Collided {Percy Jackson & The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel}

Chapter Twelve: Annabeth Chase

As Percy and I led the new visitors around the camp, I had so many questions running through my mind. Who exactly are these people? Where are they from? What are they doing here? How powerful are they? But my dizzying thoughts were interrupted by Percy as he explained what each of the cabins stood for; the newly renovated Hades cabin, honorary Hera and Artemis cabins, newly built Janus cabin, and so on. I knew that it could be quite confusing to the visitors with all the gods and goddesses, but to be completely honest, they didn't even seemed phased by the fact that there were Greek deities out in the real world. This only made me want to know more about them, I hated not knowing.

As we walked around camp, all of the campers' eyes were glued to the strange new people, and for us demigods to find someone strange, we must be utterly baffled. I noticed the blond girl, Sophie, had a dark tattoo around her wrist and her brother Josh also had one on the palm of his hand. It was Aztec in its design and obviously ancient, I just didn't understand what they meant. I had studied the Aztecs; their architecture and design, but had never seen anything like the tattoos before. Suddenly I felt someone's eyes watching me and I turned my head slightly to catch the vampire warrior watching me intently, daring me to question them. Knowing that was exactly what she wanted, I turned to face forward once more to see that we had reached the sparring arena we use for combat training.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I knew what was coming next.

"This is our arena we use for combat training; hand-to-hand, swords, spears, bows, you name it we train it." Percy said proudly. He then turned to Josh. "Want to go a couple rounds? That's a pretty sweet sword, but..."

"But what?" Josh retorted jokingly, as he knew exactly where Percy was going. It was like bro-code or something. "You don't think I can use it?"

Percy just smirked and shrugged.

"I accept your challenge, Jackson."

-

Fifteen minutes later, I found myself sitting at the arena watching Percy and Josh spar with Sophie sitting next to me. She was extremely nice, and I couldn't picture her as any sort of warrior because of her kind and calm demeanor. As soon as we had sat down she offered to answer all of the questions I had regarding auras and herself.

So far I had learned that there were four elemental magics; air, fire, water and earth (with the exception of time being the fifth) and that the tattoos she and Josh had burned into their skin were triggers for them to access the magic of fire. She has also explained why they hadn't really been caught off guard by the fact that mythical beings existed, it was because they had already experienced historical and mythical beings themselves. Their experiences included the immortal alchemist Nicholas Flamel &  his wife Perenelle who had kept the powerful Codex safe for centuries, the Sphinx who could drain a person's aura just by being in the same area and the Titan,Prometheus,who had given the first people fire and taught Josh the magic of fire. 

During all this time, Scathach was standing passively in the corner of the arena, watching Josh and Percy go at it with their swords. I could tell by the way her eyes followed their movements that she was extremely skilled in combat and had many years of experience. It also made me wonder just how old the red-headed woman was.

Just as I opened my mouth to ask Sophie, Clarisse burst into the arena, with a large group of campers (mainly her half-siblings). She had her armor on and spear in her hand and looked ready for a fight. Her eyes scanned the arena for something until they landed on Scathach in the corner. Clarisse narrowed her eyes and walked over to the vampire, her posse trailing behind her. I felt Sophie move next to me and followed her down to the arena floor where Clarisse was issuing a challenge to the warrior.

"I challenge you to a duel, vampire. You thought you could easily take me in the forest today, but you can't and I think everyone here would like to see you try."

Percy and Josh had stopped their sparring practice to witness Scathach's reaction to the daughter of Ares' challenge, just like the rest of the camp that had sensed the commotion and had piled into the stands that encircled the arena. Scathach raised her green eyes to look at the crowd that that gathered before meeting Clarisse's eyes.

"I accept your challenge, daughter of the war god, but..." Scathach stopped mid-sentence and smiled, her pointed teeth showing. "I must let you know that I've met your dad personally and I'd hate for him to have to deal with me beating his children up."

-

Sitting up in the stands with Sophie, I could feel how nervous the girl was.

"Hey, it's alright, I'm sure Scathach will be fine. I'm sure she's a great fighter." I said to Sophie, trying to ease her anxiety. But the blond girl only shook her head.

"It's not Scatty I'm worried about, Annabeth. It's Clarisse." I couldn't help the confused expression that took over my face. Seeing it, Sophie offered up and explanation.

"Scathach can be found in Irish legend as the Shadow, Warrior Maid, Daemon Slayer, King Maker, I could go on for days with all her titles. She basically created martial arts and every fighting style there is in the modern world, she's had years of experience-over 10,000 years if you're really counting." Sophie stopped once she saw my face. I was no longer looking at her as she explained, I was staring at Scathach who was preparing to face off against Clarisse in complete awe.