Prince beyond the Stars (Percy Jackson/Son of Chaos Fan-Fiction)

Chapter VIII

-Rho-

When Phi came down, he told us he was staying, and therefore we should start with training the campers. I saw Nu smile a little, and I knew something happened between them to make Phi change his mind. He walked out of the cabin, motioning us to follow. We hurried after him, and I caught up with Tau.
'What happened at the campfire between you and the head counselor of cabin sixteen?' I asked her.
She turned her head to face me. 'What do you mean?'
My eyes narrowed. 'You know exactly what I'm talking about.'
Zoe chuckled. 'Alright, alright. The campers of cabin sixteen were cursed by Athena. After finding out it was a child of Nemesis who destroyed her life, and not Percy, she cursed him. But in her anger, she did not only curse the boy, but the entire cabin. Even now, when new children appear, their body's change, adjusting to the curse they receive once they cross the borders. In her rage, Athena allowed the curse only to be released when the lost one would return. So to the children of Nemesis, their curse will only be taken away when Percy will return to camp. Not as Phi, but as Percy Jackson. I only gave them the courage to keep going, because in a matter of time, they will regain their normal appearances again.'
I let the information sink in. 'Why would Athena curse them?'
Tau sighed. 'A few months after Percy had left, the son of Nemesis was exposed in his actions. All the things that had happened to Annabeth, the quests, Tartarus, the Giant War and eventually Percy leaving, broke her mentally. She hasn't been the same after, and Athena couldn't stand her daughter to have become like that. So that's why.'
I swallowed, because I realized the little girl I had known for a long time, really wasn't the same anymore. Sure, I had seen her from Elysium, the quests she had been on with the Romans, even Tartarus, and I believed she was strong enough to get through. I guess she too had a breaking point.

I blinked when a hand appeared in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts.
'Dreaming again, aren't we?' Eta said.
I shot her a look, clearly telling her to shut up, but apparently it didn't work, because she threw her head backwards and laughed.
'You should see your face Rho, it's ridiculous,' she said.
I didn't answer and walked up to Phi, who was talking to Chiron.
'.. After all, we won the game. We will start training tomorrow,' Phi said.
Chiron looked at him, and nodded. 'Alright. But to make it clear to you, I don't want any of the campers to be dead at the end of the day.'
Phi smiled and gave a small nod in return. He walked to the arena and I followed him. He started slashing on of the dummies, when I got out my sword and got into position in front of him. He smiled at me and attacked.

What followed was a three hour during battle, in which Phi almost constantly managed to disarm me and put his sword on a place which would have killed me, would we have been really battling. When I picked up my sword again, I blew out a breath.
'Last try,' I said, feeling the sweat on my forehead.
Phi nodded, but unlike me, he only seemed to be breathing a little harder. My last try didn't last long. With a few slashes, Phi had unarmed me again, and I sighed.
'Now I have to pick it up again,' I said mockingly.
Phi smiled in return. But when I made the attempt to get it, I felt the beats of sweat lift of my forehead, out of my neck, even out of my clothes and swirl to the sword, while the drops on their way transformed into two hands. The hands picked it up the sword and handed it to me. The moment I took it, the watery hands fell down on the ground, becoming a little puddle of water. I turned around to see Phi with a little smile on his face.
'How come you've not done this those two hundred times before?' I asked him.
'It could have spared me the walks.'
The smile changed into a wide grin. 'It was fun seeing you have to pick it up every time,' Phi answered.
I sighed. 'Really? So that's what you're going to do to the campers with training tomorrow? I believed Chiron asked you not to let the campers return dead.'
Phi sheathed his sword into a pen and put it back in his pocket.
'I promised him not to have any dead campers at the end of the day. I believe dead from exhaustion doesn't count.'
He turned around and walked away. I hurried after him, laughing.

-Phi-

The next day training started. After five hundred years we were pretty much used to train for five or six hours a day, but the campers already started complaining before we had even started. When we arrived in the arena, most of the campers had already gathered. We decided to part the campers in three groups, depending on age. We were with six Warriors. Chi and Nu would train the youngest children, Rho and Tau would train the central group and Eta en I would change the eldest ones. We decided we started training with a five-mile run. Only a few of our group made the attempt to go, but that was about it. Eta crossed her arms. Next to her appeared four skeleton jaguars from the grounds.
'Get on with it!' she shouted. That made them run.
I smiled. Being a daughter of Hades had its benefits.
'Couldn't let that one go, could you?' I asked as the skeletons disappeared into the earth.
'Never,' she answered with a grin.

For us training was easy, but when we returned to the dining pavilion that evening, we got some suspicious looks from Chiron. I didn't have to look at our group of campers to know why he was suspicious. Our trainees were covered in black clothes, dust, blisters and blood.
The five mile run wasn't all we made them do. After that we battled each of them personally, while Eta had summoned some other skeletons to make sure the campers didn't sneak away. When we had finally battled each of the hundred and forty campers in our group, the campers finally believed they were done training for today. Eta decided they each had to climb the Lava wall five times. If they wouldn't do it five times, they had to do another five mile run, except this time the skeleton jaguars would make sure they were running.
There were two brats from the Ares cabin deciding they didn't need to climb the wall. Said they had already done it a thousand times before we had come. Let's just say that Eta and I laughed our heads off when we saw those two boys screaming as the jaguars were chasing them.

When Eta and I walked over to the Chaos table, we saw the other Warriors were already sitting there.
'So, how did it go?' Rho asked.
I smiled, and Eta answered for me.
'It was hilarious,' she said. 'See those two Ares kids?' She pointed to the two victims at the Ares table. They met her gaze and flinched a little. When I went to offer a bit of my meal to the Gods and got back at the Chaos table, Eta had already told the whole story. I had just finished the spaghetti on my plate and swallowed down the last gulp of my water, when Chiron walked up to me.
'I would like to talk to you for a moment,' he said a little angry.
'Sure,' I said, and I got up. 'I'll see you guys later, okay?'
The other Warriors nodded, and I followed Chiron into the big house.

'I'm really disappointed with your definition of training,' Chiron said as soon as we entered his room.
'Oh please,' I said. 'This is not even half of what we do every day.'
Chiron crossed his arms and shot me an angry look.
'Then may I tell you that these are just kids? They don't train hours a day. I've heard of to many bad happenings. Two six year olds almost drowning, an eight year old son of Apollo breaking an arm by falling of a Pegasus and two sons of Ares who were chased by skeleton jaguars! Honestly, what are you trying to teach them? I suggest you take it easy on them.'
I returned his angry look and walked up to me.
'This isn't a game. How are we supposed to prepare these kids for war if they can't even swim, ride a Pegasus or even follow orders?'
I stopped right before him, our faces only inches apart.
'I'm teaching these children to survive. I've seen to many demigods die in war. And I will not allow these children to share the same fate. And if that means I'll have to take it hard on them,' I said,
'Then so be it.'