Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Seven: I Take a Crash Course, Literally

The next day, I woke up the next morning to the breakfast bell, which was the same red fire alarm. I ate breakfast with the other Hephaestus campers, we all laughed, told stories, and joked. I noticed most of their jokes were either mechanics or machine-related.

"Hey why did the robot go crazy one day?" asked Rod through the gap in his front teeth. " 'Cuthz he had a thcrew loothe!"

That joke killed the entire table.

Despite their bad jokes, I enjoyed their company. They were all very friendly and helpful.

After breakfast, all my siblings walked back to the cabin and grabbed their combat because we were scheduled for combat training in the arena this morning. Everyone seemed excited. I was told that all the Hephaestus campers were good fighters, almost as good as the Ares kids. Although, it was Jeremy who had told me that, and he had kind of a big head on his shoulders, so I wasn't really sure if that was bona-fide fact. Everyone grabbed just their armor and jogged down to the arena. I let Beckendorf know that I didn't have any armor.

Beckendorf and I ran over to the armory and quickly got me fitted for a set of armor. The armor was leather, and consisted of a hard, thick leather breastplate, two leather pauldrons, or shoulder pieces, two other pieces that covered the fronts of my thighs, and a metal helmet with a red horsehair plume on top. Beckendorf put on his own armor, then we ran over to the fighting arena.

We arrived just in time for practice to start. Sword training was being taught by Beckendorf, and a big, mean-looking girl who I learned was named Clarisse La Rue. I asked who she was and Jake leaned over and whispered that she wa sthe head of the Ares cabin, and not someone I wanted to mess with. He didn't have to tell me twice. She looked like the after picture on protein powder ads.

Behind her stood the rest of the kids from the Ares cabin, and man, did they look like a mean bunch. Granted, I had been a fighter for years, and I had sort of grown up with mean individuals,'children of the war god'-level mean was not something I was prepared for. We got in rows and columns, and practiced various attack and defense techniques. I knew that typically, Greek foot soldiers would carry swords and shields, but today we were practicing with just swords. Clarisse would walk up and down the rows, barking orders, telling people to lunge farther, or swing harder. I got barked at a few times.

"Hey New kid! Keep your guard up! You wanna get shanked?"

"New Kid! Swing like you mean it!"

"Don't make me come over there, New Kid!"

"The name's Jace," I grumbled once.

"I'll bother learning your name when you learn to manage a blade better than a three-year old!"

The other Ares kids snickered at me, while I got grimaces and sympathetic glances from a few of the other Hephaestus campers.

"All right!" Clarisse ordered. "Time for sparring. Partner up!"

Everyone grabbed a partner, mostly with kids of the same cabin. Not wanting to impose, I more or less waited for someone to approach. No one did. When the crowd cleared, it was just me and another Ares kid looking at each other. He was about my age, built, and had a flat, brutal face. I walked up to him.

"Looks like it's just you and me, huh?" I said, trying to be friendly. I smiled and held out my hand. "I'm Jace."

He glanced down at my outstretched metal arm. He turned and walked away. "Whatever, freak." he grumbled.

If we were in the boxing gym, I would've smacked him upside the head for a comment like that, but I was in new territory here. And besides, we'd be sword fighting, not fist fighting. I just bit my lip and waited for our turn to spar to come.