INTREPID ▸ connor stoll

[𝟏.𝟎𝟓] the underdog trophy case

┍━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┑
chapter five
the underdog trophy case
┕━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┙

IMPORTANT:

As of this morning, the Aphrodite cabin has seen a change in leadership. Drew Tanaka, former counsellor, has stepped down from her position, transferring responsibilities to Piper McLean, effective immediately. We thank Drew for her months of service and commitment. We are excited to welcome Piper McLean to her post as counsellor of Cabin Ten.

That is all.

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    As Devi understands it, some memories are sacred, hers for the keeping, and these make up a large part of this cemetery full of her old bodies, old stories, that she locks securely. The only body that doesn't stay buried is that 12-year-old girl who breaks out each time at the slightest remembrance, fresh-faced with fear and starved-skinny from years of this terrible limbo. Devi lives in that body more than she does in this one, equally unable to really fit into this newer skin and cremate her past self. Maybe it's the issue of her cowardice, this deathless and ageless thing, existing marrow-deep, impossible to shake off.

    This memory though – her first time holding a sword, her first time holding each weapon until she found one that suited her hands, the first morning she left the cabin early in her resolve to get better and be stronger – is public domain as much as any dooming prophecy and Devi is satisfied with that. It is not an incriminating secret or a shameful historical anecdote, nothing to be whispered or hidden in gossip. She is fine with it being known that her skill for battle is not innate. She built it, brick by brick, one bare hand at a time. She has little reason to be proud of herself, if not this.

    But that kind of fire is so contagious, Devi wishes she kept this a secret too, if it meant her brother wouldn't be where he is today, his eyes drifting along the blade of his new cutlass with that unsettling hunger in his face that betrays all his juvenile dreams that are darker, famished variants of Devi's girlhood wishes. If she'd grown up right, she might have looked like this. It's a braver face to wear, at least, even if it turns out to be false and Devi would try nearly everything to have this kind of temper for a day. It could, in her best possible hopes, make the walk up the cabin steps more of a homecoming than a trek to the gallows.

    "This is the best Christmas present ever!" Raj says, swinging the cutlass through the air, his movements retaining their usual vigour despite the awkward clanging of the ill-fitting armour which has rendered his shoulder pads slipping off at inconvenient intervals and his shin guards aligning awkwardly with his knee pads. He's still a little on the smaller side, just like Devi when she first started training, but he's not nearly as uncomfortable with his body as she was. Rather, he's taken it as a milestone: fit into armour one size bigger by his thirteenth birthday. (She wants this for him so badly she'll wrestle the Fates to make it happen.)

Even so, Raj looks elated like she has never seen him before, his jubilation buoyed by multiple things at once: Sherman's gift, his first much-awaited real swordfight with his older sister, the first Capture the Flag in a while promised to them that evening, and the successful ending of the winter solstice. The last-named reason is common for anyone else in camp and a fervent energy has overtaken the proceedings of camp today, evident in the increasing frequency of blades clashing and bodies thudding in the combat arena around them.

With Sword & Shield being the concluding activity for the Ares, Aphrodite and Hermes cabins, they are all sufficiently equipped to charge into Capture the Flag right after. There is also the promise of s'mores at the campfire singalong, probably peppered with Christmas carols to sustain the festive mood for as long as possible. The routine is already so relieving, having the opportunity to celebrate this arbitrary holiday that doesn't even hold significance to her is nothing short of a miracle to Devi. Or a mercy, her inner voice reasons but she quiets it.