Austin Cooper 1: Son of Athena

A battle a day keeps the monsters away

I close my eyes and try to focus even with the chaos going on around me. I vaguely hear the dull thump of armored feet hitting the ground and weapons being clashed together.

I dig deeper and reach Bones' mind and search for his plans.

  I bet you're thinking. "Oh Austin, wouldn't that be easy? Can't you just think of what you need and get it?"

No.

The mind is like a big filing cabinet. I have to go through like, thousands and thousands of drawers before finding the single paper I need.

You know those movies where the office workers have to find one paper out of the stacks and cabinets of folded up and unorganized papers they had kept in the basement? They either go insane and give up or end up throwing all the papers in the air for some random reason.

Picture that, but 100 times harder.

I smiled in surprised excitement at my own skill when I feel the now familiar tug of my energy telling me I have found my mind-paper. My eyes flutter and catch a glimpse of Bones reaching the top of the hill standing in a lava rock chariot. The chains were made of human bones that restrained the fragile looking skeletons of horses with evil glowing eyes.

"Surrender now, Warrior of Athena!" Bones declares, breaking my focus and causing me to lose my mind-paper.

I groan audibly with frustration, and a younger camper in an oversized helmet glanced at me in nervous confusion.

I wanted to yell at Bones to shut up and thoroughly scold him for causing me to loose my mind-paper.

I'm not looking for that again.

I already could feel the pulsing of a headache from the energy it took to find it before, and with Bones so close I needed to have all my attention on him and his army.

"And if you do, I will surrender your puny camp!" He shouts in his high pitched voice.

I glance to Bella who had remained by my side in a defiant stance, her legs positioned to easily spring into battle. She catches my eye, and I know I don't need mind reading to know what she's thinking.

No backing down. We're in this together.

"Never you... Umm..." I pause, thinking of a word to call him. "Butt face!" I hear Tyler yell enthusiastically.

I see Alice roll her eyes and face palming and Bella snorts in laughter despite our current situation.

A horrified expression crosses Bones' face that I could see even from my distance. "You dare call me a butt face?!" He yell; outraged by the dumb, but effective insult.

I pull my eyes from his empty glare to my own army.

He has about two hundred, more than triple the size of our army.

"Yeah, I called you a butt face!" Tyler yells back, eagerly responding to Bones' comment.

He looks to me for approval, and I shrug and give him a thumbs up. Then, with a nod we both raise our swords and yell in unison.

"Charge!" And with that the battle begins.

I had my sword tightly gripped in my hand, swinging left and right and dissolving skeleton after skeleton. The puff of their bones disintegrating filled my ears and the sand like powder they created layered over my armor and skin.

Tyler swooped dangerously close to my head before diving into a crowd of skeletons with a Indian worthy battle cry.

Alice stood firmly to my left, creating colorful tornadoes and taking down dozens of warriors at a time. Her mane of hair had fallen from its bun and now spun around her like it had a mind of its own.