kicking off

Aaliyha's POV: (Pronounced Ah-Li-ya)

We all sat around for a while in the arena after Roman walked out. Josh got up and left, and we all trickled out hesitantly.

I was heading back to my cabin when I noticed Roman walking out of the woods behind the cabin, his katana by his side. It had blood on it and it dripped of the katana leaving a small trail behind him.

Looking closely, I saw that the trail lead into the woods, and glanced at Roman, fearful for what he had done. He nodded at me, thinking that I would approve of it and stopped next to me, leaning down and whispering into my ear;

"Soon we'll be able to leave this hell hole and join Father in destroying the weak cities and towns and everyone here will rue the day they crossed me, I mean, us,".

He pulled back and looked me in the eye. I nodded and tried to look excited at the prospect of that happening. He gave me an approving wink and walked into the Ares cabin. I waited until he was out of sight and followed the trail into the woods.

It went on for a while and ended in a clearing, where Josh lay battered in the middle of it. I rushed over to him and took in his injuries. The blood continued to ooze out of his cuts, rather than clotting and stopping, and automatically I knew who had done this. Nevertheless, I asked anyone;

"Josh, who did this to you?".

"Roman," he croaked out weakly. I cringed inwardly.

"Alright Josh, I'm gonna take you to the infirmary, but I'm gonna need to drag you, okay?" I told him, positioning myself behind him. He nodded, grimacing, and I hooked my arms under his, around his armpits. Heaving, I half carried, half dragged him through the woods, breaking out into the area behind the Ares cabin.

"Someone help me please!" I yelled. No one came to my aid and just when I thought I was going to have to leave Josh and go get help myself, someone walked towards me.

"Aaliyha?" Martin asked, shielding his face from the sun to see me clearer.

"Uh hi, Martin," I greeted awkwardly.

Yesterday when Liam has accidentally summoned lightning during the game of Capture the Flag, Martin dived at me. We landed on the top of a hill and rolled down it right into a bush. I closed my eyes to keep them from getting scratched and when I opened them, Martin was on top of me, his face inches from mine. There was an awkward moment as we both stared at each other, me blushing and Martin's face turning bright red, and then he cleared his throat, apologising. He got off me and crawled out of the bush, giving me a hand out as well. Then he went off to help Roman and I went back to my cabin and we haven't really talked since. I'd kinda been staying away from him to avoid any awkward conversations and had been observing him from a distance.

He was funny, and had this great grin. You could tell he was up to something when he glanced at someone and smiled to himself, like when he tapped Jasmine's shoulder while he was on the other side and made her look. He was caring as well, like when he helped Roman yesterday after he'd been hit by Liam's lightning bolt.

"Uh, Earth to Aaliyha?" Martin brought me back to reality, waving his hand in my face.

"Um, JoshishurtandI'vebeentryingtogethimtotheinfirmaryb utIcan'tgethimtherecauseI'mnotstrongenoughtogethimthere," I blurted out, for some reason nervous.

"Sorry, what?!" he asked, raising his eyebrows. Great, now he thinks I'm weird and illiterate.

"Um, Josh is hurt and I've been trying to get him to the infirmary but I can't get him there cause I'm not strong enough to get him there," I said slower, catching my breath and averting his gaze.

"I see," Martin replied, looking behind me at Josh. "Alright, lets get him to the infirmary,". I smiled at him gratefully and he winked in reply. Somewhere in my chest, my heart fluttered, and I tried to keep myself from blushing.

We both positioned ourselves on either side of Josh, and prepared to lift him.

"Three, two, one, lift!" Martin told me. We both pulled him up and Josh groaned in pain.

"Careful!" he almost yelled, hand going to his large gash across his leg.

"Sorry Josh!" Martin apologised. We hurriedly carried him to the infirmary. Somewhere along the way, he passed out from blood loss. We burst through the doors of the infirmary.

"Someone help!" I gasped out.

A boy with blonde hair, blue eyes and freckles looked up from the bedside of a sickly camper.

"Put him on that bed there!" he ordered, pointing to the bed nearest us. "Newbie you've got your first patient!".

Flynn appeared from behind us.

"Okay Will!" he said to the blonde boy. "Hi guys,".

"Hey Flynn!" Martin replied. I nodded to him in greeting.

"Hey Josh!" Flynn greeted, walking over to the bed with a large bag of medicinal supplies. "Oh, he's unconscious. What happened?". He leant down and touched the wound on Josh's leg. Josh grimaced and shifted in his sleep.

"We don't know," Martin answered. Part of me told me I should tell them, but the other part of me wanted keep it to myself, at least until Josh woke up.

"Will he be okay?" I asked, feeling guilty at keeping quiet and also that my brother had done this.

"He'll be fine, I think," Flynn told me. "Come back later, and he may be awake. Let Chiron know while you're out,".

We nodded and left him to do what he needed to do. I didn't say anything, thinking about Roman and what he and my father wanted me to do.

"He'll be okay," Martin told me, patting my shoulder, mistaking my silence for worry. I just nodded in reply, my thoughts now on him and what he thought of me. We walked along for a little while in silence.

"What happened to you?!" a voice said to me in front of me. I looked up and saw Sky and Chiron standing in front of us, taking in the blood, probably Josh's, that was smeared over our clothes and hands.

"Aaliyha came across a bloody Josh in the woods and found me to help her. We took him to the infirmary," Martin explained.

"Josh?" Sky said, suddenly worried. "Okay thanks," she added hurriedly, dashing off in the direction of the infirmary. We looked after her.

"Thank you," Chiron said to us. "I'll go see if he's okay,". He trotted off in the same direction as Sky, leaving Martin and I alone again.

"Uh, so, you wanna go practice something?" Martin asked me out of the blue.

"Um, yeah, sure," I stammered. "What do you wanna do? And um, why?".

"I don't know, anything? As long as I get to hang out with-," Martin stopped himself before he could finish.

My heart fluttered again and I felt my cheeks begin to heat up.

"As long as I get to hang out with?" I pressed, internally crossing my fingers.

"As long I get to hang out with, um, you?" he finished, wincing as he waited for my reaction. I grinned, suddenly overjoyed.

"Then lets go do something," I told him. He looked back up and smiled.

"Okay,".

Flynn's POV:

I leant over Josh, who was still out like a light, and unwrapped the fourth blood soaked bandage from around his leg, dumping it in a bed beside me. Quickly wrapping a new clean cotton bandage around it, I turned my attention to his head wound, which blood was still oozing out of. Sky sat nervously by the bed where she had sat when she ran in panicking 10 minutes ago. She watched me work on Josh and gnawed at her nails. The head of the Apollo cabin, Will Solace, a older boy with blonde hair, freckles and blue eyes, walked over to me and surveyed my work.

"Flynn you need to actually stop the bleeding!" he scolded, picking up a wet towel and wiping Josh's forehead. "Or he'll lose so much he dies,". At this, Sky looked up, eyes wide.

"I've tried, the bleeding won't clot or stop!" I replied.

He leaned over and examined the cuts again, this time more carefully, even putting on gloves and testing the blood.

"Ah, that's the problem!" he said to himself as if it was obvious.

"Care to share?" I asked.

"Whatever cut him had a bleed effect, meaning some sort of spell or curse to stop blood from clotting and healing when it's sliced open," he explained to me, showing the blood sample to me. "See how thin the blood is? That's how you can tell. Luckily, we have a potion for these sorts of things. I'll be right back,".

While he was gone, I changed Josh's bandages for the fifth time, throwing away the blood soaked cotton. Will came back a minute later with a purple liquid, which I helped him trickle into Josh's mouth. Sure enough, the blood flow from the wounds started to dwindle, and when I peeled back the bandages to take a peek, a crusty scab was already starting to form around the cuts.

"Whatever hurt him must be really powerful and dangerous. That sort of weapon or magic is hard to come by," Will said to me while we cleaned the blood up. I glanced at Josh thoughtfully, thinking about who or what would've fought him. Sky sat at his bedside, hand on the bed but not quite touching his limp one.

She was weird. She'd just turned up out of nowhere, and seemed to have a strange obsession with Josh. Then again all of this was weird. I had no idea what to do or expect in this. Hades, I didn't even know I was a demigod until yesterday. It seemed like walking into that infirmary was a lifetime ago, so much had happened since then.

"Flynn? Flynn?!" Will called, bringing me out of my thoughts. "You okay?".

"Fine," I replied, my mind still else where.

"You can take a break now," Will told me. "I can take it from here. You did well with Josh,".

"Thanks Will, I'll see you tomorrow," I thanked, shouldering my pack.

I left the infirmary and thought about what I could do now. I didn't want to go back to the cabin, it would be crowded. And after today I had qualms about going to the sword fighting arena. I noticed a little shed up ahead, and walked towards it.

Opening the door, I walked in and turned on the light. All different types of metal shined back at me. It was the weapons storage. A hint of gold caught the corner of my eye. I turned towards it to see a gold crossbow, with a dolphin head as the head of the bow, as a symbol of Apollo. I picked it up and it fit in my hands as if I had held it a million times before.

Before I could even think about what I was doing, I was walking to the archery range. A quiver of gold arrows hung by my side. I set myself up in front of the furthest target, put an arrow in the slot, and took aim. The first shot was just shy of the bullseye, and I grinned, quickly putting another arrow in the slot.

I took aim again and the arrow soared through the air before sticking smack bang in the middle of the target. I pulled out arrow after arrow, aiming at different spots on the target and even the other ones at the range. I was the only one there and I felt free to let loose all my anger through firing my arrows. I took my final arrow and shot it at the target, aiming for the bullseye. It hit my second arrow and spilt the wood, lodging right into the target and buried so deep into the target the bottom of the feather was touching the canvas.

I moved into the range and pulled out all my arrows, putting them back in the quiver.

"That suits you," a voice I recognised said behind me. I turned to see a blonde tanned teenage boy leaning against one of the targets. "You should keep that,".

"I think I will," I replied, eyeing him suspiciously. He grinned and his teeth were so white I was almost blinded. That's when I realised who he was. "You're Apollo, aren't you? I wondered where I recognised your voice,".

"That's me!" he said, holding his arms out as if he was a god, which of course, he was. "Now I shall perform a haiku for you;

You shoot really well,

I've graced you with my presence,

I'm the best god ever!

What do you think?!".

"The last one was six syllables," I pointed out. He waved his hand dismissively, as if it didn't matter.

"Anyway, be grateful dude, that I have graced you with my ultimate godly presence," he told me.

"Uh thank you?" I almost asked.

"You're welcome!" he said sincerely. "Now, it's getting late. Go to bed and don't ever say I didn't look after you, kay?".

With that, he turned away and disappeared behind the target, the only evidence that he had been there was gold dust.

I walked back to my cabin and settled down to have a quick nap before dinner.

Zeb's POV:

After the training session I went back to the cabin and went down to the forges underground. Nyssa and Harley both were down there, along with Jake, and they were all working on one large automaton. It was a centaur, tall and regal, but they'd been struggling on perfecting the face ever since I'd gotten here yesterday.

Nyssa was up on a ladder near the shoulders with a welding torch, while Jake stabled the ladder from underneath. Harley sat at a nearby workshop, working on three different face moulds at once, trying to perfect certain facial features.

"Hey Zeb!" Nyssa yelled down to me when I walked in. "What do you think?!".

"It looks great Nyssa!" I replied, shouting up. Harley let out a frustrated screech and picked up one of the heads, who had a misshapen nose. He flung the head over his shoulder, frustrated. It flew through the air and hit the wall behind me, clattering to the ground.

"Woah, Harley, calm down mate!" Jake said, leaving the ladder to take the remaining heads away from Harley. His shirt caught the ladder and it began to sway. Nyssa clutched the ladder, making it sway even more. She started to top backwards.

"Jake!" I yelled. He turned as Nyssa fell and held his arms out. She fell right into them and he caught her, setting her down.

"Thanks Jake!" she said brightly, climbing up the ladder again.

I shook my head, smiling a little. My siblings acted as if falling from a ladder was a normal everyday thing. I walked over to Harley, surveying the heads he was working on.

"They look good buddy!" I praised.

"They are flawed, the metal keeps clumping before it sets," he grumbled. "They need to be perfect,".

"Why are there copper flakes in among the bronze then?" I asked, looking at the melted mixture.

"Don't be ridiculous Zeb," Jake said, overhearing. "Why would we do that? Copper flakes would make the melted bronze clump....". He trailed of towards the end and ran towards the mixture. "That's what we were doing wrong!"

"Idiotas!" Nyssa yelled before she facepalmed, and helped Jake pour out the mixture.

"I'll leave you guys to finish that," I told them, picking up the sword that Grace fitted me out with earlier. It didn't feel right whatsoever, and I felt completely stupid fighting with a sword. I didn't wanna muck up in front of everyone though, so I had to practice. "I'm gonna go to the sword fighting arena and train,".

"Okay, bye!" Jake waved after me.

"Have fun!" Nyssa added, and they all turned back to the smelding pot.

I walked through the camp, hoping the arena was empty. No such luck.

I heard her before I saw her, and walked into the arena to see Grace massacring a dummy. Her blonde hair was tied back and loose strands fell in her face. She brushed them away impatiently. Her grey eyes were dark and stormy with determination and focus. Her eyes flicked towards me before flicking back to the dummy and landing the final blow, stabbing it right through where the heart would be on a real opponent. Fluff spilled out and she pulled her sword out, placing it next to the dummy.

"Hi," she called out to me.

"Hey," I tried to say coolly, as if I hadn't just been watching her for that last minute or so.

"Watcha doing here? You have a question for me?" she asked, suddenly concerned.

"Uh, I'm fine actually. I just came here to do a little more practice with a sword. I need to get better, right?" I explained. She nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll watch you, give you pointers," she offered. I was glad she said that instead of telling me some stupid 'you just have to practice' cliche.

"Thanks,". I positioned myself in front of the dummy with a sword, and began to fake thrust, parry and block.

"Stop," she said, walking over to me. "I know what the problem is,".

"What problem?" I asked, concerned for myself.

"Why you don't feel comfortable with a sword? How it doesn't feel right to fight with?" she pressed.

"How'd you know?".

"I feel the same way. With swords I mean," she explained.

"What?! How?!" I asked, shocked.

"They don't suit me," she replied, shrugging her shoulders.

"So what did you do?" I asked her.

"I found a different weapon," she answered smiling. "Come with me,".

I followed her up the hill to a shed, filled with all sorts of weapons.

"You're sure to find the right weapon here," Grace told me. We tried out all sorts of weapons from knives and spears to maces and guns. Just when we were about to give up, Grace found something weird from the very very back of the shed. "What on Earth?!". She tugged on whatever it was, and it released randomly. She fell back from the momentum and toppled back, pulling the mysterious weapon with her. She fell back into me and I fell down too. We ended up in a tangled pile of arms and legs. We both untangled ourselves and lay on the ground for a second winded. Then we cracked up, laughing.

"Sorry," Grace said, sitting up.

"All good," I reassured, standing up. I offered her my hand and she took it, pulling herself up.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"All good," I reassured again, then mentally scolded myself when I realised I'd repeated myself.

She chuckled, then turned her attention to the weapon that she had pulled out.

"Is that a sledge hammer?!" she laughed. "Makes sense,".

I took the sledge hammer from her grasp, and held it in my hands, brandishing it like a weapon.

"Don't hold it like that, you'll injure your wrists," Grace said. "Hold here, and here,". She adjusted my hands to the safe position. I was just a little taller than her so I looked down at her awkwardly while she repositioned my hands. Then she looked up at me, noticed I was looking, and stepped back. I probably imagined it, but it seemed like her hands lingered on mine for longer that was normal.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"It's okay," I replied back quietly. There was a long awkward pose which she cleared her throat to break.

"Give it a swing," she told me. We walked outside the shed and I swung the sledge hammer, almost hitting her. She jumped back just in time.

"Oh yeah, that's definitely the right weapon for you," she confirmed, smiling.

I smiled back at her and swung the sledge hammer again, this time automatically uppercutting straight after.

"Yeah, I agree," I replied, resting on my leg. "Thanks Grace,".

"No problem," she said, still smiling at me.

"So what's your weapon?" I asked, scanning her hands or belt.

"Two twin daggers," she replied. "Watch,". She reached up and tugged on one of her earrings, which was shaped as a dagger. It detached from the stud and transformed into an actual dagger, which she held out to me.

"That's so cool!" I exclaimed. She laughed.

"Courtesy of my mother, Athena,".

"How do you put them back?" I asked.

"You just touch the end of the hilt to the stud, like this," Grace replied. She touched the hilt to her stud and it transformed back into the earring.

"That's convenient," I commented.

"Yeah," she replied. "So what are you gonna do now?".

"I don't know, walk around for a bit?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Mind if I join you? I'm done with training for the day," she asked. "I know all the best spots here,".

"Sure!" I answered, trying not to sound too excited.