The Sons of Light and Dark

Did We Just Win?

"Who's going to watch Estelle?" Percy's voice cut through my thoughts.

"I guess I will," I said dejectedly. I really wanted to face the hunters in capture-the-flag.

"Nonsense," Bianca said. "I'll watch her. She has toys in the Big House, right?" We nodded. "Then we'll go there and play until she falls asleep. I'm sure Maddie would love to join me, and don't worry, I can change a diaper. They might be a little more complicated since I last did, but I can figure it out."

Percy and I broke out into grins. "Thank you so much, B," Percy said before standing up and racing away after Lee and his siblings.

I leaned forward and planted a kiss on her cheek before I could stop myself. I pulled back, beating back my blush as I said, "Thanks a million. Bed is before the campfire, and she won't cry or fuss. She's strong. She sleeps with her rabbit and her blankets over her. See ya after the game." I raced after Percy, trying to forget the deep, deep blush that was on her beautiful face.

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Percy and I waited for Chiron's signal at the edge of the creek. Once it sounded, we took off, weaving in and out of the trees, keeping to the shadows. I had been training Percy with his powers over light and he's accelerated at it greatly. He's a natural with light.

We climbed and hid in some branches as some hunters came rushing past. Straight to where Clarisse and her siblings were waiting. The Aphrodite and Hephestaus cabins were guarding the flag with the Demeter, Athena, and Dionysus cabins prowling the area through our side of the forest. The Apollo and Hermes cabins were to go after the flag, sticking to the shadows as much as they could. None could beat my brother and I, though.

We bounced from tree to tree almost silently, zooming towards where the flag was presumed to be.

Indeed, when we reached their flag, in the ground in a clearing, we slowed and examined the place. We hid within the trees as we looked for any hidden hunters, but, finding nothing, we dropped down. Oh, what a mistake that was.

When we dropped to the ground, one Zoe Nightshade launched herself at us from the shadows, along with two other hunters. I shadow-traveled out of the way while Percy jumped to the side. Zoe and the huntresses turned toward me, and Percy appeared at my right.

"Not going after the flag, Zoe?" Percy asked. She grinned evilly at us.

"No," she said. "I felt that facing you two would be far more entertaining." She unsheathed her knives and lunged at Percy. His new golden sword, Azure, was in his hand in time to catch Zoe's strike.

I pulled my silver sword, Aura, from the shadows and whirled on the other two hunters, one brunette and one blonde. They grinned evilly at me, their bows drawn and arrows pointed at me. I mirrored their grin.

The blonde let her arrow go. I dodged to the side as she launched herself at me. I ducked under her jab with the knives she now had in her hands. The brunette aimed and let her arrow fire. I sidestepped, letting the arrow fly by, missing me by mere centimeters. The blonde jumped me and our blades met. We jumped back and then charged again. I had to admit, she was good.

She had two blades that I had to watch out for. I always kept an arm's length from her, deflecting both her blades with Aura, which was living up to its name. The black markings were starting to glow, and each time our blades connected, the glow became brighter. Somehow. I don't fully understand how light works, but I'm sure that the color black is the absence of light. Weird.

At some point during our battle, Aura started to hum. I threw the blonde back to her brunette friend, who had been shooting enough arrows to make me look like a porcupine. If they hit me at all, that is.

She did hit me with a few arrows, mainly skimming my arms, but two had been planted in my back, which hurt a lot.

The blonde and I had given each other cuts as well. Her worse wounds were a gash on her thigh and a longer one stretching down her back, but she was tough and determined.

I had several small cuts on my arms, adding to the several dozen that I already had beforehand. She had managed to stick her knife in my side once, and that was still bleeding.

I looked at my humming blade and got an idea. I light traveled behind them and struck the ground in between.

The force of the impact was multiplied and all three of us went flying. Luckily, I wasn't the one who hit a tree.

Both of the huntresses hit trees lining the clearing. I sat up, a little groggy from still hitting my head on the ground and the arrows, now broken, still in my back. I looked to where Percy and Zoe were still fighting.

They danced with each other, their blades glinting in the moonlight and sparking whenever coming in contact with each other. I stood up and sheathed my sword before shadow-traveling to the flag. As I grabbed it, several arrows shot towards me.

Needless to say, I got the hell out of there.

I used the flag pole to deflect some arrows before taking off, running at my top speed. I heard several shouts follow me as I sprinted through the trees. Silver arrows hit the trees before me, and I started sprinting faster. Soon, I saw the creek. And several huntresses before me.

"Mierda," I swore as I kept running. Once I was about five feet in front of them, I struck the flag into the ground, and pole vaulted over them, with many arrows finding home in my backside and front. Luckily, none hit my crotch.

I landed on the other side of them and kept running, the goal so close. Another huntress burst from the trees on the other side but tripped as some vine wrapped around her legs.

I lunged across the creek, falling to the ground as soon as I heard Chiron yell victoriously, "Camp Half-Blood wins!"

All the conscious campers cheered. I saw Nico appear from the shadows, an arrow sticking out of his arm and several cuts prominent along his arms, but grinning.

Travis and Connor limped through the trees, Travis sporting a black eye and Connor with a split lip and an arrow through his leg. Campers appeared from where they were, almost all of them having at least one arrow wound, and cheered. They lifted me up on their shoulders and carried me to the campfire, me wincing almost the whole time as I still had several arrow shafts sticking from my back.

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Once Lee, who told me that he had several arrows in his back by the end of the game, had seen to me I lounged around the campfire. Percy sat next to me.

"Good job," he congratulated "I don't think I've ever seen or even heard of anyone pole vaulting over the creek."

"I didn't," I corrected him. "I pole vaulted over the hunters. I jumped across the creek."

"Why didn't you just shadow travel to our side?" I stared at him.

"I'll be honest, when I saw the arrows flying at me when I grabbed the flag, shadow traveling was the last thing on my mind." He laughed. "You did pretty well holding Zoe off, though. I don't think I could've done that."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess so. It was really fun, though."

"I bet," I said with a wink. He shoved me playfully. "An arrows end up in your backside?"

"Nope." He smirked. "I heard that Luke had twelve in his back." I laughed.

"Was he still standing?" I asked, close to tears.

"No. He had two arrows in his left leg." That pushed me over the edge. I roared with laughter, tears spilling out of my eyes.

When my eyes cleared, I looked up to see Bianca and Maddie walking towards us. Percy and I stood up and ran up to them.

Maddie was bouncing with excitement. "I can't believe you won it for us!" She almost screamed as threw her arms around me. I swung her around as we laughed. I set her down and turned to Bianca, who was smiling hugely.

I walked up to her without thinking, Percy and Maddie laughing in the background.

And I kissed her.