stollen things || c. stoll

4.1~ Silver Foxes and Sword Fighting

June 3rd, 7:41 am

I woke to chattering, which wasn't something I was used to after spending the spring months alone in the cabin. When I sat up and rubbed my eyes, I was met with all of my siblings getting ready for the day.

"Did you all get here last night?"

Most of them nodded, and everyone lined up at the door. I realized that Katie wasn't coming back this year, and I had to wrangle all these kids.

"Alright, breakfast isn't until twenty minutes from now. Hephaestus's counselors are going to be here in..." I peeked out the window to see Beckendorf coming out of Cabin 9. "Ten minutes! Get to work if you want dessert tonight."

My space was mostly clean, seeing as I'd been living in it for basically the whole year after having my boyfriend try to recruit me to a Titan army and shove me in a car. I'd gone on a quest back in December to stop the end of the world, but it had really just delayed it. Everything was on Percy Jackson's shoulders now. Poor kid. He wasn't even fifteen yet.

By the time Beckendorf came around to our cabin, we had cleaned it up well enough. He gave us a "3" and moved on.  We headed to breakfast to kick off the first real day of summer. Mr. D had left a while ago, and we had no tell on when or if he was coming back. It was all very hush-hush.

During breakfast, Chiron and another man made a few announcements to all of the new and returning campers.

The entire Demeter cabin had cereal for breakfast. Obviously. It was, after all, the greatest creation of all time.

With the start of the summer season came the start of courses. Chiron decided that, rather than keep our previous method of testing the demigods and placing them in speed, strength, and intellect groups, we would go by cabin. Nothing wrong with it, of course. It was probably a better idea, too. But it took me away from the people I actually wanted to spend time with.

Chiron announced the groups. Athena with Ares and Hephaestus, Hermes with Dionysus and Poseidon, and Aphrodite with Demeter and Apollo. Okay, not too bad. I had friends in both of those cabins. I'd gotten close with Silena from Aphrodite last summer and Lee from Apollo over the spring.

My cabin and the others headed towards the arena for sword and shield. Rather than being met without usual instructors, there was the man from breakfast, a fit guy with graying hair. Madge nudged me, and I slapped her arm. That girl and her damn silver foxes.

"Welcome, demigods. I am Quintus, your new sword fighting instructor. I need a volunteer."

Kayla Knowles, an Apollo girl, raised her hand.

"Wonderful," Quintus said. He didn't sound as enthusiastic as his words suggested. He looked like he wasn't really eager to be a sword instructor at all. "We're going to try a disarming technique that I hope you all know already. Here we go."

He demonstrated some move and knocked Kayla's sword out of her hand. She picked her sword back up, and he did it again.

"Now, you all saw how easy that was for me to do slowly. Now, in a match." He and Kayla got into fighting stances and began dueling. Not a minute of parrying and striking had passed before Quintus slipped his sword around Kayla's and knocked it down. She grabbed it and he let her get back into the line.

"Let's try this. I'm going to pair you up. Each pair will come before the entire group after sparring with each other for a short while. Go on."

Luckily, he put me with Madge. I hadn't gotten much time to talk to her so far, so we spent our time catching up between successful (on her part) and unsuccessful (on my part) disarming attempts.

Quintus ended the section, and called us up pair by pair for demonstration. Madge and I stood back a little bit to avoid getting chosen. Luckily, time ran out before he could get to everyone. We were sent off to archery, and I paired with Lee for the partner sections.

I hadn't mastered archery over the past five months, but I liked to think I'd improved. Lee had been helping me a lot lately and I was finally getting it.

After Archery, we were released for Free Time. Lee, Madge, and I sat on the roof of the Demeter cabin and got caught up with Madge's school year. It felt good to be back with my best friends, even though Katie wasn't around.

•

wicked short chappie sorry

also i've been working full time this summer and i am going to an overnight camp next tuesday, so i won't be updating for 2 weeks (not that that's uncommon)

SO sorry for the lack of updates and enjoy this very short chapter in the meantime. i'll get another one out before i leave for camp <3