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"Nice shot, kid," Rebecca said with a slight smile. She didn't generally show it to other campers, but she had a soft spot for little kids. It was part of the reason why she didn't mind teaching necromancy to the Hades campers. They were so small and tiny - and a little bit adorable as well. Of course, she found Ash to be more adorable than Arthur, but that went without saying. "If you were trying to decapitate me, needs improvement. But as a warning blast? Excellent."

Rebecca then shot a glare at the boy that threw the book for a moment, a clear that's not how we teach. "True, game night could be fun - could make contact with some spirits," Rebecca mused. She then went over to the little girl in particular that had been having trouble and sat down next to her, working with her on the incantation. She learned just as much, if not more, from teaching the others. Besides - one of these days, she might not return to Camp Half-Blood. Someone else needed to be ready to dual wield the torches of Hecate.

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Ezekiel made his way through camp, his brooding nature diminishing the closer he got to the smell of food. Truly, it was amazing how being hangry affected a person. Ezekiel’s stomach seemed to rumble in response. He trotted over to the building and stepped up the stairs, following along behind Ericka, Zoey, Alana and some other blonde. Perhaps she was a new Aphrodite daughter. Ezekiel heard her speak and then laugh a little before he moved to get a better look at her. That voice was too familiar. He stopped dead when he saw who it was.
”Bronwyn? Is that you seriously? You dyed your hair!” he exclaimed and moved so he was in front of the all girl group. Zeke crossed his arms after removing his headphones and pouted. ”Now why would you go and do an awful thing like that?” he questioned her in front of everyone.
Another heavy beat of a song blared through his headphones but he was hardly paying attention to that as he looked at Brynn questioningly. They were by no means as close as he was with Keira but she was probably as close to him as he would ever allow another person to be. The dining hall was near quiet now, as they were one of the biggest groups there now. Most people had already moved on to start their training, eager to get it out of the way to make way for the big Capture the Flag game this afternoon. Ezekiel wasn’t a huge Capture the Flag person, he much preferred the climbing wall or training in front of large crowds where he could prove himself. Capture the Flag was more strategy and that wasn’t his strong suit. Most of the time, he volunteered to sit the games out so he could look after any critical injuries right away. There were always a few...hundred.

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Arthur followed quickly after Ash, a bit of swagger in his step as he walked. This was going to be fun, he hadn't played with his sister in awhile, and this was sure to help him blow off some steam. It did say something about the Hades kids, that instead of getting up and getting some breakfast, they decided to have at each other first thing in the morning. A little bit of sparing never hurt anybody, but sometimes it seemed like the two of them were too ready to have a go at each other. Arthur wouldn't have it any other way though, it helped stop conflicts from happening between them. Working through your emotions by mercilessly beating up your friends was a surprisingly effective coping mechanism, you couldn't rightly be angry with somebody after knocking them flat on their butt.

As they came upon the training arena, He saw the Ares and Athena kids sparing. That was sure to be an interesting fight, the two aspects of war colliding. He gave a polite nod and said, "Likewise." Since he wasn't in the mood to horribly deform his step-sister's, he also grabbed a practice sword, testing it's balance in his dominant hand. He much preferred fighting at range, but he wasn't about to start throwing knives in a sparing match. Grabbing a medium shield, he turned back to face Ash, "Always Athanasia, I hope you are as well." He said with a small smirk. He squared up in front of her, sword and shield brandished, and closed the distance between the two of them, sparing now time to hit her right in the chest, knocking her to the ground. "Guess not." He said in a playful tone, holding himself steady in case she might want to knock him off his feet in kind. "Still a little sleepy, sister?"

Alana gave Brynn a vague smile as the woman replied to her. She herself wasn't really the most emotionally expressive person, so small smiles and friendly expressions was more or less what you could get out of her most of the time. One of the very few exceptions to the rule was Zoey. The two of them seemed to be in a rather decent mood and with the Mess Hall cleaning up, it was a good time. Alana sighed in a brief relief, luckily for her she wasn't sure during the rush hour of the morning breakfast. Well she preferred cooking for lunch better anyways. And she still waited for bloody permission to cook dog meat dishes dammit. Apparently the other peopl held no appreciation for her canine menu she proposed. Very bad... that's what dogs were good for anyways... meat and making nice leather or fur.

“Ehh... more or less the usual... while breakfast is important meal, it's usually the most simple one.” Alana mumbled about the breakfast thing.” Zoey, your nose should be pretty spot on for the most part.” She said with a smile, giving the air a sniff too. That said, there was a tinge of disapproval from her voice. On her opinion, they should have went for more lighter breakfast today and probably more fruit.

“Thank you.” She said as the door was open for them and she entered.” Yeah I remember that chore... CTF, couldn't they've figured out something more... I don't know innovative? On the talk of the CTF, hopefully for lunch they realize that the meals shouldn't be too heavy in order to lessen the physical burden for the game later... Too full of a stomach is bad for the body and will quite literally lead to bad physical performance for a good while. So don't eat too heavily later." Alana shrugged.” Besides I wonder how few will be using guns again...” She shook her head, it wasn't a bad thing. Who would have thought that BULLETS TRAVEL FAST? She seriously doubted the sanity of a lot of people here. They had to get in touch with the modern world otherwise they were quite literally doomed. While not superiors in everything to melee combat, guns held a lot of advantages that people here mostly ignored.” Know what, I will kneecap him to make it easier to be tackled.” Alana suddenly chimed in when her friend said she was tackling Ry. She vaguely noticed a wild Ezekiel in the distance. Then he quickly crossed the distance and appeared by them. Welp...

Then it wasn't until the guy pointed it out that Alana realized Brynn had changed her hair color. Well that was fine... Alana really didn't care much about it.

The rush came and went while Ericka sat eating. Nobody had really bothered her, all of them being too engrossed in their food, but it was certainly quite noisy as the hall filled up. Eventually she decided to pack in the maps and plotting until later and folded her things back into her backpack. As she looked around she didn't manage to see any familiar faces; a pity, really, eating with friends and family was always a highlight of the day. But, she had things to get done at the armory and didn't have the luxury of loitering about waiting.

As a pleasant surprise, however, it seemed she wouldn't have to. As she cleaned up her dishes and walked out the door, she noticed a small gathering of people she knew just outside- including Zoey and a blonde girl with Brynn's face. When on earth had she done that? It hadn't been that way the day before... Ericka shook her head slowly. Yet another sister going the way of the sunshine head. Soon she'd be the only one left without it, probably. A quick look at her phone told Ericka that she had some time still, so she sauntered over just as Zoey mentioned tackling Ryland regardless of his team.

"Well you'll have to do that after we win," she said as she walked up, "He's with us tonight and we're going to need him uninjured."

"And just when did you sneak off to do this?" She asked Brynn as she reached out and ran her hand down one of the newly blonde tresses, "My goodness it's going to be all of you before the summer's out!"

It was shortly thereafter that Zeke approached and started making his usual ruckus. Ericka never had much of a taste for the Apollo child... but now was hardly a time for hostilities. So she settled for a brief disapproving glance as response to his question's phrasing and nothing more.

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Ryland didn't really speak as he led Kiera through the camp and forest towards the Oracle's cave. Only once they were clear of the other campers by a decent margin did he even dare to speak. Looking back towards Kiera after they had been walking in silence for a bit, that tortured look still in his eye. "I-I'll explain more once we see Rosie. But I had a dream. I think... I think those strange giants that killed Sasha are somehow related to the prophecy." Was all the Son of Zeus explained to the girl.

Soon enough they arrived at the cave, Ryland leading the way in and immediately grabbing a chair to sit near Rosie. The look on his face alone being one she was already quite familiar with. Afterall, he saw her every morning and he was haunted quite often by that dream. Although he barely ever brought anybody else with him to see her. "Rosie. We need to talk, the three of us. It's about the great prophecy. I'm... worried about it to say the least."

Kiera looked at Ryland for a moment as he finally answered her question she bit her bottom lip and nodded a bit, she remembered that very well it was one of her first quests at Camp Half-Blood. "I remember that very well." Kiera said as she followed him inside of the cave and took a seat as well on one of the couches looking between the two of them.

Rosie looked up to see Kiera and Ryland entering her own little slice of paradise and quickly went to shut off her music and stood up looking at Ryland seeing the look in his eyes knowing it all to well. "Whats wrong?" She asked, as she walked over towards a small sink and started to wash her hands off of the pain and turned to look at him. "Is it one of those demigod dreams you all always end up getting?" Rosie asked as she went back and sat down across from Ryland.

"Yes. But this one was... different. In my dreams we were going into the battle against those giants like usual. But then everything... stopped. I saw a massive eagle, like dad's symbol, and other animals lying on the ground beaten. Then this massive green snake appeared, it... impaled me with one of its teeth right here." He explained, lifting his shirt to touch exactly where the pain had been through his side. Though of course no damage could be seen on his skin as he looked back towards the Oracle. "As it got ready for another attack, time unfroze, and I could swear the giant that killed Sasha looked at the snake like it wanted permission. Then it attacked me as she died and I woke up. The serpent was green as well." He explained quietly, looking down at the floor for a few moments.

"If those animals did represent the Gods being brought to their knees, then I think the serpent might be our girl in green. Do either of you have any idea what that could be? Worse, if the giant did look towards her then perhaps that also means they were under her influence." Ryland said quietly, worrying that the two girls would think him insane.

Kiera sat there looking over at Ryland as he started to explain his dream, and leaned forward a little bit as she eyed him as he recalled the dream. The whole prophecy thing didn't sound very good at all which was disturbing as well, if it all did end up becoming true, as she rubbed the back of her neck a little bit. "Maybe it's like a basilisk kind of creature or medusa?" Kiera asked looking at Ryland, she wasn't the one to witness the dream herself.

"The whole prophecy thing still confuses me a bit, but it could really mean anything maybe someone who dislikes the gods, or one of their own?" Rosie said as she got up and gently patted Ryland on the shoulder. "I can start hitting the books, but i'm thinking it might be a medusa, but I really am unsure."

Ryland shook his head in response to the two girls thinking about what he might have seen in his dream. "I'm not too sure it would be Medusa. She's not really known for commanding other monsters, you know? She's usually isolated or shouting at her sisters. But that giant, I know for a fact it responded it to the snake. Moreso, Medusa doesn't really have the power to take on the Gods. Not by a long shot, she's a simple monster. If Percy Jackson could beat her, I much doubt that she would be an issue for any of the Gods." He explained, shaking his head in response to it all once more. "Perhaps we should look into what Gods or beings might be affiliated with snakes."

"I can look into all that stuff if you'd like." Rosie said looking at Ryland and gave him a friendly smile, as she started to make her way towards a small fridge and pulled up a soda. "Want something to drink?" Rosie asked both Kiera and Ryland, as she started to open one up. Kiera looked at Ryland for a moment and gave him a slight nudge. "Is there anything else in the dream you can think of?" Kiera asked him and gave a slight nod towards Rosie, as she tossed one towards her.

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She was glad that she was doing alright when it came to climbing the wall. At least, she was luckier than some others from her cabin who seemed to be falling to the ground as she noticed someone ahead of her fall to the ground. This was definitely not the easiest thing in the world, but it was still enjoyable. At least somewhat, when she wasn't getting hit by anything, or avoiding falling people. Ignoring all of that, and she'd be having the time of her life.

Then, glancing upwards again, about halfway up now, luckily she hadn't fallen yet to be honest, and that was when she noticed something ahead of her. Well crap, that is going to hit me square in the face, this is going to hurt, probably a lot, she thought to herself as she glanced at the opening. Knowing that she had to move, and move quickly, she attempted to get out of the way of the potential lava flow, hopefully before it hit her in anyway.

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@kittyluna45 @Kirah As Marco flew overhead over the camp there he could see all of the activity going on around the camp as they all went on about their daily routines and sometimes their own chores as well around camp. Marco's brothers and sisters kept close proximity towards Marco. The same Pegasus that was giving trouble seemed to actually be calmed down now as they flew over the strawberry fields some of the Demeter kids gave a smile and waved towards them as well. One of the campers started to have a bit of trouble he was a bit younger as he lost control and crashed down into the fields below. The Aphrodite kid landed just by Emily's feet the kid groaned a bit, but he didn't seem to have any injures other than a few scrapes.

@Morose The little girl gave the boy an evil death stare, she would certainly get back at him later. "Sorry, i'll make sure to warn you next time." She said giving Rebecca an awkward smile as she headed over and started to help, the girl took a deep breath as she started to try and levitate another object on the table. She seemed to be much calmer now as it started to float easier and then she started to move it around the room much easier now.

@CaptainMarvel @BlueSky44 Aella would make it a quarter of the way up again, she was being passed by one of her other cabin mates as they passed her the boy who was probably a year or two older than her gave her a wave and continued to his climb. Scarlett the head cabin of Nemesis was almost to the top as well. Back down where Amalia was she would be able to get out of the way of the lava flow that would come out, though she would still be close enough to feel the heat coming off of it. Then everything stopped suddenly as a camper got to the top pressing the button and removing the helmet that was at the top announcing that the tower was now finished, as some of the campers groaned a bit as they started to climb down.

@LadyRunic @Natsu "Go easy on each other you two." Alannah said towards the two Hades kids as she gave them a slight smile as her attention turned towards Jace as the two of them went back to sparing, though Jace got easily distracted as he watched Arthur knock down Ash on her ass rather quickly. "Damn already knocked your sister on her bum." He said with a laugh only to be whacked in the back of the head with Alannah's shield which made him stumble forward and glared at her angerly, and would blindly try and hit Alannah which she would easily dodge every single swipe.

@Saltwater Thief@rivaan@Bee@Tonks@KazAlkemi As the group gathered just outside of the dining pavilion there were some campers who were still inside, they were sitting in their assigned tables to who their godly parents were. Some also walked by as they went in for some breakfast as well. Chiron started to wheel himself over towards the group and gave them all a smile, and looked towards Brynn and gently patted her on the shoulder. "The blonde look is good on you." Chiron said as he wheeled himself to the side. "I am sure you are all ready for the Capture The Flag Game tonight and I wish you all good luck as well." He said as he looked at Zeke and gave him a nod, and started to wheel himself off back towards the Big House.

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Kiera looked towards Ryland as she waited for an answer from him, as she ran a hand through her hair and started to feel her stomach growling a little bit. As much as the dream that Ryland was mentioning sounded very distressing she was starting to get hungry as well, looking over towards Rosie for any answer as well. Which she gave a 'don't look at me look' As Rosie took a drink and then stood up looking at the two of them. "I'll hit the books and if anything comes up i'll let you two know." Rosie said as she started to head back towards another room and started to pull out some books that she had in there.

Kiera looked at Ryland and then stood up and then stretched a bit. "Im going to get some food." Kiera said as she offered a hand to help Ryland up to his feet. "I'll see you later, or just come find me if you want or need anything." Kiera gave him a friendly smile before turning around and started to leave and made her way towards the Dining Pavilion. As she walked there she stuffed her hands into her pockets and rubbed the back of her neck a bit and though about the dream he mentioned. Kiera noticed some of the others standing by and made her way over towards them.

Marco smiled as Em returned the wave and kiss, as he was happy to see her down there. That was where she belonged, with the strawberries. She was so beautiful. Of course, that moment was ruined by one of his younger brothers crashed into the fields and and he swooped down and then landed on the ground and paused. "Are you alright, Greg?"

"Yeah... yeah... I'll be fine." The young man said and Marco walked over to pick the younger boy up. "Nothing bad happened."

"Good... Sorry about the field Em... I can help you with this later, if you want. I best make sure that both Greg here and the pegasus are okay." Marco looked over Greg and the boy did seem alright. "Go find an Apollo kid to check you over. Better safe than sorry. Chester, go head to the stable, I'm gonna walk this little one back home. Best after a fall like that." Greg sighed, rolled his eyes and then walked off to Cabin 7, to see if ether Zeke or one of the other Apollo campers were there, and give him a check over.

Chester seemed to understand what Marco said, even if Marco was missing the gift of horse talking, and went to fly off back to the stables. Marco walked over to the other pegasus and gently rubbed their muzzle to calm them down. Once the pegasus was calmed down, Marco used his lead to guide him back to the stables. As he walked, he waved and smiled to everyone, still hiding the fact he was freaking out about Rosie's prophecy the other day.

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Aella managed to get another quarter of the way up, and at that point she was feeling pretty good about herself. She rolled her eyes at one of her siblings who, for some reason, decided to wave as he passed by. She continued her climb up, until she spotted a camper make it over the very top of the wall. Suddenly, everything came to a stop, and they were all told to stop and get off the wall. Aella let out a small, angry groan as she began to climb back down, eventually reaching the bottom of the wall. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she bent over, trying to catch her breath. Her arms were sore beyond belief, but at least she could take a break. She stood upright again, feeling the burning in her lungs start to fade. She glanced down at herself, scoffing at the state of her body. Her arm was still bleeding, first off, but there were scrapes all over her.

She supposed that wearing a sports bra and shorts was a bad idea. Hindsight is 20/20 and all.

Aella figured she'd be fine. Visiting the infirmary was an absolute impossibility for...several reasons. It wasn't that bad, anyway; bumps and bruises wasn't exactly a new look for her. She brushed herself off, deciding a quick breakfast and a shower sounded like a decent start to the day. She set off toward the Dining Pavilion, eager to sit down for a minute. She picked up the pace upon seeing the Pavilion in the distance, despite the ache in her legs. By the time she got there, she noticed a small group of people of gathered, including some friendly faces. Aella quietly made her way over to them, more out of curiosity than any real desire to talk to anyone.

Bronwyn laughed, grabbing onto Zoey's arm that she'd slapped her with, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "Oh sis, it's okay. There's still plenty of daylight left." The many smells of breakfast items were overloading Brynn's senses, but she could definitely smell each individual item Zo had mentioned. Especially the fresh bread. And... coffee. A wide smile spread across the girl's face at that. Coffee sounded good. The mention of Capture the Flag brought Brynn back to Earth, turning her eyes back to her sister. "Zo, you should know by now that I practically count down the days, hours, minutes and seconds till our next game. I absolutely live for Fridays!" Tackling Ryland. Bronwyn began to picture the image of her sister running at the boy and completely sacking him into the dirt. The thought itself made her laugh, shaking her head. "I agree with Ericka, unfortunately. As much as tackling and kneecapping Ryland sounds fun and all," she gave her blond sister and Alana a smirk before looking to her other sister, "-he is on our side, tonight."

As they went to walk inside the pavilion, a figure stepped in front of them and blocked their path with Brynn nearly running right into them. Regaining her ground, Brynn brought her eyes up to meet... Zeke's. That voice. Was all too familiar. Especially the sarcastic ass tone. Who else would it be? A devious grin spread across her lips, "Yes, I-" "Now why would you go and do an awful thing like that?” Brynn froze, her face flushing lightly. For a moment, she didn't know what to say. As suddenly as she was stumped, she recovered herself, the devious little grin returning. She shook her head at the Apollo boy, pointing to the corner of his mouth. "You uh, you seem to have a bit of drool. R-right there, Kel." She was about to say something more until Chiron caught her eye, making his way over in his wheelchair.

Brynn smiled at the man as he made his way over, brushing a nervous lock of hair behind her ear. He seemed to come straight for her, making her anxiety climb through the roof. He complimented her hair and patted her shoulder, making her raise an eyebrow. "Er, th-thank you, sir." As he wished them luck and went about his way, Brynn bowed her head towards him and then turned her attention back to Zeke, sticking her tongue out at him before pushing past him playfully. The girl made her way into the pavilion to grab a plate and go sit down at the table with her siblings, absolutely starving at this point.

Emily was happy waving up at Marco, until his half-brother Greg, landed in the field next to her. She yelped startled at first and then leaned over to make sure he was okay. Marco landed and helped Greg up. "Yeah take care of your Greg and the pegasuses. I've got the plants. I'm good with plants, not pegasuses." Emily grinned waving him off with a kiss blown at him.

She turned to the strawberry plant that Greg had landed on and started willing it back to health. The vines healed and the strawberries were suddenly very ripe and plump looking. She grinned, popped one of the freshly grown strawberries into her mouth and picked the rest of the ripe ones and put it in the bin.

Now that she was done with her morning chores in the field her stomach was growling. A couple of stolen strawberries was not enough food. "Alright, kids lets go get food." She rubbed at her stomach thinking of bacon and bagels. Maybe some hashbrowns. Her stomach growled even louder. One of her siblings laughed, and she hooked her arm around him and gave him a noogie. "Come on Terry, you know you're hungry too."

Alana raised and eyebrow at Erica." Not always... we could just incapacitate him and throw him at hte other team, maybe they will waste themselves out in infighting for who to get him?" Miranda asked with half serious half joking tone. Having Ry on the team was a good boon, he could fight and get the job done. That said he was also a little bit too overly into doing everythign that was asked of him and having this tragedy hero complex like thing going on. On her opinion, he had to try relaxing a little and be a lot less serious all the time.

It was also around then when Chiron showed up. She just looked at him and nodded." Thank you..." she replied to his wishes of good luck." Luck is good to have, though I'm not sure why it's Capture the Flag exactly..." She mumbled. Alana wasn't really all too keen on capture the flag. It was borderline annoying to deal with since they had to organize and fight, and be teams and coordinated and there usually was some kind of unspoken emotions and competitions being worked out on those events between people like Ry and Zeke. Probably they were going to be on the same team this time around and she could only hope they work it out until the battle was over or something. They could punch it out after they win.

Then she noticed Kiera in the distance and nodded with a small smile. The people she liked well enough were gathering. Then her eyes carried a single sparkle when she saw Aella appearing too. She nodded at her." Hey, sis. Thank you for not waking me up!" She said to her sister. She herself had decided to skip the wall so yeah, she might as well hear how things went over there. Maybe someone broke something, that would be interesting." Did you get hurt on the wall?" She expressed some amount of rare concern.

Zoey was pretty sure that Brynn was thinking that she was joking, but Zoey was not joking. Zoey knew what a joke was, as well as what kind of jokes she made. This was not one of those jokes. She had every intention to get her hands on Ryland, no matter what the situation may be -- at least as of right now. But, her sisters were had brought up an unfortunately true point. They were on the same team. Friendly fire wasn't exactly ideal, especially if they wanted to win. Weighing the prospect of putting Ryland out of commission against the prospect of their team winning - it was unfortunately not as hard of a decision as Zoey thought it would be. The more ethical and smart thing to do was to let go of her rather overzealous commitment toward dispatching her fellow camp member. It wouldn't be like a daughter of Athena to let her personal desires get in the way of the overall goal and the greater good. She had to do her mom proud, even if her mother probably didn't know who she was, let alone meet her.

Right as they walked in, a certain Zeke had made a comment about Brynn's hair that Zoey didn't necessarily like. How dare he say something like that? Geez, the dude who came by the library a lot sure had some vinegar in him. Zoey's face quickly shifted to a scowl, aimed at the offending party. What was even more surprising was the lack of a response from Brynn. Was she really going to let that fly? Maybe the ass-kicking could shift toward a different party. Forget Ryland.. maybe Zeke could use a kick in the ass or two. There was justice that needed to be served after witnessing such a disparaging comment. Zoey couldn't believe herself.

A strange man had opened up with a compliment directed toward her newly blonde sister. Blonde was a good look on her. Too bad Ericka wasn't a blonde, otherwise the Athena cabin would've snagged themselves a new label with how many blondes resided in their cabin. Finally sifting through the large crowds, Zoey finally was able to get herself access to breakfast and get some food in her stomach. Sitting down next to Brynn, Zoey plopped down a plate full of eggs, bacon, sausage, and a hash brown as she sighed, taking a fork and stabbing a piece of scrambled egg with her fork. "You really gonna let Zeke get away with that?" Zoey asked curiously, "Maybe Ryland should be spared tonight..."

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Athanasia thought herself competent with a sword and shield. Though her stance was more to defect blows with her lighter frame, lacking the heaviness of the older kids. Which sadly, included her older brother. So when they squared up Athanasia had been preparing to lunge forward and strike low, but Arthur had been faster. His blow sending her backwards on her rear as he playfully teased her. Her black eyes flashed despite Alanna's reminder to take it easy. "Oh, brother. Such a bother." Regaining her stance to a single knee, never minding the dirt, the pale girl lunged forward and low to the side. Slamming her shield towards Arthur's side while her sword slipped below towards his thigh in a slicing strike. Her grip however had other ideas as it slipped and her fingers fumbled. The shield thunking to the ground.

Arthur chuckled when the shield fell to the ground, and patted Ash on the head. "Looks like we got off to a shaky start, let's give you another shot." He said, and picked up the shield, handing it to her. "Keep a tighter grip on it, monster's aren't going to be as kind." He took a step back, and readied himself for her to take another strike at him, "You can have the first blow this time around Athanasia, make it count." He did, however have his bracelets drip off his wrists, forming into shields, and floating around his body. "But I'm not gonna make it easy for you, sister." He said, flashing a smile at her.

There were a few things that could make her eye twitch in just that way, that wasn't comical but made her look slightly mad. Insane, that was. Arthur patting her on the head was one of those things. Though her eye didn't actually twitch, she just felt like it should. That little nerve. Especially when the cheeky bastard formed his special little shields. Well! If he wanted to fight, they would fight. Smiling her sweet little smile as she resettled her shield. "ας είναι." Athanasia tittered in ancient greek. A phrase similar to 'so be it'. Stepping forwards the shadows wrapped about her in a welcoming embrace before they parted. Rather than stepping as she planned by using the shadow Arthur's shield casted to appear behind him, she had come out on the side. Not that it really mattered, it got her within the circle of her older brother's defenses. Bringing her sword against the back of Arthur's knee she rapidly retreated, per her lessons with Ryland.

Arthur stumbled a bit, stepping forward as his sister moved to his side and hit him. "I deserved that." He said, as steadied himself. Ash was much better than she looked, and he knew the best way to get her to actually push herself was to get her mad. "You still need improvement though, you've left yourself open for this." He said, and pivoted on his more steady leg to go in for a side swipe with his sword, crashing it into her side, and knocking her right down on her butt again. He said, and stepped back, expecting her to use her shadow trick again, but wanting space if she were to charge forward. He decided to ease up a bit on his snark, he knew Ash could take it, but this was still for fun, and he knew he was pushing it with the pat already. Hopefully she'd be able to keep herself steady enough to not get knocked down on the next hit.

Ash gave an indignant squawk as she was sent sprawling backwards again. Glowering at Arthur, the ten year old stuck out her tongue in the most deadly of insults she had while regaining her feet. He could knock her down a thousand times over and Athanasia would still rise to the challenge once more in some way or another. Charging the wall hadn't worked, flanking was difficult. So why not go beneath? Gripping a handful of dirt from the floor of the area, she hurled it at Arthur's eyes watching as the wind blew it away ineffectually. Now, there were things Athanasia could deal with, but the absolute failure of that made her want to really win. Swinging her sword towards Arthur's feet she smirked as he stumbled onto his ass. "One down. Two more, and I win."

Arthur coughed as the sword swung into him, finally giving him a taste of his own medicine, and knocking him clear on the ground. "Good job." He sputtered, staying seated on the ground, as she gloated. He tilted his head, "Three strikes and you're out then? Okay Sister..." He said, and let his back fall back towards the ground, his shields zooming over his head and flying towards her. The first went wide, but the second hit her squarely in the chest, sending her to join him on the ground. He folded his arms behind his head and said . "Good game! Better luck next time." He said, his voice smug with satisfaction. He took a moment to feel the cool breeze run over him, and sat up. "If you don't want to go again, I'm hungry. Shall we get some breakfast?" He asked, turning his head towards his sister.

Athanasia's smirk faltered as the dark shields shot outwards at her. One going wide with some luck, then her luck broke. The second shield smashed into her chest. Landing her firmly on her butt again. Frowning at her counterpart, Ash glowered darkly. Three times she had been knocked down to his one! It was infuriating. Standing up, she dusted herself off and paced behind the stretched out boy. Pouncing she tried to tickle him and failed. Wrapping the boy in a hug instead. "Food is good." She agreed with a sigh. "Vengeance will be wonderful too." She giggled with a wicked gleam in her eyes, as she stood once more to dust herself off and setting the delicate hat atop her pale blonde head.

Arthur gasped as he was hugged by his sister, not expecting that.Smiling, he hugged her back and said, "Then let's go!" He stood up next to her and said, "All else I'll say is that you may want to reconsider your combat attire." He gestured at her dress, now dirty from all the times she'd been knocked over. Starting towards the mess hall, he stretched a bit. He felt more awake now, in a lot of ways, a morning sparring match was better than a cup of coffee for waking up. He felt so much better than he had before, especially since he was basking in the glow of victory.

Athanasia shrugged, looking bemused. "Perhaps." Turning on her heel she stepped after him, dusting off her battered dress. It didn't bother her over much. A dress was a dress. "I just need to start winning." She pointed out with a amused expression, it was funny that he expected her to wear a dress into the fight, or didn't think of the small army that waited in her trunk. Her hand looping through Arthur's arm.

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Ryland's mood had improved very little from the meeting with the Oracle and Kiera. Though he stayed behind to chat briefly with Rosie after Kiera left. Now heading towards the Dining Pavilion, Ryland wasn't sure he was really ready to face the other campers quite yet. That being said, his stomach was certainly winning the battle of wills with the grumbling it was constantly giving him as he made his way over. The blonde boy forced his facial expression to appear relaxed and normal for himself. Although those close to him would surely notice how he still seemed a bit tense as he walked. Outside the building he noticed Ericka and gave her a small wave, not giving too much by way of a greeting as he was certain she would likely already be able to tell how he was really feeling. Ericka was smart like that. Heading inside, he knew the real test would be occurring. More than likely Ryland would be running into quite a few friends in here, and he didn't want them to worry. So the casual mask of usual he wore had to be stronger than ever.

Although that thought was quickly wiped from his mind as he saw something that completely caught him off-guard. Bronwyn was sitting at her table eating, nothing special there, except that her hair was completely blonde as opposed to the darker colors of before. He had to admit that he was rather fond of her darker hair, but still, the girl looked rather attractive anyways. Deciding that despite his mood he still needed to talk to his friend, Ryland made a direct line over towards their table. Although he kept a careful watch on the other girl present, Zoey, as he half-expected her to jump up and suddenly dropkick him through the floor as per her usual manner. Once he got close, he decided to scare Brynn and suddenly hugged her from behind before letting go. Aiming to make the girl jump from his sudden appearance. "Brynn? When did you dye your hair? I almost didn't recognize you for a second!" He said with a light laugh before continuing. "It looks good though, just caught me off guard." He finished, wearing an easygoing smile on his face.

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Ezekiel rolled his eyes at Brynn’s comment. Ya, perhaps there would be some drool if she hadn’t ruined her hair with that fake blonde. He sighed, shaking his head, about to mention how nice her original hair was when Chiron wheeled himself over. He smiled at the man when he looked over at him and answered his nod with one of his own.
”Chiron, see you later,” he said with parting words. Brynn pushed past Ezekiel playfully and he grinned after her but all he could see was blonde now. He shook his head, ignoring the others as he walked with them. ”Seriously B, your natural hair was way prettier, gorgeous even,” Zeke complimented before he winked at a rather disgruntled looking Zoey.
He smirked and split off to go and get himself some food. When he turned to go, he saw Aella enter the dining pavilion. This, this is when the drooling comment would make sense. Ezekiel seemed suspended in time for a moment before he ended up running into the buffet table and hit his knee good on the corner of it. He cursed out loud and stopped a minute, catching his breath. To make matters worse, he saw Ryland enter the pavilion next and go sit with Bronwyn. Ezekiel made to concentrate on the food he was gathering rather than the burning pain in his knee, crawling sensation up his back of needing to look behind him and the fire in the pit of his stomach that now overpowered his need of food. He turned around, with his full plate and went to go retrieve a seat at his own table, away from the others.

It didn't take long for the hungry bunching of fellow campers to keep walking toward the dining hall. Ericka bid them a brief farewell and then resumed her walk. There was work to be done after all. Along the way she saw Ryland, also headed in to eat, and from a distance he gave her a wave and a smile. Not a genuine smile, it seemed, but rather his typical 'I'm okay, don't worry' smile. Something was up with him. Again. But, with the time she'd already spent, Ericka had little chance to approach him about it. Whatever it was that was eating at Ry would have to wait. So, with a reciprocated wave and smile, Ericka kept on her way to the Armory.

Which already had an occupant, judging from the noise.

"Stupid thing! Why is there a lock here?!"

A very irate occupant at that. She stepped inside, and saw one of the older campers crouched in front of what was unmistakably the Stygian locker. Based on the sound of his voice, and the very short list of campers stupid enough to try what he was, this could only be...

"May I help you with anything, Gregory?" she asked seethingly.

Gregory Samsor, Son of Ares, immediately rose to his feet in a fighting stance out of alarm. He quickly regained his composure upon seeing Ericka however, either out of relief or perhaps arrogance. "Ericka," he said with a slight snarl, "What are you doing here?"

He was a brute of a man, even by Ares standards. Average height but quite broad shouldered, and always easily seen on the practice field doing drills. He never was the brightest, however; the Ares cabin primarily used him as dumb muscle.

"I'm here to do my job, Gregory. As for why you're here, based on what I heard and saw coming in I can only assume you were looking to rent one of the Stygian Iron weapons. Unfortunately, given your conduct just now, I'm afraid I can't allow that."

"It's open rent on the weapons, you can't stop me," Gregory said in what Ericka guessed was supposed to be smugness, "I know the rules."

"I'm sure you do, seeing as they're not particularly complicated," she replied, "However, the two Stygian weapons are under lock and key, as you discovered, so without me or one of my sibling's assistance, you will not be using either of them."

"And why the hell are they locked up?" Gregory bellowed.

"Because they're Stygian Iron, Gregory," Ericka responded with a sharpness to match his volume, "They're capable of causing drastically more harm than anything else in this building, so the task falls to me and mine to make sure that they are used with responsibility and care. Two concepts I have zero reason to believe you have even a basic grasp of at this point."

"But the two Hades brats can swing theirs around at will?!"

"Ash and Arthur's Irons are their personal weapons, and are outside of my authority. If you'd like to get technical beyond that, if an incident occurred with Stygian Iron involved, as long as the sword and dagger in that locker are accounted for that rather narrows it down to one of the two of them, not that I believe for a moment either one would actually do something so stupid. On the other hand, if the rentals could be grabbed from in here at will, all someone would have to do is take them at a point where the Armory is empty, disregard the sign-out sheet completely, and we would have no way of knowing who it was. Which, I'm sure, was the idea of whomever put you up to this."

"Now then," she continued, brushing a lock of her hair out of her face, "If you have no further business in here, I'm going to ask that you leave. I have things to do, after all."

With that she walked past him and set her backpack down at the desk. Gregory did not move except to turn and continue facing her, however.

"And what if I pummel you and take the key?" he asked menacingly.

"A poor strategy, I suggest you abandon it immediately." Ericka was far from impressed.

"OH YEAH?" The boy yelled as he took a lumbering step forward.

In a flash Ericka had grabbed a recently returned bronze sword off of the desk and whipped around, leveling the tip at Gregory's nose without batting an eyelash. That stopped him rather quickly.

"Gregory, I'd already sorted out nine different methods to put a new dent in the floor using your thick skull by the time I started moving," she said, very matter-of-factually but with plenty of venom dripping from the words, "Now I'm up to about thirteen, and the longer you stand here the more I'm going to find. Turn around, and walk out the door. Now."

Gregory seemed to stand there in stunned silence for a moment, until a flick of the sword's tip in his general direction spurred him to action and sent him backing up and then stomping out of the Armory. "Good riddance," Ericka said as she put the sword down and went to inspect the Stygian locker to make sure there had been no damage. Thankfully it seemed there hadn't been, so she was able to sit down behind the desk and get right to work.

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"See? You got it," Rebecca said with a smile, looking at the girl. She always liked helping out with teaching the younger campers. It was nice to see that spark of recognition and determination in their face, as they finally overcame whatever mental block was preventing them from fully realizing the extent of their magic. Most campers just worried about combat training - the Hecate Cabin did double duty. "Now one of my favorite spells is where you twist it," Rebecca explained.

"Imagine that this," Rebecca said, making an apple float out in front of her, "was inside out. Imagine it folding in on itself and reversing, before reforming and becoming whole again...It's a spell that's useful in more situations than you'd expect and I remember back when I first got here, the Head Counselor for our cabin said they used it on a monster once and well....As you can imagine, the monster died quite easily."

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Amalia was glad not to get hit by the lava from the wall, made it so she didn't have to worry about that sort of thing later on. Meant she wouldn't get burns, or fall from where she currently was on the wall all the way back down it again. She personally preferred not falling to the idea of hitting the ground somewhat hard, which would hurt a whole lot. It didn't matter though too much, at least she was still on the wall as opposed to those who had fallen off it already.

Then everything stopped, and she let out a bit of a sigh. So someone had managed to reach the top after all, it was a little annoying, but she still preferred climbing down than falling. After a few moments, she reached the bottom, still really glad about not being knocked off the wall. Things weren't the best, but she didn't really know what she wanted to do now, she was contemplating just wandering around somewhat, kill some time maybe doing that.