"Hello, Rachel." Chiron greeted and smiled warmly at the red-haired teen strolling towards him, looking somewhat confused at the lack of people around camp. There were only 3 Apollo kids at the archery range, a couple of Hermes kids fooling around in the volleyball courts (And this, newbies, is how you fill a volleyball with paint and thin out the rubber...It's our cabin's chief duty to add colour to the camp, after all) and two Ares kids battling it out in the arena with even more colourful words. Perhaps there were a few more carrying out activities in the other areas of camp or hiding in their cabins but Rachel still found the camp surprisingly empty, even though Will had already mentioned that to her during the chariot ride. When she came during the second week of summer, Camp Half-blood was usually buzzing with activity and filled with demigods from all walks of life. Either the other demigods were coming later (after, say, some dumb, crazy plan of a monster-free vacation) or Annabeth had wanted all the back-up she could get for the quest to Greece (and saving Percy, of course). Which was probably true, considering how this was the first time Rachel had really seen the Daughter of Athena break down and cry.
"Hi Chiron." Rachel grinned and then waved at the two demigods sitting next to him in the Big House. They looked about 14 years old, a blonde girl and a ginger-haired boy. The girl looked shaken while the boy appeared as if he hadn't had any sleep for the past 2 days. Needless to say, neither of them waved back.
"Hello, Will. Thank you for agreeing to pick up Rachel, even though I hadn't explained to you why we were in such urgent need of the oracle." Chiron said as he turned his focus towards the guy trailing behind Rachel, then raised an eyebrow, "Though, knowing her, I'm quite sure she's already told you why.
"Hey, I'm the oracle! I predict things," Rachel protested, "Like how you were going to tell him anyway..."
"Especially after making him Chauffeur Of The Day and all," Travis Stoll chuckled as he walked past the Big House alongside his brother, having heard the conversation, "For the, say, hundredth time. Do you driver guys get a good dental plan? 'Cos they must have enticed you into the job some way or another."
Will rolled his eyes, looking more amused than offended by the apparent insult. Then again, the Stoll brothers' entire lower bodies were covered in pink and purple paint and it was hilarious enough a scene to make the dazed-looking boy sitting next to Chiron grin slightly.
"Jealous, much?" Katie Gardner snickered as she strolled part Travis, with the comment actually managing to make him blush.
"Why in the world would I be-"
"Oh, because you totally feel man enough without a ride and absolutely don't sleeptalk about chariots like a jealous, green-eyed little boy," Connor interrupted, grinning at his brother's discomfort.
"Dude, you're supposed to be on my side!" Travis complained, then wiped his hand all over his pink trousers and smeared the paint onto the back of Connor's head. They then proceeded to chase each other around camp, muttering Greek cuss words and basically just being the fools that they were, though now with lots of wet paint to fling around.
So, Annabeth had gotten them to stay at camp on purpose. Figures.
"I wonder what cool artwork I'll get if I made them chase each around on a huge canvas sheet instead…" Rachel spoke her thoughts out loud, remembering the art enthusiasts friends she'd said goodbye to not too long ago.
"What?" Will turned towards Rachel, curious.
"Oh yeah, you're kinda speaking to an Art-freak right now," Rachel grinned.
"Actually, I think I already figured that out," Will smiled back and pointed towards Rachel's shirt, the words "paintbrushes pwn pens and swords" printed in bold across the cotton, "I was more wondering about how much they were gonna make you pay for the labour."
"Good point." The camp's oracle laughed.
"Rachel," Chiron called and both of them swirled around from watching the Stoll brothers to face the centaur, "Would you mind giving Alex and Claire the prophecy now? If their dreams were indeed true, it spells disaster for the quest group in Greece."
Rachel headed towards the demigods and took a seat opposite them, first making sure that the chair had good backing and was rather wide. She didn't want to slip off the seat once the oracle's spirit took over and then sprout the prophecy while sprawled out on the floor, giving out green mist like the dry ice equipment which sometimes lined concert stages and puffed out white smoke to signal the celebrity's entrance.
No freaking way was she going to humiliate herself like that again.
"So…how do you want to-"
"Oracle of Delphi…Wh-what is my prophecy?" The girl looked up and spoke in a shaky, hesitant voice, as if absolutely terrified of the answer.
Rachel saw a blast of green light before she fell into the darkness.
"I am the Priestess of Delphi...speaker of prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python..."
-o-
When she regained consciousness, Rachel found herself curled up on her bed at camp, which was located, of course, at the "oracle cave" (Apollo and his weird ideas…). As her eyes flitted open, Rachel wondered briefly why she'd never suggested to Chiron that all tell-me-my-prophecy things take place in her room at Camp Half-Blood, specifically her bed. It sure beat blacking out in some random place around camp and then being dragged back into her room later by some poor demigods.
Managing her hair into a neater ponytail (if her frizzy hair could ever be considered neat), Rachel pulled away the purple curtain and stepped outside. She was shocked to discover that it was already dark. Will had brought her to camp in the evening, when the sun had still been hanging in the sky, shining bright, showering light and luckily not burning anybody up (though she'd already gotten sunburned while parading around the city with her friends at noon, in a protest against the destruction of the Kirtland Warbler's natural home). However, it was already nighttime and she could even see the slowly growing flames of the campfire not too far away.
How in the…
Immediately glancing towards her watch, Rachel discovered that it had taken around half an hour for her to regain consciousness. Sure, she was still getting used to the whole oracle gig but this was much longer than all the other times. She usually took 5-10 minutes to wake up, at the most 15 minutes if she was really exhausted that day.
It was somewhat unnerving.
Her thoughts were then interrupted by the soft growl of her stomach. Brisk walking towards the dining hall, Rachel found out that Chiron wasn't there. Then again, she wondered whether or not Chiron would have been able to help her anyway. Although he indeed knew a lot of things, oracles and their virgin vessels just wasn't something he was familiar with. After all, he'd sent May Castellan into the attic to receive the Oracle of Delphi and practically turned her-
Rachel winced. She'd had a dream about that incident before. She wasn't really in the mood to relive the horror through her memories again, especially since she had actually experienced the scene through May Castellan's character in the dream. She had seen the thoughts, felt the fear…
In all, she could safely say that no matter how much Percy complained, her dreams were a lot worse. Confusing, too. Museum curator imposters looking around for artifacts and punching security officers? Seriously? What had that been about?
"Hey, Rachel." Connor Stoll called as she headed towards where he was standing, both of them planning on getting their food.
"Hi, Connor. Say, where's your brother? I mean, I always see you two together, even after lame paintball fights." Rachel asked.
Connor directed his look towards the Demeter table, a mischievous grin appearing on his face as Rachel's eyes widened at the sight of a flustered Travis Stoll apparently trying to talk to Katie Gardner without irritating her.
"Wow." Rachel mouthed.
"I know. Weird." Connor chuckled, as he handed her a plate and then moved off to get his own food.
Standing in the middle of the dining hall after obtaining her dinner, Rachel decided that she rather sit with one of the cabins, considering how Chiron was nowhere to be seen and the only one left at the head table was a grumpy-looking (like that was a surprise) Dionysus. The only cabins with people were the Hermes cabin, the Demeter cabin, the Ares cabin and the Apollo cabin. Most of the demigods were young kids from 8-12 years old, probably left behind by Annabeth due to their lack of experience. Excluding the young ones, it was pretty much just the Stoll brothers, Katie and her friends, a tough-looking Ares guy named Dan, Will Solace and two to three people whose names she didn't know. She wondered why Will and Dan hadn't followed the group to Greece, considering how they were really good fighters and how Will was apparently also a healer.
Making her way towards where the Apollo cabin sat (After a quick elimination game, she decided she was far from interested in getting involved in the weird Katie and Travis thing going on by sitting with either cabin and eating dinner with the Ares guys was basically suicide), she briefly took note of the other daughters and sons of the olympian. There were four of them, three boys and one girl, excluding Will. Looking at their age, it kind of seemed as if Will was dealing with a babysitter job.
"Mind if I sit here?" Rachel asked and received a nod and small smile from Will, signaling his approval.
"Hi. Who are you?" One of the younger kids asked, a boy of probably 8 years old who had the same blonde, sun-kissed hair Will and Apollo had.
"She's the oracle, Tony." Will explained, a tiny smile playing along his lips.
"Oh. What do you do?" The boy asked again, eyes wide and curious.
"I give prophecies," Rachel grinned, "I tell you what's going to happen in the future, what you should do to stay alive, what you shouldn't do to stay alive, who you're going to marry, what's going to appear on next Thursday's science test, whether or not that guy in the soap opera's gonna propose in the following episode…"
"Whether Tony's going to ask another dumb question…" The boy on her left snickered.
"What's a soap opera about?" Tony asked, ignoring his half-brother.
"Singing soap." Will answered with a straight face, making Rachel laugh when Tony actually looked up at Will and nodded in understanding.
They weren't exactly friends yet and Rachel knew being with her was a bit awkward for Will, considering how they were still somewhat strangers but part of her actually liked putting herself in awkward situations and then challenging herself to make them less awkward. She never avoided people just because she wasn't close to them or didn't really know them. Except for the socialites her mother hanged out with, of course.
Dinner turned out to be quite fun, in the end. Tony kept asking all sorts of questions and hence kept the conversation alive at their table. She also got to know the other demigods a bit more and although they were much younger than her, it was still rather interesting to talk to them. They all had a similar appearance- majority of them had blond hair and blue eyes like their dad, though with varying shades of gold and blue- but they had very different personalities. Tara, the girl, was really mature for her age, though she didn't talk a lot. Brian basically liked to fool around and joke, Keith was very quiet but opened up when Rachel started talking about animals and Tony was, well, very inquisitive. About everything. From the stars to the moon to the reason behind Rachel's initials spelling out "RED". She wasn't too sure how to answer that one, nor the question on whether or not all the prophecies she made came true. (Will laughed at that question, still stubbornly sticking to his belief that everyone had a choice at their fate. Which was actually a rather nice, positive belief, she figured.) Before they returned to their cabin at the end of dinner, Tara asked Rachel whether or not she wanted to meet them at the archery range the next day, since she didn't have much to do around camp. Without much thought, Rachel agreed and when she entered her "cave" that night to go to sleep (gosh, she felt like a bat), she told herself that the whole regaining-conscious-after-half-an-hour problem could wait till morning. After all, she hadn't been able to find Chiron at the Big House either. She also mentally put up a post-it in a corner of her brain, reminding herself to ask Will exactly what prophecy she had told the two demigods, in private the next day.
Of course, judging by the amount of sleep she actually managed to get in between the dreams, it wouldn't have been a surprise if the post-it spontaneously combusted into a pile of ashes when she woke up as a braindead zombie.
Thanks for reading! Please review. :D (If you would be so kind, please do tell me what you think Rachel should be like. I'm scared of making her OOC.)
