Heyo, I'm back.

Sorry for the no chapter last week - life got a little busy - but we're here now with the next one!

Enjoy :)

CHAPTER 12: THE FUNDAMENTALS

The nightmares were the same as before but more visceral. The screams were louder, the pain was more agonizing and the fear was consuming. The only difference, was I felt like I knew these people now. The faces were more familiar and therefore more terrifying. It was hard to believe that these were the same ones that made me feel welcome and yet… it wasn't.

Again, I watched friends die. Once more I tasted the cold feeling of death and utter defeat. All I wanted was to leave– to get out and run away from all of this. To be with Mom again. And for some reason, there was this underlying frustration. An anger towards whatever put me in this situation and kept me here. When I tried to think of who to blame, the first thing that the nightmares showed me was a singular vision; a golden city atop a monstrous mountain high above the clouds. Nothing stood above it, nor did anything survive below it. A mighty palace sat at the peak. I watched as numerous eyes appeared among the clouds, crackling with lightning. A loud strike of thunder boomed and echoed as it shifted into what sounded like laughter.

'Arthur!'

Dienekes or D, once again, had to shake me out of it. I woke up in a shock, gasping for air as beads of sweat trickled down the sides of my face. As I sat on my bed, I stared at a set of old armor hung up on the wall facing me. For a moment I saw those same piercing, thunderous eyes watching from the helmet… then nothing. The whole cabin was slowly waking up and it looked like I wasn't the only one that had a restless night. There seemed to be about one or two more that had woken up around the same time I did and the expressions on their faces didn't seem too dissimilar to how I felt. In fact, they looked worse. Before I had a chance to fully grasp the situation, Clarisse came walking down the line of bunk beds, smashing a small hammer against a bronze helmet. I guess that's her version of an alarm clock.

"Innnspectiooon!" she yelled.

With all this stuff about gods and magic, the start to the day felt pretty standard and despite having a stressful sleep, I felt pretty refreshed compared to yesterday. There was a standard routine cabin inspection and, of course, a camp breakfast. I tried talking to the ones who I noticed seemed to have nightmares too - my siblings.

Man, that still feels so weird.

They were quick to change the subject and weren't really in the mood for talking but maybe they just weren't morning people. While I munched on a lovely combination of bacon and eggs, again my mind drifted to the vision of the nightmares.

There seems to be no limit to the strange meter.

Unlike yesterday, however, there was not much time to sit around and contemplate as immediately after breakfast came my first class at Camp Half-Blood; Archery.

I, along with a bunch of other campers, stood in a field where laid out a couple yards in front of us were targets. Some coloured with the usual red and white rings whilst others had weird looking monsters painted as the target. Each of us were paired up for the session and this session I just so happened to be partnered up with Flip.

"Okay, you just follow me," he said as he began dabbing his fingertips along the inside of his lip, wetting each individual one.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Sensitivity. Increased reflexes," he replied.

"That's not how that works," D said. Somehow I was able to tell his confusion from just his voice.

I successfully held in my laughter.

Flip then pulled out a singular arrow from his quiver, presenting it as he laid it out on the palm of his hands.

He looked at me earnestly. "Now this is an arrow. On the battlefield, these can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Depending on whose shoot–"

"I know how bows and arrows work."

"Oh, good." He smiled, rolling his shoulders a little and then getting into his firing stance.

He took a few deep breaths before firing three consecutive shots at the target. The first two landed wildly making solid thuds in the farthest rings from the center. Then the third shot managed to be an exact bullseye.

He turned back to me. "Your turn, hotshot."

Here goes nothing I suppose. I, for one, have never actually shot a bow before so this could be interesting.

I grabbed my bow and fiddled with the grip between my fingers. Almost instinctively, the feel and balance of the weapon began to feel natural, similar to the first time I picked up the shield. When I drew my first arrow, the motion felt smooth and practiced. I pulled it past my chin, feeling the tension in my back as I looked down the shaft and at the target. I took one breath and released.

My three arrows hit their mark, none were a bullseye unfortunately, but their placing was consistent and, on average, were a lot closer to the center than Flip was.

"Right," he chuckled, "son of Ares. I forgot you guys could do that."

"I've never done that before," I told him, slightly amazed at my own apparent skill.

"Just one of our many perks," Sherman called out from the group next to us. I wasn't aware he was watching. "We got that magic touch when it comes to weapons, baby."

I looked back down at the bow.

"Interesting," the spartan in my head muttered.

Sherman continued. "We can also do this."

I watched as the arrow currently in Flip's hand lost all sense of foundation and flopped to the ground like spaghetti.

Flip sighed, "oh yeah… not fun during a flag game."

"Not bad, boys."

The both of us turned around to see Val, hands in pockets, watching with a smirk on her face as she seemed to be chewing on something.

"Wow, you look like shit," Flip remarked who promptly received the middle finger.

To be fair, Val did look pretty worse for wear. She looked like she barely got a wink of sleep.

"You alright?" I looked at her as she looked back, dark bags underneath her eyes.

"Yeah." The girl just shrugged as she continuously chewed on whatever was in her mouth. She squinted her eyes at the target. "Nice shooting, Arthur."

Flip looked slightly offended. "Excuse me, I got a bullseye."

"Did you?" she replied.

"Maybe you should use your eyes, you've got two."

"Hey Val, why don't you give it a shot?" I offered quickly, hoping to interrupt the two before they have another endless back and forth.

"Nah," she replied. "It's easier if I just run up and hit the guy..."

Flip just scoffed. Then, at an impressive speed, Val managed to pull out a dagger and be face-to-face with Flip as she playfully traced the dagger along his neck all before he could even react.

"...like that."

Flip shot her a smug look. "Very cool, roadrunner. Only, if this were real, you might have noticed the blade impaled through your stomach."

All three of us looked down to see that, while Val had her dagger against his neck, Flip grasped a dagger that he seemingly pulled out of nowhere and was now pointing towards her abdomen. Val's mouth quivered slightly, as if she was holding back a smile but instead reverted to rolling her eyes, sheathing her blade. As she did, I watched Flip subtly slip the dagger someplace underneath his jacket. Looking around, I saw a couple of eyes watching the whole encounter until they nonchalantly went back to what they were doing. I had a feeling they see this kinda stuff happen a lot.

What is up with these two I swear…

"Wait, is that–" Flip took a couple sniffs. "Is that Dionysus Bubble Burst?"

Val popped a purplish balloon of candy that expanded from her mouth. "Yep."

"Miranda told me they were out!"

"Connor stole a box."

Val started walking away as Flip followed in pursuit as the two began to bicker once more. I just shook my head, deciding to just let them go at it. I looked down range again, still gripping the bow in my left hand. I took another deep breath and fired another shot.

As the next few days went by, it didn't take long for me to get used to how life was at Camp Half-Blood. You wake up, clean up your cabin, follow your daily schedule, sing songs at the fire, repeat. I usually just hung out with my siblings or Flip and Vall. Any other cabin group I approached, I was either given minimal attention or completely blown off. Travis and Connor were always fun to be around but they were busy most of the time as head counselors, same with Will. Mainly, these days were focused on getting me up to speed on some of the fundamentals of the demigod world.

I quickly learned more and more of my natural knack for things when it came to battle training…

"That's a win for Arthur… again."

The demeter boy swore as he walked off the field, dragging his sword and shield across the dirt. I stood there holding my spear confidently in one hand as I flicked my wrist, reverting the shield to its bracer form.

On the side, Sherman applauded. "You're getting pretty nifty with that spear, Art."

"For some reason, it feels more natural than a sword," I replied, spinning the spear with one hand.

"Of course it does," the ancient spartan reminded me with pride. "A true weapon fit for a warrior of Sparta."

"No kidding." I responded in my head.

…I also found myself at home with the climbing wall. Man, I love that thing…

"This isn't over yet, Pride!"

Val and I were head to head, both in the lead as we traversed the massive wall. Boulders dropped from above as lava occasionally poured down, forcing us to pull off all sorts of maneuvers.

"Yeah, you're right, it isn't over," I replied. "Because I haven't won yet!"

Below us were the yelling and groaning of the other campers struggling up the wall. Val may have been better in speed but I made up for it with my climbing skills. I found the more convenient and efficient pathways just a little quicker than she did. Just as I started gaining the lead, a massive boulder came from above. Val reacted almost immediately but I was way too close. I managed to get out of the way but I had to leap to the side, causing me to have a much more unstable footing. Taking the opportunity, Val blazed past me whilst I was still trying to regain my balance.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, not being able to contain my frustration. I could just hear Val laughing which only annoyed me more.

She had almost made it to the top until something caught her attention from below. She stopped as she looked down whilst I continued climbing.

"Help! Somebody!" a voice cried.

Down below, a little boy, no older than 10, had gotten his foot stuck in one of the cracks and was struggling to move. Nobody else was around him and it wasn't long before a stream of lava was about to come crashing down.

I hate to admit it, I know it seems like a real dick move but right now… I wanted to win.

If this was the real deal then it'd probably be different but this was a part of the course, so I'm sure there's contingencies in place if anyone got hurt. Plus, I was up against Val here, I wasn't just going to pass that up. I didn't stop climbing. On the other hand, Val glanced at the finish line and backed down to the boy. She lightly nudged her forehead against the rock as she started to curse to herself. Before I knew it, she gracefully jumped down, sliding down the walls and managed to reach the kid before the lava hit him. Part of me was relieved that he was safe but to be honest, now with no one ahead of me, I was more excited that that secured me a victory.

…when it came to arts and crafts, or anything that required genuine finesse, well…

"Oh cool, Arthur. You made like a… tree?"

"No it's– it's meant to be a pegasus…"

"Oh."

…I wasn't too great at the forge either…

"And then I just quench it like this?"

I dunked the recently heated bronze blade into the barrel of water next to me. Jake tried to warn me about doing it too quickly but it was already too late. I had practically slammed the hot metal into the water causing some of the splash to hit my forearms. I'm going to be honest, it didn't feel great and the burning sensation was enough to loosen my grip on the tongs that held the blade in place which resulted in it sinking entirely into the barrel.

"Yeah… try to be a little more gentle next time," Jake said.

Most of the other campers in the forge around me started giggling. Some of them giggled a little too hard. The only one who wasn't was Emile. He was fully focused on whatever he was working on; it looked unlike anything anybody else was making. I was even more shocked to see him listening to music with wireless earphones as he worked.

I thought technology was a no-go?

However, my mistake was enough to interrupt his workflow. As he took out the bud in his left ear, he simply stared at me blankly for a few seconds then went right back to work. The fact that his face didn't change throughout that freaked me out.

"Gentle." I looked at Jake. "Got it."

After the workshop, I thought I'd give it a shot and introduce myself to Emile. Some may call that dumb but I just wanted to get it over and done with. However, when I looked back to where I last saw him, he was already gone.

…but I'd say the highlight of my time here was definitely when Chiron was able to get me in contact with the outside world, even if only for a short while…

A faint image shimmered through the water of the Iris message, a mode of communication that was baffling to me the first time Chiron showed me. As the water rippled and its image became clearer, right in front of me I saw the visage of my mother standing there in her uniform.

"Arthur?"

"Mom," I uttered. It was hard to string together a complete sentence. Seeing her again was an emotional slap to the face.

"Arthur," she smiled. It looked like she moved her arm to reach something in front of her. Her smile faded. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? Chiron told me what happened. Dammit… I shouldn't have left you."

"No, mom, it's okay. I'm okay…" I replied, still debating whether that was true. There was a momentary pause. I tried hard to think of what to say next, so much wanted to get out.

"Why didn't you tell me, Ma?"

She sighed, a sour look consumed her face. "I wanted to… but how could I?"

"But Dad? Ares? How–"

"I know, I know. But… you were just a boy, it would have been too much."

"Too late, now."

She didn't say anything and neither did I. The both of us just sort of silently took in the moment.

"Mom. Something happened at school…" I felt a lump form in my throat. My mind drifted back to that memory again. I looked away for a moment. Those memories scared me.

I tried to tell her but how could I?

"I–"

"Don't, Arthur." She looked at me, watching my every move, every expression. "Whatever happened is for you and you only. This is your journey now. Arthur… gods, I wish I could be there with you–"

She cut herself off as she turned away for a brief second, before turning back.

"I taught you everything you needed to know. I love you, Arthur."

"I love you too, Mom." I held back the swelling in my eyes. It looked like she wasn't having an easy time either.

She cleared her throat. "So, I assume Dienekes is playing nice."

I let out a chuckle. "Another one of the many surprises."

"Well, I hope that was one of the nicer ones I gave you," she said.

"Still deciding."

"Take care of him, old man," she continued.

The pendant hummed. D didn't say anything and even if he did Mom wouldn't be able to hear him. But I guess she didn't need to.

She smiled. "So, make any new friends?"

I smiled and thought for a moment. "...yeah."

…that isn't to say this place was without any mystery…

Despite it being a summer camp, I couldn't help but notice it occasionally turned into a military base; plans were being made, conflicts were on the horizon. It seemed only a handful of people knew what was really going on but all of us were told enough to 'be prepared' as Chiron would say.

The nightmares weren't going away either. Each night they stayed the same, equally horrifying and disturbing. There seemed to be an unusual surge of these occurrences. The nights felt more restless and each morning, more and more people looked worse. Val looked like she got less and less sleep as well. I tried, again, talking to one of my siblings that I assumed were having the same nightmares but, again, they would just shrug it off. Eventually, small chatter started going around about these nightmares and things began to circulate. There were mentions of people re-living moments from the Battle of Manhattan in their dreams, people waking up in the middle of the night. There were even talks of people feeling demoralized from it all. I heard one person even contemplated just leaving after not being able to handle all the pressure. I didn't blame them, those visions were awful and I couldn't imagine how worse it would be for someone who was actually there. And I at least had D to snap me out of it. I imagined it was also the combination of being haunted by those memories along with having to deal with a new war fast approaching.

Some word of this got to people like Chiron and Annabeth who did their best to help console some of the campers. However, nothing was major enough to garner any real counter-action it would seem. There were bigger things to worry about, I suppose. Still, I didn't like it. Something was going on. Also, the more I heard about it, it was clear that people re-lived their nightmarish moments but for some reason, I seemed to re-live memories from the opposing side, which was a worrying thought to say the least. Though, I made sure to keep that detail to myself; I didn't want anybody getting the wrong ideas.

One morning, Flip and I were doing some training when I decided to bring it up.

"Everybody has nightmares, Arthur," he said. "It's probably nothing."

"But why am I having them too?"

"You're a demigod, now. Expect weird shit to happen."

"But the same ones every time? I mean… the Battle of Manhattan? I wasn't even there."

Flip stopped. He lowered the training sword which in turn made me stop as well. He blinked a few times.

"I don't know, Arthur," he finally said. "There's a lot going on right now. Gaea, Olympus, the giants, the prophecy. It's better to not overthink it."

It was clear he wanted to move on but I couldn't help myself. "You know, all of you are so focused on the next big catastrophe, but from the looks of things you haven't even recovered from the previous one."

He didn't say anything.

I pressed on. "What about you? Do you have nightmares?"

"Like I said, Arthur, expect weird shit to happen." Flip raised his sword and got into a fighting stance. "Now, come on; let's go again."

Later that night, I tried going to sleep but I just didn't want to. I knew I would have to face those nightmares again and I really wasn't in the mood. Instead I stayed up for as long as I could, staring into the dark ceiling of Cabin 5. Usually at this time the cabin was dead silent, with occasional snoring here and there, but this time I heard strange scratching noises coming from the bunk below me. As I peered over my bed, I could make out the silhouette of Sherman carving a line into the stone with his knife alongside the many others that covered the wall. He seemed to have noticed me and stopped.

"Can't sleep?" He looked up at me.

"Don't want to," I replied. I jumped down as quietly as possible so I was at ground level with Sherman. He shimmied over to one side of the bed leaving a space for me to sit.

"I'm assuming you're getting those nightmares as well?" he asked.

"Yeah. You?"

The two of us spoke softly so as not to wake the others.

Sherman shook his head. "No, and thank the gods. I've had enough reminders."

"It can't be normal, right?" I said to him.

He shrugged. "My grandfather had PTSD from the second World War. The nightmares never stopped for him."

"But we're all just kids, to have to live through something like that…"

"We're children of the gods, Arthur," he said, "'normal' stopped applying from the day we were born."

I let those words sink in my mind for a moment. All of a sudden the reality of being a demigod grew darker. I felt like when others said stuff like that before it was almost like a joke, like a 'whoops, it is what it is!'. But this time, it just felt sad.

I looked over at the carved lines on Sherman's wall. "And those?"

He let out a sharp breath of air. "Each one marks a day since the battle. That's actually where I got this knife, if you were wondering."

He showed me the blade in his hand. As seen before, there was nothing special about it. No celestial bronze or greek symbols. Just a simple combat knife, a black blade on a dark green hilt and a serrated edge.

"It belonged to a demigod," he began. "She was fighting for the 'other side'."

I stared down at the knife. "What happened to her?"

Sherman quickly tucked the knife away back under his pillow. "Well, it was either her or me, and we were at war… what do you think happened?"

I could tell that was a question that didn't need to be answered. I let him continue.

"That was the first demigod I ever had to fight for real. Not a monster, but a half-blood; our blood."

The cabin fell quiet once more. I felt a miniscule hum from the pendant that subtely vibrated on my chest. I could sense D listening and watching intently but he didn't say a word.

"You know I heard about that one kid that thought about leaving," Sherman spoke, "and I started thinking. Don't get me wrong, I love it here. The friends, the action. I don't even have anything against the gods, really. But after everything we see, the quests, the death, the messed up families, the neverending impending doom; why don't we leave? What's stopping us? And then I realize… where else can we go?"

I just sat there, not really sure what to say. I just watched as Sherman gazed into the floor.

"Woah." He chuckled slightly as if to shake himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get all deep and dark there."

"No, you're fine," I assured him.

"Eh, that sappy talk makes me want to hit something… but thanks anyways, for listening."

"Of course, man."

"As for the nightmare situation; you're better off talking to someone like Chiron about it. Though there's a lot of hectic things going on right now with the prophecy and all that."

"So I've been told," I sighed.

There was another moment of silence as the two of us listened to the Ares cabin, fast asleep.

"You know, my grandad fought in the second World War as well," I noted, "maybe they fought together."

"Maybe…" he entertained the thought. "Mine probably outranked yours."

We struggled to keep it down as the two of us shared that moment.

"You should get some sleep," Sherman said with a hint of glee in his eyes, "because tomorrow's a big day."

"Remind me again?"

"Capture the Flag."

The whole camp huddled at the center of all the cabins as Chiron trotted around the outside, talking with some of the head counselors. The more and more I heard people talk anxiously about the game, the more I regretted trying to stay up as long as possible like I did last night. In the end, it didn't matter anyway. I ended up naturally dozing off and the nightmares still had their fun. All it did was just make me extra tired.

I stood among my fellow Ares cabin who definitely looked more excited than some others. Whilst paying attention to Chiron, I subtly scanned the rest of the crowd to see if I could spot either Val or Flip.. I didn't have enough time to find them however, as Chiron hushed the chatter of the mingling demigods. Everyone was silent as they listened to the centaur speak.

"As many of you know, today is Friday. Which means…"

"CAPTURE THE FLAG!" Mark, my half-brother, screamed.

In response, the whole audience of campers erupted as I saw Chiron looked like he had given up.

"Announce the teams!" another voice shouted.

"Yes, I was getting to that," Chiron quickly shot back. The crowd fell silent again. We all watched as he scanned the sea of heads, before pulling out a piece of parchment from one of his vest pockets. He then took out what looked to be makeshift reading glasses as he took a few coughs to gather himself.

"Now, for the teams," he began. "For the Blue Team: Hermes, Aphrodite, Athena, Dionysus, Hypnos, Nemesis, Hebe and Iris…"

As he called out the teams, groups started shifting as some campers gave each other high-fives whilst others looked a little disappointed.

"...for the Red Team: Ares, Demeter, Apollo, Nike, Zeus, Tyche, Hecate and Hephaestus. Now, I'm sure you all know the rules…"

Sherman was gracious enough to explain them all to me. Gotta say; it's a pretty violent rendition of the usual summer pastime. That could be just his interpretation though.

"...retrieve your necessary equipment, get acquainted with your teammates and gather outside the forest in 30 minutes."

The whole camp couldn't get anymore pumped up then that. It didn't take too long to get geared up. I went with the Ares cabin to the armory and began picking out my armor and weapons. Some took swords, others grabbed quivers of arrows. Other things I always noticed when I checked out the armory; the camp kept a rack of shotguns in the back. A few Mossbergs, a couple of Remingtons. Nobody used them of course. When I asked why, it was mainly because they were unnecessary and pretty clunky. Celestial bronze bullets weren't exactly cost-efficient either. Still, I always found it interesting that we still had them.

Naturally, I went for the spear in which Dienekes was very pleased. I already got the shield covered. I strapped on my breastplate, grabbed my helmet and started walking towards the forest. I noticed that Sherman didn't bring a helmet compared to the rest.

"Don't like'em," he told me, "they block my vision too much."

"Is that why you got that scar on your face?"

"You're funny."

On the way there, I met up with Flip who was more than happy to be on the same team as me. To be honest, I was pretty relieved as well. He wasn't wearing his typical denim jacket and had tied up his hair into a short ponytail. He didn't bring a sword or any spear, but instead had tucked a dagger away in a sheath on his lower back. If you looked at him from the front, you would've assumed he was unarmed. With one arm he pumped his fist in the air and the other, slung it across my shoulders with a big whoop.

"First time is always the most memorable, slick. How you feelin'?"

I looked around at the wave of campers all in their armor, swords at their sides with their shields presented which instilled in me a surge of energy. I surprised myself with how hyped I was getting. I just imagined the all-out battle, the clashing of steel and the roaring cries no doubt coming from my cabin. There was an air of adrenaline that I couldn't shake.

"Ready," I replied.

The smile on Flip's face grew wider. "Good, then we're going to have lots of fun."

"Val's on the other team too." He rubbed his palms together. "She always said she could beat me in a fight, I said I could beat her in a fight. We've never had the chance since we've always been on the same team but now? Now I get to kick her ass."

I just laughed at the absurdity of it all. "You two need help."

"It's just a friendly little rivalry."

"Friendly?"

"Potayto, Potahto"

And I thought I got pretty competitive.

"And thank Zeus, we have the Hephaestus cabin on our side," he said, "because those traps of theirs are not fun."

Now, that was something I didn't share in his excitement with.

Oh, I think the guys in the Hephaestus cabin are great. I'm just on a 50/50 about whether a particular Hephaestus member absolutely hates my guts. I can probably just avoid him the entire game, right? The forest is a big place anyways. I'm sure it'll be fine.

It wasn't long until everyone made it to the edges of the forest. Funnily enough, the meeting point was just next to the stables; the same place I ran into the forest the first time. Chiron, as usual, stood at the entrance waiting for the rest of us to settle down. It also looked like we weren't the only ones that geared up as Chiron had seemed to add extra pouches and satchels to his person. I caught a glimpse of the Hermes cabin as we were all waiting, spotting Val among them. She had taken off her vest and camp shirt, only wearing her black compression shirt underneath her armor as she held her helmet at the side. Val seemed extra energetic today as well, like she just took 5 shots of espresso. She also looked like she carried a new sword with her which certainly looked unique from everyone else's. It must be the one she asked Jake to make.

I guess he did deliver on time.

I didn't have time to truly inspect it as I was caught off guard by the sudden absence of noise from the rowdy demigods. Chiron began to speak once more.

The game was about to begin.