Crystal Jones - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - The campfire comes to life
I spent all day in the sword-fighting arena training with Callum. Callum didn't do the training himself, he just set up rules and drills and exercises for me. The guy who actually did the training was Sylvester Falcone, a pretty good-looking son of Athena with black hair and a build like the ultimate Olympic runner. The guy fought like most people played cards - every move careful, but precise and executed marvellously and strategically - and it was incredibly hard to keep up with him. He wielded his sword like a silver blur in his hand, and not once did his calm expression change.

I had to admit that I felt much better fighting with my spear, but Callum insisted I fight with a sword to get more practice. A sword felt less mighty, and I was used to being able to fight with open space and a larger weapon with greater possibilities on long-range attack, but Sylvester pointed out that swords were lighter, easier to wield agilely with less momentum and could be wielded easier with two hands. Eventually, though, it finally came to the point where I had to fight him in a simple sparring match, and I'd barely got the hang of the basics. I wasn't used to this kind of combat - I was used to street fighting, not what was essentially the moves for a combative dance.

Sylvester and I stood three metres apart in the sword arena, and everyone in the Hermes and Apollo and Demeter Cabin gathered around us, eager to watch. Callum called and we ran at each other. I faltered, scared of hurting Sylvester, even though we were both in armour. Sylvester didn't hesitate for one single second. His sword arced for my throat and I blocked there, but it was a feint and he cut for my thigh and I desperately swiped lower to block him, and he twisted his wrist expertly, ridding me of my sword in a single manoeuvre. I desperately reached for it and grabbed it only just, before turning and dodging a decapitating stroke that missed me by the width of a wire. I rolled underneath him and staggered to my feet.

"Is that the best you can do?" screamed somebody from the Hermes Cabin. Sylvester didn't seem to hear them. He walked forwards and started cutting at several parts of my body and I struggled to block him blow for blow, backing against the wall of the arena. I moved for an attack of my own, to his briefly unprotected shoulder He anticipated the blow and twisted my sword into my own stomach and I arched my stomach inwards to avoid it, pushing back and Sylvester stepped back three times, before swiping his sword out of the bladelock and stabbing for her knee. I deflected the blow and unleashed my own series of cuts and swipes for him. We fought for several minutes, with him twisting my blows aside or against me, and his own attacks coming from my blind sides and from unexpected areas, and only my ADHD keeping me from being cut to pieces.

Eventually, however, he performed a complex disarming technique and sent my sword flying through the air out of my reach. Sylvester swung for my chest and I arched right back so his blade scythed across my face, and I stepped behind him, and when he turned to attack again, I tensed my muscles and swiped my hand forward, shoving the air forwards in a single wave of wind. The attack, where all sword strikes had failed, sent Sylvester flying backwards, hitting the edge of the arena and slumping to the ground, stunned. Getting to his feet, Sylvester laughed, picking up his sword.

"Cheat!" shouted somebody.

"No powers in the sword arena!"

"It's fine." Sylvester said, calmly, "Technically, there will be no rules in actual combat. Not every duel is within the rules of the arena, remember." To my surprise, he walked up to me and patted me on the back, shaking my hand casually. I'd as good as humiliated him in front of the other campers, and he just shook it off like it was nothing. If it were me, I'd be outraged. Somebody returned my sword to me and the other campers gathered in the arena to pat me on the back.

The rest of the day went by really quickly. After the display in the sword arena, everybody wanted to be friends with me. I did the climbing wall three times altogether, without getting burned. I found I was pretty good at riding, even though it just didn't feel right having a horse between my legs, felt like I had limitations to what I could do off the ground. I kind of sucked at archery, but then again I was paired against a guy from the Apollo Cabin, so that figures. At the end of the day, we gathered at the campfire like we always did, and everybody clubbed together to toss a purple laurel into the fire, turning the flames purple.

I sat at the edge of the fire, lonely and holding my marshmallow stick, when a figure lurched next to me. It was a girl from the Apollo Cabin - she was fit and strong-looking, with fierce golden hair and green eyes, with her hair plaited behind her elegantly. She sat next to me and smiled.

"Hi." she said, "I'm Sal." She extended a hand and I shook it.

"Crystal Jones." I answered, "Nice to meet you."

"I know who you are." said Sal, "I saw you in the arena. Hardly anybody can hope to hold against Sylvester like that, even in training. He's the best swordsman at Camp thus far."

"Is that so?" I asked. I could certainly believe it - I counted like twenty hundred times in that arena he had the chance to kill me, "So, you Apollo kids...you're good with arrows, is that it?"

"Good with arrows?" Sal winked, revealing a custom-made bow. She unslung an arrow from the quiver she was wearing and aimed at the Aphrodite Cabin, where one of the girls was holding a sausage over the fire - I noticed behind her that another Aphrodite kid, and an Ares kid, were bending over to kiss each other. With a wink, Sal aimed carefully and then fired the arrow through the campfire, spearing the sausage through and pinning it to a tree, right between the lips of the Aphrodite and Ares kid, just blocking them from kissing. They snapped apart, blushing, and I couldn't help but giggle at this. It was impressive archery.

"So, you're the new daughter of Zeus. How do you like the Camp?"

"A bit much, if I'm honest." I said, "Not used to being around other people."

"Spent your life on the streets?"

"For as long as I can remember."

"And how long can you remember, exactly?" I couldn't help but wonder at that question - I couldn't remember past the last two years!

"I don't know...two years." Before I could carry on, the campfire suddenly burst into a ball of huge flame and I jumped back. Everyone did, gasping, even Chiron stumbled back in surprise. The flames suddenly turned black, and started swelling into a large cone of fire.

"Di immortales!" gasped Sal. Suddenly the flames shaped into a tall, robed man. I gasped. The man stood in the flames, draped in a voluminous black robe, the flames licking at the fabric but not singeing it, nipping at the man's body but not burning it. The man was imposing and muscular-looking, with long black hair and intense black eyes that boiled with genius. His skin was frighteningly pale, almost sugar-white, and the accusatory expression on his face was terrifying.

"Hades!" shouted Chiron. Dionysus, who was sitting morosely at a bench several metres away, rose to his feet, alarmed at the presence of the God of the Dead. Hades, his spiderly hands clasped in front of him almost formally, surveyed the Camp through those cold eyes, and moved slowly around the fire. It might have been my imagination, but all of the lights around the campfire, perhaps the entirety of the Camp, went out, shrinking into darkness. I also felt, whenever my eyes fell on the man, like I just wanted to bow before him, to fall at his feet and sleep forever....but, somehow, I ignored it.

Then Hades turned and his eyes fell right on me. I froze. I couldn't help it, I froze. I was terrified, and I had no idea why. The only other thing I noticed was how the shadows seemed to writhe and pulsate and twist in Hades' robe, and I distinctly glimpsed agonized faces morphing through the fabric, as if the robe were made of human screams.

Then Hades opened his mouth and spoke in a powerful, calculating voice, "Persephone has disappeared. I can not find her. There will be a new Prophecy...and it will compel you to find her. You have until the sun is eclipsed...or Spring will die."

"Why are you coming to us with this?" I asked, having no idea where I got the courage to do so from. Hades' eyes fixed on me when I spoke, "Why don't you go find her yourself?"

"Don't..." Sal whispered from behind me, but Hades spoke over her.

"I am a God, girl," he hissed, "She is above the ground, and something is keeping her from me. I cannot find her."

"That's not an excuse..." I said, but I stopped when Hades' eyes blazed with warning. I shut up.

"Until the eclipse." he snarled, "You have until the eclipse...or Spring will die!"

With that, Hades stepped back into the flames and vanished in a pillar of black fire.