The Unclaimed

Chapter 2: I attend sword training for 10 minutes

   The second we stepped out of the Hermes cabin, I knew I had made a mistake in agreeing to attend training. When we first got outside the whispering of the other campers started, then they began to point their fingers at me, and finally they were talking so loudly that anyone within a 20 yard radius could have heard them. Their comments weren't necessarily rude, some were but they didn't make up the majority, but they were just unnecessary. Some of them were about the fact that I still hasn't been claimed; most were about me having Artemis's blessing. I felt my whole body tense; Artemis's blessing has helped me out in a lot of situations but most of the time it just seemed like something that separated me even more from the other campers. I felt Michael squeeze my hand; I looked down at him.

     "Are you ok," unlike Michael who couldn't lie to me to save his life, I could lie to him in my sleep (I rarely did and I always hated myself when I lied to him, but in some situations where it was necessary.)

     "Yeah bud I'm fine," by this point we had arrived at the arena where training was held. He hesitated at the entrance way, still looking at me with a worried expression on his face. "Michael I'm fine ok. Now come on, training is about to start and we have a bargain to fulfill." His eyes lit up and he started pulling me into the arena. "You can relax and let go of my arm Michael, I'm not going to break out deal." Truth was though, I wanted him to let go of me because I didn't want to seem like I had been suckered and forced into attending training by my little brother.  
  
     When we got inside the arena I inwardly groaned. The instructor for this session was James Daniel Johnson, head counselor for the Ares cabin. I had no issues with him personally but his cabin as a whole was not a big fan of me; ever since they found out that I was blessed by Artemis and supposedly destined for greatness, they felt the need to challenge me in a battle whenever they could. We were about halfway to him when he and I made eye contact; the smirk that rose onto his face made a sense of dread rise into the put of my stomach. I wasn't worried about having to fight him; I knew I could beat him with ease. What I was worried about was him calling attention to me and making me partake in his demonstration when the session started.
  
     "All right everyone, bring it in," James shouted, still not breaking eye contact with me. The small groups of friends who had been chatting and hanging off to the side gathered around James. "We won't be learning any new techniques today; instead we will just be practicing one-on-one fighting. Everyone's, well almost everyone, has been working really hard these past few weeks and I figured getting to duel is more fun then taking more reps of the same move over and over again." A murmur of approval was heard throughout the crowd.
     People were about to start pairing up when James called out, "before we start, I want to fight against a partner and demonstrate the techniques we've spent the past few weeks learning. Since Jessica has blessed us with her supposedly great presence, hopefully she won't mind being my assistant." The entire crowd turned to face me. Despite being one of the youngest kids at camp, and definitely the youngest in this session, Michael stepped in front of me protectively. (He knew I didn't like having a lot of attention be on me)

     "No I want to help with the demonstration, let me do it instead of her." I was about to reassure Michael that I would be fine with doing the demonstration, even though I wasn't, when James said,

     "I don't have a problem with that, come on over here so we can start." I had a bad feeling about this. No I had bad feeling even before Michael was going to do the demonstration, I now  felt like the world was about to end. Every part of my body begged me to scream stop, but my voice suddenly wasn't working. I was forced to watch Michael walk to the center of the circle, anyone who didn't know him like I did would have thought he was confident but I knew better. James was in no armor but he made sure Michael had all the proper equipment on. "All right, are you ready." James asked Michael; Michael nodded.

     The duel began. I watched with baited breath. Michael had improved a lot since the last time I had seen him but he was still no where near James's level. (Which made sense considering there was a 9 year age difference between the two of them) For the first few minutes everything was going alright; but it was because James was just toying with him, he made it appear like he was trying for Michaels sake but everyone could tell that he wasn't giving it his all. About 5 minutes into the fight, James started to go all out. With no disregard to his opponents age, or the fact that this was meant to just be a demonstration, James fought with the intensity he would use in a real battle. Within less then a minute he had Michael disarmed and had slammed the hilt of his sword onto Michaels helmet, knocking him out instantly. I was beyond livid. He said this would be a demonstration and he even agreed to let Michael participate; how dare he knock my brother out.
  
     "You asshole," I shouted. I grabbed a sword from a random camper that was standing next to me and charged at James; I had no armor on and was using a sword that wasn't weighted for me, but I didn't care. The fact that he was twice my size, all muscle, and the son of the war god was irrelevant to me. No one messed with my little brother and got away with it. When James saw me charging he smirked and got into a fighting stance; his arrogance only added to the fire of anger that was within me. The look of confidence on his face wavered momentarily but I was to consumed with figuring out the best way to cause him pain and humiliation to care why.

     As we fought everything was a blur. My mind was full of anger but empty of thoughts. I acted purely on instinct. Before I could process what had happened, James was on the ground and I had both our swords in my hands pointed at him. His once arrogant expression was now replaced by genuine fear. Around me I heard people whispering about Artemis's blessing and how they were the first to ever see it. Without moving the swords, I quickly shifted my eyes to my arms and found a silvery glowing outline was covering my body. As curious as I was about what it meant, I had bigger priorities; such as humiliating James in a way that he would never forget.

     "What the hell is wrong with you," I snarled at the terrified 18 year old. "Why did you agree to let my little brother, my 9 year old little brother, help with the demonstration if you were going to use all of your force against him and freaking knock him out?" By this point I was yelling. Both of the swords were a few mere inches from his face. No one in the surrounding circle dared to speak.

     "Because I wanted to get a reaction out of you," James said bitterly. "If you had actually spoken up and not let your brother volunteer then he wouldn't be knocked out right now. Maybe you don't actually care about him as much as everyone at camp thinks you so." Nothing anyone said had ever made me so mad before. Keeping Michael safe has been what basically my entire life has been dedicated to. For someone to accuse me of not caring about him was the worst insult they could have.

     "You don't know the first thing about what you're saying," I said. "I didn't stop him from volunteering because it was supposed to be a demonstration. Not an actual fight, a demonstration. If I thought for a second that you were going to go all out then there would have been no way in hell that I would have let Michael volunteer." As I spoke I glanced off to the side where Michaels body lay. I had hoped he would have been stirring by now but he was still unconscious.
    
    I pushed the swords ever close to James. If he moved an inch, he would get cut. "Well I hope this reaction satisfied you enough; if you ever come near me or my brother again, I will create new forms of humiliation and pain just for you. It will be so bad that your dad will be impressed." His face paled. I threw his sword over the crowd of spectators, handed the sword I had borrowed back to its owner, and scooped up Michael still unmoving body. "You better pray to all the gods that he's ok," I snapped at James before I started to run; I knew I wouldn't be at peace until I got Michael to the infirmary and he woke up.