Darkness cascaded over the mountains, swallowing it whole. A voice, which seemed to come from the scene itself, washed over me like waves on a shore. It was rough, low, and monotonous – who it was from, I did not know. It spoke four clear, rhyming sentences to me.

Return to the Underworld and repent

The monster of stone seeks revenge

Death's daughter will fall into darkness

A battle of three shall end with a promise

–

I woke up with a start, sweat in little beads falling from my forehead, dripping down my face. Frantically looking around, I sat up, feeling the rays of sunshine from my window warm me.

Another crazy dream. Great. It wasn't like I wasn't used to them, I was, trust me – but surely I thought by now there should be a plausible reason why I keep having them day, after day, night, after night. They kept coming, and sometimes I would have two at a time. Never mind a good night's rest, I was a stranger to that now.

My cabin was empty, like always. Piles of dirty clothes left untouched near by bed; assorted items lay on my nightstand. In the far corner of my room was my dresser and mirror, which I miraculously purchased from the Stolls, who said that "it fell out of the furniture truck."

On the right was the door and my desk. Nothing special there. Of course there was my trusty xiphos1, which I, lovingly, named Sparkles. What could I say? Whenever I use it in battle, it catches light like a prism. It was a pitch black color, made of Stygian iron, nonetheless.

I eagerly jumped out of bed. Carefully, I neatly made it, putting my pillows back in place and folding the blankets – which was all too foreign for me. Who knows. Maybe I'm feeling a little adventurous today. I pulled on a regular Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and some black jeans – practically the outfit I wore everyday.

It didn't take long for me to finish the rest of my lame morning routine. I brushed my teeth and hair, splashed some water on my face, tied on my shoes, and strolled out of the door to breakfast.

–

Needless to say, anytime we eat at camp, I'm extraordinarily happy. Whatever you want, you can have – soda, pizza, candy, ice cream, literally whatever you feel like having. A little bit out of the norm I chose a piece of toast and a yogurt parfait. I walked over to my table and sat, already gulping down my food. Bram, who was one of my friends and also the guy sitting next to me, spoke up.

"You hear about the news?" he said, illusively. I grunted.

"I don't keep up much around here," I finished the last piece of my toast. "New prophecy? Gods having more problems? Maybe another titan war, I'm guessing?"

He laughed dryly. "No, no. Not another titan war. But, yeah, I'm guessing there's going to be a new prophecy soon,"

This time, I stared at him, almost coldly. "What do you mean?"

"There's been some commotion down under. I overheard Chiron talking about it yesterday, but I didn't catch anything more than that,"

Ah. Commotion down under. There always was, anyways, so in my mind I disregarded it. I stood up, pulling Bram with me. "C'mon."

"Where are you-" I tugged Bram along, walking nonchalantly away from the eating area. He almost looked panicked, and for a moment I thought about letting him go.

"We're going to see somebody," I replied.

I could feel Bram's anxiousness in the air. I smirked, kind of evilly, and kept hurrying to my destination.

1 A double-edged, leaf-shaped sword commonly used by ancient Greeks.