Chapter 19

"Campers! I will now announce the teams for tonight's Capture the Flag!"

Jarred looked up from his food towards Chiron. He still found it slightly odd that he was a centaur.

Chiron clopped his feet for attention. "The leaders will be Ares versus Athena. Ares has been allied with Hermes, Hephaestus, and Dionysus, Nike, Iris, Hecate and Hypnos. Athena has been allied with Apollo, Nemesis, Hebe, Tyche, and Demeter." Chiron announced. "Good luck to all. I will meet you at the forest creek in two hours."

Jarred sighed. He was hoping to be paired with Apollo, then again, since he had been there, Apollo and Ares had rarely been teamed up.

Jake threw him a sympathetic glance. "We should really be careful tonight. Only Arcus and Nate will be ones watching over her and I'm guessing that Nate will be in the attack lines."

"Yeah I know." He turned to his older brother. "I told her that she's in danger so I'm sure that she'll be on guard herself."

Jake nodded. "Well we better coordinate with the other cabins. Let's go." He said as he stood up.

"Right." Jarred nodded back and followed Jake.

Two hours later of talking, planning and breaking up fights, mostly between Jake and the Hephaestus counselor, their team is all suited up and facing the Athena cabin in the forest.

Jarred gripped his spear tightly, making the red sparks of electricity become more controlled as they jolted around the spear head. Gods please let Alice be safe during this...

Jarred looked around and saw some of the Demeter kids scattered along their ally cabins. The Apollo kids were nowhere to be seen.

He spotted Nate not far to his left. She gave a nod to him but other than that nothing.

Chiron trotted over. "Campers! Remember the rules! The creek will be the boundary line. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be easily seen and have no more than two guards. Prisoners can be disarmed but not bound or gagged. Killing or maiming is not allowed." Chiron shouted.

Jarred waited for Chiron to tell them to go. He glanced at Jake who was probably already planning on which campers to take out first.

"Steady." Chiron said. Every camper tightened their grip on their weapon as they waited for the signal. Chiron blew the conch horn and the campers yelled their battle cry before surging forward.

Jarred charged at a daughter of Athena. Catching her off guard by pin pointing her out, he jabbed the spear tip to her side. Don't get over confident. Athena always has a plan.

The daughter of Athena rolled and kicked Jarred's feet out before standing up and running off into the bushes. He grunted as he got up. Most of the others were still fighting so he headed to go find the flag. Where would they have put the flag this time...

A couple of Nemesis kids suddenly jumped out of the bushed and attacked, their swords and daggers raised.

"Great..." He muttered silently backing up slightly. Catch them off guard...

The kid on his left slashed down while the other attacked on the other side.

Jarred skillfully jumped out of the way. "You guys really don't know what you're up against." He got a wicked look in his eyes, oh how he loved this attack. He gave a sly smile as he jabbed Efialtis into the ground, a red wave of electricity running through the ground looking for a victim.

The two kids screamed before collapsing on the ground, unconscious.

He smirked heading towards where they had come from. Those were probably the guards... He carefully looked around, knowing Athena, he was cautious.

"Nice one bro!" Jake said from his left. "Come on. I think I know where their flag is." He said as their other siblings and some of Hermes and Hephaestus burst through the trees. All of them in varying degrees of injuries.

Jarred nodded to Jake. "Thanks, but I only have enough energy for one more of that attack." He told him as they followed Jake's lead.

Jake nodded and their group surged forward towards what Jarred noticed was the direction to Zeus' Fist. Suddenly arrows zipped through the air and hit a few of their teammates in the head, knocking them unconscious.

Jarred dodged the arrows. "They're in the trees!" He shouted.

Jake grunted as an arrow hit his shoulder. "Go! Shields up if you have any!" he said as he surged forward, trying to dodge the arrows.

Jarred looked up at the trees as they kept going. He felt an arrow hit his back and almost crumpled to his knees.

"Jarred come on!" Jake shouted as he hauled the younger boy to his feet.

"I'm coming I'm coming!" He followed Jake with a grunt of pain.

As they surged forward, he heard a few grunts of pain in the trees and the arrow attack lessened.

Please let Alice be okay... Jarred glanced back at the trees before running alongside Jake.

He suddenly heard one high pitched squeak of pain and a low growl before they burst through the tree line facing Zeus' Fist. In front of them, a line of kids held steady with two Apollo guards standing beside the flag.

"Shoot...This must have been the last line of attack Athena had." He grunted as he held his sword ready.

"Just let me get in close enough." The sparks around Efialtis had grown since the last attack. "I can take them out."

Jake nodded and passed the message just as the enemy team let out a battle cry and surged forward, the Apollo guards notching their arrows.

Jarred advanced carefully, letting his team take out the enemies. Let's hope they'll know to jump...

The two Apollo kids kept firing arrows at Jarred's teammates, either knocking them out or disabling them.

"GUYS FALL BACK!" Jarred shouted to his team, he was in close enough. The only problem was that he could possibly get knocked out before performing the attack.

Jake nodded and his team tensed, ready for the attack. Jarred turned around and felt an arrow missing him by only centimeters.

He stuck the spear into the ground, the wave of electricity catching up with any who were in its range. He saw most of his teammates jump up at the last second while the others and the enemy team screamed in pain as the electricity reached them. As he was attacking, Jarred heard a scream somewhere far from them but dismissed it as one of his siblings in the other part of the forest.

Eventually he yanked the spear out of the ground, avoiding the unconscious members of the enemy team he snatched up the flag. "I've got it!" He called to his team as he ran back. "Let's go!"

They yelled in temporary triumph when they suddenly heard the same from the other side. Jake looked at him wide eyed. "They've got our flag! Run Jarred!"

Jarred didn't have to be told twice. He bolted towards the creek. His pumped his legs faster as he tried to get their before the other team. Faster, have to go faster!

"Go Jarred! We've got your ARRRGH!" Jake shouted. Looking back, Jarred saw him hacking at the grass that suddenly grew from the ground and had wrapped around his legs. He saw that most of the others were immobilized too.

What in the name of the gods is going on?! He had never seen something like that before, he only thought satyrs could do something like that! Adrenaline pumped through his veins making him run faster.

A few knots of grass suddenly grew in front of him and he tripped. "Jarred quick! It's the Demeter kids!" Jake shouted as he could feel grass starting to knot around his feet.

He growled. "NATE I'M SO KILLING YOU AFTER THIS!" He shouted as he got his footing. Watching the ground and in front of him was a difficult technique but it became easier as he ran faster. Soon the creek was in view. Fifty feet. Fourty feet...

A son of Athena burst through the trees at the same time Jarred did, holding the Ares flag. Both stood frozen as they stared at each other then bolted to reach the other side. He could hear the blood roaring in his ears as they both reached the creek.

Come on, come on! Jarred didn't slow his pace until he reached the other side of the creek, and froze standing as still as a statue looking up at the flag.

He felt himself looking at the son of Athena. The other boy was also on his side of the creek. Both were looking up at their flags, silently waiting.

The rest of the campers burst through the trees and stared at the two flags. After a few agonizing seconds, the flag in Jarred's hand slowly changed to the Ares cabin symbol, a boar and a spear.

There was silence before Jarred's team cheered, raising their weapons in triumph.

A smile crept to Jarred's face. He looked at his team and held his spear up in the air triumphantly.

His team cheered louder. "That's my boy!" Jake cheered as he walked over to Jarred and slapping his back, his hair wild and had grass in it.

"We won! We won! We won!" Jarred heard twin voices. He looked down and saw the twins in full battle armor, grinning up at him through their helmets.

"Great job Jarred!" Pascal said, taking off Jarred's helmet and giving the older boy a noogie. The enemy team walked off out the forest quietly grumbling their protest.

"Hey, hey, knock it off guys." He got out of Pascal's grip laughing. Something was missing, or someone. The twins, Jake, Pascal. "Where's Alice?"

"She's probably with her siblings." Jake said. "We haven't seen her or Arcus all game."

His expression grew worried. "You don't think that growling and screaming we heard was them. Do you?"

The rest paled. They were just out of the forest when they heard a familiar voice.

"Help! Someone help!"

Jarred turned to see Nate, trying to help Arcus stay up on his feet. "What in the name of the gods happened?!" He shouted as he ran towards them.

The two were covered in gashes while their armor was tattered and barely holding on. Arcus was worst off that Nate and was trying to remain conscious.

Nate was breathing heavily. "Pack of...hellhounds...I was with these two...Destroyed most but we lost Alice...I told her...to run to you guys..."

Jarred's eyes widened with fear. He turned to Pascal and Jake. "GET THEM TO THE INFIRMARY!" He shouted to them as he ran off the way Nate and Arcus had come. Suddenly a shrill scream cut through the night before cutting off abruptly.

No, no this can't be happening. This shouldn't happen, this can't happen! He snapped himself out of his thoughts and kept running.

"ALICE!" He screamed, he realized how choked up he was. The fear of the dream starting to take over. All he could think of was her getting thrown against that rock and laying still. Deathly still.

He burst through a line of trees and what he saw froze him on the spot. A hellhound had pinned Alice down with her only holding it back with a strong branch in its jaw. The same branch Jarred saw her reaching for in his dream. They could see Alice's arms shaking from the effort of holding it off, blood slowly pooling around her trailing from the same rock wall in his dream. Suddenly, the hellhound growled louder then slammed its paw into Alice's armored chest, making a deep dent as blood spewed from her mouth. The hellhound swiped its other paw down the left side of her face. She managed to deflect most of the blow but a claw had made a deep scratch down her face. Alice screamed in pain once more, her arms almost giving way.

Jarred suddenly felt anger boiling up inside of him. He screamed as he charged at the hellhound, the sparks around the spear tip going around more franticly and getting a wider range, before going straight through the hellhound's side. Jarred breathed heavily as it gave a howl of pain before turning into golden dust.

Alice stayed at the ground, trying to breath in raspy gasps. The left side of her face was dripping a sickly green liquid along with blood from the deep scratch. She put a shaking hand on her chest, trying to tell Jarred something. Her ribs were broken.

He knelt down beside her and pulled off her armor. He grimaced at her wounds as he picked her up in his arms. "You're safe now Alice." He whispered as he hurried back to camp. But you could've stayed safe if I had been there...if I had gone looking for you at the first scream. Tears slowly came down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry..." Jarred whispered as he hurried her back to camp.