Chapter 6: Embers
Before Clio could say anything, the group of people burst into intense chat gossiping:
"Hey, is she…?"
"I heard she killed 20
of those giants on her own…"
"I'm pretty sure she has a magic sword…"
"Do you think she can fly…?"
Before Clio could address the group of gossipers, a girl with red blazing hair and brown eyes, shushed them with a cold glare before turning to Clio and giving her a warm smile:
"Welcome to Camp, I hope the rest of… my fellow cabin leaders didn't bother you; my name is Alison, and I am the leader of cabin 21: the Helios cabin."
"My name is Clio, thanks for having helped me, I am not very good with people." Replied the other girl, truthfully.
Suddenly the door opened and in came two young women, both in the midst of their twenties, the first to enter was a tall woman with curly blonde hair and stormy grey eyes, followed by a even taller woman with short brown hair, deep dark eyes and a vicious sneer on her face.
"Ok guys, we already sent a letter to Mount Olympus and Percy is heading towards his father's palace to ask him for help. Harris, how is Cabin's seven hunt going? Don't bother answering, I can tell from your face that its not going well. Amy, Jack, are the cultivations growing properly? Good, you need to hurry up though the supplies are running low."
"Who is this chick?" Murmured Clio to Alison, something about the woman's bossy tone just put her on her nerves.
"Her name's Annabeth, she is the swordsmanship teacher, the girlfriend of the most powerful warrior at camp, and in general someone that you don't want to piss of. So please stay calm."
How the hell did Alison know her feelings so well? Clio decided to ask her, but before she could, she realized Annabeth was talking to her:
"You are the new girl, right? You have potential, but you're fighting style is too rash and careless, it needs polishing."
"Well, if you are so good, then why don't you spar with me, now." Replied Clio.
She heard the other cabin leaders exclaim in surprise, and she felt Alison freeze behind her, but she surely wasn't going to back out now.
"Are you sure? Don't go crying to me when you lose, okay?" Mocked Annabeth.
"Don't worry, I won't." Smirked, Clio.
"I already like this one." Interfered the other woman.
"Shut up Clarisse." Said the annoyed blondie.
As Annabeth led Clio towards the sword fighting arena, she felt the eyes of the entire camp on her and by the time the two of them had reached the arena the entire camp was there.
As the two duelists took their stances, Clio recognized that Annabeth wielded her sword just like her mother had, this gave her a boost in confidence, if Annabeth used her sword like her mother did, Clio was in the clear advantage as she had studied that fighting style for years.
The two started testing each other defenses and Clio soon realized they were equal and when they started actually trading blows, for a short time Clio felt like she actually had the advantage.
Not for long however as Annabeth soon recovered and started pushing Clio towards the wall.
Knowing she couldn't afford this, when she saw an opening in Annabeth's defenses, Clio went all in, but Annabeth using her eagerness against her swept her off of her feet and soon Clio found herself laying on the ground Annabeth's sword pointed to her face:
"Impressive, but you are going to need to do much better than that." She said and Clio couldn't help but notice she was slightly panting.
As Clio got up, she was greeted by both Alison and Jasper who evidently had watched the entire fight.
"Good job Sparky, keep working out like this and you might be able to even beat Alison." Said Jasper.
"Wait a minute, Alison is a swordsman?" Clio couldn't believe that the delicate red-haired girl was a swordsman, she just didn't have the physique necessary.
"Well, if you want, we can spar right now." Smirked Alison.
"No, no I am fed up with duels for today, can we just go eat something? I feel like I could eat a buffalo whole." Replied Clio.
"By now the Apollo's cabin should have returned, let's go see what they have brought back." Said Jasper.
As the trio headed towards the diving pavilion, Clio realized that the sun was now setting, this meant that she dueled with Annabeth for a good 2 hours and she didn't even realize it, which explained why her muscles were so sore and why Annabeth was panting earlier.
When they reached the pavilion, they found that the entire group of cabin 7 had arrived and was distributing some pieces of meat to a bunch of disgusted members of cabin 4.
However, before the trio could go and speak to them, they heard hoof on the grass and soon a man with the latter half of a horse appeared.
"Aaargh" Screamed Clio.
She always had an irrational fear of horses, her mother thought it was because horses were the creation of Poseidon, her father's brother and greatest rival.
"Ehen, excuse me young lady but what might be troubling you?" Asked
As Clio explained she noticed the face of the man, who she now knew was called Chiron, get darker.
"Scared of horses? That is a trait that I have never seen in a thousand years of training children of the lord of sky, are you sure that there might be no other reason?"
"Not that I know of, excuse me but I am dying of hunger." Said Clio as she quickly left behind Chiron, she didn't want to be rude, but the centaur still freaked her out a little bit and her stomach was protesting very loudly at this point.
After waiting for the rest of the campers to arrive, Clio could finally sit at her table with Tessa and start eating.
However, to her disgust, the meat was badly cooked and rough around the edges, without thinking Clio loudly protested:
"Who the hell cooked this meat, it's terrible."
Before Tessa could slap her, a harmonic voice spoke from behind Clio's shoulders:
"It is indeed terrible, whoever cooked this food has no culinary taste, I would know."
Clio turned abruptly to see a beautiful young woman with red eyes and long fluent brown hair standing in front of the rest of the campers.
To her surprise everyone, including Chiron, bowed respectfully and as the wise centaur started speaking, Clio heard an inch of surprise in his voice:
"Lady Hestia, what owes us the pleasure of this visit?"
Autor's note: Hello guys, first thing first I would like to apologize for the lack of uploads, but it has been a busy week and I had some troubles writing this chapter in a way that I liked. Anyway, things are getting spicy, we have met some of the major players and trouble is stirring since Hestia herself has descended from Olympus, but what is exactly what she wants? Remember to follow and review this story if you want to find out and see you all next week.