River Island

Twenty

Thalia

Jasper kept distance between us when he showed me around and he did just that that night, show me around. He didn't try to touch me or make any s****l comment. And when we got back to the party he just nodded his head and walked away. It threw me off completely. But I was grateful for it. Guess he was somewhat mature. I mean he was what two thousand years old?

I went back to the island that same night. Not after being hugged nearly to death my i***t brothers. I wasn't really even friends with Harmonia so that was that. She was all peaceful and I was used to having a sister I could argue with. It's what sisters do. When I got the island I was shocked with what I found.

The place was like a small little village now. There were about a hundred cabins standing tall now. Ours was like the entrance to the tiny village. A large amount of the trees had been cleared to make room and also to provide building material. There was one main road leading to the island centre and the cabins lined up the road. Smaller roads led to the cabins built behind the Twenty Five on the main road on each side.

Looks like they were busy.

"Thalia!" Peyton screamed before attacking me. Okay so maybe she just hugged me but it felt like an attack.

"Hi Peyton." I laughed hugging her back.

"I've really missed you." She said letting go of me.

"I missed you too. Look what you guys did with the place."

"It was mostly my idea. They needed proper living spaces so we let them build their own little cabins." She said pulling me into ours.

"So how exactly do things work here?" I asked

"'Well Amelia kind of turned it into a sort of boot camp. A training yard was built in the clearing you always used to train from. And we have the soldiers bunking together. It's mostly ten or twelve per cabin. There is a storage house behind the training yard and a something like a chill spot a little further down the beach." She explained.

We both stood in the kitchen and I took the place in looking for any changes. I looked back at my sister and studied her. She looked more carefree now. Like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She looked happy.

"You guys really went all out huh?"

"People will listen if they're comfortable. If you're good to them."

"Or if they absolutely fear you." Amelia said stepping into the kitchen.

"There's my ray of sunshine." I smiled.

"Glad your back River's it means we can get on with our training."

"I just got back Lia." I grumbled.

"Not a good enough excuse Thalia." She said folding her arms across her chest. "Besides I'm introducing you to the troops tonight so you'll be heading to the training yard anyway."

"How about this, I go for a jog and then come back and shower? Then we go to the yard and you introduce me to them. Seeing as we didn't do that before I left." I said. "Why didn't we do that before I left anyway?"

"We still had some people arriving and it was better to do it collectively." Amelia said. "Go for that jog two laps around the island then we go meet everyone."

"One and a half. This place is huge." I said complaining.

"Two and a half." She said turning around.

"Fine Two laps. Jesus." I grumbled. "I missed you too you know."

"She did miss you." Peyton laughed. "But you should probably start that jog right about now."

"Ugh."

..................

I had gone past our cabin heading into my second lap when a metal disk came flying towards my head. I ducked in time and landed on my side in the sand.

"What the actual f**k?" I groaned.

"s**t. Sorry about that." Someone said coming to help me. I looked up and found myself looking into a pair of golden eyes.

"Are you trying to decapitate me or something pretty boy?" I asked getting up on my feet.

"No actually. Just weapon testing." He said smiling at me.

"You can let go of me now."

"Oh right." He said letting go of my hand. "I don't think I've seen you around"

"I just got here today actually."

"Cool. You don't look like someone that belongs on a battlefield though. Not that I think you can't fight. It's just that you're a pretty girl and I'm not saying pretty girls can't...."

"My name's Thalia." I chuckled sticking my hand out.

"Adrian" He laughed shaking my hand. "I don't usually ramble like that."

"I think it's cute that you're a nervous rambler." I shrugged. "I should get back to my jog before Amelia comes after me."

"You want company. I'm done testing all these disks." He said.

"I don't see why not." I said.

I was bored jogging alone. And Adrian seemed decent enough. Besides what's the worst that could happen right?

And as predicted. Nothing happened. We stopped half way and decided to walk the rest of the way. I didn't ask him what he was because I didn't feel like it was really important. But we did talk about a whole bunch of other things. It was the most fun I'd had in a while. When we finally made it back to the cabins he was dragged off by a bunch of his friends. I laughed as they walked away with him grumbling to them and turned to enter my cabin.

Taking a quick shower I changed into some comfortable clothes and made my way to the training yard. When I got there I found everyone already in their seats with the lights shining down on them. I took in the crowd and found myself looking at all sorts of creatures. Cyclops, nymphs, centaurs and demons. A few winged creatures I didn't recognize and some I couldn't describe. Some looked human but I knew they weren't.

"Hello duchess." Someone said behind me. I looked back and smiled as max approached me.

"Maximus" I said making him wince.

"Please don't call me that." He grumbled.

"Can't make any promises." I laughed.

"Listen up people. I'm not going to make a long unnecessary speech about who we're all here to meet. All you need to know is she got back today and is the current champion of the Olympic Games. Don't underestimate her. You know why you're here and she's part of the reason. Don't bother her while we're still on this island." Amelia announced glaring at the crowd.

"Thank you sunshine." I said joining her.

"Thalia" She said walking away.

"Gotta love her. Anyway, I'm not a speech person either. But I wanted to thank every one of you for being here. We have roughly two months until Persephone gets here. The big battle is happening on this very island as you know to lessen casualties. We don't want any unnecessary deaths. You won't even see me ninety percent of the time. I just needed you to see my face so that no one accidentally decapitates me with a flying disk." I said making some of them chuckle.

I spotted Adrian in the crowd with his head in his hands. His friends were laughing around him apparently aware of what happened.

"I know you're all the best of the best and I have no doubt we're winning this. We have the advantage so let's use it."