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It was another day at Camp Half-blood and that meant that for Ash it was another day of training. Unlike many of the demigods in camp Ash was one of the few that took his training seriously. Most of that was because he was a very serious young man but also because he just happened to like it. While most would try anything they could to get out of a day’s training regime Ash’s time on the lava wall and in the Pegasus stable was his time to relax and out of all the activities here at camp there was none that were as truly relaxing to him as archery training.

Today was a special day though. Today Ash was not only here for archery practice. Instead, he had a new bow slung across his back as he walked to the archery range and not one of the cheap armory bows either. No, this was a bow that he had made with his own hands and now was his first time testing it. Ever since his old bow had been slashed he had felt like a part of himself was missing. Oh sure he had made do in the meantime borrowing weapons when he needed one but none of those bows had been his bow. That all changed now though and Ash would have been lying if he had said he wasn’t excited even if you couldn't really tell by his usual serious expression he wore on his face.

Stepping out on the archery range and finding a place to start Ash unslung his new bow, drew an arrow and notched it to the string for that first experimental shot. He picked his target, raised the bow and as he pulled back on the string he relaxed his breathing. The man who had taught him to shoot a bow had always stressed the weakness of weapons to him. Must people tended to see weapons as instruments of death but that wasn't true. His bow, like all weapons, was just a tool to be used for a specific task. Albeit some tools were more effective than others as he could no doubt tell you but the pull strength, the quality of his arrows and even the aim of his shot was all him. Ash was the true killer. It was the one attribute of his father that he felt he could actually relate to and now he called on that part of himself as he marked his shot and let fly.

The twang of the bow felt right, the rush of wind as the arrow flew pass his face felt right and his aim was true. The arrow flew across the space between the target and sank home with a satisfying ‘thunk’ sound. Ash watched the spot where his arrow had hit making slight internal calculations for wind resistance, arrow weight and other contributing factors and then slowly nodded. He had finally found the right tool for the job. This was the bow he had been searching for and it was about damn time.

Callista DeWitt

Ash followed Dakota over to the patient who was complaining of the shoulder pain. In Ash’s opinion they could give the kid some ambrosia and a little over the counter pain killer and he thought the kid would be fine in a few hours but he wasn’t the professional here, Dakota was, and for now he decided to sit back and watch his girlfriend do her job as she saw fit. Maybe he could pick up some tips and tricks after all.

As it turned out watching Dakota work wasn’t such a bad thing. Not only did he get to admire the pretty nurse in her natural element but she also handled things quite efficiently. As the camper was going on and on with their whining about their injuries Ash watched as Dakota got prepared and slammed the camper’s shoulder back into place with satisfying force. Yeah, that was his girlfriend right there. She knew what she was doing and the little smirk she wore as she explained her methods made it all the better.

Ash waited for her to come back over nodding his approval when they finally got far enough away not to be heard. “That was very informative. I like how you didn’t give him any warning. It was effective and if he had known he would have complained about you doing it.” He frowned a little bit though as he thought the matter through. “Why let them leave when they want though? We could use that bed for another patient. Surely that’s more important than giving them an hour to nurse their wounds.”

Perfectly understandable Rachel. Those feelings are nothing to play around with and it's always a good thing to look for help. We appreciate you and miss you but taking care of yourself should always comes first. Take all the time you need and we'll be here when you get back.

Dakota relaxed a little as she continued talking but her tone of voice told Ash that this wasn’t going to be a good kind of conversation. Even as she tried to soften the blow Ash frowned at the direction this conversation was going. A gentle touch? Ash wasn’t especially well known for being gentle and so what if the guy complained? Perhaps he would have to explain to Chrion why he was getting drunk at camp and wouldn’t that be an interesting conversation. Still, Dakota was not pleased with him and that Ash didn’t like.

“Okay.” He said simply as he wrapped his head around the fact that she was essentially firing him from his duties. Ash had never been fired before and he wasn’t looking forward to it now especially considering the fact that he still thought of his actions as being fairly justified. Instead of giving up though he decided to give it one more shot. “Show me then. Let me shadow you for a while and see what you’re talking about. Maybe I can learn the ‘gentle touch’ I’m supposed to use.”

“What do you mean your head hurts?” Ash asked a Dionysus kid who had wandered into the infirmary a few minutes ago nursing a hangover with a self-professed splitting headache. Ash wasn’t much of a doctor but he had a pretty good idea that if you drank until your body physically rebelled against you a splitting headache was probably the least you deserved. He also didn’t know what kind of infirmary this was but he was pretty sure that the camp had more important things to worry about than people coming in with self-inflicted migraines and tummy aches.

“Well what did you expect would happen when you drink like a drowning man in the ocean?” He said before the camper could even get out a response. “What would happen if a monster attacked while you are nursing your swimming head? Would you cry their pardon and ask them to come back later when you had control of your senses? Bah!” Ash threw up his hand in the campers face before he could mount a defense for his actions. Perhaps he wasn’t concerned about such things but they didn’t need this fool being the weak link that broke apart at the first sign of trouble.

“Aspirin?” He asked as he saw the camper’s eyes drift to the medicine bottle on the stand beside him. “No you can’t have any aspirin. Go dunk your head in the lava flow at the wall. Maybe that would clear it up for all the good it does you. Now out!” The camper seeing that he would be getting no sympathy from the son of Apollo today wisely turned tail and ran / stumbled from the infirmary to seek solace elsewhere.

Ash watched him satisfied that he had cleared out another bed for a more deserving patient. Such had been the case many times since he had started helping around the infirmary and on a whole Ash was pleased that things seemed to be running a lot more smoothly. No longer did they have to worry about slackers coming in and hogging up the attention of the workers to bandage up insignificant cuts and scrapes. Now the seriously injured could be taken care of in a timely manner and wasn’t that what the infirmary was supposed to be about? Ash thought so and he was making it his one man mission to make it so one patient at a time.

It didn’t take Ash long to figure out what she was talking about when she spoke up again. She was not the only one who didn’t know her divine parent either in their godly form or the form that their human parent had fallen in love with. The gods weren’t really known for their tendency to stick around after all. In Ash’s case the problem was compounded by the fact that he didn’t really know his mother either. Having died shortly after child birth Ash had grown up with an overbearing grandfather who had always blamed him for the loss of his only daughter. It hadn’t been a happy situation and over all Ash was better for being here.

By all accounts Atalanta seemed to have the right of the situation though. There were all kinds of stories about their godly parents and Ash found it ridiculous to think that just because they were born from a certain god or goddess they were expected to act a certain way. "Exactly." He confirmed as Atalanta finished. "We are not our parents. Just because you are a child of Ares does not mean you are warlike and just because I'm a soon of Apollo doesn't mean I walk around thinking of poetry all day. I've been told I'm too serious." He shrugged. "Taking things seriously has kept me alive so why wouldn't I?"

Ash fixed Atalanta with a look of utter incomprehension. Tone it down? Why should he tone it down? He saw no benefit in coddling the demigods that lived here even if they were newbies. In fact, he would argue that it was that very thing that had led the camp to be attacked in the first place. Traitors in their midst bringing violence to their door, if they had been more careful, more observant that may not have happened...or maybe it still would have. In any case it didn't matter. Control the things you could control and training for the danger ahead, preparations for conflict those were things that could be controlled.

But Atalanta wouldn't have known any of this and sitting here on the lava wall wasn't really the place to tell here. Think what she would about him he still stood by his convictions and the simple, carefree hope that things would be alright on their own just didn't pan out in his mind. Besides, he couldn't see how the opposite mindset, living like there was no danger around any corner, could possibly be beneficial. He decided to make one more attempt. "Perhaps I wasn't clear. I don't mean that we should live in fear of what is to come but rather that we should prepare like it eventually will. A healthy dose of reality is not a bad thing. It prepares us for what is around the corner whether that be a kraken or nothing at all. Living in fear is perhaps the worse thing we can do."

Her next statement made him huff again. She really had mistaken his meaning if she thought he was in communication with Apollo. Even if he did have a special relationship with his father he doubted he would be able to stand the god for too long. Ash simply had daddy issues. Like every other demigod here at camp. "No, I have never seen my father in person. I merely meant that the attributes that he has and generally shares with his children are not really my thing. I think that many here would feel the same whether they had talked with their divine parents face to face or not."