▬▬▬▬▬ CHAPTER FIVE ▬▬▬▬▬

SHE WAS HAVING ANOTHER WEIRD dream. Like the previous one, she was a baby again and her father was with her. 

"Alright, Essie," she heard him say. He sounded the same as last time: far away and muffled, but she could hear the pure exhaustion in his voice. Could gods get exhausted? "How about you try some squash, yes? You like squash, don't you? Say 'ahhh'... Essie, please say 'ah'..."

She most certainly did not want to say 'ah'. She wanted him to hold her and take her away from the scary snake lady that she saw outside their house.

Wait, what? She thought in alarm. Where did that thought even come from? Why was there even a dracaena outside her house?

...And why couldn't her father sense it?

Her mouth opened without her control. She let out a loud, piercing wail. She beat her tiny fists against the table, terror running through her veins. The snake lady was just outside their house. She wanted to leave. Why couldn't her daddy sense it and get them out of there—

There was a loud crash. Like the sound of glass shattering. The blurry figure dropped the spoon he was holding and whirled around. He whipped something out of his pocket.

"Shit, not again—!" He cursed as something bright shot out from his hand.

The dream ended there and she shot up with a gasp.

"You okay?" Lyra asked, staring at her with wide eyes. She was folding up her sleeping bag and looked dressed for the day to begin.

"I... I..." Esmerelda struggled to form words and get her thoughts straight. "Sorry, I just had the weirdest dream."

If it was possible, Lyra's eyes widened some more. "You should take them seriously. Demigod dreams are real things. They're usually like visions... They have meaning."

"Mine wasn't really a vision, per say. I'm pretty sure it already happened. I dreamt of when I was a baby and my dad..."

"You... your dad was with you? Your godly parent?" She asked.

Esmerelda nodded. "He was trying to get me to eat, but there was a dracaena and... I didn't see what happened next. I couldn't even see what my dad looked like. He's always blurry..."

"You're lucky," Lyra said with obvious envy in her voice. "Your godly parent actually tried to take care of you. You actually met him... I'd give anything to meet my mother."

"But he still won't claim me." She said, frowning miserably. Her dad seemed to care a great deal for her since it was completely unheard of for godly parents to even be in the same vicinity of their kids after they were born. But that still didn't explain why he wouldn't claim her. He cared, so why would he make her feel like an unwanted leftover?

The envy in Lyra's eyes faded away and was replaced by pity. It was one thing to be the child of a minor god, but it was a whole other thing to be unclaimed. To be unclaimed meant that you weren't special enough in your parent's eyes. You weren't good enough. Not worthy enough.

People would rather be the child of a minor god than an unclaimed camper.

"I'm sure he'll claim you soon," Lyra lied. If one had yet to be claimed after a whole week, then that was a sure sign that they'd be unclaimed forever, and her week was almost up. "You should get ready now, we're about to go on our daily mile run."

Esmerelda nodded and quickly got dressed.

A few days have passed since she had been at camp and it was Thursday now.

People were still trying to figure out who her godly parent was since the whole incident with climbing wall had been spread around camp. The rumors about her possibly being a daughter of one of the Big Three gods really made her worry.

There was no way she could be a daughter of one of the Big Three. Sure it would explain why her father continued to avoid claiming her (that would be a death sentence for her and evidence that he had broken the oath), but that was the only thing that made sense. Everything else just didn't.

She didn't have any water related powers like Poseidon had. She couldn't summon lightning like Zeus could. She had none of Hades' powers either. She could set things on fire. Move things around without touching them. Teleport. Other than teleportation, neither Zeus, Poseidon or Hades had those powers (well maybe Zeus could use the wind to move things around, but she just couldn't be his daughter).

She froze as she realized something when she stepped out of the cabin.

Her dream. Lyra said that all demigod dreams were real and if she dreamed about her past...

Then that meant that she had been attracting monsters even as a baby. She remembered monsters approaching her when she was younger, but to be a baby and still attract monsters...

Her face turned white. Her scent was strong even back then.

She felt faint. Could it be? Could I really be the daughter of one of the Big Three? I share nothing with them!

"Esmerelda?" Ethan called out to her. He furrowed his brows in slight concern at her pallid face. "You okay? We gotta go on our run."

"R-right, sorry." She apologized, keeping her head bowed as she walked past him.

She was distracted all throughout her run and her lesson on winged horseback riding with the Demeter cabin. She ended up almost steering her pegasus into a tall tree. She apologized profusely to her pegasus, who whinnied and flipped his head away from her in return. Katie Gardner, the counselor of the Demeter cabin, just had her spend the rest of the lesson combing her pegasus' mane.

Her pegasus was a little bit nicer to her after that.

Her next lesson, javelin throwing, went more smoothly. A few days ago, she found out that she had some pretty good aim in throwing things, so she excelled quite well in her javelin throwing class. She rarely ever missed the target nowadays. She did, however, dislike how heavy the javelin was.

She told her instructor, Sherman Yang from the Ares cabin, about her issue and he advised her to try throwing lighter weapons.

"Like knives and daggers. We gotta bunch of those in the armory. You picked your ideal weapon yet?" He asked her with a raised brow.

"Er, no, not really..." She was supposed to do that though. She just kept forgetting.

He scowled at her. "Well then hurry up and do it. Capture the flag's tomorrow and my cabin's going against yours. Unless you wanna get mutilated beyond recognition, I suggest you find some weapons on your own."

"Um, but Chiron said that there wasn't any maiming or killing allowed..." She said weakly.

He grinned wickedly in return. "Sometimes it's worth getting your dessert privileges taken away."

"I'm gonna find my own weapons after this." She said hastily.

He nodded in approval and patted her shoulder—though it felt more like he was trying to break it. "Good girl. Now keep on throwing those javelins. I never said you could stop." He looked around and saw everyone else milling around. He barked, "DID I SAY YOU SHITS COULD TAKE A BREAK? NO. KEEP THROWING!"

Everyone scrambled for their javelins.

She still had a few more lessons to go through before she could take her break. There was canoe racing, which she still sucked at, rock climbing with the satyrs (she always drew a crowd in that class because people were hoping to catch her teleport again), and then archery with Chiron.

She just wasn't all that great with archery (which definitely crossed out Apollo from her mental list of possible fathers) even though she had good aim. Archery had nothing to do with throwing, so her good aiming was null during these lessons. Thankfully, Chiron was patient with her and she wasn't doing so badly compared to the Stolls, who still couldn't figure out how to shoot the arrows.

Finally, her sword fighting lesson came. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but it was her last class before her break.

As usual, she partnered up with Ethan for sparring matches. She never knew why they kept going to each other, but Ethan started to grow on her despite his rude comments.

Clang! Her sword went flying to the ground.

"You still suck at this." He sighed.

She bent down to pick her sword up. "Give me a break, it hasn't even been a weak. Plus, it's not like we have sword fighting every day."

"In your case, you should." He muttered.

"Swords aren't the only weapons around," she pointed out. "There are other weapons I could master. Speaking of that, after this class I'm going to head over to the armory and finally look for my own weapon."

"About time," he rolled his eyes. "You want me to come with you?"

"I know my way there now."

"I know that!" He said loudly, his cheeks turning the slightest bit pink. "It's just that... I don't exactly have much to do during break."

"You could always play volleyball. Or basket ball. Or any of the other activities. But I get it. You're anti-social." She snickered.

"You could just say no!" He snapped, looking... hurt.

Her face fell to a guilty expression. "I'm sorry. I wasn't rejecting your offer or anything. Just teasing. You can come with me if you want."

He nodded. "Okay. Now let's get back to sparing."

She was pretty sure Ethan still felt annoyed with her teasing because he went harder on her as usual. At the end of the lesson, she was on the ground, sweaty and breathless with several new bruises on her skin and probably a large bump on her head from when he flipped her over again.

"You gotta stop doing that," she whined, shoving his shoulder as they walked to their respective showers. "I swear, you're gonna give me a concussion one day."

"You're a demigod, idiot. We don't get concussions from being judo-flipped." He snorted. "We got enhanced strength, speed, healing, endurance, and durability. The most you'd be is a little winded."

"Don't be such a smart Alec." She pouted.

"Whatever. Hurry up with your shower okay? You girls always take forever... I'll wait for you outside." He said before they parted ways.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

"There's so many weapons here," Esmerelda marveled as they stepped inside the giant shed. It had everything from swords and daggers to clubs and shotguns. "Ooh, what's this?" She spotted a deadly looking weapon strapped to the wall. The staff was wooden, and there were three chains attached to the tip. At the end of each chain was a spiked metal ball. She reached up to touch one of the spikes.

Ethan swatted her hand away. "Don't touch them. They're sharp." He felt like a father trying to keep his kid from accidentally killing herself.

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

"Whatever," he sighed. "It's a flail. And no, you're not getting it. You'd swing it and hit yourself in the face."

"I'm not that bad with weapons!" She argued. "And besides, I was only curious. I wasn't gonna pick it..."

She moved on to the next weapons she saw. Spiked clubs, swords, ancient looking daggers, and then...

"What are these?" She asked, walking over to a stand where a bunch of axe-like weapons stood. Unlike regular axes though, these ones were double sided, making them extra deadly looking.

"Labrys," Ethan replied. "Common Ancient Greek weapon mainly used in Crete, if I remember correctly."

"They look cool," she said, grinning. She picked one up. The metal handle was a little bit longer than her arm, but she knew she'd grow into it. The bronze blade looked ultra sharp, and both sides combined were wider than her shoulders. The first thing she noticed though—and greatly appreciated—was how much lighter it was compared to a sword. She was pretty sure she could throw this too. "I'm taking this one."

Ethan's eyes popped out comically. "You—what?"

"I'm taking this one." She repeated.

"You said you were gonna come here looking for throwing knives!"

"Yeah, but," she shrugged. "I want this too."

"Esmerelda," he chuckled breathlessly, looking the most amused she had ever seen him be. "You can't fight with a labrys. You can't even handle a sword!"

She glared, feeling a bit insulted. "So what? The labrys and sword are two entirely different things!"

"Yeah, and the sword's better. You'll never win in a fight with a labrys." He told her.

"I can too!" She huffed. "Let's spar right now! Then we'll see!"

He snorted. "You're joking right?"

"I'm not!" She said hotly, her face turning red. Why couldn't he ever take her seriously? "Let's go to the arena right now and find out!"

"Esmerelda, you've lost every match against me so far." He pointed out.

"Those were sword fights," she reminded him. "Why are so hesitant? Are you scared?"

As expected, his eyes hardened. He may not be the son of Ares, but he never backed down from a fight. "Fine then, if you're so eager to get your butt whooped then let's go."

They stormed over to the arena where other campers were sparring with each other recreationally. They found a good and spacious spot and began staring the other down.

"You sure you wanna do this?" He asked, staring firmly at her.

She nodded in determination. "'Course I am."

He accepted her answer and took the metal stud attached to his ear out. She had to stop herself from gaping as his earring morphed into his gleaming celestial bronze sword.

She mentally shook the astonishment off. She'd ask about that later. For now, she had a sparring match to focus on.

The match began, and Esmerelda noticed very quickly how much more natural it felt for her to hold the labrys. To be honest, she had her doubts about the match. She never thought she actually stood a chance against Ethan and his sword with just her and her labrys, but the doubt was quickly washed away as she managed to effortlessly block and deflect each of his attacks and counter them with her own.

Ethan stepped back after defending himself from a heavy blow with her labrys. He pushed her weapon away and slashed at her stomach. She reacted quickly, swiping at his blade with the handle and made several impressive swings at his head.

She managed to nick him on the nose and grinned cheekily at him. "Did you see that? I got you—Whoa!"

"Shut up!" He swung at her face but missed. He glared at her and fought harder.

I can't believe I'm actually doing good! She thought giddily.

They clashed blades several more times before Ethan backed away to create some distance, breathing heavily. She stayed still, eyeing him warily as she tried to predict his next move. So far he had managed to make a small cut on her arm—nothing a little ambrosia could heal—but she managed to nick his nose and cut his shoulder.

She was pretty proud of herself for the accomplishment. At nine years old, she would never have expected herself to be good in any kind of weaponry.

Suddenly she saw something whiz towards Ethan's left at the corner of her eye. She didn't think, only react. "Ethan!" She shouted his name in warning, then pulled her labrys back a second later. She swung it forward, releasing it from her grip and letting it go flying.

CLANG!

Two weapons fell to the ground. Her labrys and the spear that was hurtling his way.

Ethan gawked.

"Whoops. Sorry about that." An Ares camper grunted apologetically. He bent down to grab his spear. He looked at the dumbfounded Ethan, snorted, then turned to Esmerelda. "Good throw." He complimented. And that meant a lot to her since Ares' children specialized in all kinds of weaponry.

"Uh... Thanks." She said, also shocked by what she had done.

Ethan numbly walked towards her, his face serious.

"You're keeping that labrys." He said firmly.

She grinned. "Great! Now let's go back to the armory. I still need to find some throwing knives..."

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

It was Friday night.

"Capture the flag now," Ethan said with restrained excitement after Dionysus dismissed them after dinner. "You ready?"

"Not really," she said honestly. They had just came back from the Hermes cabin to retrieve her weapon alongside the Stolls. "By the way, how do you guys do that weird thing where your weapon becomes some sort of random object? Like how your sword is that earring."

"Oh yeah!" He suddenly exclaimed. "I knew I was forgetting something. Usually after we pick a weapon, we take them to the forges where the Hephaestus kids tinker around with it. They're able to turn our weapons into regular day objects. They turned my sword into an earring. All I have to do is remove and it turns into a sword. To turn it back, I just trace the engraving on the hilt."

Her eyes widened in awe. "That sounds cool. You wanna come with me to the forges tomorrow?"

"Sure." He said, then noticed something. "Hey, are you only bringing your labrys?"

"Yeah. I don't have any place to keep my knives." She and Ethan managed to find a complete set of twelve throwing knives.

"Yeah, you'll definitely benefit with a visit to the forges." Ethan muttered, moreso to himself.

They made it back to the pavilion in time. Everyone else already had their weapons out and ready. Chiron blew on the conch horn as a group of kids arrived.

Everyone yelled and cheered as three Athena campers ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was around ten feet long, silky grey, and had a painting of a barn owl over an olive tree. Athena's symbol. At the opposite side, three Ares campers ran in with their own banner. It was the same size, but blood red and had a painting of a bloody spear and a bloody boar's head.

"We're on the Athena team, so we gotta protect the grey flag and go after the red one." Ethan said to Esmerelda loud enough for her to hear.

He told her about the rest of the alliances that had been made.

Athena had Hermes, Demeter, and Hephaestus on their side while Ares had Aphrodite, Dionysus, and Apollo on theirs. Even though Athena campers had the overcrowded Hermes cabin on their side, Aphrodite and Apollo combined had a bunch of kids. Which meant that Ares had the number advantage.

But Athena's kids were brilliant strategists, so Esmerelda had nothing to worry about.

Even better: she wouldn't be getting in on the action. While she was excited to try fighting with her labrys, the idea of her potentially having to go against a child of Ares made her knees buckle. She'd never be able to beat any of them.

Annabeth Chase, the cabin counselor for the Athena cabin, had Esmerelda and Ethan guard the flag. Only Ethan was disappointed. He had wanted to join in on the action.

Chiron stomped with his hoof to catch everyone's attention.

"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. Don't forget to guard yourselves!" He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with various armors: plumed helmets, breast plates, etc.

Esmerelda first picked up the helmet—the one with the blue plumes. It felt heavier than a sword. "Do we really need to wear this?"

"Unless you want to get a sword through the head, yes." Ethan answered.

"But... it's heavy." She frowned.

He shrugged. "Deal with it."

She sighed and put on her helmet and armor. The armor felt even heavier. She hoped she wouldn't have to do anything with running involved because there was no way she could run with ten pounds of metal weighing her down.

After the blue team was armed and ready, Annabeth led them into the forest while the Ares campers jeered at them.

They all scattered to their respective positions while Annabeth lead her and Ethan over to where they would be guarding the flag.

"Right here," the blonde said, stabbing the pole into the dirt. The area they were in was surrounded with trees and bushes. Hopefully they wouldn't end up fighting anyone because there was no way they would be able to engage in combat in such a cramped space.

"Guard it well. Though, if my plan goes right—which it will—nobody would even make it through here." Annabeth said, smirking lightly.

"Yes ma'am." Ethan droned.

"We got this," Esmerelda said, more determined and nicer.

Annabeth ignored Ethan and nodded at her. She then sped out of the area.

A few minutes later, the horn echoed from a distance.

The game had started.

Right away, she could hear blood-thirsty and excited yells from far away, followed by the clanging of metals. People were fighting already. She didn't know whether to be glad that nobody had stumbled upon them or not.

A few more minutes passed and still nothing.

"This is getting kind of boring." She admitted.

"I know, guard duty sucks." Ethan agreed. "But you know... This could be your chance."

She looked at him. "Chance for what?"

"To impress your father." He clarified. "Sometimes the gods wait until their kids do something cool—usually during capture the flag games. This could be your chance to impress him."

"Yeah, you're right.." She said, sighing heavily. "But I can't exactly do anything impressive when I'm stuck guarding the flag."

She shouldn't have said that.

Just then, Castor and Pollux from the Dionysus cabin—the enemy cabin—burst through the thicket of trees and bushes. They froze, their eyes zeroing in on the grey flag behind Ethan and Esmerelda. As if things couldn't get any worse, boisterous loud voice could be heard behind the twins.

Three Ares kids joined in on the scene.

"Why'd you idiots stop—" One of them froze, finally spotting the flag. He looked to be about the eldest in the group. Around fourteen. His expression turned wickedly gleeful. "Ha, look what we found here! It's the flag! And it's being guarded by two nobodies—even better!"

"What did you call us?" Ethan growled, his grip on his sword tightening.

Uh, Ethan, I really don't think now's the greatest time to pick a fight with the Ares kids... Esmerelda thought, trying hard not to panic. The last thing she wanted to do was fight a bunch of Ares campers. It was like the Fates hated her.

"You deaf?" The same Ares camper sneered, storming forward so he was in front of Ethan. "Everyone knows you guys are just unwanted leftovers. You don't belong here in Camp Half-Blood! Your godly parents didn't even want you!"

"Caleb, dude..." One of his half-brothers said half-heartedly. The other Ares camper looked at almost uncomfortable. Castor and Pollux watched the scene warily.

Ethan didn't reply. He moved. Violently, he slashed his sword against the taller boy's head. If Caleb hadn't been wearing a helmet, he would've lost half of his head.

Esmerelda slammed her labrys against the armor of the closest Ares camper and kicked him on the chest hard enough for him to stumble back over the twins.

"You idiot! Get the flag!" Caleb barked at his remaining half-brother. He ducked to avoid another angry swing from Ethan and stabbed at an opened side of his armor. Ethan sucked in a breath and stumbled back, his hand clutching over his bleeding wound.

Esmerelda didn't see that happen, but she did see another Ares camper dash for the flag. She lifted her labrys over her head and threw it swiftly. It soared through the air before colliding against his helmet-covered head with a loud CLANG! He fell to his knees before crumpling to the floor completely.

One down. Four more to go. She thought.

She started for her fallen labrys before she felt someone kick the back of her knees. She fell down and turned around hastily—

"ESSIE—!" Ethan screamed, sounding scared.

She screamed when she saw a bronze blade heading for her face. She leaned back and managed to grab the blade between her hands.

Then something weird happened.

The blonde started to grow wider and wider, and squishier too and with a rougher texture. She watched with wide eyes as the sword morphed into something else entirely.

A natural loofah sponge.

"What the Styx?" The camper above her muttered, bewildered. He released the loofah and stepped back.

"Uh..." Esmerelda stared.

"WHAT THE HADES?!" Caleb shouted in pure outrage. She snapped her attention to him. He was now holding one of those bath brushes people use to wash their baths. She looked at the other enemies and saw that their weapons had been changed too.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SPEAR?! MY MAIMER?! YOU PUNK, IT WAS A GIFT FROM MY FATHER!" She heard a female voice shout from the distance. There were several other outraged cries too, most likely from their opponents.

Esmerelda didn't know how, but somehow she managed to turn the enemy team's weapons into various assortments of bath supplies.

She locked eyes with Ethan, who was just as dumbfounded as her.

Then, the conch horn blew. The game was over.

"Where's my sword...?"

"What happened to my bow and arrows?!"

"My shield turned into a bar of soap!"

Those were the most popular complaints she heard as she, Ethan, the three Ares campers, and the twins walked out of the woods in a daze. Nobody even cheered when the Athena cabin and their allies captured the flag and won the game. Everyone was too confused as to what was going on.

Chiron looked around in confusion. "I don't understand. What exactly happened?"

People murmured 'I don't know's.

Only Ethan looked at Esmerelda. "Did you... you had something to do with this, didn't you?"

"I-I think so..." She admitted. She looked over at all the bath supplies half of the campers were holding and tried to imagine them reverting back to their original states.

At first, nothing happened. But several seconds later, each bath supply started to morph. Loofahs and sponge sticks returned to swords, bath bombs became arrows, and bars of soap turned back into shields.

Ethan watched the scene with wide eyes. "Whoa."

"Whoa." She agreed.

"Now who managed to do this?" Mr. D wondered, looking interested for once.

"It was Esmerelda," Ethan announced loudly for everyone to hear.

Heads turned her way.

"Ethan!" She hissed, turning pink from all the attention.

"Her?" Caleb pointed.

"Yeah, her." Ethan glared darkly at him. He obviously wasn't going to forget what he had said. Frankly, Esmerelda wouldn't either. He brought out his sword and turned to Esmerelda. "Do it again."

"Er... okay..."

She stared down at the blade and focused hard. She didn't really know how she managed to do it the first time since she was too concerned with trying to protect her face.

When nothing happened, Caleb scoffed. "She can't do it, so it was obviously someone el—" He stopped talking, because Ethan's sword started to transform. It turned into a rubber ducky.

Smirking, Ethan presented it to everyone. "See? Esmerelda did it."

The campers broke into excited murmurs while Chiron and Mr. D's faces turned solemn, as if the they had just witnessed a serious crime that they didn't know whether or not to report.

"That was so cool, Esmerelda!" Travis whooped.

Annabeth walked forward, eyes glimmering with intrigue. "Thank the gods for what you did. You managed to buy us enough time to get the flag back."

"Really?" Esmerelda said with wide eyes. She actually did something helpful?

Annabeth nodded and the campers broke out into cheers. People were suddenly crowding around her, throwing her up in the air. Somewhere she could hear Ethan shout: "You forgot to turn my sword back, idiot!" but she was too happy to care.

The happiness faded away though, when they gathered around the amphitheater to sing camp songs and eat s'mores.

She thought back to what she had done during the game.

She had done something that she would consider impressive.

But she still didn't claimed.

Ethan, who got his sword back, touched her shoulder and gripped it comfortingly. "It's not your fault. What you did back there was cool and if your parent won't acknowledge that... then it's their loss."

She smiled weakly in return, feeling slightly comforted by his words. But the idea of her father not caring about her brought an ache to her heart.

"By the way," she remembered something. "'Essie?'"

"Oh," he looked away from her. "I was trying to warn you about the incoming sword, but your name was too long so..."

She giggled. "It's okay."

"You don't mind if I call you that?"

She tried not to frown. That was the nickname her father called her in her dreams. She didn't exactly want to be reminded of him at the moment, but 'Essie' was a nice nickname.

"Go ahead." She smiled. "Oh, and can you pass me a marshmallow?"

— author's note —

CALEB WARRING
played by WILL POULTER

Will Poulter gives me huge 'son of Ares' vibes, plus he's just so cool