Please check the note in the end of this chapter!

Happy reading!

Kayden

Usually, I don't worry about things I'm not able to influence. At least if I have something to do, or a more concrete problem to resolve. Like now. Right after the breakfast, Chiron had informed, there would be a gladiator tournament tomorrow. Those were always exciting, and it would take everyone's thoughts away from the Romans and the Prophecy of Seven and... Well, from everything nasty. But my weapon was a bow, and I wasn't much of a sword fighter. Not to mention about nets and stuff. And yes, I've tried to practice.

And then there was Jessica, who always loved to make me look as ridiculous as possible... I gave her a quick look as we walked toward our cabin, and thought about all those times, I had to fight against her in some battle practice. She really thought humiliating me in front of the whole camp was serious fun - and so did all the other campers. For me, it wasn't always so much fun, but 'cause I would probably act the exact same way in her position - I think it was kinda our father's fault - I couldn't really complain.

"Jessica! Kayden!" Lyn yelled as she reached us. She leaned to my shoulder, and picked an apple from her hoodie's pocket. She bit the apple.

I scowled at her, a little amused. I was kinda forbidden to take any food with you from the dining pavilion.

She rolled her eyes. "Come on! I didn't have time to eat anything", she sighed. "And don't say, our next lesson is battle strategy!"

"Well... it is", I said and grinned at her expression. "And otherwise you could copy my map, but I doubt it would pass anymore..."

"What do you think I've done the whole meal time?" She asked, like it should've been obvious.

I shrugged. "Eat breakfast?"

Jessica sighed loudly. Lyn chewed the apple. I noticed Cara, a daughter Hecate, talking with Will on our cabin's porch. I poked Jessica on her arm and pointed at them.

Jessica raised an eyebrow. "What? Our archery class has probably been delayed. Will said something like that yesterday. They're talking about the new time for it."

"But Cara isn't the director of Hecate cabin. Lou Ellen is!"

"Uh... Yeah, but Lou is in the infirmary - don't you remember, how Clarisse jolted her with her electric spear?" She explained. "...Why do you care, anyway?" She narrowed her eyes skeptically.

"Well, I was just thinking... Whatever, let's go take a look of Lyn's battle map!" I climbed up the stairs, gave Cara and Will a quick look and stepped into the cabin.

-LINE BREAK-

"Lyn Hales, we have been discussing this before," Chiron said as he looked at Lyn's battle map. "You have to do your homework properly. I don't like to nag, but strategic knowing is life-and-death for a hero."

"But I did this properly! And I didn't even copy it from Kayden... or anyone else. Look - if the enemy attacks from East, there's those forces defending the base. In West, there's a line of archers, here", she tapped the map with her forefinger. "And in North..."

"But what if the assault comes from South and they have a multiple superiority? How, and from where the auxiliaries can arrive in time, when there's no traps or barriers slowing down the attack?" Chiron asked patiently.

"Well, then... I don't know - maybe they can..." She fell silent and turned to look at me, grimacing.

I tried not to smile amusedly. Battle strategy wasn't my strong point, either, but Lyn really sucked at it, which was probably 'cause she never paid attention in the class, even Chiron wasn't that boring teacher.

"I assume, that now on, you try to concentrate better. And you have to do this map again for tomorrow."

My map passed only just and Jessica's was the best in the class - as always.

Our battle strategy classroom was in a small structure near to the Arts & Crafts. In the same structure, there were also a few other classrooms, like the one were we had the Ancient Greek lessons. We had small desks, which were placed far from each other, so Chiron, who was a centaur, had enough space to walk between them. The classroom's walls were covered with battle maps. On the teacher's desk, there was a mess of parchments and old books.

We had shared battle strategy lessons with the Hephaestos cabin, which was fine with me - it wouldn't probably be nice with the Athena cabin, for example. Athena's children were natural strategists. And I sure wasn't. I glanced at Lyn, who was sitting in the other side of the class. She was absently biting the back of her pencil. Chiron was explaining about the positions of the archers in one of his battle maps, which I found pretty interesting - I was an archer myself. And so was Lyn, but I doubt she heard anything with her IPod's headphones in her ears, which her frizzy dark hair was hiding pretty well. In her opinion, music wasn't loud enough before it hurt your ears, and it was a miracle, that she still could hear something.

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ!

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