•as the world caves in•

•sword fighting is percys new passion•

It had been a few days since Percy got his tour.

Me and Annabeth would help him with Ancient Greek. She did more the language, I did more the stories.

Percy was making progress. He could read lines of Homer slightly, still stumbled a little, and he would reference gods and goddesses in present tense, not past.

The rest of the time, we'd all go off to do our own things. Percy would go around trying to find something he was good at, and I would train with Luke, where Annabeth would sometimes join us.

Typically you went with your cabin, but as the entire camp knew, sword fighting wasn't really their thing.

I rolled my eyes as Luke held his sword to my neck, once again. "Don't even."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Hey, Annabeth has been getting better lately, might want to watch your back."

"That's fun. An actual challenge." I twisted the gem, and my sword was once again a ring. I slid it on my finger and looked up.

Cabin eleven came up behind us, Percy in tow.

"Oh right, we had sword fighting lessons today." Luke said and turned to me. "Wanna stay and help out?"

"Oh. Sure. Do I need my sword?"

"Not now. Percy, why don't you come up?"

Percy timidly walked forwards, with his practice sword that he didn't seem to like.

Luke had been telling me about the... trouble, they'd been having finding him a sword.

I cringed as Percy tried to fight Luke, but was failing. Luke wasn't even going easy on him.

Luke then paused, and began a demo.

Oh, I guess I would be learning something new today.

"This is difficult," Luke stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

In slow motion, Luke twisted Percy's blade with his own sword, making Percy drop it.

Percy grabbed his sword. Luke turned to us. "Now in real time. We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

Percy nodded and they started sparring.

I watched with interest as Percy managed to keep Luke away, even making advances of his own. Luke started to get harsher with his movements and that's when it dawned on me.

Luke was having trouble with this.

And then Percy tried the disarming technique.

Luke dropped his sword and Percy held his almost at his chest.

My mouth literally dropped open.

I couldn't believe this.

Percy lowered his sword. "Um, sorry."

For a moment Luke didn't talk, but he broke into a grin. "Sorry? By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

But the moment the swords connected, Percy's sword went across the floor.

"Beginners luck?" Travis suggested.

"Maybe. But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword."

Our lesson was dismissed and I ran up to Percy.

"Gods, Percy!" I exclaimed. "I've never been able to do that!"

"Like that Travis guy said, beginners luck." He shrugged and kept walking off.

"I don't care! You did great! I think sword fighting is your thing. Like Luke said, just need a balanced sword."

Percy slightly smiled. "Yeah, maybe you're right."