Chapter 65: Alliances for Capture the Flag
That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.
At last, it was time for capture the flag.
When the plates were cleared out of the way, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings 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 and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.
We 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?"
He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."
"Whose side are we on?"
He gave us a sly look, as if he knew something we 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 both 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—in order to win support.
Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what we'd 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 we wasn't 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.
Chapter 66: Border Patrol
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.
"Whoa," we said. "We're really supposed to use these?"
Luke looked at us as if we were crazy. "Unless you guys want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll both be on border patrol."
Our shields was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. They weighed about a million pounds. We could have snowboarded on them fine, but Percy hoped nobody seriously expected him to run fast. Our helmets, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.
Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"
We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.
We managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over our equipment. "Hey."
She kept marching.
"So what's the plan?" We asked.
"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you guys your job?"
"Border patrol, whatever that means."
"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."
She pushed ahead leaving us in the dust.
"Okay," We mumbled. "Glad you wanted us on your team."
It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed us next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.
Standing there alone, with our big blue-feathered helmets and our huge shields, We felt like idiots.
There was no way anybody would actually attack us, would they? We mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?
Far away, the conch horn blew. We heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past us like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.
Great, we thought. We'll miss all the fun, as usual.