AN: I know, I know… how long has it truly been since you've last heard from me, your beloved author?
Yes, I love writing and reading just as much as your favorite author. But I like money just as much and I do this shit for free. All you gotta know is I've got a full time job now and I'm writing on the weekends.
No, this chapter wasn't just lying around somewhere waiting to be published, if you must know right after I posted last my life dramatically changed and I'm finally settling into some normalcy after two years.
TWO YEARS, holy shit yall. Some of yall now have two year old children maybe, or two year relationships. Some of y'all might have even fallen in love and got married in the span of this break. I'm typing on a new laptop cause the other one i wrote this shit on got stolen out of my car, A LOT of shit has happened.
Anyways let's continue…
"Huh."
"Whaaaaaat, why would I do that? It's like I care for how you feel or something." Carmen said in a teasing tone. Her smile lit up the dark corners of my heart, places I didn't even know existed.
"Haha, you're too funny." I chuckled genuinely, but my voice cracked right as funny and now I'm hating that I'm sixteen.
"HENRY!" roared a deep masculine voice that made me shit my pants. I whirled around and saw Charlie himself in all of his dirty, smelly, and ashy glory. Storming up to me dragging the shiny bronze mace he gave me yesterday behind him.
"Wait, he actually is looking for you." Carmen spoke apologetically.
I straight up forgot that he had given me the mace, and now I see the angry expression on his face as he threw it at my feet, making a loud thump sound. The man looked like someone left his child out in the rain, which technically did happen.
"You forgot something in the woods," he said with some venom "You didn't even have the grace to transform it back into its smaller, more ideal form!"
"I'm sorry Charlie, I forgot that I had it." I replied honestly.
"Forgot…. FORGOT! Would you FORGET TO WIPE your ASS after taking a shit!?" he screamed shrilly, attracting a lot of attention from curious campers that were walking past.
"The ideal form is a twisted ugly chipped spoon? Even I could have come up with something better." Carmen came to my defense like a guardian angel.
"Is it ideal to drag around this heavy ass mace? NO. It can't even fit in your pocket, and that's magic weapons 101. A spoon even has multiple uses! In my experience making magic weapons, multiple uses is the trend!" Charlie complained.
"What do you mean in your experience? This is the only magic weapon that you've ever made. It was an epic failure, you even tried to destroy it." Carmen revealed
"That doesn't mean-" Charlie started ranting.
I soon got lost in my own thoughts after a while. I mean I see his reasoning, you can eat ice cream, soup, and cereal, all with your secret magic weapon. An idea that I could see having some merit, however the appeal of the spoon form is not a good one. It's all bent and twisted, it has dirt on it, it's chipped as fuck, and there are several holes in it, I wouldn't even eat anything with it. I mean imagine walking around with a spoon in your pocket, first off your pockets are never going to be deep enough, it's always going to be sticking out somewhat. And the indent in the jeans is undeniable. But on the other hand, imagine the mind fuck, I'm about to fight a guy and i pull out a spoon and he's all 'what are you gonna do with that thing? Scoop me?' and I'm all 'scoop deez nu-'
"Earth to Henry, hello are you in there?" Charles said as I came out of my brain, and the first thing I saw was Carmen's blushing face. I realized I had been staring directly into her eyes that whole time I was thinking.
"What?" i asked
"I said you don't deserve a weapon of this magnitude and technology." He started hotly, while pushing up his huge prescription glasses on his nose.
"Then take it back, I'll just use a regular sword." I responded annoyedly, I was warming up to the idea after thinking about it.
"I cannot." he said back. The anger contained somewhat.
"Why not?" I asked, my stomach rumbling. I'm just now reminded that I haven't eaten at all today. I'm craving pancakes.
"Because, it's yours now." he said simply.
"Well yeah you gave it to me. But now I'm giving it back." I replied, getting a little frustrated.
"It's not that simple Henry. Transforming a weapon is an intimate act, an act that you should not quickly forget." Charles said with his finger pointed in the air. Carmen actually made an agreeable nod, as if she found that statement sound.
"Intimate? It's not like I had sex with it." I said. This was a strange concept to me, three days ago a spoon was a spoon. It didn't transform into anything, and you could eat your wheaties like a normal person.
Charles gasped loudly and dramatically, like what I said was unforgivable. Carmen just shook her head disappointingly. I gave them both an incredulous look.
"Fine, fine. I'll use the spoon mace." I resigned reluctantly, I rolled my eyes as well.
What was so special about this thing?
I picked up the spoon mace again, I gave it a closer look. It was about the length of a baseball bat, but it was skinnier and way heavier than one. The whole thing was shiny and bronze, bar the handle that looked like it was wrapped with black electrical tape very poorly. On even closer inspection there were little scuffs and scratches and beauty marks on the shaft leading up to the huge ball tip. The spike ball end itself was not as shiny as the shaft but the spikes themselves were as sharp as hell, each point on the spikes met up at an impossibly small and sharp peak that the eye couldn't even see. It was impossibly dangerous. I turned it over and found some writing on the shaft in what looked like sharpie, it read: Barbarians Magic Wand!
I looked at Charlie with a questioning glance and pointed to the name. He saw what I was pointing at and let out a chuckle.
"Get it? Cause if a barbarian hits something with it it disappears! Well it doesn't disappear but you get the idea." Charles explained.
"Yes I do, it's actually very clever." I mused with a grin, that actually tickled something in my brain. I like this thing, it's very… medieval.
"I do believe that everyone is clever when they are sixteen and one half years of age. You also now know that you're holding the only magic weapon I've ever made." Charles said with some ambience.
"How do I get it to go back to the 'ideal shape again'?" I asked him
"You lean on it as if it was a cane." He responded with an epically wide smile.
"Ah I see." I was about to do it when I looked around and realized we had a circle of curious campers looking at us. I suddenly felt self aware, I didn't want to fall in front of these people.
…
"You do it." I told Charlie after a while trying to hand him the mace.
"I will not!" He responded with some heat, "Are you some sort of cuck?"
"Cuck?" I asked
"It doesn't matter. I tried it in the forest and it didn't work, so I'm pretty sure you have to do it." Charles said.
"Wait, you don't know? You made the thing." I retorted.
"It's probably a miss input or something, just try it." He shot back
…
"Actually I'm thinking that this is the ideal form." I responded after some time. I hefted it around and threw it up on my shoulder, god this thing is heavy.
Not giving Charles any time to respond I winked very coolly at Carmen and turned around and strutted away the way New Yorkers do.
"You're a coward Henry!" I heard Charlie yell after me as I walked away.
I can take that, I thought to myself. Charles and I are good buddies so I'll let that one slide. You wouldn't beat up someone who just gave you awesome armor and an awesome magic weapon.
I took a trip over to the cafeteria and grabbed some pancakes, literally. I grabbed them off of someone's plate and kept walking.
"Hey!" I heard a whiny boy voice behind me.
"Oghoghhh." I responded, my mouth full of dry pancakes.
I meant to say 'fuck off' but it had the same energy, he knew what I said.
I eventually ended up back at the Ares cabin after some time. I headed up to my room and decided to just get it over with, I leaned on the mace just like Charles said and it clanged to the ground as a small fucked up spoon. I also fell flat on my face with a loud whomp!
"Fuck." I whispered as I put the spoon in my pocket and hopped up. It was time to train, and this would take most of the day.
I quickly changed out of the groutfit and into some black shorts and a red short sleeve shirt and put on…
I don't have any shoes. I mean the ones that I do have are in tatters soooooo.
"Fuck." I said a little bit louder than last time.
"What's the problem?" Said a masculine voice in the crack of my bedroom doorway. I looked up and saw Mark's neanderthalic head poking through looking at me.
"I don't have shoes." I stated in a remorseful tone. Training would be much harder now
"What size?" I heard him rebut.
"Uh, 11s, why?" I responded.
"Mmhm." He responded and disappeared from the doorway. I heard heavy footsteps go down the hall and after a second they came back up.
Two old and dirt covered shoes were thrown at my feet, I could barely see the Nike emblem on the side of them. They looked like they were black but they were so muddy I couldn't tell.
"You're welcome." He said with a steely, unreadable, blank face. His face poking through the doorway once again. His glare bore holes through my head, he was looking directly through to my soul.
"Thanks Mark." I said nervously.
"We are brothers now, I would die for you." He said with the same tone he said everything in.
That took me back, a new warm feeling shot through my chest. I feel like I belong here, these people were cut from the same cloth as me. We were children of Ares, well big Henry but none of them knew Henry like I did. He was a father figure.
"I would do the same for you." I said with just as much vigor as he delivered.
What looked like the ghost of a smile appeared on his face, but I couldn't tell if he was smiling or not.
"How long have you had these?" I asked him. Trying to change the intense topic
"Oh those aren't mine, they've just been hanging out by the front of the house for a few months now. But they are size 11." He said, and that was the most words he's ever said to me.
I looked down at the muddy shoes and saw a small turtle shell poking out of the top of one of the shoes, it was completely hollow.
"Whose turtle was that?" I asked curiously
Another head poked through to the room, this time it was the face of Clarisse.
"About a year ago, Ellis found a turtle by the shore while he was training. He adored the thing and even named it." She spoke out with some effort like it was hard to say.
"His name was Maurice." Said a low masculine voice in the corner of the room before she could finish. Clarisse yelped and jumped out of her skin as she looked over and saw Ellis.
"Where did you come from?" I asked him, a bit scared as well.
"I was here the whole time, I just wanted to talk to you Henry." He responded quietly.
Ellis himself looked like he had been through hell trying to say those words, tears streamed down his face. He loved Maurice, that much was obvious.
"I'm sorry, I thought you were out training." Clarisse stammered out.
"I finished an hour ago, now I have to go through this hell once again. I told you to give him a proper burial. YOU PUT HIM IN THE SHOE!? HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN THERE? How many times did I walk past his rotting corpse?" He yelled in agony, more tears streamed down his face.
A long silence followed his words, until Macy trudged in the room. She was still in her sports bra and pjs from this morning. Her hair was a rat's nest and a messy bun all in one. I watched with tension as she calmly walked over to Ellis. She then wrapped him in a big bear hug, and you could see the tension leaving him. His shoulders slumped as he hugged her back. They have a real sibling bond, Macy seems like the glue that keeps this group together.
"I'm sorry." He said in a calm tone, to everyone in the room, Macy was still latched onto his midsection like her life depended on it.
A series of 'it's ok' to 'we understand' echoed throughout the room. A real sibling moment just happened, I love these people.
"Babooshka." Mark muttered.
"Shut it Markypoo, or your next." Macy responded with her eyes closed.
"I've gotta run guys, I've got to train." I said suddenly breaking the ice, as I respectfully took the empty shell of Maurice out of the shoe and gave it to Ellis. All this love was still a foreign concept and it made me uncomfortable.
"Oh that's what I wanted to talk to you about Henry, I overheard you guys with Luke this morning and I want to train with you too." He said with some effort, the girl below was still squeezing the life out of him.
Ellis turned to Clarisse and gave her a look, she nodded.
"Macy, I think he's ok now." Said Clarisse. But Macy seemed to be in her own world giving all of her love into that hug.
Suddenly Clarisse jumped out from the doorway and ended up right behind Macy. She flashed me a thumbs up and gave me a grin filled with mischief. She then took the thumb and shoved it into Macy's crack. The girl jumped out of her skin and into the air. It was like watching a cartoon, and they were the characters.
"Larry that hurt, you bitch!" She screamed as she gave chase to the cackling dark haired girl that ran down the hallway and out the cabin.
Mark let out a giggle as he walked down to the main room of the cabin.
"Anyways about what I said." Ellis said again, he put the shell of Maurice in his pocket.
"Let me take a look at you." I said, standing up. He walked from the corner of my room to in front of me.
Ellis was tall and skinny with wiry muscle. He had really long arms and broad shoulders with big hands. He was also dark skinned, and his head was as bald as one of those hairless cats you see running around. He looked to be about middle weight. But what really grabbed me was the look in his eyes. The look said that he had to get stronger; he practically yearned for it. I could work with this.
"I can train you, but you gotta put in the work." I said sagely.
"Of course Henry! Thanks man!" He said, smiling as ran out of the room.
"We start early as fuck tomorrow!" I shouted after him.
A distant ok was returned.
"Doesn't even know what he's getting himself into." I thought out loud as I pulled on the muddy shoes and ran outside to start my workout.
I started by running around the camp like 4 times which was far as fuck around 3 miles or something. Then I stopped next to the huge arena and did 200 burpees not in a row but I did 50 then 50 and did that again. At this point I'm out of breath and sweaty as hell.
"Time for 1000 squats." I said to myself. This task in itself would take hours. As soon as I started, I saw a familiar toothy grin in front of me. One of the brothers.
"Which one are you?" I grunted out, I had lost count of my squats at this point.
"Travis." The twin said, his grin apparently permanent.
"What do you want?" I grumbled while still exercising.
"I just want to say that Luke doesn't represent all of us in the Hermes cabin, me and my boy notice what you're doing here and we appreciate it." Travis stated while grinning.
"Quit talking in circles." I grunted annoyed at the antics.
"You've dethroned the top dog brother." Said a voice behind me, another grinning face. The same grinning face, they had the same smile but Conner was missing one tooth in the corner of his smile.
"This isn't a prison guys, everyone's free here." I said out loud like it was obvious.
"They are now thanks to you sir." Said the still brother in front of me.
"We are forever grateful brother." Said the twin behind me.
"Please get away from me while I'm doing squats." I warned politely
Why do I have to now deal with tweetledee and tweetledum.
AN: how's that huh, a bright chapter in a bleak time.
Off the dome too, how do ya like that?
I hope I brought y'all some joy, talk to ya later :)