Havoc - Piper McLean

6: Shiny and stabby

"Oh fuck you, McLean"

"Dagger?" Annabeth turned around with a shiny, short, but wide dagger that caught Camilla's eyes immediately. It was the length of her forearm, and very different from everything else in the shed. In Annabeth's other hand carried a sword with a matching design. 

Unlike all the other swords in the shed, this one was shorter and wider. Both had matching leather grips and a comfortable amount of space to hold the weapons. The two weapons were meant to go together, no doubt. The sword would be the main weapon while the knife was more of a backup or to be used in case of very close range combat. 

The closest Camilla had ever come to sword fighting was when her dad played pirates with her when she was seven. (Of course, that had been a front to train her to be quiet so he could teach her to break into shops without setting off alarms) But she couldn't keep her hands off the weapons for a second longer. 

She needed them. They were made for each other, she thought poetically. 

"Great, now she's having inappropriate thoughts about metal on a stick" Piper whispered loudly to Annabeth as Camilla walked to the blonde and took the weapons from her. 

Annabeth just frowned like Camilla had gone on a date with her grandma. 

Or as if Camilla had just confirmed a suspicion for her.

"That's a Roman spatha" She said. "And a pugio"

"I'm sorry, a what now?" Camilla snorted as she turned the weapons over in her hands, her own expression staring back at her through the gold.

"A pugio" Annabeth repeated. "It's a thrusting dagger—"

Camilla snorted. 

"—used for close combat, assassination, and suicide. When Julius Caesar was assassinated, the conspirators stabbed him with pugiones."

"You're just making words up" Camilla looked at the blonde, "Pudgy what-the-fucks" She laughed. "They're cool though, I'll take them. the pudgy and the spat whatever"

"Spatha"

"Mmmhmmm don't care. It's shiny, it's stabby. Ergo I need it"

"Are you sure?" Annabeth asked. "It's Roman"

"So am I?" Camilla snorted, "Hello? Romani?"

Annabeth frowned. "One of my half brothers' found it in California. Which is weird cause the Hephaestus cabin claims to never have forged anything like this and there's no way any monsters would make this"

"Don't care" Camilla repeated.

Piper was eyeing her with discomfort when something in the corner of the shed caught her eye.

"What is that?" she said. "A knife?"

Annabeth dug it out and blew the dust off the scabbard. It looked like it hadn't seen the light of day in centuries.

"I don't know, Piper." Annabeth sounded uneasy. At least Camilla had taken the pudgy what's-it's-name along with a spatha. But Piper didn't look interested in any other weapon. "I don't think you want this one. Swords are usually better."

"You use a knife." Piper pointed to the one strapped to Annabeth's belt.

"Yeah, but..." Annabeth shrugged. "Well, take a look if you want."

The sheath was worn black leather, bound in bronze. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy. Camilla watched Piper's long fingers wrap around the polished wood handle. When she unsheathed it, she found a triangular blade eighteen inches long—bronze gleaming like it had been polished yesterday. The edges were deadly sharp.