Sorry I haven't updated in a while…..I've been busy.

Btw, I just got some new books im going to read, and I wanna know if any of you people read them:

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

And has anyone ever read 'Touching Spirit Bear' by Ben Mikaelsen? I suggest reading it. It's a really good book, and im picky about what I read!

PJatO does not belong to me.

New poll, please vote

Chapter 2

The Beginning of the Quest

TRAVIS'S POV

After I left the meeting thing where I said I would go on a quest, and Conner had agreed to go with me, I let him pick who was going with us. Because of the circumstances, Chiron wanted us to take two other people with us, which had only been done once before when Annabeth and Percy went into the Labyrinth. I was currently in the cave where Rachel, the Oracle, stayed. She always did confuse me and prophecies give me headaches. I don't ever get why we need a prophecy if we were told Apollo declared there had to b a quest.

She just sat there on her bed, looking like she was concentrating.

"How long is this going to take? I've been here for hours!" I complained.

"It's been five minutes." She stated, now giving me a confused look.

"ADHD. It has that effect on people." I explained.

I almost fell asleep by the time Rachel stood up and green mist poured from her eyes and mouth.

"You will travel to the mountain of the Winds,

and face the tree of many years and minds

to make your own thunder

on a quest where you cant dunder

a single life for many

it all hangs by a thread for any"

Then she fainted and woke up a few second later.

"What did I say?" she asked.

"Basically that if this quest fails, the whole Hermes cabin will die and that if we make one wrong move, then it's possible the whole world might suffer."

"No, what was the prophecy?" she asked.

I sighed. "You will travel to the mountain of the winds; and face the tree of many years and minds; to make your own thunder; on a quest where you can't dunder; a single life for many; it all hangs from a thread for any."

"Creepy. Good luck!"

I snorted and left. I didn't like Rachel. She was too nosey for her own good. One time she asked me what size my shorts were. What does the size of my shorts have to do with anything? They're too big for me and I STILL have to wear a belt with them.

ON OLYMPUS

The agonized coughing seemed to echo throughout the world. The burning in Hermes throat was almost unbearable. Coughing hurt, but he couldn't fight against the coughing all the time. There would be times when he felt fine, but after a few minutes, he would feel like someone had lit him of fire and poured gasoline down his throat. His fever was unnaturally high –if a mortal or demigod had a fever as high, they would die. it was at least 167 at some points.

It was torture. And with each passing breath, he only got closer to death.

CAMP HALF-BLOOD

AMANDA'S POV

I raised an eye brow at Conner. I was stuck going on the quest with him, Travis, and Sarah. Sarah was nice, and one of my friends. And she also liked Conner, though what she saw in him, I will never know. But he had this idea to get Travis awake.

"Look, the worst thing he'll do is try to hit you, but the reaction that he'll have when he realizes it's you, will be priceless! C'mon! Just try it!" he insisted.

"What's in it for me?" I challenged. Maybe I would be able to get out of this…

"Do you like Mountain Dew?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

"We have a twelve pack of it in the closet if you do this."

"Done." What can I say? I like my soda.

We were standing next to Travis's bed. He had a bottom bunk, and was facing the wall, snoring quietly. He had a strange, raspy kind of a snore.

"Mr. D says he gets that from Hermes. He said when he was younger, Zeus at one point made Hermes baby-sit him. And then Dad fell asleep on the couch, and a little Mr. D was stuck having to listen to him snore." Conner explained.

"Hm. Can we get this over with?" I asked. Conner cleared his throat, and his trick began.

"Travis….wake up. The others are already up." Conner said while I shook Travis. All we got was a twitch.

"Travis! Get up!" Conner said, sounding impatient. I shook his brother harder. Travis only growled with annoyance.

"Get up, you lazy bum!" Conner snapped.

"Go away!" Travis groaned, pulling the covers over his head. The strange thing about his blankets were they were pink with 'evil, rabid, purple, vampire bunnies' as Conner called them. but his pillow had some green and black dog on it that said 'Gir' above it. same with his sheets. But that doesn't matter right now.

"WAKE. UP." Conner growled. I hit the back of Travis's head. He sat up and threw a fist at me so quickly, I didn't have time to dodge, and ended up with a punch to the jaw.

"OW!" I yelped as his fist struck me. Conner looked between us, seeming to be shocked.

"Hm." He turned toward his brother. "Normally you only slap me."

"What?" Travis seemed to snap out of his anger and looked around until he rested his brown eyes on me and they widened in shock.

"I-I didn't just punch you, did I?"

"Yeah, you kinda did." I grumbled.

"Im sorry! I thought you were Conner-"

"It was his idea." I growled. Travis glared at his brother, who took that as a sign to run.

"YOU MORON!" Travis yelled as he chased his younger brother. This would be funny normally. But I found myself just looking confused at the boys. Travis had no shirt on. He was running after him brother in only his boxers. I was pretty used to this, sense when I first came to camp and was claimed, I had to share a cabin with Nico who wasn't that happy about that. Now why I found this weird, was because Nico always wore black boxer. Travis's weren't black. They were blue with Simpson donuts on them.

"He watches too many cartoons."

I jumped when I heard the voice next to me. when I turned around, I saw Nico walk from the shadows. I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact shadows and darkness hide him from others and how he blends in with it. I waited for him to explain.

"He has Invader Zim pillows and sheets, Simpson boxers, and shirts with Family Guy, The Simpsons, Sponge bob, Scooby-Doo, and I think Lord of the Rings on them."

"You are such a stalker."

"I don't stalk, I've seen him wear those shirts, and I had to stay in Hermes cabin when I first came to camp." He defended himself.

"Maybe you should try to wear shirts with a little color on them. all the black makes you look emo."

"IM NOT EMO." He snapped.

"I know. but all the black you wear makes you LOOK like you are."

"Whatever. And I do have shirts with color on them, but they're all too small, or why too big. And I like my plain black shirts."

We heard Conner yelp and saw Travis tackle his brother to the ground and pin him down.

"Travis, go get dressed! You guys are supposed to leave in five minutes!" Percy came out of his cabin. Travis looked up, then back down at his brother, who he glared at, before getting up and walking away.

When Travis was dressed, we headed down the camp van and headed toward the city while trying to find out what the prophecy meant.

"You will travel to the mountain of the Winds. That's somewhere in Colorado." Conner said.

"Didn't Annabeth say that Pikes Peak is purple because of Aleous's palace right about it?" I asked.

"Yeah. so we go to Pikes Peak. Easy." Travis said.

"How is it easy? All we know is that it's in Colorado." Sarah reasoned.

"Me and Conner are from Colorado. We had a clear view of Pikes Peak from our house." Travis explained.

"Okay. what about the next line? 'and face the tree of many years and minds'. What does that mean?" Conner said.

"It's a tree on Pikes Peak. And there are a lot of pine trees….and 'many years' could mean an old pine tree on Pikes Peak." I replied.

"But what about the 'many minds'?" Travis yawned.

"We'll find out. But 'Winds' and 'Minds' don't really rhyme. And I know a rhyme when I hear one." Sarah said. Being a daughter of Apollo, she knows what she's talking about with rhymes.

"It's Rachel. For all I know, she could've been faking the whole time." Travis grumbled.

"You don't like her?" I asked. He shook his head.

"She's a snotty idiot who thinks she's so cool because she lives in a cave and makes prophecies." He said.

"NEXT LINE!" Sarah exclaimed.

"On a quest where you cant dunder'. Is dunder even a word?" Conner asked.

"Who knows? None of us are Athena kids." Travis shrugged.

"The 'a single life for many' is easy. If Hermes dies, so do all his kids." I said.

"It all hangs by a thread for any'. What does that mean?"

"Does it really matter? We know where we have to go, and when we get there we'll find out the rest." Travis grumbled.

"You're in a bad mood." Sarah stated.

"Im tired."

"Clearly." Conner rolled his eyes. I looked back toward them. Me and Sarah had the middle two seat with Travis and Conner getting the two seats behind us, and Argus in the front alone.

I watched as Travis pulled Conner's sleeve down a little, and then put his head on his brother's shoulder and used it as a pillow. It didn't seem like a very soft pillow.

"What am I, your 'walking, talking, living, breathing pillow'?" Conner asked, trying to push his brother away.

"Yes, you are. Now sit still." Travis said.

Of course, by the time we were half way to the city, the boys had both fallen asleep. Conner was leaning on the window and Travis had his head more on Conner's side now. They looked cute like that. Too bad they were both gonna die if we failed on this quest.