Please...Don't kill me!
Grover studied me warily. I knew that I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea.
"Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them since they could cause really huge problems."
"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special." Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap.
"I didn't... Okay, listen, don't think like that. If you were, you know, you'll never be allowed to take part in a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis. Just don't worry about it, okay?"
I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me. That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.
At last, it was time for capturing the flag. When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head. I turned to Luke and tapped his shoulder to get his attention. I didn't have my notebook with me so I tried sign language, praying to the gods that he would understand.
"Those are the flags?" I signed slowly so he could follow my hand movements.
He stared at my hands for a while and smirked a little. I smiled nervously as I waited for a response.
"Yeah." He said staring at my face. No, not at my face. My eyes.
I hesitated for a second to collect my thoughts before motioning to my hands again.
"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"
"Not always," he said. "But often."
He grinned. "You'll see. First, we have to get one."So, if another cabin captures one, do you repaint the flag?"
"Whose side are we on?" He gave me a sly look as if he knew something I didn't.
The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.
"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."
The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities in order to win support. Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet. Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.
"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.
"Wait, we really use real weapons and armor?
Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here." He passed me a medium set of armor and a huge shield. "Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be….with me." He seemed to pause in the middle of his last sentence. He tensed up like he was having an inner battle with himself.
My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.
Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"
We cheered and shook our swords and followed Luke down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north. I managed to keep pace with Luke without tripping over my equipment.
After running for a while Luke stopped in front of me and put a hand on my chest, signaling for me to stop. He checked his surroundings and nodded his head northwest.
"We're going to head that way. The creek is over there," He pointed behind me. "So they should have put their flag somewhere around here."
His hand drifted toward his pocket as if he were afraid I'd stolen something.
"Just wait here and watch my back." he said turning to look at me.
"It's easy. Keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me." He pushed ahead, leaving me alone near the bushes.
I sighed as I watched him leave my line of sight. I almost wish he would have let me help.
I walked over to a nearby tree and sat my stuff down so that I could move around easily. I immediately started patrolling the area around me to keep a look out for him.
It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and the bronze sword, I felt useless. And, unfortunately, like all the swords I'd tried so far, the seemed balanced of the sword handle seemed wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.
Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual. Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by. I raised my sword instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me. The growling stopped but not before I heard a branch crack. Thankfully, I felt the dark presence retreating right after.
On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.
"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. Her eyes glared at me through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings only had the standard-issue bronze swords but it's not like that made me feel any better. They charged across the stream. And I slowly began to realize…. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin. I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not stupid.
They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. I parried in response and deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My sword arm began to feel numb, and the air around us burned with electricity. Her spear was electric. I fell back using a quick empty fade, trying to trick my attacker. It didn't work. The other Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I fell backward in the dirt. They could've kicked me or held me down, but they were too busy laughing.
"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."
I was not going to let that happen.
I managed to get to my feet without any problems. I raised my sword to guard but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.
"Oh, wow," Clarisse said while rolling her eyes. "I'm scared of this bastard. Really scared."
I decided to distract them by seemingly showing them where the flag was located. To throw them off I started randomly pointing in the wrong direction. I wanted to look confident and angry, but I was afraid.
"Yeah," one of her 'smarter' siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a bitch who made our cabin look stupid."
I glared at him and rolled my eyes dramatically.
It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.
They glare at me and lifted their swords again. Preparing for a fight.