On the Friday of the week Percy arrived, was capture the flag. After dinner there was a lot of excitement since it was finally time to play. The dishes were cleared from the tables and we stood as the conch horn sounded.
Campers cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, shimmering grey, with a painting of an owl above an olive tree. From the other side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her siblings ran in with another banner, of the same size, but bloody red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.
The Athena and Ares cabins almost always lead the two teams. The Athena cabin had allied with the two largest cabins, Apollo and Hermes. Everyone else was with Ares: Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Aphrodite.
""Heroes!" Chiron yelled. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"
He opened his arms and the tables were filled suddenly with all kinds of armour and weapons. Everyone on the Ares side put on the helmets with the red plumes while the Athena team used the ones with blue plumes.
"Blue team, forward!" Annabeth ordered.
"Red team, march!" Clarisse called.
The Ares team walked towards the North end of the woods and most of our team taunted the blue team. The blue team headed towards the South end of the woods. We got to our end and Clarisse placed the flag in the ground.
"Zach, Beckendorf," she ordered. "Guard the flag." She walked over to Gemma and whispered something in her ear. She gave more orders to the others and Jade ended up being a border patrol. I motioned to Clarisse that I wanted to be with Jade. She nodded and told me to be on the border patrol.
"Come on, Jade," I said. As we got to the creek I heard the conch horn blow in the distance. I heard yells and the sound of metal hitting metal. I pulled Jade closer to the creek and I saw Percy Jackson. Apparently he got border patrol, too. Why did Annabeth put him here? He has so much power. He would be a lot of help. Jade started trying to walk towards him. I held her back.
She glared at me. "Aren't we supposed to patrol the border? Anyone near the border we destroy!"
"Not quite 'destroy', sweetie. But I want to see how he fights." I said. "Please, leave him there. For me?"
She didn't look happy about it but she agreed.
A guy I recognised from the Apollo cabin ran past us before we could even blink. Jade looked at me.
"He's too far away now, but we'll get the next one," I whispered, pointing out a guy with a blue plume creeping towards us. I don't think he saw us but even if he did, he didn't get the chance to fight us. Suddenly five of the Ares kids, including Clarisse and Gemma, came out of nowhere yelling and screaming.
"Cream the punk!" Clarisse yelled.
She was holding her spear which crackled with electricity. One touch from that weapon and you would be electrocuted. Her siblings all had standard swords like a lot of the campers had. They charged across the creek towards Percy. I wanted to do something to help since I knew Clarisse would maim him even though the rules were against it. Still, I was on her team so I couldn't.
"Should we help them?" Jade asked me.
"I think Percy has enough people to fight," I replied. "Besides, our job is to make sure no one gets through."
Jade nodded and I looked back at Percy in time to see him sidestep one of Clarisse's brothers. Still, the Ares campers were smart. They surrounded him. Clarisse jabbed her spear at Percy but he was able to deflect it with his shield. It hit the water.
"Jade, step back!" I whispered urgently. We hopped out of the water as the electrical currents swept through. I looked back at the battle and noticed that Percy looked weaker. I guess the shield didn't deflect the spear completely. A different Ares boy hit Percy in the chest with the butt of his sword and Percy fell down into the dirt. The Ares kids were laughing like crazy.
"Give him a haircut," Clarisse ordered. "Grab his hair."
Percy got to his feet and raised his sword but Clarisse knocked it aside with her spear making sparks fly. The way Percy held his weapon made it seem like his arms went numb, which makes sense because of Clarisse's spear.
"Oh, wow. I'm scared of this guy," Clarisse mocked. "Really scared."
"The flag is that way," Percy said in a slightly high pitched voice.
"Yeah," said Gemma. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."
"You do that without my help," Percy said. There were definitely smarter things he could have said besides that.
Clarisse and the other sister that was with her lunged at Percy. He backed towards the creek, trying to raise his shield, but Clarisse struck him in the ribs. If he hadn't been wearing a breastplate... let's just be glad he was. Her brother slashed his sword across Percy's arm, making a pretty large sized cut.
"No maiming," Percy said weakly.
"Oops, guess I lost my dessert privileges." The guy responded. He pushed Percy into the creek and his cabin mates all laughed. Clarisse and her siblings came towards Percy but he stood up. Wow I thought. This guy is very persistent. Looking at Jade, she seemed as enthralled in the battle as I was.
Percy swung his sword, hitting the boy with the flat of his sword, knocking his helmet off. The Ares kid fell into the water. The other sister and brother charged towards Percy. Clarisse's sister was slammed in the face with Percy's shield and her brother's plume was shaved off. Gemma didn't seem to want to attack so Clarisse kept coming, her spear shooting sparks of electricity. As she jabbed her spear, Percy caught the shaft between his sword and shield, and snapped it. Oh no I thought. Clarisse is not going to like that.
"Ah! You idiot!" She screamed. "You corpse-breath worm!" Percy hit her with the butt of his sword and sent her sprawling backwards out of the creek.
Suddenly I heard yelling. Jade perked up too. Luke raced across the boundary with our team's flag lifted up. Some Hermes and Apollo guys were covering him and fighting off the Hephaestus guys. Ares's kids got up and Clarisse murmured a curse. She was still dazed from fighting Percy.
"A trick!" she yelled. "It was a trick!"
They tried to go after Luke but it was too late. Luke crossed and the blue team cheered so loudly my head hurt. The Ares banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven, Hermes. The blue team ran to lift Luke onto their shoulders and I walked forward towards Clarisse and Percy. Chiron trotted over from the woods, blowing the conch horn. The game was officially over and the Athena team won.
"Not bad, hero," I heard Annabeth say. I didn't see her so I figured she must be using her invisibility cap. "Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked Percy. The air shimmered and she appeared holding her Yankees cap of invisibility. I stepped a bit farther away so I wasn't looking like I was eavesdropping. Eavesdropping is not right, I know. But I am listening to Luke, right? He told me to spy on camp and I feel like Percy is going to be a big part of camp.
Percy seemed to be angry. "You set me up. You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank," he said. "You had it all figured out."
"I told you. Athena always, always has a plan," Annabeth shrugged.
"A plan to get me pulverised," Percy retorted.
"I came as fast as I could," Annabeth shrugged. "I was about to jump in, but... you didn't need help."
Annabeth looked down at Percy's cut. Or his used-to-be cut.
"How did you do that?" she asked.
"Sword cut. What do you think?" He answered.
"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."
The blood had disappeared. Where the huge cut had been, there was a white scratch, and that even was fading. As everyone watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared completely.
"I - I don't get it," Percy said. This is not good I thought. Annabeth looked at the water in the creek and then at Clarisse's spear.
"Step out of the water, Percy," she said quietly.
"What-" he tried to ask.
"Just do it," she ordered.
He stepped out of the water and instantly he looked like he had fought fifty monsters and I guess fighting the Ares kids was like that. He stumbled a bit but Annabeth caught and steadied him. Okay yeah. That proved my theory of his dad.
Annabeth seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Oh Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want.... I assumed it would be Zeus."
Suddenly, a howl tore through the forest. Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek, "Stand ready! My bow!"
Above us on the rocks was a hellhound, a hound the size of a rhino with red eyes and incredibly sharp fangs. Someone must have summoned it from the Fields of Punishment, the place where the worst souls go.
The hellhound growled. Everyone froze. The monster was looking straight at Percy.
"Percy, run!" Annabeth yelled.
Annabeth tried to step in front of Percy but the hound beat her to it. It leaped over Annabeth and rammed into Percy, making him stumble backwards. Its claws dug into his shoulder through his armour, spouting out blood. I watched as Chiron shot arrow after arrow into the monster's hide with a big thwap. The hellhound fell at Percy's feet.
Percy's armour and clothes were soaked in blood. Chiron cantered over to him.
"Di immortales!" Annabeth cursed. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't...they're not supposed to..."
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
I glanced at Luke and he confirmed with his eyes. Luke summoned it. So, Percy is a big part of camp. I was right! But I don't want him to get hurt.
Luke walked over to Percy with the Hermes banner in his hand. I felt bad for him. He had won the game and now no one was congratulating him.
"It's all Percy's fault!" Clarisse yelled. "Percy summoned it!" Seriously, Clarisse? Why would Percy summon something to attack himself?
"Be quiet, child," Chiron ordered.
The body of the hellhound dissolved into the ground, returning to the Fields of Punishment.
Annabeth looked at Percy. "You're wounded. Quick, Percy, get in the water."
"I'm okay," Percy said even though it was obvious that he wasn't.
"No, you're not," she insisted. "Chiron, watch this."
Percy stepped back into the creek with all of us campers crowding around to see what would happen. I noticed that he immediately looked better and his wounds closed up. But there was something else, something above his head. Some of the campers gasped.
"Look, I-I don't know why," he tried to apologise. "I'm sorry...."
"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing above his head. "Um..."
He looked up at the fading symbol above his head, a green light spinning and glowing. A trident, the symbol of Poseidon. I was right! Although I am not sure that is a good thing.
"Your father," Annabeth muttered. "This is really not good."
"It is determined," Chiron declared loudly.
We all kneeled down, bowing before him. Even Clarisse and her siblings but I'm not sure they were excited about it.
"My father?" Percy asked. He had a surprised look on his face.
"Poseidon," Chiron announced. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."
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**author's note**
ni hao! surprise surprise! im also chinese. well to be more specific, im chindo (chinese indonesian). any chindo readers here? and u aren't, where r u from?
- Gem