The Beginning of the End (J. Grace)

VI: Elara declares war

Elara's PoV:

It became apparent to her by the end of the day that she was caught up in prank wars.

But, hey, who's complaining? Not the daughter of Hermes.

She wasn't planning on targeting Jason like that, honestly, it just so happened that the Zeus statue would be the best one to utilise and use for the prank.

Other than the God's royalty, none of them could think of another place to house this prank other than a statue and, seriously, who was ever going to go into Hera's cabin? No one with dignity or sanity (we're ignoring that time Piper went in, it was that good-for-nothing goddess's fault).

It had taken ages to find all of that neon slime, but, oh, it was so worth it all!

The process of setting up the prank was brilliant, but what was even better was the bonding time she got to have with Annabeth and Piper. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there's some tension between them, but Elara had decided that she was going to work on breaking down the walls between the two.

She'd missed her Wise Girl so much, so it was great to catch up with her, and, Piper's a really great girl so it was awesome to spend some time getting to know her.

The daughter of Hermes was currently at the arena for some swords training, there days after that prank. She had one of the average celestial bronze swords, only it was a curved one and 4-feet long. Pretty cool.

She hacked and slashed at the dummy stuffed with straw which stood in front of her, imagining it was Kronos's face. Or Luke's. Only, she would never hurt Luke.

She wanted to kill that Titan of time again. She wanted to watch him suffer for ruining her life and killing her brother. She wanted revenge... at least, she thought she did.

In all honesty, she doesn't really know.

He had taken and taken and taken from her; plucking all of the good from her life like a vulture or crow pulling of the meat of a dead animal until only the bare bones were left to decay. She felt like that animal.

Only a few pieces of meat still clung to her, only a few good things remained and one of them had been taken by Hera, another was too busy with a new title (Lord of the Wild) to visit and had sent her a message earlier that day to say that he couldn't come to camp.

Another was suffering with the fear that her boyfriend would be a dumbass and get himself killed, while the rest were alright and managing, but would be perfectly fine without her: Elara's siblings and camp.

Yes, she loves Piper, but she barely knows the girl in reality. There are so many other people and beings who she loves and cares about too -Thalia, the hunters, Clarisse, Butch, Nyssa, Jake, Elis, Sherman, Katie, Miranda, Will, Kayla, Austin, the list goes on- but they can't fill this gaping hole that Kronos had left her when he was done taking. Then again, no one could ever fill it: they're not her Luke.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, yet she continued to slash at the dummy, until she cut it in half.

Panting, she hadn't even realised how much she was sweating -she'd gone off into her own world. Elara wondered how long she'd been here for. An hour? The sun had just risen when she had arrived, now it was almost at the peak of the sky. Maybe three hours then.

"Relieving stress?" A familiar voice spoke from behind her: Ellis. He's a tall, imposing guy bound with muscle, although, that description would fit most of the Ares kids.

Let's try again.

He's got dark, messy hair and dark green eyes like a forest full of life. He has a hardened shell which contributes to his son-of-Ares style just like the scars he wears so proudly: one curling around his left calf, given to him by a giant scorpion, another trailing down his right side: starting at the base of his right jaw and trailing down to his elbow and then one more raking across his chest.