I ran to the arena hoping to find Luke practising. Thankfully he was there.
"Luke!" I called out.
He turned to me with a look of surprise. "Oh hey, Silena. I would have thought you'd stay in your cabin and not get wet."
"I figured now is the best time to speak with you."
"About what?" he asked.
"This," I said, pulling out my bracelet.
"Careful!" he exclaimed, covering my wrist. "You never know when someone is watching." He looked behind me and I glanced behind me to make sure there actually wasn't anyone. I thought I may have seen movement out of the corner of my eye but I wasn't sure and it was probably just my nerves, so I turned back to him.
"Okay," I said softly. "Sorry."
"No, I'm sorry. You didn't know," he replied. "So what about.... this did you want to ask me about?"
"This morning I saw Grover walking to Percy's cabin. They started walking towards the Big House and I was going to follow them but my thing started glowing. I went back inside and it projected the image of what was happening to them up until Percy was about to go visit the Oracle. Do you know why I saw that?"
"I guess it is a two-way connection. I was there," he answered.
"But were you able to hear the prophecy?" I asked.
"Yes," he replied, staring off into space.
"And it was...." I said, trying to get him to tell me.
He looked at me. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned. You will find what was stolen and see it safely returned. You will be betrayed by the one who calls you friend. And you shall fail to save what matters most in the end."
I stared at him, processing what the Oracle had said. "So Percy will face a bad god. And he will find the master bolt! That's good right?"
"For the gods maybe. But not for the Titan Lord."
"Oh," I said quietly.
"And you also forgot the last part. Percy is going to be betrayed by someone who calls him friend and he will fail to save what matters most in the end. So, that means his quest won't prevent him from rising."
"Okay, so that is good, right?"
"Yes, Silena," he said smiling. Did I mention how handsome Luke is when he smiles?
"I also wanted to ask you about Friday night," I said, hoping he wouldn't dismiss me this time.
"I'll tell you but then we are doing one-on-one, okay?"
"I'm hopeless with a sword but okay," I replied. "You summoned the hellhound, right?"
"Yes, I did."
"Was it to test him or to wipe him out?" I asked.
"Mostly just to test him. We had our suspicions that he was a child of the Big Three which means he could play a major part in the next Titans vs Gods war."
"Why is he such a big part?"
"There is a prophecy but I can't share that with you yet."
"Why not?" I complained.
"It isn't time yet. You will be told, just not yet."
"But-"
"Silena!" Luke said sternly.
"Fine!" I said walking out of the arena. I had forgotten it was raining. I turned around to grab my coat but Luke had it in his hand.
"You promised me a one-on-one, remember?"
"Ugh! You are impossible!" I said.
"Son of Hermes, at your service," he said, bowing goofily.
I laughed. "Okay, you win. I'll spar with you."
He went over to the rack and picked up a sword. "Here," he said as he threw the sword to me. Thankfully I caught it and it didn't cut my arm off. "Sorry," he said, trying to hold in a laugh.
"You could have hurt me!" I exclaimed.
"And you would have been fine with a bit of ambrosia," he said, still laughing. "You ready?"
"I guess," I said, getting ready. I knew he would beat me no matter what since he is a lot better than me, but there was no harm in just playing around.
We started fighting and immediately he used his favourite disarming technique and my sword went flying.
I stood in shock. "Wow," I said. "This is going to be a very boring session if you immediately disarm me every time.
"I won't next time," he promised.
I retrieved my sword and got ready to fight again. The second time I lasted about five seconds before I dropped my sword.
"You're getting better," Luke said, smiling.
"Yeah but five seconds isn't good enough to keep me alive in a battle," I said with a frown.
"Try using your dagger," he proposed.
I pulled out my dagger and got into a fighting stance.
"Ready... go!" Luke said as we started fighting.
We started circling each other, trying to find a weak spot. Luke had perfect form, of course. Finding no weak spots, I subtly looked around trying to find anything that I could use to my advantage. Looking back at Luke and moving closer to him, I said, "So, where's your first strike?"
"After yours and remember your stance. Also, Silena, let your instincts control you," Luke reminded me.
I adjusted my stance and surrendered to my instincts. I attempted to slice his left arm and I ducked into my swing. Luke came at my dagger with his sword, but I had already tilted my dagger downwards to his legs. I rolled behind Luke. I stood up and saw Luke, already turned around to face me, smiling at me. "Evasion. Smart."
Luke swung his sword at me and I backed away. I slid again to the right as he swung again. I spotted a rock behind him and I ran to it. He followed me running too. I jumped over the big rock. Luke missed a step and stumbled across the rock. Taking my chances, I sliced at his sword arm. Luke jumped back to avoid it. I lunged at him again with my dagger. He rolled to the side. Both of us quickly stood up from the ground.
I swung my dagger at his sword and our weapons clashed and formed a cross. Luke grinned and hit my arm with the flat of his blade. Luke slid to my right and twisted his sword, the tip of the blade was pointed to my neck, while the flat of the blade was still pressed against the side of my arm. "Yield?" He asked.
Subtly smiling, I pushed the edge of the hilt upwards to between the inside of his sword arm and his sword. With my hilt pressed against the inside of his arm, I twisted the hilt up and out. From the twist of my hilt, Luke's sword fell to the ground. I aimed my dagger to his neck.
"I yield," Luke answered my unspoken question.
I dropped my dagger and sat down on the wet ground as I panted, out of breath from my victory and the adrenaline washing away. Luke just stood there smiling goofily.
"Told you that with a bit more practice you could beat me," he said, also panting.
I looked at my dagger next to me in amazement. I had never been able to do that before. I felt a cool breeze flow through the door and realised it had stopped raining.
"I guess I should probably go back to my cabin to encourage my siblings to go outside," I said.
"Yeah, me too," he said, still smiling like crazy. "You should be proud of yourself. The only other camper who has beaten me is Percy and it was because he had soaked up water which empowered him."
I'm sure that I smiled like crazy too. It is nice, no, amazing, to receive a compliment from someone as good at something as he is and from someone who you have a crush on. My stomach was exploding with butterflies and I was probably blushing a lot too.
"Bye," I waved, walking out of the arena.
"Bye!" he called after me.
I walked back to my cabin but didn't realise I still had that smile on my face.
"Silena?" Jade asked me. "Are you okay?"
"What? Oh yeah. I'm fine."
"You look like you're in love," she said, a sly smile creeping at the corners of her mouth.
"No I'm not!" I exclaimed.
"You know that I am a daughter of Aphrodite too, right? I can spot love."
"Fine. Sure. I am kinda in love. But I am kinda in love with every cute boy," I said, shrugging.
"Sure, but you don't make that face for every boy," she said, still smiling.
"Oh, be quiet," I said, walking past her.
"The face looks good on you!" she called after me.
I chose to ignore her.
"Campers!" Chiron called out. I spun around. "Three campers have been assigned a quest!"
I looked around and everyone was whispering about who it could be. Of course, I already knew, but I acted surprised to blend in.
"I'm sure you are wondering who it is. Come over to Half-Blood Hill and say goodbye," Chiron yelled.
Everyone started running towards Half-Blood Hill but I walked slowly. Jade guestered to me to come on so I ran ahead. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover stood at the bottom of the hill looking very uncomfortable. They waved and walked up the hill where they met Chiron, sitting in his wheelchair, and Argus, our many-eyed security guard. And when I say many-eyed, I mean many-eyed. He has eyes covering almost every inch of his body, which I guess is good for security. It is pretty unnerving though.
I saw Luke run up the hill with sneakers in his hand. They talked for a minute then Luke headed back down the hill.
"Were those your shoes from your dad?" I asked.
"Yeah. Hopefully they will help bring about the rise of Kronos," Luke whispered the last word, turning to walk away.
"Wait, what? How can shoes bring about the rise of him?"
"The same way a bracelet can," he replied, smiling.
I smiled and walked off.
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**author's note**
hellooo! so how r u all? in love with anyone? wkkwkwkwkkw
- Gem