Maiden Grim | A Pjo Fanfic

Chapter 6: Mummy Makes A Dramatic Entrance

The next morning at breakfast she had a terrible headache. Isra knew she had a dream last night, but the memory was murky. She couldn't pick apart the details. She remembered mist? Golden eyes. And burning fire. Isra swore there was more, but almost all of it was gone.

By midday, she had already given up remembering. The Stolls took them around camp. Taking them to grab a couple of strawberries from the fields. With Isra's insistence, they stopped by the arts and crafts pavilion. The Aphrodite cabin was there, working on a lot of heart-shaped crafts angrily.

The cabin counselor, Silena Beauregard, was nice enough to introduce herself, and explain to her the pavilion schedule. She packed up a crafts basket for Isra and everything.

Then upon Nico's insistence, they headed over to the armory.

"You guys need to be equipped for capture-the-flag tonight, anyway," Travis said.

Nico practically sprinted to the metal shed in the distance.

They rushed over and inside; he'd already grabbed the nearest weapon. A curved dagger over two-feet long with an emerald encrusted handle. He held up the blade. "Woah, wicked."

"Okay, yeah," she said. "Pretty cool."

Connor folded his arms and said, "Sure, it looks pretty, but that's a kopis. It's purely ceremonial. With a handle like that, you couldn't grip the blade right in a fight."

"Alright, Mr. Gladiator," she chuckled. "Show us to the good weapons then."

Connor blushed. The Stolls showed them further in.

Rows and racks of weapons filled the shed. She saw all other kinds of daggers, swords, spears, tridents, and even a celestial bronze gun. Travis had already clocked Nico for a swordsman and assigned a beginner's sword to him. Nico looked a little disappointed, but then realized he now had an actual sword. Travis grabbed a short-sword and he and Nico started mock-fighting.

Isra was having a harder time nailing down her weapon. She tried out the swords, but none of them were balanced just right. Thrusting and slashing with them felt awkward. Daggers felt too up close and personal to her. And when she tried striking with them, Isra felt plain silly. Being a close-range melee fighter didn't seem to suit her.

"How about a spear then?" Connor offered. "That way you keep your enemies at a distance."

She nodded. "Alright."

So, she went through the spears and landed on one. Connor called it a dora spear, which is when Travis corrected him, and it was actually dor-y. It was about six feet in length with a wooden shaft. There was a leaf-shaped bronze blade on one end and a smaller blade on the other.

"Spears like that are usually used with a shield too," Connor said. He kept sending glances at the space above her head. "You wanna pick one out?"

Isra considered it. That girl, Thalia, used a shield along with her spear. But Isra didn't think she had the strength and endurance it took to hold both weapons at once.

"Nah, I'm good."

After, Nico and Isra were fitted for armor. They didn't actually put on any, but Travis told them there were only a few sizes they could choose from anyway.

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Soon the afternoon passed, the campers all ate dinner and the time had come for capture-the-flag.

Looking at all the campers and Hunters filing off for the game, Isra was struck again by how little people they had to play. There were on thirteen Hunters, including Bianca, and about the same number of campers.