Silver Arrows - A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

7 - Friendly Combat and Electrocution

'Did you win?'

I glanced at Rowena, sliding an arrow into my bow. 'What?'
'Did you win? You know, in your last game.'
'Oh. Um, I don't know. You guys took me back to camp before I found out.'
Rowena bit her lip. 'Okay. At least you'll get to win this time.'

Isla, a river nymph, stepped forward. 'Claire and I have a plan. Sierra, Jamie, you'll set traps around the flag, then join Rowena, Parthenos, Nerita, Erasmia and me in defense - Claire will guard the flag. Avery, you'll scout the area and warn us of incoming threats, as well as help anyone who gets attacked. Lexi, Philonoe and Thalia, attack left. Naomi, Tara and Eliana, attack right. Millie, join Hunter and Paige in a direct assault - but be as sneaky as possible.'
'Will do.' Paige, a daughter of Hermes, grinned, running her hand through the short side of her hair. She may be technically in her thirties, but she still acts like a child - and why shouldn't she? In appearance, she's nine forever now. It's not like she'll have to "grow up" any time soon.

'Monique and Lina will take as many prisoners as possible, thinning out their numbers. Any objections?'
No one responded. The plan sounded pretty good, and we know better than to argue with Isla.
'Okay. Go.'

Nerita grabbed my arm and pulled me along. 'You're with me.'
'Why?'
'Because you're smart and quick, and you can balance out me, the brawn-with-no-brain, as stated by many people I don't like.'
'I think you should ignore them. You're not stupid.'
Nerita raised her eyebrows. 'If you think that, then you don't know me very well.'
She drew twin daggers and sprinted through the forest, and I raced after her. I expected to be afraid, knowing what happened last time, but I felt better having someone like Nerita with me. And the Hunters have won - what, fifty-seven, fifty-eight games in a row?

Nerita pointed above us. 'Can you climb that tree?'
'Um, no.'
'Are there any you can climb?'

I made my bow disappear and tried to climb one - I couldn't get up more than a meter. I tried the one next to it, which had very spiky branches that kept snagging in my hair and scratching me - but I reached three, four meters before the branches got too thin and I had to stop.
'Mmkay, that's great... but why do I have to climb this?
'It'll give you a good view, and no one can attack you.'
'What if they're archers or something?'
'Eh, you're tiny and hard to hit, and the campers suck at archery. I'll have beaten them before they can shoot you.'

'You'd better.' I called my bow back and searched my quiver for arrows. The net arrows with red primroses would be useless, as the net would just get the arrow caught in the tree branches as it expanded. The poison arrows were just not a good idea for a "friendly" match. There were a few that had violets fixed to them, however, which marked them as the ones that gave non-lethal electric shocks. Non-lethal sounded great to me, so I drew one and scanned the forest for a target. But then I had a thought.

'Nerita?'
'Yes?'
'Are you... are you scared? I mean, since Nyx, who even the gods are scared of, seems to be out to get us? And there was that thing with Eris, meaning that her children can possess us.'

Nerita paused. 'Honestly? I'm terrified. Eris was scary - and when her laugh came out of Lexi, I swear I almost wet myself. Also, I don't really like the dark.'
'You - you're afraid of the dark?'
'I said I don't like it. That's different. Actually, Claire's afraid of the dark - but you didn't hear than from me.'
'Right.'
'Anyway, the best thing to do when you're scared is to just block it out, woman up and do what needs to be done. And so far, you've managed that.'
'Quiet.'

Two boys were jogging towards us. Nerita crouched and I nocked the electric arrow in my bow. When they were around thirty meters away from her, one of them saw me and nudged his friend. I immediately shot him in the arm, silently relishing in how much my aim had improved since I was last here. He shrieked and fell down, but he didn't stop moving. He was just stunned.

Nerita crept towards my tree, prepared to ambush the remaining boy. I aimed another arrow, but the boy - who, I'd just remembered, was a son of Athena - was faster. He sprinted forwards and threw two knives in my direction. One flew past, but the second lodged in my calf. I screeched and started to slide from the tree... and towards Nerita.
'GO!' I screeched, but she didn't move. I fell from my perch, my limbs flailing, and kicked her in the stomach.

Fortunately, I missed her and landed on a bush, which did little to break my fall. My ankles hurt, but I forced myself to stand and fire two net arrows to pin down the Athena boy and his friend. Eager to take weight off my ankle, I crouched beside Nerita.
'Rita? I'm so, so sorry... are you okay?'
'Do you weigh around fifty kilograms?'

The Athena boy was watching me as he struggled to escape the net.
'...What?'
'I'm trying to work out how if your friend is okay. You see, if your mass is fifty kilograms, and you fell from...'

Nerita slowly got to her feet. Her eyes were bugged out, and she was breathing heavily. There was a mad glint in her eye as she drew her bow.
'Okay, never mind. She's alright.'
'She's alright?' Nerita walked towards him. 'She's ALRIGHT?'
'I meant, you know... not dead.'

She narrowed her eyes. 'That's what you consider "alright," is it?'
Nerita shot him in the foot, and he winced.
'You're not dead. So you must be alright.'
With lightning speed, she drew and fired another arrow, this time into his shoulder.

'Rita, stop. This isn't right.'
An electric arrow hit the boy in the thigh.
'This isn't you.'
Nerita drew another arrow - one with white mallow flowers. Her incineration arrow.
'This is... THIS IS ERIS!'

"Hunters and campers divided by Strife." Oh, gods. No, no, no.

Nerita whirled around to face me, then looked at her bow as if seeing it for the first time, the wild look in her eye gone.
'She... she possessed me? She made me want to kill...'
I released the boys from their nets, hoping they wouldn't attack. 'No, that's not it - what happened to Lexi was different. You didn't have her voice or anything, you were still yourself... but wrong. She did something to us, Rita. She made us angry.'
'Not you - me. And maybe the others...'

There was shouting in the distance. A satyr was charging through the woods towards us, screaming 'ENOUGH! The game has been called off. Go back to camp while the wounded are tended to.'
'Wounded?'
Nerita ran in the direction he had come from, and I hobbled after, my ankle hurting, but not bothering me as much as before. Shock is a powerful drug.

'Here!'
The shout sounded like Jamie. Someone else was sobbing. Nerita veered left, where I could just see a clump of people dressed in both orange and silver. As I got closer, I could see a girl on the ground, chestnut hair spread out around her.

"And the truth will precede the first loss of life."

Then I saw the blood.