Chapter Two

I see the Oracle

I woke with a start.

"What was that?" I gasped.

The dream disturbed me. I felt uneasy. I knew it was prophetic―all my dreams were―, but I couldn't understand the meaning of it. I had to consult this with the Oracle and ask for my destiny. Maybe that would clear things up a little and I could figure out what my dream meant.

Luckily, Chiron had come today so I asked for permission to seek the Oracle's counsel. Like always, he let me go but made me promise him to explain everything later.

I went up to the attic in the Big House. I pulled the green trapdoor's chord and a wooden ladder came down.

The attic had a lot of Greek stuff. There were armors, shields, a table full of monster parts and a trophy with a snake's head with horns: a Hydra head. Everything was covered in cobwebs, dust and rust. These things were obviously decades, if not centuries, old.

The last thing I saw when I was searching the room was what I was looking for: a woman's corpse that was already all boney, resting on a three-legged stool.

I'd already been here before to do this but I never stopped feeling the creeps toward the thing. The body sat and opened its mouth. Green mist came out of it, covering everything with a hissing sound. Then it made the image of my father and it spoke through it.

I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, daughter of Apollo, and ask, it said inside my head.

I swallowed hard. You'd think I was already BFF's with the Oracle, like: Hey, what's up, girlfriend. Long time no see. What have you been up to in the past few years? Oh, my gods, you've lost some weight… But, no, it wasn't like that. I was always intimidated by the spirit's presence, not because it was evil, but because it felt ancient and powerful.

"Oh, spirit of Delphi, may I know what my destiny is?" I managed to ask. At least my voice sounded steady.

I could feel the mist moving, swirling around me. Soon shall be the awaited arrival.

I listened carefully and tried to memorize what the Oracle said. A hero, essential to the world's survival.

Two hearts shall suffer, in the end, continued the rasping voice of the Oracle. But only one shall find true love again, it finished.

The image of my father dissipated and the mist began to disappear, returning to the corpse's mouth.

"Wait, what does this mean?" I asked but it was too late. The spirit was already gone. It was all over.

"What did the Oracle say?" Chiron asked.

"Well, it said that soon would be the awaited arrival."

"Go on," he prompted.

"A hero, essential to the world's survival," I continued. "Two hearts will suffer, in the end, but only one will find true love again," I finished.

"Anything else?"

"No, that was about it."

"Very well," Chiron said. "Now, why did you want to see the Oracle?"

I didn't feel comfortable telling this to anyone but I knew I could trust Chiron. I explained him my dream without leaving out a single detail.

"Well, I guess time will show us what your dream means, Cassie," he said. "Let's not be too hasty and wait."

I nodded. "Okay." But I had the feeling that he already had his suspicions.

The dream thing really had me a little stressed. It had been a long time since I'd had a vision. I went for a walk around camp.

As I passed the arena, I saw a couple of campers practicing. I saw Annabeth and decided that training with her would surely get my mind occupied.

She hit the guy who was practicing with her on the head with the hilt of her sword, knocking down the helmet along with the guy. She pointed her sword at his throat and he didn't dare a move against her.

"Hey, Annabeth," I said as I came closer. "I'd like to go next."

She looked at me and the boy stood up from the ground and picked up his helmet and sword. He left quickly and quietly, like if he were afraid that Annabeth would give him a surprise attack. I didn't blame him. Annabeth would have done it if it wasn't for me showing up.

"Got your mind wrapped around something and you want to distract yourself," she figured. "Am I right?"

She knew me so well.

I got dressed properly. I took a sword, a helmet and some armor to cover up my chest. I knew Annabeth and she wasn't going to go easy on me.

She thrust her sword and almost hit me in the face. Good thing I managed to dodge it in time or I would have gotten my face rearranged. I liked my face the way it was, I didn't need a makeover.

I thrust mine and she blocked it with hers. We both put all our strength into it, but we were pretty even. Our swords slid sideways and almost fell off our hands.

I tried a slash that almost worked. She wasn't expecting it. Her eyes widened but then she deflected my attack easily. I started to get a little worried. I didn't have the same strength that she had and if I got tired, I would be dead meat.

We continued sparring and countering each other's attacks. This battle had lasted longer than usual. By this point, I would already be all bruised up, I'd had fallen to the ground or maybe even passed out.

Today, I wasn't going to let that happen. I was determined to do so. I had to keep fighting. The first thing I did was defend myself from her attacks before concentrating on offense. It helped. I had managed to still be standing and that is a good thing when you are fighting a daughter of the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, Athena.

Annabeth thrust her sword and hit me on the ribs with the flat of her blade. I could tell how much force she had put into it. It hurt even with the breastplate.

I pretended to be okay so she wouldn't take advantage of any weakness.

With a slash, she cut me. Blood oozed from the cut on my left arm. She tried another slash, noticing that the first one had seemed to work. I knew that she could see that I was already out of energy.

I had to do something. I couldn't lose. I didn't want to.

The hilt of her sword hit me on the chest and I couldn't help losing my balance and falling backwards. Every muscle in my body felt so weak. She came closer, like a huntress about to catch her prey.

"You can do better than that, Cassie," she said.

And she was right. I could do better. I closed my eyes for just a second and my senses seemed to open up. I concentrated on everything around me.

As I opened my eyes, I thrust my sword and I noticed that my reflexes were better. I had sliced her pants' fabric where it covered her knee. I could see the blood starting to come out of the wound.

She recoiled but I knew she was nowhere near finished. Now she would want to get even.

I quickly got to my feet and prepared to attack but she had already advanced towards me. With a spin, I dodged her attack and drew my sword, aiming close to her neck.

She knew my intentions and successfully blocked it.

With another slash, my sword ended close to her head and I hit her in the helmet with the hilt. She backed away, obviously in pain. I had hit her close to her ear, sending the vibrations all over her head.

I was aware that I had no time before she would recover and come back at me. I forced myself to think of some technique. I tried to remember when Luke used to teach me sword fighting.

And it hit me like one of Annabeth's thrusts.

I wasn't sure if I remembered it well, much less being able to pull it off but I had to put an end to this now. I couldn't hold on much longer.

Annabeth was coming. She thrust her sword and when it connected with mine, my blade hit the base of hers and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

And sure enough, it worked like I remembered seeing it from Luke. I had done the disarming maneuver.

Annabeth's sword fell noisily to the ground, rattling against the stones. My sword's blade was a few centimeters from her bare neck.

She swallowed hard and I put my sword down. Her eyes were still wide with amazement and surprise. I was sure he was never expecting that.

"Wow," she said in awe when she was finally able to speak. "I didn't see that one coming."

"I wasn't sure it would work, but I decided to give it a shot," I admitted sheepishly.

"Well, that was impressive. For someone whose signature weapon is a bow, you can handle a sword pretty well."

"Thanks."

"So, what's been bothering you?" she asked.