I won't even lie- I have had TERRIBLE writer's block on this!
But I WON'T give up on it!
This is dedicated to all of you who waited, and FeatherFlower, who ended up giving me a bit of a different focus for this chapter. And to Abby Dibble and Laura Meyers, on my Facebook page Why Hera Why, for giving me ideas for the game!
MyDimension- Aww, thx. J
Wolverrina- JI love my Zoethian
Mage-Pages- WE HAVE A WINNER! Yep, Ridge is gonna be a minor god of sorts. ;) I'm glad you think this melds well!
Skylar Windsong- LET IT FINALLY BEGIN! You got Sips right indeed. Yes, I will add in NanoCoffee. I ship it!
Also: I messed up! I'm sorry; Hephaestus cabin is on the blue team. (With Hecate, Hermes, Athena, etc.)
Kim Pov
Even before it started, Capture the Flag was hectic.
The Ares cabin-which I wasn't a big fan of,- were already swarming around fully armed, shouting something about revenge for spray painting their cabin pink last Tuesday.
I fiddled with my weapons- the cabin counsellor, a huge dude named Derik, had given me a long, thin sword- a rapier, he called it- and a bronze knife. Minty had a spear instead of a sword, but she had a knife too.
Thinking of Minty, I spotted her teasing Lomadia about something. ADHD had already made me bored, so I went over for no other real reason.
"You're the one who had better watch their back, Minty." Lomadia challenged. She didn't seem to have a weapon, but she had some kind of fancy arm guard. It had a bunch of brightly coloured gemstones and metals all mover it, like some kind of Aphrodite thing.
"Oh really?" Minty said.
Lomadia grinned and hit a gemstone on her fancy arm guard-no, wait, that was a button- and a full-sized mechanical bow popped out, right into her hands, already loaded.
"Neat." Minty said admiringly.
"It does a crossbow too." The owl-lover said smugly.
"Hey, Lom, could you help me with this?" Lalna called out.
"Yeah, go help your younger brothers." An older blonde girl said.
"We're twins!" Lalna protested. I laughed as Lomadia sighed and went to help. Someone tapped my shoulder.
"Hey, Kim, do you know to use this thing?" Kaeyi asked, showing me a standard issue bronze sword.
"You didn't get a lesson yet?" I asked incredulously. I'd spent half my time here already training.
"Aphrodite cabin doesn't like training much." Kaeyi sighed. "Why couldn't I be in my dad's cabin?"
"Because its tradition and you'd get lonely in cabin 1." Beckii pops up.
"Still. I don't even think I have either of my parent's powers." Kaeyi said.
"Maybe, but it's only your first day at camp. Relax a bit. You're just helping me distract their guards. And you two-"She pointed at Minty and I. "-are our bodyguards, if you will."
"We're your 'bodyguards?" Minty exclaims. "It's our first day too!"
"Relax, I'm pretty much just showing you the ropes." Beckii said. "Who needs help with armour?"
"I'm fine."
"It's done already."
"Mine's good, thanks."
"Okay, then, keep an eye on what the other team's planning." Beckii told us. "Kaeyi, for that sword…" She leads the pink-haired girl off to the side.
I try to do what Beckii told us- keep an eye on the enemy- but mostly I'm just looking at all our friends. Rythian's got a silvery short sword and bronze armour that seems to glow some kind of dark light. Pretty freaky. Ravs, on our side, has a normal sword. Lomadia has her crossbow/mechanical bow; Nilesy and Lalna have swords, Zoeya and Teep have bows, and so does Sparkles*. I can't see anyone else from where I am.
"Campers, begin!" Chiron announces, and I jump. The campers stream into the woods.
"Come on!" Minty grabs my arm. "Follow Beckii and Kaeyi!"
I stumble after my older sister, nearly tripping over my own feet. I'm a klutz, and tiny. Such is life.
I can only see the girls ahead of us by Kaeyi's bright pink hair. It'll be probably bad for us later on and get us caught, but right now I'm grateful.
Finally, we catch up. I can already hear clanging and shouts, and breaking branches.
Coming closer.
"Minty can you hear that?" I ask quietly.
"Hear what?"
"Those breaking branches. They're getting closer." I say nervously. If it is Athena kids, we're so screwed in our own territory it's not even funny.
"I can't hear them." Beckii says dubiously.
"There!" Kaeyi exclaims, pointing towards the creek. "I saw a flash of white."
"Let's check it out. They must be from the other team, if they're coming this way from so close to the creek." Minty insists.
We creep forward, and I ready my sword.
"Sh*t! I hate these stupid brambles." A boy's voice says in front of us. I freeze.
It's Lalna. He probably hadn't taken off his lab coat, the one he got from visiting his uncle's work. Thus the flash of white.
"That's Lalna!" I hiss. "That was his lab coat you saw, Kaeyi."
"Don't hate the forest, mister science. The trees here are awesome." Another voice.
"And that's Martyn!" Kaeyi says excitedly.
We were so close to them, on our own territory.
"On three." Beckii said, raising her fingers.
1…2..3!
All four of us leap out to confront the boys.
Lalna and Martyn jump, and I notice that Toby and Sjin are with them.
My ADHD kicked in and I saw and heard everything. I jump at Toby, hoping to take on someone closer to my own size.
Everything turned to chaos. Minty attacked Martyn, who retaliated with dodging and climbing up a tree. Minty then wheeled on Sjin, who was fighting Beckii. I swipe at Toby, who's faster but not as trained as I am. He dashes back and forth while trying to attack me. As Martyn jumps out of a tree onto Kaeyi and Beckii, I duck under a swipe and point my rapier at his throat, but not super close. Just close enough to show him he's beaten. Lalna's disappeared off to somewhere, hopefully not after our flag.
Before Toby can surrender, Sjin shoves me aside and tries to pin me down with his much bigger frame. I struggle, but he's too heavy.
Suddenly he's gone and Minty has Sjin-who I, as her younger sister, know she likes- halfway across the clearing. He stands up before she reaches him and they fight, spear against sword. Kaeyi is under attack by Martyn, who had wrapped tree roots around her ankles somehow. Beckii abandons Toby, who she'd disarmed, to go help her cabin mate. I stop Toby from lunging for his sword and pin his pants to the forest floor with my knife to keep him there, driving it in a deep as I can. He sits up fast and pulls my legs out from under me, yanking me towards where they came from.
I tumble down a steep slope covered in brambles, ending up covered in thorns at the creek.
Where Nilesy and Lalna are standing with swords.
Before I can scramble to get up, Lalna's pinned me to the shallow part of the creek. He's so close, my face heats up furiously. My heart pounds and I don't think it's the adrenaline. My armour weighs me down and I'm getting soaked by the cold creek water. Lalna stands and starts to pull me by my arms across the river, seemingly not hampered by my armour or wet clothes weighing me down. I hate being tiny.
I twist and try to kick his arm, but his grip hardly falters. Nilesy grabs my kicking foot and helps.
They'd almost gotten me across the creek, to their side, when a crazy shout startles them.
"Ahhhhhhhhh-yeah!"
I'm dumped into the creek again as someone comes swinging down on a bunch of grapevines, of all things. Lalna is knocked down and Nilesy is entangled with vines.
Some vines grab my arms and pull me up. Ravs stands in front of me, grinning crazily, like someone gave him root beer with a shot of rum. (It has happened, do not ask.)
"Thanks." I say.
"Let's help the others, yeah?" He says, with that ever-lasting Scottish accent.
We dash across the river and beck into the forest to see Minty fending off Sjin while Martyn attempts to free Toby from my knife. Beckii is trying to hack through the roots across Kaeyi's ankles.
I rush in and shove Martyn away from his younger brother, then use my boot to stomp the knife further in. It sinks almost up to its hilt in earth.
Ravs goes after Martyn, even though he hasn't unsheathed his sword yet. I manage to free Beckii from brambles but the roots holding Kaeyi are stubborn.
"Don't worry about me!" Kaeyi says.
"Not a chance." I say, trying to cut the roots with my rapier. Frustrated, I stab the main root. It weakens, and I finally manage to get her free.
Kaeyi is absolutely livid and immediately proceeds to go after Martyn, which is good because Nilesy and Lalna have returned, and managed to free Toby.
We're now matched five to five. I turn on Lalna, duck his sword and give him just the smallest cut across his hand, but it startles him. He drops his sword and yells is shock.
I duck and roll- okay, more like stumbled, fell and tumbled- towards my abandoned knife. I snatch it up and pull the same trick on him as I did Toby, except with his armour straps. Pants, armour- can't play without them.
Toby, probably wanting revenge, speeds by me and somehow steals my rapier right out of my hands. I'm now without a weapon, and I'm getting tired.
Toby takes his time coming towards me, not worried now that I'm weaponless.
But not defenceless. Now I know why my mom and dad always insisted on Minty and I learning how to defend ourselves- New York was just an excuse.
I swipe out his feet and pull him to the ground, using the leverage to get up faster. I wasn't quite sure how I did that, but it just came to me.
I pointed my bronze rapier at his chest this time, even if he was wearing a chest plate.
"Never, ever, underestimate a granddaughter of war." I hiss, panting. It just popped out before I thought of what I was saying.
Toby's face was priceless, but I didn't get to enjoy it. Whoops and cheers came from the creek. A conch horn blew.
We all froze. "Someone won!" Beckii exclaimed.
I grab Toby's armour straps and pull him up, then free Martyn from my knife. They're about to walk away when I grab their t-shirts and pull them along myself, which must look pretty funny considering my height.
We burst out onto the creek and I almost run into Derik, who looks grumpy. He looks up at me though.
"Got some prisoners, huh?" He says.
"Both of us did." Minty says, pulling out Sjin from some brambles.
"What? No, I-"He tries to protest. Minty cuts him off with a laugh.
"I got your weapon and pinned you down twice. Admit it."
"Sword fight, tomorrow at the arena. Whoever wins is right." Sjin says with a smirk. Minty's eyes narrow.
"Deal."
"Hey can we go now?" Toby complains. I laugh and let go of him.
"Good fighting though." I say, hoping there won't be any hard feelings.
"I liked these pants." Toby said.
"Oh, suck it up." Martyn says, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, and sorry about the roots thing, Kaeyi."
"Whatever." Kaeyi smiles at Martyn. "Who won, anyways?"
"Take a look." Derik grumbled.
I jogged along the creek until I saw a large group of blue crested helmets carrying three people above their heads, cheering.
Darn it.
Sparkles* came up to us, smiling. Parv was right behind him.
"You look like you had it rough." He says, gesturing at my thorn-filled hair and damp clothes. I roll my eyes.
"You don't." Minty said. I look over at her and see she's standing very, very close to Sjin. I bite back a smile.
"I never look like I've had it rough." Sparkles* posed dramatically, one foot up in the air.
Beckii laughed and pushed Sparkles* into the creek. He pulled her in with him, and they started a splash fight. Parv chuckled loudly.
"How those two aren't dating already, I have no idea." Kaeyi laughed.
"Look who is." Martyn said, pointing at the crowd of blue teammates.
I looked closer and see that two of the three people are staying close to each other as they're carried along, holding hands. And then one of them laughs-I can only see their silhouettes against the night sky, and I recognize the owl hat-and kisses the other. The campers cheer even louder.
Nilesy's laughing like crazy, but I notice Lalna doesn't look so happy. I could have sworn he looked at me, but when I was caught looking at him, he forced a laugh.
"Blue team wins!" Chiron announced as the last few campers came out of the woods.
"Yeah, and Lomadia and Xephos are the ones who scored!" Someone yelled, quite possibly Honeydew.
Everyone laughed at that one.