Celestial Flames (Percy Jackson Universe)

The Bow

I hissed in pain as the knife hit my skin. I sighed in annoyance at the sight. The blood trickled down the side of my palm, another addition in the collection of carving injuries I gained along with the thousands of splinters. 

"Again?" Shane asked. 

I nodded and put a band-aid on. I had taken the box from the infirmary. I was in a rush so I grabbed the first box I saw, therefore I didn't notice these had cartoon characters on it. The face of Dora the Explorer stared up at my from the side of my palm. "It's the trickiest part, the details. There's gonna be a lot of small cuts which means lots of accidental cuts as well." 

Shane sighed and went back to sand blasting his bust. "At this point you're gonna run out of blood before you finish that bow." 

I looked down at the bow. It was almost done. The hickory wood was light brown and carved the way I wanted it. It was five feet long, just eight inches shorter then me, stained in spots with drops of my blood that I had failed to cover the cuts in time before they dropped onto the bow. There were just a few details I needed to finish. 

"Well I'm sure it'll look great," Kelsea said. 

I smiled in thanks and picked up the sandpaper sheet. I ran it over the wood, smothing it out a bit. I went to the ends, both of them sharpened to a wicked point and rubbed away the extra shavings. I blew on it and the wood spiralled out in a brown cloud that flew into the sky. 

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I opened the envelope beside my pillow and let the cassette tape fall into my hand. I inserted it into my player and input the headphones in the jack. I hit play and was immediately filled with the sounds of Jordan's voice. 

"Hey, Lizzie," he greeted. Then, Erik's voice cut in. "Hi, Lizard." I smiled.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda pissed you didn't tell us about this camp," Jordan admitted. "But I am glad you're making friends. And from the ounds of it, you're really happy. So I'm happy you're happy. There, I said it, can you stop glaring at me now?" 

"Just making sure," Erik muttered. I chuckled.

"Basic is a lot of work," Jordan continued. "You have no idea how sore we are at the end of the day." I can imagine, I thought. "But at the same time, I know I'm doing a good thing. It's a good cause, what I'm doing. I know that. So I'm gonna keep training. We're getting close to the end of the training now." 

"We're being sent to seperate untis," Erik added. "Now you won't get to hear my lovely voice anymore." 

I just kept smiling. 

"We'll send you a tape before we ship out," Jordan told me. "Promise. Love you Lizzie." 

"We miss you," Erik said, drawing out the last word. 

"Bye, Lizzie." 

The tape stopped and I sat there, on my sleeping bag, with tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. 

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By the next morning, my hands were a collection of cartoon characters. Everything from Garfield to Peter Pan was represented on my hands. It didn't take long for Will Solace, Michael's brother, to figure out it was me that took the band-aids. But he was cool about it and didn't report it to Chiron. He just gave me a lecture instead ( I fell asleep in the middle of it). 

Despite this, I kept working on the bow. I scratched the sandpaper over the edges and the loose pieces were then thrown away. A few unlucky ones stuck in my skin that were then removed and bandaged (Captain Hook, Phineas Flynn, and Bugs Bunny).