five armored teens with red plumes came charging out of the forest, headed straight towards me. Most of them carried swords, one of them had a rather menacing looking spear, but they all had large round shields with a big red Lambda imprinted on them. That, and the distinctive menacing looking helmets told me all I needed to know about these newly emerged demigods.
"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.
'That was also a pretty good indicator,' I thought dryly.
That command was yelled from the figure in the back, who was dressed differently from the rest of her siblings from cabin 5. She wore a bulky looking bronze muscle cuirass, with matching bronze pauldrons and greaves. A much stronger, and more well protected set than what I was wearing. She carried a barbed spear, painted red like blood, and a shield with a sloppy red paint job, probably made to resemble smeared blood, but really just turned out looking more like a kindergarteners' first art project. Like, when they don't know what anything is, so they just take the pallet and throw it on the canvas, and then have their parents hang it on the wall for them. Except the pallet was all red. Even her helmet was different. On both cheek plates, bronze protrusions curved outwards, narrowing to a point a couple inches away from the rest of the helmet, shaped to resemble tusks, like the ones on the Calydonian Boar. All her armor was painted red.
I really didn't like my odds. I've dealt with similar odds as a wolf, and with the hunt before, but I really can't be a wolf right now, and the hunters never wear armor, nor are they ever this enthusiastic to kill me. Which was another thing. I had a sinking feeling that these campers didn't care about crossing the creek to go searching for the flag. I also don't think they were paying attention to the rules Chiron had laid out earlier.
I got into a defensive stance, sword raised and shield out in front of me, blocking my entire body from view. "This won't be like last time," I said as the first Ares camper emerged from the stream.
"Yeah! This time, you won't get a chance to make us look like fools!" one of them yelled.
"You really don't need my help doing that," I said, sidestepping the first one and slamming my shield into his back, sending him to the ground momentarily. I turned around instantly to block and parry another one who I pushed into the next camper coming up behind them, sending them both falling, tripping over each other.
The last one ran at me with their shield raised. I leveled mine and braced for the collision. We moved back for a bit before I found my footing and we were locked, each pushing against the other hoping to overpower our opponent. I knew I wouldn't win this fight, the Ares girl was simply stronger than me, so I gave one last push before ducking to the side, letting her stumble forwards. But not before I extended my sword and managed a strike on her shin, but only hitting the armored greave.
I stood, ready for the next fight when I realized the position they had forced me into. All four campers I had previously knocked down were now up again and had me surrounded on all sides, with Clarisse marching confidently up from the creek, effectively boxing me in. I was trapped.
"No where to run now, punk!" Clarisse exclaimed haughtily.
In a last-ditch attempt to maybe even the odds, I nodded my head in the direction I watched the rest of my 'team' leave with the flag. "They took the flag that way," I said, hoping that at least some of them might break off to try and win the game, but when am I ever so lucky.
All five of them started laughing mockingly in response, taunting and calling me names like, 'coward' and 'punk.' They're creative like that.
"Yeah. See, we're not here for the flag. We're here for the guy who made our cabin look like fools," one of them said, earning cheers of agreement from the rest of his siblings.
This whole time, I was facing Clarisse, the only one who I hadn't fought yet, but I was forced to turn around when two of her siblings came at me from behind, pressing their attack and forcing me back towards the river.
Clarisse came from behind me now and made to stab me with her spear. I rolled backwards, coming up behind her and raising my shield just in time to block another thrust of her barbed spear. As soon as I did however, my left arm went numb, my hair stood on end, and I could smell something burning in the air. That's how I found out her spear is electric.
Now, with the creek to my back, and five angry war children in front of me, I could focus solely on defense. I kept blocking with my sword and shield as best I could for a while, giving very little ground. But as the fight waged on, I was slowly getting overpowered. With the heavy armor that I'm not used to wearing, a shield with similar issues on an already numbed arm, and a sword that isn't balanced, it wasn't easy for me to keep up with the rapid, never-ending onslaught of stabs, jabs and slashes from my opponents. I knew I couldn't easily win this fight alone, and despite all my training and conditioning, I knew it was only a matter of time before I made a mistake.
That mistake came sooner than I would have liked. I swung my sword to parry one of their blades as I raised my shield to block two more. But I left my body wide open. An opening that Clarisse took full advantage of, by stabbing me straight in the ribs.
Instantly, my breastplate started getting uncomfortably hot, and the smell of burnt. . . Something, permeated the air. My entire body went numb and briefly seized up, and as I involuntarily began lowering my sword and shield, I was met with an armored boot to the chest, sending me flying into the creek, my back landing roughly on the slippery, rocky bottom.
My helmet flew off and landed in the middle of the creek before I even touched the water with a splash.
"Ha! Glory to Ares!"
"Serves you right!"
"What a wimp."
"Pathetic!"
They jeered, taunting me, thinking they'd won the fight. But the second I touched the water, I knew immediately that they had lost.
I felt a rush of energy surge through me, healing and revitalizing me. The numbness from Clarisse's spear attacks seemed to disappear and I felt stronger than ever. When I was kicked, I dropped my sword, which went somewhere. So, as I was getting back on my feet, I discreetly summoned my silver Gladius to my hand, and swiftly willed it to turn into a Hasta spear. The Roman Hasta resembled a Greek spear more than a Pilum does, so my hope was that the Greek campers would mistake it for any other spear in their Armory, and not ask too many questions.
I rose to my feet firmly, the rapid currents of the stream having no effect on me, other than increasing my senses. Looks of surprise and confusion were hidden by the Ares campers' helmets, though I could tell by the tightening of their muscles that they weren't expecting me to recover from my beating so soon. I readied myself in a defensive stance, feet spread, knees bent, and spear leveled behind my raised shield. The Ares campers mirrored me, taking stances of their own.
I swept my gaze over all of them, stopping once I locked gazes with Clarisse. I smirked, "Wanna go again, Clarisse? I'm up for a round two," I taunted, echoing my words from the bathroom incident, certain that they would provoke some kind of response from the teen.
A low growl, followed by a loud, "Kill him!" was her response.
With a yell, they all came running into the creek, intent on following their councilors' orders.
But I was done playing nicely with them.
"You can't kill me, it's against the rules," I said seriously, though Clarisse must have thought of my remark as petulant.
"Oh, yeah! What's anyone gunna do about it. Spank me? Call me a bad girl?" Clarisse responded in a mocking, childish tone.
"I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you?" I said cheekily, earning an enraged scream from the war child as I ducked under the first one's wild swing and slammed the edge of my shield into their gut with enough strength to send him flying out of the creek. I twisted my body back up to block another sword swing with my shield while stabbing the ground between the next brute's legs. I spun while pushing her sword away, bringing my spear with me which caught onto the back of her leg, flipping her over and landing face first in the water. I continued swinging my spear around like a really big sword, and the point slammed into the helmet of the third guy, sending the helmet flying away, much like my own, and knocking the guy out cold.
The fourth one, a girl, still not Clarisse, was more careful in approaching me after seeing me take care of three of her siblings in less than 10 seconds, all happening within a single spin, and instead led with her shield raised. I copied her stance, recognizing the advantage I had with my spear, but with Clarisse quickly closing the distance, my slight range advantage was quickly slipping away.
So, before I could be overwhelmed by the last two campers working together against me, I quickly lunged forward with my shield, intent on pushing the girls shield out of the way so that I could finish her quickly before Clarisse arrived.
Unfortunately, she was ready, and met me shield to shield, locking them in an instant. Wary about how close Clarisse was getting, I tried pushing downwards with my shield, trying to bring hers with me, and opening a slight gap in her defense.
It worked, and in an instant, I thrust my spear past her shield, hitting near the top of her armor, making her stumble backwards. I swiftly broke the shield lock and punched her in the head with my shield, knocking her out also.
I rolled backwards to avoid Clarisse's kick and got up just in time to dodge to the left, avoiding the barbed, electric tip of her spear. Clarisse thrust her spear over my right arm. But before she could retract it and attack again, I twisted my arm, bringing my spear shaft across hers and pressing her spear shaft along the outside of my arm, just under my shoulder, holding it there. Without hesitation, I brought my shield over, punching the space between my shoulder and my spear, and punching straight through Clarisse's spear shaft, breaking it cleanly in two with the barbed, electric spear head landing behind me.
"Ah!" she screamed in rage. "You moron! You stupid idiot!"
She would have said more, but I backhanded her with my shield, sending her stumbling out of the creek.
Then, during the pause of the fight, I heard it.
Yelling. Immediately, I thought it was people screaming in fright, or cries of pain from an unfortunate camper. But as the sounds continued to get closer, I finally determined that they were cries of victory.
Suddenly, Luke emerged from the treeline, carrying a large red banner, flanked by two more campers adorned with blue horsehair plumes. Luke was racing hurriedly towards the creek, as a few more blue team allies with bows, probably Apollo campers, were fighting off a couple of red aligned campers with large hammers and bulky armour, which greatly hindered their mobility and their chances of catching up to Luke, who was now only seconds from the creek.
Clarisse shakily got to her feet, being helped by the only two other Ares campers who remained conscious after their own encounters with me. "A trick?" she mumbled in confusion. Then, that confusion disappeared and was replaced by unbridled fury.
"A trick! It was a trick!?"
She made to start running towards Luke, but it was too late. Not long after Clarisse figured it out, Luke crossed the boundary, literally leaping across the wide creek, and securing a blue team victory.
As soon as the flag crossed the creek, it changed from a red flag with a boar and spears, to accommodate a pristine silver caduceus in the center between the two grey flags, with the coiling, green colored snakes of the caduceus maneuvering between the two flags.
Immediately, our side of the clearing exploded into shouts and cries of victory, with campers raising their weapons and shields in celebration.
We had won.
While I was ecstatic that I had won my first game of capture the flag, I didn't feel like celebrating as wildly as the other campers. I was still bitter over their plan and my part in it.
I willed my spear away to avoid any unnecessary questions I'd get for having an irregular spear made of silver, and then made my way out of the creek, grabbing my helmet in the process.
"Congratulations," said a voice in front of me. A voice belonging to a person I hadn't seen.
Piper stood there, in the shadow of one of the boulders, looking at me with a small smile on her face. She stepped out of the shadows as I emerged from the creek, feeling suddenly more tired as I did. As soon as I was out, Piper narrowed her eyes at something which prompted me to turn around to see what I thought she was looking at.
I turned, scanning the area behind me but saw nothing. I turned back to her, and she quickly schooled her features. Her small smile returning to her face.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Nothing," she said quickly, but also softly, like she wasn't quite sure if she believed the words she said.
I internally shrugged my shoulders in acceptance.
"Looks like you won more than just the game huh?" she said teasingly, indicating to the few scattered weapons that were left on the ground around us. Also, the two other Ares campers who decided that the rocky Creek bed made for great sleeping arrangements.
"Humph. Yeah. I guess so," I said disinterestedly.
She frowned at my response, "What's wrong? You won the game, right."
"I did, but I just don't like having been lied to and used in order to win it," I complained to her.
She quickly looked down, muttering a soft "Oh," before speaking again.
"Well, Malcolm's fond of saying, 'Athena always has a plan,' which he did. It just involved using you to distract the bulk of the red team's strongest fighters who'd want payback for the bathroom incident. And then, while their best are distracted, send in your best to recover the flag. I guess it's a bit insensitive on his part, setting you up to be attacked like that, but overall, it did work out in the end," she said.
Her analysis gave me pause. It made sense, in a twisted sort of way. And it was, much to my chagrin, effective, and crucial to securing the win.
"I still don't like it," I said in a mock pouty tone, crossing my arms across my chest and glaring playfully at the ground.
Piper laughed her melodic laugh that drowned away all other noise, making me smile and chuckle along with her.
Together, we started walking towards the others.
"By the way, what happened to–" was as far as she got before being interrupted by the same growling sound from earlier. This time, much closer and much louder.
All sounds from the campers died at once, Chiron shouted "Stand ready! My bow!" though I would only realize later on that he had said it in ancient Greek.
Piper drew her knives, and I readied my shield in front of us. I didn't have a camp weapon readily available, and I didn't want to summon my spear again, so all that left me with was my shield and my own knives on my fingers.
Together, Piper and I turned to face the source of the growl, which escalated into a loud, piercing howl from a hellhound, at least the size of a rhino, perched menacingly atop the largest boulder.
Everything was frozen. It seemed we were all at a standstill. No one willing to move unless the other did so first.
Then, suddenly, the hellhound lunged at us.
I stepped forward, intending to block it from Piper and the others, but the hound simply opened its maw, biting down on the circumference of my shield, and with a mighty tug, completely wrenched the shield from my arm, sending it flying deep into the forest, and knocking me off balance as I stumbled forward.
I barely heard the other campers reacting as I immediately tried summoning my knives as soon as I lost my shield. I know that keeping my secrets of who I am is important, but I wasn't about to die before I could reveal them.
But it didn't seem to matter if I was armed or not. Upon throwing my shield away, the hellhound turned back around, raking its claws across my relatively defenseless form.
"Percy!"
There was a loud ripping sound, and I felt an excruciating pain across my chest as I was flung back, landing right next to Piper, who had yelled my name and had now moved to protect me as I lay badly wounded in the middle of the forest.
Just because I was hurt, badly even, it didn't mean I was completely unaware of my surroundings.
I heard Chiron yell the order to fire, and seconds later the hellhound was pierced by multiple arrows. It released one last howl of pain before melting, leaving nothing but a puddle of shadow and arrows as the only indicator that it was ever there.
'And a bleeding demigod.'
Being the closest one to me, Piper was the first to react. Falling to her knees, she started undoing the straps of my armor as Chiron, Luke and some Apollo campers rushed to my side.
With the intervention of the Apollo medics, Piper stood from my side, but didn't leave.
"Di immortals! That's a hellhound from the fields of punishment. They. . . They're not supposed to. . ." Piper said, sounding extremely worried.
"Someone must have summoned it. There's no way it got past the boarder," Luke said angrily, his victory completely forgotten by the sudden turn of events.
Chiron hummed in agreement. "Someone from within," he said.
"It's Percy!" yelled Clarisse. "It's all Percy's fault. He summoned it! He let it through the boarder!" she yelled passionately.
"I didn't hit you that hard," I said weakly, but mirthfully. It was clearly audible because, despite the situation, lots of campers laughed at my remark.
It also seemed to assure the medic checking my wound. He huffed, shaking his head disbelievingly, turned to Chiron and said, "He's fine."
"Quick, put him in the water," Piper said suddenly.
Chiron seemed to suck in a breath and stiffen, while everyone else just gave her looks of confusion.
After a moment of no one doing anything, the medic spoke up, "Look, Piper, I know you're trying to help, but that's not–" he said but was cut off by Pipers next words.
Well. . . Not so much her words, but how she said them.
"Get him in the water," she said.
I sounded melodic, compelling, enchanting. I had a very strong, sudden urge to go for a nice long swim, though I didn't know why I wanted too. In the back of my mind, I remembered that just a steady stream of water over an open wound would probably be enough to close it and fix me up. So, I didn't really understand why I wanted to go swimming so late at night.
Fortunately for me, I didn't need to go to the water alone. As soon as the words left her mouth, The Apollo medic and Luke started moving my body into the creek. They laid me down in the middle of the creek, and then stepped out of the water, almost robotically.
I felt the rush of energy again, and my head cleared. I no longer had the strange urge to go swimming, I just wanted to stay in the water because it felt good. I felt like I could sleep here, right on the hard rocky bottom, wrapped in nothing but the cold rapids of the running water.
But I heard a collective series of gasps coming from the group of assembled campers. I opened a curious eye to see them all looking at me strangely. Even Clarisse stopped scowling to look at me in shock.
I reached up to feel my chest where the hellhound slashed me, expecting to feel my warm blood pouring out of the wound. But I didn't. I felt the skin of my chest, and the outline of a faint scar, but nothing else.
I tried to mask my look of understanding with one of shock as I tentatively rose to my feet in the center of the creek.
The campers started muttering and whispering about me, pointing at me. Piper stood with her eyes widened looking at me.
'No. Above me.'
I quickly looked up in time to see the slowly fading green light. A light in the shape of a trident. The symbol of Poseidon. The sign of a god claiming their child.
"It is determined," Chiron said loudly, immediately quieting the whispers. "Hail, Poseidon. God of the seas. Earthshaker. Stormbringer. Father of horses," he said, finishing just as the glowing green projection faded away completely.
The clearing was silent just a moment longer, before Chiron started to kneel awkwardly on his front legs. An action that was quickly followed by everyone else, though Clarisse and her siblings did not look happy about it.
"Hail, Perseus Jackson. Son of the sea god. Son of Poseidon," he finished loudly.
A/N
First off, in answer to a bunch of you guys' complaints about the bathroom scene from last chapter, let me explain. Lots of people were arguing that Percy should have been able to put up a better fight then what he did, and I agree with you all to an extent. Right off the bat in that fight, Clarisse took Percy by surprise by putting him in a headlock, which he was able to get out of pretty easily. But the moment he did, he got pushed back to the ground where he fell headfirst onto Clarisse's hard boot cap. I don't care who you are, that should be enough to disorientate most people, or at the very least surprise them enough that they are momentarily to stunned to do anything.
After re-reading that passage, I see now that I didn't really mention it, but the entire time that Percy's being dragged into the bathroom, as he's struggling, the other girls who came with Clarisse are constantly kicking him down, making sure that he can't really get up and fight back. Now, Percy has lived most of his life with the hunt, and he might have had similar experiences with them as he does here with Clarisse, but he's never had to deal with multiple people that size before. So, Percy is literally at the mercy of the four girls who are all bigger and stronger than him, and they take him by surprise early on, and then continue to literally keep on kicking him while he's down. The only time he actually gets a reprieve from all this is when Clarisse is forcing his head closer to the toilet, which is when he manages to break free properly, AND THEN he turns the tables and deals with them swiftly.
I hope that clears up some of the confusion and placates those who didn't like that last chapter for that reason only.
(Btw, this isn't an OP Percy fic where he can smell Kronos rising from planets away, and then sneeze and wipe out all monsters in existence. Percy's half mortal and can be taken by surprise, much like the gods can in certain instances throughout the series. He's not all knowing so I think it should be believable that Clarisse was able to hit him when he wasn't looking.)
So, in my last A/N, I said that I'd try and write up a bunch of chapters before releasing them on a weekly basis. Well, that's not going to happen anymore. I just have this desire to release new chapters whenever I can because I really don't like making you readers wait. And with the way I'm writing, it might be years before we even finish tLT. Also, the pressure of hoarding chapters for a release that could take years (unlikely, but still not unprobeable) to happen was really starting to get to me and I feel and worry that it's affecting my schoolwork. Something I can't afford to do.
So, from now on, chapters from both my stories will happen at random, and whenever I finish them.
Percy slays capture the flag, a duel with Luke, more camp stuff, and Percy gets claimed by Poseidon finally. I'm really trying not to copy straight from the book.
If you have any ideas that you think I should incorporate, please let me know.
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AyeEnfield