Child Of Hunt | percy jackson x reader

Fighting and stories

-Y/n's POV-

Thursday afternoon, three days after Percy arrived at Camp Half-Blood, he had his first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where I would be their instructor.

We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. 

We moved on to dueling in pairs. I announced that I would be Percy's partner, since this was his first time.

-Percy's POV-

Y/n 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," she'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of her blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

By the time she 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. The sword didn't feel so awkward.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Y/n 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 guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Y/n used me for a punching bag. She told everybody she was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that they had no choice but to drop their weapon.

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

She demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," she said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

I nodded, and Y/n came after me. Somehow, I kept her from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw her attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Y/n deflected it easily, but I saw a change in her face. Her eyes narrowed, and she 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 Y/n took me down, so I figured, What the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Y/n's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

Clang.

Y/n's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from her undefended chest.

The other campers were silent.

I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."

For a moment, Y/n was too stunned to speak.

"Sorry?" Her 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 Y/n insisted.

This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Y/n hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

Y/n wiped the sweat off her brow. She appraised at me with an entirely new interest.

"Maybe," she 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, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. 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. But that was until four years ago..."

"What happened?"

"Three new demigods came to camp. One of them - a son of Hemes. The second one was a daughter of Athena and the last one...well she was a daughter of Artemis."

"But if she's a maiden goddess...then how did she have a kid?"

"Easy the girl was born of her mind and gifted to the mortal man Artemis fell in love with as a sign of love."

"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. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

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."

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"

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 .. . 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."

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. 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. "A cyclops was running after them. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her friend to take the other three half-bloods to safety while she held off the monster. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The girl didn't want to leave her, but she couldn't change her mind. 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."

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. 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?

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

(1393 words)