The Legacy of the Sky, Book 1: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: I Go Shopping for War Equipment
I was seated at the table for the Hermes cabin, as I was unclaimed and apparently Hermes didn’t mind having strange demigod children sit at his table. People were divided up by who their godly parent was. Elissa, much to my dismay (though I didn’t want to admit it to myself), was seated with her various siblings at the Apollo table, not too far from me. She would occasionally glance over and we would catch each others eyes, but both turn back to our dinner. One thing I wasn’t accustomed to was to have to burn some of my food. People kept telling me that it was a burnt offering to the gods, but I just thought it was a waste of a great dinner.

After I was finished my dinner, somebody came up behind me and whispered in my ear, “Come with me. We need to get you a weapon,” and I was steered off by the blonde girl I had seen when we had first touched down in camp.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

“To get a weapon. I’m Annabeth, by the way, Annabeth Chase. I’m a child of Athena, and we’ve got a good selection of weapons for you to use. Trust me, you need a proper weapon for capture-the-flag,” she told me. She led me to the cabins area and to the side of the Athena cabin, a grey stone building, where a tool shed sat. Annabeth tugged on the lock and it gave way too easily, and inside were not gardening tools, but rather more weapons than they probably had at Fort Knox, everything from swords to bows and arrows to javelins and to… shotguns?

Annabeth rummaged around. “What kind are you looking for?” she indicated the whole shed with a wave of her hand.

“Oh…uh, well, I was pretty good with Rebecca’s dagger today. I have done some sword play too in my free time, in the past,” I told her, not really sure what to say. It wasn’t every day somebody you had just met takes you out for weapon shopping. Then again, this wasn’t just ‘any day.’

“Hmm, maybe you would be better with a sword, definitely for capture-the-flag,” she said. “But you said you were good with the dagger. Maybe give you both?”

“Oh, maybe, that would be a good idea, sure, I guess,” I stammered.

Annabeth frowned. “You seem upset. You okay?”

“Sure, just, a little overwhelming day.”

“Yeah, my first day at camp was rough, even by demigod standards,” she consoled.

“So, yeah, I think I’ll take both,” I said after a few seconds silence, trying to sound more casual and upbeat.

“Go ahead and pick. Swords are up here, daggers are in those drawers there. I’ve got to go get my cabin ready. So… oh! You need a shield!” she exclaimed suddenly, making me jump slightly. She rummaged farther into the back and pulled out a round bronze shield. Nothing special, just lines from the center like a wagon wheel for design, but since we had capture-the-flag in about twenty minutes, I knew it would have to do.

“You’ll need armour too, but you should see Chiron or someone from Hermes about that,” she added. “I got to go now. See you at capture-the-flag, and you better hope you’re on my team.” She grinned, and with that she left. I stood alone in the tool shed, holding the shield and staring at a drawer of bronze daggers. I took a moment to think about my day. I was a demigod. My father was an Olympian god, and I hadn’t known all this time. So was Elissa, the girl I had liked ever since I started at St. Charles Academy. I was roused from my thoughts by a thundering of running people. I quickly went through the draw and pulled out the dagger that fit the best in my hand, then scrambled to the back and picked out the best sword I could find: three feet of bronze, the handle wrapped in leather that fit my hand nicely enough. I ran out of the armoury tool shed and looked around lost. All of the sudden, Gregory came out of nowhere, trotting towards me, his furry goat legs bare, but that didn’t matter, because he didn’t really need pants anymore. He was dressed in an orange camp shirt covered with armour that appeared to be made out of tree bark, and he was carrying his cudgel over his shoulder.

“There you are! Where have you been? No time, got to get you to the forest,” he panted. He grabbed my shoulders and steered me off to the woods. We got to a clearing with a creek running down the middle, and there were demigods everywhere, about one hundred fifty in all, all of them clad in full bronze Greek armour. I was quickly hustled in with the Hermes group and people immediately started putting armour onto me, doing up straps for me, as I just stood there feeling a little uncomfortable.

Over the crowd, I could here Chiron talking. “I want a clean game. Deaths will not be tolerated. As usual, the creek is the halfway line. All weapons and magic items are permitted. Teams will now be made. Since Athena cabin won last week, they as blue team, get the first pick.”

Annabeth stepped forward. “We’ll take Poseidon cabin.” Apparently, no one was surprised by this when one guy stepped forward and joined Athena.

“Ares cabin, as red team, go next. Clarisse, take your pick,” Chiron announced.

A rough looking girl stepped forward. “We’ve got Hephaestus.”

Annabeth and the rough Ares girl, Clarisse, took turns as to who they got to pick.

Annabeth called out, “Apollo cabin.”

“Hecate.”

“Nike,” Annabeth countered

“Tyche,” Clarisse called.

“Hermes cabin,” Annabeth finally said after some thought. We all shuffled forward, some kids still trying to fix my armour. The lone guy from Poseidon cabin came over and waved off my other helpers, than started fixing it himself.

“Don’t worry; you’ll get it on your own after no time. It took me a little bit. My name’s Percy, by the way, Percy Jackson,” he whispered as Annabeth and Clarisse continued picking.

“Matthew, Matthew Anderson. How long have you been at camp?” I asked him.

“After this summer, it’ll be five years. I know, I’m such an old-timer,” he joked. I cracked a grin too. “There, all done,” he said as he fixed the last strap on my bronze plating, then handed me a helmet with a big blue plume on top. After all was said and done, there were about nine cabins on each team.

“Campers!” Chiron called, and everyone fell silent. “The head counsellors for the lead cabins are to take and hide their flags. At the sound of the horn, the game will commence. Depart!” he called, and both teams ran to their respective sides. I was led away from where Annabeth was taking the flag so that we didn’t give away its position. We didn’t have to wait long until we heard the conch horn sound, but instead of thundering forward, everyone advanced slowly and silently. I followed Patrick Thieve from Hermes, Rebecca Smythe from Nike, the one who rescued me, and Lily Pierce from Demeter. We slowly advanced, keeping to the bushes, Lily creating some when there were none to hide behind, as that was a power of Demeter’s children. We crept along, sometimes hearing sounds of commotion and battle far off in the woods, and occasionally meeting rival teammates creeping along themselves, but we managed to remain unseen. Sometimes, when we thought we were screwed, I would look at a bush several metres away from us and it would rustle like someone was behind it, and the campers would go off and investigate, allowing us to move on. I wasn’t doing it intentionally, in fact, I didn’t think it was me at all, but I couldn’t be sure with all the things that had happened today. We moved and we moved, then we came to an open clearing, filled with burly campers.

“Ares. They’ve got the flag,” Patrick whispered, halting me before I crawled into the open. We all crouched down lower than before.

“That’s totally against the rules! There are way more than two guards there!” Rebecca complained quietly.

Suddenly, right behind us, a voice whispered, “Yeah, but we’ve got a plan.” The four of us jumped and nearly gave away our position, but a figure materialized out of thin air in front of us. I was thankful it was Annabeth, holding a New York Yankees baseball hat. Out of the bushes followed Percy and Elissa, she too clad in full armour, but was armed with a bow and quiver of arrows with an additional dagger and shield. We smiled at each other

“Interesting day, huh?” she whispered to me as the others went over a plan to get the flag.

“No, I find out my dad was a god everyday,” I joked, and we both sniggered quietly when the others motioned us forward.

Annabeth was the first to speak up, “I’ll go in with my invisibility cap and knock down their flag, making them go nuts with panic, then move away quickly.”

“Then I’ll create bushes and vines to get into their way,” Lily added.

“Elissa, do you have any special arrows?” Rebecca asked.

“I think I do. This one looks different,” she said a she pulled out an arrow with some things trailing from the arrowhead.

“Good, use those while Lily is doing her thing,” Annabeth instructed. Elissa nodded.

“Then, Patrick, Matthew and I will get the flag and make our way for the line while all of you hold them off back here. We’ve got do to this fast,” Percy said readying his sword. Annabeth put her Yankees cap back on and vanished. A few seconds later, we saw the flag fall to the ground, and the bewildered Ares campers spun around in surprise, but found nothing. Lily closed her eyes in concentration as Elissa notched and arrow and let it fly, spewing smoke on its way by, bursting like a smoke bomb when it hit a tree. Percy motioned and the three of us went forward, Patrick retrieving the flag from the ground and making a break for it, Percy and me covering him from behind. As we ran, we got more and more enemy campers following us in their panic of losing. Arrows zipped around us, kids closest to us slashed and hacked at us, but Percy and I managed to keep Patrick covered until…

THWAK. An Ares camper, by the looks of him, came out of nowhere and took Patrick out at the knees. I saw an arrow whiz by, but it wasn’t meant for me, it had a large, blunt head to it and it knocked the Ares camper to the ground. I didn’t look around to see who shot it, but instead, my instincts took over and I scooped up their flag and kept running for my life. I was aware of my sheathed sword bouncing against my back, and kids shouting around me, but I kept going. Finally, I could see the creek in sight, but as soon as I flew into the clearing, I felt some sort of invisible rope snag at my feet, and I went tumbling to the ground. The flag tumbled three feet away from my outstretched hand, and I saw another camper come out form the woods. She pointed at me with her finger, and sparks flew towards me. I rolled away, the sparks narrowly avoiding me. I stooped to pick up the flag again, and then continued on my way. I was so close to the creek, it actually was physically painful, the euphoria of victory charging me forward. I was ten feet from the half way point when a giant arm came out of nowhere and smacked me in the head, effectively close lining me to the ground. He stood over me grinning with satisfaction, then raised his foot and stomped it into my chest. When my vision came into focus, I recognized him as the Ares kid who had taken out Patrick.

“MATTHEW GET UP!” I heard Rebecca yell as she came bursting out of the forest with Percy at her heels. I rolled away from the camper over top of me and grabbed the flag, then somersaulted my way over the creek. People around me cheered, but the Ares kid kicked me in my side, and I went tumbling. Everybody fell dead silent, some from my team raising swords. I got up on one knee then snarled at him.

“Christian!” I heard Chiron call as he cantered into the clearing. He apparently didn’t hear the centaur as he took his sword and hit me against the helmet with the butt end of it, sending me to the ground once more.

“CHRISTIAN PIKE!” Chiron roared, “The match is over, blue team has won. There is no need for this violence!” He took a second, and then hauled me up to my feet by the straps of my armour.

“Was that really necessary?” I asked through gritted teeth, trying to clear the spots from my eyes.

“What are you gonna do about it, punk,” he taunted, shoving me against the shoulder. I don’t really know what happened next, but anger boiled up through me and I swung my arm out at him and my open palm hit him in the chest, and I could feel wind rush past me that sent him flying backwards across the creek, electric sparks trailing off the scorched bronze plating.

“I…I didn’t… I didn’t mean to do that,” I apologised to no one in particular, scared of what I had done, but Christian just got up holding his head, a look of malice upon his face, but campers all around had a different expression: a mixture of awe and fear.

All around me, people started to bow down, even Chiron as he spoke aloud to the whole camp, “Your parent is finally revealed. Hail, Matthew Anderson, son of Zeus, god of storms, Lord of the Sky, and King of Olympus.”

Chapter 3: I Enrol at Summer Camp