That evening, after dinner, the excitement was at its peak. It was time to capture the flag. When the plates were cleared, the foghorn sounded and we all stood up at our tables.
Campers shouted and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the lodge carrying a silk banner. It was about three meters long, a sparkling gray and bore a painting of a barn owl, above an olive tree. On the other side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her pals came running in with another identical banner, but in a garish red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head. I turned to Luke and shouted above the noise:
" Those are the flags?"
" Yeah."
" Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" Asked Percy, who was standing next to me.
"Not always," Luke replied. "But often."
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do, repaint the flag?"
He smiled. "You'll see. First, we have to get one."
"'Whose side are we on?" asked Percy.
He gave her a sly look, as if he knew something he 'd never known. The scar on his face made him look almost diabolical in the torchlight.
"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you're going to help."
The teams were announced. Athena had formed an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two largest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been exchanged-shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities, in order to win to get their support Ares had allied himself with all the others: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, the children of Dionysus were good athletes, but there were only two of them. The children of Demeter had the advantage when it came to nature and outdoor activities, but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters didn't worry me too much. Most of the time, they stayed away from all activities, looking at their reflections in the lake, combing their hair and chatting. The Hephaestus children weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and strong from working in the metal workshop all day. They could be a problem. That left the Ares cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, fattest, biggest, ugliest, baddest guys on Long Island, or any planet.
Chiron struck the marble with his hoof.
"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!" Chiron spread his hands and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, metal-covered oxhide shields.
"Whoa," said Percy. " We're really supposed to use this?"
Luke looked at him like I was crazy.
"Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here, Chiron thought it'd be okay, you'll be on border patrol." He handed her an array of combat gear.
"And you Kassandra Chiron told us you were already armed." he said pointing to my father's ring. "And you're coming with me."
I picked up a shield the size of a basketball backboard. It was adorned with a caduceus in the middle and it must have weighed about Three Thousand Pounds... yeah that sounded pretty heavy to me. My helmet, like all those of my team, was topped by a blue plume. Ares and their allies had red plumes.
"Blue team, forward!" Annabeth shouted.
Percy stopped next to her to ask her something, I was at Luke's side.
"So what do I do?" I asked.
"Stay close to me, you'll see everything will be fine." he said, adding a sort of half-malicious, half-diabolical smile behind his sentence almost to say "I'm telling you this, but everything's going to go to hell tonight". I preferred not to say anything more.
So Luke, Annabeth and the rest of the blue team dispersed into the trees. In the distance, the conch horn sounded.
"Let's go!" Luke said, then we plunged into enemy territory, I have to say that leaving Percy alone was a bit difficult for me, see we left him by the stream, alone and defenseless...well that's an exaggeration, he still had a shield and a sword.
We were both running down the flank, while our other teammates occupied the opposing team. I heard shouts and screams all around the woods, the clatter of metal, children fighting. A blue-feathered ally from Apollo's cabin passed me like a deer and disappeared among the trees. Luke and I ran to where the enemy flag was. I ran behind him as he cleared our path. But that didn't mean I was safe from the other team. The red team campers threw themselves at me from time to time from different directions, although I managed to defend myself very well.
We'd arrived in the middle of enemy territory when we got surrounded, so I wasn't prepared for an ambush to tell you the truth. Five guys from Ares' cabin, all tall and ugly, came out of the darkness. I was already out of breath and pissed off getting here, so seeing them multiplied my anger by at least ten.
"you wouldn't think it would be that easy, would you?" One of them said.
"I've been fighting since earlier so it's never been easy, buddy."
He pointed his sword at me "Today, you'll suffer the vengeance of the cabin of..."
"Whoa, no." I interrupted. "Don't start with your little anime villain monologues."
"Kassi, maybe you should stop provoking them, they're a little outnumbered." Luke told me as he drew his sword, ready to fight. He was right, I'd got a bit carried away and the Ares campers looked even happier. Then I noticed something.
"Luke the flag isn't far is it?"
"No, I don't think so."
I think he finally understood what I was getting at.
"You want to hold them back, all by yourself? You're crazy besides you're a beginner."
"Didn't you see?" I pointed at the five guys. "She's not there."
"Who?" he asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Clarisse!" I said, "She's not there, it makes sense she's after me and Percy, if she's not there, it's because she's there for him so she's close to the flag, she's attacking us both, she wants revenge. "
"Well done little girl did you find that all by yourself?" One of the Ares laughed again.
I ignored him and turned to Luke. "Hurry up and get the flag Luke so we can get this game over with, then I can go help Percy. Okay."
"you wouldn't think it would be that easy, would you?" One of them said.
"I've been fighting since earlier so it's never been easy, buddy."
He pointed his sword at me "Today, you'll suffer the vengeance of the cabin of..."
"Whoa, no." I interrupted. "Don't start with your little anime villain monologues."
"Kassi, maybe you should stop provoking them, they're a little outnumbered." Luke told me as he drew his sword, ready to fight. He was right, I'd got a bit carried away and the Ares campers looked even happier. Then I noticed something.
"Luke the flag isn't far is it?"
"No, I don't think so."
I think he finally understood what I was getting at.
"You want to hold them back, all by yourself? You're crazy besides you're a beginner."
"Didn't you see?" I pointed at the five guys. "She's not there."
"Who?" he asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Clarisse!" I said, "She's not there, it makes sense she's after me and Percy, if she's not there, it's because she's there for him so she's close to the flag, she's attacking us both, she wants revenge. "
"Well done little girl did you find that all by yourself?" One of the Ares laughed again.
I ignored him and turned to Luke. "Hurry up and get the flag Luke so we can get this game over with, then I can go help Percy. Okay."
Even in the dark of night I could see Luke smiling at me. "Well done Kassi, good deduction are you sure your mother isn't Athena?"
"Do you really see me tied to Annabeth? Come on, hurry up."
Without saying a word to me, he passed all the enemies at lightning speed, and a few seconds later it was just me and the five Ares guys looking at me like rabid dogs. I'd acted so proud in front of Luke, but I realized I was actually terrified. An Ares child didn't give me time to think about my feelings and attacked.
He tried to skewer me with his sword, I dodged but only just, suddenly I felt myself falling and then I ended up on the ground, it seems he used his leg to strike mine to destabilize my center of gravity, a crooked foot, towards the ground.
I quickly raised my head, but the boy was already pointing his sword at me.
"Come on, you're not using your little magic power on me, are you?"
He was saying this with such irony, I'd just made Clarisse blonde I hadn't pulled her out of a hat so magic power, magic power, it really was hyperbole. I stood up and the guy moved away from me as if he wanted to see me try something. He gave me a hand signal like "come here".
I stood up and placed my shield in front of me and by my own will a sword appeared between my hand and the ring. I was ready to fight, and two of them charged at me, swinging their blades, which I blocked with my shield, they had the strength of two buffaloes, a moment's hesitation and they would have boiled me.
The other three came up behind me without me noticing, they were really as discreet as rats, they tried to attack me, I left my shield and stepped aside, once again they were laughing at me, with their teeth I could have sworn they could have bitten into my shield.
I didn't know how to beat them, close-combat wasn't an option since I no longer had a shield, but the only weapon I had was a sword, long-distance was impossible, I didn't have a bow or even a crossbow, even though they would have needed a shotgun. Mid-range combat was more favorable.
I would have needed a spear. I myself was astonished by what happened just afterwards, I must have been blessed by God or the gods at that moment, the sword I was holding in my hand disappeared to transform into a spear half gold half shining bronze. It was at least twice my size, which was quite... impressive.
"hey guys you saw she's got a new magic weapon we're too scared." One said looking at it brother. They burst out laughing.
Really arrogant, this time I didn't give them time to start laughing, I tried a quick shove which the first guy narrowly avoided, if he hadn't he'd probably have ended up in hospital or worse. In his dodge, he slashed the exposed part of my arm. I quickly backed away from him.
"Hey, no maiming!" I yelled at him.
"Says the girl who was going to kill me."
On that point he wasn't wrong. I swung my spear horizontally but it slammed into his shield. I kept on piercing, pushing, everything I knew with a spear. But even after all that they didn't even flinch, so in a few minutes I found myself exhausted, he came up to me and kicked me in the chest, I was on the ground helpless. he came up to me.
"So what's up?" He came up to my face. "You're going to call your idiot boyfriend to save you, even though he's just as weak as you."
"He's not weak," I muttered.
"What? Come on rehearse for us." He strained his falsetto ear.
I couldn't accept what he was saying its pissed me off, calling Percy weak, when he was probably a hundred times stronger and a hundred times braver than all of them put together.
"I told you he's not WEAK!" I managed to shout at him, then started coughing.
"Then he'll have to prove it to us because with Clarisse in front of him he's in trouble" he whispered to me.
Percy was probably in for the beating of his life, even worse than me if that was the case, and here I was on the ground, with no energy, useless as usual, I was useless, like five years ago when my father died, weakness I hated. I couldn't stay like that. I had to find a way out, I needed a ruse to make them pay.
"Hey ugly, I've got something to tell you" I said softly.
He seemed taken aback, perhaps by the fact that I was still conscious, or by the fact that I was insulting him in such a desesperate situation. he moved closer to hear me and smiled.
"Any last wordsthen?" I smiled." Yeah, well... I didn't know you were that dumb."
"What the..."
Before he even had time to finish his sentence, I placed my index and middle fingers on his temple and his eyes lit up with a silver light, his face lost all emotion.
I've already described the mind of a Cyclops to you, it's a mixture of savagery and consciousness, like two different worlds that have come human being, or in this case the demigod, was different, and in connecting with him I found myself like... in front of a piano with multicolored keys, thousands of memories, I saw this boy Tommy, yes that was his name, I saw everything about him, his mother, a policewoman with a strong character, his bullying in primary school, the fact that he cried every day for the absence of his father Ares, the god of war. the day he'd gone to claim clearly one of the happiest days of his life.
I had to find a way out of it. I didn't break anything, as with the Cyclops, I sent a simple message to his mind:
"Defend me".
Without waiting, he straightened up with a blank stare, under my control, and stepped between me and my ally. One of the other four approached him, seeing that something was wrong.
"Hey, what's wrong? You feeling okay?"
As soon as he got closer, he threw a punch, which I thought was pretty powerful as the other one ended up on the ground. I got up and leaned on a nearby tree. My breathing stopped hurting. I watched the Ares guy lash out at his brothers, who were trying to reason with him to no avail.
"What did you do to our brother!?" one of them said.
Two Ares guys charged me, but then their brother completely dropped his ongoing fight and grabbed them between his two arms, they struggled as hard as they could but they wouldn't let go at all. I moved closer to them, knowing what to do, placed my hand on their temples and ordered them to "go to sleep", without saying anything more they collapsed on the ground.
So there we were, the four of us now, none of us attacking, when all of a sudden I saw Luke in the distance holding the flag in his hands and running towards the creek.
"He's got it! "I exclaimed. Now all I had to do was take care of the last guys and I could go and help Percy.
My two opponents looked desperate, they must have seen the imminent defeat of the reds coming. We returned to our original fighting positions and the last warriors charged me, he tried to swing a sword at me but I avoided it. I could feel the last of my strength slowly disappearing, my body slowing down more and more.
"Even if we lose we'll get even with you no matter what!" One of them charged me.
"Attack him!" I ordered the one in my control.
He charged at him and they started wrestling on the ground, while the last one stopped in front of me. I made sure my spear created a distance between him and me; he knew what I was capable of and wouldn't let himself be trapped like the others. The next move would determine that.
We charged. He swung his sword in an arc that I blocked with the shaft of my spear, and before he could surpass me in strength, I turned my weapon back into a ring. He didn't see it coming, so I bent down, grabbed his sword arm and flipped him judo-style in a few seconds, leaving him disarmed and on the ground. I kicked him in the head to finish him off for good.
A little further on I saw Tommy finish off his opponent. At last we had done it. I fell to my knees exhausted. My breathing was a little ragged after that, so I hoped I'd be able to sleep for at least the next five days.
Tommy came to my side and gently lifted me onto my two legs.
"I've got to tell you, you're pretty nice under mind control, but I think our story's got to end here, okay, so go to sleep. "
Like the other two he just fell and fell asleep.
In the distance I heard the cheering, we'd won. I moved more slowly than usual to the creek, bruised and tired. Then something happened that I hadn't expected. The time around me seemed to slow down, the air became much colder, I was scared at that moment.
" These are interesting powers."
I was sweating, the mere sound of that voice chilling my blood, yet it seemed so far away.
"Come, go and help Jackson, follow him until you come to me."
Suddenly, time seemed to take its course again, things were becoming more and more normal, I had goose bumps, I was trembling with fear, I was convinced of one thing I had to go and see Percy so I ran towards the border.
I was almost there and could see Percy accompanied by Annabeth when I heard a howl through the forest. I looked to see where it was coming from and there I saw a rhinoceros-sized dog near them.
"Run, Percy" shouted Annabeth.
But too late the dog pounced on her and without knowing how I did it, it must have been my instinct that took over I sent my spear towards the monster, who ended up impaled. The creature had surely had time to injure Percy, so I got as close to him as I could, and from deep in the forest I shouted:
"Are you all right, Percy?!" I shouted.
I got to the edge of the forest a little before the stream and saw Percy wounded.
"Wow Kassi, you're beautiful, so beautiful."
He didn't usually come out with compliments like that like that, his wound must have been making him delirious, normally I'd probably have appreciated the compliment more but here he was wounded, I quickly moved closer to him.
"Percy, don't you see what's happening to you? This is no time to be complimenting me! " my voice trembled, I could feel it.
"Yeah, but you're gorgeous. You sparkle and your dress looks great on you."
"What?"
I looked at myself and surprisingly my clothes had changed I was now wearing a long white silk dress and I could feel my back exposing in fact it was a Greek style wedding dress, I had seen one on a trip with my uncle.
Annabeth spoke up beside me. "You're wounded, Percy, Get in the water."
Without saying a word he got into the water and suddenly his wound healed until it disappeared.
"Look, I...I don't know why," he said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."
Everyone started looking at him... not just him me too or rather something that had appeared above us.
"This is the beginning of trouble," Annabeth said completely shocked. "Your parents."
"Our parents?" Percy and I asked at the same time. All the campers bowed.
"They're determined," announced Chiron "Poseidon. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God.
And as if confused, he began to announce my parentage: "Hera... queen of Olympus, mistress of heaven, goddess of marriage and family, greetings to you too, Kassandra Knight, first daughter of Hera."
Why in the world does this have to happen to me? Really the beginning of problems, especially for me.