Chapter Eleven: Capture the Flag Begins
Olympus
The twelve Olympian gods all sat in their thrones. There was a tense atmosphere in the throne room. Zeus was not happy and quite frankly, neither were the other gods. Artemis had just claimed a child. A child! This meant she had broken her maiden promised and Zeus wanted an explanation.
"Artemis, you have a lot of explaining to do so start talking!" Zeus demanded. Artemis was silent. She knew all the other gods wanted to hear her explanation, but she wasn't ready to say it. This was the exact reason why she had gone against Percy's wishes for all the gods to claim their children by the time they were thirteen. She knew this would come back to bite her.
"Explain!" Zeus boomed. Thunder highlighted the sky.
"Okay! Okay!" Artemis began to pace across the floor. It was a really long story.
"It was sixteen years ago. Me and my huntresses were hunting in a wilderness near Afghanistan. He was hurt and needed help badly. Now normally I would've left him there to rot. He was a man! But he had this strange aura that attracted me to him. After a quick word with my huntresses, we decided to help him."
"Who's this mortal that you speak of?" Hermes interjected.
"I was getting to that!" Artemis snapped. "Anyway, we tended to his wounds for three days. We fed him and gave him water. After that we demanded him to speak of himself; who he was, where he was from, and what his purpose in an Afghanistan wilderness. It turns out he was a soldier in the American army. He had been fighting in the war between America and Afghanistan." Ares snickered at the mention of war. (A/N: I just realized that the war started 10 years ago and not 16, but let's pretend it did) "He was like no man I've ever met before. He was sweet, loved nature, and most surprising of all, he was intelligent." I immediately fell for him, although I didn't let it on. On the night of the third day, I told him I'd grant him one wish before I let him go. He stared at me and said he wanted a daughter. I immediately thought no, I was not going to break my maiden promise, but he said if I could create one it'd be alright. So I took some of his blood and my blood and used the light of the moon to create a demigod. I did not technically break my promise."
The gods fell silent. Artemis story made perfect sense and they didn't think she was lying.
"So you did not break your promise to remain a virgin for all eternity?" Zeus asked.
"No father," Artemis replied.
"Good. Now that demigod must be killed," Zeus said.
"What? No!" Artemis said. Zeus stood up.
"A demigod child of Artemis must not exist. It defies the laws of nature which you created," Zeus said.
"But…"
"Nothing. She has a day to live," Zeus said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"But what if she proves herself on a quest?" Artemis blurted. This seemed to get Zeus's attention.
"Hmm, a quest? And what type of quest are we talking about?"
"Anything! Just please give her a chance."
"Alright, I will come up with a quest. For the meantime, this Olympian meeting is over." Artemis sighed a sigh of relief.
Carly's POV
The whole dining pavilion fell silent. It appeared that not a single pair of eyes was not on me. I turned to Chiron for guidance but even he was silent and shocked. Finally he got up and said, "Carly, I'm going to have to ask you to move to table six." I got up slowly. Everyone was still staring at me as I made my way to the empty table.
The rest of dinner was agony. I had absolutely no one to talk you and every few seconds I'd turn my head and someone would be staring at me or whispering. It was annoying! The worst part was that Sam and Freddie both seemed to getting along great with their new cabin mates. When lunch was over, we all followed Chiron out of the dining pavilion and out to the amphitheatre. Sam and Freddie caught up with me.
"Dude, we're famous! Everyone here knows about iCarly!" Sam exclaimed.
"Yeah and this place is so cool. My half-brothers and sisters are great," Freddie added.
"Oh…cool," I said sadly. I was having a terrible time. While the music played and the campfire changed from color to color and Freddie and Sam were living it up, I was really upset. People kept glancing in my direction and giving me cold stares as if I didn't belong here. I felt as if I didn't belong here. When the music was over, everyone clapped and Chiron got on stage. He was a centaur and his top half was a man and his bottom half was that of a horse. He smiled and waited for the clapping to stop. When it did, he began to speak.
"First of all I'd like to thank the Apollo cabin for another wonderful performance!" Clapping and shouting followed. "I'd also like to welcome our three new campers; Freddie Benson, son of Hermes!" Cheering and clapping. "Sam Puckett, daughter of Ares!" Cheering and clapping. "And Carly Shay, daughter of…Artemis." There were a few people who clapped but for the most part it was just an awkward silence.
"Now it is time to play everyone's favorite game," Chiron continued.
"Capture the flag!" Yelled a kid sitting in the front.
"Yes," Chiron chuckled. "Capture the flag. Now we all know the rules, so follow them. I want absolutely no dead bodies this time." He sounded like he was serious.
"Ok, ok, we get it! Can we just play now!" an Apollo kid yelled. Chiron chuckled.
"Alright, alright. Now get your equipment and meet me in front of the woods in ten minutes." Once he said that, all campers began running towards the cabins. Sam and Freddie stood by me.
"I don't even know where my cabin is!" I said miserably. Fredie patted my back.
"It's ok, kiddo," Sam said. Suddenly Sam was attacked from behind.
"SAM!" the attacker obviously knew Sam. Sam wrestled her off of her and almost punched her when she realized who the attacker was.
"Melanie?" Sam asked. Melanie got up and brushed the dirt off of her clothes and then smiled.
"Sam! I can't believe you're here! Mom finally told you?" Melanie asked. Sam smiled.
"Yup, took her long enough. So this is the 'fancy boarding school' you've been going to since we were seven?" Melanie smiled.
"Yeah, I figured out who I was earlier than mom expected. She sent me here because she knew that since I knew I was a demigod, monsters would come after me." Freddie kept switching his gaze from Melanie to Sam and then back to Melanie.
"Sam, you really do have a sister!" Freddie said in awe.
"No duh, messenger brain!" Sam replied. Melanie giggled.
"Hiya there Freddie," she said. Freddie's face instantly turned a bright shade of red. I guess he was remembering their little kiss.
"Hi Carly! I heard the news. It's very intriguing. Artemis was supposed to be eternal virgin. I don't understand." I sighed.
"Yeah, well neither do I," I replied sadly.
We began to walk towards our cabins. Melanie informed us all about how capture the flag worked. Apparently she and Sam were on the red team that consisted of the Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, and Athena cabins. The Hermes, Aphrodite, Demeter, Poseidon (Who only had one son, Percy Jackson), Hephaestus and my mother's huntresses (Whenever they visited camp). Since I was an official daughter of Aphrodite, I was going to be on the blue team. Once I had my gear, a small dagger, a helmet, and a shield that weighed more than I did, I joined the others in front of the woods. Everyone was excited and you could feel an intense atmosphere.
"Before we get started, I'd like to go over the rules," Chiron said. A lot of the campers groaned. "First and foremost, No killing or maiming as allowed!" A couple of the kids in Sam and Melanie's group snickered, which made me nervous. "Secondly, the entire Forrest is fair game although the creek is the boundary line. All magical items are allowed. The flags must be prominently displayed and can't have more than two guards. Prisoners can be disarmed but not bound or gagged. Finally, guards may not stand within ten yards of the flag." That seemed to be the end of the rules. This game was a more dangerous version of manhunt and I suddenly did not want to play.
"Now since the red team won last week, they get to go in first. Now run along!" Chiron declared. He had what looked like some sort of medieval horn in one hand. Freddie stood beside me. He had a helmet that was bronze with a blue feather on the top, a plate of armor, a sword that was about his height, and a small shield. Sam and Melanie waved as they went with the red team.
"So, you ready?" Freddie asked. I gulped.
"Not really," I admitted.
"Good. Me either," he said. After the red team had been gone for about five minutes, Chiron told us we could go ahead. We had to go to the opposite side of the forest that the red team had gone. Our leader, the famous Percy Jackson that everyone had been talking about, led the way. My first thought of him was that he was cute. He had black hair and these beautiful sea green eyes. He was very muscular and looked like he'd been on a lot of missions or whatever the camp called them.
Once we found our spot, he planted the giant blue flag on the ground. He then turned around and looked at us.
"We seem to have a pretty good bunch here. Hey there, I'm Percy," he shook Freddie's hand. He then shook mine and I couldn't help blushing. Hopefully it was dark enough for it not to be noticeable.
"Since those backstabbing Apollo archers sided with red team this week, we're going to prove we're good without them," Percy continued.
"Dude, that's like impossible. We always get annihilated," said a Hermes kid.
"You see that Travis, that's the kind of attitude that makes us loose. If we believe we can win, then we have a pretty good chance of winning."
"Blah! You don't even believe yourself," said a kid who looked just like the one who had spoken before. He was maybe an inch or so shorter.
"Ok Connor, you may be right, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, I mean, we have two new campers! Who knows maybe they can kick some serious ass," Percy said.
"Uh nah, I don't think so," Freddie said, "We lack experience." Travis sighed.
"Yup, we're doomed," he said.
"We're not doomed! We just got…" Percy was interrupted by the sound of a horn. The game had officially started.
A/N: Hey there, I figured you guys deserved an update. Review review review!
