Game of War (Cashby)

Chapter 3

"Alright, kiddos. Gather round," Jeremy called out. It was early in the morning the next day and the excited energy radiated off the crowd. Everyone circled around him in their Legions. It's funny how we don't even seem to realize how often we group together. He didn't even have to tell us, we just do it naturally. The thought made me smile, we all really loved our friends.

"You guys know how this works, you're welcome to participate in as many or as little as you want. Except for the mock battles, those are required and at the very end. Right, so, the people who want to be in the shooting challenges follow me. Chariot races are next, so get ready," Jeremy said before walking away.

A majority of the people followed him, target shooting was one of the most popular games since there was at least one person in each group who was proficient. I watched Shay walk quickly into the crowd after Jeremy. He was the long-distance for our group and pretty good at archery, so it didn't surprise me that he wanted to try.

"Any events you guys wanna do?" I asked.

"Running, though I probably won't do well," Phil said with a shrug.

"Tino?"

"Kinda wanna try weights."

"Course, man. Go for it. I think I'll stick to the stretch wars," I said. The 'stretch wars' as we called it, were basically where each of us who had the powers tried to push them as far as we could go. Since I had the power from my dad to control water, I would take a stream of water and push it as far up as I could go. People who could control fire, water, lightening would do the same and whoever went the furthest won.

"Yeah, like you ever wouldn't. You almost always win." Phil rolled his eyes at me.

"Well, stick to what you're good at right?" I said. "Anyways, we should go watch Shay. Keep an eye out for anyone who has obviously been practicing since last time." There's always a few groups who rank low in the previous games and it kicks their asses into gear. We've never been one to rank low, but I wasn't about to change that. I wanted to know who to look out for this time around.

We usually ranked pretty high, actually, but that was to be expected. We were the sons of Neptune after all, second only to Jupiter and part of the big three. We had a standard to uphold, but we didn't like to think about it. Yeah, we all knew it was there, but we never brought it up. It was one of those things you all know deep down. Unlike Jupiter's kids, we weren't cocky about our position. In our minds we were all equal. In the Olympian's minds we weren't.

-

Shay didn't win. He did good though, considering we weren't really known for our bow and arrow skills. We were kids of the ocean. He placed sixth out of twelve, and surprise surprise, Lynn of Diana got first. It was always either Diana or Apollo who won archery, a gift from their parent I suppose. I congratulated her on it anyways.

The next event would be chariot races, which were always fun. Only a few people knew how to drive a chariot, so it was short, but with a lot of excitement. We gathered at the track and sat in the raised seats on the side. Everyone cheered from the sidelines for whoever they knew the best. I saw Jaime down in his red and black Vulcan chariot, and gave him a wave. He smiled and cheered back.

The race track was a short walk from the training field, and was made of sand with markers set out at the starting line. We only had three racers this time; Jaime, some guy from Mercury, and Mila from Ceres. Jeremy walked out in front of the carts and raised his hand into the air. The air was filled with shouts and cheers from the people on the sidelines, and I threw my hands up in the air to join them.

"3... 2... 1!" Jeremy said, dropping his hand as a lightening bolt struck the opposite side of the track. The three carts took off, the horses pulling them as fast as they could go. I shouted out for Jaime and jumped up and down. I watched him pull ahead by an inch. The crowd went wild, but there was still two more laps after this one.