Combat Practice ((open))

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth stabbed her knife into the straw dummy's heart. Her celestial bronze knife slid right through the straw. It was too normal to be cut up by celestial bronze; Annabeth's knife was made for slaying monsters. Pulling back, she raised it again, slashing through the throat of another dummy. She sighed. This was too easy. A few years ago, she would have been doing this to a monster, not a bundle of straw. She never thought she would miss the constant fighting of the war, but she almost did. She knew she was a skilled fighter, and spending her time practicing on dummies was an insult to her skills. She couldn't wait until Capture the Flag! She was tempted to go back to her cabin and work on designing a new national monument or something, but she really wanted to practice. Sighing, she stabbed the dummy again.

[Thalia Grace]

Thalia walked through camp, rubbing her silver bracelet uncomfortably. The Hunters had been roaming around for about a year or two now, and Artemis decided that they indeed needed a break. Her and Thalia had arranged for the Hunters to stay at camp- it would also make it easier to recruit more hunters, which they needed. Thalia reached the Arena and pulled out her bow and arrow.

She aimed her arrow at the target and spotted a familiar wave of blond hair in the Arena."Anna beth!", she said happily, shooting the arrow absently into the Arena wall."Dude, how have you been?" Thalia looked at Annabeth and something scary struck her mind- Annabeth was about 4 inches taller than her now. She could remember when she used to care for her, when she was twelve and when Annabeth was seven. The thought made her smile a bit.

Thalia tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket and clutched her bow a little tighter. Camp Half-Blood was the most relaxing place in world- it seemed like all the troubles the Hunters were dealing with disappeared. Well, she knew that some Huntresses were made at the idea of staying with boys, but at least they had a safe home and good food every night.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth looked up and smiled as Thalia called her name. She ran eagerly toward the Hunter. She and Thalia had always been close. "Thalia!" she cried happily. "I've missed you!"

She was startled to see how young her old friend looked. She had known that Thalia wasn't getting any older, but to see her friend in the body of a fifteen-year-old while Annabeth herself was now 18 years old was a shock. She was now older than the girl who had once been almost like a mother to her when she was only seven years old. Even when Annabeth was an old woman - if she lived that long - Thalia would still be a teen. Hundreds of years from now, Thalia would look exactly as she did now. That thought disturbed Annabeth a little.

"I've been great," she said. "Although I have to admit camp is a little boring. I mean, what's the fun in fighting straw dummies and cleaning out the stables?" She rolled her eyes. "But you remember how the gods let me design the new Olympus? I've finally finished that! A monument to last for milenia," she smiled happily. She had always dreamed of being an architect, and she was proud that the dream had finally come true. "Anyway, it's great to see you again, Thalia!"

[Thalia Grace]

"Awsome, maybe me and the Hunters can drop by Olympus so we can see it", Thalia said happily, putting her bow away,"We're here right now because we need to recruit more Hunters. Its not so easy finding girls who can and are willing to join." The thought saddended Thalia slightly. Since the final battle for Olympus about a year or two ago, they hadn't been able to recruit any more hunters to refill the ranks of the ones that had died. Thalia looked around the Arena and at the campers. Suprisingly, she didn't know many of them. Sure, she played a big part at the camp when she was a tree, but the campers didn't actually stop to talk to the tree.

"I see what you mean...Camps not that...fun. Maybe we were just so used to being attacked every four minutes...mortals are so lucky." Thalia took out her bow and shot a volley of silver arrows at the target. All of them landed on the center target."Lady Artemis would be here, but shes busy. All the gods are now, and I wish I knew why. So, how have you been? I haven't seen you in what, over a year now?"

[Annabeth Chase]

"Almost two years now," said Annabeth. "It's been a long time." She wished she could see Thalia more often, but she knew her friend was busy as a Hunter. At least Artemis was giving them a break for the moment. Although Annabeth was sure that some of the hunters were less than satisfied with staying at Camp Half-Blood, which was pretty much infested with boys.

She was surprised that they were having trouble with recruitment. In her experience, it was very easy for young girls who had never loved to feel dazzled by the idea of immortality and eagerly sign without reading the fine print. She had almost done it herself once, before she had met Percy. Heartbroken teens also signed up sometimes, trying to run from their upset love lives. Thalia had, after all. Anyway, the Hunters were heroes in the battle a couple of years ago. It would make sense that girls would be eager to join. "So what's the problem with recruitment?" she asked. "You can't find any girls willing to give up their boyfriends?" She said it in a teasing manner, but she was genuinely interested.

[Thalia Grace]

"Jeez, two years. Really? Man. I could have sworn that I joined the Hunters last week, and that yesterday we were at the Empire State building. When...you know", Thalia said, slightly astonished."I think this whole immortality thing is really catching up to me, its making time go so much faster, in my opinion." Thalia sighed and ran her fingers through her spiky black hair. On the other side of the Arena, she could hear a Hunter grumble angrily at a boy and challenged him to a spar. Whatever.

"Well, yeah. Some girls are just too obsessed with certain...pop stars or celebrities, so they don't want to join the Hunt due to that. Seriously, why do girls lose their heads over guys with nice hair?", Thalia asked in a sarcastic way."So...speaking of boys, hows Seaweed Brain doing?" Thalia knew Annabeth and Percy had started going out. The rest of the camp did too. This is cliche but, it was only a matter of time, Thalia thought with a smirk on her face.

There were times when Thalia thought about Luke...but she had to erase him from her mind. Of course, he had done the right thing in the end but still...the decisions he made were close to unforgivable. Of course, Luke was gone now. Annabeth had told her her planned to go for the Isles of the Blest. So Luke was gone.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth laughed. "I'm the only one allowed to call him Seaweed Brain," she joked. "Percy's fine. And don't start telling me that 'love is worthless' and all that, because there's so much I like about him besides just his hair. He's brave, kind, invulnerable, cute ... I could go on and on. Except his brain. It's full of seaweed." She laughed. She had first started calling Percy “Seaweed Brain” when she found out he was a son of Poseidon. Back then, they didn’t like each other because their parents were enemies. It had once been an insult, but now it was more like an affectionate nickname.

Annabeth would have mentioned that Thalia had also once fallen for a boy with nice hair, but that would make the conversation turn quickly in an unpleasant direction. Annabeth remembered Luke as a hero, but she knew not everyone did, and he and Thalia had once been very close. She was sure Thalia wouldn’t want to be reminded. She was curious, though, and she asked, “Do you ever … you know, regret becoming a Hunter?”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Annabeth wished she hadn’t spoken. Of course Thalia liked being a Hunter. Why else would she have stayed with them this long? Still, Thalia didn’t hate boys like some of the Hunters did. A lot of them were freaked out by anyone of the opposite gender. She wasn’t sure whether Thalia still resented Luke for how he had abandoned her, but she knew her friend didn’t take it out on every boy she met. She liked that about Thalia. She still wished she had just kept her mouth shut. “Sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

[Thalia Grace]

"Alright, you can call him Seaweed Brain. But, nobody, and I mean nobody, can call me Pinecone Face", Thalia said with a slight smirk on her face. "Fine, I won't say 'love is worthless'. Although, you might want to stay away from some of the other Hunters." Thalia knew that some of the other Hunters wouldn't go within ten feet of a boy, but Thalia was fine around them. She had to respect the other Hunters though, and she did, they were just so different from her.

Thalia turned towards Annabeth, she was about to blow up and give her a perfect 10-9 stare, but she sighed and put her bow down."No, its fine. I just...I don't regret it, but I think about it often. You know? Its like that constant what-if?" Thalia did think about her decision to join the hunt a lot. What would have happened if she didn't join? Would she have been the child of the Prophecy, or would she just have been pushed to the side and forced to stay at Camp Hill, protected by constant paranoia.

"So have there been any troubles at camp lately? It really has been two years since anything major has happened...but still. It feels strange not doing cross-country quests by foot, and battling monsters everywhere", Thalia thought out loud, shooting an arrow at the target,"Its almost...boring?" Of course, Thalia always had the hunt, and she was never bored with them. Although, it felt like they did the same thing 24/7- hunt monsters, rest, hunt monsters, rest...

She thought back to the days when she, Luke and Annabeth were fighting on the streets. They were a family, for a short time. And in the back of Thalia's head, a part of her still didn't forgive Luke for what he did. She probably would never forgive him.

[Annabeth Chase]

Annabeth was glad Thalia hadn't made a big deal about her question. She kind of wished she hadn't asked, but she was also glad she had. She often wondered herself how the Great Prophecy might have been different if Thalia hadn't joined the Hunters, so she was sure Thalia thought about it pretty often.

"Well, there's supposed to be a new Great Prophecy, of course," Annabeth said. "But no one is sure what it means or when it will happen. I have my theories about what it's saying, but only the Fates know for sure, and they're not telling." She thought about it. The doors of death were obviously Hades, and the world falling didn't sound too good. "I wonder who the seven half-bloods are?" she mused. "It would be interesting to go on a quest again. Don't you think so, Pinecone Face?" She laughed and added, "Kidding!" before Thalia could say anything.

"Seriously, though, camp is a little boring. I used to think it was fun, but even as a kid, I knew that the real excitement was out in the real world." Annabeth remembered her younger self, obsessed with the idea of going on a quest, eager to prove herself. "After being out there and fighting real monsters, it's not so exciting beating up straw dummies and singing campfire songs anymore." Of course, her quest with Percy and Grover wasn't the first time she had fought monsters, but back when she was a kid, she hadn't trained or anything. It had been just the three of them, Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke. She sometimes missed those days.

[Thalia Grace]

Thalia grinned and looked at Annabeth,"Gods forbid that the prophecies concern us. Although, it was pretty cool kicking monster-butt all the time"[/color], Thalia ran her fingers through her hair and shot an arrow. The sound of it landing on the target made a clear snap that echoed throughout the arena. "I do wonder who the halfbloods are...I have my speculations- although, none of my Hunters seem to fit the description. To storm or fire the world must fall...that sounds a lot like Zeus and Hephaestus."

There wasn't a single day that Thalia woke up and didn't think about the Prophecy- gods knew what would happen. "Well, me and the Hunters go on adventures all the time. But yeah, its not the same as going on a quest with you, grover and seaweed brain", Thalia mummbled,"Hey, you called me pinecone face- I can call him seaweed brain."

Thalia looked around the arena,"Hey, you know where Percy and Grover are now? I haven't seen em' yet- Me and the hunters arrived like two hours ago. Most of them are killing the monsters in the woods- the younger ones are in the cabins", Thalia explained. "We were up in the Rockies chasing a small group of Telkhines and Dracanae. The fact that they are stirring...things don't look too good."