Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

BONUS: THE DAY SHE WON

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Tess and I ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree, the caduceus and the sun, symbols of Athena, Hermes and Apollo respectively. From the opposite side of the pavilion, the Ares cabin ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head, a hammer and a dove.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

Tess yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

"Okay, team, you know the game," Tess said. He handed the flag to Lee.

"Good luck," Lee told us as we ran through the woods, leaving the Apollo kids to guard the flag.

"Okay, this is good," Adam said, as we reached about a hundred yards away from the Ares flag territory. "Apollo campers and Ari, onto the trees. Quickly."

It took us some time, but a couple of other kids and I climbed the tree, nocked our arrows, ready to strike.

Adam strategically hid himself behind the bushes.

Tess blew his conch horn. A set of flares went high up in the sky.

The battle had begun.

I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. I let go of the string, aiming my arrow through the shirt of the red- plumed guy ten feet below me. I found out that my quiver never went empty, like it had an unlimited amount of arrows.

Soon enough, the Ares kids were all glued to trees with arrows. Only five more were left standing.

A helmet fell in to the battleground, knocking out one of the Hermes kids. That was my signal.

"I've got the flag," I muttered to Jacob, who was sitting next to me. I got down from the tree, waving a red cloak that I'd borrowed from Tess, and ran away.

Rumors always spread like wildfire. In this case, it spread like Greek fire.

Before I knew it, I was running through the wild, waving the cloak as high I could, leading around thirteen kids away from their territory towards ours. The Hermes kids flanked behind me, forming a protective barrier, fighting off Hephaestus kids and Ares kids alike. But just as I was about to cross into friendly territory, a few hundred yards away, someone pulled my leg.

They'd caught up.

I tripped and fell down. Hermes cabin was still fighting back. I stood back up, smirking.

"Where's the flag?!" Ares Head Counsellor, Ethan Ramirez, shouted at me. He was surrounded by three more kids from Ares.

"Right where it should be," I replied. I caught his sword between my bow and twisted it away from his hand.

Tess came to my help, fortunately. He started sparring with one of the kids. I took out an arrow, nocked it and it set it straight for Number Three's shirt collar. He went flying along with his shirt. Thank Alexandra for strong arrows.

"Ah!" screamed Ethan. "None of you know how to fight!"

He bent and picked up his sword, only to find himself face to face with an arrow, ready to dive straight through him.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Adam jumping over the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Ethan muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" he shouted. "It was a trick."

Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. Lee was positively jumping in delight. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Adam and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

Adam got down from his seat of honor, hugging Lee and Tess at the same time. Other kids joined the hug, forming a small circle of joy around the border of the creek. I removed my arrow from the bow and put it back on the quiver. Both disappeared as quickly as they had come.

"Good game," I muttered to Ethan, and skipped over the border happily.

Tess gave me a quick hug, whispering, "We won!"

And then, the three boys hoisted me up on their shoulders.

"Ariana!" Adam announced. "Athena's Cabin six!"

"Hail!" the others followed, cheering loudly.

The four of us lifted the banner into the air, screaming in joy.

And that's how things were in Camp Half Blood. A life of joy, adrenaline, energy and friends. From that day, Athena Cabin, along with it's allies, won Capture the Flags- always.

Because Athena always has a plan.

Tess and I grew on each other, his sarcasm becoming a part of me, and my innocence and way of thinking became a part of him. Both of us led a pretty decent life with our best friends- Lee Fletcher and Adam Worth. I sent back to Cecilia via mail the three hundred pounds I'd borrowed. Adam was pretty confused, but he sent the letter to her with his father's help.

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Tess, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense. I discovered that Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities. Lee and I went to Chiron for archery. He still complains about the day I shot at him by mistake.

Foot racing, I wasn't bad. The wood-nymph instructors were hard to catch up to. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.

And wrestling? Forget it. I wasn't going anywhere near Ethan.

Canoeing was a big no. Just, blech.

Tess and I gathered to the sword fighting lessons every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, led by none other than Adam Worth, the best swordsman ever. It was difficult, but Adam switched his partners between me and Tess, giving me a break once in a while.

I felt like Mr. D was always keeping an eye on me every time I passed through the Big House. In fact, once in a while, during dinner, he'd have the manners to smile or nod at me. It was rather unnerving, because he acted like that in front of nobody else... nobody else.

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