Piper
I had been ordered to border patrol and so far, I had stopped two Roman attackers. There came the third. It was a girl, and she was really fast. Perhaps a child of Mercury, the only Olympian who gave worse powers than Athena. Ok, I'll take that back, because I don't want an encounter with Annabeth's drakon bone sword. Enough talking, the Roman girl was escaping. I started chasing her and was able to keep up for a good while before she disappeared between the trees. I was about to go back when I saw her coming back out, clearly shocked by something she had seen. "Why do you have these things in your forest?" she asked me. I had no idea what she was referring to, and decided to send her back. "No idea why we have them, but how about you go back to your side and don't come back."
The girl nodded and walked towards the border. I just hoped my charm speak would last a while and she wouldn't come right back. But what had she been talking about. I decided to investigate further because nothing bad ever happens when demigods go investigate something alone. Especially not if they go to a place that just scared the Hades out of someone. I walked deeper into the forest.
After a few meters, I noticed something strange on the ground. There was a long stretch, about half a meter wide, where the plants were just slightly different from the rest. Like they had been destroyed a while ago, but had since grown back. I decided to follow the strange track. After a hundred meters or so, it ended in a massive crater. That didn't explain anything, so I decided to check the other direction. I walked for a while, but suddenly stopped when I noticed an ant. Now, normally an ant wouldn't bother me, but this one was the size of a sheep. And it got worse: the ant was very lightly colored and I once heard that ants get darker over time, meaning that this one was possibly far from grown up. It slowly approached me and I got a feeling that this particular ant did not like demigods (except for dinner). Suddenly, I realized what had happened. Annabeth had once told me about how she, Percy, Silena and Beckendorf had discovered this ant colony. The weird formation on the ground came from when the ants had discovered Festus where the crater was now and had dragged his head to their hill. What had happened to Beckendorf also confirmed my suspicion.
As if to further confirm it, the ant closed its strong mandibles around my leg. I panicked and grabbed the only thing I could find, which was my cornucopia, and lodged it in between the ant's mandibles. I pressed on it from the top and slowly, the mandibles opened and I could pull my leg out, but not without cutting my hand. I was free now, but I didn't want to lose my cornucopia. Now, also having a child of Hephaestus with me, like Silena had back then, would have been really useful, but Leo apparently had to die in the war. Well, I guessed I had to help myself. I grabbed katoptris from my belt and tried to stab the ant, only to find out that mythological exoskeletons were apparently harder than celestial bronze. I had to try something different. I used my dagger to stab the ant into the eye. This didn't kill the ant, but it was distracted long enough for me to pull my cornucopia out of its mandibles and walk away, but I wasn't fast because of, you know, the ant almost biting of my leg.
After a while, I reached the river again and got back to guarding the border. Right now, there was no one approaching the border. Wait, that wasn't true. Hazel was running towards the border from our side. And she had our flag! I had to stop her. I turned to her and shouted "STOP". She slowed down a bit, but that was it. Hazel was either extremely resistant to charm speak, or just extremely straight. Or maybe it had to do with her using the mist, which was probably a related branch of magic. Not now Piper I told myself Figure out the why later. Now it's time to stop Hazel. I think I started copying Annabeth's analytical thinking a bit and I have no idea how she is able to fight properly while also analyzing why the enemy won't die and whatnot. Anyways, back to the game. I had to change my strategy. If girls didn't interest her, then maybe… a blueberry muffin landed on the floor. That might work. I picked it up and told Hazel: "Why don't you stop and have a muffin", again with charm speak. "Yeah, why not?" Hazel asked and took a bite. "Wait, you're trying to stop me from winning the game" She continued running, not without taking the muffin with her, and I was about to accept our loss, when Will Solace crossed the border with the Roman flag, just moments before Hazel could cross with ours. We had won.
"Good job Will. We would not have won this game without you" "Neither would we without you. You can be just as proud. Neither would we without Annabeth. I wonder if she's okay" Why wouldn't Annabeth be okay? Had something happened? "Why, what happened?" I asked. "It was really weird. One of the Romans pulled a yellow rock from his pocket and that did something to Annabeth. It was like her brain went on standby. She even took her invisibility cap off in the middle of ten Roman legionnaires. I didn't see her for long but like I said, her brain seemed to run on standby. That's the best I can explain it." Ok, that was weird "And the rock, do you know what it was?" "Well, it smelled a bit like sulfur." That was all I needed to know. "That makes sense. Annabeth once mentioned that Tartarus smelled like sulfur. Maybe the smell caused a flashback. We should go look after her. And then you can look after my leg. An ant almost bit it of" "An ant?" "Yes, an ant. It was about this big. And it probably wasn't even an adult yet." "Oh, oh. That sounds really big. Anyways, back to treating your leg."
"Let me see. Could I have your knife?" I gave it to him. He cut of a thin strip of the flag. "It's not even one centimeter, no one will notice. Now, could you get down on the floor so I can attach it?" I sat down on the floor and, using the small strip he had cut off from the flag and the part that was still intact on the other end, Will attached the flag pole behind my leg, such that it stuck out a bit beyond my foot. "Ok, that's the best I can do right now. It won't help against the cuts, but at least there will be no pressure on your leg. You should try to walk with it" I got up and noticed that I could walk with it no problem. "I can walk with it. It's almost like wearing high heels, and I've never found that difficult. Probably because of my mom." "You've worn high heels? When?" "Does it matter?" I asked Will. Then I had a better idea. "I have never worn high heels" I told Will. "You have never worn high heels" he repeated. It had been a school play during second grade. This was probably one of my least favorite mortal memories. The play had contained a way to rich woman (as a Mclean, I probably shouldn't be complaining about that) and I had been the only one who could even stand up in her way to high high heels. "But we have more important things to discuss at the moment. Annabeth is probably stuck in a flashback right now, we should go look for her" And just like that, we made our way into the not any more dangerous Roman territory. Well, it wasn't really Roman either, with the game now over. "I don't think the others are aware that the game's over." Will noted. "Maybe you should tell them" "Why me?" "Because you're the one with the charm speak. Also, I'm already occupied with making you louder." "Okay, um The game is over, the Greeks won" Will actually seemed to make me a lot louder. Maybe it had something to do with his music related powers.
Percy
I felt the gorgon's blood spreading through my body. I grew weaker and weaker before finally losing consciousness. When I woke up, I was lying in a river. Around me, I saw tree. Normal, mortal world trees. I was at the forest in camp half blood. It had only been a flashback. What about the game? Was it over? Had we won? I stood up to go and find the others. Just as I was about to go, I heard Piper's voice telling everyone that the Greeks had just won the game. Well, that answered my question. Next, I had to find Hazel to get my revenge. Then I remembered that I had totally consented to her attacking me, even encouraged her. Dam it. I decided to go find the others instead. I followed the river, since that was the fastest way for me to get around, and quickly noticed Piper and Will walking into the forest on the Roman side. "Hi guys, where are you going? And why do you have a flag wrapped around your leg?" "We're trying to find Annabeth, she's probably at Zeus' fist and it's possible that she's caught in a flashback. And the flag is there because I was attacked by giant ants." "Oh, those things. They tried to eat Beckendorf once. But they also found Festus for us, so I guess they're not all bad." "Not that bad?" Piper said. "That thing tried to eat my leg"
I'll admit it, maybe I wasn't 100% focused on the conversation. As soon as I heard 'Annabeth' and 'flashback', my brain went straight to protecting her. And when I'm focused on that, I sometimes do dumb things like blowing up mountains or falling down to places I won't mention. But I was also worried about Piper. An ant almost biting of your leg didn't seem too healthy. "Uh, Pipes, are you sure you can do this with a half-chewed leg? It's not like Annabeth won't have anyone to take care of her now." Piper was about to respond, but Will was faster. "Percy's right. I can barely keep Nico from constantly trying to help at the cost of his own health; I really don't need another person doing the same." "Yeah, just stay here and I'll be back with Annabeth in no time."
I ran to the fist where Annabeth was sitting on the floor, her cap halfway off her head, putting her in a weird flickering state somewhere between visible and invisible. I took the cap completely off and she didn't really seem to notice. I remember what I had promised Piper, to get Annabeth back to her. I sat down and pulled her into my lap, before summoning water within the soil and sledding down in the resulting mud. I feel like I enjoyed it a bit too much for an almost 17-year-old taking care of his traumatized girlfriend, but at least it was fast and I was back with Piper and Will in, as I had promised, no time.
When I arrived back at the river, I first leaned Annabeth onto a tree before allowing myself to examine her further. It actually looked a bit like she was sleeping, but she also looked scared, like a nightmare. "Any idea what caused the flashback?" I asked the other two. Piper was the first to respond: "probably sulphur, at least there was some around and that is probably one strong trauma trigger for her". "That makes sense, it did smell like that. Maybe we should try to get her out, any ideas?" But before anyone could answer, Annabeth blinked a few times before opening her eyes completely and looking at us. "How did I get here?" she asked. Her voice sounded very close to what it normally was, but the voice from the lake was also present. "Wasn't I just at Zeus' fist? Is the game over already?" "You tossed me the flag from inside the guarded circle. I got it and ran back, winning the game by just a few seconds. Hazel would have won, had it not been for Piper's amazing blueberry muffins. Percy then appeared and got you from the Roman side. You were having a flashback." "Oh, wow, that's a lot of things happening in what felt like 3 seconds to me. So, what do we do now, celebrate our victory?" It seemed like Annabeth was trying to distract from how bad her trauma really was. I couldn't blame her, exposing your weaknesses was generally a bad idea.
"Oh, one more thing before you two leave" Piper stopped me. "You said yesterday that you never tried controlling blood and that you didn't have any available to try it out." I nodded "Well, take this." She turned her hand over and I saw a small cut with a bit of blood flowing out of it. But first, I asked Annabeth "Wise girl, permission to try blood bending?" It took her a few seconds to understand why I asked "Permission given. As long as you don't drown Piper" "Don't worry, I won't" I focused on moving the blood towards me, while also making sure not to pull any of the blood that hadn't already left her hand. It actually worked and a few drops floated through the air.
"Well, turns out I can control blood, at least when it's outside someone's body. I think I'll leave inside blood where it is for now." "I like that idea" Annabeth confirmed. The two of us then helped Will in getting Piper to the Infirmary, since Will suspected that there was more damage done to her leg than what was visible and because tying a flagpole to someone's leg isn't exactly the best treatment, before going to find the other campers now celebrating.
Well, it looks like camp half-blood finally won a game of CtF, just not against their usual opponent. And all it took was Percy underestimating the power of a literal rocky (or glassy) horror picture show and a blueberry muffin.