Chapter 29 Curses
Brice's POV
I looked up from my lap to see how the new girl would react to Savanna's statement. And despite the topic of conversation being a serious one, I had to work hard to not laugh. Her mouth was slightly open and her eyes were as big as a dracma. But the funny thing was that she was so still that if someone told me that cabin eleven had found a magic TV remote and hit pause, I would have believed it. The thought, while funny, brought back some bad memories from the war, and suddenly I didn't have to work as hard to not smile. While I was thinking, Sarah apparently got over her initial shock, as her next comment was probably louder than intended.
"What do you mean no one was considered too young to fight!? You're not saying that you two actually… How old are you?!"
This time I heard myself replying as memories which I had tried to forget tugged at my thoughts.
"We were the youngest of those who fought in the Battle of Manhattan. We were twelve at the time with one year of training."
Sarah opened and closed her mouth though no words came out, so Savanna picked up where I left off.
"The older campers did their best to keep us off the front line of fighting. But by the third day of combat, too many were down with serious injuries or.. or dead, so we didn't have much of an option to avoid fighting at the front."
I nodded, saying,
"But at least we had a full year of training… that's more than some of those who fought in the Battle of the Labyrinth can say."
We sat in silence quietly fidgeting for a long time as she soaked in our words. In the stillness we could still hear Percy arguing with Blackjack, albeit faintly. Finally Sarah asked in voice barely above a whisper,
"What happened at the Battle of the Labyrinth?"
I shrugged as Savanna answered.
"We don't really know. Brice and I arrived about a week after it happened, and the other campers refused to talk about it. But I don't blame them, seeing as it was the first major battle in the Titan war."
Lowering my voice I added,
"But they say that the land on which the Battle was fought is now cursed."
Sarah leaned forward, her eyes dark with uneasy curiosity as she repeated my last word in a whisper.
"Cursed?"
Nodding, I said,
"To this very day nothing will grow in that clearing, even though the battle took place three years ago today."
Sarah appeared unsettled, but Savanna looked at me with a startled expression as she spoke.
"It's June 16th already?"
"Yep."
"So you're telling me that we are supposed to play Capture the flag in the woods tonight on the three year anniversary of the Battle of the Labyrinth?"
"Yep."
"Nope, not happening, I'm opting out."
Sarah seemed even more unsettled as Savanna
continued to object while beginning to climb down from the loft.
"I refuse, there's no way I'm going into those woods tonight. See you guys later, l have to tell my counselor that they are going to be one short for the game tonight."
After she disappeared Savanna looked at me with a silent question. I shrugged helplessly as I tried to explain.
"Savanna is extremely superstitious; she believes that it's bad luck to be in a place on the anniversary of a bad event."
Sarah nodded slowly saying,
"What about you?"
Puzzled, I asked,
"What? What about me?"
"Do you think it's bad luck to go into the woods tonight?"
"No, I don't think so. For the most part I think she's just superstitious… though I do believe that the clearing is cursed."
Sarah pursed her lips considering something; she seemed pretty deep in thought, so I decided to slip away quietly and leave her to think. She seemed to be troubled by something and I figured some alone time might help her begin to sort out her thoughts. Besides, I had the feeling that not all her thoughts had to do with our conversation. I'm not entirely sure why, but I had a premonition that she could also be having some... relationship issues, and that those issues could somehow be a big deal. As a son of Aphrodite, I was usually good at discerning stuff like that, though it did help that I had already heard all the rumors. Like the little story she told Nico and Will was far too convenient for the mysterious boyfriend not to be a Half-Blood. Besides, how hard is it really for an... experienced demigod to forge a god's handwriting. But as curious as I was, I knew that then was not the time to ask my own questions. But that didn't mean I wouldn't pry later. All these thoughts were still running through my head when I stepped out of the stables and into the warm sunlight of a late summer morning. I started walking in some random direction when a hand rough as an emery board landed lightly on my shoulder. Turning, I found myself looking up at none other than my sword instructor.
"Hi Percy, what can I do for you?"
He smiled friendly enough, but there was a glint in his eyes that told me something was up. That glint was enough to make me a little nervous and I had to resist the temptation to fidget with my shirt hem. Now, I know Percy, maybe not well but I knew it was ridiculous that he made me so nervous. It's just that when a literal living legend walks up and is like,
"Hey Brice, can I talk to you for a minute?"
It just makes me uncomfortable. Nevertheless I agreed, cuz what else do you do? Percy walked towards the shade of a tree gesturing for me to follow. Once we were out of the sun he glanced around and asked,
"What happened in there, before I came in? Blackjack is talking complete nonsense,and I want an unbiased opinion."
I shifted uncomfortably before replying,
"I don't know Percy. Savanna and I were passing by when we heard the commotion. When we ran in, Blackjack was still in his stall but freaking out. Savanna tried to calm him down but he let himself out and cornered us."
"That's all you know?"
I nodded,
"Yeah, sorry I can't be of more help."
"Don't worry about it, I was just hoping… never mind don't worry about it. Have a good rest of your day."
Percy shoved his hands into his pockets and walked off without another word. I watched him go as a greater feeling of unease settled over me. A cloud passed over the sun making the landscape darker, and a shiver ran down my spine. Something was going to happen, it was just a matter of time. Then the sun emerged from behind the clouds and my sense of foreboding dissipated with the shadows.
Author's note…
Hi everyone, thanks so much for reading and commenting on my story. I love reading all the wonderful things you leave for me in the comment section. I hope you're enjoying this story as much as I am, but with other news I wanted to take some time to explain why my chapters are as short as they are. First let me say thank you for wanting longer chapters in the first place and I understand that it can be hard to connect with characters when the chapter is so short. But on the other hand I mostly have short chapters cuz like many PJO Characters I'm very ADHD. That coupled with my extreme dyslexia makes it tricky for me to focus on words for a long period of time. Not only that but shorter chapters make me feel like I'm actually making progress which means a lot when you're easily distracted. Besides I have noticed that if I do anything for too long I start to get sloppy especially when it comes to writing and the long time gymnast/coach in me is always saying quality over quantity. Which leads me to why my upload schedule is non-existent… (Sorry about that by the way.) See I hate plot holes so I do my best not to have any, which sometimes means that when I run into a problem it can take me a few days to figure it out to avoid the plot hole which means I'm racking my brain for a solution instead of writing. On top of that I'm also a gymnastics coach and I have to get my team ready for competition meaning my free time is limited. Anyway this note is getting longer than planned so to sum it up. Thanks for reading, sorry about the short chapters and non-existent upload schedule. :)