The Court Going to Camp Half-Blood

Chapter Six

Annabeth and Percy were wandering around the woods to try and find Celaena and Gavriel when they heard in the distance screaming and cursing and laughter. They decided to go for it. Sure enough, the two were sword fighting, cursing at each other when they were cut, and working themselves into an impasse neither of them could get out of. When they sprang apart Celaena tossed down her sword and said,

"Who needs steel."

Gavriel nodded and threw down his blade, and as soon as it left his hands Celaena lunged at him, and tackled him to the ground. They were moving so fast Percy could barely track who's leg was kicking and who's arm was punching, and then Celaena was in the air, flying toward a tree. She was going to slam into it, or would have if she was human. Instead she flipped and pushed off the trunk with her feet and flipped to land on the ground, snarling at Gavriel.

He just grinned, walked over, and flicked her nose. "We have visitors," he said.

"I know. I though I'd let them gawk by that tree a little more." In synch, they turned toward Annabeth and Percy, and Percy was slightly embarrassed for being caught, but then again not really. He and Annabeth strutted - well, he strutted, Annabeth is not the idiot dramatic he is - up to them, to find them grinning and Celaena saying,

"So we are going to have to train my magic at some point so unless you want to become a pile of Percabeth ash, you may want to leave or get behind Gavriel."

Percy said, "I have water powers. I could just use those."

"If you're stronger than me, sure. Although I did stop the entire force of a dam that was up for over a thousand years from destroying hundreds of thousands of miles of land and homes and city and people, and water is your specialty right?" She asked sweetly. Percy looked at her shocked. She sighed, shook her head, and said, "That was kind of a good day for me I used all the pressure of two months without using magic and tunneling into my power to stop the water, so it would take a while to gather up that strength safely, but I could still do it. Maybe faster now with the deep deep cavern of fire I got from the gods." 

Most people would probably be happy about being that powerful, and Percy would probably be annoyed with her had she sounded smug, but she sounded so disappointed, as if she enjoyed normal life. Percy got it. So he just said, "Behind Rowan it is," laughing as he did to ease the tension. Annabeth laughed too, a beautiful sound, really, and Celaena smirked to a laugh, which caused Gavriel to laugh, and soon the four of them were cackling in the forest clearing, until they stopped when ten Myrmekes were staring at them, at their jewelry, and especially those amulets around the girl's neck, one of overlapping circles with a blue gem, and one a circle with weird marks and a stag on it.

Celaena caught Percy's and the Myrmekes gaze and said, "These have been in my family for like a thousand years. No way are you having them," moved her hand to her bracelet, and it fell to the ground as she unclasped it, and her eyes burned with living flame, the flame so akin to the one she threw at the ants. But unfortunately the fire caught on the trees and, while it burned the demon ants alive, she couldn't stop it. Until Gavriel charged in, calmed her down, stopped the fires, and gently put the bracelet back on. Or, tried to. She shoved it off and said, 

"The pressure is too much when I take it off." He nodded like he understood what she meant, and put the bracelet in his pocket, and took out a candle.

* * *

Aelin saw Rowan put the bracelet in his pocket but was not expecting him to pull out a candle.

Really buzzard? She telepathically said. That didn't work last time.

Yes it did. You were just to stubborn to admit I helped and thought it was all your early morning practices.

Well those helped too.

They did, Fireheart. The guards were too scared to come close to you after that.

She grinned at the memory of the easy days in Mistward, and how much better they would have been had she and Rowan not hated each other for most of it. If they had realized their feelings, though, she had a feeling he would not have trained her as hard, and that was necessary.

So she sat cross-legged on the ground, staring at the demonic candle that was mocking her lame attempts to light it and not the entire forest. She glared at it, then looked up at Percy and Annabeth "This may be boring for a while. He won't let me have fun training until I light this. So you can do something else, or train with each other."

They looked at each other, shrugged, and just sat down on the ground too. "I need to practice too," Percy said, and Annabeth pulled out a jug of water from who knows where. What is it with people and holding weird things in their pockets? And where the heck did Rowan get that candle?

He must have seen the question in her eyes when she looked at him, and said I have my ways Fireheart. To that, I refocused my attention on Annabeth and Percy, Annabeth was throwing water at Percy and he was controlling it and floating it in the air, adding more each time.

"Have you ever thought about shaping the water?" I asked.

He looked at me, maintaining control over the water as he did it, and said, "Huh?"

"Like, shaping it. Making it resemble something. Like a water sword or water knife or dagger or shield. I'd do it now if it wouldn't probably incinerate us all." He laughed, and said,

"No I hadn't, actually, but I might now." He stared at the water, obviously concentrating, and the water started wiggling, and then started wiggling into a shape, well a blob, but a different blob than before, and then kept wiggling until it looked like a messy sword, and he kept sharpening edges and adding details until it look like a real sword, just clear. He picked it up out of the air, and slashed it around some, and then grinned. Annabeth looked impressed but also not, and just took out her dagger, and faster than Percy could move she slashed through the sword. Because his control and power wasn't enough the sword turned into a puddle on the ground.

I frowned, wanting to try myself with water. A controlled gift. I focused really hard on the puddle until a ball started wobbly shaking out of it, spinning into a ribbon that laced through my fingers. Percy stared at me and said, "How many gifts do you have?" I felt myself tiring already, and the fire come raging, so I made the executive decision to let go of the water and it dropped back into the puddle.

"I have the most fire, and then I also have healing magic, enhanced speed, hearing, sight, smell, instincts, and basically all senses, and I have a small gift of water from my mother, but not really anything great. I can also shift into another form."

They stared at me expectantly, and I sighed, concentrating on my human part, as I was still in my Fae form. I punched through the barrier, barely recognizing the pain of ears disappearing and teeth retracting. I was too distracted by the blurry world and muddled senses, no longer being able to see and smell as well, and the tiredness of my muscles. But I was so gloriously human. It was wonderful, so wonderful I let out a laugh of happiness, nothing vicious in it. Then Rowan said, "Shift," his eyes twinkling. I laughed again, and reached for my Fae form. I punched through again, only to say "Oh," and explode.

I was engulfed in blue wildfire, the only thing I had for most of my life as a child, and could not control it. Rowan must have put it out because then I was staring no longer at blue flames, but a blue sky, and an incinerated patch of forest. I, who was now in my human form, because I had freaked out and accidentally scared myself to shifting again, looked sheepishly at Percy and Annabeth, who were thankfully intact, staring at me, and said "My bad, but now you see why we had to train in the forest."

Annabeth smiled and said, "This is going to be interesting with you here."