Demigods

Killing Dummies

Devin
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‘No way’ I thought as I swung my sword at another practice dummy. There was no way in the Underworld that I was going to let Mana go on the quest. Not with two rookies that I wasn’t even sure we could trust. Seeing them in training didn’t help. The Aphrodite kid was quick with a dagger but not very strong with it. The Poseidon kid almost dropped her dagger on her foot.

Mana had done her best to get them prepared. I was in charge of teaching them how to use their weapons. My sister tried to help them get muscled by wrestling and arm workouts. Mattias made them run until they dropped and Mana helped them figure out how to work their powers.

Aisha was just kind of everyone’s helper. She convinced us to give the girls breaks when she thought they needed them, and she did her best to keep their spirits high. It worked for the most part. Aisha has that effect on people.

Still, I knew it wasn’t enough. Mana isn’t stupid, she knew it too. But she refused to back down. Stubborn girl. Lex and I tried every night to talk her out of it. I was certain Mattias was trying too. He was worried, and if Mattias gets worried about Mana, you know something is wrong.

When she wasn’t helping train the girls, Mana and Mattias trained together, or she would ask me to help her. I’m a bit stronger than her but she is faster. It makes interesting fights. I also noticed her practicing with her bow a lot, even though she didn’t need to. Her aim is dead on.

During the trainees rest time, I loved bothering both of them. Annoying people brings me joy.

But during all of this, I was thinking ‘Mana is not going on the quest by herself.’ I didn’t trust the rookies to watch her back and I certainly didn’t trust the situation they were in.

If I’m being honest, I was also dying to go on a quest. Mana had been on two. Her first one, everyone at camp knows about. Some big quest that her and Mattias had gone on to save the world. That had been at the beginning of my second year at camp. Then last year Mana went on some quest for her father. Mattias had been on one. Tons of kids from camp had done stuff for their parents. Lex and I had prayed, yelled and cursed at our father, telling him to give one or both of us a quest, but to no avail.

It was infuriating. I was one of the strongest at camp. I was one of the oldest, even older than Mana and Mattias. In fact, one thing that I found super annoying was that Mana was seen as one of the oldest even more than me, and she was the youngest in our little group.

The youngest. Another reason why she wasn’t going by herself. No one was allowed to mess with my friends but me. And my other friends. Seeing that phoenix attack had freaked me out more than I like to admit. Monsters like that shouldn’t be able to get into camp, and that thing had targeted Mana, no question about it. Whoever sent that after her was going to pay.

Lex would agree. I know she would. She’s super protective. Maybe that’s an older sibling thing. Same with Mattias. As strange as it seems, seeing the way they act around each other, he is really protective of Mana. Again, probably older sibling thing. They aren’t blood related but they sure act like it.

Aisha would probably be willing to help. She isn’t usually so ready to do dangerously stupid things like the rest of us, but she would want to help.

I stopped attacking dummies for a minute to catch my breath. I had been so preoccupied in my thoughts that I hadn’t even realized I had destroyed half of them already. Oops.

Putting my sword away (an imperial gold sword. Mana says celestial bronze is rarer but mine looks cooler than hers) I walked towards the Ares/Mars cabin. Our cabin is one of the biggest, which is super annoying. Luckily, being a cabin leader has its perks. Both my sister and I get actual beds while a few kids sleep on the floor. Suckers. I sometimes get jealous of Aisha, Mana and Glynn. There were five Zeus/Jupiter kids, four Poseidon kids (no romans there) and Mana was the only one in her cabin. Apparently the big three still were a bit wary on having kids. They barely have to share any of their cabin space.

Lex was fixing the décor on our doorway. It used to look sloppy, but both of us have a gift at art, so when we became cabin leaders we changed that.

“What’s up?” she asked, not even bothering to look at me.

“How do you feel about going on a quest?”

That got her attention. She climbed down so that we were eye to eye. “You already know how I feel. Why? Dad appear to you in a dream or something?”

“No. I don’t think we should let Mana go on that quest. Not by herself. If whoever is behind this has phoenixes up their sleeve, I don’t even want to know what else they have under their control.”

“She isn’t going by herself. JJ and Glynn are going. Or did you forget the eight days of hard-core training we’ve put them through?”

I rolled my eyes. “Do either of them look like they could take something as bad as a phoenix? JJ can sometimes control people with her charm speak and Glynn has only just gotten to the point where she can hold a dagger and stab in the right direction. Not with any force, but not stabbing herself either.”

Lex nodded. “I see your point.”

“So here’s what I think; we go with her. She doesn’t have to know we are. But you, me, Mattias, Aisha, we go too.”

“Think Mattias and Aisha will be up for it?”

“Mattias, yeah. He wouldn’t let anything hurt Mana. That’s his job. And Aisha seems close to all three of them. I doubt she would want to stay behind.”

“Hey, you know I’m game, but there is the slight problem of actually leaving.”

“Yeah, I know. Maybe Mattias has an idea. He knows this camp better than either of us.”

“True. But don’t…”

“…tell him that. I know.”

Before either of us could say anything else, I heard shouts coming from the top of the hill, where Thalia’s tree was (Long story. Basically it’s the tree that sits at the entrance to Camp Half-Blood). One of the scouts was pointing. We both started running towards him. Mattias reached there first, closely followed by Mana. Glynn and JJ were a few seconds behind her, with Aisha arriving at about the same time we did.

“…back,” the scout was telling Mattias.

“What? I think I missed something,” Aisha said.

Mattias turned to her. “Chiron is back.”

Sure enough, the centaur soon became visible. He trotted over to where the crowd was. “Greetings, half-bloods. I have returned.”

“Yeah, we see that. How’d it go?” Mana asked.

“It went well. My kin were enjoying the roman wine a bit too much I’m afraid, But it was dealt with. Besides, it was nice to go there and see some of the old campers.”

“Chiron, we have two new campers,” Lex announced. JJ and Glynn pushed forward.

“I’m JJ.”

“Glynn.”

Everyone was silent for a few moments. Then Mana smacked her head and muttered, “Aphrodite and Poseidon.”

“Ah. Welcome to camp. I trust Mana made you feel welcome and didn’t scare you off.”

“Not yet anyway. Mr. Chiron, we have important stuff to talk about,” Glynn said.

JJ made a face. “Important stuff? Really?”

Glynn shrugged and kept her attention on Chiron.

“Of course. Always something now, isn’t there? Come, we shall discuss these matters in the Big House.”

“I’ll come with you. Everyone else, go on with your activities,” Mana said. She looked at my sister, me, Aisha and Mattias. “Everyone.”

Normally I’d be mad. I would refuse to listen unless Chiron told me otherwise. But not this time. I had matters of my own to discuss.