𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐓𝐇, Clarisse la Rue

𝐢. nabi falls off the lava climbing wall

STRENGTH
━━ act one, chapter one.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

"IF I FALL, I BLAME THE GODS!"

Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for demigods, was known for its beautiful beach; the different cabins that campers lived in, that were created to represent the greek gods; the bustling of campers doing archery and sword training; and the other fun activities too! Such as... the climbing wall.

Well, climbing walls were supposed to be fun. Right now — with the climbing wall at max level difficulty as lava poured from the top — Nabi was not having fun.

Usually, Nabi could climb the wall just fine, but the Hephaestus kids had recently created an even more difficult level. People were still getting used to the new metal drills that spiked up, or the bigger boulders that tumbled down.

   She screamed to the person below, "Silena! Tell your boyfriend that he's insane for making this!"

   "You can tell Beckendorf yourself when you make it to the top, girl!" Silena Beauregard — Nabi's friend and head of the Aphrodite cabin — encouraged. She was dark haired, and had pretty eyes to match her pretty personality. Silena was jumping up and down like a cheerleader until she paused. "Wait, he's not my boyfriend!"

   "Not yet, at least!" Nabi called back.

She was half-way up the volcanic wall, clearly more advanced than the other few campers who were at the basic stage. Nabi grabbed onto another climbing hold, securing her grip before pulling herself up to the next one, blinking back the steam and ash that surrounded the area. She grimaced at her singed camp t-shirt.

"Almost there, Nabi!" Silena yelled, shooting her a thumbs up. "You got this!"

Nabi let go of one of her climbing holds to give her own thumbs up in return, but yelped when she almost fell completely. She turned back to the task at hand. The girl jumped to the right as a boulder came down. She managed to grab on fairly quickly and evaded it with a relieved sigh—but she couldn't seem to catch a break as a large metal spike, one that Charles Beckendorf (the Hephaestus cabin's head counsellor) had most definitely made, appeared and almost pierced her.

"Di immortales!" Nabi swore.

She heaved herself up, moving back to the left to avoid the sharp spike. Nabi could see the top, now. With determination, she continued climbing, almost there, until...

"Keep going!"

That didn't sound like Silena. Nabi jolted her head at the sound of a familiar voice. Clarisse was smirking up at her, arms folded as she watched Nabi tackle the challenge. She faltered for a moment at the way Clarisse's eyes met hers — a teasing glint in them that Nabi was oh so fond of. For a moment, Nabi forgot she was climbing the lava wall.

   Clarisse and Nabi had arrived at camp together, and had been each other's closest friend since. They were rarely seen without the other, at least, disregarding camp duties that Clarisse had as a head counsellor — she had been claimed after a long few months of camp by the god of war, Ares. And just like her father, Clarisse built a reputation of being brutal and one of the strongest fighters at camp.