Chapter 12: Zoë captures a pole

[David's Pov]

We set our flag at the top of Zeus's Fist. It was a cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods.

"If you look from here, it looks like a huge fist. Anywhere else it looks like a pile of deer poop."

"Then why don't we just call it poop pile?"

Thunder rumbled from far away.

"Right. Got it. Zeus's fist."

I guess Zeus doesn't have much sense of humor up his sleeve. Or toga? Whatever he wore usually.

Bypassing the name, Zeus's fist was a good place to set the flag. The top boulder was twenty feet tall and hard to climb, so the flag was visible (that was one of the rules) and it didn't matter that the guards weren't allowed to stand within ten yards of it (that was also a rule).

The horn sounded, officially declaring the game had begun. Our team broke up into smaller groups just like Annabeth's plan.

"Be careful, ok?"

Percy warned me. I nodded, but Marcus scowled at him.

"The twerp would be fine with me. You go along with your girlfriend, Jackson."

"She is not my girlfriend!"
"He is not my boyfriend!"

They answered in unison. Marcus cackled to himself until Annabeth threw a rock at his helmet.

After that squabble was over, Percy and Annabeth walked into the woods.

And then…silence.

Marcus was still grumbling about how he was missing all the fun and was swinging at low-hanging branches of trees with his 4-foot long sword. I thought some Dryads were looking at him disapprovingly before melting into the shadows. That can't be good.

After a few more minutes of silence, apart from some rustlings by who knows what, a huge war cry from Sherman followed by the rest of my cabin mates shook the trees. It seems like they were on engagement now.

Marcus cursed under his breath and kicked a pebble into the shadows of the woods.

"Ow!"

We were instantly ambushed.

Marcus roared out of excitement as Zoë Nightshade came rushing out from the far left─their blades clashed in mid-air, but she was not the one who shouted in pain.

Then I saw a faint shadow dart alongside the edge of the shadows. The movement was fast, but each step was not long, so I managed to tackle it after throwing off most of my armor.

"Ah!"

It turned out to be Luna.

I was about to apologize for literally jumping on her, but then she gave me a wink before pulling on a thick rope hanging from the tree above.

"Whoa!"

Something wrapped around my ankles and flung me into the air, upside down. The sword I had been holding slipped through my fingers and landed on the ground, out of my reach.

A thick vine was entangled on both of my legs, keeping me upside down hanging from a tree.

Luna stood up, brushing down on her clothes and looking very proud of herself.

"I'm skilled at setting up traps."

"Touché."

She winked at me again as Zoë came rushing to her as well. Her hairband was gone, so she had her hair down, and was bleeding just a small amount from the corner of her lips, but apart from that, she looked fine.

I was dully thinking that she looked pretty with her hair down, until she snorted at me swaying from one side to another, totally helpless, and patted Luna on the shoulder.

"We need to move."

"See you after we win, David!"

Luna called out joyfully as they both ran off to Zeus's fist. I tried to shake myself off, but it only made me feel dizzy.

I had no idea how they managed to come here so fast; Luna would've needed the time to set up a delicate trap like this. Then I saw some Dryads snickering while tossing Marcus's helmet around like a beach ball.

Of course.

I could see Zoë scampering up Zeus's fist. And forget about being hard to climb; she went up and snatched the flag in seconds. She jumped down gracefully as fast as she had climbed up, and two hunters both disappeared into the woods.

Great. Now we'll be accountable for the 56th losing streak of 'Camp Half-Blood vs The hunters of Artemis'.

I was feeling miserable again, not helped by the fact that my blood was all surging over to my head when a memory of the last night came to me.

Right before she left on her quest, Clarisse had woken me up.

"Newbie."

"Mm-hmm?"

"Let's get something straight first; I am our father's most treasured child. Got it?"

"Alright…"

I was tired and honestly wouldn't have complained about it even if I was fully awake. Clarisse bit her lip as if it angered her to admit the next words, but she did anyway.

"Our father, he, two years ago, was tricked into playing a part in the enemy's plan."

"What?"

"Shut up at listen! Jackson was the one who stopped the plan, and he also…had a duel with our father, and well, kind of won."

"Percy beat Ares?"

The weapons littered around clattered angrily, and Clarisse gave a nervous glance at them before smacking me over the head.

"Keep your voice down! And it wasn't─whatever. Ever since Ares has the absolute minuscule respect around Olympians. I completed a quest a year ago to get the Golden Fleece, but…"

Clarisse bit her lip again.

"…Jackson helped me along the way. Only a tiny bit! But he did, and got more credit than he deserves."

"Is that why you are going alone this time? On the Labyrinth?"

Clarisse nodded. She glanced at the clock; it was almost midnight. She put both her arms on my shoulders.

"Look. I'll succeed in my quest. I'll bring my father, and our cabin the glory we deserve. But he also has high hopes for you."

That made me feel uncomfortable. I didn't like being expected of, because that usually ended up me being a disappointment. And I couldn't help but feel, that as much as I enjoyed sword fighting and actions, I was less of an 'Ares' than someone like Marcus, Sherman, or well, Clarisse.

"Why?"

"I don't know! He just does. So don't be an embarrassment, or like bore you alive with my spear!"

And then, she hurriedly left the cabin.

Don't be an embarrassment…

I can't just hang here until our defeat was announced.

A familiar sensation of my heart thumping in my ears came back.

I stretched my arm out, as far as it would go, but the sword hilt was just out of my reach. If only I could grab it, then I'll be able to cut myself free, maybe get Marcus and hopefully catch up against Zoë and our flag.

As I kept my desperate attempts on trying to grab the sword, an uncomfortable tug happened around my gut. At first, I thought I had to go do number one, which was a truly horrifying situation while being hung upside down, but then I realized the tug was at the center of my insides.

And also, the sword jolted in its spot along with the tug.

Alright, I've never heard of an Ares camper having the power of the force, but I was urgent at the moment. Any last-ditch effort would suffice. I concentrated on the feeling of the tug, and I don't know, imagined it flying upwards into my hand.

Instead, it flew straight up, nearly slashing my eyes out and sliced off the rope holding my leg up.

"Oof!"

I nearly landed on my neck, but my countless experiences of being slammed on the wrestling mat saved me.

I stretched out my arms to suspend myself on the ground for a millisecond before quickly rolling forwards. My arms felt like jelly when I stood up, but they weren't broken so a good enough escape in my book.

The sword was floating in front of me as if waiting for my command. I grabbed the hilt. It'll take a lot more training and experience to use, this 'Aladdin's carpet' aspect of the sword, and now was not the time to risk it.

I ran back to where we were first ambushed and found Marcus leaning against a boulder, grunting angrily and looking furious. He seemed dazed and was struggling to get up, but kept slipping against the boulder.

"Marcus!"

"Don't look after me, twerp! The hunters went that way! After them!"

"But-"

"Go!"

He snarled, and I reluctantly left him behind into the woods.

The Dryads would, eventually take care of him, right? They won't be that cruel of beings, even if they did take his helmet. I hope.

In the meantime, I had to catch up with two agile hunters who had a serious head start.

But as I spurred on with my legs, I was surprised by how fast the trees moved behind. I was running way faster than I've ever run. My senses were picking everything up as they whizzed past me.

Some noises of fighting and yelling could be heard from both sides. I guess some hunters have passed by Ares cabin and came to distract our defenses from Zoë and Luna.

Our defeat wasn't signaled yet; we still had a chance.

Then, with a leap of my heart, I found them.

Luna was doing her best to fend off one of the Stoll brothers from Hermes cabin as Zoë zipped towards the creek.

Luna's eyes widened when she saw me, which led to her defeat, but whoever Stoll he was wasn't close enough to catch up with Zoë in time.

"No!"

Percy had just emerged from the other side of the creek. A silver flag in his hand.

Several arrows whizzed past narrowly missing him, and he had also just spotted Zoë. He poured on the speed, but it was too late. We couldn't stop Zoë from crossing the creek in time.

And in that spur of a moment, a crazy idea came to my head.

I held up the sword over my head and gripped it tightly.

[Line Break]

[3rd Person Pov]

Percy was two feet away from the creekside when Zoë sprinted over the entire river in one big graceful leap.

As she did, she heard something whoosh over from behind.

She quickly ducked her head in mid-air. A black sword landed on the other side, landing against a boulder. David's sword. The boy's last desperate attempt to stop her, but it looks like it missed its mark.

Zoë smirked to herself as she landed on the other side, slamming into Percy just for good measure, and looked up to the side of the woods.

She knew Chiron was watching the event from the woods, in case there was a close call.

She waited for him to emerge with a grim face, admit the camp's defeat for yet another disgraceful defeat in their turf.

But he didn't appear.

Zoë frowned. As much as she despised him for training that damned hero, she knew that he was an honorable centaur and would never turn against the rules.

Then she heard Annabeth's scream from the woods.

"Percy! Get over the creek! Quick!"

She spun around to see Percy quickly getting up to his feet. Before she could even reach for her bow, he splashed across the creek and yelled out in victory; grasping the Ares boy with his free arm.

The campers and hunters alike gathered around as the horn blew, signaling the end of the game.

Campers were all cheering, chanting Percy and Annabeth's name, and David's-much to Zoë's confusion.

Sherman even hoisted him off the ground onto his shoulders, giving him a piggyback ride as he shouted "This is our newbie!" out of glee, and the campers erupted with cheers and applauses.

Chiron emerged from the trees as well, and for the first in a very long time, Zoë saw him smiling broadly with proudness and triumph, and announced the following:

"I hereby declare, that Camp Half-Blood has taken the victory against the Hunters of Artemis in Capture the Flag! Finally, breaking their winning streak after 55th time in a row, since 1962."

"What!?"

The campers erupted once more with cheers and howls of delight, almost deafening Zoë's screech of anger and disbelief as she stomped over to Chiron.

"This is absurd! I crossed the boundary line first! I thought thee as a more honorable-"

But then she realized Chiron was pointing down at her hand, still tightly gripping the pole of the flag.

…with no flag at the end.

It was cut off from the pole. The orange flag of Camp Half-Blood was lying at the base of the creek on the other side.

"My dear hunter," Chiron said. His voice trembled from all the suppressed excitement. "You surely did pass the creek first. But the name of the game is 'Capture the Flag', not 'Capture the Pole'."

"But how-when-"

Her eyes landed on the black sword on her side of the creek.

And then it dawned on her; the boy wasn't aiming for her.

He was aiming at the flag.

"A hasty, improvised action, to throw his weapon like that." Chiron went on, as Zoë gaped at David, laughing happily as the entire contestants from the camp cheered on.

"But I must admit; boldness is one of the qualities of a true hero."

[David's Pov]

That night was amazing.

Chiron had specially allowed the entire camp to stay up late and have a late-night party of victory.

The campers who hadn't participated in the game were confused at first at all the noise, but they all also leaped with joy when they heard the news. Many people, too many for me to remember, shook my hands, ruffled my hair, and gave a pat on my back.

I was really glad that Percy or Annabeth, or everyone wasn't being denied credit because they were all part of this.

Even Marcus, who was still grumpy that Zoë had "Tricked him into defeating himself." (Whatever that means) got some credit. If he hadn't held off Zoë and urged me on to go after them as soon as I can, it would've been too late.

The true highlight for me was when Chiron came over and handed me the cut-off Camp Half-Blood flag, with a huge autograph on the back that read:

Sincere gratitude to a well-played maneuver.

-Signed, 'The' Chiron.

I nearly fainted then and there when I got that. I even got to keep the flag to myself, which was even more honorable, if that was even possible, to begin with.

But then I saw the only group of people who were not in the celebration. Rather, they were all skulking at the dining table scowling at the campers.

The Hunters of Artemis…

They were taking their loss rather rough; especially Zoë, who was again at the top of the table, the furthest away from the celebration with her back turned. Luna scooted over to her and tried to strike a conversation, but after some tries trudged away looking down herself.

No wonder why; they've gotten the news that their goddess might be in perilous danger, and the victory of the game could've raised their spirits.

I wondered if I could make it up, even if it was just a slight bit, then I remembered something.

"Chiron?"

"Yes, my boy?"

I was his boy-ahem.

"I hope it doesn't sound greedy, but can I get a souvenir from the attic?"

As soon as I got in the 15m radius of the hunters, I got several fully loaded bows aimed at my chest. I counted 20 before raising my hand in a sign of truce. None of the bows went down even an inch.

Zoë glared at me as I tip-toed over, hoping that someone won't just decide to shoot because of reasons.

When I stood right in front of her, sitting on the edge of the table, she looked up with the most hatred if ever felt from her, and that was saying a lot.

"What."

She spat out, and I almost felt the venom in her words. A portion of my brain was already regretting doing this, I didn't even really have to do it anyway─it was a fair win. Nonetheless, I handed her the belt from the land of the Amazon.

Zoë's eyes widened for a second, then, to my surprise, became even fiercer than before as she stood up in anger.

"How dare thee bring that to me!?"

"What-"

"Have you come to gloat in your 'victory'? To rub that in it our faces?"

Now that was just a huge misunderstanding. But Zoë was too furious to give me a chance to explain, and the hunters weren't exactly standing up for me either.

I think she would've straight-up murdered me if Luna hadn't grabbed her arm.

"Zoë, David is a nice guy. Maybe-"

"No man is nice! I thought even thou would've figured that out by now!"

"But-"

Zoë flung her arm, trying to free it from her grasp, and she did it just a tad bit too hard.

Luna was thrust off her feet and was flung 5 feet or so before landing on the ground on her back.

The hunters gasped, but none was more shocked than Zoë, who stood there in utter shock of her unintentional action.

I ran up to her before anyone else, mostly thanks to the fact I was closest to her and helped her get up as she mumbled "I'm fine. I had worse." with a small, sad smile.

"You, didn't come to taunt us, right?"

"Of course not."

"I thought so."

By then Zoë had shaken herself out of her shock and had run-up to both of us. Now she looked guilty, which was a look that didn't fit her at all. She opened her mouth to say something but Luna shook her head.

"I'm fine, Zoë. I think you have someone else to apologize to."

Her eyes drifted over to me. For once, it wasn't icy-cold or filled with resentful emotions. It was a mixture of, well, a lot of emotions, many of whom I can't trace to.

"Why did you bring me that?"

"To give it to you."

I handed her the Amazonian belt. Zoë looked down at it, again with mixed emotions, before pushing my hand away.

"I do not need thou sympathy. Not from a boy like thee."

My gods, she is one stubborn hunter, isn't she?

"It's not sympathy. It's gratitude."

Zoë raised her eyebrow and crossed her arm.

"Gratitude? For what?"

Truthfully, I had no answer to that. I just thought it would be a nice thing to do since she was planning to get this as a souvenir if she had won.

After some pondering, I shrugged.

"A well-played game, I suppose. This thing is under Ares cabin's ownership anyway, and I got permission from Sherman to give it away. So…here."

I handed her the belt again.

She looked down at the belt, then at me, then at the belt again before snatching it away.

"….I thank thee for thy gratitude."

She said it is the lowest voice possible, near to whispering, before swiftly turning around and going back to the rest of the hunters.

For a second, I thought I saw a smile on her face before she turned her back.

"!"

Zoë stopped mid-way to the hunters.

The air around us had changed.

The cheering of the campers was suddenly silenced as if someone just pushed a mute button on the entire camp. The coldest, and an upmost uncomfortable chill ran down my back. A thick mist was crawling on the ground, covering the area.

Clash!

Some children of Aphrodite screamed out in fright. The window of the Big House has broken; the sound had somehow carried over through the mist. A green light was flashing out from the broken window, and everyone's eyes were fixated on it.

Then, the light burst out, got caught in the mist, and traveled at a speed of, well, light towards us. For a split second, I thought the ball of light was going to incinerate us or something, but the light stopped right in front of Zoë before fading away.

The withered mummy that held the Oracle was standing in the middle of the mist. It raised its crisped finger and pointed at Zoë.

Zoë's face was pale. She looked like she'd either faint or throw up, but she stepped forward.

"What must I do to help my goddess?"

The Oracle's mouth opened, and thick green mist poured out. It morphed into a vague image of a girl kneeling at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. Her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain.

Then Artemis spoke in a raspy voice that sounded nothing like her:

Five shall go west to the goddess in chain,

One shall be lost in the land without rain.

Campers and Hunters combined will prevail,

A stringless hero embarks his travail.

The Titan's curse must be held alone,

For the children of sunset to be forgone.

Then, as we were watching, Artemis melted down back into a mist and slithered away like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth.

The Oracle slumped down on the ground and became as still as she'd been in the attic as if she might sit by this creek for another hundred years.

Making changes in the prophecy was the hardest thing I've ever done up until this point, and I just wrote an entire chapter with Annabeth's Pov.

Also sorry if Zoë feels out of character, I tried my best to keep it to a minimum, but you never know with this kind of stuff.