Daughter of Neptune

The Games

Issy thrusts her sword forward, but I flick it out of her hand with the tip of my sword. I am getting better at sword fighting. 

"I don't think I am very good at this." Issy says, retrieving her sword.

"Nah, you just need to practice." I smiled. "Let's go again."

We walk in a small circle, swords drawn, waiting for the other to make the first move. I give in and thrust my sword. Issy parry's and lashes forward. I just manage to block it. I take an opening and swing my sword at Issy. She wasn't expecting it and her sword is in the wrong position. I am to far into the swing to back out, it's going to hit her hip. Issy is shocked and screams; suddenly vines pop out of the ground and hit my sword across the arena.

I look at Issy in disbelieve when a corn plant symbol appears above her head. It has a gold tint to the glowing that surrounds it. Issy is still shocked about what she did. She drops her sword and looks up at the glowing symbol. "I-I have been claimed."

I nod, then run to her and give her a pat on the back. Issy thanks me for helping her, when the other campers flood into the arena. They cheer and clap, looking at Issy. Then Chiron walks in and the campers’ move out of the way. He bows, "Issy, Daughter of Demeter."

Issy looks like the happiest person on earth. She has the biggest smile on her face and her eyes are glistening with tears. She seems to have forgotten that I almost seriously hurt her.

I look around at all the smiling faces and wonder when I will be claimed. My dad said that he would claim me soon, but when?

When I was looking around the crowd, I saw a boy in the distance, with red hair. He was amongst a crowd of people with multi-coloured hair. One of the girls had purple hair and another had light blue. But this boy had simple red hair. He looked plain amongst the other kids, but plain is good.

I walked over to him. He seemed nervous when I said "Hi, I'm Brianna, what's your name?"

"My name is Ben." he said as his hair turned a darker red.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Do what, oh. As a child of Iris, goddess of rainbows, we can change the colour of our hair." He looked me in the eyes and I saw he had cute, hazel eyes. "Who's your godly parent?"

"At the moment I am undetermined, but I should be claimed soon." I smile.

Ben asks me if I want to do some sword practice with him, I say yes. Any extra training will help me develop my skills. "Yeah, maybe tomorrow before dinner?"

"See you then. "He turns and walks away, back to the cabins. I have to get his number, is all that I thought as he walked away.

I wake up early and put on my camp half blood shirt, and shorts. I then brushed my hair and put it in a braid, starting above my right ear and ending above my left shoulder. Then I walked out to my backpack and grabbed sword. I sheathed it and walked out onto the cabin porch. The cabin needed to be repainted as the brown paint was peeling. Chris Rodriguez was waiting for me there.

"Good morning Brianna, I hope you had a pleasant sleep. As Hermes counsellor it's my job to help you find out who your godly parent is. Do you have a mortal mother or father?"

"I have a mortal mother." I replied, thankful for his help.

"I think we can rule out Hypnos, god of sleep. If he was your father you would still be asleep. So we will start with sword making."

We walked to the forge where Chris told me to construct a sword. I didn't know where to start so I asked if there were instructions. Lets just say I beat a hammer on a piece of imperial gold until it was as flat as a pancake. I don't think I am a daughter of Hephaestus.

Next we went to Mr D. Chris asked him the question, "Is Brianna here your daughter?" Mr D shouted, "Is that a joke!" He threw cola cans at us until we sprinted away, back to cabin 11.

"Your dad might be Ares." Chris suggested. We walked over to the arena to test my sword skills. Chris could disarm me  using his sword. Then he suggested that I use a spear, Ares symbol. I didn't know how to hold it, and I certainly couldn't do any damage with it. 

While we were in the arena Chris wanted me to do some archery. I could pull the string back to the corner of my mouth. However, when I aimed for the target I hit everything else in sight, except the target.

Chris looked at the arrows that were set in chairs, trees, tables, stands holding weapons. Chris didn't think I was a child of Apollo but he wanted to see if I could play the lyre. Let's just say I didn't hit the right notes. 

Chris turned to me after returning the lyre to Alex, a son of Apollo. "Well, I think we can now assume you are a child of the big three, but there is no way of telling at the moment. We will continue testing you after. For now it is capture the flag." He smiled, I could tell he enjoyed playing.

It was time for capture the flag. All the campers were in battle armour. Some campers had bows, spears, swords, daggers and some had tree saplings. Children of Demeter, I guessed. I noticed that the helmets' campers were wearing had a red sash, or a blue sash on it. Chiron waved at me, then called me over to him. 

"Now, who would like Brianna on their team. Red or Blue?"

The girl with grey eyes came forward, "I, Annabeth Chase, leader of Red team, would like Brianna." She smiled.

She shook my hand, "Welcome to the winning side. I see you don't have a helmet, could I please have a spare helmet." Annabeth got a red sashed helmet and passed it to me. I put it on my head and tightened the strap. It was a little big for me.

"Have you been claimed yet?" Annabeth asked.

"No, but I hope I will be soon." I wondered who was Annabeth's godly parent. "Who are you a daughter of?"

"Athena, wisdom and battle strategies. You go on the river side, out of the action as you haven't had much training."

When capture the flag commenced, I walked through the forest to the riverbank. There wasn't much action so I practiced my sword fighting on a nearby tree. I sliced and thrust. From out of the blue, 3 chickens flew down and landed 5 meters away.

The chickens muttered something, I could only just hear, "Daughter of Poseidon. You are going to die at our hand."

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Annabeth ran through the forest, sword in hand. Her blond hair was up in a messy ponytail but parts of her fringe were hanging around her face. 'I have to find that flag', she thought, forgetting about the new camper that was on her team.