Notes from the author
If you need it, Chapter Six
If you need a chapter before Chapter Six or after this: Chapter Finder + Pictures
"Sorry about that last cliffhanger". <--- Nice pun, Rick. (From beginning of House of Hades). Completely irrelevant with what is happening in the story right now, but I HAD to include it in one of these chapters..
Chapter Seven
Juki stood at the training area, waiting for Percy. She continuously flipped her flute-sword in boredom, it turning from a flute to a sword.. sword to a flute.. flute to a sword.. so on so on. Percy had told her he would start helping her with her swordfighting skills, as that was obviously what Poseidon wanted her to defend herself with, as he had given her a sword. She remembered something she did the day before while watching Percy train and threw her flute-sword, currently in sword form, as far as she could. Then she held out her hand and wished for it to come back and it did, handle coming perfectly into her hand.
Percy whistled behind her. "Impressive. It can even come back in sword form?"
Juki turned around. Percy had brought Jason and Nico with him. She looked at Nico, but he was no longer glaring at her, as if waiting for her to do something that only the eidolon would do. She turned her gaze to Percy and said, "Aparrently. And they are here because...?"
"Why not teams of two? You're new and I... personally have never trained someone in swordfighting. Plus Nico and Jason really wanted to come to see if you could be really good at it with training."
"Ok.."
"So, are you and Nico fine with being partners?" Percy said to Jason.
"Eh. You're sister. You're partner." Jason said. Nico just shrugged and said, "Whatever."
"Ok so, everyone, remember, go easy on Juki. It's fine if you go at me with all you've got, but Juki still needs to learn..." He looked at Juki as she tried to swing her sword and added, "..How to swing....".
"Sorry.." Juki said.
"It's ok. We all stumbled at one point."
She grinned. "Ya, I guess no one was perfect the first time."
Jason and Nico paired up while Percy stayed at Juki's side. Percy uncapped his pen, which turned into a three-feet long bronze blade. Jason and Nico unsheathed their own swords. There was no needing to tell them not to kill, they already knew. Juki tried to mimick Percy's position for holding his sword but it was unbalanced. Then she realized something and looked at Percy.
"You're right-handed aren't you?"
"Ya, why?"
Instead of replying, she fixed her position so it was a mirrored version version of Percy's, with her left hand holding the sword. "Left-handed." She finally responded. The position felt much more natural.
"Ok.. well then.." Percy lunged for Jason, but Jason sidestepped. Juki took this as "start" so she tried to attack Nico, but when he dodged with what she assumed was ease, she stumbled and almost fell. Embarrassed, she turned and started swinging at Nico, of course each swing was deflected with his own sword. But her swings were becoming more precise as she got more used to fighting. Eventually, once she was actually pushing him back, Nico started attacking as well as blocking. Even though it was pretty difficult, she could tell Nico wasn't having too much trouble.
Meanwhile Percy and Jason were going all-out. Both of them were barely avoiding the other's attacks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nico try to attack her again. She leaped back but got a small cut on her arm. It had only ripped a little skin though. Nico eyed the wound, but it seemed that when he saw no blood, he went back to attacking and dodging.
Through all of Jason's attacks, Percy somehow seemed to noticed Juki was getting tired and called a break. Juki instantly plopped down, sitting, panting. She flipped her sword back into a flute and put it down. She picked up her book that had been sitting a few feet away from the swordfighting area and started reading it. Oh ya, she wasn't dysletic. ADHD, but not dysletic.
Then she felt a pain in her stomache and saw a flash of black fly away from her. She looked up just as Percy deflected another tiny flash of black. It landed next to her. A bullet.
She dimly thought, Then that means... And fell sideways, the now furious pain in her stomache making sense but becoming worse with time.
"I thought you banished them somewhere in the ground!" Percy yelled at Nico.
"I did! I was ten then though, so maybe they managed to escape because my powers were weak then?"
"Then why did they attack now?" Percy said, barely dodging another bullet as it tried to hit him in the head. Instead it grazed his hair. Juki realized something. Most of the bullets were coming for Percy. No one else.
A second after she realized it, Percy said, "I guess they still have my scent. One must've mistaken Juki for me. Same parents, maybe that's why. Nico, do you think you can banish them back underground?"
"Maybe!" Nico glared behind Juki and yelled, "Begone, skeletons! Back in the ground, where you belong!" The earth shook and next to Juki, a tiny crack in the ground formed. It quickly disappeared. The three boys ran to Juki.
Percy said, "Get Chiron. I don't think it's too bad!" Both Nico and Jason ran off. Percy looked at Juki and as her sight dimmed, she could barely hear Percy say, "You'll be okay. Don't worry. It's a small..." His voice drifted off as she drifted into sleep.