Seth snorted. "I may end up switching sides, then," he said with a teasing grin. "See you over there."

"See you then," Dawn agreed. Turning, she went to head back towards camp proper. She had alliances to make.

A short while later, Seth had gathered everyone on his team and was currently lounging around just waiting. This should be much fun.

Nika had decided to play, but she wasn't her normal cheery self. She was quiet and withdrawn, staying on the edges of the group, and she avoided Jason entirely.

Dawn was discussing strategy with the leader of Athena cabin when she noticed Nika. Breaking off the conversation, she went over to her friend.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "And don't say nothing, I'll know you're lying."

"Ask Jason," Nika said quietly, looking away from her. "I don't feel like reliving it twice in one day."

Of course. It had to be Jason's fault.

"What did he do?" Dawn asked. "Do I need to hit him for it?"

"No. No need. I just warned him off." Nika shrugged. "If you tell him to he'll repeat what I told him." She stretched a little.

"Well, if it helps any, I figured out why I threatened to hogtie him," Dawn offered. "You'll see tonight at the bonfire."

Nika nodded and stretched again briefly. She was anxious to start this bloody game so she could go hide again for a while.

Making sure her armor and quiver were secure, Dawn went back over to her brothers. The game was going to start soon, and they needed to be ready.

As soon as they started, Nika took off. She'd already taken it on herself to be the distraction and go against the rest of her siblings. It would be interesting, certainly.

As soon as they started, Dawn skirted off around the side of the main combat area. She knew what her job was, and kept alert as she took a slightly round-about route to the opposing team's flag. If the Athena campers' plan worked right, she would be able to avoid most of the confrontations.

Nika, on the other hand, was doing everything in her power to draw attention to herself. She would randomly sneak up on people and attack them or make lots of noise in one area before running off to another area. It worked like she'd hoped; the other team stayed confused and distracted. And she didn't even get hit. Hard.

Dawn slipped through the trees as quickly as she could. She had to find the red flag before the red team themselves found her team's flag. She emerged into a clearing and grinned when she found what she was looking for.

She didn't count on being surrounded almost immediately.

About half the Ares kids stood in a circle around her. They all grinned. Now she couldn't get out.

Nika had already started heading towards the red flag, just trying to pull enough attention to herself as possible.

Well. This wasn't in the plan. Dawn made a mental note to punch the Athena leader for not planning for this, and then dismissed the mental note. She should have literally seen this coming. She drew her bow, and reached back carefully for a flash arrow. Hopefully, the Ares people wouldn't know what the white fletching on the arrow meant, and she'd be able to use the flash to get past them.

Nika just continued trying to make distractions, although she knew something was wrong. She hadn't seen any of her siblings in a while, which made her suspicious. So she headed for the flag to find out what was going on.

Dawn took a step or two backwards as she pulled the arrow back and aimed it at the ground. She kept her eyes on the group surrounding her, making sure none of them made any sudden moves towards her. At the last possible second, she shot the arrow right into the middle of the circle, closing her eyes against the brilliant flash, and darted towards a small gap between two of the Ares campers, hoping the flash distracted them long enough for her to get free and grab the flag.

Nika saw the flash and darted over, starting to distract her siblings. They all had this look of 'oh, crap' as soon as they saw her, and she let out a war cry before she lunged at them, attacking them just enough to get their attention.

Dawn's heart nearly stopped when she heard the war cry, but she'd trained at camp long enough to be able to use a distraction when it presented itself to her. As soon as the Ares campers broke formation, she sprinted forward and grabbed the flag. She actually relaxed slightly when her fingers closed around the wooden pole.

"Run!" Nika yelled to Dawn, covering her retreat and keeping her siblings distracted. All seven of them that were there.

"I'm running, I swear!" Dawn shouted back, sprinting back towards the other side of the clearing with the flag.

Nika fought them all off, though she wore out after a bit and retreated herself.

Once Dawn was out of the line of fire from the Ares-cabin brawl, she slowed down a bit and went back towards where her own team's flag was. As long as she was able to get it back there, they would win.

Nika managed to hold everyone off, giving her time to get back to their flag. Hey, no one said she couldn't take on the entire other team by herself.