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The next day, Elaine found herself in an orange t-shirt with the camp logo on it and busy with brothers trying to show her different activities.
They took her all around camp, beginning with the stables and ending with a trip to an indoor arena that resembled a high school gymnasium, to try her hand at sword fighting.
It wasn't a strength most Apollo children posessed, but they figured it couldn't hurt.
"So, which one of you is going to show me what to do with this?" Elaine asked, gesturing to the celestial bronze sword in her right hand.
Austin laughed. "Are you kidding? None of us know how to use that thing. Someone else will be teaching you. We're going to archery."
"Who?" She asked.
"Me." A voice said.
Percy entered the arena holding a ballpoint pen in his right hand and approached Elaine. Her brothers gave her looks that said, good luck, you're going to need it.
"You?" She asked, curiously eyeing the pen in his hand.
"Unless you know another swordsman." He said, making a show of looking around the empty gym.
"It's not that. It's just ... you're what, thirteen? I—"
"Fourteen."
"Whatever. I just meant, shouldn't there be an adult to teach me something like this?" She asked.
"Desperate times. Plus, I'm the only one who's going to go easy on you." He said.
"I don't want easy. I want to learn." She said determinedly.
Percy laughed, his stormy eyes lighting up with excitement.
"Let's just run through a few sequences before you try to skewer me." He suggested.
He uncapped his pen and Elaine watched as it grew in his hand into a three foot long sword, the same one she saw him use at Westover Hall. That was just two days ago, she thought.
She'd been wanting to talk to him and Thalia about Annabeth, and the dream she'd had of her the previous night, looking ragged and scared, but she didn't know what the dream meant, let alone how to tell them.
He led her through motions that she caught onto quickly, and showed her tricks that he'd developed with his fighting style. As they continued, Elaine noticed that watching Percy move with his sword was like watching a really violent dance.
At first glance, Percy looked like an awkward teenage boy, and often times, he acted like one. But when he slashed empty air with his sword, he looked almost graceful.
"You're pretty good at this. You sure you're an archer?" He asked as he watched her finish a move he'd demonstrated. She chuckled. "Trust me, I'd feel a lot better with a bow in my hands right now."
