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June 7th, Year 4
Turns out capture the flag at Camp Half-Blood was not like normal capture the flag. For starters, they were expected to use their real actual weapons, and real actual armor. They'd been told that intentional maiming was 'not allowed.' Maiming in general was frowned upon. Nya would've taken that as a joke if the other campers weren't treating the game with all the gravitas of a war.
Karloff, their counselor, had been deadly serious when he'd told her and Kai where to go, as if he was sending them to the trenches without training.
Nya was glad that Kai had made them both weapons. She was doubly glad that they'd dragged themselves to camp a few weeks before camp officially started, so they had time to get decent with them.
Not that it mattered much, since the Athena cabin had asked them to help with the defense. They, as first year campers, had gotten put squarely at the back, away from any potential combat. Boo.
The Athena flag had been put at the top of a tall, isolated trees, and surrounded by the Hephaestus cabins traps and fortifications. Any attackers would have to get past the lookouts, the traps, and the Athena cabin guarding the trunk. Then they'd have to climb the tree and do all of that in reverse. Nya though it was safe to say that wasn't happening.
“Hi Nya!” Lloyd chirped.
“Gah!” Nya whirled around. “Lloyd! What are you doing here?”
Kai, who'd been standing a little ways away, turned towards them, hands on his hilts. ”Hermes campers are on the other team.“
Were they? Nya looked back down at Lloyd, now on her guard. He'd put his hands up, a frantic look on his face.
”I'm not a Hermes camper!“ He said, ”I'm unclaimed.“
“You're unclaimed?” Kai said, taken aback.
Lloyd nodded, “If you're unclaimed, you get to choose which side you're on.”
Thinking back, Chiron had told the two of them that the gods were required to claim their kids or grand kids by the time they were thirteen, or their first day at camp, whichever came later. The camp had a fair few campers under thirteen, but these days it was unusual for them to remain unclaimed.
Nya went back to leaning on her naginata. ”So what'cha doing out here then?“ she asked, ”It's not like we really need more people back here.“
”They said that the back needed more defense 'cause nobody expects to be attacked there, or something. Or maybe they wanted me out of the way.“ He shrugged, like he was used to the idea.
”Wonder why,“ Kai grumbled under his breath. Nya jammed her elbow into his stomach and her grunted.
They'd first met Lloyd on their first day of camp, since he was a year-round camper and had been there. He'd been very excited to meet them, and had bombarded them with questions about what high school and the mortal world were like. Kai and Nya, who'd spent all night running from a manticore with only the help of Dareth the Satyr, were significantly less enthused.
Luckily Lloyd didn't seem to notice. He was looking at Nya's naginata curiously. ”I like your spear,“ he said, ”I've never seen one like that before.“
Nya held it out for him to see better. ”Thanks! It's actually a naginata, from Japan. Samurai used to use them.“ It had a long shaft like a spear, but the blade was much longer, akin to a short katana, and it had a cross guard. It was made of celestial bronze, but the metal had been worked to give it a sea foam green color in places.
”Woah, that's so much cooler than a spear!“
”Kai made it for me,“ She nodded towards him.
Kai looked pleased by the praise, because he had a big head like that. ”I made my katana's too,“ he said, unsheathing them so Lloyd could see the red and black color of the bronze.
After Lloyd ooh'd and ahh'd for a bit, he looked back up at Kai. ”What do they turn into?“
”Uh, what do you mean?“
”Y'know, what you disguise it as. See, check out mine.“ Lloyd held his arm out, but he wasn't holding any weapon. All there was was a shark tooth bracelet, like the type you'd get at an ocean side souvenir shack. But then, when Lloyd tugged at the tooth, the bracelet sort of... slipped off his wrist and folded outwards, until he was holding a half giant snake-tooth, half celestial bronze dagger.
”Woah, where'd you get that?“ Nya exclaimed.
Lloyd looked suddenly shy. ”I got it before I came to camp,“ he said, ”I was being chased by a monster so I kicked one of it's teeth out and used it to get away. Then the next day I woke up and it had turned into this.“
Doing the math, Lloyd had been at camp for three years already, according to his bead necklace. He was now... ten? eleven? So he must've been only six or seven when that had happened. Nya didn't know what she was supposed to say to that.
“That's baller, kid,” Kai said, somehow managing to sound genuine. “So what should we disguise out weapons as?”
“Um... Usually people do stuff that mortals don't question that's easy to carry around,“ Lloyd said, switching his dagger to bracelet mode and back.
”I think you should do a hair clip,“ Kai said, reaching over to ruffle Nya's hair. ”Your bangs are all long and they're getting in your eyes.“
Nya batted his hand away. ”Like that's going to help me in the middle of a battle.“
”It would look cute!“
Before they could keep bickering, distant battle cries broke through the woods. All three of them froze and peered in the direction it came from.
”That sounds like its coming from the base.“ Nya said, listening to the sounds of clashing metal and deployed traps.
”Must be the Ares cabin,“ Kai said, ”Should we... go help them?”
“Nuh-uh,” Lloyd said, shaking his head empathetically. ”No way, Ares kids are scary.”
“How about you keep watch here while Nya and I go help?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said. It sounded really good. Lloyd just stepped in place anxiously.
“Alright, let's go.”
The two of them sped towards the action. They'd only just crossed the small clearing they were in when they both stopped. They'd both heard it; a rustling in the bushes coming towards them.
A camper Nya didn't recognize burst out of the bushes. They didn't give any battle cry, their eyes just locked onto hers and charged.
She thought her body would've frozen in place but it moved on it's own. She blocked the swipe to her stomach, but the other camper didn't pause. They stabbed at her stomach, she deflected. They slashed, she blocked.
She realized she was on the defensive, stuck on her back foot. Her opponent knew it too, and she was pinned under a flurry of blows that she could barely block.
Where was Kai? Nya was distantly aware of him fighting a little ways away. She was too busy to think about him. Her opponent went for a backhanded slice, too late Nya realized it was a feint.
The real blow was a solid kick to her chest plate. She staggered back. Her opponent surged forward. She managed to block the hit, but she was reeling back and was mid step.
She hit the ground with a THUD. Her opponent stepped forward, ready to disarm her. As they did, Nya caught their ankle with the butt of her naginata. She twisted, and they gasped with surprise as they lost their balance and fell.
Nya rolled to her stomach, looking around the clearing. Kai was fighting a Hermes camper she vaguely recognized (Skylor?) who was holding the Athena flag.
She was struggling to fend off Kai's twin katana's with only one hand. When she spotted her accomplice on the ground, she panicked. She looked at Lloyd, who was freaking out at the other side of the clearing.
“Lloyd, catch!” Skylor yelled, and javelin'ed the flag over to him. He fumbled the catch, almost dropping it but catching it at the last second.
“Ha!” Kai said, “Lloyd isn't on your team, he's-”
And then Lloyd turned and ran towards the other team's base. “Sorry!” he yelled over his shoulder as he vanished. Nya felt her jaw drop.
They'd been conned.
“Oooh, that's rough,” Skylor said as she pulled her shield off her back.
Kai hung his head. “I can't believe we got lied to by a ten year old.”
“He's eleven. If he told you that unclaimed campers can pick their team, that wasn't a lie, he just didn't do that this time.”
“So we got tricked by an eleven year old. That's hardly better.”
Skylor shrugged. The two of them took battle stances, and launched at each other.
Nya's opponent had gotten to their feet and dismissed their blade. They offered a hand down to Nya, which she took.
They looked at lot less intimidating now that they were out of battle and relaxed. They were taller than her, with wild red hair, and they were covered in freckles. Their camp necklace held two beads and a wire cage holding a twenty sided die.
“Good fight,” they told her.
“Thanks, but you kind of kicked my butt.”
“No, really,” they insisted, “It took me forever to get past your guard. Plus, if I hadn't been able to keep you on the defensive, you would've been able to take me out really easily with the range on your... glaive?”
“Naginata,” Nya corrected. “You knew what you were doing, though. I didn't realize I was on the defensive until it was already too late. It didn't happen like that during training at all.”
“Was that your first real spar?”
“Against somebody beside my brother, yeah.” Nya glanced over at Kai. His fight with Skylor had slowed down in speed, since they' started chatting about weapon disguises.
“Well, you did good. What's your name?”
“Nya, you?”
“Thrush. Want to spar some time?”
“Sure!”
Eventually a whistle cut through the woods. The game was over. Together they walked back out of the woods, ready to see who won. Now that the game was over, Skylor and Thrush explained their plan to them.
Ares and Apollo campers would attack the Athena team base and act as a diversion while Hermes campers snuck in to steal the flag. Sneaking away, Skylor and Thrush would run the flag to Lloyd, kicking off a relay race with the flag. Then the two of them were supposed to act as decoys, but they'd gotten distracted by Kai and Nya.
“I hope they didn't run into trouble,” Skylor said.
The relay was supposed to end with Ares bringing over the flag, giving them the win. The next game in two weeks would see them defending it against the Demeter flag.
”If the Demeter team won, which cabin would get the flag?“ Thrush asked.
Nya had no idea, so she shrugged.
”Probably the Olympic cabins,“ Kai chimed in. ”Or maybe Aphrodite. It sounded like they teamed up.“
Thrush tapped their chin in thought. ”Unusual, but I could see it working, especially if they underestimated the Aphrodite kids.“
”Now to see who won,“ Skylor said as they approached the gathering site.
As it turned out, it was neither the Ares nor the Aphrodite cabins, nor even the Hermes or the Olympic cabins. It was the Apollo Cabin who'd claimed the Athena flag.
”Those backstabbers!“ Thrush gasped.
Skylor looked mournful. ”After we traded shower times too...“
”They broke your alliance?“
Thrush exhaled. “Looks like it. The plan was to help them win the next game, but looks like that first win glory was too tempting.”
Kai tilted his head. “Wouldn't you want to help the Hermes cabin win next game though? Since they did a lot this game and all.”
“Nah,” Skylor said, “If they had the flag and we captured the other one we'd get pitted against each other. Right now we have a great alliance and we wouldn't want to lose it.”
“Plus it's a great way to collect favors from the other cabins. It's like currency to them.”
“Speaking of which, I'm going to go see if Karloff wants an alliance. Hephaestus hasn't had the flag in a bit...” Skylor waved as she wandered off into the crowd. Kai waved after her.
Thrush clapped their hands together. ”Well, it's been fun talking but I gotta run too. My siblings and I have some revenge to plan!“ They grinned menacingly and strode off.
”See ya!“ Nya said.
”Oi, Lloyd!“ Kai called suddenly. Lloyd, standing a little ways away, jumped and spun around, looking guilty. Also, he was covered in mud.
”Kai!“ He said.
”C'mere,“ Kai gestured for him to come over.
He did, apprehensively. When he got close enough, Kai pounced, pinning him against his chest and attacking him with a noogie.
”Hey!“ Lloyd squeaked, flailing.
”Aaaand that's“ -Kai released him- ”for the trick.“
Lloyd pouted at him, hands on his head as if to shield it. His awful bowl cut was ruined, blond and brown hair sticking up in disarray. Nya had to swallow a laugh. He just looked so wounded.
Then his hands and face dropped. ”I'm sorry,“ he mumbled, scuffing the ground with his shoe.
”Pft, don't sweat it, we're square now,“ Kai said.
”We are?“
”Not us!“ Nya said, and she pulled him into her grasp to give him a second noogie.
”Noooo...“ Lloyd whined as Kai cracked up.
Finally, she let him go and surveyed his hair with satisfaction. ”There, now we're even.“