Their team was a little pitiful compared to the Hunters if they were being honest. They had Beckendorf and two other Hephaestus guys, a few from the Ares cabin minus Clarisse who was away on a secret mission that Percy still found suspicious. They had a couple Apollo campers who were eager to show up Artemis' Hunters in the name of their father. They had the Stoll brothers and Nico from Hermes cabin, and a few Aphrodite kids.
It was weird that the Aphrodite cabin wanted to play. Usually, they sat on the sidelines, chatted and checked their reflections in the river and stuff, but when they heard we were fighting the Hunters, they were raring to go.
"I'll show them 'love is worthless'," Silena Beauregard grumbled as she strapped on her armour. "I'll pulverize them!"
That then left Thalia, Percy, Cressida and Castor and Pollux to round out their team.
And despite the twins' earlier enthusiasm for the game, it had faded significantly when they found out that Percy and Thalia were team captains. Especially when Cressida was standing flanked by her brothers, all three of them dressed in armour with Cressida leaning on her thyrsus as they listened to their captains argue.
"I'll take the offence," Thalia volunteered. "You take defence."
"Oh," Percy said, and Cressida knew that he'd wanted to take offence. He had the same disability to take orders that Cressida did, but his was less pronounced. "Don't you think, with your shield and all, you'd be better at defence?"
Thalia already had Aegis on her arm, and even their own teammates were giving her a wide berth, trying not to cower before the bronze head of Medusa. "Well, I was thinking it would make better offence," Thalia said. "Besides, you've had more practice at defence."
"Are they supposed to be arguing?" asked Nico who had wandered away from the Stolls and over to them.
"Nope," Cressida answered. "But don't worry about it. Hey, Nico," she said. "I'd like you to meet my brothers. This is Castor and Pollux," she introduced, both of them giving him a wave.
"Nice to meet you, kid," Pollux said.
"You liking camp so far?" Castor asked.
"Are you kidding?! This place is amazing!" he exclaimed, trying to keep the blue-feathered bronze helmet from falling into his eyes. His breastplate was also about six sizes too big for him.
"If I let you hold my thyrsus, think you can refrain from hurting anyone while I fix your armour?" she asked and his eyes widened.
"Absolutely!"
"Alright," she laughed as she handed it over and he gaped and every inch of it as she began to tighten his armour, trying to get it to at least not hang off him.
"Can you make it change?" he asked as she moved from the left side to the right. Cressida simply placed her hand on the weapon as they blinked and the pinecone disappeared as the thyrsus became a staff. "Whoa!"
"Ok. I think that's about as good as this is going to get," she said as she stood straight, Nico still gaping at her weapon.
"Hey, no matter what she chooses, she'll be ok. I think we did a good job," Castor whispered to his twin.
"That we did," Pollux agreed as they busted out their handshake.
Nico lifted his sword with effort. "Do we get to kill the other team?"
"Well...no," Percy answered once he was done with Thalia, turning to the young boy.
"But the Hunters are immortal, right?"
"That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides –"
"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and –"
"Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt," Percy said and Cressida scowled at him when she saw the disappointed look on Nico's face.
"Hey, ignore him. I do," Cressida said as she crouched down in front of him. "Yeah the swords hurt, but that is why we have this magic stuff," she explained as she pulled out the bag of ambrosia that she always kept with her.
"What's it do?" Nico wondered.
"It's called ambrosia. It's the food of the gods, and because you're part god, it's pretty good at healing you up. Not to mention that the Apollo kids are really good healers. They have to be because their father is the god of medicine. So, don't worry about a thing."
"That is pretty cool," he admitted before Castor placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You stick with us and we're going to have a blast," he promised.
"Yeah, we can show you how to set an ambush," Pollux added and Nico looked as if he'd died and gone to Elysium.
"Awesome."
"Um..." Percy murmured, but even after his conversation with Castor, he wasn't brave enough to disagree with them - actually he'd probably never disagree with them.
"Ok, maybe take it easy with the whole ambush thing," Cressida said. "We'll just show him the ropes."
Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.
"Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The river is the boundary line. Blue team, Camp Half-Blood, shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis, red team, shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"
"Sweet," Nico whispered. "What kind of magic items? Do I get one?"
Percy seemed like he was about to break it to the kid that he didn't get one when Thalia said, "Blue team! Follow me!"
They cheered and followed, but Percy didn't seem happy about it as he almost tripped over a shield and ran to catch up with them.
They set the flag atop Zeus' Fist, the cluster of boulders in the middle of the west woods. Nico had been put on guard duty with the twins and Beckendorf, hoping that they'd be able to keep him safe.
"We'll send out a decoy to the left," Thalia told the team. "Silena, you lead that."
"Got it!"
"Take Laurel and Jason. They're good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party round to the right and catch them by surprise."
Everyone nodded.
"Cressida, you can take the treetops. You'll be harder to reach and the more Hunters you can incapacitate the better," Thalia ordered and Cressida only gave her a stiff nod. "Anything to add, Percy?" Thalia asked.
"Um, yeah. Keep sharp on defence. We've got four guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."
"And don't leave your post!" Thalia said.
"Unless you see a golden opportunity," Percy added.
Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post."
"Right, unless –"
"Percy!" Thalia exclaimed as she touched his arm and he flinched away as she shocked him. "Sorry," she said, though she didn't sound particularly sorry. "Now is everybody clear?"
Everyone nodded before splitting off into their smaller groups, Cressida busting out a handshake with her two brothers before fist-bumping Nico and then scampering up a tree, using a grapevine to propel her upwards.
She made her way through the treetops, jumping from branch to branch as she made her way through the woods, annoyed with the entirety of the situation, Annabeth being gone, having to work with the Hunters, Percy being stupid, all of it.
She was only a little while away from their base camp when she saw a group of Hunters. And she let her vines loose. Even if they were decoys, it was still fun to mess with them as her vines lifted them into the air by their ankles and knocked them all off their feet like bowling balls.
"Children of Dionysus! Phoebe, find them!" shouted one of the Hunters as the vines taunted them, their bows and arrows essentially useless against them.
She supposed it was the sunlight shining off her armour because she had no idea how Phoebe spotted her from where she was hidden in the trees.
"Treetops! 3 o'clock. It's Lynn!" the Hunter, Phoebe, screamed after she was knocked off her feet. And even though her vines were still attacking them, she began to dart back the way she came as arrows were fired at her position.
The first arrow that came close to hitting her obliterated the branch she was about to step on, sending her plummeting to the ground, at least until she was able to catch herself. The skin of her palm was torn by the wood as she barely managed to catch herself. And then came the second arrow.
The second arrow released cords that wrapped around her body and sent her plummeting the rest of the ten metres to the ground.
But that was their mistake. Because while Cressida was sure that her shoulder was dislocated, the panic that seeped into her body from being tied up only sent her grapevines into a frenzy.
"Cas," she murmured as she began to wriggle like a worm. "Castor! Pollux!" she cried as she couldn't move. "Castor! POLLUX! CASTOR!"
Thankfully, she was close enough to the home base that they could both hear her and feel the ground going crazy because of her vines.
"We got you! We got you, Cress," Castor promised as he slid to her side on his knees, resting her head on his lap as Pollux slid on her other side.
"Just breathe, little sister," Pollux said as he pulled her switchblade from her boot and began cutting through the cables, having left Nico back with Beckendorf when they'd heard their sister's cries.
"You're ok. You're safe. No one's going to hurt you," Castor promised as Pollux pulled the last of the cables free.
"We got you. You're alright," Pollux promised as they sat her up, letting her move her arms and just breathe as she calmed down and so did her vines before they sank back into the earth.
"They didn't know. You're ok. We've got you," Castor soothed as Pollux began to wipe the tears from her face.
Eventually, they were able to get her back on her feet after her initial fear faded and they headed back to Zeus' fist, Cressida sticking close to Castor as Pollux held their weapons because as they got there, Chiron announced, "The Hunters win! For the fifty-sixth time in a row." That last part was muttered a bit bitterly. But then came Thalia's rageful voice.
"Perseus Jackson!" she bellowed, so mad that blue sparks were flickering on her armour. "What in the name of the gods were you THINKING?!"
Percy balled his fists, finally reaching his limit with all of this. "I got the flag, Thalia!" he boasted as he shook it in her face, not that it mattered seeing as the Hunters made it back to their base with the blue flag first. "I saw a chance and I took it!"
"I WAS AT THEIR BASE!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone. If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."
"You had too many on you!"
"Oh, so it's my fault?"
"I didn't say that."
Thalia let out a wrathful grunt as she shoved Percy, but she accidentally sent a shockwave through Percy that had him flying back into the stream. Some of the campers gasped and some of the Hunters laughed as Cressida stood a little straighter.
"Sorry!" Thalia said, turning pale. "I didn't mean to –"
But Percy was too angry as a wave erupted from the river, blasting into Thalia's face and dousing her from head to toe as Percy rose up.
"Yeah," he growled, his eyes dark. "I didn't mean to either."
Thalia was breathing heavily.
"Enough!" Chiron ordered but it fell on deaf ears as Thalia held out her spear.
"You want some, Fish Face?"
That was it. That was the last straw.
That was Cressida's name. That was the name that his Grape Girl got to call her Fish Face and no one else, not even the daughter of the King of the Olympus could call him that. If you weren't Cressida Lynn, forget it.
"Bring it on, Pinecone Face!" Percy roared as he raised Riptide, the river rising with his will as it swirled up, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.
"Percy, stop!" Cressida called as she surged forward.
"Cress!" her brothers protested but it was too late as she got into the middle. She may not have been Annabeth, but she was probably the only one in the entire camp that could talk them down.
And while Percy hesitated at the sight of Cressida standing in front of him, Thalia was too blinded by rage as a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod and slammed into the girl who was just trying to help.
"Thalia! Percy! That is enough!" Chiron said but all Percy saw was his fallen friend as he let the water fly.
"Wine Vine," he said as the wave subsided and sank back into the riverbed, Thalia coughing and spluttering as the water gushed from her mouth.
Her armour was dented and her shirt peppered with burn holes, but scarily of all, her body was lying so still that it didn't even look like she was breathing.
"You're fine. You're ok," he said, mostly to convince himself as he rested her head on his lap and began patting down her pockets.
"Watch your hands, Jackson," Pollux warned as her brothers crashed at his side, unstrapping the dented armour from her torso.
"Chill," he retorted as he pulled the bag full of ambrosia from her back pocket and crushed it, tilting her mouth open as he fed her the godly food.
"I'll chill when you stop doing stupid shit that gets my sister hurt," Pollux spat.
"I stopped! Thalia didn't!" Percy exclaimed.
"Alright, both of you chill! And it wasn't his fault, Polly, you saw it," Castor said as he felt for a pulse. "She's gonna be fine."
"Are you sure?" Percy asked, still feeding Cressida as Chiron tended to Thalia.
"Our sister is a stubborn girl in case you haven't noticed," Pollux snapped. "She ain't going to be knocked down by a little lightning bolt."
"That..." panted Cressida as her eyes fluttered open, her mouth tasting like Sally's blue chocolate cake. "Is the last...time I help...you."
"Don't say things you don't mean, Grape Girl," Percy said as he looked down at her with a relieved smile. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I was microwaved," she groaned as she forced herself to sit up.
"Easy, Cress," Castor said, each of her arms held by her brothers as Percy's was on her back.
"I'm fine," she promised.
"You were hit by lightning, like hell I believe that," Percy said.
"For once, I agree with Jackson," Pollux revealed, all of them rather surprised by his words before they noticed that everyone, even the Hunters had gone quiet.
Someone... something was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, the campers and Hunters gasped.
"Oh my gods," Cressida gaped, a lot of the campers echoing her sentiment.
"This is impossible," Chiron said and no one had ever heard him sound so nervous. "It....she has never left the attic. Never."
And yet the withered mummy that held the Spirit of Delphi shuffled forward until she stood in the centre of the group. Mist curled around their feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green and none of them dared move.
And several people clutched their heads as the Oracle began to speak inside their heads.
"I am the spirit of Delphi," the voice said. "Speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python." The Oracle looked first to Percy with its cold, dead eyes before it turned unmistakably towards Zoë Nightshade. "Approach, Seeker, and ask."
Zoë swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"
The Oracle's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. In the mist, they could see the vague image of a mountain and a girl standing at the barren peak. It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker, and it looked like she was in pain.
The Oracle spoke:
"Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in the land without rain,
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
The Titan's curse must one withstand,
And one shall perish by a parent's hand.
And when the daughter of madness does indeed tire,
She shall burn in purple fire."
As the Mist swirled and retreated like a great green serpent into the mummy's mouth, Cressida's brothers gripped even tighter to her. The Oracle sat down on a rock and became as still as she'd been in the attic, as if she might sit by this creek for a hundred years.
Oh, this was bad.