Hey guys, Jack here with a new chapter. Let's get this show on the road.
I spent a good chunk of the following day working in the basement of Cabin 9, trying to fix my shield. Half of the massive dents were buffed out before I came across a structural failure. A simple buff job from here on out wasn't going to cut it, not if I wanted the shield to actually stop something next time I used it. I called my sister, Nyssa, over from her own project to look it over.
"You're going to have to recast the entire thing. In this condition, it'll be lucky to stop a spit wad, much less an arrow or a sword," she said. I sighed and rested the shield against an anvil.
"I was afraid you'd say that," I replied.
"If you're needing protection for the game tonight, I'm sure Charles wouldn't mind if you borrowed one of his shields," Nyssa said. I looked back at her with a confused, cocked eyebrow.
"He got it to work?" I asked. She gave a nod in response.
"It sure seems that way," she replied. I hurried over to Beckendorf's work station and picked up a shield that he had laying there. It resembled mine quite a bit, with a notable difference being in the metal makeup of the disk. There was the gleam of celestial bronze, but also the dull gray of tempered steel.
Despite being a metal of the gods, celestial bronze is still relatively weak compared to most other metals. For a while now, most of the members of Cabin 9 had been experimenting with a way to try and improve the strength of said metal, so we didn't have conduct maintenance as often. Problem is, most, if not all other metals will repel off of celestial bronze as if they were magnets. It's incredibly difficult to get the metals to fuse in the first place, much less stay that way. But there I was, holding proof that it could be done.
"How?" I asked, looking up at Nyssa.
"Beats me. You know how he gets when it comes to trade secrets," she replied with a shrug. I let out annoyed grunt at that.
"That's no joke." Charles was notorious for hording mechanical secrets when he had developed them beyond the rest of us. From his point of view, he was helping us to achieve what he had on our own. We just thought he got a little selfish sometimes.
"So are you gonna take that to the game tonight or not?" Nyssa asked. I turned the shield over some before setting it back down where I had picked it up.
"Na. If he hasn't told us about it yet, it's probably not ready," I reasoned. My sister shrugged.
"Suit yourself. I'll tell Will to have extra bandages ready for when you get turned into a pin cushion," she said. I rolled my eyes at her antics.
"They have spare shields at the start of the game. Besides, I'll probably be put on defense where it's safe," I said.
"What do you mean I'm not on defense?" I asked. We were in the dining pavilion, gearing up for the game. The Hunters had already headed off to their half of the woods, while the Campers were discussing strategy and getting ready. Being children of the Big Three, command naturally fell to both Thalia and Percy. Well, more Thalia than Percy anyway. They were suppose to be sharing command, but you could tell who was in charge at the end of the day.
"I need someone to help me take the fight to the Hunters," Thalia said. I blinked as I looked back and forth between her and Percy. After a few moments of bewildered silence, I even made a gentle motion toward Percy, as if it should have been obvious that he was the better choice.
"Uh, he's the Camp's best swordsman," I pointed out.
"Which is why I need him on defense to fend off any Hunter attempt to get the flag. I need you as a means of brute forcing our way to their flag," Thalia explained. I shared an uneasy glace with Percy. In a normal game, between the cabins, her plan would have made sense. But against the Hunters, I wasn't so sure that brute strength alone would be enough in this case.
"Both of us working together would be enough brute force, Thals," Percy said. The Daughter of Zeus sent a glare his way. One thing Thalia didn't like was when people questioned her after her mind had been made up.
"They'll be expecting that. If you guard the rear, and Jack and I attack their flag, they'll be stretched too thin and something will have to give," she said. I exchanged another glance with Percy before letting out a defeated sigh. I knew that look in Thalia's eye. There was no way we'd be able to talk her out of it now.
"Let's get this over with," I said before picking up a spare shield and starting toward the tree line.
The Camper turnout for the game was actually surprisingly high. Pretty much everyone who was in Camp for the winter was participating. Even the ones from the Aphrodite Cabin, who usually set the game out. Selina had rallied her few brothers and sisters around her, giving a speech about how they'd show the Hunters 'that love wasn't worthless' or something like that.
My siblings headed toward the spot where our flag was being held in order to set traps. Zeus' Fist was a giant pile of boulders located in a clearing. The formation resembled a pile of crap left by a rock giant and not a fist, but the gods get testy if you don't name every other thing in honor of them. Charles looked at me with a cocked eyebrow when I went to follow Thalia toward the front lines and not the rest of them to the Fist. I gave a shrug and a confused look in return. Percy shot one last glance toward Thalia before following my cabin as well. He was guiding Nico, whom was currently wearing a set of full battle armor that was about three sizes too big.
The front lines, in this case, was a small creek that roughly split the forest in half. I leaned against a rather large pine and watched the far bank of the creek for movement. Thalia took up position next to me, leaning against the tree as well and remaining so still she might as well have been apart of it. Our team set up their positions in hiding, and then an uneasy silence fell as we waited for the conch horn.
Despite her stillness, I could feel the tension rolling off of Thalia. It was her first time in command after all. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was nervous about possibly botching it on her first attempt.
"Just stay calm and keep your head, it'll be over before you know it," I said in a low voice so only she could hear.
"I hate waiting," she replied, and I could almost hear her dancing from one foot to the other like she had to pee.
"That's what they're counting on. There's probably a half dozen archers with their bows trained on this tree right now, waiting for us to make a move," I said. Thalia scanned the tree line on the opposite bank.
"How are we suppose to see them without getting taken down?" she asked. I was quiet for a moment before I turned and whistled back over my shoulder. There was a short bout of silence, followed by a quite pleasant bird call returning.
"I have a way, but you're not going to like it," I said before stepping out of cover.
"Where are you going?!" she hissed after me, but I ignored her as I walked to the water's edge. It seemed like such an obvious trap, but my hope was that the Hunters would be way too cocky to not take the bait. I positioned myself so that my left side, with my shield, faced the water. There was a crunch on the rocks as Thalia came storming up to me. She looked like she was torn between questioning my sanity and just straight up blowing a gasket.
"What are you doing out here?! We're exposed!" she hissed.
"I think this spot is good enough, doesn't look to be anyone around," I said, adding some volume to my voice, and partially speaking in the direction of the opposite bank. Thalia's look of confusion only grew as I closed the distance between the two of us, making it look like we were hugging, or at the very least enjoying each others' company.
"Play along if you want the bait to work!" I hissed in her ear. Although I couldn't see her reaction, she brought her arms up and put them around my neck. It was like we were dancing back at Westover again. I took a couple of deep breaths, prepping myself for what was about to happen next. If I lost my nerve now, well, I didn't give myself a chance to think about that.
"For the record, I'm sorry in advance for this," I whispered. Thalia leaned back and looked at me, confusion and concern apparent on her face. With one final breath, I leaned in and kissed her. I felt her go rigid with shock as the sound of the conch horn echoed over the woods. My shield came up, and there were six distinct arrow impacts that hit the other side.
I broke contact with Thalia and fell into a defensive stance with the shield, protecting both of us as more arrows impacted. Then there were six deep fwumping noises from the opposite bank, followed closely by the sound of gas being sprayed and several girls coughing and gasping for breath. I peaked out from behind the shield and took in the sight before me.
Several silver arrows stuck out of the other side of my shield, but beyond that, on the other side of the creek, were six plumbs of sickly green gas billowing out of the trees. In each one was a Hunter, struggling to catch her breath. The Apollo Cabin's aim had been true with their fart arrows.
"Let's go!" I said, grabbing up my hammer from my belt. Thalia snapped out of her stupper and took the lead as we charged across the creek and into enemy territory. Our team followed behind, fanning out in an effort to find and funnel the remaining Hunters away from the creek. As we ran deeper into the foliage, I quickly realized that I had no idea where we were going.
"Any idea where the flag is?" I asked, taking a moment to shatter the various arrow shafts off of my shield on a tree.
"A hunch," she replied. Well, that was comforting. A Hunter came out of the brush, swiping her knife at us. I backhanded her with my shield, sending her into a tree and out of the fight. One of her sisters pounced out of a tree, but Thalia managed to deflect her with her own shield, causing her to land off balance. Before she could react, Thalia leveled her spear and knocked her out with a short bolt of lightning.
"It's got to be close if we're meeting this much resistance," I said.
"That or they really didn't like your stunt at the creek," she added. Before I could come up with a retort, I heard the twang of a bow string and brought up my shield out of reflex. This time, there was a puff and we were surrounded by a think soupy green gas. A fart arrow, and this time we were the victims of it. The air smelled of rotten eggs, chili beans and a full port a potty on a hot day. What's worse is that it got EVERYWHERE. In our noses, in our mouths, it even burned our throats and sinuses.
We coughed as we stumbled about with tears in our eyes, trying in vein to see where we were going. Thalia tried to yell something, but she got a mouthful of the gas and resolved to keep from throwing up instead. As the gas began to clear, I caught sight of a certain Son of Poseidon booking it past us. He had the Hunters' flag in his hand, and three or four Hunters giving chase.
Reaching out, I grabbed Thalia's hand and pulled her as quickly as I could out of the gas cloud. We weren't nearly moving fast enough to catch up. Just breathing regularly at this point was a herculean effort. But we pressed on, moving as quickly as we could back in the direction of the creek and our team's territory.
The conch horn sounded, signaling the end of the game. As we finally caught our breaths, Thalia and I looked at each other in a vague hope. Maybe Percy had made it over the creek before being overtaken.
"Hunters win. For the fifty sixth time in a row," came Chiron's voice through the brush. There was no fanfare, just a disappointed expectancy. We pushed our way through to the creek to find that most of the Campers and Hunters had gathered around. Zoe was holding our flag aloft in victory. Percy looked like he had been clotheslined at the last minute and was brushing himself off.
I felt the hairs on my arms stand on end as Thalia began to storm her way forward. There were actual sparks coming off of her armor, and people naturally flinched out of the way of her shield. Only Percy stood his ground, but even that was with some obvious effort.
"Perseus Jackson, what in the name of the gods were you THINKING?" she bellowed. Oh boy, full first name, she was really pissed off. Despite this, Percy defiantly held his ground.
"I got the flag, Thalia! I saw a chance and I took it!" he replied, waving the Hunters' flag in her face. This did little to calm the Daughter of Zeus down, in fact it only seemed to make her even angrier.
"WE WERE AT THEIR BASE! IF YOU HADN'T BUTTED IN…"
"You and Jack had a face full of fart arrow! You couldn't breathe, much less tell where you were!" Percy countered. I will admit, he had a point there. But both of them had really bad tempers, and I could only see things going downhill from here.
"Oh, so its our fault?" Thalia asked, or snarled would be more accurate.
"I didn't say that," Percy defended. I quickly put myself between them as Thalia's glare turned very dangerous.
"Thals, come on, it's just a game. And to be fair he was only a boar's hair away from winning," I tried to reason. That was a mistake on my part, cause Thalia whipped her anger around on me.
"You don't have much room to talk, Mr. Distraction!" she snapped before shoving me. Her hands made contact with my upper arms, and not the leather chest piece I had been wearing, so I got the full force of her static shock. The blast sent me flying backwards about ten feet, landing on my back in the creek.
Thankfully the water partially submerged me, otherwise every single hair on my body would've been standing on end. As I came up for air, Thalia was already at my side. Her face was paler than usual, and she was saying a thousand apologies a second. I slowly got back to my feet, my ears ringing as I went.
"It's alright, Thalia," I managed to get out over her ramblings as I sloshed back to the shoreline. Percy, on the other hand, didn't know when to leave well enough alone.
"What the heck, Thalia? You're electrocuting your own boyfriend now?" he asked. I ignored that and remained focused on the issue at hand.
"Let it go, Percy. It was an accident," I said. Percy glared past me at Thalia, and a moment later a spout of water shot up and hit her in the face.
"Yeah, kinda like how that was an accident, too," he muttered angrily. Now I was officially mad. My eyes narrowed in anger, and steam began to roll off my body.
"Is that really how you want to do this?" I asked, my voice having gotten dangerously low as my hammer appeared in my hand. Chiron decided that now was probably a good point to intervene, seeing as how things were probably about to get really nasty.
"That is enough! All of you, stand down!" he ordered. Percy, however, didn't seem to hear the old centaur.
"You know what? I really do," he said, answering my challenge by raising his sword.
"Percy! Jack! Either stand down or its one month KP duty, each!" Chiron threatened. The threat worked, for about five seconds.
I took advantage of the lull to slam my shield into Percy, catching him off guard. He was knocked flat into the gravel creek bed, but I didn't give him a chance to breathe. Instead I went after him with a yell, swinging my hammer down like I was striking an anvil. Percy saw this and rolled out of the way, just narrowly dogging the strike. Gravel flew everywhere at the hammer strike, and what little snow or water was there flash steamed.
My blood was pumping and now I was seeing red. I went after Percy, swinging my hammer as I went. Percy fell back, using his lighter equipment and frame to dodge my strikes. He tried to get a swing or two in with his sword, but each time he was met with my shield easily throwing him off. Percy might have been a better swordsman, but I had strength and a shield on my side. There was no way he would be able to overwhelm my defense.
Unless, of course, he backed into the water.
Realizing that he couldn't slip past my shield, Percy fell back into the creek. As I stared to go after him, I realized far too late that I had made a mistake. On dry land, I had the strength advantage. In the water, that was all in Percy's corner now. He leveled his sword at me as several tendrils of water curled up around his midsection. They then exploded down the blade like water out of a fire hose. I brought both my shield and hammer up, taking the full bore of the jet stream head-on. A lot of it flashed steamed, filling the area around us with rolling white clouds.
But, it wasn't enough. The torrent of water overwhelmed me, sending me flying backwards out of the steam cloud and into a tree on the bank. Air was knocked from my lungs as I slammed into the trunk, and I fell to the ground gasping for breath. The torrent of water stopped, and Percy advanced out of the steam cloud himself, fully recharged from his dip in the creek.
"Come on, Jackson! I expected a little more fire out of you!" he yelled cockily. I pushed myself back to my feet and regarded him with a snarl. Percy was well aware how much I despised most people using my full first name. He was trying to bait me into making another mistake. Well if he wanted fire, I'd give him fire.
Standing upright, I swung my hammer twice. Two small fireballs, one right after the other, flew from the hammer's head. With a yell, I thrust the hammer straight ahead, sending a much larger fireball after the others. Percy's eyes went wide in surprise, but years of training kicked in. He swung his sword, batting aside the first two fireballs, but the third exploded in his face.
When the smoke cleared, his face was covered in soot and an eyebrow was missing. He spat to the side, clearing his mouth of ash. His sea green eyes were filled with the fury of a hurricane and he raised both of his arms. All of the water in the creek swirled upward into a massive, frigid funnel. I shot steam from my nostrils, gave my hammer a single twirl, and fell into a ready stance. No way was I backing down, not now.
Suddenly, a stunned look crossed Percy's face, and the entire water tornado collapsed in an instant. The move was so abrupt I was left a little stunned myself. I was half expecting him to say it was all a joke or something, until I realized that he wasn't looking at me, but a spot behind me. Turing, I wondered what could have caused him to act like that, until I saw just what he had spotted. I felt my blood run cold as I realized what I was looking at.
"This is impossible. It…she has never left the attic, never," Chiron said in a voice that contained a level of nervous I had never heard before. Flanked by a murky green cloud of mist was the shriveled mummy of the Oracle, making her way toward us. At sight of her, both campers and Hunters gasped and parted out of her way.
When she reached the center of the crowd, the Oracle spoke. Her voice was a raspy hiss, which caused several people to wince and cover their ears.
I am the spirit of Delphi, Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo. Approach, Seeker, and ask. It was looking directly at Zoe as it said this. Zoe hesitated for a moment, but then she swallowed and regained her composure
"What must I do to help my goddess?" she asked. The Oracle's mouth opened, and a flood of mist came poring out before the voice was heard again.
Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in a land without rain,
The Son of Fire knows the trail,
Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
The Titan's Curse one must withstand,
And one shall perish by a parent's hand.
With that, all the mist swirled and retreated into the mummy, which promptly sat down on a large rock like she'd be there for a thousand years.
Percy and Grover got elected to carry the Oracle back to the Attic. I didn't really care all that much. Instead, I went, took a quick shower to get the smell of fart arrow off of me, then I went and reclined in my bunk. I had a lot on my mind, and I just wanted some alone time to think.
Part of it was about this new prophecy. People were going to die soon, that much was clear. But, death is a fairly common thing in the life of a demigod. If you dwelt on it for too long, you'd never get anything done. My thoughts turned to my distraction by the creek, and Thalia's reaction after. I gave a groan as I covered my face with my hands. She was probably furious with me right now. That was just great, one friend missing, and two others probably hated my guts. I figured by this point both Thalia and Percy wanted my head on a stake, all though for vastly different reasons.
A soft knocking on the frame of my bunk brought me out of my thoughts. I looked up to find Beckendorf looking down at me with his arms folded.
"Mr. D called a meeting of all the counselors in the Big House to discuss the prophecy," he said.
"Isn't Jake acting Forman this week? Besides, you were counselor, last I checked," I said with some confusion. He just gave me a look.
"You're an honored guest, and I think you know exactly why. Come on, we better not keep them waiting." I let out a sigh, rubbed my eyes again, before sitting up and pulling on my boots. I should've known letting Percy bait me into using my fire abilities would come back to bite me in the ass, I just wished I could have gotten a nap in beforehand.
"Let's get this over with," I said before following him out the door.
And cut, got the Capture the Flag and the Prophecy down. Please remember to read, review, and let me know what you liked or didn't like, and I'll see you all next time.