The mid-July sun shone brightly over Camp Half-Blood, making the day hot and humid. The air felt oppressive, but it didn't stop the kids attending from enjoying their daily activities. Some campers were out in the lake swimming, while others were on the training obstacle course. Emeris sat on the grassy knoll just below the horseshoe of cabins. He looked out and felt the heat of the day bathe over him. He laughed as he saw the Aphrodite kids trying to coax the Ares kids into a game of chicken in the lake. He looked down to the archery range, some of his half brothers and sister were standing around with Chiron trying to help some other kids with their archery. He stood up and stretched and decided to walk down to the range to see if he could be of any assistance.

"Hey Chiron, everything going good down here?"

"Ah, Emeris, our resident archer," He said with half a chuckle, "yes, everything seems to be going quite all right. You're whole family is, as always, eager to help when it comes to archery. Would you want to give a demonstration to these young students?"

"Anytime." He turned to look at the group of 12 year olds. He reached down, and picked up the recurve bow off the ground. He then took a few arrows and placed them tip down into the ground in a grouping of five. He then looked to a brown haired girl to his side. "Amy, can you grab me a bracer please?" he asked with a smile. The lithe girl ran to the equipment rack and grabbed the leather arm guard and brought it back to Emeris. "Thank you." He fastened it to his arm. He raised the bow and gave a tug or two on the string and then started speaking. "This is a standard recurve bow with a draw weight of about 35 pounds. Should be enough for all of you. Now then, you take your arrow and nock it-place it on the string. Your other hand is gripping about center of the bow, and the arrow resting on top of your finger. You face your target, draw until the fletching -the feathers- are almost touching your cheek. Stare down the shaft of the arrow and line up your target, breathe out, and release." The arrow left the bow and flew seamlessly straight down to hit its target. "And that's really all there is to it. Now for the fun part." He took the next three arrows in the ground and in a rapid motion, shot them effortlessly at the same target. "Grand finale" he said with a smirk as he picked up the final arrow, and shot it with his eyes closed. The arrow split the first right down the center. The group of kids laughed and clapped. He smiled at Chiron before saying "All right, you all try now. I'll be sitting here if you need help or have any questions, but the number one rule is....Don't try the closed eyes trick just yet, we dont want another accidental death." He laughed as he sat on the fence surrounding the range watching the kids all running to get equipment to try archery.

The Clanking of swords could be heard, not far from the archery group.

The Children of Athena, seemed to be split in two groups. Some of the younger children, were swimming in the lake. Whilst the Elder of the half-siblings where practicing double combat. Most were armed with swords, a few had a long dagger.
A young blonde haired young woman, by the name of Harmony was among the one's whom held a sword in her hand. She was one of the few, whom was truly gifted with a sword. It was clear, it wasn't her first time handling one. Her footwork was always carefully crafted. At times designed to confuse her opponent. But she never hurt anyone in practice...it was all for good fun, and for learning something new. As well as practicing what she already knew, in hopes she might pass it on to the younger kids.

A sword clattered onto the soft grass...as Harmony had disarmed her opponent. "Ah...darn it." The young man whom was training against Harmony huffed playfully. "Good tactic Harm." he smiled.

"You done, good Trent." Harmony smiled at her half-brother. She patted his shoulder, before picking up his sword handing it back to him. The young teenager just smiled back at her. Deciding to take a break, the pair walked a little closer to the archery session.

"Good Afternoon Chiron." Harmony greeted with a warm smile. "Hey, Em." she said softly, as she nodded to Emeris in greeting. Trent nodded in greeting towards Emeris and Chrion "Good afternoon." he greeted.

"Show off!" Someone muttered, with a playful scoff. Glancing over her shoulder, Harmony saw Jason leaning against the tree near by. It appeared, he had been watching the Resident Archer. He was known, as The notorious son of Hades. Apparently, his temper was the worst of them all. Even though he had a reputation, there were a few that could stand to be around him. Jason run a hand through his dark hair, ruffling it slightly.

"You think you could do better?" Trent asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I hear, he's the best archer in the whole camp." Harmony added, as she pursed her lips. Looking at Jason with a raised eyebrow. She was well aware, of how competitive Jason was. It was also known, that he and Emeris had a few competitive encounters before through out their years at camp.

Emeris turned as he heard footsteps and the greeting from the blonde girl. "Hey Harm." He replied with a smile. He then turned to the the guy standing beside the tree. "Come on Jason, you have to show off every once in a while. Keeps the kids interested in learning. What are you going to do, sulk the information into them?" He said with a light laugh. He jumped off the fence, and started walking toward Jason. "As Harm said, she's heard I'm the best archer in the camp. Now I'd be willing to relinquish that title, if you wanted to have a...competition. A shoot-out, five arrows, three closest to the bulls-eye wins. All in good fun though, Harm and Chiron will be the judges."

He looked at the two others. "Would that be cool with you guys?"

Chiron looked at him, "I suppose I'm fine with it, but I really must get back to the big house as soon as this is over."

Jason rolled his eyes into the back of his head, before snorting out a laugh. "Me, lecture the little one's? Please...lectures are so boring." he scoffed. Lectures and Jason, did not go together. He found them so long, and stretching on forever. Or so it seemed like it, if the teachers spoke in a very low...slow voice.

"You might, you might actually learn something. If you listened...or read something." Harmony teased Jason. "They can be quite interesting."

"Little miss Bookworm." Jason told her, with a smirk. But flashed her, one of his teasing yet charming smiles. He then smirked hearing Emeris. "Mhh, that does sound fun. Count me in." he said, as he cracked his knuckles...as he flexed his hands.

Harmony just smiled. "Sure, I'll help judge...I'd be surprised if someone actually beats you." she told Emeris.

He smiled back at Harm, "Thanks, and if he does beat me, he deserves to be called the best."

The young man turned and got his equipment ready. He placed another five arrows into the ground and laid his bow next to them. He then walked to the equipment stand and started looking around. He couldn't seem to find what he was looking for, so he called out, "Amy, can you do me one more huge favor?" The little girl nodded. "Can you run as fast as possible to the cabin and find me an old shirt?" The girl smiled because she knew what he had planned. She turned and started sprinting off and he called out, "That's why you're my favorite." before returning to his arrows to finish his prep.

"You sure, you're ready to give up your title?" Harmony asked with a slight raised eyebrow. But smiled softly back at him. She leaned against one of the trees, as the boys began to get ready.

Jason first stretched out his muscles, flexing his arms. He needed to warm himself up a little bit first. Walking over to the equipment, he pulled out five arrows. Laying them down a little, away from Emeris'. He then looked through the different bows. It took him a while to pick which, one he wanted. He tested it out, without an arrow. Seemed good enough, at least for him.

He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, at his competitor's request. Watching the young girl run off. "Ahhh...you got a trick up your sleeve?" he teased him.

The girl returned carrying an old ragged t-shirt and handed it to Emeris. "Thanks kiddo" He said as he ruffled her hair. He began tearing it to make one long cloth, while replying to Jason with a laugh, "Not a trick, just an added bit of flair."

He stood beside his arrows and proceeded to tie the cloth around his head covering his eyes to test that he couldn't see anything. When he was comfortable he pushed the cloth up and picked up his bow and first arrow. "Would you like to go first or shall I?" He asked to his opponent.

As Jason picked up a bracer, he began to fasten it to his arm. He then rose an eyebrow at Emeris. "Good, I hate tricks." he said, but a slight smirk played on the corner of his lips. He then smiled "Mhh, I'll go first if you don't mind." he said as he picked up one of his arrows and got it ready.

Taking a deep breath, he got into focus. Aiming his bow and arrow, he pulled back. Feeling the feathers near his skin. As he made sure his arrow was aimed, he released the arrow. Firing through the air quickly, it hit the target...right in the center. After that, he fired the last four arrows, after each other.

2 of the 5 arrows, hit the bullseye. One of them was right on the outline of the bullseye...the other two were very near the third arrow. Jason then smirked once he was done. "So, how did I do?" he asked.

Walking over to his target, Harmony smiled "Mhh, quite good actually..2 Bullseye, 1 was very close, so were the others."

Emeris smiled, "Not bad at all."

He pulled the cloth back down over his eyes, felt for the arrow and then nocked it and drew. He took a deep breath. He felt the slight breeze blow over him and he felt the feathers touching his cheek. With a deep breath he loosed the arrow. Before it his the target he already had the next arrow nocked, drawn, and loosed. Quick as could be all 5 arrows had flown. The first arrow landed a little high of dead center. the next hit bulls-eye, followed by the third. The fourth struck about an inch lower and the 5th didn't hit the target directly in front of him. He heard his family cheering, as he lifted his eye covering to see that his fifth arrow had split Jason's first bulls-eye arrow.

"Ok, Harm. You get to call it. Who wins?"

Jason smirked. "Thanks." he said, with a proud grin on his face. Winking over at Harmony, whom was still looking at the arrows. She looked somewhat impressed.

As Emeris began to fire his own arrows, both Jason and Harmony watched with awe at his tactic. She didn't know, if being blind-folded helped him or not, but it seemed to be working. When he finished, Harmony looked at the target board again...her eyes wide in surprise. Seeing Emeris had split one of Jason's arrows.

"Wow..." she breathed out. "I think our champion archer, still remains a champion." she said smiling at Emeris. "Sorry Jas." she said giving him an apologetic look "It was really close, if Em hadn't split one of your arrows, it would have been a tie." she said, walking over and she patted his back. "You done good, practice some more and you might beat him."

Jason stood there a little stunned, when Harmony said Emeris split one of his arrows. It took him a few moments to compose himself. Maybe he felt a little jealous, that his fellow opponent was so good. But he tried to hide it. "Wow, Impressive." He finally breathed out.

Emeris stepped forward and offered his hand out to Jason. "That was a good contest," he laughed, "I haven't been challenged like that in a while."

He returned his bow to the equipment rack, and then walked back over to Harm and Jason. Chiron had already left for the big house and the younger kids were ready to run off and do their own thing now that the excitement had died down.

"You guys looking forward to the feast tonight?"

Turning to look at his opponent. Jason shook his hand. "I'd say so.." he said with a smirk. "Congratz, on keeping your title of King Archer." he said with a chuckle. "Mhh, we might need more challengers for you then."

As he returned the equipment back to the racks. It seemed like everyone else went about doing their own thing. At the mention of a feast, Jason's stomach rumbled slightly. "Oh you bet...I am hungry." he said.

Harmony laughed a little, shaking her head "When, aren't you hungry?" she asked. Jason pursed his lips in thought. "I wasn't hungry 5 minutes ago." The young blonde just shook her head, with a giggle at his words. It seemed, like if someone mentioned food. It automatically made him hungry. But who could blame him? The food at the camp was delicious.

"It should be good one." Harmony said with a smile. She was beginning to feel bit peckish herself.

"I wonder who Mr. D got for entertainment. I hope its not a karaoke machine, and him performing all his favorites like it was last time."

He looked out over the camp. Everyone was starting to wind down and head back to their cabins to start getting ready for the feast. The different areas were already cleared and it looked like a mass migration.

"I need to run and clean up, and check on my cabin, but I should see you guys there. Save me a seat, Harm?"

Jason groaned at the mention of entertainment "Oh god, I think half the people there fell asleep...by the time he finished song number 4."
"Aww, come in...it wasn't that bad." Harmony said, but made a slight face at the cringe worthy moments. Jason just rose an eyebrow at her expression. Yeah, that's what I thought so. He said to himself, seeing her expression.

"Hey, Harmony you coming!" A few voices, called out from further across the field. The voices belonged to her half siblings.

"I'll be there in a moment!" Harmony called over. She smiled at Emeris and nodded. "Sure, I'll see you boys there." she said. Jason nodded. "I'll meet you both there." he said, before he jogged off towards his cabin. Harmony jogged over towards her half-siblings as they all went to their cabins to clean up before dinner.

The Cabin of Athena, was quite spacious. Since there were 10 of them in there, they had two bathrooms. One for the girls, one for the boys. They even had their own mini library, there. The shelves filled with endless books. Placing her sword, in it's holder beside her bank bed. Harmony looked through her clothing, deciding to change into something more nicer for dinner. She picked out a summer dress. Walking into the girl's bathroom, she freshened herself up with a cool shower.

After she was fresh and clean. She got dressed. Setting her previous, somewhat sweaty clothes in the laundry hamper. As everyone else was getting ready, she smiled. "I'll see you there." she told her half-siblings. Playfully ruffling Trent's hair, whom raised an eyebrow at her.

Out of her, Jason and Emeris, she was the first one to arrive. Sitting at one of the tables...she kept two chairs saved for the boys.

Emeris left the two, and jogged off to his cabin. He went and quickly took a shower. When he came back out he looked around his cabin. The younger kids were running around and a few of the older ones were just lounging about. Clothes were strewn everywhere, and he could see areas that needed to be cleaned up. He raised his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle, and everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "We need to get this place cleaned up. So you younger kids, pick up the clothes and us older kids will do the harder stuff. I know we have cleaning harpies, but we don't have to make their job difficult. We can get this done and still have plenty of time to make it to the feast."

The cabin jumped up and started cleaning. He didn't want to come off like he was bossing them around and not helping, so he started picking up trash and putting it in a bag. "Remember if you don't want your laundry mixed up, put it in your bag at the edge of your bunk."

Within 20 minutes the room look transformed. It was clean and its inhabitants looked ready to head to the feast. Emeris smiled at them all and headed out of the door.

The sun had sunk down behind the trees and the torches were lit giving off their light in the twilight purple of the evening. Lightning bugs floated on the breeze along with the laughter and conversation of the campers making their way to the feast. Emeris strolled along at a comfortable pace just taking it all in. He hadn't received a quest of his own, but he helped train plenty who had went. He didn't much mind, but he knew that with being eighteen, he needed to look toward the future. He wanted to stay and work at the camp, but he didn't know at this point if that would be the case.

He arrived to the clearing where the feast was being held. He looked around. It was mostly full already so he started searching for Harmony. After a few moments, he saw her and did a quick wave, and started making his way to the empty seat next to her.

Harmony was enjoying the evening breeze. The summer evening smell and the way, purple hues of the lights. Her half-siblings, were all sitting near by. As usual. Trent was the last one to join them, from their cabin. He along with Harmony, where the leaders of the Cabin, being the two eldest. But he as usual, liked to get ready at the last moment. Hoping to Impress one of the girls that always eyed him.

Not that she blamed the girls. He was tall, quite handsome and well educated. Maybe more outgoing than she was. It always took some persuasion from the other kids and her friends, for her to go any discos and parties held at the camp. As much as she knew she needed to be more social sometimes, she would much rather be curled up with a good book. But that always, wasn't the case.

Harmony glanced around the clearing and she smiled softly, seeing Emeris. She waved over to him gently. "Everything, alright back at the cabin?" she asked, when he sat down beside her.

Jason, as always. Was the last on the scene. With his devil may care, confident walk that always attracted the attention of young ladies. Especially the daughters of Aphordite and Hera. He flashed, them his charming, flirtatious smile. Before he sat down beside Emeris, when he spotted him with Harmony.

"Late as always." Harmony said looking at Jason.

"And should I guess, you were the first, as always?" Jason teased back, with a smirk.

Trent chuckled "Yes, she was." he added with a playful look towards Jason. "Nothing wrong, with being the first."

"Mhh, I prefer arriving with a bang." Jason said with a laugh.

"Oh yeah. We just needed to clean some stuff up. It was beginning to look bad." He laughed. "Jason's late" he said looking around. Right at that instance he saw Jason arrive and head toward them. There was a short exchange about Harmony being early and Jason wanting to arrive with a bang.

"Who's a show off now? Just trying to make a scene." He said laughing.

"I hope this feast gets started soon. It always makes me hungry when I win a competition."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Mr. D appeared on stage with a microphone. "Kids and Counselors. I don't want to make a long speech full of pomp and self-indulgence, because that just isn't my style." The campers all started giggling. Mr D. glared at them all. "I must say this has been a fairly easy summer. No deaths. only a handful of maimings, but that just cant be prevented. All in all, I must say I am truly proud of myself for running a fairly great camp. But without further ado, let the feast begin."

Jason smirked, as he got called a show-off. "Hey, I can't help that the ladies love me." he said. Trent just rolled his eyes at Jason's words, with a laugh.

"Of course, they do..." Harmony said, giving him a slight teasing look. "Who wouldn't love, a guy who's always late and cracks nanny jokes, at breakfast?" Jason narrowed his eyes slightly, with a huff. "Hey, you love those jokes...you know you do."

A few of the girls on their table, giggled. They had heard a few of his jokes, and it was nuts. Not all of them, were funny. Even if Jason insisted, the jokes were ace and you had to have a certain sense of humor to fully understand them. Harmony barely found any of them, funny. But for Jason's sake...most had to pretend, they were hilarious.

"Hey...hey...don't wound my pride." Jason whined a little, as Emeris spoke about winning. Trent shook his head in amusement. "I think, you should just suck it up...be a gracious looser....as they say." He managed to say.

Listening to his speech, Harmony tried not to giggle along with the others. But it was hard not to..As the feast, started. Everyone loaded up their plates, with the delicious food. All different sorts of meat, with potatoes, veg, salads, cheese and ham selections. It was mouth watering.

As the food appeared, Emeris began to eat. He was laughing with the group.

Mr. D got up and started trying to sing karaoke to everyone's dismay. He was starting to get angry and hurt that they didn't want to sing, but he conceded for the moment, and brought out the real talent. It was a group of Emeris's brothers who had started a band. He clapped for them. "They didn't tell me they were the talent for tonight." he said to the group, while still clapping and cheering.

The feast wore on and the night deepened. Everyone was laughing and cutting up. A few scuffles had broken out among some of the more competitive cabins, but Chiron had broke them up fairly fast, and told them to settle their differences during training the next day. Another couple of kids tried to instigate a food fight, but Mr. D quickly told them that if they continued that course they would be polishing armor for the next 8 months.

All in all it was a great feast. The band had finally finished playing and one of Mr. D's kids got up to tell a story to the camp. It felt as though everyone was holding their breath as the kid wove his tale. He told of creation and the titan wars. He told of various heroes that they all knew. He was building up to the climax, when a crash sounded off to the side. A man dressed in rags fell crashing over a table and hit the ground. Emeris leapt up and ran over to the man. He was about to lift him up when the man stopped him, "STOP! Don't touch me. STAY BACK! I SEEK DIONYSUS!" he cried out. Emeris took a step back and looked to Mr. D.

The moment, Mr D began to sing. Jason let out a groan, before pretending to make snoring sounds. Harmony just lightly kicked him under the table...as if to telling him to behave.

As everyone was enjoying the food on their table. Harmony smiled, when she heard Emeris' brothers, get up and start to sing. They were quite talented. It seemed to have livened up the feast, in a good way. "They're really good." Harmony said with a smile. As she was enjoying the music. "Maybe, they wanted to surprise you." Trent offered, as Emeris said he didn't know, they were playing tonight. Jason was just bobbing his head, along to the music.

After the music finished, everyone seemed to be full of food. Few were still snacking on desert after the little squabbles and almost food fight. Harmony was one of the many, whom were really into the story. When all of a sudden...there was a loud crash. She jumped out of her seat, in alert.

Just like Emeris, she was rushing over to help the man. But Jason quickly wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her back protectively. He didn't know, if it was because of the warning...or because, he felt cautious.

"Are you hurt sir? Do you need some medical attention?" Harmony asked worried. Glancing down at the mystery man.

Mr D. looked surprised as everyone else. "What seems to be the matter?" he asked, walking over.