Ichor

Commander (Part XV)

Year 20 - Commander
Planet Earth

° ° ° °

The Chaos Soldiers watched on in fascination as both teams battled it out. The sheer power that the demigods possessed without even trying was awe-inspiring. They saw sword skills at almost imperceptible speeds. They saw arrows fly by with deadly accuracy. And they saw powers used regularly.

Lightning struck the earth several times as the children of Zeus/Jupiter battled it out, plants went crazy as the children of Demeter and Dionysus went by, and full-blown magic was being cast by children of Hecate.

Older soldiers noticed that it was similar to their Commander's powers with water. The generals noted this too and tried deducing who his godly parent was. It should have been obvious, but sometimes the obvious is too overlooked as plausible answers.

Sam happened to be stationed near Ichor and silently observed his reaction to the game. It surprised him to see that his mentor looked pained. After the first few minutes, he came to realize it was the pain of longing. But that made no sense to Sam. Ichor told him long ago that he lived in a city and this place was far from a city. And if he was longing for something here that would mean he once lived here too. And you could practically see the lightbulb come on above Sam's head when he figured out that Ichor was a demigod. Now all the secret meetings with Travis made sense. The way they would talk about things that no one else seemed to understand. The way they trusted each other immediately after meeting when it usually took Ichor months to trust someone.

What Sam still didn't understand, however, was why Ichor needed to hide his past. Did he just not want the attention it would bring him? That was a very reasonable answer. His mentor hated being in the spotlight even though it insisted on following him around. Yet whenever he told Sam about his past, which was extremely rare, he always said he missed it. Ichor clearly wanted to go back, so if he never took time off to do so, it could only mean he wasn't allowed to. And Sam doubted Chaos would prohibit his esteemed Commander from visiting home once in a while had he asked or without good reason. So that means something or someone here on Earth had been preventing Ichor from returning. And this revelation made the younger soldier much more intrigued.

Sam's desire to know something was so on-brand for an Athena camper that anyone who glanced over and saw the determination to uncover information etched into his face might have mistaken him as one. Though, he looked almost the opposite of the typical Athena camper's appearance with his strong dark skin and deep chestnut hair offset by warm amber eyes. And while the Athena campers were all in shape, none could compare to Sam's defined muscles that seemed to be chiseled into stone.

Regardless, it was his similar mindset that put Sam on a path seeking answers. He vowed to himself that he would uncover the truth one way or another.

The intense game ended with the Hunters as the victors. One Chaos Soldier (Travis) amongst the campers was not enough to defeat the centuries-old fighters. But the soldiers did learn a lot by watching. They saw how the campers preferred to have multiple moving parts that featured individual skills. For example, Travis and his brother were tasked with sneaking around and sabotaging the other team's traps by setting their own. They would use their powers, but their other skills did not suffer in mastery because of it. And Thalia was the only Hunter that didn't seem to hate the campers and the only Hunter who the campers didn't seem to hate.

Besides that, not much was gained. Admiration on the soldiers part maybe, but they would be hard-pressed to admit that to the campers. The shocker came when the generals and their seconds overheard Clarisse and Thalia talking after the game.

"We'll get you next time," the first said.

The second scoffed. "Not likely. You don't stand a chance. In fact, the campers have been slacking since I last arrived."