Chapter Text
Of course, Joonhwi was tasked to retrieve the opponent's flag in tonight's game of Capture the Flag. He's got the skills and brain worthy of that of a child of Athena's after all, he's won a few of them as the leader and a comrade.
Tonight's game was special though, as this was the first time his best friend Jiho tried his hand at being one of the battle strategists. The son of Nemesis had slowly worked his way up to earn everyone's respect - being the child of a minor god must've made him think that he had something to prove to the rest of the demigods.
And hey, at least they were on the same team. Joonhwi wouldn't think twice about tonight's game since Jiho came up with a foolproof plan as long as no surprise comes u-
Save for the crunch of the leaves he was stepping on, he was sure that he was as silent as a mouse.
Just as he had been approaching what he thought was one of the locations of the other team's flag, he felt the wind get knocked out of him and he stumbled backward, falling back first on the forest floor. Suddenly -
He can't see.
His eyes were open, yes, but all he saw was pitch black darkness. He knew he was awake, conscious, moving - and yet it was like he was stuck in this vortex of shadows, unable to get out. On his right, he hears the cheer of other campers and a high-pitched giggle on his left.
As quick as he was enveloped by that cloak of black, it was also as fast that his reality shifted before his feet and he was slowly able to see again. He tries to make sense of his surroundings: leaves, branches, trees as high as they can go - the forest, yes, just where he was running to get the other team’s flag-
The other team. He had almost completely forgotten about the new demigod two satyrs rescued - and apparently, a mighty powerful one at that if two of them had to go bring her to camp.
How could he have possibly missed the gossip on who her godly parent was?
Cheers erupted from all sides of the forest now, and he caught sight of his team’s flag being carried out and waved around. They had a strong defense, he thought. What happened there?
The shadows finally fully dissolved around him, and he frantically looked around - desperately trying to catch sight of that child of Hades.
And he does.
He notices her hair first - soft brown curls that were cascading down her shoulder and onto her black top as she pulls on her hair tie that was kept in a bun. Like a princess’, he thought to himself.
He notices her eyes second - how those fiery, brown orbs of hers shined with glee at her hard work that paid off.
She was bending forward a bit, her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. “Please tell me you’re the son of Athena. Or else I owe you a hell of an apology.”
“Speaking.” Joonhwi replies. “You’re a daughter of Hades.”
She blinks, slowly nodding her head. “Yeah, but I haven’t gotten used to that.”
“Then you have no intention of apologizing for knocking me over?”
“I was told everything goes while the game continues.” She shrugs. Her hand goes to her wrist, then she feels around in her pockets as she tries to look for something, her eyebrows furrowed in frustration. “Shoot, where the hell did that hair tie go?”
“Aren’t you supposed to see better in the dark?”
The girl’s eyes narrow. “I’m a human, not an owl.”
“Well, if you kept track of your things better, you wouldn’t have to frantically look in the dark.”
“... I’m going to be so mad if you took my hair tie.”
The said elastic was, in fact, with Joonhwi. He noticed the black little thing fall out of her pocket while they were walking, so he snatched it off the ground before she could notice.
“Han Joonhwi.” He introduces himself, sticking out his hand. She clasps hers in his.
“I’m Kang Sol A. I’ve been told there’s another Kang Sol here, so they gave us a distinction.” She shrugs, letting go of his hand.
Joonhwi reaches into his pocket and hands over the black elastic to Sol. Kang Sol, he reminded himself. “Here.”
Her once calm demeanor was now fired up again, a sharp exhale was all it took for Joonhwi to notice this change in behavior.
“I knew it! You took my hair tie!”
“Took? More like saved it from being lost forever for some wood nymph to find and take as her own. Without so much as a thank you from the owner, nonetheless.”
Her rebuttal was cut short when Jiho runs over to the two, greeting Joonhwi. “Oh well, here’s my friend so talk to you later, Sol!” He waves, immediately turning Jiho around and walking with him.
“Jiho, you didn’t tell me there was a Hades camper now.” Joonhwi hisses. “Did she arrive when I was still unconscious?”
“Oh, I didn’t?” Jiho blinks. “Probably because you didn’t ask. And to answer your question, yes.”
“How was I supposed to know? Should I have asked you about every cabin for you to tell me? Did someone else join the Hunters of Artemis?”
“Oh, yes actually. One of the Aphrodite kids-”
“Yah, Seo Jiho!” Joonhwi reprimands before sighing, leading the other to simply shrug.
“Forgive me for forgetting that little trivial fact when a few days ago, you were still lying in the infirmary. You weren’t waking up even when they gave you ambrosia. So forgive me for being worried about your coma-ridden ass over some new camper.” Jiho bites back.
It was Joonhwi’s turn to get bewildered, having never seen that side of Jiho’s that actually, explicitly, said he cared.
On the other side of the mess hall, a camper with thick muscles and an arrow slung on his back towered over Sol’s thin figure, yet she was determined to stare him down.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.” She insisted, every word in her sentence almost punctuated.
“When you were doing your little-” the Ares camper waves his hand in the air ridiculously, as if mocking her movements “-voodoo magic on Han, you also took down one of our own. Seriously, if you can’t even do it, you should’ve sat this one out.”
The child of Ares began to walk away when he heard the daughter of Hades mutter. “But I did do it.”
He turns back around, facing her. “What did you just say?”
Sol’s eyebrows furrow. “I did my job. Your sister wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. I don’t know what she was doing there or why she went there, but it’s pretty established that I -”
He snaps, coming dangerously close to Sol’s liking, pushing her. Caught off guard, she stumbles and steps on his toes as retaliation. The Ares kid yelps loudly, leading some campers to form a crowd.
“Oh, sorry,” Sol begins in a high-pitched, unapologetic tone. “Did I hurt your wittle feet?”
His face had turned red. “Why you little -” the boy raises his fist, and Sol was preparing herself to move out of the way just as she had done countless times before when a figure stepped in between the two of them, blocking him as he caught his wrist.
“Enough. She did her job. Shouldn’t I be more pissed off than you since I’m actually the one you told her to distract?” The figure - now known to Sol as Joonhwi - asks, cocking an eyebrow as he lets go of the Ares’ camper’s wrist, pushing him backward. “Your sister’s fine. She’s all healed up in the infirmary. Don’t you think this is unnecessary?”
The Ares kid looks around at the crowd forming around them and sneers. “Fine. You better watch your back, kid.” He throws one final glare at Sol before walking away.
The crowd disperses - the fight they were expecting to happen obviously wasn’t going to happen - and Sol looks around awkwardly, not quite meeting Joonhwi’s eyes.
“Erm,” she clears her throat. “Thanks. But you didn’t need to do that. I had it under control.”
“That was under control? Didn’t look like it to me.”
“Fine, it wasn’t. But still, I could’ve handled it. Now if you excuse me, I have a cabin to decorate.” Sol trudges her way to the obsidian black cabin that seemed to radiate fear - and she was the sole occupant.
Just then, Jiho exits the Big House with a solemn look on his face.
“Jiho, you okay?”
He swallows first before speaking. “The Oracle gave me a prophecy…” Jiho wrings his hands before meeting his friend’s eyes. “I need to go on a quest.”
Joonhwi slowly nods, understanding that unspoken agreement: once they leave the safety of the camp, they’ll have to battle monsters the rest of the way until they can come back - their lives at risk with every breath they take.
“Okay. We need three, right? So that’s you and me. Who else do you want to come with?”
“Kang Sol A, the daughter of Hades.”