When Sun Meets the Sea ~ PJO 1

~06~

       ~Andie's POV

        It was a warm, sticky day. Andie's hair stuck to her from sweat so she pulled it into a ponytail, letting some curls fall to frame her face. The woods were full and crowded with leaves and Andie sat in a tree from high above, an arrow notched in her bow. This always happened with Capture the Flag, Andie was the sniper- as Luke loved to call her- and she was a perfect shot.

        Annabeth had stationed Percy next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, and then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees. From the top of her tree, Andie could see Percy as he stood there looking very bored. Annabeth had also told her to stay in the trees near Percy since she knew some Ares kids would go there and they would just love to hurt him. Andie understood immediately, and now she'd jump from tree to tree every so often so that she could get a new line of sight.

        Far away, the conch horn blew. Andie heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. She smiled as a blue-plumed ally from Apollo-Michael Yew to be exact- raced past her tree like a deer.

        Andie saw some Ares kids coming, she pulled her arrow back and waited. She knew that Chiron would kill her if she got them all so, she was only going to go for one and then jump down and fight with her sword. When the kids were close enough, she saw that Clarisse was leading them and she huffed. The joy she'd feel to strike Clarisse down would but amazing, but Chiron would immediately know it was her and she'd lose dessert privileges for a week.

        She took a deep breath, counting down the seconds until she could let her arrow go and once Clarisse was past her tree, she aimed at the kid in the far back and hit his exposed arm. She laughed and quickly made her bow back into her bracelet and her quiver back into her necklace before jumping down from the tree and unsheathing her sword.

        Apparently, there had been more Ares kids than she thought because half of them had been long gone with Clarisse and a few more were approaching her. Andie smirked and rolled her shoulders, beginning her fight.

        She struck the first Ares kid by surprise, disarming him immediately and throwing his sword to Annabeth who had shown up out of nowhere to help. The two girls smiled at each other before getting serious again, standing back-to-back as they found the other Ares kids.

        It was like a blur, there were sounds of metal hitting metal, slicing on legs and arms, and lots of screams of rage from the Ares kids. Finally, Andie had managed to disarm two of the Ares kids and knock out the other, and she stood, panting heavily. She looked around for Annabeth, but she had seemed to have disappeared but before she could call out for her there was yelling from the distance that was coming closer. 

        Elated screams sounded just as Andie saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. Andie whooped with joy and took off, chasing after Luke in victory and ignoring her wounds from her previous battle.

        Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. The winning side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

        The game was over. They'd won.

        Andie smiled and made her way toward Percy, which he noticed, and he smiled. She noticed he had a few scraps and cuts on him, and she cocked her head to the side.