The mysteries of life

A lone demigod sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the wooden dock which jutted out into the lake, her green eyes staring at the distant shore. Emily was lost in deep thought, the daughter of Athena had come to the lake because she found it peaceful. At least it happened to be so at the moment, most of the other campers were still asleep. Only a few people rose as early as she had. The petite demigod had a slim athletic build, with long fiery ginger hair tied into a ponytail, pale skin and a soft freckled face. She wore an orange Camp Half-blood T-shirt, jeans and black socks, her black trainers were located next to her on the dock. The sound of water gently lapping against the wooden supports was soothing. She found her thoughts as they soft often did when idle replying past actions and previous combat situations, be they theoretical ones or physical against monsters or rival cabins. Though she may of been resting, her mind was seldom if ever idle, her mind developed counter moves and alternative stratagems to defeat her opponents. Sure, Em lost battles as well, but she learned and rarely fell for the same trick twice. The battles filtered round her head, weaving in her mind as she created, tested, discarded and developed. The mind was the greatest weapon available to a demigod, they needed to hone it to a razor's edge. They may of enjoyed relative safety within the confines of this camp, but the moment that they left... Well things were drastically different in the real world. That's why Emily needed to be prepared, to have a plan ready to counter any situation, ready for anything a monster might try...

It just so happened that another of the half-bloods was up and awake at this time; Fauna was heading around the lake, wearing a long silk blue dress and ocean blue high heels for the new day when she found a ginger-haired girl, sitting by herself by the lake in deep thought. She had a pale completion and had freckles; she kinda reminded her of Sean. She came around and put her hands on the young girl's shoulder with a sweet smile on her face.

"You girls of Athena always so adorable when your deep in thought; get this furrowed look on your face and it looks really cute" She said with the motherly smile on her face.

Emily jumped, knocked out of her thoughts when suddenly someone placed their hands on her shoulders. She recovered quickly however, though her face flushed with colours from embaressment. "Don't sneak up on me." She protested unable to see how anyone could see her as adorable or cute. Em was far shorter than her current companion, an older demigod clearly, if the relative height difference was anything to go by. "What is up?" She asked, deciding to push the conversation away from how anyone might manage to interpret her as cute.
That had always been her problem, the unexpected. It often presented her with a problem as it was difficult to think of a counter measure to it. However, she would eventually find something. Romance was not her particular field of strategy, she left it to others, love happened to be something which the demigod kept well away from. She pushed herself back from the edge of the dock and slid her shoes back on, tying the laces quickly. She stood up, yep much shorter than her current companion, much much shorter. She pushed the thought away however, height really was not that big of an issue.

Fauna simply smiled at her.

"Sorry dear; just wasn't sure how to get your attention when you Athena girls get so deep into thought, it's like you go into a trance or something. It wasn't my intention to scare you" She explained to the young girl. Even as she stood up, the girl was still much shorter then her, especially as Fauna was in her heels. She decided to kneel down in a squat so she could look her more face to face.

"Well, we are up, ain't we? I woke up a bit earlier then normal and decided to take a stroll and found you, sitting all by your lonesome. Although I guessing you mean how I am and I'm fine, dear; just had a bit of a restless night, hence I'm up earlier" She explained, her british accent pretty clear and something that probably made her stand out from the rest of the american half-bloods that normally were a part of the camp.

"Oh do forgive me, I forgot to ask your name, dear; what's your name?" She said, it seemed it was becoming a habit of not asking for people's names first, something at least herself had realized a bit over recent times.

"I really need to remember to ask names first" She thought to herself as she waited for the Athena girl's response.

"You  startled me that is all." She objected,  feeling a prickle of irritation as the other demigod squatted down to be more at her height. Em knew it was partly so that she could look easily into her face, however part of her knew her annoyance came from the fact she was much taller. She was the short cute girl, a fact she rarely let herself admit, focusing more on strategy rather than as many demigods did, the field of romance.
"You're English?" The accent of her homeland surprisingly welcome to her ears. "Where are you from? I'm from Oxford." Emily explained to the taller girl.

"Emily." She answered, she usually forgot to ask names of other demigods but conversational skills were not her cup of tea. Unless it came to talking about plans, strategy and or tactics. Then she was very good at talking to others outside of the field of debates. Ordinary conversations however... They were a problem. What did demigods talk about normally?

She nodded, although the girl seemed to perk up just a little hearing her british accent, saying she was british herself and asking where she was from.

"That's lovely, dear; it makes a nice change to talk from someone from home instead of the americans around here. I'm from derby; might not be as fancy as oxford, but its peaceful. Well, I mean it was for me till the sign came when I turned thirteen, but I'm sure you know what dangers tend to hunt us, especially when the sign comes, so I won't bore you with the details, dear" She explained simply. She knew the girl was smart as a child of Athena, so she wasn't going to go into all the details about how she had been hunted by hags, men with bull heads and so on. The girl introduced herself as Emily and she smiled warmly.

"That's a nice name, Emily; I'm Fauna Reacher, the cabin counselor for cabin twenty-eight. She explained, introducing herself before she had a think herself, wondering what would best keep Emily's interest.

"It's been a while since I've talked about this and I think it might be something that would interest you; the capture the flag event, what tends to be your plan when your playing it?" She asks, thinking that, as a child of the goddess of wisdom and war, something like tactics and strategy might interest the young girl. Fauna had played in them before, so wanted to see this young girl's view. She decided to sit down next to Emily since staying in the squat was going to kill her legs after a while, plus it wouldn't be as awkward for Emily to have to talk to her while she was standing squat in front of her.

True to form Em skirted around the topic of her own history and how she came to camp. For whatever reason she preferred to avoid discussing it. To her it simply was one of those matters not for discussion nor debate. She nodded politely when the girl introduced herself, apparently she was the cabin councillor. She made a note of it and stored it away in her mind for future reference and use. Yet she moved on to discuss the capture the flag event, inquiring about Emily's strategy. The gate however came down, Em would quite happy talk tactics, but the strategy she prepared for the upcoming event was classified. Who knew if there were ears listening, ears which would spill what they heard to the rival cabins.
Far better to hold onto her masterstroke until it was time to unleash it and achieve victory for Athena and her allies in the battle ahead. "I cannot discuss that plan. Classified as you never know who will be listening." She forced a smile. "I can discuss others if you would like?" A counter offer of conversation. Far better that than simply going no thanks.

"I don't win every fight but I learn from those mistakes and counter them. There is no such thing as an unwinnable situation for me." Em was determined to prefect her strategy, till it was an art and skill beyond compare. Of course, no strategy was flawless, no plan perfect, no tactic suitable for every possible event. The true skill, came in knowing what the enemy were doing without revealing your own intentions. A skill hard to learn and even more difficult to deploy on the battlefield.
"The last one. Blitzkrieg. Hit them hard and fast, exploit any breakthroughs without giving the enemy any time to react or counter. Simple yet effective. Easier with the Ares kids on the team naturally." She shrugged her shoulders. "One has to make do with the talents and skills of those they have under their banner. Use the strengths of the demigods where it suits them and ensure the enemy is in a situation where he is weakest." For example, fighting a child of Athena in a spider infested part of the woods. Even the thought of spiders sent a thrill of terror lacing down her spine. She pushed it aside, nothing could be done about the issue with Athena kids and spiders.

She listened as Emily explained that, although not willing to go over her plan for the coming event, she wouldn't mind discuss other strategies.

"Sure honey" She smiled and patiently listened as Emily went over some strategies and some of her thinking philosophy behind them. She seemed pretty confident in her ability to overcome the odds and come out victories, not matter what. It was a good spirit to have, although it could come across as cocky. Once she had finished, she spoke.

"I see; that's a lot of planning you've done, dear. I've always been more defensive, I guess its just not in my nature to hurt people if it can be helped. I've played in many capture the flag games, mixed bag of results. Although considering the capture the flag event, which cabins do you want to have work with you? I know teams are picked at random, but is there any your particularly hoping for?"

"A defensive strategy is good. A defensive mindset can be readily overcome unfortunately, after all following Napoleon's example an enemy who hides behind his walls is beaten." A thin smirk appeared. "Not to say to fight a defensive battle when the odds are not in your favour is unwise, but it can play directly into the plans of the enemy." She shrugged, the strategic view ever being her strong point. Of course it would of been hubris to say she could win every battle, but she believed it was possible to. If you lacked belief it would be impossible to achieve victory in anything. A force with low morale, even if it were better equipped, trained and out numbered could still lose to a smaller force in good spirits.
She looked thoughtful for the moment before answering. "I think I could win with any of them. Ideally Ares and Apollo would be great to have on side, throw in the Hermes kids for recon and possibly Nemesis." Ares was an important cabin to have, the children of the god of war held a natural advantage in that particular field. However, it did not mean they would follow orders nor stick with the plan. In the end it largely came down to seeing what was dealt her way. Not that Emily could come up with a plan for every situation. New counters or unexpected events could and did throw her off, her own initial counters usually coming across as predictable. Yet Em learned, adapted her strategy and tactics, never falling for the same trick twice.

"True enough and I can fight offensively, don't you worry, sweetheart: I just tend to value defense rather then offense when I can help it, but I'm far from helpless if it came to fighting back" She explained simply. Emily's words were sound in their reasoning, it only made sense as a daughter of Athena to have a advanced level of intellect, far beyond normal mortals. Emily then explained that the cabins she'd most like to go with on capture the flag was Ares, Apollo and Hermes. Nemesis was a interesting choice, but decided not to ask. She then asked a probably obvious question.

"What if you were picked to be with my cabin and work with me? how would you work that into your plans?"

A frown flickered on her face for a second at the mention of her being a sweetheart. Emily however dismissed it and it vanished quickly as it feared. As far as she was concerned, Em happened to be anything but sweet. She had not worked with the other girl's cabin for a while, it would require some time to think of the strategies required in order to secure victory. Or at the very least increase the chance of securing it.
"Try to get you to play to your strengths, or deliberately place you in a position where you might be compromised in order to goad the enemy into making a mistake. They charge, you withdraw, hit them with a counter once their line is overextended on the advance." Simple really. Well simply so long as you were Wisdom's daughter.

"That makes sense, honey; although I really should do some training at some point; even though not much of a fighter, wouldn't hurt to practice, right?" She said, smiling.

"How about you, dear? what will your plans be for today?"