Carystus

The Fall

I fell to my knees and pressed my palms into the earth, back arching. The camp members suddenly regained control of themselves and drew their weapons.

"Carystus?" Thais' voice was barely above a hiss. My vision flickered on and off and I could feel myself slipping away. Millions of voices roared in my head, flickering at the edges of my thoughts. I forced myself to look up and the voices rose to a deafening shriek.

"Kill…Kill it…Me…" It was all I managed to say before the voices took over and I felt my consciousness die inside of me.

His head tucked down and his back arched, two strange lumps forming at his shoulders. His shirt tore open where the lumps were and two black wings with dull gold highlights shot out and unfurled. His eyes opened as pools of black-gold like the wings. And with a smile, he shot upward with his bow in hand and prepared to kill. He drew the bowstring back and held it to the edge of his cheek, aiming…An arrow shot out of nowhere and hit a camper in the thigh. She fell without a sound. Dead.

And it was as if the camp had woken. Archers lined up and fired without a sound. He dodged the arrows with uncanny speed, but five found their mark Ichor, blood of the immortals, spilled out of each wound and a cheer rose up from the assembled troops. Soon the rest of the camp was throwing knives and spears. The strange creatures' wings were covered in knives and arrows. He was beginning to strain as he struggled to fly higher.

A camper in blood-red armor threw a spear into the air and it hit him in the stomach. He arched back as electricity shot through his spine and he fell. Down, down, down for what seemed like forever and hit the ground.

With an effort, he rolled to his side in a fetal position, curled around the spear with his body shuddering in pain. A girl stepped forwards and looked at him, what seemed like pity in her eyes. His eyes lightened slightly and wisps of golden smoke drifted off him like mist. And then they where grey-blue, a soft color with a quiet power in them. And they turned paler and paler until the pupils were almost white and then, he was dead.

Silence fell. The girl stumbled back and the camp lowered its heads silently.

The wings of the creature crumbled to dust and the arrows lodged themselves into the boys back.

A tall girl shot forwards and yanked out the spear and arrows without a pause. She rolled him onto his back and began to press on his chest, then give two breaths. She continued and suddenly stopped.

My eyes snapped open and a drew a deep breath. My body shuddered and I coughed out blood. My eyes locked with Thais'. And then she slapped me. Hard.

"Don't ever do that again," She snapped, her voice trembling. We all but crashed our lips together a second before I lost consiosness.

A/N: There you go my dear readers. And yes, there will be more.