A/N: Sorry, I know, I'm late. I don't really have an excuse. Um, I was stressed about upcoming exams and it slipped my mind until now? Best I can do. Hopefully I'll remember next Monday. Anyway, onto the next chapter!
Mana
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"What do you mean 'a demigod attacked them'?" Rachel pestered.
"How many ways can you take that? There really is only one meaning to the phrase 'a demigod attacked them'," I shot back. Rachel is an older woman, almost in her fifties, with fiery red hair. She's our oracle, has been since before we were all born. Apparently she became the oracle after the second titan war was over.
"Did they give any details on this attack?"
"No, they don't know. Or if they do, they aren't saying. All they said is that the monsters told them they were being sent by a demigod."
"And the monsters just, what, decided to inform them for this to try to prevent themselves from being killed?"
"Of course not. JJ can charm speak."
Her eyes widened a bit. "Wow. We haven't had a charm speaker sinceā¦"
"Since Piper Mclean, I know. But if she is a charm speaker, than the monsters would tell her anything she asked them to tell her. They aren't strong enough to resist unless they are powerful."
"I know how charm speak works, Mana."
Sometimes talking to Rachel is like pulling teeth, only pulling teeth is quicker.
She rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry. This is just frustrating. But I shouldn't take it out on you. By the way, Mattias wants you to see him when you're done talking to me."
"Well am I done?"
"Yeah. Go ahead."
I walked out without a second glance back. Gods, this was annoying. I really wanted to shadow travel, maybe to Florida, just to get away for a while. But Chiron had made me promise not to do that, at least not without talking to him first. Honestly, one time I ended up stranded in Australia for two weeks. It was an accident!
At that moment, I wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone at all, but I never seem to ever actually get mad at Mattias, and he usually can make me smile, so I went to go find him.
As expected, he was on the parkour bridges in the trees. "I hear you wanted to see me," I yelled.
He glanced down. "About time. What, were you strangling Rachel in there?"
"No. Came close, but no."
Grinning, he swooped down and landed in front of me. "To the forest?" he suggested. We always go there when we want to talk. They can be dangerous, but danger isn't anything new.
"Lead the way."
We walked past all the campers that were busy doing their scheduled activities. I'm the only one in my cabin, so I can pick my activities. Mattias probably should have been with his cabin but he's never really been a 'follow the rules' type.
When we reached the trees, he got straight to the point. "You've been having nightmares again, haven't you?"
Gods it's annoying when he does that. "Why do you say that?"
"I can tell."
"Cannot."
"Can so."
Glaring, I walked in front of him. Any leaves in my way, I slashed them with my bronze sword.
"What have you been dreaming about?"
"Nothing of any importance. Just forget it. Let's see if we can kill something."
"Tell me first. Then you can release all your anger on having to talk to me on some poor monster. Deal?"
I glared at him. "Deal? Do I look like I'm six?"
"No, you only act like it."
Pulling teeth is probably more pleasant than talking to Mattias sometimes. "Fine. Yes, I've been having nightmares. I'm a half-blood. Is that so surprising?"
"Normally nightmares don't affect you.'
"Well, a person can only handle so much. Anyways, I haven't had them for a few nights, so it's fine."
"Have you slept at all those few nights?" He knows that I never get enough sleep at night, and many nights I don't bother going to sleep at all. I didn't answer him.
He sighed. "Mana, what in Zeus's name are you dreaming about? Devin tells me you snapped at Aisha. I've never seen you do that before. Tell me."
"I don't even really know! I can never really remember it after I wake up. All I remember is some room with a bunch of machines in it. But whenever I close my eyes, I open them feeling terrified and I don't know why!" I shouted.
After taking a deep breath to calm myself, I turned and faced him. "That's not normal is it?"
"No, it's not. But nothing about you is normal, so why are you surprised?"
I eyed him suspiciously. "Was that a compliment?"
"Nope."
"Thought not. I can be normal."
He stared at me.
"When I feel like it," I said a bit quieter.
"Sure. Whatever you want to believe. But about those dreams, you can tell Chiron about them when he get back. He's seen it all, I'm sure he'll know how to help you."
"Yeah, maybe."
"Come on. Let's head back. I'm sure the newbies have tons of questions, and I need to make sure that they don't understand any of the answers you give them."
"If the twins don't beat you to that."
He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me back. "Hey, I don't even get to kill anything?" I whined.
"Maybe if you're really good, I'll summon something for you to kill after dinner," he mocked. I stuck my tongue out and yanked my wrist away.
"Fine. Race you!" I took off. Luckily for me, I'm a fast runner. Unluckily for me, Mattias is faster. He won that race. Of course, the race was cut short when he slammed into the girl Glynn, knocking both of them to the ground.
I couldn't help myself; I snorted and started laughing hard. The sight of Mattias lying flat on a very surprised looking Glynn was the funniest sight I had seen in a while.
JJ looked at me strange. I knew she thought it was weird to see me laughing. Most people assume children of Hades are all depressing and crap. Thanks, Nico de Angelo, for giving all children of Hades that aura. No, I have my moments, and though I'm fairly quiet around strangers, but I'm far from depressed.
"Owwwww," Glynn groaned. "Get off!"
Mattias tried to push himself off of her, but ended up crunching her arm, making her complain louder. Even JJ was laughing by then.
"Get a room you two," I said. Mattias and Glynn both glared at me. After a few more seconds of struggling, they managed to get to your feet.
"You still owe me a buck," he reminded me. That's our fee for any bet. Most of our bets I win, but it doesn't really matter because usually he steals the money back anyways, so it's not like I make a profit off it or anything. If I did, I'd be rich.
"Shut up." I turned to the girls. "Did you two get settled in?"
JJ nodded. "Yeah. Although the Aphrodite kids seem kind of stuck up."
I shrugged. "Most of them are. Ignore them. Some of them are nice. You just have to look harder to find those people."
"I guess."
"Come on, it's almost dinner and I'm starving," Mattias said.
"You're always starving."
"Does that statement have a point to it?"
I shoved him then turned to the girls. "Go join your cabins. They'll lead you to the mess hall."
They nodded and walked towards the cabins. I turned to Mattias. "Same with you. You're a councilor, it's your job to lead the Hermes/Mercury cabin to dinner."
"Same with activities but I never do that either."
"I'm well aware." It's strange to think that thirty years ago, we wouldn't have been some of the oldest at camp. Then after the war against the giants, the unspoken rule happened; after fifteen or sixteen, most demigods go to Camp Jupiter to join the legion. After they serve, they retire and live in New Rome. So now, being fourteen is being a senior. And being at camp for six years like me? That's longer than some people spend for their entire time here and I still have at least one more year left, probably two.
"Fine. I'll see you there." He dashed off. I turned and headed straight to the mess hall. With no fellow cabin mates, I didn't really have a reason to the Hades/Pluto cabin. Other than the fact that it looks awesome in there. Once, it looked like a place for vampires. Then our first Hades kid actually stayed there (Nico de Angelo) and he changed it up. Thank the gods for that. Honestly, being a kid of Hades is not the same as being a vampire.
The mess hall was empty, as expected. I sat at my table and carved into the wood with my blade. I'm no artist (meaning I couldn't draw anything well to save a life), but I am ADHD, so I needed to do something while I waited.
Then I heard a noise behind me. I turned just in time to see a phoenix diving towards me. With a yelp, I jumped out of the way. Mostly, at least. Its claws reached out and grazed my cheek as it flew by me.
'What the underworld?'
I ignored the fiery pain in my cheek and drew my sword. What I really wanted was my bow, because I have better aim than some Apollo kids. But that was in my cabin, and I'm still fairly advanced with a blade.
One of the harpies stopped to watch. I waved my sword at her. "Go! Get Devin or Mattias!"
She screeched and flew off, hopefully to do what I said. The phoenix came at me again, and I swung my sword as it got close. A strike like that would have killed most monsters, but not this one. My sword just bounced off of it. Something else needed to kill a phoenix.
I racked my brain. Myths and legends were one of my strong suits. 'Come on, how do you kill a phoenix?' Then it hit me. Fire. I needed fire.
Across the hall was where the flames were, sitting in the columns to light up the hall. But right in between me and my required weapon was a very angry bird.
Cursing (in ancient Greek of course. That's how the cool kids do it), I dropped my sword and braced myself to run. I only had one shot at this. If I wasn't quick enough, I would be screwed.
The bird screeched and dived towards me. I ignored my instincts that were telling me to run and held myself in place. It came closer with every millisecond. I waited until the last possible moment before dropping to the ground in a ball and rolling underneath the phoenix. Its forward momentum caused it to continue flying forwards, so I took that opportunity and scrambled to my feet. I took off running towards the fire.
"Mana!" I heard a voice yell. I looked up. Mattias was running towards me, along with a bunch of other campers. Devin and Lex were in that pack. Both drew their swords and ran to help.
"Matt, a bow!" I shouted. He looked confused for a second before realization dawned on him. While Devin and Lex sliced and hacked at the phoenix, trying to keep it distracted and away from me, Mattias snatched a bow off of a random Apollo kid's back, along with the quiver of arrows. He ran towards me, ducking under the fiery bird and handed me his prizes.
"What can kill it?" he asked. He's not as good with myths as I am.
"Fire," I said. I stuck on of the arrows into the flames and waited until it caught fire. I took aim. "Devin! Lex! Hit the deck!"
They both dove to the ground and I let my arrow fly. It struck the phoenix right in the chest and the thing exploded, turning into ash.
Both of the twins and I were breathing heavily. The pain in my cheek was intense and blurring my vision. Since Phoenix's are fire birds, the stupid wound was going to burn worse than most injuries.
Then a voice rang out, "Collect the ashes!"
We looked up to see Aisha, Glynn and JJ standing at the front of the pack. Glynn was walking towards us.
She explained, "You need to collect the ashes and spread them. Fire kills a phoenix, but it can reform from its ashes.
I had no idea how she knew that, nor did I care. That fact sounded familiar. I barked at the other campers to help us, and soon the ashes were blown away by the wind, buried in the earth or washed away in the water.
Until that moment, I hadn't realized how tired I was. Then I started to sway I guess, because suddenly Mattias had caught me from hitting the ground. I quickly shoved him away.
"Alright, excitement is over. Everyone go to your tables and eat up. Council meeting as soon as dinner is over."
I looked directly at JJ and Glynn. "And you two. The two of you are coming as well."
