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chapter three. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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LISTEN, I'M NOT SAYING there's favoritism when it comes to alliances for capture the flag, but it's definitely no coincidence that Athena has teamed up with Apollo for the past three years. Annabeth has always, always wanted me on her side, and it was no surprise to anybody when the teams were announced.
Athena, teamed with Hermes and Apollo, would be sporting the blue-plumed helmets, and Ares, teamed with literally everybody else, would be rocking the red.
I never liked these stupid helmets, for the record. I always thought they're flashy. I mean, in a real fight, couldn't your opponent just.. grab the horsehair plum on top and rip the whole helmet off your head? And it's not like they're there for aesthetic purposes, because those things are uglier than Hades's big toe.
But I digress, and reluctantly find myself wearing one of these ugly helmets. I, along with all of my campmates, surrounded the table full of weapons. By the time I made it to the front of the crowd, though, it was slim pickings: A flimsy shield, a sword, and a bow with a few arrows. I obviously picked the bow, seeing as my father's specialty happened to be just the thing.
Using a dagger may be my signature skill, but I've always wished we're allowed to use bows and arrows for staple weapons. When I asked Chiron to permit it, he simply said he thought it would do us no good in a hand-to-hand combat zone.
Which, okay. Valid.
Nevertheless, I grabbed the bow and slung the satchel of arrows over my shoulder.
"Woah," came a voice from my left, and I turned to see Percy, also topped with a blue mohawk hat. "We're really supposed to use these?"
"Unless you want to get skewered by your pals in Ares," I said, shrugging. "Though I guess they would be doing a favor for us all."
He narrowed his eyes and was going to quip back, but Annabeth suddenly cried, "Blue team, forward!" and we were off.
I could hear the red team jeering at us as we sprinted to hide our flag, but I couldn't have given less of a damn. I was basically in my element; bow in hand, siblings by my side, the sun shining down. Obviously, Dad wanted to watch his own cabin win. It was the only time he paid us any attention.
"You've got a strategy, I'm sure?" I asked Annabeth, once the team had mostly dispersed to their assigned positions. She gave me a sideways stormy glance and I immediately threw my hands up. "Gods, look who I'm asking. Of course you have a strategy. I'll head down to the arena, check out around there—"
