craving |PERCY JACKSON| [book 1] UNDER EDITING

VIII

AT LAST, IT WAS TIME FOR capture the flag. 

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and everyone all stood at their tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth, Malcolm, and Josh ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse, Sherman, and Mark ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Percy turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah. "

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do, repaint the flag?" Percy asked,

He grinned. "You'll see. First, we have to get one. "

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave Percy a sly look as if he knew something he didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded, shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities, in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else; Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what Percy had seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.

Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive.

Aphrodite's sons and daughters no one was too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.

Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.

That, of course, left Ares's cabin; a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment; helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.