Capture the Flag

Chapter 3:
Attempting to keep up with Chiron, Hiccup walked as fast as his metal foot would allow. Chiron, noticing that Hiccup wasn't near his side anymore, stopped and turned around.

"I apologize, Hiccup, for my fast pace. It's something I can't really help," he gave Hiccup an apologetic grin.

"Really, Chiron, it's fine," huffed Hiccup as he caught his breath. "So do you have any idea why this is happening to us?"

"Honestly, Hiccup, I haven't the slightest idea why or even how this happened. But don't worry; we will consult the Gods after dinner." He stopped at the edge of a dock and looked out into the horizon. "This is the first time anything like this has happened. The kids here at Half Blood have gone through a lot of things, but they won't believe the idea of time travel," turning to face Hiccup, Chiron put his hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Don't be offended or surprised if no one talks to you-"

"Wouldn't be the first time," muttered Hiccup under his breath.

"-they just won't be able to grasp the concept of you not knowing what an iPod is."

"An 'iPod?' What in Thor's name is that?"

"It's…never mind."

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          Fishlegs's eyes darted everywhere as he followed Annabeth and Snotlout. This place was so full of undocumented species! As he looked around and tried to think about whether he had seen these trees before, he didn't hear a word of the conversation Snotlout was attempting to strike up with Annabeth.

"So maybe after we eat dinner you could show me a little a more around the camp," Snotlout said to Annabeth in the most suave voice he could muster. He "yawned," and at the same time flexed his muscles.

Annabeth looked over with a disgusted look on her face.

"No, Chiron will probably have something for us to do," she said sharply.

Snotlout stared dumbly at Annabeth. Only Astrid had rejected him that harshly. Every other girl he met went weak at the knees for him. Deciding to take a different approach, he put on what he thought was a sweet face and said in his most cool voice,

"Sure, what ever you want."

Annabeth rolled her eyes as Snotlout broke into a grin. It was gonna work, he just knew it.
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         Percy and Astrid walked into a clearing where eleven beautifully adorned cabins stood in a horseshoe pattern. Astrid stared in awe as they walked past each one. No cabin was the same, and they all had extremely distinct features to them. One cabin was covered in flowers, another in tiny little machines.

"Each cabin represents a God or Goddess. The children of that deity sleep in the cabin presented to that God or Goddess," Percy said, pointing to each one of the cabins.

Astrid's eyes darted from each cabin; her face had a look of awe on it from the detail of each cabin.

"I'll show you mine, let's go!" Percy grabbed Astrid's hand and ran off towards his cabin. Astrid was still amazed as they flew past each building.

Finally, they reached a green-grey cabin that was adorned with seashells.

"This one is mine; it's the Poseidon cabin."

"Wow," breathed Astrid, as they walked into structure.
Intricate wave carvings patterned the walls, and the cabin had an amazing view of the sea. Astrid started tracing her finger along the walls when a loud horn sounded in the distance. Jumping, she whipped around to face the front of the cabin, her axe ready.

"What was that?!" she hissed, glancing at Percy.

He laughed.

"Calm down, it was just the sound off for Capture the Flag. Come on, let's get there before they start."
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A loud horn sounded in the distance, causing Annabeth, Snotlout, and Fishlegs to turn around. Grinning, Annabeth turned to the Vikings.

"Sounds like Capture the Flag's about to start, let's go."
As the trio walked towards the middle of the camp, they could see other campers in leather battle gear walking the same way. Some campers were wearing battle helmets with red plumes on them, while others had helmets with blue plumes.

"Why is everyone wearing those helmets?" inquired Fishlegs, his eyes following the head of a camper who had walked relatively close to the strange group.

"They're there to tell what team you're on. There's the red team and the blue team. I'm usually on the red team, but we'll say what team you guys will be on."

"Obviously the winning team," laughed Snotlout, as he winked at Annabeth.

She rolled her eyes as they made it to the middle of the camp.  They saw the rest of their group and went to join them.

"Alright now, settle down, settle down," yelled Chiron from the front of the throng of people. Hiccup was still standing at his side. "We've decided to hold this game of Capture the Flag to welcome our new guests," he pointed towards group of Viking teens. One hundred pairs of eyes immediately focused in on them, wondering where they had come from.  "The rules are the same as always. Capture the enemies' flag and bring it back to your own side without seriously maiming anybody." A few scattered chuckles could be heard throughout the group. "Now who will invite these teens to join their group?"

Their eyes focused on Chiron, the Vikings hadn't noticed the rest of the demigods splitting into two sides. Percy and Annabeth were on either side of each other, Annabeth wearing a red helmet and Percy wearing a blue one. A tall, burly young woman pushed her way to the front of the red group.

"We'll take the one with the black hair," she grunted in a low voice.
Snotlout strolled over to the red group and took a red plumed helmet that was being passed to him.

"Hey, how you doing? I'm Snotlout," he said to anyone in the group who was listening.

"The blonde girl can join the blue team," called a tall brown haired teen from the blue mass.

Astrid walked over to the mass of blue helmets, placing one on her head. She looked over at Hiccup, and realized that he would not be joining this game. She passed him an apologetic grin. Thirty seconds passed and no one had called for Fishlegs. Finally, Astrid sighed and stepped forward.

"Come on, Fishlegs. Join the blue team." She looked back sharply at the rest of her team, and a helmet was passed to her. "Here you go," she said, smiling at Fishlegs and handing him the helmet.

"Thanks!" he chirped, quite oblivious as to what had just happened.

"Alright, everyone! Get to your sides! You have ten minutes to get there and plan," yelled Chiron after blowing a whistle.
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"So the plan is simple," said Percy, glancing at the huddle of blue helmets in front of him. "Grab a buddy, stick with them. Connor, Travis, and I will be making our way over to the flag. Try to stay close to us; this is our only hope. I need six of you to stay and protect the flag. We have to win this time; the red teams' ego is getting huge." Nods and chuckles were scattered throughout the crowd.

"Got it?" asked Percy looking at Astrid. She nodded her head along with the rest of the group. "Then let's go."

The demigods got into pairs and pulled their swords out, Astrid and Fishlegs readying their axe and hammer. The starting horn sounded off in the distance, and the group of blue helmets began to run through the woods.

As they were running, Astrid and Fishlegs came across a lone teenager in a red helmet. Gasping, he swung blindly at Astrid. She ducked the swing and sidestepped behind him, driving the butt of her axe in to the back of his skull. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Glancing to the side she saw Percy, Connor, and Travis locked in fierce combat with a large group of Red Helmets. With Fishlegs behind her, she sprinted off towards the battle when she heard a loud "THWAP" behind her. Quickly somersaulting to the side, she twirled around swinging the flat side of her axe behind her. She felt a satisfying thump move up her arm as her axe struck her attacker's cheek bones. She noticed Fishlegs limping off of the battlefield.

"Damn it." she muttered under her breath.

Crouched low, she made her way over to Percy, dodging several dull arrows that came flying from the trees.

"Need a hand?" she asked as she fell in stride with the teen named Travis.

"Hell yeah, we're getting hammered out here," he said, grinning wearily over at her.

As the grouped looked into the distance, they could see eight teens wearing red helmets all clustered around a flag. Among them were Annabeth and Snotlout.

"How are we gonna get in?" asked Travis. "They have twice as many people as we do,"

"Then it'll be a fair fight," snarled Astrid, gripping her axe tighter.

"Travis has a point," whispered Percy. "We'll have to take on two each. I can get Annabeth and Snotlout."

"No," Astrid said sharply. "I've been fighting Snotlout ever since I was eight. I know how he moves." She looked at her three accomplices.

"Alright then," Percy nodded. "You can take Annabeth and Snotlout, we'll take the rest. If you defeat the others before everyone else, take the flag and run. We'll catch up," he said looking around.

"One," breathed Percy.

"Two," Astrid tightened her grip on her axe.

"Three."

With a battle cry the four teens charged out of the woods, each singling off two Red crested teens. Snotlout and Annabeth were advancing on Astrid, but she held her ground. Annabeth lifted her sword up to swing at Astrid when Snotlout pushed her aside.

"Watch out babe, I got this," he said, taking a swing at Astrid. She easily dodged the swinging blade and stepped closer to him. Grabbing the hilt of his sword, she stepped back and flung him to the ground.
"Bitch," he gasped.

Bouncing her axe on his stomach, he groaned in pain as she hissed through gritted teeth,

"Come again?"

She looked up at Annabeth and readied her axe.

Annabeth, looking at Snotlout and back at Astrid, decided that planned attack would be best. Sidestepping, she lifted her sword over her head and swung down, but was deflected by Astrid's axe. Then she did something crazy; she tackled a Viking.

Astrid saw Annabeth leaping towards her and braced herself. They hit the ground and Astrid rolled backwards, ending up on top of Annabeth. Struggling against Astrid's weight, Annabeth thrust her head forward head butting Astrid square in the jaw. Tasting blood, Astrid tumbled off of Annabeth and lunged for her axe, spitting out the iron-tasting liquid in her mouth. She grabbed her axe and charged Annabeth, screaming a cry that would chill the bones of a lesser man. Annabeth, un-phased, swung at Astrid's head, but was met by a dull force to the stomach that forced the wind out of her. Falling backwards, she scowled and ripped off her helmet.

"Nice," she gasped, scowling as she hobbled towards the edge of the wood.

Seeing the three boys still locked in combat, Astrid grabbed the red flag and started to run. Wind whipping through her hair, she dodged arrows and jumped over fallen logs. Blood was still flowing through her mouth, but she spat it out. And arrow whipped so close by her she felt the tickle of the feathers across her cheek. With chaos happening on either side of her, it seemed as though no one noticed a Viking sprinting with a bright red flag clasped in her hand. After what seemed like an eternity, a group of teens clustered around a blue flag finally came into view.

"I've got it!" yelled Astrid as her legs drew her closer to the group.

Gasping, three of the teens ran forward and helped Astrid towards the blue flag. Ramming into the flag stand, one of the teens blew a horn, symbolizing they had won. Around them, the forest was no longer full of the sound of metal on metal, but of cheering and groans of disbelief. Percy, Travis, and Connor came walking up to Astrid. Connor was wiping a bloody nose on the sleeve of his shirt.

"Nice job," Percy panted, smiling at Astrid. Blissful, she grinned back at him.

"YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Fifty different teenagers in blue helmets all shouted the same thing and ran towards Astrid, gathering her in a huge group hug.

"Come on," said Percy, laughing. "Let's go show Chiron our victory."
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Chiron watched as the blue team paraded into the dining room, each teen humming a different victory tune.

"Well done, well done indeed!" said Chiron, clapping his hands together as Percy placed the red flag in front of him. Astrid ran past the two of them and went straight into Hiccup's arms.

"I take it you had fun?" he laughed as she pulled away just enough to look at him.

"Oh it was amazing!" she blushed as he planted a kiss on her nose. "I wish you could've been there,"

Percy, who was watching them instead of listening Chiron, looked away with a slightly sad look in his eye.

Turning towards Chiron but keeping his arms around Astrid, Hiccup whispered to her,

"Chiron was telling me that we're going to contact the Gods after dinner."

She gasped.

"Contact the Gods? Like, actually talk to them?" she breathed a sigh of amazement. This place just got weirder and weirder.

"Dinner time!" shouted Chiron, and Astrid and Hiccup situated themselves next to their fellow Vikings.

"You know, that totally wouldn't have happened if I didn't still have a crush on her," Astrid rolled her eyes as she heard Snotlout telling this to Fishlegs. She was about to eat her food when she heard Hiccup call,

"Tuff?"

She looked up and saw their blond accomplice walking towards them, looking much better than he had when they left him. She slid closer to Hiccup to make room for him.

"How's Ruff?" she asked.

"Much better," he said, stuffing his face with food. "She woke up for a little bit, but she fell back asleep."

"That's great!" exclaimed Astrid as she started to eat chicken off of her plate.

"Uh, guys?" Fishlegs' voice called out. Everyone ignored him and kept eating. "Guys? GUYS????"

"WHAT?!" yelled the rest of the table.

"I don't think we're supposed to be eating yet," he said as he pointed to a long line of people throwing food into a giant brazier. Looking at each other in confusion, Snotlout spoke the first word.

"Oops."