𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

vi. Balance Between Mortal and God

━━ chapter six
balance between mortal and god

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

━━Fiona wishes she had eaten when she'd had the chance. Walking with Percy, Hazel and Frank to the war games, her stomach decided to be hungry instead of when she was actually eating. Once they got out of the camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars━the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short, and the earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from the past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons and most definitely plenty of other surprises awaiting them.

"They did a good job today," said Hazel. "That's bad for us."

"Wait," Percy made a time-out sign with his hands, "You're telling me that fortress was built today?"

"Legionnaires are trained to build," said Fiona, spinning her dagger around as she thought of the best way to win. She had a fresh determination after what Percy had said. "If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Of course, it would take maybe three or four days, but we could do it."

"Let's not," said Percy. "So you attack a different fort every night?"

"Not every night," said Frank. "We have different training excercises. Sometimes deathball━um, which is like paintball, except with ... you know, poison and acid and fire balls━" (which is Fiona's personal favourite. She's a bit chaotic). "━sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions━" (Fiona also likes those. She used to be a gladiator champion before she started her losing streak), "━sometimes war games."

Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."

Percy's eyes lit up, "Like capture-the-flag. I think I like capture-the-flag."

Fiona arched a brow at him, amused. "Yeah, well, it's a lot harder than it sounds. But so cool. It's challenging, which is what makes it the best. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight through the inside of the fortress, find the banners and defeat the guards, all the while protecting our own banners and troops from capture. And our cohort is in competition with the other two attacking us. We work together, but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory."

Percy pursed his lips at her thoughtfully. His brows knitted, "You remind me of someone."

(Oh, so is she competing with some other ghost now, is she?━Fiona didn't say that, obviously). "Who?" she asked, wondering whether he figured something out from his past.

Percy went to tell her, but seemed to think better of it. Instead, he asked, "So why are we practising this, anyway? Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?"

"Teamwork," said Hazel. "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."

"Like who will stab you in the back," added Frank.

"Especially that," Hazel agreed.

"Which is usually me," finished Fiona, grinning again at her joke and liking how Percy seemed stumped for a second before he realised she was kidding.