Annabeth

Campers were emerging from their cabins. Most mumbled together about how early it was. I saw Malcolm walk out of our cabin with a confused look on his face. When he saw me and the others, he gave a small nod and realization crossed his face. He retreated into the cabin and walked back out a moment later, followed by the rest of the cabin.

We reached our table and were soon joined by the rest of our friends.

"Kate!" Piper gasped. She hugged Kate and Leo smiled and made a joke about how Kate slept for so long.

She motioned for me follow her as she made her way to the front. We stood and watched as groggy campers trudged into the pavilion. Not many bothered to look up and instead mumbled about how early it was. They grew quiet when Kate whistled. Loudly.

I cringed internally at the sound but didn't move. Piper, Percy, Leo, Will, Nico, and Apollo saw it coming and managed to cover their ears in time. Meanwhile the rest of the campers scrambled to cover their own.

They all uncovered their ears slowly to make sure the sound was gone, and looked up at us. Many gasped when they saw Kate, others looked relieved, a few smiled, and a few, mainly the Hermes cabin, looked a little scared.

"Chiron will be back tomorrow." Kate began, ignoring the odd looks of the crowd. "I want all signs of Arachne's attack gone by lunch. Everyone will work on that except for the Ares and Athena cabins." The Ares cabin cheered that they wouldn't have to work. My cabin and i looked at her to explain. "I will explain your duties after breakfast. Meanwhile all of you get something to eat, you will need your strength." She finished and we sat down.

Everyone got food and burned offerings. Many different tables had arguments and conversations going on. Including ours.

"Why don't you want my cabin to help with cleaning?" I asked Kate.

"Yeah and why does my cabin have to?" Leo whined.

"Leo, calm down. Your cabin will be cleaning but you won't. I have a different job for you and you will find out what when the Ares and Athena cabins do." She answered Leo. "As for your cabin, Annabeth. Half will be helping the Ares campers. The other half will be with Percy. I need Percy's half to continue to train the newer campers. They need to train more because of the events the last couple of days." She finished.

I nodded. Leo looked relieved and worried at the same time.

~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone finished breakfast and Kate sent the other cabins on their way. They didn't have much to do. I had them working on repairs the past few days. It was mainly just picking up broken bits of weapons, torn fabric, and helping the grass to grow back in the burnt patches. The Demeter cabin would have that finished in no time.

"Malcolm, take ten of your best fighters and strategists and go with Percy. Gather up all of the new campers and go to the arena. They need training." Kate told Malcolm. He nodded and left with half the cabin and Percy. "Annabeth, you and the rest of your siblings need to help Clarisse and her cabin."

"We don't need help for anything." Clarisse objected.

"You do for this."

"And what would that be?"

"There is a creature in the forest. It almost killed several campers and it could come back to finish the job."

"So you want us to kill it." Clarisse said, smiling wickedly. The Ares campers all shared the same grinn.

"No. i want you to bring it back to me. I want to see what it is. But you can hurt it as much as you need to to get it here. Annabeth and her cabin will help you plan what parts of the forest each team will check." Kate answered.

"Team?" Clarisse's smile faded slightly.

"Yes, team. You will go in groups of three or more. Do not separate from the group you are in no matter what. If you do, there is a very good chance that you will die. And i do not want to have to replace a camper on my first year."

Clarisse nodded. We all left for the big house where there was a map of the camp. We would plan there.

Kate

I gave Leo the job of keeping an eye in the Ares campers from the air. He nodded, happy to be on Festus again.

The groups of campers headed towards the forest. Each was armed to the teeth. Leo hovered over the forest as they entered and separated. He made constant rounds to keep them in his sights.

I retreated into my cabin. Everyone was working on something. I would check on everything later, right now i needed to just relax. I was so stressed i was surprised my hair wasn't falling out.

"You can't stay in here forever." A voice said.

I looked up to see Hope leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. "And what do you expect me to do?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "How would i know. Im dead and you are immortal."

"You are also my guide. It's your job to know this stuff." I groaned.

"Well i might know something." She paused. I looked up at her. "You could tell them everything."

"You know i can't. I vowed to never."

"Yes but you can break a vow. Especially when it's to yourself. You just have to believe that it's time."

I sighed. She was right. But how would they react. That secret wasn't exactly a cup of tea. Ryan was not something, someone, that I liked to remember.

I stood. Hope eyed me then nodded in approval as i walked outside.

The campers had finished cleaning the grounds and it looked like an attack never happened.

I made my way to the arena. Percy and the Athena campers were watching as the new campers sparred each other.

"How's it going?" I asked him.

"Good. They're learning fast. Well, except for Ashley and Tana." He responded.

"That's to be expected. Children of Aphrodite who are fighters are rare or even impossible to find." I said.

He nodded. "I think they need a bit more of a challenge." He said. "Do you want to take over?"

I nodded and smiled. "Malcolm, you and your siblings should join the others in the big house." I called.

Malcolm looked up and smiled. He left, followed by the other Athena campers.

The newbies stopped and looked at me and Percy. "Good news. You all are going to train a different way." Percy smiled.

Two boys and a girl high fived and bumped to air. There were about twenty campers total. It was an even split of ten girls and ten boys. They were from varying cabins so they all looked very different.

Ashley and Tana were daughters of Aphrodite. Gunner, Bruce, and Viper were from Ares. Liam, Tanner, Bellamy, and Kaleb were the sons of Hermes. Lilac, Lily, Rose, and Summer were daughters of Demeter. There were two Athena girls, Clarke and Octavia. Haley and Marcus were twins from Nemesis. Greene was the son of Iris. And Cage and Henry were the sons of Hephaestus.

The siblings in the group stood together but they did not separate from the group. All of them but the Aphrodite girls were breathing hard and covered in sweat. They were all different ages. The youngest was Viper, the daughter of Ares, who was eight. But she made up for it by winning every fight with her brothers and challenging everyone else. The oldest was Henry at the age of thirteen.

"Well, how?" Gunner spoke up. His look threw a challenge my way. "Do you even know how to fight? You're barely fifteen. Who are you anyway?"

I glared at him as he pushed his way through the others towards me. "Don't, she's-" i cut off Clarke with another glare.

"Kate, he didn't mean it. He got here yesterday. He doesn't know you yet." Percy whispered in my ear.

I shrugged him off and took a step forward. "You dare challenge me?" I asked him. Gunner was young but he was about my height.

He grinned and laughed a little. The other children all knew who i was and all took a step back. The looks of their faces told Gunner that he made a big mistake. But he didn't listen. "Yeah. I don't think a girl could beat me. Especially not one who looks like they've never trained a day in their lives." He said cockly.

"Percy." I said. Percy moved from behind me and gathered the other campers out of the way and gave us a little room. They all stood about ten yards away, all watching to see what would happen.

"You name the fight. If you win i will let you lead this class. But when you lose you will be cleaning the stables for the next month and i will make sure Clarisse deals out another punishment when she returns from the forest." I told him.

"Deal." He said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. Giving him one last chance to back out.

"Yeah. I won't lose against a girl. Whose kid are you anyway? Aphrodite?" He chuckled. The other kids gasped at his words.

"And the fight?" I asked bored.

"Sword." He answered, drawing his from the sheath at his hip.

I smiled and summoned my sword into my hand. He backed a few feet and waited. Percy called out for us to start and Gunner charged. I sidestepped and he stopped and turned to meet my sword.

The metal clanged as he took strike after strike. I deflected every time. He was starting to breath heavily but i wasn't breaking a sweat. I used the flat of my blade to press on his wrist, causing him to drop his sword. I kicked it aside.

His eyes grew wide as i aimed my sword at his chest. Instead of winning the fight so quickly i retraced my sword and it clanged back on the wrist as a bracelet. If i finished the fight so easily, Gunner would not learn respect. Instead he would grow hate for me. I did not want to run the camp through hate. Instead i needed to grow respect.

He smiled as my sword disappeared. "You're stupid aren't you?" He asked and charged.

I held my hand out towards him. I felt a slight tug at my gut. I hadn't used this ability lately, so it took a bit more concentration. Gunner stopped, mid stride. His face grew a look of panic as his body started to obey my will. I had him walk over to the weapons rack and to a small knife. He grabbed it and walked back to me, his body still under my control. I made him aim the knife at his chest at arms length. His eyes were wide with panic now. The other young campers and Percy were holding their breath. They all had wide eyes as i made Gunner trust the knife towards his chest.

Just as he was about to stab himself i stopped his hand. The tip of the blade almost made contact with his skin. I released him and he dropped the knife, his hands shaking.

I walked up to him. He was breathing heavy. "You will be cleaning the stables for a month. You are never to question me again. Do you understand?" I asked him.

He nodded but asked. "Who are you?"

"I am the camp director. I am the Heir to Olympus itself. I am the daughter of Poseidon. And if you challenge me again, i will be your nightmare." I answered.

He nodded, having stopped shaking.

"As for the rest of you, line up. You too Gunner." The campers lined up in front of me and Percy returned to my side.

"Good move there. He needed to learn some respect, he was challenging Malcolm before you got here." Percy whispered in my ear.

I nodded and turned my attention back to the campers. "Now, i have a training game for all of you. This will be guys against girls so get into your groups."

The campers moved into two groups. They all looked happy and excited about the challenge. I turned away from them to face the arena. I turned my hand out towards it. There were barrels at the end of the arena that were filled with rainwater. The water poured out and flooded the arena. The water clumped and formed into ice forms all over the arena that were big enough to hide about two of the campers. The excess water soaked the ground in a line down the center, making a line of dark mud.

"This is your game field." I turned back to the campers. I looked them over. They all held wooden swords and had wood armor.

"The rules are simple. Girls own the right side and boys have the left. Percy will place flags at each end of the arena." I started. Percy nodded and took off to place flags at opposite ends. "Your goal is to get the other team's flag back to your side."

"So like capture the flag?" Octavia asked.

"Yes but this a a little different. On your side you are safe. But as soon as you cross the border, someone from the other team can tap you with their sword which means you are out. If you are out you cannot rejoin the game until the flag is retrieved and the game restarts. While you are on your side you should be keeping the other team from getting to your flag. To get someone out you must tap them with your sword on the arms, legs, or stomach. Head shots are not allowed. The ice formations are your cover. Any questions?" I finished.

"Can we fight back?" Viper asked, eyeing her brothers.

"Yes, you can defend yourself while on the other side, but no matter how many times you tap someone while they are on their side, they will remain in. So i suggest that you retreat until there is a better opening." I answered.

"Can we sit out?" Ashley and Tana asked.

"No."

"But we might break a nail."

"Girls, you are going to participate. And if you are dead weights to your team, i will get rid of all your makeup, and i will get you both boys hair cuts and you will join Gunner in the stables for the next month."

"Never mind." They said.

~~~~~

It was trick-or-treat on my street today so I am updating in the sprit of the holiday.

Happy Halloween my fellow demigods. 👹👻👺💀🎭