New chapter here it goes.
Chapter 22: Claiming time
Artemis's Pov
" Why do you have to make it so ominous," Nico asked. " What! It is called a creator's license. They can do anything." Percy replied. "And the Chapter ends. Now who will read the next one." Aunt Demeter asked. " I will…" I said taking the book. I am very excited to know more about this daughter of Sea. After all Uncle Poseidon has been my favourite uncle for a long time. Although I have never said it aloud to not hurt my favourite sister Athena. But deep down, she still cares for him even if she never expresses it. Hmmm! I should also look for her potential as a huntress. After all, she is the daughter of Sea and everyone knows how strong Pallas and Rhodes were.
WE CAPTURE A FLAG
"NO!" Andrew and Clarisse both shouted. "Milady can we just skip this chapter," Andrew said politely and Clarisse nodded. "No Lady Artemis, you should definitely read this chapter." Percy, the sons of Apollo and Hermes and Grover smirked at the son of Athena and Daughter of Ares with worried expressions. Everyone looked confusedly at them. "Why, Can we not read this chapter, Andrew?" Aunt Hestia asks him. "We should definitely read this chapter. It is when I was claimed." Percy replies teasingly. Andrew glares at her but relents in the end and says, "Fine! But remember the fates have declared not to maim or hurt anyone." He says looking pointedly at the Sea family. "Why? What did you do to our Percy?" Triton thunders angrily. "Just read the book." He replies.
The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.
"That is quite normal for a demigod." Apollo comments.
Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Andrew, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.
"You will get used to it!" Frank replied.
I discovered Andrew was right about my dyslexia:
"Of course he was right. He is always right!" Will exclaimed.
Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.
"It is still a headache." She added.
The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,
"Were you any good?" Apollo asks her only to get a no in reply.
but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.
"You forgot to mention that Chiron was standing right behind you," Will tells us laughing alongside other demigods while Poseidon's daughter blushed.
Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.
"Of course", they do!" Hera scathed. That woman can turn even the nectar into poison.
But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.
All the male gods turned red at that while everyone else simply laughed.
And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me. "There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.
"Yeah, there is!" Ares cheered his daughter who blushed.
The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.
"Your arrogance is something!" Herakles sneers at her. "At least I am strong enough to give others the respect and credit they deserve." She taunts back. He stands up ready to attack her when Father puts his hand on his shoulder to stop him. He avoids eye contact with the daughter of Poseidon. I have noticed that other than Poseidon and Hestia, all the older gods have not yet met her eyes. What are they hiding? I think.
I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it.
"When have you ever given anyone an easy time?" Grover asks her. "Where is fun in that?" She replies smirking at Andrew. I glare at Andrew.
I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
"Is he trying to insult me?" Hermes asks confused.
But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.
"We still don't." Jason teases her.
Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.
"You found your hearth, Percy!" Aunt Hestia smiled.
I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back. . . .
"Why do you always have a death wish, Perce?" Nico said hiding his face in his hands.
I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?
I look at Uncle Poseidon, who seemed electrocuted by those words. Poor uncle. He did so much for us yet his first daughter is saying such things about him. I hope she understands our situation.
Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?
Now most gods and goddesses who had children looked ashamed of themselves.
Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.
"Why was he the instructor?" Frank scowls at the book.
We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good. The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands.
"You must be very good with a sword if you can feel the difference," Perseus claims.
Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.
We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time. "Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."
Hermes beamed proudly.
"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said. The camper snorted. Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!
My 'protector of maiden' side tells me to protect the young demigoddess but the sensible side argues that being the first daughter of Poseidon must learn how to protect herself.
By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same. Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms.
"If you can feel better with only plain water. Assume what seawater would do to you. " Theseus exclaims.
The sword didn't feel so awkward. "Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded. The Hermes kids gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag.
Jason, Nico, Frank and Reyna frown at that.
He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon. "This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."
"It saved my life numerous times." Percy nods making others gap at her.
He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand. "Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?" I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face.
We all shifted in our seats excited.
His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force. The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck? I tried the disarming maneuver.
"Did it work?" Jason asks.
My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust. Clang. Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.
Everyone cheered for the Percy.
The other campers were silent. I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" Hephaestus asks.
For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. "Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted. This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.
"If you can do so much with an unbalanced sword. Think what you will do with a good one!" I add.
After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?" Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword. . . ." Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat,
"That is because he is goat boy." Thalia teases the satyr.
but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.
Sally winces.
We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D. His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.
Hermes and Pan glare at Dionysus.
"Fine," he said. "Just great." "So your career's still on track?" He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"
"What is a searcher's licence?" Hermes asks. No one answers him.
"Well . . . no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know . . . and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"
"I hope so too. It was not your fault the daughter of Poseidon is so stubborn." Pan glares at the said girl.
Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."
"That sounds easy, right?" Reyna asks only to get no answers.
My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?" "Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest . . . and even if you did, why would you want me along?"
"Why wouldn't she? You are her best friend." Katie exclaims.
"Of course I'd want you along!" Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving . . . Must be nice to have a useful skill."
"You need more cereal, Satyr." You can guess which of my aunt would have said that.
I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods.
All of us were offended. "What do you mean 'Pros and cons of different gods?" Stepmother asks. "You know, like what will be good and bad habits I will inherit if I am a daughter of a certain god or goddess. Like for dad, I can control water in all its forms, and create earthquakes but I am also a bit impulsive- " "A bit" "Ok a lot impulsive and hate to be confined ." Percy finishes. Poseidon was looking at her with pride.
Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins. "Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."
"I would not!" I exclaim. "So you would not mind if my kids use it for extra space?" Apollo asks teasingly. "No, it is for my huntresses when they stay at the camp." I bristle.
"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?" Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job.
"Which he is very good at." Hera has that ever-present scowl on her face.
When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos." "Zeus, Poseidon, Hades." "Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what." "Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld." "Uh-huh."
"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."
"Of course, I don't. My children and I were never welcome on the Olympus." Uncle Hades grumbled.
"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either.
"Now you do. " Nico says proudly. Uncle Hades eyes popped out. "So does Lady Hestia" "Oh my!" She says surprised. We are also surprised since Aunt herself had forgone taking the throne in the past and giving it to Dionysus. "Who did that?" Aunt Demeter asks finally. "Percy, who else!" Everyone turns to the blushing girl.
He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here . . ." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."
"Don't feel bad about it. Grover had some reservations about you in the past." Andrew replies to Uncle Hades's glare.
"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"
"That is a million drachmas question!" Asclepius asks.
Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."
Again silence reigns in the room as we take in the situation. That is what Sally meant when she said Uncle not wanting Percy.
Thunder boomed. I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make." Grover nodded. "And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"
"I can see at least five in this room, so I would say No!"
Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia . . .
Everyone turns at Thalia.
well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter." "But that isn't fair! It wasn't the little girl's fault."
"It doesn't matter whose fault it was, breaking an oath that serious means you should be prepared for the consequences." Athena notes
Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia.
"Brother, why are you punishing a child for her parent's sins?" Aunt Hestia asks. Uncle Hades bows his head. "It is not his fault. Not entirely! Lord Zeus wasn't nice to Nico's mother either." Percy defends him making him and Uncle Poseidon smile while Father looks in the other direction.
A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill." He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."
Silence reigns in the room for the third time. I can't help but feel proud of my half-sister and her bravery. "But how are you alive?" Apollo asks stupidly. She points at the book.
I stared at the pine in the distance. The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters.
"Don't even dare!" Thalia says angrily while Percy looks down.
Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?
A slap sound resonates in the room. I look up to see Percy holding her face looking angrily at Thalia who was steaming. "Why did you slap me?" Percy says angrily standing up. Grover quickly holds Percy while Jason does the same to his sister. "To get you out of self-pity, Kelp face." She says only to get blasted by cold water from a nearby fountain. Thalia angrily electrocutes Percy. "Stop it! Both of you." Piper tries to charmspeak but it doesn't work on either of the girls.
I groan mentally. If they are as bad as their fathers, then this argument can be very dangerous. We gods stood up to intervene when Andrew stood between them and said. "Shut it! What are you both even fighting about? Yes, Thals sacrificed herself. But she had to live a tree's life. Can you live like that? Saving your mum only to lose your life." "No, but… Ugh, I hate it when you are right!" Percy says frustrated. "Which I always am!" He shoots back.
"And Thalia! You should understand she was grieving. Perce loves her family more than anything. She is ready to go to the underworld for her mum, the second she found out about her Greek heritage." Jason tries to console his sister. "Yes, but she is not allowed to do these kinds of stupidity. I as daughter of king of gods forbid her." Thalia says with tears in her eyes. Percy rushes to hug her while my heart swells up. It reminds me of myself and Athena.
We were always close to each other, more so because we were maiden goddesses who always got our father's love more than his other children. It always made us a target of Hera's and our other half sisters' ridicule. Until the fateful day, Uncle Poseidon saved us and even invited us to stay with him underwater. Those were some of our best days, playing and chatting. I smile remembering those days.
"Earth to Arty!" Apollo shook me out of my thoughts. I looked back to see everyone had taken their seats and were looking at me so I complied.
"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?" "Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini." "And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" "No. Never. Orpheus came close. . . . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—" "No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So . . . a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?" Grover studied me warily.
"Almost fooled me," Grover said sarcastically.
I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."
"Which some do!" Chris says jokingly pointing at Percy. "That's like Pot calling the kettle black."
"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special." Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't . . . Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"
"Nemesis is a goddess. We would know that." Leo says glumly.
I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me. That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. At last, it was time for capture the flag.
The Roman demigods shifted forward in anticipation.
When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables. Campers yelled and cheered as Andrew and two of his siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.
Athena and Ares looked at each other smirking.
I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?" "Yeah." "Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" "Not always," he said. "But often."
Now they looked proud.
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"
"That is a genuine question?" Theseus asks.
He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one." "Whose side are we on?" He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.
All the Greek demigods except Leo and Piper shuddered.
"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."
"How is she going to help? She is going to play it for the first time." Theseus frowns
The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.
"I can understand that Hermes cabin hosts all the minor gods as well as unclaimed children but Apollo?" I ask him as he blushes.
Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support. Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.
"I don't know whether to be happy or angry at you?" Dionysus muses.
Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive.
"If only you knew." Travis makes a face while Katie looks proud.
Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.
Piper hits her forehead while Aphrodite is checking her nails.
Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.
"Hell yeah!" Leo shouts.
That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.
Clarisse looks annoyed.
Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "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!" He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, ox hide shields coated in metal.
"That sounds a lot like war games." Reyna says interested.
"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?" Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol." My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds.
"That's because you were scrawny." Andrew teases her. I do not like Athena's son's attitude towards her. He can be a hindrance to Percy joining the hunt.
I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes. Andrew yelled, "Blue team, forward!" We cheered and shook our swords and followed him down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north. I managed to catch up with Andrew without tripping over my equipment. "Hey." he kept marching. "So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?" His hand drifted toward his pocket, as if he were afraid I'd stolen something.
Everyone looks at Andrew accusingly. He puts his hands in surrender and says "Hey! I didn't know her parentage."
"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you.
"That sounds so wrong." Nico snickers.
Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?" "Border patrol, whatever that means." "It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."
"Yeah! When do they not?" Conner asks sarcastically.
He pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust. "Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team." It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Andrew stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then he and the rest of the team scattered into the trees. Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball. There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?
The demigods snorted at that.
Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory. Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.
"I wish I wouldn't have thought that!" Percy winces.
Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by. I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.
Sally tightens her grip on Percy's hand.
Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.
Uncle Poseidon sighed in relief.
On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded.
"WHAT!" everyone shouted.
Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. "Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed. Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.
Sally looked like she would puke but held back.
They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.
"That is against the war etiquette." Poseidon frowns knowing having been the chief strategist during the Titans war. Athena nods along with him.
I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned. Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric.
"Now, that's my type of fun." Thalia rubs her hands.
I fell back. Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt. They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.
I can feel my powers activating when seeing a maiden in trouble.
"Give her a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab her hair."
"NO!" Andrew shouts then blushes and says, "She has very nice hair."
I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb. "Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this girl. Really scared." "The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way. "Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a girl who made our cabin look stupid."
"Please tell me you kept your mouth shut." Hazel worries. "Two words- Not possible!" Percy smirks.
"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.
"Probably!" Reyna adds yet she was smiling at her friend's boldness.
Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-sized cut. Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.
The sea family winced.
"No maiming," I managed to say. "Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege." He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened.
They took a sigh of relief knowing water was her turf.
The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans. Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water. Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.
"Woohoo!" "Go Percy!" "Show them who's the boss!" Everyone cheered except Clarisse.
"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"
"Nah! That would be Nico." Thalia smirks.
She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek. Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.
"Go, Luke!" Hermes and Pan cheers but his demigods kids remain unnaturally silent.
The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. "A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick." They staggered after Luke, but it was too late.
Realization sets in the room as everyone turns towards Andrew who is squirming in his seat.
Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn. The game was over. We'd won. I was about to join the celebration when Andrew's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero." I looked, but he wasn't there. "Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" he asked. The air shimmered, and he materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if he'd just taken it off his head.
"So it was a trick to lure the Ares cabin into distracting and attacking Percy while you got their flag," Athena asks impressed. Andrew nods half proud worried at uncle's reaction. Even he looked impressed with Athena's son's plan.
I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out." Andrew shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan." "A plan to get me pulverized."
"That was wrong, since if she was not a daughter of Poseidon, she would be badly hurt by now," I tell him.
"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but . . ." he shrugged. "You didn't need help." Then he noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?" "Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?" "No. It was a sword cut. Look at it." The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading.
"Time for claiming, baby!" Apollo says rubbing his hand.
As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared. "I—I don't get it," I said. Andrew was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning.
"I am not a machine."
He looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy." "What—" "Just do it." I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Andrew steadied me. "Oh, Styx," he cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want . . . I assumed it would be Zeus. . . ."
"Why me!" Father thunders. "You already have broken your oath one time so I assumed.." Andrew defends.
Before I could ask what he meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.
Tension rose again.
The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!" Andrew drew his sword. There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. It was looking straight at me.
Uncle's breath hitched.
Nobody moved except Andrew, who yelled, "Percy, run!" He tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over him—an enormous shadow with teeth— and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other.
"NOOOO!" Uncle, Triton and his stepbrothers stood up very fast, their combined power making waves in all the water bodies from Olympus to the underworld. Sally on the other hand held Percy in her arms with Penny squished in between them.
From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.
Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat. Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim. "Di immortales!" Andrew said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't . . . they're not supposed to . . ."
Everyone was glaring at Uncle Hades.
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone. Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"
Now they turned to Ares' daughter in astonishment.
"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her. We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared. "You're wounded," Andrew told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."
"YES DO AS HE SAYS." Uncle Poseidon says worriedly drenching his daughter with water. Thalia laughs hysterically while Percy looks at her father incredulously. "Daaad! What did you drench me for?" He looks at her sheepishly and dries her.
"I'm okay." "No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this." I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me. Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped. "Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry. . . ."
"Why do you keep on apologizing?" Franks asks.
But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head. "Percy," Andrew said, pointing. "Um . . ." By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident. "Your father," Andrew murmured. "This is really not good."
"Considering the circumstances, I have to agree with Andrew here," Amphitrite says sadly.
"Impossible," Chiron muttered. Then he took a deep breath and announced "It is determined!" All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it. "My father?" I asked, completely bewildered. "Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Penelope Persis Jackson, Daughter of the Sea God."
"And the chapter ends!" I say. "Can we read another chapter before going to sleep," Percy asks her father with pleading eyes. He looks helpless and nods. "I will read next." He says taking the book from me.
One more chapter before the sneak peek chapter.