The next few days we settled into a routine that felt almost normal.
"Don't you feel surprised, or amazed by the fact that you were getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur?" Annabeth once asked, "I did."
"Oh, well, maybe." I took a quick glance at Thalia who was talking to some random girl.
In the morning, I took Ancient Greek with Annabeth, and the rest of the day, we'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at.
Chiron tried to teach me archery, but he found out pretty quick I wasn't so good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.
Thalia sniggered at the sight. "Aunt Artemis would be so annoyed."
"Oh, shut up." I huffed.
She laughed.
I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it.
I gave them my best hint of being good at canoeing, not being as strong as the Ares kids, nor as good at archery as the Apollo kids. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Yeah, good try buddy, Hermes is like my best cousin, but not my dad.
Thursday afternoon, three days after We'd arrived at CampHalf-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson.
"Someone is going to blow his cover." Thalia sniggered.
"I am no good at sword fighting" Bianca said staring at the big circular arena where everyone from cabin eleven gathered with Luke as an instructor.
We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. Which was pretty fun.
The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me. Well, hey, I used to have this amazing riptide when we were on Olympus.
We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced we should tripled up and that he would help, since this was our first time.
"First time." Thalia sniggered.
"You are better at faking dumb than I've expected, Percy." Bianca laugh softly as she let Thalia tied her hair up as a braid.
I rolled my eyes.
"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."
"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I raised my eyebrows.
Bianca smiled at that.
Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then try to whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "Perfect!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!
"He is better at faking dumb than I thought." Thalia laughed.
By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler.
"Luke is good." I said nonspecifically. "I mean,"
"They said he was the best swordsman in three hundred years" Bianca reminded.
"Yeah."
"Then you are the best lier in three hundred years." Thalia joked.
"Hey," I raised an eyebrow. "Remember we used to train together."
"But we were never as good as you anyways."
"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."
The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.
"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."
"Well, there is this demon who worked it out in his first time." Thalia mouthed.
He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.
"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"
"Sure."
And Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.
I used the disarming maneuver.
My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.
Clang.
Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.