CHAPTER FOUR
( capture the flag fiasco )

PERCY'S FIRST DAYS finally incorporated in camp were. . .interesting to say the least. Each morning he took Ancient Greek with Annabeth, and I had the absolute pleasure ( notice my sarcasm? ) to teach him archery with Chiron. We did our best to be patient with him, at least, we tried to, but at the end of the lesson we figured maybe he wasn't skilled to use the bow and arrow. Surely it had nothing to do with the fact that he shot a stray arrow at Chiron's tail. I laughed, but my joy was cut short when Percy shot another arrow and this time it flew past my head.

Thursday afternoon, the newbie had his first sword-fighting lesson. I had the pleasure to see it in the first line, since my cabin had the lesson with the Hermes cabin. Cabins from time to time are mixed together for classes when the schedules lined up, so this was a special occasion. Everybody from both cabins gathered in the arena, and Luke would be our instructor for the day. Luke was the best swordsman in camp, and everybody could agree with me. He taught me all the tricks I knew, although I avoided fighting with a sword.

The lesson started well, beginning with using the old dummies as our opponents as Luke taught us where would be the best way to strike an enemy. He tried his best to fix and help Percy up, since the poor guy seemed to have trouble in finding an appropriate sword. In a matter of minutes, we moved onto dueling in pairs, and I immediately ran to pair up with Molly, since she offered good advice. Luke announced he would be Percy's partner, since this was his first time.

Molly and I dueled for approximately five minutes, which consisted in me losing my breath with just two movements while she barely raised a finger. "Try to think your moves in advance," she had told me after I gave up dueling her for the second time. "The smart swordsman doesn't lose."

That sounded like something Annabeth would say, but I didn't argue. There were moments where Molly and I stopped dueling and chatted amongst ourselves when Luke wasn't looking, too distracted in either assisting Percy or pulling Will away from his Hermes cabin partner after he accidentally stabbed him in the toe. Luke called for a break and almost everyone ( including me ) ran to the cooler to get a refreshing drink. Although it didn't calm my breathing down like my inhaler did, it refreshed me from the inside out.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."

Oh, this is gonna be good, I thought. Can't wait to tell Annabeth about this.

We gathered around them to see what was about to go down. I could see Hermes guys with hidden smirks, silently enjoying the scene probably because they had been in the same situation before. My siblings were already placing bets on how long it was going to take for Luke to completely humiliate Percy, but Lee shot them all up with a simple scolding look. Luke 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."

He demonstrated the move in slow motion. In a few seconds, the sword clattered out of Percy's hand.

"Now in real time," Luke announced, giving him back his sword. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

He nodded, and Luke came after him. Surprisingly enough, Percy was able to counterattack and block Luke's jabs. He stepped forward and tried a thrust of his own and Luke deflected it easily, but I could see from my spot a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press him with more force. Luke gained the advantage and there was a visible expression of fear behind Percy's eyes before the dynamic did a full degree turn; Percy tried the disarming maneuver. His blade hit the base of Luke's and  twisted, putting his whole weight into a downward thrust. Luke's sword rattled against the stones with a loud clang.

I didn't know if my jaw had hit the floor from how I dropped it. The other campers were silent.

Percy lowered his sword, taking the silence the wrong way. "Um, sorry."

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. "Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

Percy seemed like he didn't want to or he didn't remember how, but Luke insisted. This time, there was no contest. The moment the swords connected, Luke hit his hilt and sent the weapon skidding across the floor.

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He showed a whole new interest in him. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword...."

I hid a smirk behind my palm and found Luke's eyes searching mine amongst the crowd. It seemed like we both had the same thought in mind. Annabeth would love to hear about this. Maybe the blue team finally had a chance of victory in Capture the Flag.

FRIDAY NIGHT AFTER dinner, I could sense the excitement radiating from all campers. I figured I was probably the same way, since Capture the Flag days were the ones where cabin rivalries really shine through. When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about three meters long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her friends ran in with another banner of identical size, but red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Privileges had been traded – shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities – in order to win support. Let's not include the fact that Annabeth, Luke and I created the alliance, and we just had to convince our cabins to follow through.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters were some of the ones I was mostly preoccupied about, since they pretended not to care about the game but once you encountered one of them, you'd be in for a heck of a fight. Hephaestus's kids weren't many, only being four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, meanest kids I've ever had the bad luck to meet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he announced. "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!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal. I grabbed a helmet that was just the perfect size, adjusting my french braid down my shoulder so it wouldn't get stuck on the back. I also slung across my shoulder my own bow and quiver of arrows, which had color bombs tied to them ( curtesy of the Hermes cabin ) since I wouldn't be able to shoot at the opposite team in the 'traditional' manner.

Annabeth suddenly yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our respective weapons before following her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off towards the north. I fell into step beside Annabeth and we began discussing how we'd split up, too concentrated in our strategies to notice someone following after us.

"Hey."

We turned around at the sound of Percy's voice. He was wearing the blue helmet like us, but his was much bigger for his head; along with the rest of his armor.

"Whoa, there, big guy," I walked to stop in front of him. "Your armor's crooked."

My hand grabbed the strap that was out of place and hooked it under the right spot. He stared at me like I had spat in his face. I just did him a favor. That unadjusted armor would've fell off his body the minute he tried to fight if someone didn't help him adjust it.

I didn't wait for him to say anything and turned back around to find Annabeth impatiently waiting for me a few steps ahead.

"So what's the plan?" Percy blurted out. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

Annabeth's hand drifted towards her pocket, as if she were afraid she'd lost something. "Just watch Clarisse's spear. You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." She pushed ahead.

I made sure Percy wasn't in earshot before I whispered to Annabeth. "Are you sure it's going to work?"

"Trust me, it will," she seemed mildly offended I asked her that question. Of course she knew what she was doing. "Now go up a tree and shoot some arrows!"

I ran up ahead of her as she headed the other way and I saw her pull her old Yankees cap over her head. I impatiently tried to find a tree tall enough for me to hide in without being spotted, but also with branches low enough for me to climb up to. It took a few minutes and a few failed attempts in climbing up the tree, but I managed to pull through. My fingers shook as I pulled an arrow from the quiver and adjusted the bow's string, alert for any sign of the red team around my area. In the next minutes of the game, I shot about six arrows. Two at daughters of Aphrodite, one at Castor, who was one of Mr. D's children. The other three were at different children of Ares and they weren't exactly happy at being covered with color bombs. One even shot me a not-so-nice hand gesture before he stormed off.

If Annabeth's plan was working ( obviously ), Clarisse would've followed after Percy in her petty act of revenge and leave the flag defenseless. Luke probably was already running back to us with the red team's flag in his hands. I just had to make sure any other campers tried to stop him. And I was right. From my line of sight above the treeline, I saw Luke racing towards the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat and a few of my siblings behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and I heard Clarisse mutter a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They tried to run after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I carefully made my way down the tree to join the celebration. When I reached the creek, I found Percy standing with his feet deep in the creek, surrounded by a fuming Clarisse and her equally angry buddies. My eyes fell on the broken spear by Percy's feet and I internally winced. If he wasn't already in Clarisse's kill list, he probably was on the number one spot.

I heard a faint shuffle near me, and I knew who it was. Annabeth's voice rang in my ears, though I couldn't see her. "Not bad, hero."

Percy looked utterly confused at the fact that he heard her but couldn't seem to find her.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked.

The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding her Yankees baseball cap, indicating she just took it off her head.

"You set me up," he accused. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but. . ." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

My eyes focused on the injury in his arm, although it wasn't quite an injury anymore. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," he said defensively. "What do you think?"

Annabeth seemed to notice what I was staring at too. "No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

There was no blood. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. It didn't take long before that scar began disappearing until there was no sign that there was injury there in the first place.

   "I – I don't get it," Percy stuttered.

Annabeth had that face that indicated she was thinking of something. Her eyes focused on Percy's feet that were underwater, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What –"

"Just do it."

He came out of the creek and it was visible how all energy drained from his body. It seemed like his arms and legs went numb, nearly falling over, but Annabeth steadied him.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want. . .I assumed it would be Zeus. . ."

I connected the dots and my eyebrows furrowed in concern. Just like she said, this was not good at all. Percy opened his mouth to question Annabeth's words, but he was cut off when we heard that canine growl, much closer than I hoped for. A howl ripped through the forest. The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

I pulled an arrow from my quiver; Annabeth drew her sword.

On the rocks just above us, was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and dagger-like fangs. My eyes followed what it was glaring at, and it was focused right on Percy.

I tried pushing him off to the side and placing myself in front of him, "Percy, run!"

Before I could fire the arrow, the hellhound moved from its position. It leaped over me – an enormous shadow with teeth – and hit Percy. He stumbled backwards and I saw how its razor-sharp claws ripped through the armor. I snapped out of my terrified gaze to grab the arrow and stab it near the hellhound's neck,; because of the color bomb tied to the end of it, a cloud of green powder exploded all over Percy and the monster. After mine, several other arrows rained over me and landed in the monster's neck. The hellhound fell dead in a couple of seconds.

By some miracle, he was still alive. I guessed the cuts caused by the monster's claws were underneath the armor, and internally winced at the thought. Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales," Annabeth cursed out. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't. . .they're not supposed to. . ."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron stated the obvious. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told him. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

He looked too tired to argue. He stepped back into the creek with the whole camp gathering around us. Just like I imagined, the color returned to his face and his cuts were magically closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I – I don't know why," he began, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry. . ."

Nobody was paying attention to his wounds, since a bright, green light caught our attention. I couldn't contain the gasp that escaped my lips when I saw the symbol hovering above his head.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um. . ."

There was no denying that it was the hologram of a three-tipped spear: a trident. A symbol that a demigod could identify in a matter of seconds. Annabeth found my gaze between the other amazed campers, and a scared look flashed in her gray eyes.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around him, campers started kneeling, and I copied the same action. Even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look too thrilled about it.

"My father?" Percy asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."