The story of Cressida Smith
Chapter 3
Cressida Smith carefully walked back into the Hermes cabin, gazing at the posters stuck on walls, and gum stuck on the beds.
She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, which bed do I stay in?"
A tall athletic dude walked up to her. "Hey there, you can stay in that spot on the floor. We set up a sleeping bag and left you a bunch of toiletries."
Cressida glanced at the spot with critical eyes but quickly hid it and smiled sweetly. "Yes, of course. Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me." Maybe it was overdoing it, but Cressida had that snotty girl personality, and it just kicked right in.
The Hermes kid looked at her up and down, then shrugged and went to his own bed. BED! Not a sleeping bag on the floor, he had a bed! With a real mattress and pillow. People expected her to be happy like this?
A small little girl with dimples and bronze hair and amber eyes looked at her and smiled sweetly. "I'm Lilac." She looked to be about 5 years old, and a real adorable one! "Who are you?" Her big amber eyes blinked up at Cressida, and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Hi Lilac! I'm Cressida." She replied, her baby blue eyes twinkling. Maybe this little girl would lighten up her day!
Lilac looked at her with a confused expression. "Cweffida?" She shook her head. "What about Cress? That easy to remember!" Her grammar wasn't right, but it was cute!
Cressida shrugged. "Sure, why not? Can I call you Lil?"
Lil looked at her. "Sure, Cress!" Then they shared this gigantic grin that sent them both lighting up from ear to ear.
Suddenly, a loud horn sounded. The athletic dude looked at them and said impatiently. "Look, I don't have all day, let's go kiddos!" He marched out the cabin, and the rest of the cabin followed suit.
Lilac whispered. "Luke can be gwumpy sometimes, but he's fun on a good day!" The name Luke somehow sounded familiar, although Cressida wasn't sure where it was from.
As if reading her mind, another camper, about 14, told her in a hushed voice. "Before there was an extremely powerful person named Luke, and he hosted the body of the Titan lord of time. In the end, he was a hero and killed the titan from gaining total control and destroying Olympus forever. He used to be called Kevin, but he changed his name to Luke. I'm not sure if it's because he wants to honor him, or just wants to sound cool and be the name of the hero."
They all filed into the dining pavillion.
"Welcome, demigods and satyrs! Today, I would like to introduce a new camper. Let me present, Cressida Smith!"
Roaring applause thundered through Cressida's ears, and she smiled and waved at the cheering kids.
"Now, let us have a toast to the gods!" Everybody raised their glasses and clunked with each other.
Lilac whispered. "Just say what you want, it appears!"
Cressida hesitantly tried it out. "Pink Lemonade?" In response, her cup filled with pink lemonade, topped off with a straw and ice cubes and a little mini umbrella.
Everyone started standing up, and bringing their plates over to the fireplace. Offerings. Every person scraped the best part of their meal into the flames, and murmured a few words, then continued on to eat their dinner.
When it was Cressida's turn, she scraped off the most juiciest fruit and caught a whiff of the smell. It was like hot chocolate, cake, brownies, everything you could ever want! Quietly, she said a few words. "Whoever my parent is, thank you for saving me, and please claim me soon."
She continued on to her chair, and sat down and started eating. She hadn't realized how hungry she was, and soon she was done every crumb, but stuffed like a turkey.
Chiron stamped his hoof on the floor. "Campers, campers! We have a challenge today! There are 10 triple headed dogs out there. Although they are not like Cerberus, they are still very dangerous. Underneath 1 of those dogs, is a small red package. You will only be able to take it off when the creature is dead. Inside the package is a golden piece of cloth, and you bring it to your cabin, for you are in the lead! Each team gets three people, report back here when you hear the horn blow."
Soon the teams were split up. Cressida, Lilac, and Percy Jackson were in a team.
Percy joked. "So I'm with the ladies, huh? Nice to meet you Cressida.. ever get your teddy bear back, Lilac?"
Lilac turned a lovely shade of lilac. "Hey! You promised you'd neva say to anyonnne!"
Percy laughed. "How about, you girls distract it, while I kill it? That way we all get to do what we're good at." Cressida wasn't sure to either laugh, or roll her eyes at him. So she did both.
"GO!" Chiron yelled, and the trio burst off into the woods. Nearly immediately, they could hear a scream as one group encountered a dog.
Soon, snuffling noises, and crunching leaves entered their eardrums. A dog, definitely. By the sound of it, a rather large one!
Percy drew his sword, and snarled menacingly at the beast with 3 heads. Lilac climbed up a tree, and started pelting nuts from the angry squirrel home at the beat. Sadly, those nuts just bounced off and were like bugs to the mutt. Cressida wasn't sure what to do, join the fighting? Or go somewhere safe like Lilac?
In her confusion, she was frozen in terror. Naturally, the monster would be drawn to her. 'Such a tasty morsel' It thought, 'A lovely dinner for a lovely day.'
Percy slashed down on the monster with all his might, and it only made a gash in it's hide. "I remember! It's most easily killed by silver. Now, is there a silver weapon anywhere?" He was helplessly talking and defending himself at the same time.
Cressida realized that she had to help, otherwise they might be wounded severely, or killed. Her charm! Of course. Quickly, she took out her charm bracelet and fumbled for the right one. At last, she twisted the silver one, and a silver bow and sheath of arrows lay at her hands. Quickly, the young girl slung the sheath over her shoulder, grabbed an arrow and aimed it at the beast.
Percy caught a glimpse of Cressida, and wondered if he saw it wrong. She was with a bow and arrow. But nah, that's not right. Cressida was those hot beach girls, not a warrior.
The arrow whistled past Percy's ears and hit the monster straight in the chest. It collapsed, in a heap. Lilac jumped from the tree's lowest branch, and landed with a thud on the dirt. She dusted herself off, and skipped over. "Dead doggie!"
Cressida was gazing at her hands in awe and new wonder. Had she killed an animal? Was she the hero?
Percy slapped Cressida on the back. "Hey, nice going. Saved my hind back there. How bout you do the honors of checking the bag?"
With a hesitant step of approaching such a wild creature, Cressida headed toward the monster. She dropped to her knees, and with a jerked motion, touched the big animal.
"Are you kidding? You kill it, but you won't touch it? Girls." Percy rolled his eyes, clearly amused and smiling at the same time.
Cressida was caught in a trance for a moment. With that wind-blown hair falling in his sea green eyes.. and that athletic and skilled body. He was the type of guy she'd be dreaming for at home.
Percy saw her look of total yearning, and turned away. Sure she was pretty, but he had Annabeth. So why was she making him feel so edgy?
Cressida turned and gritted her teeth, rolling the dog to it's back, with it's stomach exposed to the sky.
Her fingers fumbled with the strings, but she untied it, and pulled out a gleaming gold cloth. She was speechless. Lilac and Percy were cheering in delight. But then Percy stopped.
"Wait a minute, that means.. Hermes won?! Aw man!"
But that didn't matter, Cressida, Percy and Lilac headed for the pavilion. Pride sparked from each of them, and it was clear when they arrived last that they had gotten the prize. Wow, it sure took a long time for them to hunt one animal!
"Congratulations. I present the winners, Percy, Lilac, and Cressida! The Poseidon cabin is now in the lead!" Announced Chiron.
Percy Jackson stepped forward. "Wait, it wasn't I that killed it, it was Cressida. Hermes is the rightful winner of the game."
Chiron had a look of surprise on his face. "The newcomer wins! I expect more from you, Percy." He had his famous look of disapproval on his face, and Percy squirmed, making all the campers laugh.
Cressida stood up. "I just would like to say, I could have never done it without my friends. Together we defeated it. I would like to hope that this has made my Olympian god proud of me, and I shall continue to do so." At her words, a roar of applause broke out.
Suddenly, the clapping stopped. All voices were silent. They were staring at a blazing sign above Cressida's head. It was a silver bow and arrow. This has never happened before. It was impossible.
Her Olympian parent was Artemis, goddess of the hunt and moon, sworn never to marry.