Friday began with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Then Katie's usual lessons, all the things that Camp Half Blood taught, like archery, and battlefield medicine, and ancient languages. Then it was lunch time. Katie's preference for lunch would have been peanut butter and jelly, but Tamyra insisted all their siblings eat something nutritious in honor of the game happening that evening. After that Katie tended to the horses and pegasi, because stable duty was actually really nice. Horse manure did not smell that bad, in her opinion. Not to mention it made great compost for plants. She opted to take one of the normal horses for a ride after she was done cleaning up after them.

Trapper was a palomino horse, a golden colored coat with a white muzzle, mane, tail, and bottom of his legs. Katie enjoyed riding the horses last year when she first came, upon learning that they had a full horse stable, that's what she had elected to write home about. Trapper was pretty seasoned for riding and the fastest Katie would ever take any of the horses was a canter. Today though, Trapper and Katie went for a trot down all the usual trails. Ever since her talk with Tamyra a few days prior, she had been practicing with her axe specifically with the intent to use it in today's game of capture the flag. She wanted to practice more today, but Tamyra said to let her muscles rest so she could be at 100% tonight. She was probably right, Katie could feel the soreness of her muscles from working them overtime with her axe. Yeah, she worked out and practiced fighting every day, but now she was putting forth twice as much effort into handling and mastering that battle axe.

Compensating for the itch to practice her battle axe more resulted in her trot with Trapper, followed by at least an hour dedicated to the strawberry orchard, and then some time on the lava climbing wall, just because she couldn't help herself. She could feel it, she could tell that Tamyra was right and she had become considerably stronger in comparison to the year prior. What was this weird feeling? Excitement, for a game of capture the flag?

**

Dinner finally came. Katie was itching to play. They would be up against the Athena, Hermes, and Apollo cabins. All the other cabins were on her side. During dinner, everything seemed amped, everyone was just as excited as Katie was. When everyone got up to burn food for the gods, Katie said her usual prayer to her mom Demeter. Normally she just gave tribute to her mom, but ever since her talk with Tam she had been adding a prayer. She prayed to Persephone, her half sister, the Queen of the Underworld. She prayed that she could be like her and overcome, she prayed for her to give Katie strength. Especially tonight.

The whole time they ate, the whole pavilion was buzzing with noise and talk and a couple threats from friends to take each other down. Katie ate her dinner quietly and asked Tamyra to give her french braids, so her thick brown hair wouldn't be in the way. French Braids worked the best because Ancient Greek helmets were not designed for ponytails. She eyes the Hermes cabin table, they had a ton of campers. She wasn't eyeing that table for the new kid, Percy, like everyone else was. She was looking out for Travis Stoll.

Travis Stoll was also 12, but he was a pain in the ass. Last year was his first year at camp too, and he was claimed by Hermes right away. Ever since that day, he had revelled in the fact that his father was the legitimate god of tricksters. This boy was a menace, he had a knack for stealing anything from anyone, and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing what kind of pranks he could get away with. Not to mention, he was a year round camper, so he had the whole year to prepare for capture the flag games and figure out what kind of tricks would most annoy a certain daughter of Demeter.

Katie clenched her fist around her goblet full of white gatorade and sent another mental prayer out. "Please, mom, Persephone, please help me wield the axe in a way that would make you proud."

**

Tonight was the night. Katie squeezed the strapping of her axe, squeezing her eyes shut for a second too. Currently she was paired with Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of Dionysus, their camp director. They were tasked with defending the flag in the halfway point between the flag and the creek, the middle of their territory. They were in a little clearing that was maybe thirty feet big, but probably closer to twenty feet.They had the advantage of nature on their side, but the disadvantage of how empty the clearing was. Now that meant that depending on if the Hermes cabin was to be so bold and come straight through instead of attempting to sneak, they might have a fair fight on their hands.. Unless of course, they were rushed by a large group...

"Why the battle axe Katie?" Castor asked. He and his brother were the only two children of Dionysus. They were both taller than Katie, with curly blonde hair and striking purple eyes. The only real difference between the twins was Pollux had lighter hair that was more of a corn silk blonde. That, and Pollux had a tiny mole on the underside of his jaw, Castor had one next to his ear, except no one ever saw it because of his curls.

Right now she could only really see the twin's eyes, two sets of unnervingly purple eyes trained on her. Despite this, she couldn't help but smile, "I'm not great with a sword, I don't want to be awful with every weapon though. Yeah, it's not as safe to use a double handed axe because I can't have a shield, but-" She stopped. She didn't know what she was saying. She just knew that she had a feeling about using the axe. She couldn't put that into words though.

Pollux's eyebrows raised, or at least, it seemed like they did, but the Corinthian plumed helmets made it a little hard to tell. "We're not asking to be judgemental Kate, you seem," he considered his next words, "you seem kind of defensive. Is someone giving you crap for using an axe instead of a sword?"

"No! No! It's not like that!" Katie was quick to correct the assumption, "well- it's complicated. I just-" she sighed and gave up on explaining.

While her eyes were downcast, she missed a few significant things.

"It's okay," Pollux assured her, "We're not great with some swords either. Personally I'm better with a Kopis," he brandished his long, single bladed sword for show.

Castor nodded, "I like the reach of a Dory. Works great with a shield and keeping the enemy nowhere near you." he indicated to his own spear which was taller than all of them.

Before any of them could react, probably since none of them were expecting it, Pollux was knocked in the chest by a Hoplon shield, the round ones the Greeks used. His sword flew out of his hand.

Castor and Katie were both quick to bear their weapons at Pollux' attacker. Or...attackers. One Apollo kid, three Hermes kids. The one who had shoved back Pollux with his shield was an older daughter or Hermes. She was at least 14, if not older, and Katie was pretty sure her name was Konstanse or Konstandina or something like that. She was from another country, one of the only foreign campers, and she was a year-rounder.

"Lookie here, some helpless gardeners," Konstan-(tinople) cooed with a condescending tone and the trademark smirk of a Hermes kid. Katie personally practically felt her blood boiling and she was sure both Castor and Pollux felt the same.

Katie tensed herself, ready to stop this stand-still in the middle of the tiny clearing when she made eye contact with one of the other children of Hermes behind Konstan-(tine). It was Travis Stoll.

A spike of anxiety rushed through Katie so fast she felt tears forming in her eyes. Was she that nervous? That probably meant that the last Hermes kid was Travis' younger brother... Nevermind that, they weren't about to lose this fight, even if they had an archer on their side.

"Helpless gardeners?" Castor snarled as Pollux got to his feet. "I'll show you helpless,"

He leveled his Dory at the chick's chest. That earned him the Apollo archer boy, Lee Fletcher was it? To aim his bow at Castor's chest, the tiny bit in between his shield and his body.

Lee's attention on Castor was just what Pollux and Katie needed. As if in sinc, both rushed forward with angered yells about being dissed.

Pollux was in the perfect position, just close enough to Lee to lung forward with his almost 40 inch sword and swipe and SNAP! Lee's bow string gave way with so much force that it hit Lee in the chin, effectively knocking him backwards with a scream.

In all honesty, the thought of getting a bowstring snapped in your face made Katie feel nauseous, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She was already in motion, and had chosen a weapon that didn't allow her to use a shield. She was a little preoccupied-

WHAM! The swing of Katie's axe was met with equal force from Travis' sword. Neither of them could block though. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Konstance-(whatever) turn to attack Katie with her Xiphos and Katie tensed, waiting for the swing.

It never came. Condescending Konstan-(tan) shrieked and was thrown into the last Hermes kid, Connor Stoll, was it? They both went down. How? What had hit her? That distraction was enough to cause both Travis and Katie to release and back up to recuperate.

Konstance was cussing at the twins in several languages, one being Ancient Greek for sure. Lee hadn't gotten back up from the bowstring to the face, as far as Katie could tell, he was cursed on the ground and his face was definitely bleeding. Connor was getting himself up off the ground after being crushed by his older half sister.

None of that was top priority for Katie though because she was currently about to face off against Travis again. Sword versus battleaxe. Right as she tensed to swing again-

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" a roar from outside the clearing made them all jump a bit. It was an Ares camper that Katie wished she was unfamiliar with.

"You're fucking pathetic Gardner, he's the same size as you," Travis got shoved down by this asshole who's name was something douche-y like Chad or Brad or something equally terrible. She only even knew who he was because last summer he had given Tamyra a lot of shit. The kind of guy who asks you out but the moment you say "no" he gets incredibly racist.

He then pointed his sword at Katie, despite the fact that they were on the same team for capture the flag, and she swore she heard him mumble something about "doing Tamyra a favor then she'd see how nice he was"

Travis, Castor, Pollux, even Konst(ruski) spoke out. They were no longer fighting each other, not really, now they were watching the older Ares boy advance on Katie with expert level swordsmanship. Despite all her training Katie wasn't able to keep her axe in her hands for long before her right hand lost grip from another one of his well timed swings.

He wouldn't actually hurt her though. Not only were they teammates for this game but surely he had to know he would have even less of a chance with Tamyra if he hurt her younger sister. He was just giving her a swordsman lesson. Right?

Wrong. Katie didn't have time to do anything before his sword hit her right gauntlet just right, tearing through her leather straps and going directly into her hand, then down her wrist as he finished his swing.

Katie dropped like a sack of bricks, screaming and cradling her hand. Travis scrambled away from where they were and grabbed his younger brother, dragging him towards the edge of the clearing. Lee and Konst(ance?) started to back up too as the Ares camper turned around towards them.

"Get up Katie, we still have a game to win" he snarled once, ignoring her screams, before lunging right towards Konst(antine) and Lee, who both proceeded to book it into the forest. The Stoll brothers had already booked it the moment the Ares camper turned around. Castor and Pollux though, bless their hearts, had edged around the clearing to help Katie. Her screams broke off into gasping sobs as the twins worked her helmet off of her head and did their best to bandage her wrist with what they had, which ended up being some moss summoned off a nearby log.

Of course Katie wasn't really aware of most of this. Her head lolled to the side without warning she was gone, her body still convulsing slightly from her sobs.

**

Katie spent the whole weekend in the med-bay. Apparently she was the only bad injury that happened in this particular game of capture the flag. Somehow the Ares camper, whose name she learned was fuckin' Brody hadn't managed to hurt the Hermes or Apollo kid like he did her. Apparently since Lee was still bleeding out of the face, Konstan(innia) had turned around and given him a proper sword fight until the game was won by Luke Castellan. Or at least that's that she thinks she overheard from the Apollo healers conversations. Not only that though, but despite Katie's injury being the only bad one, it almost wasn't. Apparently the new boy Percy had gotten attacked by a hellhound. Then he stepped into a creek, got healed, and was claimed by Poseidon. Katie wasn't personally sure she cared though- having your hand near mangled by your own teammate tended to do that to someone. All of the healing magic, ambrosia, and nectar weren't enough to stop it from scar-ing.

It seemed the rest of Camp Half-Blood was in chaos over this though, given there weren't supposed to be children of the Big Three. Percy's entire existence was a scandal. And yet to Katie, he seemed like a nice kid, couldn't that have been the end of it? Or maybe Katie just felt kin to it because she was looked down upon for her own parentage. Specifically the godly side though, Demeter was not viewed as powerful. Therefore Katie would never be viewed as powerful either. Poor Percy, all anyone would ever see now is that he's the son of Poseidon, if he even lived that long.

That wasn't all though; everyone had heard the rumors of something happening at the winter solstice. All the senior year long campers had been there, Katie personally, had not. Apparently that after the winter solstice, Zeus's master bolt had been reported as missing- stolen. Now they were pinning it on him, the 12 year old skater boy who had been at camp for maybe a week.

Too bad that wasn't the worst to happen that summer. Little did anyone know that Perseus Jackson being claimed was just the beginning of a spiral of things that would change Camp Half-Blood and the demigod world forever.