The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 5: Alec Finally Arrives

For the next couple hours, I took turns sparring with Darius and Damien, while Brady worked mostly with Layna. Because she was an archer, Hannah chose to simply sit back and watch the rest of us run the exercises over and over again. If I had been her, I would have been pretty bored, but Hannah seemed to enjoy relaxing for a while and laughing playfully whenever one of the twins or I made a mistake. It's safe to say that battling gladiator-style is harder than it looks.

When the sun started to set, the six of us agreed to stop practicing for the night, and Brady, Layna and I headed back to the armory to put our weapons away. However, the underage twins had to wait until everyone else had cleared out of the old shed in order to return their weapons, since they would have gotten in a huge amount of trouble if they had been found training. We still had dinner together, though, and we purposely sat as far away from Jason and Layna and Brady as possible. After dinner, many of the people stayed in the mess hall to discuss plans for Alec's upcoming birthday party, but because Jason was in charge of the meeting, the twins, Hannah and I decided to go to bed early.

.

The next morning was a slow and sad one. The entire camp met for a quiet breakfast in the mess hall before splitting up to do different jobs, though Pericles's funeral, which was to be held in the afternoon, was at the back of everyone's minds. Although Pericles had been buried almost immediately in order to prevent the foul stench of death from spreading and the body from becoming bloated, we still had to give the brave Warrior a proper burial ceremony. Not to mention the party in memory of him that would wrap up the day.

Again, Jason selected a group of experienced Warriors to go hunt down the minotaur, after he revealed to the rest of the camp that it had been spotted wandering about the hills the night before. Once Jason was finished with his announcements, the Knowing teens, including me, helped out the women in setting up the funeral venue, instead of sitting in on a lecture. There wasn't much to set up, however. We would have planted flowers, but there were no flowers around for miles, and no one was willing to trek into the nearest town with the minotaur still on the loose. We would have brought chairs from the mess hall, but the ceremony wasn't expected to be very long and people would have no trouble standing.

After lunch, Jason led the procession of people wearing all black in a long line towards the cemetery. As the leader, he was the first to say a few words about the Warrior, followed by a couple members of Pericles's family. They all said pretty much the same thing: he was a great Warrior, a wonderful son, and a proud member of the Knowing. All true, but after a full two hours of gushing endless compliments about Pericles, I was ready for the party, even if it was going to be relatively small.

Sure enough, the so-called party was really only the regular buffet with slightly fancier options and more wine than normal. It was really more of a socializing event for the adults, the Warriors in particular. As I had been doing for the past few days, I stuck in a group with Hannah, the twins, and a few other young Warriors in training, while Brady hung out with his usual posse, who made sure everyone in the mess hall saw them flirting with Layna. This was actually a good thing, though, because it meant that they weren't picking on the more helpless kids. And yes, I caught Layna's gaze more than a few times, but neither one of us made a move to meet in the middle. Which was completely fine with me. Meanwhile, Damien, Darius, Hannah and I were preoccupied with ducking behind people and hiding under tables to avoid Jason, who seemed to be searching for me, if not all of us, for much of the party. He had yet to find the time to hand out our punishments for disobeying his orders. Also completely fine with me.

That night, however, I didn't get a wink of sleep. Neither did the twins. What was keeping us up? Just the fact that Alec would be arriving the next day, of course. If we found a way to make friends with the hero, we would be free from the terrible punishments we so deserved. But there was always that if. Alec had never been very friendly, and becoming a hero seemed to make him even less so. As I said before, Layna, who was new to the Knowing and who had a clean slate, had a much better shot at becoming his friend than did the twins, Hannah, and I.