ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter eight

━━ ELISA KNEW WHY she had taken it too far. But she had two reasons. One; Percy was annoying and crossed her boundaries ( and she simply had set them a little too firmly when she snapped at him ), and two; it had been two years since she had run away from Durango, Colorado.

               She had stormed off to Cabin Twelve, not knowing where else to go. She was a stranger at Camp Half-Blood, she didn't have an established set of friends there besides Bianca and Nico ( maybe Grover was her friend, but Elisa knew he was much closer to Percy than he was with her ), and Bianca had dropped her for the Hunters of Artemis, and Nico was always with Cabin Eleven.

               It's not like she held grudges for any of them. She was simply out of her element, confused and irritated, something she should be accustomed to by now. Elisa glanced at Cabin Eleven, stupidly expecting Nico to just be outside the cabin, waving to her as he normally did anytime she caught his eye. He was a pain in her ass sometimes, but she had promised Bianca to stay by his side and do her best to keep him safe. She'll never admit it, but he and his Mythomagic game had grown on her over the months.

               Nevertheless, Elisa knew well that everything came with a heavy price. She could never bring up Bianca without Nico giving her the cold shoulder for a few hours. Granted, she didn't blame Nico for reacting that way. His sister—someone who had been with him his whole life—had practically abandoned him for a band of girls that hated men. And they didn't react that way because Nico was a boy, either. Elisa could barely even get a glimpse of Bianca without some Hunter whisking her away.

               It was like the Hunters of Artemis wanted Bianca to abandon everything that she had known before them. Elisa didn't like it. That wasn't who Bianca was, and they were changing her—in Elisa's opinion—for the worst.

               In Elisa's mind, they had made it there together, the three of them, so she expected the three to stick it out together, but it wasn't looking that way. Soon—if Artemis was actually ever found safe or miraculously got away from her captors—Bianca would leave with the Hunters of Artemis and the goddess, leaving Elisa and Nico at Camp Half-Blood, a duo instead of a trio.

               She tried telling herself that life will always move on, that people will always leave—voluntary or not—and that she just had to roll with the punches. However, the bruise that seemed to be forming from Bianca's leave was going to last longer than Elisa ever expected.

               It seemed Nico was taking it even worse than Elisa, though. Which wasn't shocking considering that was his blood sister, the one who had been there his whole life. Bianca was there for him from the moment he took his first breath and first opened his eyes. Bianca wasn't like Elisa, who had shown up in his life a couple of months ago randomly.

               No one could ever say Bianca or the Hunters of Artemis without Nico getting a sour look on his face. Elisa tried getting him to tell her what was wrong—even though both of them knew exactly what was wrong—but Nico shrugged her off. She knew he doesn't hate Bianca, just hurt by what she had done. Elisa saw how when Nico did anything correctly, like when he rarely hits the target for archery or was told he was holding a dagger correctly, he would look around for Bianca, his grin dropping when there wasn't a sign of her.

               Elisa's heart stung for him, and she knew exactly what it meant. She cared for the two a little too much than she should. She wanted the best for them a little more than she should. She wanted to help them and protect them a little more than she should. Elisa had cared a little too much before, and it had gotten her scarred for life, but she couldn't make herself shut them out. It wasn't right, it wasn't what she wanted to do, and it wasn't what they needed from her.

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Cabin Ten wasn't exactly where Elisa had planned to go. It was the closest cabin, and Elisa really didn't want to walk past Cabin Eight, the one with the Hunters in it, to walk to Cabin Four. She knocked on the door, opened it, and peeked around the door.

               A girl of Japanese descent was looking at Elisa. She had her dark hair in perfectly formed ringlets, warm brown eyes that were framed with pink eyeliner, and plenty of jewelry for twenty people to wear.

               "Hey," the girl said, standing up from a desk covered in makeup and a small mirror. "I'm busy here, can't you see?" She was holding onto a small brush with a wooden handle, the hairs of the brush were covered in pink.

               "Er—sorry," said Elisa. "Just stopped by."

               The girl's eyebrows knitted together. "You stopped by?" she repeated. "Do you need help? I mean—your hair—"

               Elisa scowled. "Say anything about it and I'll make sure you wake up with orange hair."

               The girl grinned. "I don't know you. Are you new? Let me guess who your parent is. Do you have a mortal mom or dad?"

               Elisa watched the girl warily. "Mortal mom," she said.

               "Ares," the girl said without skipping a beat.

               "Uh-uh," said Elisa.

               The girl rolled her eyes, walking back over to the desk. Elisa followed after her.

               "What made you think it's Ares?" asked Elisa.

               "The threat." The girl shrugged. "Is it Hermes? The threat about dyeing my hair sounds a lot like what Connor and Travis would do."

               "It's Dionysus," said Elisa.

               The girl looked back at her. "Elina Bardana?" she asked. "Silena mentioned Castor and Pollux brought someone over."

               "Elisa Bardales," corrected the daughter of Dionysus through gritted teeth.

               "Sorry," said the girl, turning back around. "I'm Drew Tanaka, daughter of Aphrodite."

               "I figured," Elisa said dryly.

               "Why'd you come here?" asked Drew, poking at her eyeliner with the thin brush.

               Elisa shrugged. "It's the closest cabin."

               "Most people wouldn't stop by," said Drew. "So, why'd you really stop by?"

               "I'm just trying to get to know the people who live here," said Elisa. "And, well, I just didn't want to deal with Percy Jackson any longer."

               The daughter of love snorted. "What'd he do to you?"

               "Annoy me."

               "Now you really sound like a daughter of Ares," said Drew, picking up a lipstick container. She grabbed the brush and ran it over the pink product. "Clarisse hates him."

               Elisa sat at the end of a bed behind Drew. "So, he's like that with everyone?"

               Drew nodded. "I've not talked to him much, but he seems to get on people's nerves—so I've heard, at least. Clarisse talks really loud, by the way."

               Elisa picked at the skin around her nails. "Do you know Callum Belshaw?"

               Drew paused, set the brush down, and turned to Elisa. "No, he left Camp before I arrived, but I've heard of him. He was Head Counselor for a while. He's one of the few who make it to adulthood."

               "He's only, like, in his early twenties," said Elisa. "That's not ... very old."

               "Yeah, well," said Drew, shrugging, "it's dangerous for us. Most of us don't get to be very old." She shook her head, as if shaking a thought from her brain. "How do you know him?"

               Elisa took a long breath. "I ... He helped me on my way here," she said, keeping the connection between them vague. "He helped a lot."

               Drew gave her a tight-lipped smile. "I've heard he was super kind. Silena's said she really looked up to him when she first got here."

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Elisa wasn't exactly sure if she should be going to the Big House. She didn't know the rules of Camp Half-Blood yet, and she wasn't sure what the punishments were if she was caught breaking any rules. But Elisa had to call Callum, she had to tell him she made it and that she hadn't died.

               She crept through the main floor of the Big House, listening for any other sounds of people inside. There were the sounds that any house would make; creaking of boards as the wind whistled by or the sound of the walls settling into the ground.

               Her footsteps echoed around the hallway as Elisa made her by the front door of the Big House for a second time. She froze when the door creaked open and hid behind the wall beside her. Footsteps made their way closer to her and Elisa's face twisted and contorted as she knew there was nowhere to hide.

               The footsteps stopped abruptly and she sighed with defeat.

               Percy Jackson was standing there with wide eyes. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a whisper.

               Before she knew it, a scowl formed on Elisa's face. "I could ask you the same thing, Chico Pez," she snapped.

               "But you didn't ask me," Percy pointed out.

               Elisa jutted out her jaw and pushed past Percy. "It's none of your business. I think you would have figured that out by now."

               "Hey, Elisa," Percy called after her, "I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have pushed you to tell me about your past. It was wrong and I'm sorry."

               "'Course I'm right," said Elisa, slamming the front door open to the Big House. "And you should be sorry."

               Elisa knew she was still being harsh.

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After dinner that same night, Elisa was seriously ready to get to bed rather than play Capture the Flag against the Hunters of Artemis. She didn't know if most people felt that way; Castor and Pollux sure did, but Nico seemed excited ( one of few, from what Elisa saw by other campers' faces ).

               Zoë Nightshade seemed pretty upset. She kept glancing resentfully at Chiron, like she couldn't believe he was making her do this. None of the other Hunters looked happy, either. Unlike the night before, they weren't laughing or joking around loudly. They were just huddled together in the dining pavilion, whispering nervously to each other as they strapped on their armor. Some of them even looked like they'd been crying. Elisa figured they had been informed about Zoë's dream.

               That feeling only felt more justified when Bianca gave her a grim look from across the dining pavilion.

               Capture the Flag was explained to Elisa loosely by Castor and Pollux; two teams, both protecting a flag, and whichever team lost their flag lost. Easy and obvious. One team was just the Hunters of Artemis; thirteen players. The second team was a random pick of campers staying at Camp Half-Blood, but it could only be thirteen to be fair to the Hunters.

               The Camp Half-Blood team consisted of Elisa, Castor, and Pollux, plus some other campers she didn't know. Pollux told her the name of some she had seen before, like Benkendorf, who was the burly black guy she had seen on her way to the Big House after the bus crash. Beckendorf was on the team with a couple of his brothers, there were the Stoll brothers, Nico, a couple of other Hermes kids, and some Aphrodite kids, Silena one of the first she saw. But not Drew, Elisa noticed.

               Elisa pulled at the armor that was thrown at her. The helmet felt too heavy and the chest plate was pulling at her shoulders. Castor was telling her to not forget about Acantha or Scion in case a Hunter attacked her at any moment.

               "I'm gonna see if we can just stick you on guard duty or something," said Castor. "This is your first Capture the Flag game, I don't want to just throw you to the wolves."

               "I can hold my own," insisted Elisa. "This isn't my first time fighting, you know."

               "It's your first game against the Hunters," said Pollux. "You haven't fought them, have you? Trust me, you don't want to."

               Elisa found Nico struggling to put on his armor. He kept trying to put his chest plate on but his helmet would fall into his eyes and then he would have to push it back. Elisa sniggered, grabbing the helmet.

               "Is there not a smaller size?" she asked him.

               "I looked!" insisted Nico, tugging at the chest plate.

               "No one helped you?" Elisa raised her eyebrows.

               "Percy did."

               "Hm." Elisa sat down the helmet, motioning for Nico to turn around. "I had Castor help me, if you want me to go get him."

               "It's fine," said Nico. "Percy said it would be fine."

               Elisa watched as Nico grabbed the helmet, her eyes following after him as he walked off. "M-kay ..." she muttered.

               "Elisa!" Nico yelled her name loudly.

               She grumbled and followed after him. "What?" she said. "What's up?"

               "Percy mentioned he wanted to talk to you," said Nico, leading Elisa past Beckendorf and one of his brothers.

               "Great," said Elisa. "Did he say about what?" she asked sarcastically.

               "No, he wouldn't tell me."

               It seemed Nico didn't get her sarcasm, genuinely thinking Elisa was curious.

               "Tell him I'll talk to him later," said Elisa. "After Capture the Flag. I need to find Castor and Pollux and tell them something."

               That was a total lie.

               "Are you sure?" asked Nico.

               Elisa nodded. "Hurry up," she told him. "I'm sure the game's about to start."

               Nico waved to her and ran off, looking for Percy. Elisa turned a hundred and eighty, looking for any signs of her half-brothers. She didn't need to talk to them, she just really didn't want to deal with Percy. She stopped when Chiron's hoof thundered on the pavilion floor.

               "Heroes!" he called. "You know the rules! The creek is the boundary line. Blue team—Camp Half-Blood—shall take the west woods. Hunters of Artemis—red team—shall take the east woods. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. No intentional maiming, please! All magic items are allowed. To your positions!"

               Thalia yelled, "Blue team! Follow me!"

               Elisa followed after the crowd that cheered and started going in one direction.

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The blue team set their flag at the top of Zeus'S Fist. Elisa had no idea why it was called Zeus's Fist, it looked more like a pile of enormous deer droppings from most angles, but Castor said that it looked like a fist coming out of the ground if you looked at it just right. ( Elisa figured to just not name it Zeus's Fist since it barely ever looked like a fist. )

               Everyone seemed to think it was a good place to place the flag, and Elisa didn't have much say because no one cared and she didn't care much, either.

               But when it came to what part she was going to play, she suddenly cared a lot. Percy placed her and Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers.

               "You won't be in Zoë's way," he told them. "And since it's your first game, that'd be for the best."

               "Don't tell me what to do," said Elisa. "I can hold my own."

               "I'm just trying to be helpful," said Percy.

               "Oh, real helpful," hissed Elisa. "Like back at West—"

               "We'll send out a decoy to the left," said Thalia, walking over. "Silena, you lead that."

               The daughter of Aphrodite nodded.

               "Take Laurel, Castor, and Pollux," added Thalia. "They're all good runners. Make a wide arc around the Hunters, attract as many as you can. I'll take the main raiding party around to the right and catch them by surprise."

               Everybody nodded.

               Thalia looked at Percy. "Anything to add, Percy?"

               "Uh, yeah." He nodded. "Keep sharp on defense. We've got five guards, two scouts. That's not much for a big forest. I'll be roving. Yell if you need help."

               "And don't leave your post!" Thalia added quickly.

               "Unless you see a golden opportunity," said Percy.

               Thalia scowled. "Just don't leave your post," she repeated.

               "Right, unless—"

               "Percy!" said Thalia, grabbing his upper arm. Percy flinched, ripping his arm out of her grip. "Sorry," she said, though she didn't sound particularly sorry. "Now, is everybody clear?"

               The group nodded. Then the group broke into smaller groups. The horn sounded, and the game began.

               Pollux pulled Elisa aside. "Give him a break, Elisa?" he said. "You're being too mean."

               "Follow Silena," she said, nodding to the daughter of Aphrodite.

               "Would you?" he asked. "He only means well."

               Elisa didn't answer and pushed him toward Silena, watching as Pollux and the two disappeared into the woods. Thalia's group gave it a few seconds, then darted off toward the right.

               Elisa was waiting for something to happen; an explosive exit from a line of trees that was going to be the very thing to make the blue team lose. She expected the Hunters of Artemis to storm out of the trees like the way they had during the manticore attack. But that never happened.

               She leaned against the boulders as Percy climbed upon Zeus's Fist. Nico tried and failed to follow Percy.

               "Give me a boost," he told Elisa. He grumbled when she shook her head. "What's happening?" he yelled up to Percy.

               But Percy didn't answer. He kept watching the line of trees, like he was waiting for the same thing Elisa was. She watched him curiously as Percy looked back at Beckendorf.

               "Can you guys hold the fort?" Percy asked the son of Hephaestus.

               Beckendorf snorted. "Of course."

               "I'm going in," said Percy, climbing his way back down Zeus' Fist.

               "Hold on," said Elisa. "What?"

               "I know what I'm doing," Percy promised her. "I mean, there's no way with only two scouts we can secure the flag."

               Elisa opened her mouth to say something else when Percy ran off. Nico and the Stoll brothers cheered him on. Nico's mouth shut as Elisa turned to glare at him. The girl watched incredulously as Percy ran and jumped over a creek, which had him land right in enemy territory.

               He disappeared behind the line of trees, and Elisa lost sight of him. But she only lost sight of him for a few moments; when Percy busted through the trees with a silvery flag in his hands. She didn't know if luck was truly on his side, or if that was the plan all along, but the Stoll brothers started yelling for backup as some Hunters appeared.

               Elisa dodged an arrow, lunging for a Hunter, but she didn't get time to make a scratch. An arrow grazed her arm, leaving a line of nicked skin, and a line of forming blood. One of the Stoll brothers yelped and there were suddenly two arrows sticking out of his helmet like antennas. Elisa threw Acantha, and it nearly hit the Hunter in the leg.

               Elisa backed away from the Hunter, pulling out Scion. But the two Hunters lost interest, looking behind Elisa and Beckendorf.

               If Percy had any luck, it had definitely run out. A silvery cord raced across his ankle and fastened to the tree next to him. It was a tripwire that was fired from a bow. He fell face-first into the dirty snow beneath him.

               "Percy!" Thalia yelled off to his left. "What are you doing?"

               Before she could ever reach him, an arrow exploded at her feet and a cloud of yellow smoke billowed around her team. They started coughing and gagging. Even Elisa could smell the awful smell of sulfur all the way back at Zeus' Fist.

               "No fair!" Thalia gasped for air. "Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!"

               However, Percy got up and started running again. He only had a few more yards until he was back in blue team territory. More arrows were flying past his face, not far from making their target. A Hunter came out from a line of trees and lunged for him with a knife, but he parried and kept running.

               Beckendorf and Nico started yelling and running toward him, though. Elisa realized why quickly—Zoë Nightshade was racing for Percy like a cheetah, dodging campers with ease. Even more of a problem, she had the blue team's flag gripped tightly in her hands.

               "No!" Percy roared.

               He was two feet from the water when Zoë bolted across to her own side, slamming into Percy to prove her point. The Hunters cheered as both sides converged on the creek. Chiron appeared out of the woods, looking grim. He had the Stoll brothers on his back, definitely dealing with injuries from the sneak attack from the Hunters.

               "The Hunters win!" Chiron announced without pleasure. Then he muttered, "For the fifty-sixth time in a row."

               "Perseus Jackson!" Thalia yelled, storming toward Percy. She smelled like rotten eggs, and she was so mad that blue sparks flickered on her armor. Everybody cringed and backed up because of Aegis. "What in the name of the gods were you thinking?" she bellowed.

               "I got the flag, Thalia!" Percy yelled back, shaking the silvery flag in her face for good measure. "I saw a chance and I took it!"

               "I was at their base!" Thalia yelled. "But the flag was gone! If you hadn't butted in, we would've won."

               "You had too many on you!"

               "Oh, so it's my fault!" Thalia pointed at herself, daring Percy to agree.

               The boy shook his head. "I didn't say that."

               Thalia pushed Percy, and he was sent backward ten feet into the water. Some campers gasped, though a couple of Hunters stifled laughs.

               Thalia turned pale. "Sorry! I didn't mean to—"

               A wave erupted from the creek, slamming Thalia in the face and dousing her from head to toe.

               Percy stood up. "Yeah," he growled. "I didn't mean to, either."

               Thalia's chest was rising and falling rapidly.

               "Enough!" Chiron ordered.

               But Thalia held out her spear. "You want some, Seaweed Brain?"

               "Bring it on, Pinecone Face!"

               Percy raised his sword, but before he had a chance to move, Thalia yelled, and a blast of lightning came down from the sky, hit her spear like a lightning rod, and slammed into Percy's chest.

               Percy fell back to the ground. There was smoke rising off of his clothes. Elisa glared at the Hunters who were laughing behind her.

               "Thalia!" Chiron said. "That is enough!"

               Percy got to his feet. It seemed that the entire creek was rising around him. The water swirled, hundreds of gallons of water in a massive icy funnel cloud.

               "Percy!" Chiron pleaded.

               Elisa grabbed Nico by the shoulder to pull him behind her. She watched Percy nervously, waiting with bated breath for what he would do next. Her eyebrows furrowed when the water came back down in the creek all at once. Everyone tried to see what Percy was looking at.

               Someone—something—was approaching. It was shrouded in a murky green mist, but as it got closer, Elisa and Nico recoiled from the sight.

               "This is impossible," Chiron muttered, sounding nervous. "It ... She has never left the attic. Never."

               Whoever she was looked like a mummy that had been poorly mummified. She had sickly-colored skin stretched across her body, clumps of black hair on her scalp, and frightening glassy eyes which were glowing bright green. Strangely enough, she was wearing a tie-down dress that looked like it was taken straight from the seventies.

               The mummy shuffled forward until she stood in the center of the group. Mist curled around their feet, turning the snow a sickly shade of green.

               No one dared to move. Then the mummy's voice hissed inside Elisa's head. It seemed everyone else was able to hear it too as several others and Nico clutched at their ears.

               "Elisa," Nico groaned, holding his ears.

               Elisa grabbed his arm as the voice said, I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python.

               She looked at Percy with cold, dead eyes. Then, she turned unmistakably toward Zoë. Approach. Seeker, and ask.

               Zoë swallowed. "What must I do to help my goddess?"

               The mummy's mouth opened, and green mist poured out. Elisa was the vague image of a mountain, and a girl standing at the barren peak. It had to be Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks. She was kneeling, her hands raised as if to fend off an attacker. It looked like she was in horrible pain.

               The mummy spoke:

"Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,
One shall be lost in the land without rain,
The bane of Olympus shows the trail,
Campers and Hunters combined prevail,
The Titan's curse two must withstand,
And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

               Then, as everyone was watching, the mist swirled and retreated like a green serpent back into the mummy's mouth. She sat down on a rock and became as still as a mummy should be.

👑 MAY 30TH, 2022 / some parts are super messy, so i will def go back and edit at some point