Too slow

Erza caught Annabeth's wrist with her hand before it touched her eye. Erza, unfazed by everything, used her captured wrist and flipped her over. The shock on her face was brighter than the sun.

This girl clearly thinks she is superior in this camp. She has too much pride.

Erza caught herself saying this and she scolded herself because she also had weaknesses.

The girl got up slowly, her eyes boiling with anger. Erza calmly stood, hands by her side. Annabeth got ready to strike again, but was interrupted by someone calling her name.

"Annabeth!"

A blond haired, gray eyed boy ran up to her panting slightly. He looked at the knife in her hands and Erza watching calmly. He was at a loss for words at first. He didn't know what to make of the situation. It looked like Annabeth was attacking Erza for no reason. Annabeth put away her dagger in a hurry to hide the fight. Annabeth straightened up completely and got ready to answer the boy.

"Yes, Malcolm?"

Malcolm raised an eyebrow questioningly, but did not say a word about what he saw.

"After you're done with the tour Chiron wants you to fill in for Percy at swordplay."

"Ok. Sure."

Annabeth nodded and watched him run back in the direction he came from. Erza broke their silence.

"You have swordplay here?"

"Yes. We train all of the demigods here to fight and defend themselves with a sword, bow and arrow and a spear. Along with some hand-to-hand combat and survival skills."

Annabeth's voice was still tight with anger, but Erza could sense her pride about the camp.

"Sounds fun."

"It is."

"Where did you learn to use a knife? You never mentioned anything about knife training."

"You're right. I'm the only one who uses a knife. I had to learn by experience unfortunately."

"Oh. I see."

While this conversation had been going on, Annabeth had led Erza to the cabins. They stood in the center while Annabeth explained the meaning of demigod.

"A demi god is-"

"-half greek god, and half human."

Annabeth frowned. "Yes, but how did you know that?"

"Um...someone told me."

That wasn't entirely a lie. When she had met Percy, he told her he was a demigod and explained the reality of the Greek myths. The only information she had left out was Percy's name.

Annabeth opened her mouth to speak but Erza cut her off one more time.

"I also know that the Greek Gods are real. I really don't need any information."

Annabeth was trying to figure out who could have given this information out, but she failed in pinpointing a suspect.

Erza's knew that she wasn't a demigod but this whole thing with godly parents and such had really perked her interest.

"So... Annabeth, who do you think my godly parent is?"

"Hmmmm well, from what I think you might be my sister, a daughter of Athena. You look intelligent. On the other hand, your reaction to my move during our "fight" wasn't a normal one, so you might be a child of Ares, but still, to have survived this long...how old are you?"

"19"

"Thats long for a demigod. How did you survive?"

"The same way I got these wounds. By fighting."

Suddenly Annabeth looked like she remembered something. She opened her mouth

"This can't be a coincidence. The quest, the prophecy, your arrival. It has to be connected in some way."

Annabeth paused to think.

"Have you ever heard of a martyr?"

"A martyr? Like a sacrifice?"

There isn't anyone I know that could be a sacrifice...I can only think of that time in the tower.

"I can't think of anyone..." She faltered when she saw the look Annabeth was giving her. Annabeth clearly didn't trust her.

"What about yourself...Erza?"

"Myself huh? Well, there is one incident that I remember. It's a lo-"

"-ng story, but I have time."

"Well, it's a time that I don't like to remember, but long story short, I was almost sacrificed for something, so maybe I could be considered as a martyr, but I still don't understand about the prophesy and quest thing you are talking about."

"We have a problem. The golden fleece, yes the same one from the myths, keeps our borders strong. It keeps the monsters out and the camp safe for demigods to live. Today, we discovered that the borders are starting to fail. The monsters have begun to attack and many are severely injured. We've set up border patrols to fend them off for now, but we are going on a quest tomorrow morning to find something that will make the fleece stronger.

Here, we rely on the oracle to decide who shall go on a quest. The oracle presents us with a prophesy and we ponder over the meaning of it to decide our direction of the quest. The first line of the prophecy is 'The owl, the trident, and the martyr shall go.' An owl is the symbol of Athena so, Percy picked me out of my siblings. Percy is the only son of Poseidon, so that means he has to go. And the last member of the quest is the martyr. We couldn't figure out who it was, but now that I think about it, seems like Percy was hiding something. It's like he knew it was you all along."

Erza opened her mouth to protest.

"Save it, Erza. I know you knew him before. There's no point in lying. I'm good at reading people and I can tell if someone is telling the truth or not. But the question is, why did he hide it from us? What is the reason behind this? It's almost like he betrayed- No! I can't think like that. Percy would never do something like that."

Annabeth glanced at the watch before she could get lost in her thoughts.

"It's 12. Time for lunch. I'll show you to the mess hall. You have to sit at the Hermes table because you haven't been claimed yet."

Annabeth told Erza to stand in the back of a line while she went to the front of the line to talk to the counselor. Annabeth walked back to Erza.

"All's good. You are now an undecided member of the Hermes Cabin."

Erza didn't say a word when the camp went about their routinely scraping of food into the fire. She continued to remain silent through dinner.

The centaur, Chiron stood up at the end to make an announcement.

"Counselors! We are holding a meeting after lunch to discuss the prophecy and quest. Please finish as quickly as possible and come to the Big House."

I'm no counselor, but I may have to take part in the quest. Maybe I should talk to Annabeth.

Somehow, in the middle of the tour, Erza and Annabeth had made an unspoken temporary truce. A promise to cooperate until all of this is over.

When Erza looked up from her plate, she saw that Annabeth already beat her to it. Annabeth was looking at her to say "Go to the Big House."

All of the counselors were finished and they got up to move. Annabeth nodded at her to get up, but nobody noticed their exchange.

Erza got up and started to move toward the Big House. She could feel all eyes on her and murmurs through the crowd. Some of the counselors who were ahead of her, heard the waves of conversation and turned around to look at her. Erza kept walking calmly through the counselors as they stepped to the side to make way.

She walked a few more feet until someone said "What are you doing?"

Erza turned around to face a brown haired girl with traces of soil wiped on her jeans.

"I'm walking to the Big House."

"Um...the announcement was only for the counselors. Didn't you hear?"

"Of course. I'm not deaf. I just assumed that anybody that is participating might need to come too."

"What are you talking about?"

"I am the martyr. The final member of the quest."

Author's Note:

I think Erza was a little OOC and so was Annabeth in my opinion. Tell me what you think. I like to get reviews even if they don't compliment the story.

Review. Comment. Follow.

NK =)