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Parkour? Ash had heard of it before and knew of the concepts but had never looked into it much himself. Still, judging from how she had been moving up the wall it was obvious that it had served some benefit. For a new arrival at camp she already seemed to have a pretty good handle on the physical side of things and that was good. It would certainly make her training here a lot smoother if Chiron wasn’t teaching her the basics.

When she didn’t take his hand Ash hunkered down on his haunches beside her and he watched the other demigods doing their climbs. Not enough had changed since the attack on camp. Things had gotten back to normal but that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Ash did what he could but he got the impression they weren’t out from under the shadow of whatever had been looming over them yet. For the moment though the camp was safe and that had to count for something. The future was uncertain but with new demigods like Atalanta showing up maybe they weren’t in such bad shape after all.

“I can tell your parkour has been beneficial.” He said as he continued to watch the other demigods make progress up the wall. “You climb well. The only question is what did you learn? You said earlier that the lava wall was an insane idea. Do you still think so?”

"It's not a competition." Ash said stoically as she offered him a race. It wasn't that he was opposed to the idea but he had never understood why some demigods just had to make everything a game. In his mind training was a matter of business and not recreation but then again he had the unfortunate luck to have been born a 60 year old man without a sense of humor so this was not an all together uncommon occurrence for him. Still, Ash gave a perfunctory nod and led the way over to the wall.

His path was plain and simple. Get to the top was the goal so he selected the course that would do that the quickest and most practical was he could. As he scaled the wall he moved with a focused ease that could have only come from long practice and he wasted no time messing around with what he was doing.

It wasn't until he reached the top however that he turned back to mark Atalanta's progress. When he did though he noted that she was doing well enough for herself. Obviously she had some kind climbing experience under her belt because even though she didn't know the pattern she was making admirable work of the rocky surface. All in all not bad for a first timer. Crossing his arms Ash watched as Atalanta approached the top but as she came closer he kneeled and reached out a hand to offer that final grip she would need. "Done done climbing before I take it?"

Climbing wall day. Of all the training sessions Chiron put on here at camp this was he's least favorite. Granted he could see what they were trying to do. The climbing wall was perfect for teaching speed, agility and strength. It taught them to stay on their toes and that even simple situations carried with them a threat of death of a demigod. That was all fine and good. The problem was that Ash had climbed this wall more times than he could remember and the wall stopped becoming much of a challenge somewhere during that time.

For all it's benefits for training new demigods for those that had been around a while this was a training session that had become a little too familiar. Ash would do it because it needed to be done but other than that he hoped this wouldn't take long so that he could move on to a more productive use of his time.

Pulling on his gloves the son of Apollo prepared for the climb and took a glance around at the other campers who were doing the same. It was then that he noticed a new face among the crowd who was grumbling and looking up at the wall with a bit of trepidation. A first timer most likely but Ash could easily remember his first time on the wall and how daunting the task seemed. That being the case it didn't take much consideration before he decided to speak up with a little advice. A few things he wished someone had told him. "Watch the wall before you climb and plan your route. There is a pattern in the lava and figuring it out is key to getting to the top."

Ash nodded at her response and watched as she renewed her training. The form was still sloppy and her technique needed work but that could be learned. A desire to train, to learn, to survive, those were things that could not be taught. In any case his words did have some effect if only to make her ashamed of the way she had been approaching her training. That wasn’t a very helpful emotion either but it was a step in the right direction.

“Ash, Apollo cabin.” He said simply as she turned to him. She was a new girl, daughter of Zeus if he remembered correctly. Ash could have confirmed as much had he bothered to ask but he hadn’t come over to confirm things that he already knew. Instead he directed the attention back to the reason they were here. “You need to tighten up your grip on the blade.” His voice was still cool and emotionless as he spoke but it had lost much of the impatient edge that it had held earlier.

“Here let me show you.” With that he reached out for her sword hand and closed his fingers around hers giving Tess a pattern to follow. The grip was loose enough to keep her fingers from locking up around the hilt but not so loose that she would get the blade knocked out of her hand at the first sign of contact. “Is that better? It should give you a little more control over your swings and diminish the recoil you feel on impact.”

His words took her off guard and she dropped the sword she had been holding. Ash watched her impassively as she whipped around to face him and listened to what she had to say but found himself unmoved by her excuses. That’s what they were too, excuses to become slack in her training because she didn’t understand the point, and with an attitude like that she could end up getting herself or someone who depended on her killed.

“That ‘poor guy’ is a dummy made of straw and if you can’t find it in yourself to hit it with at least some conviction how can you hope to hit something that thinks and moves and wants to kill you?” It was a fair question. The habits developed in training were the habits that carried over into real situations. If she wanted to survive and not just be lucky she needed to take this seriously. “The dummy is not there to teach you how to hit something. Any child with a tree branch can figure out how to swing it. What you are trying to accomplish is to train your body and your mind."

He left the bow leaning against the place he was sitting and got up to come over to her. As he walked he continued his explanation. "Muscles that become faster and stronger from striking something solid don’t give out when they face something that pushes back. Motions and stances that are drilled into the mind by repetition become second nature so you no longer have to think about them in battle. Body and mind are your real weapons, not the sword in your hand. Do you understand?”

Ash set on the training field stringing another bow for target practice. It was a tedious process and to the simple observer he would have looked stoic and detached as he carried out an action that he had done enumerable times before. Internally however the son of Apollo was anything but calm and collected and even though none of his inner conflict showed on his face the situation was beginning to wear on him.

He had lost count of the number of bows he had worked with today. The problem wasn’t that the bows were poor quality. The problem wasn’t that he couldn’t use what the camp had in the armory. The real issue here and the one that had him in his current mood was that none of these bows were his bow and no matter how well made these other weapons were they didn't feel right to replace the one he had lost and that made him a little more irritable than usual.

He had decided that this would be the last bow he would try today. So far he had gotten nowhere and if being out here on the practice field was doing no good then he might as well find something more productive to do with his time like stopping by the infirmary to see his favorite nurse. That could wait just a little longer though at least until he took a few test shots.

Just as he finished stringing the bow however, Ash became aware that he wasn’t alone on the training field anymore. He glanced up and spotted a blonde girl attacking a dummy and the sight of her unenthusiastic attempts distracted him from his activates for just a moment. She was sloppy, uninspired and uncommitted to her attacks and that was enough to set his already tense nerves on edge. With an attitude like that the girl would be lucky to last a week outside camp and that was something Ash couldn’t let pass. “Attacking like you don’t mean it defeats the purpose of being out here. Surely you didn’t come here today just to waste your time.”

“I’m hoping to keep my dealings with homicidal maniacs to a minimum thank you.” Ash said as she continued patching him up. The excitement aside he hoped that camp would be done with the conspiracy theories for a while the only problem was he had a sneaking suspicion that a camp full of demigods never got much of a rest. That being the case it was probably wise to keep from making promises he might not be able to keep.

When she finished cleaning and bandaging his wounds Ash didn’t even look down to examine her work. All things consider he was no worse for wear but right now he had eyes for only one person and she was sitting on the bed in front of him. “That’s too bad.” He said as he pushed himself up off the bed and moved a little closer to her. “You make an awfully cute damsel. One that I don’t mind riding out to save.” Sitting up in front of her on the bed his arms slid around Dakota’s waist and tugged her closer so that she was only a breaths distance away. “Now what was that I heard you saying back there? I seem to remember it started with ‘I’ and ended with ‘you’. I think I need a little refresher.”