The Child of Hecate: The Arising Oracle

Chapter Four: My Sister And Her Friend Explode Half The Sword Arena

ANNABETH

I had taken a sibling to camp. It was sorta weird, but I did know that pretty much everyone in this camp, by one way or another, were distant great-times-a-thousand cousins, if you counted the godly side of people. I stopped my brain. I also knew that if you thought too much about the godly side of things too much, you could go down the lunatic road.

Akari gasped. She scrambled and bobbed down and up, even trying to swat the glowing golden owl mandala above her head. Nothing was working. Helen looked stunned. Percy looked like, what? and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, cheeseburgers.

Akari said, "Why is this annoying gold thing on my head? When is it gonna, like, disappear in a flash?" She had jinxed it. It vanished in a bright blaze, and I was about to pull Akari and Helen out of the pressing crowd with the help of Percy, but everyone was now garbling away. Percy backed away, the silent beckon in his eyes clear: meet you at the sword stadium.

Just to prove his point, he took out riptide, his pen-sword, and did a few basic stabs and slashes with his ballpoint form. I grabbed Helen's wrist, and led her out of the dispensing crowd. Akari was wise enough to follow.

At the weapon shed, I pulled them two inside and started to explain the whole demigod thing like I did with Percy a few years back.

"Okay, be quiet, please," I said to the pair of girls, who were whispering and exchanging questions. "Are any of you ADHD, or dyslexic?"

"I'm ADHD," said Helen. "And Akari's dyslexic, but not ADHD."

"Okay, so in the demigod world, ADHD is because you have natural battle reflexes, they keep you alive in a sword fight or battle. The dyslexia is because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. You could probably stumble through a few lines of Homer. Those who are dyslexic will find it easier to read than English."

Helen raised her hand. "What if demigods don't have dyslexia? Will they still be able to read ancient Greek?"

"Good question," I said, "sometimes the Greek goddess or god will gift the demigod child to be without dyslexia, but be hardwired with ancient Greek as well. Sometimes... the demigod won't be able to read ancient Greek at all." I wondered what Helen would be, and who her parent was. 

Helen looked mildly disappointed. "How about we choose weapons now?"

"Wait one second," Akari demanded. "If I'm not ADHD?"

"You'll still have battle reflexes, but they'll be slightly less intuitive than Helen's," I explained. I still couldn't believe that Akari was my sister. We looked so different. She had dark brown hair. I had blonde. She had eyes like my friend Hazel's, gold and brown. I had grey. Athena, when she had only tiny flecks of silver in her eyes. But sometimes it wasn't about the resemblance.

"Okay, let's start with you, Akari. Sword?" I offered Akari a Celestial bronze blade. She held it, but nearly fell over. 

I took the sword back and handed her a shotgun, the same one I'd offered Piper McLean when she'd first come. It was still here, because apparently no new demigod had taken a fancy towards it. I knew immediately when it touched her hands it wouldn't be right.

I snatched the gun back and found a small flashlight. I clicked it carefully, nearly sure it had not been placed there by Hera, who I had gotten into a little scuffle with, something designed to kill me.

CLICK. It transformed into a spear, with a rosewood shaft and sharp blade point. I had a feeling that this would be the lucky weapon. I passed it to Akari.

Akari stated, "I think this feels good. It's not too heavy."

"Yep, that's the right one for you then," I smiled, "how about you, Helen? Let's try this one."

I passed her a small black cube the size of a kiddy stamp with a large green button on one of its faces. "Click it," I advised, and she did.

A dagger with a black leather grip and hilt and a bronze blade as long as a ruler came spiraling out.

"Good," Helen said. "Now... what if I lose it?"

"Throw it," I instructed her. Helen gaped as it returned to her hand. "Same for you Akari. It's impossible to lose."

I led the two to the sword stadium.

Percy was waiting at the empty sword arena. People were all doing the lava wall, or versing the satyrs in the volleyball pit, or at the arts and crafts centre, or other activities.

"Hi," Percy smiled. "Who are the newcomers?"

"This is Helen and this is Akari," I introduced. "Akari is a daughter of Athena, which basically makes her my half-sister."

"Hi," said Helen nervously.

"Hi," said Percy cheerfully. "Now who wants some sword fighting lessons?"

I taught Akari while Helen was with Percy, and they were battling it out. Percy was overpowering her with his strike. Helen was losing ground.

 I was teaching Akari basic blocks and strikes properly, unlike Percy who was just saying, Have fun! Let's battle when you don't know how to! I split my focus in half so I could make sure Helen didn't die painfully.

Helen was doing pretty well, but losing the fight. She blocked Percy's stab and nearly didn't recover in time, and the blow Seaweed Brain delivered next knocked her to the ground. She rolled as Percy's slash came down.

Helen got up panting, and I blocked the simple stab Akari gave me. She sat down and said, "stop for a minute. I wanna see this happening."

I agreed with her, the sat and brushed of the sand on my jeans. Helen parried Percy's next strike and returned it with force. And then the next one... 

Helen blocked so powerfully that a burst of red light ignited from her body. Waves of fire washed over her body that was suddenly glowing. The sword arena exploded from the energy pressure and rubble rained down on us, a metre wide and thick shard of debris grazing Akari's right arm. The rest of it pinned my legs down.

It crushed me until a fell to the floor. Akari screamed desperately as she tried to free me. Percy came rushing over, pushing the stone away. Helen lay unconscious on the ground.

The rest of Camp Half-Blood came rushing down to see what had happened, Chiron in lead. He had a bow slung over his shoulder and a quiver bristling with arrows strapped to his back. 

Meanwhile, I was in agony. One of my legs seemed to be broken, and the excruciating pain worked through my system like shards of broken glass. It lessened to throbbing. I had a flashback of when I was following the Mark of Athena in Rome, and I had broken my ankle and had to use bubble-warp to splint it. I had hoped never again to have a similar experience, but now it seemed to be coming true. 

I could almost hear the voice of Hera echoing around in my head: Punishment. Thalia Grace took it. It is now your turn. When Thalia had been crushed by the statue in the Battle of Manhattan. Now it was my turn.

Then a grey flash of light stabbed the air, and I averted my eyes, and then saw a woman: black silky hair pulled into a high ponytail, pale skin as white as paper, and dark coffee eyes without any of the warmth. Hazel had described someone like this to her before. It was Hecate, goddess of the Mist and magic...