Authors Note: this is not in continuity with my other fanfic because of Chronos's dying discharges. Also timey-wimey ball.

My breakfast included two fried eggs, a grapefruit, and a divine commandment.

I'd offered one of the eggs to my mother, whoever she was. I traded the grapefruit to Lacy for her eggs (the stick-to-your-cabin's-table rule is relaxed when it's not summer, and while I'm keen on fruit in general, grapefruit carries…unpleasant associations.) I drained my mocha-smoothie goblet and slathered my eggs with ketchup. Then I put my spoon into the cereal bowl.

Sometimes, with alphabet cereal, you get a random word, like "ate" or "god". I didn't bother to come up for a come-back when Drew from Aphrodite gave me a "helpful hint" about carbs. I didn't notice my eggs growing cold or my refilled smoothie getting lukewarm.

This was an entire message in poetic verse. I also remembered we had shredded wheat, not alphabets.

You will follow the crumb to an old foe's friend

Combat the Mist and drop-dead gorgeous

Childhood taunts can save you in the end

Destroy Rich Honesty's enterprise, and, um, Gaea's butt this poetry is hard

Sincerely, Mom

PS: My roomy says you should keep quiet about this.

Half the other campers left. My stomach clenched with pain to remind me that I hadn't touched my eggs. I kept puzzling over the soggy cereal.

There was the usual divine vagueness of course. "Drop-dead gorgeous" could be Medusa, Impusae, or Sirens. The Mist was everywhere, keeping mortals and sometimes demigods from seeing the true nature of things. I'd heard from Lacy's ex-girlfriend's current friend-with-benefits that certain heroes, like Thalia, could manipulate the Mist, working their own background details into a mortal setting so people thought they belonged there. I also knew some monsters or gods had a stronger Mist aura that made them difficult to spot, especially to Percy Jackson for some reason. (Go figure: son of the earth-shaker, repeated savior of the planet, the hero who revived our quests, but can't count the number of eyes in somebody's forehead. It just goes to show we're only human. Well, not only human, but you get the idea.)

I polished off my meager breakfast and went up for seconds, then thirds. Sure, the gods had gone silent, our biggest hero was missing, most of the other heroes were only stopping off at camp long enough to grab ambrosia and replace their weapons, and all monsters had suddenly become immortal, but it could be worse. I commanded my goblet to refill with chocolate syrup and drained it in two gulps. At least this wasn't the other camp.

I frowned at my plate. I'd finished off the soggy cereal and then drunk the now-sugary discolored milk. I'd licked the plate clean after that. There weren't any crumbs left.

"Stupid, stupid," I hissed at myself. I drained the goblet and refilled it with hot chocolate. I felt a little calmer after scalding my mouth and finishing that off. Maybe "crumb" meant something else. It didn't do to go too literal with prophecies, but I didn't feel confident figuring it out on my own. I had lots of old foes, mortal and monstrous. Maybe Terry from Athena cabin could help me figure it out.

It's not that I was too dumb to figure it out myself. I just thought it would go faster, and anyway, he owed me a favor.