Chapter Fourteen - My Brother is Surprisingly Disarming

Once Andromeda and Andros were finally cleaned up - a task that took Andromeda considerably longer due to the state of her hair - we all met back up at the Arts and Crafts building. Silena introduced herself to Percy and then got right into what could only be called interrogation mode, wanting him to spare no detail about our mom. No matter how insignificant. After what felt like hours of back and forth, Silena clapped her hands together and nodded with a sense of finality.

"Alright," she said. "I think I have a clear enough image in mind. Brooke, get the sketch pad."

A girl maybe a year or two older than me came over with a sketchpad in hand. She had glasses and paint splattered jeans, and wore her light brown hair in a loose ponytail that might have looked sloppy on anyone else, but she managed to pull it off effortlessly. The perks of being a daughter of the goddess of beauty, I supposed.

She and her sister put their heads together, Brooke drawing in the sketchbook as Silena whispered to her, sometimes erasing and redrawing certain details. When they finally came up for air, Brooke showed us the working design. The shroud would be a rectangle with some kind of lace trim along the edges. A dove, the symbol of Aphrodite, was displayed boldly in the middle with what looked like flames dancing around the borders.

"It's just a rough sketch," Brooke said. "But we figured it would be nice to incorporate her children into the design as well, you know? It's already going to be a deviation from the norm for our cabin since it's going to be all done in shades of blue. That was her favorite color, right?"

"Y-yeah," Percy said, nodding slowly.

I stared at the drawing, a lump forming in my throat. Intellectually, I knew what we were doing and why, but seeing it sketched out made it somehow more real.

"Alright, then. Unless either of you are hiding an unfounded skill in weaving, then this is probably best left to the professionals," Silena said.

"In that case," Annabeth grinned; "You'd best leave it to Six."

"Oh, you little..." Silena laughed.

After that, she got to work with the other members of Cabin Ten while Annabeth led our group to other projects. I immediately moved to the pottery area to begin shaping more clay tokens - I had a couple of new ideas I really wanted to test out. Immediately, I could tell that the materials in the Arts and Crafts building was of a much better quality than what I'd previously used in Cabin Nine. I decided to make a total of ten Flame Freezers for further testing, ten Silencers which I had engraved with a music symbol in a circle with a slash through it, and ten Tokens of Invisibility which were engraved with a pair of closed eyes.

My mind drifted to the possibility of making stamps after the fifth time carving a melting ice cube, but I figured it would likely be better to do it all by hand instead. Besides, the minor imperfections just gave them a more personal touch that would probably help make them more functional in the long term. The whole process ended up taking me until well after lunch to complete.

The rest of the week passed by with me being pushed out of the Arts and Crafts building in favor of joining outdoor activities with Cabin Nine. Unfortunately, as he still hadn't been claimed yet, the only times I really got to see Percy outside of meal times was when our cabin's activity rotations overlapped. It wasn't all terrible though, and I quickly settled into a routine that felt almost normal - at least if you counted learning from satyrs and a centaur 'normal'. At least I was on familiar footing with the nymphs having been trained by the Hunters of Artemis - a fact that made several of the satyrs beg me for excruciating detail of their daily lives with starry eyed expressions. It was really creepy.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was ready for lessons in the arena. Luke, the head counselor of Eleven, was regarded as the best swordsman the camp had seen in around three hundred years and would be the instructor. He started off by giving everybody a sword (provided by my brothers and sisters in Cabin Nine) and ran us through a few quick drills so we could get the hang of swinging a bladed weapon before letting us put what we learned into practice against the straw-filled training dummies dressed in bronze Greek armor. After about ten minutes of thrusting and chopping at my designated armored scarecrow, Luke called a halt.

"Good job so far," he said. "Now, knowing how to stab and chop is useful, but it will only really take you so far. Despite what the guys in Cabin Five would say, sometimes the best defense is defense. Everybody grab a shield and pair up, we're going to practice blocking. Now, we've got two newbies here..." he looked from me to Percy "...so can I get a volunteer to help one while I take the other?"

"I'll do it," Clarisse shouted, stepping forward.

"Alright, then," Luke nodded. "You and... girl Jackson can pair up, and I'll show boy Jackson here the ropes."

I barely had time to grab a shield before Clarisse was on me, swinging her sword like a club and battering away at my feeble defenses. I ended up dropping my sword and huddling behind my shield, gripping it with both hands against the relentless assault. It was all I could do to hang on for dear life. By the time Luke called a break, my arms felt like jelly and I was almost fully obscured by a haze of evaporating sweat. Clarisse didn't look even a little winded. While everybody rushed to the water cooler to get a drink, I was busy trying to shake some feeling back into my arms.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke called out after a couple minutes. "We're almost out of time for today, but if Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demonstration. You've all practiced using a shield to varying degrees of success, so I figure we could end the day with something a little more advanced. A strong defense is always going to be a good defense, remember that. However, sometimes to end the fight more quickly, or to capture an enemy rather than kill them, disarming your opponent is a necessary skill to have.

"Now, keep in mind, this is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me in the past. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

He demonstrated the move for us in slow motion, twisting Percy's blade with the flat of his sword so that Percy had no choice but to drop his weapon. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of his hand to the ground.

"Now in real time," he said, after Percy retrieved his weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

After a moment of hesitation, he nodded, and Luke came after him. I hadn't been paying attention while Percy was sparring with Luke earlier, but now that I was watching I was impressed. Somehow he managed to keep up his guard, preventing Luke from getting a clear shot at the hilt. Luke swung and Percy countered, then stepped forward with a thrust of his own that Luke easily deflected. After that, Luke began to press the attack.

Whatever burst of insight Percy had been riding seemed to be quickly evaporating as the match dragged on, and I could see him starting to lose confidence. Then, he lunged forward, catching the base of Luke's sword at the hilt. With a twist and a downward thrust, Luke's sword clattered to the ground. The tip of his blade was an inch from Luke's undefended chest. The other campers were silent. Even Luke seemed to be stunned into silence. Then his face broke out into a huge grin as he clapped Percy on the back.

"Let's go again!"

Unfortunately for Percy, whatever bout of inspiration he'd had seemed to have fled, and he ended up dropping his sword three times in a row before Luke called it quits. Still, as far as beginner's luck went, it was definitely impressive.

The next night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. I had found out that morning that we were going to be playing capture the flag in the woods. Apparently the teams were being led by Ares and Athena's cabins. Athena had allied themselves with Apollo and Hermes - the two largest cabins - while Ares pulled everyone else. This meant that regardless of which cabin I chose to represent, I would still be going up against Andromeda, Annabeth and my brother.

Since this would be my first game, I figured it would be a good idea to get the lay of the land. It wouldn't do to be stumbling around in the woods, and my friends in the Hunt would never let me live it down. I spent the entire afternoon walking around, familiarizing myself with the landmarks and foot paths. I also took the time to test out my new tokens. The Token of Silence was an overwhelming success. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the Invisibility Token.

Apparently your eyes need light to bounce off them to see or something, and when all the light bends around you that just doesn't happen. At first I thought I'd gone blind - it would have made some sense considering I'd used closed eyes as the symbol for the token, but a passing Wood Nymph was adamant that I'd entirely vanished from view.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

"Of course we're the red team," I muttered. "So, what's my job going to be in all this?"

"Border patrol," Beckendorf said and I grimaced. "Sorry, kiddo. It's pretty much the de-facto position for newbies."

The border was defined by a creek that ran through the middle of the woods, which meant I'd be completely out of my element. Of course, since it was the task given to new campers, that likely meant I'd run into my brother out there. Suddenly Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble floor to get everybody's attention.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, and oxhide shields coated in metal. The news that magic items were allowed was good to hear and with my Token of Silence, it wouldn't matter that we couldn't gag our prisoners and even the Invisibility Token would make for a nice distraction against an unwitting opponent - falling suddenly blind would disorient anybody. I made sure to pass out two of the Tokens of Silence and three Invisibility Tokens - with a warning - to each of the designated flag guards before running off to take my position at patrolling the border.