STRENGTH
━━ act one, chapter two.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
DEATH FOLLOWED NABI WHEREVER SHE WENT, EVEN IN HER DREAMS. At first, when the dream began to form through the haze of her mind— she didn't know what the scene actually was. But when she began to recognise it, Nabi shivered, and her heart sank into her stomach.
The first time she had experienced the loss of a life was when her mother had died, during her childhood; mourning a mother she would never know enough of. Soon, she found herself in the arms of her Aunt Lisa, her mother's sister who had taken her in.
The second time was when she'd once asked to go out to the shops. A black cat, with a soft meow and frail paws was outside of the store, begging for scraps at her feet. Nabi decided to go to the same shop every day, just to see the little creature and spend her pocket money to feed it. A few weeks later, the poor thing had starved to death; Nabi had had no money left.
The third time was... the worst one. Just like the past wilting lives she had blamed herself for — her aunt's love hadn't lasted. That was the night she had decided to leave; the night that she decided not to use her powers unless it was a last resort; the night that Nabi was currently rewatching in her dreams...
"Ungrateful brat!" Garrett growled. "Without me, you'd be living on the streets!"
He kicked Nabi, and she went skidding across the room. The man, her aunt's boyfriend, snarled down at her, taking a swig of his beer. Some of it dribbled from down his chin and onto the wooden floor, looking at the small girl with wild eyes. She stuttered, "I—I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please don't—"
"Shut up, fucking bastard." He spat. She winced as his hand flew toward her, slapping her face so harshly that it left a red mark. "You can't tell your aunt anything, otherwise, I'll leave. And you'll be broke, with no money, and no clothes, because I'm the only reason you both are still alive. Got that?"
Nabi nodded, trying not to cry. Garrett wasn't satisfied, though, and kicked her again. She muffled a noise of pain, as he sneered, "I want to hear you."
"Yes," She mumbled, then quickly added on, "sir."
He squinted, still looking at her before suddenly, he chucked the bottle across the room. It shattered, and shards of glass flew everywhere. "Good. Now go clean that shit up."
With shaking hands, she rose to her feet and scuffled to the mess he'd made. Nabi had accidentally cut herself on some of the pieces, but she silently continued doing what she was asked. Her breath hitched when a drop of her blood fell onto her aunt's favourite carpet — she turned to the man, and he gritted his teeth. "You better make sure that gets cleaned too, kid."
She swallowed a lump in her throat. Nabi's voice cracked as she mustered, "Okay. I'm sorry."
For some reason, her words made him even more angry. He clenched his fists, and swung at her. His punch knocked the wind out of her, and she curled into herself slightly at the blow. He yelled, "I don't want your fucking apologies!"
He hit her again, and then again. Until she was begging for it to end. She choked, "Please stop— please! Stop, stop!"
But he wouldn't... so Nabi made him stop. A feeling inside of her leapt in her chest, and without proper reason, she flicked one of her trembling hands upwards with force — a shadow from the room followed her movements like she was guiding it. As Garrett attempted to land another hit, aiming to break her nose, she tugged the shadow forward. Whatever she was doing felt sore, like her muscles were straining as she commanded the darkness... clearly, she wasn't experienced enough with this ability. But the shadows wrapped around his neck, and he muttered, "What— what's happening?"
He began to choke, trying to pull whatever had grabbed hold of his neck off of him. Nabi backed away against a wall, her hand still raised and aching as she commanded the shadow to stay wrapped around the man. When he tried to take a step forward, she closed her open palm, the darkness seemed to tighten around his neck. He was growing pale — losing oxygen, as he dropped to his knees.
"Shit, kid!" He choked, "Stop— stop! I'm sorry!"
Her heart thrummed loudly in her chest, and throughout it all, she had realised that her crying hadn't stopped. Tears were streaming down her face as she watched his face form into one of desperation.
Suddenly, undead people with translucent forms emerged. They drifted toward Nabi with bodies made of mist. They circled around her, some of them mumbling incantations of sorts. Her eyes widened, and as they surrounded her, her body felt less painful. "What— what are you?"
One of them responded calmly, "We are your father's people. You did not summon us, but he did. We are ghosts sent to ensure your safety — if we were not here, you would not have such strength to... defeat this man."
Her father's people?
Garrett couldn't seem to see the ghosts. Instead, he looked at Nabi like she was crazy. For speaking to herself; for creating some sort of inexplicable force to harm him with. Nabi felt like he was right — maybe she was going insane, and this had to be her imagination or something.
He pleaded again, but his words came out like a croak, "I'm sorry, make it stop!"
A ghost, the one closest to him, hummed. "I thought he didn't want apologies. Did he not say that?"
Another one laughed. "He'll join the undead soon. There won't be any apologies there."
Nabi tried to release the shadow's grip on Garrett, but she accidentally tightened it further. She tried to fully control it, stop it somehow, but she didn't know how her powers worked, how any of this worked. If she was powerful enough to understand, then maybe she could've prevented it from going any further.
But she couldn't, and eventually, he stopped breathing.
"No, no, no!" Nabi cried.
"She is fine." One of the ghosts, the one who had first spoken said, "We must go now."
She blinked, and the ghosts, the darkness that had trapped Garrett, all of it was gone. Nabi wiped her eyes, her vision flooded with tears and her breathing erratic.
His lifeless body was the only thing still there. The only reminder that what had happened was real.
She stared at her hands, then scrubbed them on her jeans like she was wiping away dirt — wiping away the guilt and the death on her hands. Nabi trembled, and weakly murmured, "I... I didn't mean it. I didn't—"
"What did you do?"
Her head shot up to see Aunt Lisa. She was staring at her in the doorway, struck with horror. Nabi's heart stopped. Her aunt uttered words that she'd never forget; that would forever haunt her like the ghosts she'd summoned. "You... you killed him. You're a monster."
Nabi awoke with a strangled gasp.
She looked around with blurry eyes, trying to steady her breathing. That's when she realised that the noises around her were the rest of the Hermes cabin getting ready for breakfast. Her heart was beginning to slow, still shaken a little from the nightmare.
"Your turn to have a bad dream, Nabi?"
Luke was leaning against his bedframe, giving her a look of concern. She nodded. Nabi rolled out of bed and got to her feet, grumbling, "Regular demigod things."
"Regular demigod things." He repeated, with his boyish smile. "Well, it's a Friday, guess what'll take your mind off of it?"
Nabi groaned, knowing what his answer would be. Luke grinned, and sure enough, he said, "Capture the flag!"
【 🦋 】
NABI HATED CAPTURE THE FLAG. She was mediocre at sword fighting, and didn't enjoy combat at all. Maybe if she actually practiced she'd be better, though Nabi didn't like violence much in general, so she avoided the training centre like the plague. On the rare occasion she'd be there, it was because Clarisse would've begged her to 'help' with sparring. Nabi wasn't much help though, so she didn't know why Clarisse really bothered.
It was a wonder to almost everyone how Clarisse and Nabi — two polar opposites — were best friends.
Nabi had skipped last week's game of capture the flag by faking a stomach bug, so she had to participate in this one.
Now here she was, with the blue team — the Athena team, led by Annabeth, on the one side of the creek, whilst the red team — the Ares team, led by Clarisse, was on the opposite side. Chiron made his usual speech on the rules, "The first team to retrieve the opposing flag and return it across the river shall be the victor. As always, there will be no maiming and no killing."
Nabi tuned out for a moment as her eyes flitted to Clarisse walking to the front of her team — wearing her armour and helmet with a stern look on her face. She was wielding a shield and her spear. The spear was probably her most prized possession since it was a gift from Ares himself, and was incredibly deadly with the electricity that crackled with it.
She made sure not to move her head whilst looking at her though, straight faced and in line with the cohort, just like the rest of her teammates as they listened to Chiron's words. Percy was beside her, looking around awkwardly. He didn't really look like he knew what to do.
Speaking of Percy, she had heard about a certain incident involving him and a few Ares kids, including Clarisse. She had apparently tried to dunk his head in the toilets, and somehow, ended up getting soaked. It must've been the 'initiation ceremony' that she was talking about.
"I trust these rules will be respected," Chiron said, "Any magical items you possess are permitted as well. Every camper who is not injured has to play."
Clarisse's eyes met hers for a moment.
Usually, Nabi would offer a bright smile, and Clarisse would pretend like she didn't want to smile back. Sometimes, Nabi would even mouth a compliment about how Clarisse looked in her armour, but instead she looked away (which was a shame, because Nabi really liked seeing her in her armour, in a proud friend way, of course). She wanted her to know she still didn't approve about the bullying. If Clarisse was upset by Nabi ignoring her, then she didn't show it.
Chiron had finally finished his speech, and announced, "Let the games begin!"
Everyone let out their war cries, yelling as the conch horn sounded. Some of the blue team signalled out, and people started making their way to their positions.
"Alright," Annabeth walked over to Luke, "we have twenty minutes before the second conch and game-on. You know what you're doing?"
"Yes, ma'am." Luke smirked, and he turned to walk off.
"Hey," Annabeth called out, making him spin around to hear her last words before they got ready, "today feel like a winning kind of day to you?"
Luke's smirk only grew, and he nodded. "I'll see you on the other side. Company! Move out!"
"Kleos!" Nabi's unit yelled, and followed his orders. She gave Percy a smile as he left with Annabeth, and mouthed, 'Good luck!'
Percy didn't seem very pleased.
As the time ticked on, Luke led them across a bridge, all of them running to a spot in the woods where an Athena camper placed the flag on a high rock. Shouts and whoops erupted throughout the raucous crowd as they weaved through the trees and soon, as the conch sounded once more, the game had truly begun.
"Can't I stay here to guard the flag?" Nabi whined. "I literally suck at fighting, and I hate doing it."
Chris snorted. "Nope. You're coming with us. Last time you guarded the flag, you practically offered it to the other team."
"It was a three against one situation!" She argued, throwing her hands up.
"Well, we need you — you know Clarisse best," Luke explained, "so you'll probably know where she planned to put the flag. Let's go."
【 🦋 】
SHE JUST BARELY MANAGED TO DODGE A SWORD COMING HER WAY, ducking down and swiftly using her own to parry the next oncoming attack.
Nabi was in a battle with her teammates, surrounded by an equal amount of opponents. She fended them off as best as she could, swinging her sword and attempting to land a few hits. Chris and Luke were doing well against some campers — they swung their shields to block attacks and struck down people with their own weapons.
She couldn't block an oncoming shield that smashed into her, and she almost toppled to the ground. Nabi was glad her teammates were better fighters than she was — cause they had her back. In one quick motion, Luke had disarmed the guy who had been close to knocking her down, and then sent a red team girl flying against a tree with ease. He turned to the last one standing, and she backed away. "We give up."
Nabi was impressed. He was the camp's best swordsman for a reason.
Luke seemed satisfied at the girl's surrender. He turned so that he was facing both Nabi and Chris, as the rest of their teammates ensured none of the fallen opponents would get up. "I wanna move quick. Straight through the woods to their flag."
His two friends both looked at him like he was crazy. Nabi said, "Clarisse hunts in those woods for the first few hours. We all know that."
"She's gonna cut us down." Chris stated.
Luke shook his head, leaning in to whisper, "Annabeth's got a plan. Percy's on it. When it's time, he's gonna be ready. I know it."
Chris made a disbelieving noise, scoffing, "You can't be serious."
"Clarisse is way too strong! He's new, Luke." Nabi exclaimed. "You can't do that to him."
"He'll be fine." Luke promised, then turned to the rest of the team, "You guys stay here. Us three will go on ahead. Nabi, Chris, let's go. You guys have any idea where it could be?"
"Clarisse likes that one really big tree, you know which one I'm on about?" Nabi asked. "We hang out there sometimes when we have free time, and last week, she mentioned something about capture the flag. It'd be a good area to place it."
Luke said, "The one near Zeus' fist? Yeah, I know which one. Let's check there, then."
The group of three continued on. Eventually, they spotted the flag right where Nabi had suggested it'd be. Ares' symbol of a boar and spear embroidered it, with the flag placed in front of a tall tree. The rules claimed only two people could guard the flag, so they had an advantage in numbers — standing ten yards away from the flag were the twins, Pollux and Castor, from the Dionysus cabin.
"We could do this the easy way," Luke got into a fighting stance, smirking at the two foes, "or the hard way."
They drew their weapons.
Chris swung his sword at Pollux, which the Dionysus kid blocked with his shield. He retaliated with a slash of his own, but Chris swivelled his sword to clash against his, and knocked him back — Nabi took that as an opportunity to slash at his legs, and Pollux fell to the ground. Nabi pointed her sword at his neck.
Meanwhile, Luke was taking Castor in a one against one. The two stabbed and blocked, until Luke found an opening for his blade to strike Castor in the chest, and he was down in less than a minute.
Luke smirked, taking his time walking to where the flag was perched. "We'll be taking this."
"Stop trying to act cool and let's go already." Nabi huffed, rolling her eyes. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we finish."
"Alright." He laughed.
They ran through the woods, rounding up their cohort as they passed everyone by. Some of them yelling, "We've got the flag! Make your way back!"
Soon, with Luke leading the group of people, they were almost out of the woods.
A gut wrenching scream could be heard, echoing through the forest. Nabi felt like she knew who it was. She ran faster.
The conch horn blew as the blue team exited the woods — victorious and roaring with pride — as Luke placed the red flag onto the shore to claim the win. It shimmered silver, and the symbol was replaced by Hermes' sign of a caduceus, changing the flag's colour to blue. Chris and Luke did the thing guys do, pulling each other in with a hand and yelling they'd won. Nabi scanned in search of who had screamed, but was distracted when Luke ruffled her hair, and she couldn't help laughing. The cheering and happy hollering were contagious — this was one thing that Nabi didn't mind about capture the flag. The smiles on her friends' faces. Though, some of the red team seemed disappointed.
But then her smile dropped when she saw Clarisse. She must've been the scream Nabi had heard. She realised that the Ares girl was there on the shore, surrounded by a couple of defeated teammates — Clarisse looked like she was ready to destroy Percy, her grasping his shirt to lift him up from the ground with a look that exuded murder. She was seething with rage.
Clarisse turned to look at the triumphant opposing team that were cheering, then directly at Nabi. She scowled, letting go of her grip on Percy, and then trudged away to go pick something off of the ground.
Nabi frowned. She lightly jogged over to where Clarisse stood, holding something in her hands. When she realised what it was, Nabi repressed a gasp... it was Clarisse's electric spear. It was broken. Nabi knew how much she cared about it.
"Clarisse..." She murmured.
Nabi took a step closer to squeeze Clarisse's bicep in comfort, and felt the girl tense. She turned to Nabi, still infuriated, "What? If you're gonna tell me off for trying to beat Percy up, then you can—"
"Are you okay?" Nabi asked, cutting her off, looking up at the taller girl.
Clarisse stared at her. Then she swallowed, and Nabi could see the way her gaze softened and her shoulders relaxed. Instead of answering the question, Clarisse muttered, "You care about me too much."
"Do you not want me to?" She cupped Clarisse's face, and Nabi felt the way she melted into her touch.
Clarisse's eyes drifted away, and then she stared at the broken spear in her hands. She turned their attention back to the weapon. "Percy broke it. He's a fucking idiot."
Nabi said, dropping her hands, "It's alright, we can—"
"But it isn't." Clarisse muttered. "This is all he's ever given me."
Nabi hated Ares. She hated him for leaving Clarisse, without a hint of sorry. Clarisse needed him, needed someone in her life that she could look to for unconditional support and kindness. But the gods weren't known for such things. And Nabi didn't mind giving Clarisse anything she needed.
Just then, a canine growl emitted through the trees.
A howl ripped through the forest. Everyone stopped cheering instantly, uneasy at the threatening noise that lurked near them. Chiron said, in Ancient Greek, "Stand ready! My bow!"
People unsheathed their swords, took out their spears. Clarisse wrapped an arm protectively around Nabi's waist, whilst the latter had her sword ready just like the others.
There on the rocks just above them, was a black hound the size of a rhino, with piercing red eyes of ferocity, and fangs as sharp as daggers.
It was a hellhound.
The mastiff turned its head, until it met Percy's eyes. Everybody stood in shock, until Annabeth yelled, "Percy, run!"
Annabeth tried to step in front of him, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her, an enormous shadow that lashed out and hit Percy. He stumbled backward as the monster tore through his armour with sharp claws, ripping through the metal like it was paper. It was all happening so fast almost no one could react.
Chiron shot a cluster of arrows into the monster's neck, and it fell dead at Percy's feet.
By some miracle, Percy was still alive. But his armour was in ruins, and he was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've killed him. Chiron trotted up next to Percy and Annabeth, a bow in his hand, his face grim.
Annabeth stammered, "A hellhound from the Fields of Punishment... They aren't— they're not supposed to..."
"Someone summoned it." Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
His words filled the campers with dread and trepidation. Luke came over, his moment of glory gone. Everyone watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadows, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.
"You're wounded," Annabeth said, "quick, Percy, get in the water."
Percy said, "Why? I'm... I'm okay."
"No, you're not," She said. "Chiron, watch this. Percy... I'm sorry."
Without warning, she pushed Percy into the water. He made a loud splash, and spluttered, "What is wrong with you?!"
Miraculously, as he stood up, the cuts on his chest and the rest of his body began to close up. He touched his skin, seemingly surprised himself as his wounds healed like they'd never even existed to begin with. Everyone, including Nabi herself, watched in awe. Percy mumbled, "I don't understand."
"Your dad's calling." Annabeth told him.
A hologram appeared above his head, and Percy looked up. It was a three-tipped spear, a trident gleaming a faint green light.
"You have been claimed by Poseidon," Chiron announced, "Earthshaker, Stormbringer... PERCY JACKSON, SON OF THE SEA GOD."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦!
જ⁀➴ alrightt, so i said that the series & the books would mix together... hope the hellhound scene was a nice surprise! trust me when i say it's important for later... 🤭 hope u enjoyed capture the flag, because nabi totally didn't lol. she's not very good at sword fighting in the 1st book, but dw! our bbg will learn! also love how she's a words of affirmation & physical touch girlie whilst clarisse is defo a quality time & acts of service girlie like ,, cuties!
as always, hope the chapter was a fun read, and i can't wait for u all to read the next one! i luv seeing all ur silly & cute comments, love you guys! <3