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PJatO - Chapter 9: Kaya
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Literature Text
Breathe
I break into a run.
The Hermes banner, all bright white silk bearing a caduceus picked out in emerald thread, seems to glow in the dying sun as it billows behind me. I burst into the dinner pavilion at the same moment as my sister and the pavilion explodes into cheers.
Lena's banner is bronze silk with a bright red hammer emblazoned across it. They've done something to the cloth so that it looks like rippling bronze scales, and the hammer appears to glow the cherry red of well-heated iron. Trust Lena to show off.
Over the past week, I've secured the assistance of Hera, Apollo, Dionysus, and Nike, but Lena's also been busy. Somehow, she's cobbled together some sort of truce between Ares and Athena, which is impressive given that those two cabins don't normally get along. She's also made pacts with Demeter, Aphrodite, and the remaining gods, but that's only fair since the Hermes and Apollo cabins are the largest here at camp. The numbers balance out this way.
In terms of raw ability, I think we're pretty evenly matched. I spare some worry at the thought of having to face Athena's children, since the lot of them are incredibly smart and well versed in battle strategy, but the fact of the matter is that you can't beat Hermes for overall cleverness. We're quick thinkers, and we're marvelously unpredictable, which will hopefully foul up even Athena's best-laid plans.
Lena and I like to experiment with different combinations of cabins, so alliances are always shifting. We've both won our fair share of games, and our sibling rivalry adds a unique flavor to the competition. I guess that's why the other cabins are happy to let us lead the teams. There's also quite a bit of clandestine betting that goes on among the campers. Lena's current line-up has the odds at three to one against me, but I'm not particularly concerned with their lack of faith. If the enemy is complacent, then so much the better.
Chiron announces the official teams, and our allies rally behind us like two small armies. I grin wolfishly at Lena as we face each other, and she offers a cool smile of her own. My twin has always been a bit more reserved than me. I guess that's why different gods have chosen to be our patrons.
"Heroes!" Chiron calls over the general din, stamping his hooves against the marble so as to get everybody's attention. His words have a ritualistic air to them, as if he's been saying them for years, which I'm pretty sure he has. The cadence of familiar words calms me, primes me for battle.
"By now, you should all know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. Each team's flag must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. All magic items are allowed, but there is to be no killing or maiming. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Now choose your weapons and take the field!"
At that, the tables, which have been cleared of food, fill with weapons and armor of all shapes, sizes, and styles. I'm already wearing a pair of winged sandals, a gift from Hermes. They won't let me fly, but I can hover a few feet from the ground, and I'm much more agile in them. The added height is a particular advantage in combat.
I move along a line of helmets and choose one that looks like it'll fit. I then don greaves and a breastplate and belt on a bronze sword with a leaf-shaped blade. I don't give the shields much consideration, since they're heavy, cumbersome things, and I expect to move quickly.
"Your armor's crooked,"
I turn to find Lena behind me, similarly arrayed, but with a shield and spear, her particular weapon of choice. Her armor, a gift from Hephaestus, is bronze scale mail that shifts and moves as she does, affording her a much wider range of movement.
She slings the shield across her back, a practiced move that takes much more muscle than I have, probably from working in the forge so often, and fixes the straps on my armor.
"Thanks, L," I twist and bend a little, making sure the fit is true.
"I can't have my baby sister getting impaled 'cause she can't be bothered to wear her armor properly," she teases.
"Aw, come on," I groan. "Baby sister? I was born three minutes after you!"
"Yeah, yeah," She leans on the haft of her spear. "Ready to be beaten?"
"Not hardly," I snort. "I've got this in the bag,"
"Have you, now?" Her gaze roams, settling on a point over my shoulder. I turn and see that she's staring pointedly at a camper choosing armor.
It's Keenan, and of course Rhea's with her. They've been trying on different helmets, and Keenan's hair is sticking up in about twenty different directions. As we watch, they finally settle on one that seems to fit. Rhea checks the rest of Keenan's armor before attending to her own. Keenan says something that makes Rhea laugh.
"She's not dead weight," I say. I feel like I'm being played. Does Lena want me preoccupied by her apparent interest in the new kid?
"Oh, I'm sure she's not," Lena must know how fake that sounds. But the smile she gives me is real, and she claps me playfully on the arm. "This is gonna be fun. See you after the match,"
She disappears into the crowd, leaving me wondering if I should rethink my strategy.
"Blue team, to me!" I shout, and a sea of campers swarms towards me, decked out in helmets with blue horsehair plumes. Together, we head for our end of the field, banging spears and swords on shields and generally making enough noise to wake the dead.
The red team follows suit, heading to their end of the field with as much cheering and whooping as they can muster.
Sometimes it's a wonder mortals don't notice us.
I lead my team into the shadow of Zeus's Fist, a towering pile of rocks that a more irreverent camper might think looks like a pile of deer poop.
And I am a most irreverent camper.
In years past, the Fist was one of the best places to plant the flag, since the smooth-sided rocks are difficult to climb and it gives defenders a wide view of the forest below. Now, there's something that feels inherently wrong about the place, even poisonous. It's said that a powerful monster was killed here not too long ago and that her essence has sunk into the earth, tainting it. I don't doubt it for a minute.
When I first started to play capture the flag, I'd given the place a wide berth, but now I'm using it to my advantage. The moon is waxing nearly full, so the Fist casts a great shadow. The darkness isn't deep enough to hide our glistening banner, but a skilled defender standing perfectly still could all but disappear into the gathering gloom.
I'm also hoping that Lena's team will have a harder time finding our flag since she might not expect me to go near Zeus's Fist, but I don't count on it. We are twins, after all, and we're almost always on the same wavelength.
"Right," I don't have to speak loudly. I can feel the nervous excitement in the air, but everybody's waiting for my instructions. They've been well trained. "We're planting our flag in the shadow of the Fist. Rhea and Mark will be on defense—"
"What?" Rhea interrupts, which isn't like her. Defense is her usual position, since her sling is an excellent ranged weapon. She can take out a whole attacking force with deadly accuracy.
"You're on defense. You and Mark are our best marksmen," I say slowly, wondering what the problem is. Rhea's usually on my team. She's like a strong right hand. I don't usually worry about our flag when she's guarding it.
"What about Keenan?"
I look to the small shadow at her side. Keenan ducks her head and looks for all the world as if she's trying to blend in with the scenery.
"What about her?" I want to know. We aren't given that much time to strategize before the start of the match.
"She should be with me," Rhea sounds very authoritative, and that rubs me the wrong way. We've always been very close, she and I. She should know that by arguing, she's undermining my leadership.
"She doesn't know how to handle a bow," I point out. "She's not right for the position,"
"Then where do you plan to put her?"
"With me," I say, as if I've planned it all along. Actually, it's a snap decision, but I could turn this into an advantage. "Right, Keenan?"
I'm hoping she plays along. I feel kind of bad for speaking about her like she's not there. And anyway, if she agrees to it, there's a lot less Rhea can do about it. I respect Rhea a lot, but she's weirdly blind where Keenan's concerned. Usually she has better judgement.
"Yeah," Keenan says brightly, probably hoping to diffuse the situation. "Kaya said I might get good combat experience this way,"
Rhea's lips become a thin line of disapproval, but I hurry to give orders to the rest of the team before she can voice any more objections.
The bulk of my force is on defense. I scatter them through the trees in pairs; with a ring of my half-siblings about fifty yards from the flag. It's too far away to count as guarding, but it's well within the range of Rhea's sling and Mark's bow. They'll act like a buffer, another line of defense if the enemy gets past the sentries. They can also haul campers off to jail once they've been stunned by a bullet or an arrow.
I make the Dionysus kids the jail wardens, since their dad, along with being the god of wine, also presides over the realm of madness. They know not to go too far with the prisoners, but this way, even if they're freed by their teammates, they won't be in any shape to continue fighting.
There are three children of Nike and they're all lean and athletic. They'll make up one squad that goes after the flag. Yuri, Ana, and now Keenan are with me as the second squad. I've chosen Yuri, another child of Hermes, because he's fast and deadly with a pair of long knives. Ana, a daughter of Apollo, is just as fast with a bow, so she can cover our retreat.
Keenan's a wild card, but I can't very well leave her behind now. I don't know her well, but she's a pretty smart kid, so we should be okay.
Rhea grabs my arm as I turn to go.
"I don't think this is a good idea,"
The rest of the team is more or less out of earshot, and I can see that my squad's waiting for me. Yuri's showing Keenan a new move for her kopis while Ana calmly counts her arrows.
"Really? 'Cause it seems like an excellent plan to me," It comes out sharper than I would have liked, but honestly, I'm a little ticked off. "She's a good fighter. Heck, you trained her,"
"She hasn't been in battle yet,"
"No time like the present, don't you think?" I pull away. "I'll bring her back in one piece. Promise,"
"Do you?" Her gaze is intense. "Promise?"
"I swear, " I soften. She really is worried, and I don't know why. "I won't let her get hurt,"
That seems to mollify her, but I feel her eyes on me as I walk away.
"So," I say brightly as I approach my three teammates. "Ready to capture a flag?"
"Oh, hell yes," Yuri smirks.
"Ready when you are," Ana affirms, shouldering her quiver.
Keenan nods a beat after the other two. I give her an appraising look. Rhea's armed her well, but her shield's going to get in the way, and we need to travel light.
"Okay, kid, lose the shield," I say, rapping a knuckle against the burnished bronze. "We need to move quickly, and that's just gonna get in your way,"
She shucks the shield with no hesitation. I get the impression that she might have been uncomfortable with it, anyway. From what I've seen, she's trained with a sword and wouldn't know how to incorporate a shield into her fighting, anyway.
"Right, this is a quick in-and-out job. We're gone before they know what's hit them. I'll take point, Yuri left wing, Keenan right, and, Ana, you're rearguard. Questions?"
All three shake their heads and then the conch sounds, hollow and distant, signaling the start of the match.
Let the games begin, I think as the four of us plunge into the forest.
I break into a run.
The Hermes banner, all bright white silk bearing a caduceus picked out in emerald thread, seems to glow in the dying sun as it billows behind me. I burst into the dinner pavilion at the same moment as my sister and the pavilion explodes into cheers.
Lena's banner is bronze silk with a bright red hammer emblazoned across it. They've done something to the cloth so that it looks like rippling bronze scales, and the hammer appears to glow the cherry red of well-heated iron. Trust Lena to show off.
Over the past week, I've secured the assistance of Hera, Apollo, Dionysus, and Nike, but Lena's also been busy. Somehow, she's cobbled together some sort of truce between Ares and Athena, which is impressive given that those two cabins don't normally get along. She's also made pacts with Demeter, Aphrodite, and the remaining gods, but that's only fair since the Hermes and Apollo cabins are the largest here at camp. The numbers balance out this way.
In terms of raw ability, I think we're pretty evenly matched. I spare some worry at the thought of having to face Athena's children, since the lot of them are incredibly smart and well versed in battle strategy, but the fact of the matter is that you can't beat Hermes for overall cleverness. We're quick thinkers, and we're marvelously unpredictable, which will hopefully foul up even Athena's best-laid plans.
Lena and I like to experiment with different combinations of cabins, so alliances are always shifting. We've both won our fair share of games, and our sibling rivalry adds a unique flavor to the competition. I guess that's why the other cabins are happy to let us lead the teams. There's also quite a bit of clandestine betting that goes on among the campers. Lena's current line-up has the odds at three to one against me, but I'm not particularly concerned with their lack of faith. If the enemy is complacent, then so much the better.
Chiron announces the official teams, and our allies rally behind us like two small armies. I grin wolfishly at Lena as we face each other, and she offers a cool smile of her own. My twin has always been a bit more reserved than me. I guess that's why different gods have chosen to be our patrons.
"Heroes!" Chiron calls over the general din, stamping his hooves against the marble so as to get everybody's attention. His words have a ritualistic air to them, as if he's been saying them for years, which I'm pretty sure he has. The cadence of familiar words calms me, primes me for battle.
"By now, you should all know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. Each team's flag must be prominently displayed and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. All magic items are allowed, but there is to be no killing or maiming. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Now choose your weapons and take the field!"
At that, the tables, which have been cleared of food, fill with weapons and armor of all shapes, sizes, and styles. I'm already wearing a pair of winged sandals, a gift from Hermes. They won't let me fly, but I can hover a few feet from the ground, and I'm much more agile in them. The added height is a particular advantage in combat.
I move along a line of helmets and choose one that looks like it'll fit. I then don greaves and a breastplate and belt on a bronze sword with a leaf-shaped blade. I don't give the shields much consideration, since they're heavy, cumbersome things, and I expect to move quickly.
"Your armor's crooked,"
I turn to find Lena behind me, similarly arrayed, but with a shield and spear, her particular weapon of choice. Her armor, a gift from Hephaestus, is bronze scale mail that shifts and moves as she does, affording her a much wider range of movement.
She slings the shield across her back, a practiced move that takes much more muscle than I have, probably from working in the forge so often, and fixes the straps on my armor.
"Thanks, L," I twist and bend a little, making sure the fit is true.
"I can't have my baby sister getting impaled 'cause she can't be bothered to wear her armor properly," she teases.
"Aw, come on," I groan. "Baby sister? I was born three minutes after you!"
"Yeah, yeah," She leans on the haft of her spear. "Ready to be beaten?"
"Not hardly," I snort. "I've got this in the bag,"
"Have you, now?" Her gaze roams, settling on a point over my shoulder. I turn and see that she's staring pointedly at a camper choosing armor.
It's Keenan, and of course Rhea's with her. They've been trying on different helmets, and Keenan's hair is sticking up in about twenty different directions. As we watch, they finally settle on one that seems to fit. Rhea checks the rest of Keenan's armor before attending to her own. Keenan says something that makes Rhea laugh.
"She's not dead weight," I say. I feel like I'm being played. Does Lena want me preoccupied by her apparent interest in the new kid?
"Oh, I'm sure she's not," Lena must know how fake that sounds. But the smile she gives me is real, and she claps me playfully on the arm. "This is gonna be fun. See you after the match,"
She disappears into the crowd, leaving me wondering if I should rethink my strategy.
"Blue team, to me!" I shout, and a sea of campers swarms towards me, decked out in helmets with blue horsehair plumes. Together, we head for our end of the field, banging spears and swords on shields and generally making enough noise to wake the dead.
The red team follows suit, heading to their end of the field with as much cheering and whooping as they can muster.
Sometimes it's a wonder mortals don't notice us.
I lead my team into the shadow of Zeus's Fist, a towering pile of rocks that a more irreverent camper might think looks like a pile of deer poop.
And I am a most irreverent camper.
In years past, the Fist was one of the best places to plant the flag, since the smooth-sided rocks are difficult to climb and it gives defenders a wide view of the forest below. Now, there's something that feels inherently wrong about the place, even poisonous. It's said that a powerful monster was killed here not too long ago and that her essence has sunk into the earth, tainting it. I don't doubt it for a minute.
When I first started to play capture the flag, I'd given the place a wide berth, but now I'm using it to my advantage. The moon is waxing nearly full, so the Fist casts a great shadow. The darkness isn't deep enough to hide our glistening banner, but a skilled defender standing perfectly still could all but disappear into the gathering gloom.
I'm also hoping that Lena's team will have a harder time finding our flag since she might not expect me to go near Zeus's Fist, but I don't count on it. We are twins, after all, and we're almost always on the same wavelength.
"Right," I don't have to speak loudly. I can feel the nervous excitement in the air, but everybody's waiting for my instructions. They've been well trained. "We're planting our flag in the shadow of the Fist. Rhea and Mark will be on defense—"
"What?" Rhea interrupts, which isn't like her. Defense is her usual position, since her sling is an excellent ranged weapon. She can take out a whole attacking force with deadly accuracy.
"You're on defense. You and Mark are our best marksmen," I say slowly, wondering what the problem is. Rhea's usually on my team. She's like a strong right hand. I don't usually worry about our flag when she's guarding it.
"What about Keenan?"
I look to the small shadow at her side. Keenan ducks her head and looks for all the world as if she's trying to blend in with the scenery.
"What about her?" I want to know. We aren't given that much time to strategize before the start of the match.
"She should be with me," Rhea sounds very authoritative, and that rubs me the wrong way. We've always been very close, she and I. She should know that by arguing, she's undermining my leadership.
"She doesn't know how to handle a bow," I point out. "She's not right for the position,"
"Then where do you plan to put her?"
"With me," I say, as if I've planned it all along. Actually, it's a snap decision, but I could turn this into an advantage. "Right, Keenan?"
I'm hoping she plays along. I feel kind of bad for speaking about her like she's not there. And anyway, if she agrees to it, there's a lot less Rhea can do about it. I respect Rhea a lot, but she's weirdly blind where Keenan's concerned. Usually she has better judgement.
"Yeah," Keenan says brightly, probably hoping to diffuse the situation. "Kaya said I might get good combat experience this way,"
Rhea's lips become a thin line of disapproval, but I hurry to give orders to the rest of the team before she can voice any more objections.
The bulk of my force is on defense. I scatter them through the trees in pairs; with a ring of my half-siblings about fifty yards from the flag. It's too far away to count as guarding, but it's well within the range of Rhea's sling and Mark's bow. They'll act like a buffer, another line of defense if the enemy gets past the sentries. They can also haul campers off to jail once they've been stunned by a bullet or an arrow.
I make the Dionysus kids the jail wardens, since their dad, along with being the god of wine, also presides over the realm of madness. They know not to go too far with the prisoners, but this way, even if they're freed by their teammates, they won't be in any shape to continue fighting.
There are three children of Nike and they're all lean and athletic. They'll make up one squad that goes after the flag. Yuri, Ana, and now Keenan are with me as the second squad. I've chosen Yuri, another child of Hermes, because he's fast and deadly with a pair of long knives. Ana, a daughter of Apollo, is just as fast with a bow, so she can cover our retreat.
Keenan's a wild card, but I can't very well leave her behind now. I don't know her well, but she's a pretty smart kid, so we should be okay.
Rhea grabs my arm as I turn to go.
"I don't think this is a good idea,"
The rest of the team is more or less out of earshot, and I can see that my squad's waiting for me. Yuri's showing Keenan a new move for her kopis while Ana calmly counts her arrows.
"Really? 'Cause it seems like an excellent plan to me," It comes out sharper than I would have liked, but honestly, I'm a little ticked off. "She's a good fighter. Heck, you trained her,"
"She hasn't been in battle yet,"
"No time like the present, don't you think?" I pull away. "I'll bring her back in one piece. Promise,"
"Do you?" Her gaze is intense. "Promise?"
"I swear, " I soften. She really is worried, and I don't know why. "I won't let her get hurt,"
That seems to mollify her, but I feel her eyes on me as I walk away.
"So," I say brightly as I approach my three teammates. "Ready to capture a flag?"
"Oh, hell yes," Yuri smirks.
"Ready when you are," Ana affirms, shouldering her quiver.
Keenan nods a beat after the other two. I give her an appraising look. Rhea's armed her well, but her shield's going to get in the way, and we need to travel light.
"Okay, kid, lose the shield," I say, rapping a knuckle against the burnished bronze. "We need to move quickly, and that's just gonna get in your way,"
She shucks the shield with no hesitation. I get the impression that she might have been uncomfortable with it, anyway. From what I've seen, she's trained with a sword and wouldn't know how to incorporate a shield into her fighting, anyway.
"Right, this is a quick in-and-out job. We're gone before they know what's hit them. I'll take point, Yuri left wing, Keenan right, and, Ana, you're rearguard. Questions?"
All three shake their heads and then the conch sounds, hollow and distant, signaling the start of the match.
Let the games begin, I think as the four of us plunge into the forest.
In which the capture the flag match starts and I actually give a few other campers some names. There are also few obvious nods to the original Percy Jackson story, albeit small ones.
Also, we switch perspective. How do my many adoring fans feel about Kaya? Or are you pretty much neutral?
The universe of Percy Jackson belongs to Greece, Rome, Rick Riordan, and not me.
Comments and criticism are always welcome.
First: [link]
Previous: [link]
Next: [link]
Also, we switch perspective. How do my many adoring fans feel about Kaya? Or are you pretty much neutral?
The universe of Percy Jackson belongs to Greece, Rome, Rick Riordan, and not me.
Comments and criticism are always welcome.
First: [link]
Previous: [link]
Next: [link]
© 2012 - 2024 partial-quatrefoil
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Very nice point of view for Kaya. Professional, cheeky, very Hermes-like. But I am ashamed to say that the deer poop joke made me laugh more than it should have. 