Percy Jackson, Son of Olympus, The Titan's Curse

| Chapter XIV || The Mummy Takes a Stroll |

*December 16 XXXX*

*Percy's Point of View*

***

That night after dinner, I was seriously ready to get my mind off the girls. I wouldn't be any use to them if I ran myself ragged with worry, and a nice friendly-competitive Capture the Flag match against the Hunters seemed to be just what I needed. I'd never participated in one of these Hunter vs. Camper matches before.

Two summers ago, I'd played in a campers vs. campers match, acting as the guard – of course, Annabeth had been the one to choose my position, and I'd done extremely well at it, but I couldn't help wanting to do more. For the whole game, I'd just stood at the creek, staring at trees and the occasional camper that came by. This time, I wanted more. No matter what anyone said, if I saw the chance, I'd take it. Besides, Zoë wouldn't appreciate me not giving my all; I wasn't about to let her down.

There were only thirteen Hunters, including Bianca di Angelo, and since it was winter, there were roughly the same number of campers. Zoë had seemed pretty upset at dinner still, but once we reached the forest, she just kept glancing resentfully at Chiron. Capture the Flag was probably the last thing she wanted to do while Artemis was in danger. She also kept looking at me with the same bitter eye, like she couldn't believe I wasn't worried as well. News flash, I was, but there was nothing we could do unless the Oracle or Apollo himself issued a quest, and last time I checked, the mummy wasn't going anywhere, and Apollo was out riding the sun – literally.

The rest of the Hunters didn't seem overly happy either. Unlike the night before, they weren't laughing or joking around, and instead stayed huddled together as they ate and then again as they strapped on their armour afterward, whispering nervously. Some even looked like they'd been crying, so Zoë must've told them about her nightmare and filled them in on our conversation.

Our team – the campers' team, that is – had Beckendorf, two of his brothers, a few Ares campers minus Clarisse, the Stoll brothers with Nico, and a few Aphrodite campers. It was strange having so few people at camp. It was stranger still that the Aphrodite campers wanted to play but seeing as Artemis stood against everything their mom stood for, I couldn't be less surprised. They hadn't taken to kindly to me either the day I mentioned that Artemis was my best friend. Luckily, we' d made amends when they found out I also used to let Aphrodite dress me up. (Artemis still liked to tease me endlessly about some of those instances.) That is to say, I knew that the Aphrodite kids could hold a grudge. Not a single one of them held a mirror, for were they fixing their makeup or adjusting their colour-coded armour.

"I'll show them 'love is worthless'," Silena Beauregard grumbled under the breath, just loud enough for me to hear. She was strapping on her armour, which, as always, matched perfectly with the rest of her outfit, but she was doing so in a much more aggressive way than usual. "I'll pulverize them!"

That left the last two being me and Thalia. "I'll take offense," Thalia volunteered. "You take defense."

"Oh." I frowned. Perhaps she was trying to make up for what happened before, with me running off and leaving the manticore to them, or to prove to Chiron that she deserved to learn how to control the Mist too, or maybe even just because she was angry at me (she was almost always angry at me for some reason or another). I wasn't sure which it was, but I wasn't about to be stuck on border duty again. I really wanted to play this game. That meant going out there and taking some chances, taking some risks. I'd even been about to suggest the opposite, seeing as she had Aegis. "I was thinking that you could take defense, you know? With your shield and everything."