Quest for the Lost Oracle

Chapter 1: Follow the Monsters?

"Holy Hades!"

I ducked, slashed, and rolled. My attacks barely scratched the Hydra. It turned and spat red-hot flames at me. I ducked again. I could feel the heat of the fire over my head. I slashed at the beast's legs with my sword. At my right, Nico was fighting an evil version of Tyson, and, somewhere towards my left, Sophia was battling four Drakaina. I cursed myself. We should never have tried to cross this camp.

You see, when the Oracle of Delphi was reported missing, Chiron immediately chose us three for the search quest. I tried to protest. What were a son of Hades (Nico), a daughter of Thanatos (Sophia), and a daughter of Hecate (Me) supposed to do to a whole legion of monsters (I was convinced nothing less could kidnap Rachel)? But you know how stubborn Chiron can be. He just wouldn't take "No" for an answer. So, armed with our swords, a hundred and one daggers (Don't ask), a few of my best spellbooks, some ambrosia, a bottle of nectar, and no prophecy whatsoever, we hoped into a camp boat and set sail for… Somewhere. The truth was, without a prophecy, we had no idea where to go. So, we decided to play 'Follow the Monsters' and started tracking down all the monsters we could find. Three days after our departure, we arrived at a monster camp, where we were met by a Hydra, a Cyclops, and six Drakaina.

Back to the Present.

I silently swore that if we ever made it back alive, I would kill Chiron and make myself a handbag with his hide. Unfortunately, the odds of us surviving this quest were kinda low. I just hoped this cursed Hydra wouldn't burn my hair too much…

"Spectra? A little help, please?" Nico called.

"Can't, I'm a little occupied with Mr. Hydra here. He's trying to turn me into roast beef…" I replied sullenly between two streams of fire. "I'll trade you if you want… I'd rather fight a one-eyed giant than try to watch nine heads at a time."

"No thanks! I don't want to dodge streams of fire and try to get my own hits in at the same time either… Is Sophia occupied too?" He yelled back.

"She's fighting four giant mutated snakes! Do you think she's busy?"

"Never mind…"

I turned back to the creature I was fighting… Just in time to see a giant head ram into me.

I don't know what happened next. I think my instincts and my training took over, but I woke up from something like a dream to find the Hydra lying in a pool of blood, my sword in its stomach, and about eighteen of my daggers in its eye sockets, all the way up to its nine brains. Only later did I find out I had unconsciously casted a petrifying spell on the Hydra. It was unmistakably dead, and, for a moment, I wanted to dip a knife or two in the black blood on the ground, just to see if it really was poisonous.

"What are you waiting for, Spectra?!" Nico's voice rose me from my thoughts. "Dip those arrows in the cursed beast's blood and shoot the Cyclops!" He pointed to a bow and a quiver of arrows next to our bags.

I sprang to the bow, grabbed both the weapon and the quiver, and dipped an arrow into the Hydra's blood. I drew back the bow's string, took aim, and let the arrow fly through the air. It sank into the Cyclops' neck. I've always been a good archer… And the poison was good. The one-eyed hybrid fell over, dead as a doornail.

I dipped another arrow into the black poison, and used it to shoot the last Drakaina. I then holstered my sword, after cleaning it of course, and drew my knives out of the carcass's eye sockets while Nico and Sophia dipped the rest of our arrows into the black liquid pooling around us.

We searched the camp. No sign of a map or anything to tell us where Rachel Elizabeth Dare might be. We did, however, find some dry food, water, and a few weapons I decided to keep.

We stayed in the camp for the night. At dawn, we packed up (I had successfully casted an enlargement spell on our backpacks, so that each backpack was now the size of a small house inside, and a regular backpack on the outside. I had also reduced the weight of the bags to about 10 kilograms each, easy to carry.), and started walking north, towards the city. We had no idea where we were, or what we would find up there.

Night had fallen when we reached the city. There, we found a hotel room to spend the night. The receptionist told us we had somehow landed in Cairo, Egypt. Divine forces must have had a hand in this, because no ship, no matter how fast, could make the journey from America to Egypt in 3 days. The gods wanted us to land here.

We decided to search Cairo tomorrow. But Nico remarked that Cairo was Egypt's capital city, and that could mean we should search the entire country. I felt depressed and wanted to go to bed, but Rachel could be anywhere, and who knew who or what had taken her? What kind of danger was she in?