-𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 10-
𝔭𝔞𝔦𝔤𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔰 𝔞 𝔟𝔦𝔤 𝔡𝔬𝔤
Five days they'd been at Camp Half-Blood. Five days the three new campers had been sleeping on little mattresses in the corner of Hermes' Cabin.
On the first day, Paige had followed Percy out with Chiron, testing out the best things she could do. Apparently, archery was for her. She'd spent most the day getting cheered on by a group of campers from the Athena Cabin at the range, nearly hitting the bullseye every time.
Percy wasn't so lucky.
In every activity they showed him, let's just say they're lucky nothing burned down.
Or, nearly nothing.
Nicholas was nowhere to be seen that day. Not by those two at least. He'd woken up before everyone else and left.
Luke found him at lunch, bringing him a plate full of food as if he'd known where he was the entire time. They spoke about the real world, the mortal world for little bit. Tv shows, movies. Anything to get his mind off what was happening.
Then the Hermes boy took him to see what 'skills' he had.
First was archery, Paige had smiled and waved to him, but was bombarded by people crowding her after shooting yet another red dot.
He wasn't so lucky.
Neither was that boy from Athena's Cabin that was collecting some arrows.
Next was a race.
A running race.
Turns out he wasn't too bad at running away.
But Luke said that wasn't something he should spend time praising himself on.
The second day, he was taken to the wrestling ring. Where Percy and Clarisse were tackling each other on the mat. Or, more so Clarisse was tackling Percy.
Nicholas winced every time the black-haired boy was slammed to the ground, not really liking the idea of doing the same.
But, as soon as the Jackson was tossed out of the ring, the blond behind him chucked him in, right into the Ares girl's glaring field of vision.
Percy limped over to Luke, cringing a smile as a realised what was about to happen.
"Not so tough now, McCallister?"
Clarisse sneered at him, feigning a step closer, cackling as Nicholas jumped.
He recognised the soft gasp of shock from beside him, seeing his twin now standing next to the others, probably scolding them for letting him go in.
Not as if it was his choice.
Still, everyone in the circle around them waited for one of them to make a move, and it took everything in him to not run for his dear life.
This time, the girl took a step forward, and another, and another, until she was circling him, caging him in.
Percy looked up, almost about to tell Luke to take him out of there, before he heard a quiet yelp and he jerked his head back over to the 'fight'. Clarisse was looming over a fallen body, her sneer still on her lips.
Nicholas huffed a breath, looking at her from his lower position, and then everywhere else to find an escape.
If only he'd gotten the time.
Instead, he was pulled up, forced to stand on his tiptoes and face her cold, fierce eyes.
"What're you gonna do? Hm? Luke's prophecy kid... How're you gonna bring misfortune everywhere if all you can do is wait for a punch?"
She hit his stomach, allowing him to hunch over and fall back to the ground.
Paige took a deep, sharp breath and instantly looked over to the tall, blond boy.
"Take him out. She's not playing by the rules." He simply watched intensely, waiting for something. Percy wondered what it was. "Luke!" she pleaded as Clarisse raised her booted foot in an attempt to kick him. "Luke!"
He clenched his jaw, but stepped forward nonetheless.
"Clarisse. That's enough. Save it for Capture the Flag."
Surprisingly, this was all it took for the God of war's daughter to back off, getting congratulated by her fellow demigods as she walked away.
Paige crouched down beside her brother, helping him stand as he took deep breaths.
"Thanks for that, Luke. Should've just let me stick to running."
He shrugged her hand off, embarrassed that those three had just watched him get beaten up by a girl who shrieked when doused with water.
"Sorry, thought something might've happened."
Percy, intrigued, questioned, "Like what?"
Luke paused.
Then he relaxed and patted him on the back, "nothing. Doesn't matter. Let's go before someone else wants to fight one of you."
***
Three days later, after Percy found his skill for sword fighting, or beginners luck as some called it, and canoeing, apparently, Paige's unbeaten reign as best archer, Nicholas' lack of anything, and a deep talk with Grover about his searcher's license, the trio stood with a large group of kids from Apollo, Athena and Hermes', Luke at their side.
Chiron stood on a tall rock, ensuring he could be heard by every camper.
"Heroes! 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!"
Tables at the front filled with an assortment of weapons and armour.
"Whoa," Percy said. "We're really supposed to use these?"
Luke looked at over at him, as if calling him crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five." The Jackson boy shivered at the idea. Luke picked up a bunch of equipment. First he handed some to Percy. "Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol." It was big shield and a helmet with blue fur or something on it.
He then turned to Paige, giving her a bow and arrow, with about fourteen arrows in the holder he gave her. "You're with me on defence."
Finally, he turned to Nicholas.
"You. You're the distraction."
"Wait what?"
Luke smiled apologetically.
"Annabeth thinks half the other team would rather fight you then play the game. So, you better use your running for this one."
Nicholas' and Paige's faces dropped and paled at that.
"You're not serious, right? And you're just sending him out unarmed? You saw what happened with Clariss-"
Luke shook his head.
"You know what happened with those boys from Hephaestus. I'm sure he'll be fine." Paige kept her glare straight on him, and he seemed to notice that the green-eyed boy next to her also had a similar look to him, which only intrigued him further. "Fine." The older camper dug out a small object from his pocket, like a pocket knife.
Nicholas' face remained fear sodden.
"Have this." He didn't really get the choice to decline as it was thrusted into his hands. "Open it."
It took him a moment to find the button that clicked it open, but once he did, and once he pressed it, the hilt grew about three times the size, and what he expected would be a tiny knife, turned into a full sized sword.
His eyes widened.
"Uh- I feel like this is a bad time to say I've never used a sword."
Luke smirked.
"It's fine. You probably won't need it anyway."
That didn't make him feel better.
***
As the conch horn blew, Paige charged forward, side by side with Luke, feeling her bow hit against her back. She loved the rush of the wind blow against her face, no doubt a red creeping up to her cheeks as the cold nipped them.
They turned right, drifting past trees and soil ripping up from the ground as they planted their feet into it.
It seemed like only five minutes before they reached the flag place, where the Hermes' boy simply slowed down and faced away from it, holding his sword in a defensive manner, prepared for anything.
Paige followed suit, readying an arrow in her bow, pointing it at anything that moved.
Nothing happened.
Not for a while.
And the silence bothered her.
It kind of reminded her of all those months that Nicholas refused to speak to her. Just sat on her left, biting his lip or glancing away when she tried to talk to him.
She didn't like it.
"Do you think they'll be okay? Percy and Nik. No one's actually gonna try and hurt them right?"
Luke didn't bother to look at her before answering.
"Actually, we're kinda counting on it."
She furrowed her brows, "what do you mean?"
The blonde's lips quirked into a hidden smirk.
"The Ares' kids have a thing against Percy. And I'm sure Milo and Jacque have a few friends from Hephaestus that are willing to go after Nicholas, even if it means losing dessert privileges."
Paige frowned.
That didn't sound overly good.
"So, you want them to get hurt?"
Her bow was now at her side, completely forgotten.
"No. I want to win. And that's exactly what we're going to do. Protect the flag. I'm going to help Annabeth."
She turned away from him, barely hearing his footsteps walk away, facing the trees again.
And prayed her brother and new friend would be okay.
***
"How fast is this kid?"
Nicholas never really thought about where he was going.
He just ran.
Ran fast.
Barely missing trees and fallen branches.
But somehow he managed.
Nothing ever happened to him.
Unlike the boys trying to catch up.
He'd heard about ten 'ows' in the last two minutes. Unfortunately, they kept going, even with the blood dripping down their legs and arms and heads.
"He can't run forever! Keep going."
As soon as that conch horn blew, Nicholas recognised the faces of Milo and Jacque glaring right at him. Only ten seconds after he'd been separated had they joined forces with about seven other boys, all around the same age of 14, and began chasing him through the forest.
Every now and then, he came across someone from his own team.
But they were too busy trying to get to the flag or protecting their own.
He didn't even get the chance to open his pocket knife sword, leaving him absolutely defenceless.
"You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"
The yell was ear-piercing, but was still probably about fifty-feet away behind a hoard of large trees.
Yet it gave him immense comfort.
Because he knew that voice.
And he knew who it would be yelling at.
Immediately, the twelve-year-old swerved to the right and used the rest of his energy to run toward the loud scene ahead.
And in less than a minute, he arrived at a creek, seeing Percy Jackson standing in the water, a very angry Clarisse standing in front of him.
Oh, and Luke and a hoard of his team crowding round with a flag in his hand.
They won.
Nicholas looked around, hearing the loud cheers of every camper on the winning side. He saw Paige in the centre, near Luke, but she didn't look all that in the mood for celebrating, instead, she was scanning around, as if looking for something.
Her eyes finally landed on him and let out a sigh of relief.
He raised his hand in a wave, turning to face backward for a moment, feeling a little smug as the group of older boys arrived and huffed in annoyance at their failed plan.
Until a low growl sounded from the forest, and the cheers silenced.
Annabeth, who'd somehow appeared next to Percy, now out of the water, drew her sword at Chiron's command.
Nicholas realised everyone was doing the same, preparing themselves, so he too switched his stance into one he saw Luke doing from further away, taking out the blade from his pocket.
Paige glanced down at her twin, seeing him with the small pocket knife. And it made her worried. He was much closer to whatever this thing was.
And he didn't know how to use this sword.
On the rocks emerged out a large, black hound. It was about the size of a rhino, and it was glaring straight at Percy Jackson.
Nicholas looked at it.
It looked familiar.
Like he'd seen it in a dream. And it was only now that it seemed plausible. Maybe he had.
"Percy! Run!" Annabeth tried to jump in the way, but the beast was too fast. It leaped over her, not paying attention to the blond with stormy eyes, instead landing right on the black-haired boy, sending him flying back.
Its claws lodged themselves into his chest. Luckily, the armour stood in its way.
Percy closed his eyes, prepared to feel a hell of a lotta pain, until the monster fell dead at his feet.
Four arrows buried in its neck.
Everyone's gazes first turned to Chiron, but his eyes were elsewhere, and no arrow was in his hands.
Luke was the first to notice the brunette standing beside him, her shaky arms still in position to fire another arrow.
It didn't take long for camper to realise what had happened.
Nicholas' lips parted as he looked as his sister in shock. He almost started cheering right then and there.
If it wasn't for Annabeth's voice cutting him off, maybe he would've.
"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't...they're not supposed to..."
Paige let out a small breath, lowering her bow, listening intently to the girl, hoping she'd say something to calm her thoughts. It didn't. Obviously.
"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."
Luke lightly grabbed the brunette's shoulder and brought her over to the group by the creek. She felt like she could finally breathe, away from the watchful eyes of her fellow campers.
Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"
"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.
They looked over at the beast, watching it melt into the shadows.
"You're wounded," Annabeth turned to the green-eyed boy. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."
Nicholas scanned him from where he stood, noticing the blood covering his body.
"I'm okay."
"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."
He slowly stepped back into the creek, noticing how campers started gathering around, his eyes finding the twins, now standing together by the tall, muscly blond boy. He felt better, and quite frankly couldn't tell if it was because he could feel the cuts on his chest close up or because he was looking at his friends.
Wait what?
He looked down, seeing his cuts close up.
"Look, I-I don't know why, I'm sorry..."
Campers gasped, but they weren't looking at his chest.
He looked at Nicholas, his eyes on something above his head. His face blank.
Unlike Paige's. Unlike Luke's. Unlike Annabeth's. Because they knew what it meant.
"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um..."
He finally looked up, a sign there in the air, fading already. It was like a hologram, green, spinning and gleaming.
At three-tipped spear; a trident.
Annabeth briefly looked to the brunette on her right, noticing how she looked completely in awe.
"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."
"It is determined," Chiron announced.
Everyone got down to their knees, even the Ares cabin. Annabeth brought her hand up to grab Paige's hand and bring her down, but she already did it, following everyone else's suit.
Nicholas looked around his standing form, down at everyone who was kneeling. He creased his brows and frowned, absolutely baffled.
He felt if he bent down he'd never stand back up.
His legs felt so close to collapsing after all that running.
"My father?" Percy asked hesitantly, scared what this meant.
"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earth shaker, Storm bringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."
Nicholas' eyes widened, just as Percy's.
Oh...
That wasn't what he expected.
a/n sorry for the month long wait. Writers block be bitching. Hope this made up for it! Also the twins' claiming will be either next chapter or the chapter after so make sure to come back for that!!!
Thanks so much for reading!