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It was another summer at Camp Half-Blood, it was around eight o'clock in the morning on a Friday there were a few clouds up in the sky, and the weather was going to be very nice later on in the day. There were several campers out and about already going on about their day at the Big House, Mr. D and Chiron were sitting at the front deck playing a game of chess against one another, they were also talking about a the game of Capture the Flag later on in the evening which was held every Friday evening.

There were a few Apollo kids at the archery range doing some target practice with Bryan Phelps watching them as well as doing his own archery practice. The Ares kids were out at the training grounds practicing and sparing with each other or with some dummies as well Jace Wright the head counselor for Ares Cabin and Alanna Benton the head counselor for the Athena cabin were busy sparring against one another, Alanna obviously having the upper hand.

Eva Vaughn was tending to the strawberry fields along with a few members of the Demeter cabin and some of the Dionysus kids as well, talking with each other along with a few satyrs as well. Over at the forges with the other Hephaestus kids Lauryn Klein was making a new set of armor for a few of the other campers hard at work with the next thing that they were building.

The Hermes kids were in their cabin currently they were being led by Juan Mcclain, they were planning on setting up some pranks on some of the other campers, though they may or may not have their sights on pranking Ryland right now. Over at the arts and crafts area was Tammy Weeks and some Iris cabin members working on some pottery or drawing, or just painting whichever it was that they were working on some were working on some sculptures as well. The Hypnos kids were all sleeping in their cabin Isaac White was the only one who wasn't asleep rather in the cabin itself playing some video games, however he was yawning a whole lot, and looked like he was about to crash at any moment as well.

Some of the Nemesis cabin were at the climbing wall Scarlett-Rose Coffey was almost to the top of the climbing wall dodging the obstacles that happened to come out and hit some of the fellow campers who were there as well falling to the ground and getting a bit injured as well. Kevin Villegas was shortly following after her to the top of the climbing wall as well occasionally getting out of the way of the other campers who were trying to climb. Dana East and Clifford Tyler were at the camp store running it for the day selling whatever the other campers needed to buy or sell to them.

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It was a familiar enough scene, thick trees towered on all sides of a small clearing and cast long shadows across the ground that seemed to stretch on for miles. The soft cacophony of birds, monsters, and rustling leaves in the trees creating a dull roar over the otherwise peaceful forest. Before him wooden fence that seemed as if it could ward off even the master bolt stood and inside towered yet even healthier and thicker trees. What would have been a beautiful scene ruined by hideous scorch marks across the ground and wood. Beings which he could not place, giants to be certain, but ones wreathed in mighty flames with glowing orange eyes like stories of demons of old lay waste to the fence before him. He knew this scene all too well, and the events that followed. It had been seared into his memory and something he saw every night. He knew the horror he was about to witness, yet at the same time, it never stopped the blow from delivering. No matter how many times he willed himself to turn away, to run forward, scream, do anything. He couldn't move. He was simply a spectator to a horrific act. Yet something was different today, as the massive fire-giants seemed to freeze in the middle of the assault. For that matter, the whole forest became still. Shadows stopped creeping across the ground as their casters froze as if somebody captured the moment in time. To his right, the Daughter of Poseidon stood frozen in the middle of some vague attack. Before him, another girl with brilliant blonde locks raised her shield to defend from a might sword coming down from a giant before it.

Everything was frozen perfectly at this moment before the disaster. A calm before the storm that would haunt the boy for the next two years. Yet he did not approach the scene, despite Ryland shouting and willing himself to surge forward and destroy that giant himself. No, instead the boy slowly turned around in this infinite, frozen waste of a forest. Sounds ripped through the calmness that had taken, eerie sounds of creatures fighting. Yet he couldn't quite place what the creatures were. Then they suddenly came into view as one soared through the air before slamming into the ground before him with a mighty thud. A mighty eagle, laying too still. A distant look in its eye, staring forever at something that seemingly wasn't there. Looking up, he could hear the sounds of labored breathing and saw many other animals before him. Some creatures he didn't even recognize. A horse with a sea green mane stood out, accompanied by a deer silver as the moon itself, a cow that seemed to glow with grace, a large and blood red boar, and a dove. All larger than they should be, and seemed as if they had been through vicious fights respectively. Each bore grave injuries, and sat in some ensemble on their knees or splayed across the ground. Yet there was no sign of what had done this to them. His eyes widened in terror at the violent scene, trying to comprehend the meaning behind it all.

Then the sounds of battle started behind him once more. Whirling around as if called by some puppeteer, Ryland dashed towards the giant attacking the girl with the blonde hair. He knew what came next, he couldn't allow it. The scene he left behind forgotten as his desperate dash overtook the boy's panicked mind. He would save her, this time things would be different. They had to be. As the distance closed between them, Ryland reached for his shield to through and distract the giant. Yet a sudden burst of pressure slammed into his chest and he was off his feet. The impact enough that he didn't even remember his time in the air, simply slamming into the ground with enough force to ram the air from his lungs. Gasping desperately, he tried to force himself to his feet but only to be slammed once more to the ground. Coughing up blood and looking down at a searing pain in his abdomen, Ryland's eyes went wide to see a jagged tooth sticking out of his skin. His attention then turned forwards as he heard heavy, wet slithering through the grass before him. Shock coursed through his veins as he couldn't move, frozen in the spot as surely as if Medusa had glared him down. Yet the being before him... was not Medusa. A massive serpent of deep green color, eyes that pierced his very soul glaring him down. With an open maw that could easily swallow him whole, and rows of hideous, jagged teeth that matched the one buried in his side. Behind the creature, he could see a massive pillar of flame shooting upwards, accompanied by those hideous screams of pain that haunted his dreams to this day. The screams of a girl burning as punishment for her foolishness in fighting such a powerful creature. Then the serpent lunged, and Ryland could only begin to scream as its maw surged closer and his vision went black.

The scream finished with a loud echo and the creaking complaint of a steel-framed bed. Covered in sweat and with a wild look in his eyes, Ryland tore his shirt upwards to look where his hideous wound had been. Yet there was simply smooth skin there, not even the sign of an old wound healed. Touching his abdomen, he could feel exactly where the tooth had broken out of his skin. Yet it simply... didn't exist. The hammering of his heart finally began to slow as Ryland turned his attention upwards, finally hearing the soft thundering that was always rumbling through his cabin. With a look that went a thousand yards, the boy looked up towards the statue of his father that sat in the far corner of the room. Staring ahead with its emotionless expression, as if uncaring of the obvious experience Ryland had just experienced. He couldn't help but feel more alone than he did at that very moment. It was a firm reminder that he was supposed to be the strong one at camp. So, with the dying screams of his friend still roaring in his ears Ryland rose and went about a quick morning routine. Dressing and such, Ryland tried to make himself look as composed as ever. Whatever he had just dreamed... he needed to talk to somebody about it. Well, two people. One who know how to interpret dreams, and the person who had been there that day. To confirm what he had seen hadn't actually happened.

Stepping out his cabin into the orange-colored landscape of a camp at sunrise, Ryland let out a long sigh. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to keep up this confident facade anymore. Forcing those thoughts from his mind, he summoned the winds to lift him high into the sky as if he were a superhero from the comics he used to read. From this point, he was able to easily see most of Camp and identify two shapes running near the beach. Exactly who he needed. Moments later, Ryland was landing ever so gracefully before Kiera and Zeke, the two runners he had seen. His stature and expression did not give off the carefree attitude he usually presented, instead seeming tense like that of a warrior about to engage in battle. His eyes still had a bit of a far-off glance and seemed to still show slight evidence of the tears he had unknowingly shed earlier. Walking towards the two, he completely ignored the boy and focused solely on the daughter of Poseidon. "Kiera. We need to talk, now. Alone." He said firmly, a tone that seemed confident on the surface but for those who knew him or were really paying attention a slight waver betrayed some unease within his voice. His tense posture not once fading despite his usual relaxed attitude.

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Kiera had gotten up early in the morning right after breakfast she had left her cabin to grab some of her running shoes, she usually always went out to the beach which was always the place where she'd always be when not tending to the horses. Feeling the nice warm air already hitting the skin, she would look out at the horizon seeing the Long Island Sound in the distance was the ocean. In her ears were a pair of earbuds loud music could be heard if anyone was close enough to listen to her music as she ran past a few of the other campers who were there as well.

Kiera quietly hummed to herself as she listened to the song as she was about to finish her run for the day Kiera quickly came to a stop when Ryland landed right in front of her. She had known him the past two years since she came to camp and Kiera was fairly close to him, and when she heard the tone of his voice. Kiera pulled the ear buds out of her ear and paused the song as she looked up at Ryland for a moment as she untied the pony tail for her hair. "Whats wrong Ryland?" Kiera asked and looked at the cabin. "Do you want to talk in my cabin or yours, or somewhere else?" She asked.

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The sweet smell of strawberries in the air, as well as the crispness of a Long Beach summer reminded Marco that he really was there, at Camp Half-Blood. Another school year, another year of excelling at languages and sweet talking his way into good grades, not that anyone could guess he was anything less than a perfectly charming student. The young man had made sure that no one would ever suspect that there was anything different with the young man, other than his dyslexia.

With his earbuds in, he was brushing down one of the pegasi, while humming along to The Queen. A few of his fellow Aphrodite campers were brushing down the other pegasi, and a few others, like his sister, Marianne, were saddling up some of the pegasi for flying lessons. Marco wasn't as good with them as Kiera, the only child of Poseidon at the camp, or that they knew of at the moment, but he was good with animals.

Speaking of, a little squeak came from the bag at Marco's side, and he smiled, and fed a little green leaf to the little sugar glider in his bag. "You ready to go for a flight, Milo? I know you love it up there. You can glide down." Marco laughed at that as the little sugar glider looked at Marco, tilted his head and then munched on the leaf without a care in the world.

Marco was envious of his little pet for the moment. Two days ago, shortly after he had arrived with the other campers, and had reunited with his sweet Em... Rosie had opened her mouth and spouted a 'Great' Prophecy. He hated the whispers of war swirling around, as his mother had a rather horrible reputation with meddling with wars or starting them. Hell, most of them had not forgiven her for Troy! Hell, his older sister, that he had never met... well two of them, had been key in the last two wars. It was a huge weight on his shoulders, as he kept trying to be more than just that pretty son of Aphrodite. He was thinking he might need to go talk to either Zo or Em later... as he could feel himself stressing out.

"Marco... I think you've brushed him enough?" Marianne sighed as she tapped his shoulder.

"Ah... Mari you're right. Let's saddle him up." Marco sighed and put down the brush and went to get the saddle.

Emily laughed at a joke one of the Demeter kids said as she turned some of the earth. "Eva," Emily plucked a strawberry and held it up for Eva to examine. Eva gave a nod, held out her hand and took the strawberry from Emily. Eva then put it in a collection bin.

"At least we don't have afids."

"We never have afids." Em grinned at Eva's comment. She nudged a plant pushing it's growth a little faster. It went from green to mostly red. She frowned slightly, it would need another day. Her magic wouldn't help it any farther. She moved down the row of plants nudging as necessiary, or plucking finished strawberries and adding them to the bin.

Her younger brother, Louis, was looking frowning at one of the strawberry plants he was working with. Emily moved over to invistigate what had him frowning so much. "Sorry sis, still can't get it to grow." Emily put her hand on his shoulder.

"It is fine. We don't all have the ability to control plants. You'll figure out what your gifts are eventually." He nodded. "You've only been at this for a couple weeks."

"Yeah I know." He sighed and sat the rest of the way down next to the plant and started talking to it. Emily held back a sigh and shook her head, moving off to another plant. She streatched.

"Oh and remember everyone tonight is Capture the flag." Emily announced to her siblings, and she supposed to the Demeter kids too. A cheer went through the group.

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Rebecca had woken up to find a cat on her face.

Of her several years at camp, it was one of the least distressing occurrences to find her familiar using her head as a bed. There had been mornings that began on a worse note - she recalled with a slight grimace the time her cabin mates had rearranged the cabin to become an American Idol stage. Her loft bed never felt quite right after that. "Shelley, off in faciem meam," Rebecca muttered. The fat black cat purred in response as Rebecca shoved the familiar off.

As it was summer, she didn't have the loft to herself. During the school year, the cabin was rather empty - most children of Hecate didn't feel the need to stay year round to hide from monsters. Shelley, her indignant cat, went over and jumped on the empty bed across from Rebecca's. Her loftmate for the summer - a sweet but serious girl named Arya - must have already gotten up and headed downstairs to study. The magic of Hecate's cabin was that the size was an illusion - and that its space was able to be changed with the snap of a finger. There was ample storage in all of the living spaces and one of them was even able to rotate into becoming a private library of spells and rituals.

Getting dressed, the Hecate Head Counselor then climbed down the narrow staircase and into the cabin proper. "It's Capture the Flag tonight," Rebecca reminded her siblings as she found most of them in the living space. Children of Hecate had to do years of dedicated study of their magic. Most of them were already up and reading, memorizing incantations and chanting them under their breaths. Rebecca smiled a bit as one of her youngest siblings finally managed to get an apple to float off of the table in front of him. "And you know what that means," Rebecca added.

"Treachery or Loyalty?" Arya said, sitting forward studiously - and looking every bit like a teacher's pet. Sometimes, Rebecca was still surprised Athena hadn't claimed her.

Rebecca nodded, smoothing out her black t-shirt. "We have an alliance with Zeus at the moment, in promise of trivia night. And then as you all know familial ties wise, we're closest with Demeter." Hecate had been the goddess to light Demeter's way when she searched for her lost child, Persephone. "But...That doesn't mean we have to be loyal to those cabins. So it's up for a discussion and then a vote, what we plan to do tonight as a cabin."

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Motherfucker!

Aella Perez liked to stay active. At the very least, she liked getting up early. So when several of her demigod siblings grouped up to take on the Climbing Wall, Aella jumped at the chance. After all, she enjoyed a challenge.

What she didn't enjoy was one of her fellow Nemesis kids getting hit by a fucking boulder, falling, and nearly crashing into her; hence, the violent cursing in her head.

Thank the gods, she at least managed to get out of the way, but still. That was crossing a line, even for her. She could feel the heat from the lava, which was a bit too close for comfort. What was more concerning to Aella was that people were reaching the top of the wall, and she was not one of them. Of course, she'd already decided that today needed to be a good day. So, she started getting a little brave; rather than climbing from one rock to the other, she began to take short jumps, propelling herself upward. This worked, to some extent, as she passed up a couple of her siblings on her way to the top. But as luck would have it, she got a little too brave. One stray boulder came hurtling toward her, too fast for her to dodge on her own. It scraped her arm and leg on her way down, causing a violent stinging sensation to spread.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow," she mumbled, realizing she'd gotten way too overzealous. She'd never felt particularly fond of the Climbing Wall; the blood now dripping down her arm wasn't exactly helping that. Still, the girl pressed on, taking her time to scale the wall so that she could move out of the way of incoming rocks (and the occasional falling demigod). Aella wondered if her rock climbing hobby was truly worth the effort, or if she simply needed to get better at it. Regardless, she at least wasn't falling off the wall, which put her in a better position than some of her siblings. She took a moment to catch her breath, before shoving herself further up the wall. She felt a burst of motivation as she began to near the top, grunting as she pulled her weight up.

In a weird way, she was grateful for the strain on her body. The past couple days had everybody tense and afraid, all because of some gods-damned "Great Prophecy." Aella, in typical Aella fashion, acted like it wasn't anything to be worried about; after all, it did mention a "new age of prosperity," right? Isn't that a good thing? Of course, there was the whole "world of darkness" and "bringing the gods to their knees," but who knew what all that could mean?

Exactly. Nobody did. So for now, it was best for her to focus on the task at hand: climbing this fucking wall.

Aella groaned as she heaved herself over the top of the Climbing Wall, feeling sweet relief at finally achieving her goal. She took a few deep breaths, waiting for her heart to stop racing. She'd mostly avoided the Climbing Wall since she arrived at Camp Half Blood, due to a not-entirely-irrational fear of lava and falling rocks. But at the very least, for today, she managed to avoid both. Of course, this wouldn't be the only arduous task she faced today; after all, the camp had an intense game of Capture the Flag scheduled.

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Ryland stared at the ground blankly for a long few moments as if lost in thought, trying to shake the vicious voices from the back of his mind. Yet he couldn't. The screaming, it simply wouldn't go away. The endless loop becoming a long drone that was almost his constant companion on days such as this one. He hated every second that it spoke in his head, both wanting to forget about the horrid memories and to remember so he never made the same mistake again. At first, he didn't even hear Kiera speaking, only catching the second as she asked where he wanted to speak. Letting out a long sigh, he shook his head as he didn't like where they needed to go. Sharing those events with another person wasn't something terribly high on his favorite thing to do list.

Looking towards Kiera once more, it would be plainly obvious the pain he was barely managing to hide behind his facade. "Neither, Kiera. We need to go talk with Rosie, I... I'd rather wait until we were on our way to explain it if you don't mind." He said, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke before forcing himself to pause for a few moments to gather his composure once more. Seeming to be more in control of his demeanor, he gestured towards the direction of the Oracle's cave in the forest. "It might be related to our quest and the prophecy." He confessed, and with that, the two began to head out towards the Oracle.

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Amid a long stretch of mountains, everything in nature seemed to stand eerily still. As if everything in the world was holding its breath in anticipation of what may come in the next few moments. Snow-capped mountains that each had a sea of green at their base from the massive forests that surrounding these beautiful mountains. Coupled with the lovely blues of crystal-clear waters that flowed down from the melting snows into a large lake in the valley below. Truly, something out of an artist's painting or a photograph one might see on a postcard advertising nature tours or the like. A landscape captured perfectly at a moment in time and seemed perfectly content to hold onto this moment for as long as it could. Of course, none of this actually mattered to the hungry eagle soaring gently on the winds overhead in its desperate search for food. Movement far below, imperceptible to any eye except for that of the mighty eagle. Taking it as a bid for a tasty rat, the bird tucked its wings and ripped through the air at breakneck speeds. Plummeting like a rock to find that tasty little morsel of prey that would feed it for the day as it flew on to find a new home.

Yet the bird suddenly stopped its fall and came to land on a branch in the forest. Its head curiously tilted around as its nose was filled with the tantalizing scent of meat. Although these scents seemed to smell sour judging by the bird's unwillingness to move from its perch and instead look around the area. The movement it had seen? A half-eaten corpse of a rabbit rolling down the gentle incline. Now that it was sitting on this branch, the bird of prey was bombarded by the scent of rotting meat floating in the air. It squaked harshly at the scent and took off to find food elsewhere, yet never even made it off its perch. A slab of wood flattened the creature against the tree that paid host to it. The large wooden club belonging to a bumbling creature that looked like a man except much, much larger. With rotting, yellowed teeth and a single eye in the middle of his forehead, it was clear this creature did not belong to the mortal world. With a deep, booming laugh that crossed the mountains, the Cyclops held up the corpse of the bird. "We'se gots a good snack for mama!" It called out to the other walking alongside it with another bellowing laugh. Together the two turned to cross the forest floor ridden with corpses of various animals, and even signs of humans in some places. The grass stained red in some areas, which others bore signs of a struggle. Crossing this land they joined up with one of the two distinct convoys of creatures on the move. Broken shields and sword lay impaled in trees and the ground, a testament that a struggle had occurred here not too far in the past. The column that the two Cyclops joined left this forest and turned south, clearly with an intended target in that direction while the other turned northward.

Both columns of horrific creatures that would drive a mere mortal insane led up the mountains to a single opening large enough to fit a warship. From here they left, and within even more of the horrors milled around. An array of slithering, hissing, and other monstrous noises made it a dull roar inside this cave. Yet the middle edge of the cliff, overlooking the entire mountain range was left completely alone. As if the beasts knew better than to stray towards it. From the back of the cave, an eerie green light accompanied by the pained, weak wails of a dying man was barely recognizable. Yet up front in the empty area, two figures stood in front of a stone throne sitting on a carpeted and otherwise well-furnished square. One barely recognizable thanks to the shadows hiding most of their figure. The other, a woman wearing a full body covering with the headpiece occasionally shifting as a rather... scaly head poked out from under. She also wore sunglasses, as if nothing of her body was permitted in the open. "Preparationssss are complete." The covered one hissed as she tucked a scaly body back under the cloth. "We will be lying in wait." She finished before bowing her head and taking a step back. The shadow covered figure leaned forward slightly, making only her deep green lips visible in the light as they twisted into a smile. Then those lips moved to speak in a voice laden with honey and venom, elegance and power.

Bronwyn woke in the early hours of the morning, her internal clock telling her that it was time to get up and prepare for yet another day of training. Brynn made it so that she would return Thursday night to be ready for today. Today wasn't just any day, for Brynn, though. It was the day the campers got to participate in a game of capture the flag. TGIF? Hell yes. The sun hadn't even the mountains surrounding the valley by the time Brynn had gotten dressed in a sports bra, shorts and tennis shoes and was off on her usual morning run around the lake. The morning air had a little bit of a nip to it, but it didn't bother her once she got going, heating up rather quickly. At one point in her run, she challenged a centaur to a race just for the shits and giggles of it. Obviously losing by a landslide, but that didn't bother Brynn in the slightest. Challenging the faster beast meant putting herself into a pace that caused her lungs to feel like they were on fire, and she enjoyed it. It meant she was pushing herself for more. To be better than she was the time before.

Like clockwork, Brynn was back from her run before there was much foot traffic around the camp, ducking into her cabin that she shared with her sisters to shower and get ready for the day ahead. There was a smirk that Brynn had every Friday that couldn't be wiped from her face creeping up on her features as she readied herself. Before Capture the Flag, though, daily duties had to be done. She stepped out from the shower to dry off and dress, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, almost not recognizing her own reflection. Blonde. To look like the rest of her siblings. Well, except for Ericka of course, who had jet black hair. Bleaching and dying her hair had been something Brynn had wanted to do for quite some time, but only had the guts to make the move this year. Something to start out the summer with. A big bang of sorts. Brynn hadn't warned any of her friends of this move she'd been planning, not even her sisters.

Brynn slid her training armor on over her camp t-shirt, straightening out her jeans before sitting at the edge of her bed to pull her boots on. "Οι θεοί με βοηθούν, σήμερα. Κρατήστε τους φίλους μου ασφαλείς. Ας συνεχίσουμε να αναπνέουμε τους πνεύμονες και να ζήσουμε για μια άλλη μέρα," she spoke softly as she stood and crossed the distance between her bed and the door to her cabin, pulling the door open and exiting to see daylight pouring in through the trees. Campers had finally risen, in numbers. Brynn took a deep inhale of the fresh air that carried the scent of strawberries on it, looking around to see if she could spot any of her friends. She made a mental note to come back to the cabin to grab her weapons and armor for training classes after breakfast, venturing off with a group of other campers towards the Mess Hall, figuring she'd run into someone sooner or later.

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While the morning was a lovely thing it had little impact within the Hades Cabin. The thick black obsidian denying the light access to gloomy depths that were lit with flickering green flames. Honestly it looked like a house of horrors, but it was home. More home than her old one where she had lived for nine years, when she wasn't travelling with her mother. Stretching lazily in the coffin shaped bunk, Athanasia Theroux, daughter of Hades, blew the pale hair from her face as she gave a disapproving look to the cheery morning. Had she her way, she would turn back to sleep and let the morning pass! Sitting up the ten year old girl gave a huff as she glared at the muffled sounds the skull at the foot of the blood red sheets was making. "Have you something to say Chatters?" The biting edge of her voice was typical of any wake up before ten o'clock. As was the proper time for waking when you spent a good part of the night wandering and wondering.

"Not at all, Missus! Cept you've got some hair standin' up!" Chatter's mobster accent was cut off as a small foot kicked him up into two pale hands that delicately held him. "Whoa there toots! Didn' mean nothin' by it! Just pokin' a bit o' fun at ya! Take it easy." If the skull was still human, he would be sweating buckets at the dangerous look in those murderous black eyes. There was a shriek from the flying cranium as it soared out the door into the bright sunlight.

Arthur's eyes creaked open, his head comfortably laying on the pillow, staring up at the dark ceilings. He exhaled and groaned for a moment. "Sister Dearest." He said calmly. This was what he called her when he mildly annoyed by whatever was currently happening. "I don't know what time it is, but i'm sure it's earlier than I'd like to be awake." Irritated as he was, a bemused smile was still on his face as he rolled over and looked at Ash, still refusing to rise and face the day. Waking up the a hollering human skull was one of the unique and magical things about camp that he loved, and hated. "Why exactly is Chatter's screaming right now?" He asked. The skull had woken him up before, but that didn't mean he liked it.

There was a rasp as a curtain partitioned of part of cabin as Ash dressed with ruthless efficiency. Dusting her hands, Ash stepped out from behind the curtain dressed in her usual attire. Which was unusual to say the least. Pulling a brush carefully through her pale hair, Athanasia tilted her head at the rumpled figure of her half-blood, half-brother. A sibling she never expected to have, and would not do without now that she had him. "He was rude." The pale youngster stated simply as if that explained everything. Her hands deftly braiding her hair loosely over one shoulder, weaving the black stygian flower into it. "Oh, la! Brother, do you mean to sleep away this of all days?" Her dark eyes danced as she moved towards the gleaming doorway and where the foolish fossil had quite literally faceplanted into the earth. "Wait- Oh, gods! I got a worm in my eye! If I had eyes that is!" The skull complained in a panic before a gloved finger was laid against his lipless teeth. "Shush, Chatters. Your prattling is annoying this early in the morning, and you do know how I loath mornings." The dark eyes rolled in exasperation as she dusted the skull off. Today was 'CTF' or Capture the Flag. The most beloved, and therefore competitive, sport in the entirety of Camp Half-Blood. Or as Athanasia understood it. It would do Ry some good to blast a few of the other cabins so he wasn't so stressed out, and that went for most of the people in their little community. The Great Prophecy had caused a under current that felt too much like her home with her mother and... Well she wasn't certain what to call the man she had thought was her father til a few years ago.

Arthur rolled his eyes and suppressed a laugh. Of course, he was being rude, so he had to be unceremoniously thrown out of the cabin. Ash was just ridiculous sometimes. Stretching in his bed for a moment, he stifled a yarn, and got out of bed. "Oh of course not, but a few more hours would've been nice." He said tiredly, and took a quick step behind his own curtain, getting dressed into a simple black T-shirt, with a nice pair of tan shorts accompanying them. This was his standard apparel for warm days like this was to be. He stepped out, and grabbed his Dark Clay from his bedside, and placed it upright in front of him. Stripping two chains pieces off of the brick, he floated them in front of him, he outstretched his arms, making the bands snap along his wrists, segmenting themselves and smoothing into shiny bracelets. With the remaining clay, he floated it in front of him, and laced it quickly around the belt loops on his waste, forming a perfectly fitted belt. He gave a coy smile over to Athanasia and said, "Oh come now sister, how could you hate mornings? You couldn't mean to sleep away this of all days." He jabbed playfully. He enjoyed Capture The Flag a lot, always loving a chance to show off and hone his skills.

Ash, as people usually called Athanasia with her name being such a mouthful, narrowed her eyes at Arthur as he jabbed at her with her own taunt. Typical she supposed with a shake of her head. "How imaginative!" Her small mouth curled in a smile as she winked at Arthur. "Afraid I'll do better than my big brother? Kiss, kiss." The two words were said lightly, but their meaning was far from what the words alone meant. From anyone it would be a sign of affection, while from Athanasia it could be to those who knew her. But said in ire it was a curse as potent as any a sailor would swear with a sweeter venom. Looking towards the practice yard, Athanasia twiddled her fingers towards Arty. "I'm going to get in some practice, and terrify a few unfortunates." There were other reasons as well. Athanasia was curious as to what Ryland made of the Great Prophecy. He was knowledgable on stuff like that. Though to be safe, Athanasia had stopped wearing green just to be safe. Her young mind twisted about what those words that were haunting the camp could mean. Four Empires? That was the point she just didn't get. What four empires? Ryland would know, he knew a lot of thing and what he didn't he could usually point her towards were the answer could be found. He had saved her life a year ago, and brought her to the camp. To say she adored the man was a understatement. Athanasia would tease Ryland ruthlessly sometimes, but she saw the older half-blood as her own personal hero. Something she admitted to no one.

Arthur's smile broadened for a second. He knew that meant she'd be trying to do whatever she could to out do him later tonight at CTF, and he looked forward to it. There was Nothing wrong with a little sibling rivalry , he knew she wasn't actually that angry at him, just throwing back what was dolled out to her. He strolled quickly behind her, following her out of the cabin. "I wouldn't mind joining you for practice, if that's alright." He said. It's be a good way to wake up, and blow off some steam. If Ash wanted space though, he'd give it to her. Ash was a wonderful partner for practice, being able to well hold her own in a fight, regardless of what appearances might make one assume. It was really one of Arthur's favorite things to do with his half-sister, and it's one of the reasons Ash had gained as much of his respect as she had.

"...I gotta pop the hips more..."

Hand to hand combat was always a neglected part of Zoey's combat repertoire. The daughter of Athena knew how to handle herself with a sword, daggers, bow and arrows, and the like. However, if she were to find herself without said set of weapons -- she was going to be in some deep shit considering she was going to be like a fish out of water without her weapons. That was why she was in the training center early. A bad night's sleep had caused Zoey to wake up much earlier than she was supposed to, prompting her to deem the training center the best place for her to be after yet another fit of insomnia. Instead of lying in her bed and staring at the ceiling/bottom of the top bunk, she could have perhaps been more productive with the time she was wasting in there.

Currently, she was drilling some techniques with a fellow Athena cabin member. More specifically, she was drilling throwing techniques in the armor they usually wore for training. Swing the legs feet around... get square and low underneath the hips, and load your legs like a spring. That was the mantra she was repeating in her mind as she got herself ready, putting her hands out and gripping whatever she needed to grip to get the leverage that she send her partner flying. Unfortunately, she kept having the same old issue. When she got underneath her partner, she didn't get low enough. There wasn't enough force loaded in her legs as a result of her lack of getting low, so when she popped her hips her partner simply hung off her back, instead of flying over like they were supposed to. "Damn it..." She grumbled, before letting her partner go. "Do it on me again. I can't seem to get low enough." Zoey complained, before resetting and getting a little more loose.

Nodding, the fellow Athena cabin member got ready and immediately gripped Zoey where they needed to grip her, before getting the proper footwork set up, the proper spin, and the proper leverage underneath Zoey. In one smooth motion, Zoey found herself flipped over, feeling some air knocked out of her as well as she smacked onto the mat hard. Taking a deep breath, she groaned as her partner helped her up. How could they have done this technique at such a lightning fast speed? Why was she struggling so hard with such a simple technique? This was the first few months of certain martial arts, but yet all these months later she was still having difficulty with this technique. Before going back in for a few more reps, she looked down at her feet, trying to figure out why she couldn't get low enough to load her hips and legs. Taking a look at her partner, they were a little short in stature. Suddenly, the technique clicked. The reason why she wasn't getting low enough was because her transition step to get underneath wasn't having her dip low enough. She was dipping after she flipped, which obviously didn't load the legs the same way she would if she dipped earlier. She wanted to try it out. Getting her arms loose, she got ready once again.

Modifying the technique just a bit for her partner, she got a little lower upon entry, and as a result when she popped her hips her partner went flying just like she did not too long ago. Smiling as she helped her partner back up, she couldn't help but to celebrate a successful repetition. Finally she was making headway on the technique that had been evading her for so long. The sense of pride and accomplishment she had received from gaining headway on such a technique had turned Zoey's mood for the better. The stoic look on her face grew into a smile as she started to put the pieces together and become more proficient in this technique. It was a little late, considering her fellow cabin members had already practically mastered the technique, but it was better late than never, right? Zoey could at least have more confidence in this technique whenever things got a little hairy and too close for comfort.

After the fact, the two spent a few more minutes throwing each other with the same technique, before they realized what time it was. They had been so engrossed in their training that they failed to realize that everyone else was about to get up. It was almost time for breakfast, and today's Capture the Flag session was nearing. She was aware that Jace and Alanna were not too far away sparring, but they were much too engrossed in their little session to pay much attention to Zoey and her partner. Besides, they knew that Zoey could handle herself in this sort of situation anyway. Shortly after the last rep, Zoey thanked her partner. She was grateful that they were also up so early and being willing to be so receptive to Zoey's request for help, despite the fact that she may or may not have been intruding on their personal training. The child of Athena gathered her things and made her way back to her cabin. Everyone was starting to get up now, so she was bound to run into people she knew on her way back. Hopefully they didn't ask where she was. It wasn't that she was embarrassed about having to work on a technique over and over again -- she just didn't want to deal with people right now. It was much too early to be getting all happy and giddy, especially after she had just spent some amount of time flipping people over and getting a better grip on a technique.

Slipping back into the Athena cabin, the girls were just about to start taking a shower. Humming softly to herself, she took a moment to take off her armor and put it in the same spot she usually did. Afterwards was the same old stuff every single day. Taking a shower, getting a change of clothes, and getting ready to face the camp with 100% of her being. After having the shower, she slipped into a white camp t-shirt and a pair of jeans she fished out. Nothing too out of the ordinary; just the typical Zoey fashion. Sighing as she ran her hand through her damp hair, she made her way out of the cabin, where she could see various members of the camp making their way to the same places she was probably headed. Breakfast sounded good -- and she was more than sure that everyone else had the same idea. As she made her way to the mess hall, her brain sort of went on auto-pilot. She wasn't paying much attention as to what was happening. It was the same old stuff she had dealt with her entire tenure at the camp. She could afford to think about some other things -- but there really wasn't much happening in that brain of Zoey's.

Luckily, she picked up on a rather familiar figure with even more familiar hair. Zoey would've been able to recognize that bleach blonde hair from practically anywhere. It was none other than her very best friend. Her favorite person here... other than a certain child of Hecate. Feeling herself light up a bit inside, she sped up her walking speed just enough so that she could close the gap between her and Brynn. Once she was within range, Zoey reached out and gave Brynn a tap on the arm. "Hey Brynn! Good morning."

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Summer. After winter passes and spring comes, bringing those blasted strawberries back. The smell was nauseating to Ezekiel. Three years he had been here and the smell never got better. It only seemed to get worse and there was always a fresh batch. Didn’t they ever go out of season? Although the summer heat brought on the stronger scent of strawberries, it also brought out the sun more often. At least every day it shone at some point and Ezekiel made sure he was under its rays, taking the most of it in. He woke early this morning in order to get those early rays. Of course, it was still a bit cold so he dressed warmly in a pair of long, dark green pants and his long-sleeved black shirt with beanie on top to keep his ears warm and headphones in. After taking several minutes to stretch, Zeke was off running. He took to the well familiar trails and like clockwork, ran into Kiera. They fell into pace beside each other, a simple greeting of nodding and smiling as both had their headphones in with music blaring. Ezekiel’s running music, usually consisted of heavy guitar riffs and a steady base to keep his rhythm while running. Of course, Kiera usually picked up the pace whenever her music switched, causing Zeke to push to keep up or switch his song.
They rounded a corner, giving a final push since their run was almost over. Zeke now had his sleeves pushed up past his elbow and his beanie secured in the pocket of his pants. The heat from running and the sun had now worked its way into his skin to warm him completely. Zoned in to the pace of running and beat of the music, Ezekiel didn’t notice Ryland, son of Zeus land suddenly in front of them. He skidded to a stop, nearly taking the demi-god out.
”Warning next time Ryland, Zeus above,” he cursed. He took his headphones out along with Kiera and listened to Ryland’s request. He looked at Kiera as Ryland merely ignored Zeke’s presence. That was nothing new. The two constantly ignored each other until it was necessary to communicate and that usually consisted of snide remarks until someone attempted to make the first punch. Usually that was Ezekiel.
He watched Ryland’s face change from calm and confidence to unease and uncertainty. The son of Apollo smirked and put his hands into his pants pockets.
”Awe, are you worried about the prophecy Ry? The whole weight of the camp solely on your shoulders again?” Two days ago the Oracle spoke a new prophecy and the camp had been abuzz about it ever since. A woman clad in green? Obvious was it not? Bring the gods to their knees? Why should we care, we are only half. As for the rest of it? Well, don’t worry. The big three will figure out what it is and stop it. Then the whole camp will be grateful to them and build another statue in their honor where the sun will shine everyday! Ezekiel looked up at the sky, seeing the sun high above everything and glared at it, like it was offending him suddenly.
He looked back at the couple, closer to each other more than just by their parents than Ezekiel would ever be to either of them or even his other Apollo siblings.
”Have fun, say hi to the witch for me would ya?” He slipped the headphones back into his ears before he shoved past Ryland, giving him a hard hit with his shoulder before he continued on the path back to camp.

Alana spend the majority of the morning in the Nemesis cabin. In difference from her siblings who chose to go be overly active and climb walls or something, she chose to stay in bed and relax. She liked to lazy like this, there were few things that could make her willingly chose to be active over relaxing somewhere and a climbing a wall with something falling on you was not one of those things. Instead she spend her time laying in bed and reading up stuff on her laptop. It was a rather fruitful time she spend, reading up on vintage weapons catalogs she had downloaded sometime earlier.

Eventually though she finally moved out of bed went to get a bath, got dressed, armed herself and finally headed for the mess hall. The camp was filled with activity right now which kind of made her feel very uncomfortable. Not because she felt bad for not being as active as the others or that she was lazying. It was because seeing all the others being as active as they were made her feel a near physical pain of the imaginative stress she'd be if she was like them. It was way better to just take it slowly and be calm. There was no real need to push for some quick results or compete over something that lacked any use. Especially with that Prophecy that was going on, causing panic and concerns. Her overall opinion on the topic was 'Why bother'. She highly doubted they'd be able to do anything about it and who knew maybe it was going to be better for it to happen. She really didn't care...

The only thing she was possibly interested about in that prophecy was that maybe her bitch of a mother might die. Man that was something she wished to happen real hard, but on the other side she also wanted to do it herself. In fact this was the last year in this camp. She had already started planning for her independent life away from this place. As soon as she hit 20, she was leaving on the very next day. She was going to hunt down her mother... This was a thing that had to happen one way or another. She couldn't get over the seething hatred in her soul as long as that woman was alive... maybe her father too if she could figure out who he was and that person who first betrayed her and broke her heart for the first and last time. Only after those 3 were taken out, would she have a peace of mind enough to start completely anew. Maybe she was going to invite Aella for the hunt on their mother... That also seemed like a fine idea.

Anyways as she neared the Mess Hall, she was pulled away from her thoughts as she saw Zoey and Brynn. Alana smiled when she saw Zoey, but arched an eyebrow when she saw Brynn. She was really good friends with Zoey and didn't really interact with Brynn. She sighed and hurried up to catch up to them.” Hey, nice to meet the two of you. Good morning, Zoey, Brynn.” She nodded at the two of them.” Heading for breakfast?” She asked them.

Frankly Alana was probably going to have to first help out with the cooking before having a breakfast herself, but she didn't really mind much. She enjoyed cooking quite a bit, it was relaxing and seeing the happy expression of people eating her cooking was healing to her heart.

It was going to be an exceptionally busy day.

When it came to Camp, few things boiled the half-deity blood of all the campers to a higher temperature than Capture the Flag night. And to call the game's ruleset "full contact" was an understatement; most campers treated it like a small war. But, since weapons training never really took a day off, that made the day leading up to the contest one of the busiest days of the week in the Armory. Ericka had hung a sign on the door the night before that read "All weapons MUST be returned by 3:30 pm" just so she and anyone who was up for helping would have time to run last second inventory and maintenance before the game. After all, if a critical engagement was lost because a Nike daughter, or gods forbid an Ares son had their rental weapon break they'd spend the following week raising hell about it.

"To say nothing of the grief they're entirely likely to dredge up about the arrangements regardless," she sighed to herself over a bowl of cereal. There would almost certainly be at least one group that got vocal about her trying to rig the game with the weapon rentals. There usually was. Nevermind that she had done nothing of the sort in three years. Nevermind that most of the ones who complained had their own personal weapons anyway. Nevermind that she actively invited whoever was concerned to help and see for themselves that nothing untoward occurred, yet was mysteriously never taken up on it. It was honestly such a headache.

But, Ericka mused as she studied a map of the campgrounds, it did also provide ample motivation to simply hand them all their rear ends in spectacular fashion. She paused to take a bite of cereal, then turned her attention back toward the CTF area. This week's game was going to be a difficult one; the cabins had been divided in somewhat uneven fashion. Assuming everyone showed up, her team would be looking at numbers of 78 versus 119. Even the Aphrodite cabin had been pulled off the sidelines to keep it from being almost two to one. Numbers weren't the end-all be-all of course- the games against the Huntresses proved that in spades- but they did still merit significant strategic weight. And, she reminded herself, she didn't have the Huntresses to work with. They DID have Ry, Kiera, Ash, and Arthur, each of whom was a boon in and of themselves, but they would have to be used carefully. A thousand thoughts turned in her head as she sat with her breakfast, mulling over as many strategies and plans as she could in the time that she had, barely taking notice of anybody else entering the hall for the morning...

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Amalia always did sort of enjoy the Climbing Wall. Sure, fighting and sparing with others was always preferred considering things, but it was always an interesting thing to watch. Seeing everyone else get knocked off the wall was great, and she was pretty strong and athletic, finding things a bit easier than others. Not to mention that she'd climb the wall fairly often, not caring too much what others thought. Lia had been knocked down more than once, so it was great practice for ones reflexes.

"Alright... Just keep going..." she muttered under her breath as she dodged out of the way of anyone else who was falling near her. She could understand if some of the younger campers got knocked down, Lia sometimes got knocked down if she wasn't really paying attention, and the younger ones needed to learn. Climbing this wall was her goal at the moment, not even caring too much if she did fall to the ground, it would make things even more interesting.

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@kittyluna45 Over at the horse stables one of the pegasi one of the harder ones that were to be trained started to back away from it's stall letting out a loud whinny at one of the Aphrodite kids as they tried to saddle him. It looked like it was going to try and buck the closest camper. Until she managed to calm it down a little bit, gently patting its neck and quietly shushed it, the Pegasus then looked over at Marco for a moment. "I think this one might need a little bit more time to get used to a saddle." One of the Aphrodite kids said towards Marco. "Also how are things with you and Em doing?" She asked looking at Marco.

@Kirah Eva walked over towards the strawberry that Louis was tending to and used her magic to finish its growth with no issue at all, and smiled towards herself as she gently patted him on the shoulder. "It takes time to get used to." Eva said as she looked over towards Emily for a moment and smiled towards her when she said that it was going to be Capture the Flag tonight. Although they weren't on the same teams they would be able to beat the Dionysus cabin. "We are going to win this one tonight." Eva said looking at the rest of Demeter cabin and smirked towards them.

@Morose One of the kids, was sitting down on one of the chairs, studying her book, and focused on the ball in front of her, she was around the age of eleven or so. As she moved the ball while also doing her incantation on it, and suddenly she lost control of the ball and flew literally across the room, leaving a small dent in the wall in front of Rebecca. The young girl quickly stood up and stared at the ball with a wide eyed look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it go that fast!" She yelled as one of the older boys threw a book at the girl's head. "You just have to concentrate more." He said before looking over at Rebecca. "We could always have game night or something after Capture the Flag?" He suggested.

@CaptainMarvel @BlueSky44 At the Climbing Wall where Aella was the platform that she stood on suddenly started to shift and then the whole floor board was yanked out from underneath her feet. Which would make her fall on top of another camper, but she'd be able to catch her grip again. As the camper she had fallen onto tumbled down to the very bottom of the climbing tower with a rather loud thud, some satyrs who were there to tend to any of the campers who fell and got injured would end up carrying him to the infirmary Aella would be able to see Kiera and Ryland walking past. Amalia however from where she was making some good timing as she passed by some of her cabin mates, she would see the camper falling from the very top a few inches away from her. She would be able to climb up about half way, but a small hole where lava was started to open out and was about to pour out in front of her.

@LadyRunic @Natsu The walk over towards the training arena wasn't that far from the cabins, it was bustling with activity as campers from the cabins Ares and Athena were sparing against one another. Of course the Ares kids were getting annoyed each time an Athena kid outsmarted them, or got a good hit in. They could see the two head cabins sparring against one another rather easily Alanna getting the upper hand. As they both stopped and looked at the two Hades kids and smiled towards the two of them as Alanna gave them a friendly smile and waved. "Good morning you two." She said in a calm and friendly voice.

@KazAlkemi As Zeke walked out of the beach and back towards camp, there were a few campers who were going on about their day and heading towards other areas of the camp The Dining Pavilion wasn't that far at all from him. There were a few campers who were there at their tables finishing up their breakfast for the morning and were getting ready to put their dishes away. One of the campers walked past Zeke and gave him a slight nod as they walked past and headed over towards the Climbing Wall. There Zeke could see Ericka, Zoey, Brynn, and Alana there as well talking.

@Saltwater Thief@rivaan@Bee@Tonks The Dining Pavilion was slowly dying down now as some campers were finishing up their breakfast, some of them were talking about CTF later on in the evening. And the teams as well, in the distance they all could see Chiron making his way over to the head table he was now sitting in his magical wheelchair as he gave a wave and nod towards them as he went to open a book and started to read, they would see Zeke coming up from the trail that led from the beach as well.

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Kiera looked towards Zeke for a moment as she raised an eyebrow towards him, even though he was her best friend, she really didn't like it that he and Ryland hated each other's guts. "Hey i'll hang out with you later okay?" Kiera called out towards him, as she watched Zeke making his run back over towards camp but not before Zeke hitting Ryland's shoulder. Kiera rubbed the back of her neck and looked over towards Ryland and motioned for him to follow her towards the Cave of the Oracle was. Kiera made her way up the creek towards the canoe lake. "So what happened exactly?" Kiera asked looking over her shoulder at Ryland she was curious what exactly had happened that made him worry a lot.

They walked past the Climbing Wall, seeing the campers who were trying to scale it and of course seeing some of them ending up falling to the very bottom with a loud thud. They weren't that much further now as she could see Thalia's Tree in the distance, along with The Golden Fleece that was there the dragon Peleus there sleeping under the tree that he protected who was very large and massive. Kiera could hear some music blaring really loud. Inside of the cave looked very different than what it looked like it would have been from the outside.

Rose Ellis or Rosie by her friends at camp who usually called her, was sitting on a chair doing some painting. Her clothes were dirty with paint which wasn't really odd for her, almost all of her clothes were like that as she hummed to herself. The paintings were all very weird and abstract looking, but it looked like they were also apart of different visions she usually gets.

"Keep dreaming Eva. We've got Athena and all of the big three cabins." Emily grinned. It was playful banter. "Hey everyone stretch for a moment." She could see that a couple of kids were struggling so she went through a few stretches with the group. As she did she saw Kiera and Ryland going into the Oracle's cave. She kept the frown from her face as she was going the stretches, but she was worried. With the recent Great Prophecy that had been made it had a lot of people on edge.

As curious as Emily was though she had to keep the group working. She glanced to Eva and raised her eyebrow at her and then spoke to her in a quiet tone. "Did you see them going into the cave? What do you think is up?"

Marco walked over the pegasus and then gently pat it and looked into his eyes for a moment. "He needs a bit more time, but he's also looking for something... I might ask Kiera can talk to him later. For now... we'll just let him fly with us. If he wants. Ugh, talking to animals seems like a useful skill, and I wish we had it sometimes." He then went to finish saddling up the one he had been saddling up.

As his sister, Grace spoke, Marco looked over and smiled brightly. "Things with Em and I are great. It's good to be back in person with her. Messages can only do so much." Marco and his older siblings giggled at that notion and then smiled a bit. The younger ones didn't quite understand.

"If we're all saddled up, and everything looks good, we can go fly for a bit. I'll be here till lunch, as I think I have a few lessons to give." Marco laughed a bit at that as he saddled the Pegasus he usually flew, and then mounted him and patted him on the back. The chestnut brown pegasus had a heart shaped heart mark on his belly, and had been named Chester for his color. Marco wanted to change his name, but the old stallion wouldn't have any other name. He soon took off to the sky, letting the wind whip around his face as they flew around the camp. He looked around and soon looked over the Strawberry fields and waved to Em and blew her a kiss.

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It was a pleasant morning and while she was a bit hungry, Athanasia found eating low on her list of priorities for the minute. Perhaps a bit of practice, as it usually was, her appetite would be larger than a mere annoyance and food never appeared good first thing in the morning unlike hitting something. Arthur was a lovely target. Pegasi appeared in the air, riders on them as they winged over the strawberry field that produced some lovely product. Typical of the camp though she would still call it extraordinary that there could be this peace in place where so many different people gathered. Then again as the training arena came into view Athanasia had to consider the fact they did have a good few Ares campers.

The point she had noted were the loud shouts of disapproval when a child of Athena got in a good hit on a Ares camper. Or vice versa when the bulky campers gave a cry of victory after besting a opponent. Ares kids were a loud and annoying bunch that grated on Athanasia's nerves. In part it was due to their lack of civility, in part Ryland's dislike of them. The pale girl's attention turned to head of the Athena Cabin as she tipped her hat slightly. Proper as ever. "And morning Alanna, though I doubt it is good." Her voice never rose to louder than it needed to be easily heard. Shouting was rather rude unless it was necessary. Plucking a practice sword form several sat on a bench nearby, she tested the edge and the balance with a keen eye. It would do, though it didn't suit her as well as she liked. That sword, her Black Rose, was something she only called on when seriously fighting and meaning to do harm. It was not a toy to play with like the other campers seemed to think of some of their weapons.

Casting a dark eye at her brother her lips curved into a taunting smile. "Are you ready, brother mine?" The younger camper offered with a sweet and innocent voice, which was no such to those that knew her. Hooking her arm through a strap, Athanasia hefted a small round buckler that was not to big, nor too small, but just right for her tiny height. And no, no one save her brothers were to crack 'tiny', 'small', or 'short' jokes at her expense without good tastes. Usually they ended up with a bit of a run of bad luck, despite her protests that it was unneeded and she could see to such things herself. Plucking the hat, from her head Athanasia set it next to the weapons, letting the sheath of the sword she had chosen hold down the brim so a stray gust of wind would not blow it off and make her seek Ry out to fetch it back. She was rather fond of this particular accessory after all.

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Aella thought she'd won. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't. One moment, she thought the platform she was on was stable, and the next moment it was ripped out from under her. It took her a second to register that she was, in fact, falling. She felt herself hit a camper, who went tumbling down the wall. Somehow-perhaps due to the muscle memory from similar rock climbing incidents-she managed to catch herself on the wall, holding herself up with one arm. From where she was, she could see Ryland and Kiera walking by, but she thought little of it. They were friends, friends hung out together. At the moment, she needed to stop herself from falling to the ground and hurting herself; she didn't feel like ending up in the infirmary. Again.

So, she got both hands back on the wall, and kept climbing. She was extra wary of any falling boulders coming from above, having learned her lesson the first time. One hand at a time, she told herself, slowly making her way further up. Really, she just wanted to be done with all of this, take a shower, and go have breakfast. But still, she kept climbing, the heat beginning to feel more and more unbearable the further she got. She grit her teeth, pulling herself up the wall despite the burning in her arms and legs. Rock climbing was much more fun when there wasn't any lava or falling rocks, she realized, though she found the challenge itself to be enjoyable on its own. Giving up now would be almost criminal, especially since she could see others finishing above her.

Aella paused for a moment, wiping the sweat off her forehead with her arm. Gods, this sucks, she thought to herself. She hoped she wouldn't be too tired for Capture the Flag later; she'd been training nonstop for it, considering the Ares cabin was on the other team. Fucking Ares kids, she cursed, before heaving herself up the wall once again. She felt prepared enough, but she had a sneaking suspicion this was going to be a particularly rough game. Maybe it was just nerves, or maybe it was paranoia. Regardless, she knew that getting hurt now would likely prevent her from participating; that would hurt a lot more than a long fall. So, she kept a close watch on what was happening above her, knowing that at any point, something might happen.

Brynn walked a bit further up the road before she felt a light touch on the back of her arm, turning to find her sister Zoey. A smile spread across her face, beaming at her best friend. "Morning, Zo." She was happy to see her more than usual, but surprised she made no note of the change in color of her hair. The girl had done it late at night, afterall, after she made sure her siblings were asleep. Brynn stalled in her pace long enough for Zoey to catch up to walk at her side, continuing on the route to the pavilion. "You ready for tonig-" Brynn was cut off as Alana came up to join them. She stopped her own conversation to let Alana say her peace, nodding in answer. "Yeah. Figure we waited long enough for the lines to die down." Brynn gave Alana a friendly smile, not really knowing what else to do or say. They weren't well acquainted, even though it seemed Zoey and Alana had themselves quite a decent friendship. Guess it was just due to Brynn busying herself with her training that she was hardly ever around anyone except those she trained with, like Ryland for example. Her cheeks burned a little hot at the thought of him, shaking her head as if to shake away her thoughts.

Brynn turned her attention back to Zoey and whispered loud enough the three girls would be the only ones to hear her words, "You seen Becs this morning, Zo?" She giggled and nudged her sister playfully. She loved teasing Zoey about her crush about as much as Zoey loved giving her shit about crushing on the Son of Zeus. At one time joking how Ryland was practically their uncle, depending on how some looked at it. As they neared the Dining Pavilion, Brynn noticed it was starting to clear out and it was becoming emptier by the second. 'Thank gods,' she thought to herself. As much as Brynn didn't seem to mind it on the outside, internally, crowds made her want to scream. By no means was she claustrophobic, but she didn't care to feel like a pack of sardines, either. Brynn took a deep breath and inhaled the smells of breakfast floating through the air. Her mouth began to water a little. "Take a wild guess. What do you thinks for breakfast, today?"

Peckish. Famished. Emaciated. Starving. All of those words could be used to describe what the poor daughter of Athena was feeling. She had gone into her morning training without having the proper nourishment to do so, and as a result she was paying dearly for it. There was a caloric deficit that Zoey's body was desperately crying out for her to eliminate -- by way of her stomach growling. All this breakfast talk was making her hungry. She gingerly placed a hand on her belly as she walked along with her best friend, who had taken her in gracefully. At least Brynn seemed to be in her typical good mood. That was something she could use to sustain her during the rather long five hundred foot journey to the dining hall. It felt like she was trekking across the entire country with how ravenous her hunger was.

She had been so enveloped in her own hunger that she failed to notice the fact that something was different about Brynn. Blinking twice, Zoey realized that Brynn had actually changed her hair color. She was blonde now, and that was a huge shocker. She had joined the ranks of blondes in the Athena cabin. Now it was only Ericka and a select other few that weren't blonde. "Oh hey... your hair... it's blonde! Zoey beamed, reaching out to touch a lock. It was so soft, yet so shiny. It was like the sun was reflecting off of it with how lustrous it was. It definitely brightened her day... maybe a little physically considering the sun was being reflected into her eyes. She dropped the lock before she eyed another person in. If it wasn't the local gun chick. Personally, Zoey didn't mind Alana's affection for guns. She admired it, actually. Firearms were an underappreciated form of combat here as ironic was it was. It was the most prominent tool for combat these days yet it was underrepresented here.

Zoey blushed a bit at the mention of her crush, however. Every day she regretted letting Brynn know about her rather childish crush on the child of Hecate. "S-stop!" Zoey blushed, gently slapping Brynn on the arm. Of course she didn't see Rebecca. Otherwise there would've been more of a pep in her step... or the opposite of that depending on how the interaction went. "I wish..." Unfortunately, it seemed to be more of the latter recently considering how often interactions between the two fell flat on their face. It was just a mess. It was something that would make kids in elementary school look like love gurus. Sighing, she finally made her way closer to the dining pavilion, where the ever-so-familiar scent of breakfast food wafted to her nose. There seemed to be something new to her senses. She could smell it.

"I smell eggs... some cinnamon... sausage... turkey bacon? I wonder why there isn't any regular bacon today. And of course - bread. I think there's a fresh batch out of the oven." That was what Zoey's nose told her. The accuracy of her prediction was up in the air though. Was there really everything that Zoey had just listed off in there? Only time could tell. Passing by a pack of Aphrodite girls/a bunch of Marco's sisters, Zoey's ears caught mentions of CTF. Oh yeah... that was a thing tonight. Zoey once again tapped Brynn on the arm. "Oh yeah, you guys remember there's CTF tonight? I didn't..." Zoey shrugged, before she lunged forward for the wooden door handle that separated the friends from the contents of the dining pavilion. Pulling it open, she held it open for Brynn and Alana. "...I, for one, can't wait to tackle Ryland if we're on different teams. Heck, even if we're on the same teams -- I'll still tackle him 'by accident.'"