Silenced (Demigod Story)

Praised by the Best

I went to the arena for the first time ever, just to see what it is like.  No one was there, probably getting lunch or something like that.  I took my dagger out of my boot and examined it.  The blade was silver like the moon.  It was perfectly balanced for me, but reminded me of Dan.  I saved his life with this blade, but I still didn’t exactly what was so wrong with the blade.  I put the blade back in my boot, not thinking about if I would need it or not.

I picked up a bag of knives and used them to aim at a target.  I had an awful aim; the only reason of why I kept doing it was because no one was there to see my failure.  “See my child?  You are nothing without me,” the voice echoed across the arena.

I was not going to let her think that.  I gave up on the knives and started shooting arrows with a bow.  My hands were shaky and the arrow felt awkward in my hands.  I ignored it and began aiming.  My first arrow wasn’t even strong enough to make it to the target.  My second one flew way overhead.  The third one hit the stand that the target was on.

“Don’t you get it?  Your only skill is asking me for favors,” Gaea continued to taunt.  I shook my head and dropped the bow.  My boots clomped on the ground as I made my way to the dummies.  I took out my dagger and furiously attacked the closest dummy.   I aimed at the arms, chopping them right off with one quick slash.  Then I slashed the stomach so many times that the guts came out.

“You call that a skill?  I call it a need for anger management,” Gaea was getting on my nerves.  With one final slash, I had my dagger go from the head and straight down. 

“I don’t care what you call it because I will kill you,” I mumbled.

“Kill who?” someone asked from behind me.

 I turned around and saw a familiar teen.  I squinted at his eyes, expecting them to tell me who he was.  Finally, I remembered the morning that Cade saved me.  “Oh, hi Percy,” I stated innocently.

“Yeah, hi girl,” he awkwardly said.  He already forgot me.  I would have been upset, but it was a good thing because he didn’t remember when I attacked him with vines a few days ago.

“Well, I’m going to go now,” I started to say.  I put my dagger in my boot and started to walk out when Percy stopped me.

“You did that?” he asked, pointing to the dummy that was now only bits of cloth and a mixture of stuffing and straw.

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“How long did it take you?”

“About thirty seconds, why?” I asked, not seeing anything special.

He stared at me in awe, then at the murdered the dummy.  “Have you ever done that before?”

I was confused by the question and slowly nodded my head.

“That is really good for anyone!” Percy exclaimed.

“I don’t get how it is any better than the work of anyone else,” I shrugged.

“Well, that dummy was actually covered in a few layers of the strongest hairspray that was ever made.  It was actually made to have the protection of a real monster,” Percy explained.  “It would take many coordinated slices to do that much damage.  And you did it in the time that would take the most coordinated spots and weak points.”

“If you are only saying that because you want to raise my confidence, then thanks for trying.  Do you mean it?” I asked, uncomfortable with his praise.

“I don’t do that, I really mean it,” he admitted.

I nodded and left the arena before anyone else could join him.

“Maybe I am not that worthless after all,” I muttered lowly.