I Read an Ancient Text Message

My winter break started normally enough. I did the usual teenage things like staying up late, sleeping in, and eating nothing but cereal. My biggest problem was finishing a history paper that was due when I got back to school. It was great to just have some down time after all that I been through last summer. I still had nightmares about the Battle of the Labyrinth. It was nice to not worry about anything, to just have regular problems for a while. I thought I could have a normal life even if it was just temporary but I was wrong. I was watching TV when I got the call to come to camp as soon as possible. My mom wasn't happy that I had to go because we didn't know why I had to leave or when I would be home. She just wanted me to be home for Christmas, our first with Paul.

When I got to camp everything looked normal. It looked like all the year round campers were there. I went straight to the Big House and Chiron was waiting on the porch.

"Percy, it's good to see you." He welcomed me.

"It's good to see you too but why did you call?" I asked.

"Well that is a bit complicated. Tell me Percy, what do you know about ancient Egypt?" Okay Déjà vu.

"Not much, why?" I asked hesitantly.

"Do you know anything about Cleopatra?"

"Not a lot just that she was supposed to beautiful and she was the last Pharaoh right?"

"Very good Percy. She was the last Pharaoh of Egypt as well as a demigod, a daughter of Apollo. She was also was a powerful sorceress. When she was alive Cleopatra studied magic with Circe. She let the power go to her head. She started calling herself a god and openly insulting the Olympians. That didn't sit well with them. They took her kingdom, killed her lovers, all indirectly of course but before Octavian could have her killed she cast a spell and took her own life." He handed me a piece stone with Ancient Greece written on it, When the sun god sires a daughter of Egyptian blood, Weather the Nile is barren or a flood, To make the mighty Gods of Olympus morn, I will be fully restore, renewed, reborn.

"That was found next to her body."I got a bad feeling about what he was telling me. "Apollo was forced to swear on the River Styx to never let this happen but it seems he failed. He confessed to Zeus that he broke his oath. At first Zeus had the miner gods looking for her but they have had no luck and somehow Kronos found out about this and he has everyone under his command searching for her but Percy you must find this girl first. She holds great power and she must join us." None of the stuff about magical queens being reincarnated surprised me. I only had one question.

"Why me?" I couldn't understand why I had to do this.

"Because I believe you can convince her to come here. You are the only other person who can understand the pressures she will face."

"Okay where is she, what's her name?"

"We don't know, Apollo said that her mother fled when he told her about the curse, he never learned the child's name and there is some kind of spell protecting her from magical found."

"That's going to make things easy." I couldn't hide my frustrations, Apollo was my nominee for father of the year. "So how do we find her?"

"We know her mother's name Asma Halawani. I have Annabeth looking up some possible options. You should go to your cabin and settle in."

"Is Annabeth here?" I tried not to sound too excited. She should still be in San Francisco.

"Not yet, she'll arrive tomorrow. I thought you would want her to do this with you." He was right but I don't know if I liked that he assumed.

"Okay, I'll see you in the morning."

When I got to my cabin it was still clean from last summer. I went to dinner and then straight to bed. I wanted to enjoy what might be my last night of peaceful sleep. In the morning I went to the big house before breakfast. Chiron and Annabeth were waiting for me. At first she had a big smile but as I walked closer it fade like she didn't want me to know she was happy to see me. Before I could say anything Grover came up behind me and put his arm around my shoulder.

"Hey Percy, how've you been?" He said.

"Good man, how are things in the wild?"

"Not so great." He answered sadly. Ever since Pan died Grove had tried so hard to spread his message, unfortunately it wasn't going well.

"Hi Annabeth, how's school?" What a stupid question, I told myself.

"It's going fine Seaweed brain." She told me, "So you're going on a quest, you know what that means."

"Yeah, I know." It meant a trip to the oracle. I hated going to that stupid attic.

When I got close to the mummified hippy girl she opened her mouth and the green mist surrounded me.

The lost queen is found in the land of the sun

Three start the journey but soon will add one

Heroes become villains along the way

The true enemy escapes on this day

New powers and strength corrupted the soul

The end of a life is the ultimate goal

I want down the stairs not liking the prophecies I was given but then again when has anyone ever gotten a good prophecy. I told everyone what I had heard.

"Well the first two lines are easy enough." Grover said, "She's some place sunny and the three of us are going to start the journey and add someone else, hopefully the queen."

"Yeah but the rest of it…" was bad, confusing, and made me nervous I searched for the right word, "sucks." Was the best thing I could think about.

"The land of the sun thing is really helpful. I tracked down five Asma Halawani who gave birth to babies in December of 1991. Two are boys, so they're out. The other three girls are from New Mexico, Florida, and Alaska so I think we can rule her out." Annabeth told us.

"So we're down to two. That's great." I thought this would be a lot tougher.

"No we're down to one, Monera Scott was born in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida also known as the Sunshine State. I think we have a winner." Annabeth said happy all her research paid off.

"Cool when do we leave?" I asked.

"As soon as possible," Chron told us, "pack your things quickly and Angus will drive you to Penn Station when you're ready."

With that we all went our separate ways packing our things and eating a quick breakfast. When I made my offering and said a pray.

"Dad, please help me and my friend through this." I really didn't want the end of our lives be anyone's ultimate goal.