Project cosmos: The Golden Ring

Shirubaburedo The Sword

As I walked back to my cabin, Ivy was waiting for me. She was smiling.
"How did you like the sword?" she asked.
"It's beautiful," I said.
"It's got a name too!"
"Really? What is it?"
"Shirubaburedo,"
"I can't say that..."
"I like to call it Shiru,"
"I can do that,"
I turned Shiru in my hand. Why do magic weapons always have such weird names?
The rest of the day was very uneventful. Latona settled into Cabin 10. She was all alone. No one else stayed in that Cabin. Siv said that Chayla rarely claimed anyone, just like the rest of the major gods. That would explain why Ivy was the only other person in my cabin. Ivory is a major goddess.
Then I remembered that Mark and Travis weren't claimed yet. I wondered who might claim then. Major or minor, god or goddess? I'll have to wait to see it.

THE NEXT DAY...
The sky was bright pink, and the clouds were light orange. It was 5:00 in the morning. Ivy was still asleep, but I was sitting by the window, looking at my sword. Ivy said she couldn't use it, but she thought that I might be able to. What did that mean?
When Ivy woke up, I was already dressed and ready to go to the Meal Hall for breakfast. I wanted to go early so I could check on Latona. She was still all alone.
Ivy and I walked down the trail to Cabin 10. The lights were on. I opened the door, but Latona wasn't there. I went to Cabin 39 to see if she went back in there, but that cabin was empty too. They all were. Not even Siv was around. None of the workers were around either. Ivy and I were alone.
"Isabelle, I hope you brought your sword..." Ivy said.
"Why? What's going on?" I asked.
"I think we're dealing with a break-in..."
"I thought nothing could get in here though..."
"It's an Ophies... winged serpents that sometimes tend to make people see things..."
Then came the ear-piercing screech. We weren't alone after all...
Then it hit me. All of this wasn't real. Ivy had said that this kind of monster is an illusionist. That would mean that we were basically wandering around in a dream.
WAKE UP! I told myself.
YOU NEED TO WAKE UP FROM THIS DREAM! I yelled again.
Ivy heard me. She now knew what was going on as well. I held my sword out in front of me, hoping to scare the Ophies off. It didn't work. I still couldn't see it. Its roars rang in my ears. I couldn't take it anymore.
"GET OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME!" I yelled.
It came out. It was a giant flying snake, just like Ivy had told me.
And it was looking right at me...
"You need to get rid of that thing!" Ivy shouted.
I swung my sword at the monster, blue flames streaking the air. As the blade hit the Ophie's scales, it disintegrated, almost like that small spider I had to defeat to save Travis. I beat another monster!
The illusion fell as soon as the monster died. Everyone was still asleep. It was the middle of the night, not morning. Ivy and I walked back to our cabin and went back to sleep, hoping the Ophies wouldn't come back.
That night, I dreamed of many weird things, but the worst one was a dream about Latona.
In the dream, I saw Latona running through the camp at night. She was alone. Well, that was except for the giant monster chasing her. At first, I thought it was the Ophies, but then I realized that it wasn't. It was a giant bird, breathing fire.
Itsumade!
One of those stupid fire-breathing, oversized chickens was after my friend! Then I remembered that it was just a dream. I woke up to the sound of Ivy's snoring. I still can't understand how one person can snore that loud... I'll never know...

THE NEXT DAY (again...)
When everyone gathered in the Meal Hall for breakfast, I checked on Latona. She was okay! I told her about my dream, and she was scared.
"So, last night I had this dream..." I said.
"About?" Latona asked.
"You..."
"What was I doing?"
"Running..."
"From what?"
"Itsumade"
"Oh no..."
"What?"
"So, you know how we're demigods and all?"
"Ya?"
"Well, Siv told me that when demigods have dreams like that... it usually means that they're seeing something that's about to happen..."
"No..."
Was Latona in danger? She's my best friend, I didn't want anything to happen to her...
"I won't let that happen," I said sternly.
"You can't always change the future..." she said back.
"I don't want you to get hurt though,"
"I know. And I'll be okay! Now let's go and find Mark and Travis!"
"Okay"
We got up from our table and walked over to Mark and Travis, who were all alone.
"Oh, hey guys!" Mark said cheerfully.
"Can we join you?" I asked.
"Of course!" Travis said.
Then Ivy found us again.
"Hey Isabelle!" she said.
"What's up?" I asked.
"They're starting sword fighting again this week! Wanna come?"
Sword fighting... I have a sword... And I know how to use it... Why not? What could go wrong? We'd only be hitting each other with real weapons!
"Why would I not?" I asked.
It all went downhill from there.
I was going against some kid from Cabin 24. He was a child of the god of trickery, Luke. I'm not ready for this. The kid keeps going behind me to strike my back, but I can see his move. He's really slow. That makes me wonder if he's really from Cabin 24 after all... And of course, I beat him. I turned his sword into glitter