The Next Generation

Chapter 11 - Kas

For once, I envied Zara. Well, not that I don't do that on a regular basis, because, I mean, come on. I could see why Ethan, and practically all the other boys, had a crush on her. The daughter of Hades was seriously pretty. But, no, this time I envied her for not having siblings, which, usually, is not something I'd want. My siblings were awesome. But now, at five in the morning, I hated how I had to lie to my siblings, and even then, tip toe out of the room at the crack of dawn, trying not to wake them. In the end, I was able to do two, nice, dutch braids, and wear my usual outfit, and grabbing my beanie, I slipped out of the cabin unnoticed. Though it was early, I was, surprisingly, peppy enough to jog to the forest, and managed not to yawn the whole time.

The thing about training at night was good, meaning that Chiron had his full attention on me, rather than going between students. In the arena, the climbing wall, pretty much anywhere we trained, fought, and survived, until I was a battle-hardened warrior in a fourteen year-old girl's body. I just didn't show it unless absolutely necessary. The downside to training at night, though, was that I spent most of my free time either napping or reading, which only meant that I got about seven to eight hours of sleep a day, so I became sleep-deprived.

Anyways, as soon as I entered the wall of trees, hidden from the sights of campers, I summoned light from a pocket of warmth that would soon be the rising sun, and as thing strings of sunlight swirled around me, I wove and shaped them into an intricate sphere, that floated above my head and lit the would-not-have-been-seen roots that I surely would have tripped over. Not-so-gracefully, I vaulted tree roots and raced around trunks until I was at the clearing we'd met at the day before. Naturally, I was the last one there, and everyone was waiting for me.

"She's alive!" Sammy announced, a little too loud for my liking. I shushed him immediately, and the others impatiently started walking towards the beach. I was confused until Sammy started to walk with me and explained the plan.

"We're thinking that Ethan can summon some hippocampi for us and then we can ride them to, well, somewhere," I frowned. This was the part I didn't like about the group. I had only been through it for two, maybe three days, but now I was fed up with their behavior towards the poor kid. Looking over at him, I felt even worse. Calmly, restraining my frustration with, well, less of Sammy and more of the other, I called out,

"Guys, can we stop with the Ethan stuff?" Zara still wasn't here yet, but she knew the plan and was probably heading down to the beach right now, so Ethan was walking alone, outside of the pack of demigods. They looked at me, confused, probably thinking that it was a miracle that I actually talked. "I know you guys think it's funny and everything,"I snapped, letting a little of my anger loose "But this is an actual person, not a tool, nor your personal jester you keep around for laughs!" If they thought this was a laughing matter, they didn't now. I didn't lash out often, but when I did, it was something I hated. And I hated this. "You guys think you can just use him for laughs and occasional purposes other than that, but the guy has feelings, ok? I've seen the way you taunt him, push him, and then, the one actual time he refuses and stands up for himself, which, by the way," I smiled at Ethan, who seemed a little shocked at the predicament he was in. "Good job. Anyways, the one time he stands up to you, you stoop down so low that you resort to physical violence?!" I narrowed my eyes at C.J, who was looking taken aback. Good. He should be. But part of me wondered what had happened to the shy girl they'd met not two days ago and how much she'd changed. But no matter what, I'd continue my point. "You all should be ashamed of what you do to him, countlessly, with no guilt, nor sorrow. This isn't abuse, but it should be. Because that is the cold hard truth," I let a breath out, and turned so sharply, my two braids whipped around and hit me in the face. I ignored them, not caring if the others were following. Not a lot of people saw that side of me, and if they did, that meant I trusted them. But did I trust these people? Who basically maneuvers one of their own as if he were a marionette? I wasn't sure. But it was too late to go back, so I called to Ethan, "Come on,рыбка, lets go,"

WC:860

Hi!

Рыбка is baby fish in Russian, if ur wondering. And yes, Kas is fluent in five different languages, not including english, which are Spanish, Russian, French, Ancient Greek, and Italian. Pronounced ry-b-ka.

Beth