I think some kind of flu is starting to go around because more and more campers are checking into the infirmary for being ill. I hope I don't catch whatever it is; I hate being sick. I like when I don't have to do anything, though, but after awhile I get bored. I've noticed I get bored very easily.

Today seemed like it was taking forever to get over with. I was literally just sitting around and doing nothing. Well, I was listening to Percy talk, but he can only entertain me for so long. I lost interest in what he had to say when he started talking about Annabeth. Sometimes it really sucks for me to only have one real friend. Apparently ghosts aren't "appropriate" friends to have at camp. I can't seem to understand why.

I was lying down in the grass while Percy paced back and forth. Sometimes he said something to me, but mostly he muttered things to himself. Take three guesses who he was going on about.

Annabeth has been sick for a few days and it has him all riled up. Quite frankly, I just want him to shut up. She'll be better in another day or so. Annabeth and the other campers who are sick have been getting small helpings of nectar and ambrosia. It must be a pretty bad flu because the ambrosia wears off after an hour and they're all just as sick as they were before. Sometimes it was worse than before. No one is planning on Percy that since he is practically making a hole in the ground from pacing in circles.

I actually find it pretty unusual the ambrosia isn't working. Isn't it supposed to cure everything? That's what I've been told and I have seen it fix a lot of things. Broken bones, the flu, brain damage, you name it. Not this time.

I got up off the ground and brushed off my pants.

"Percy, it's time for archery. Stop digging your way to China and let's go," I said and walked off towards the archery area.

"I'm not digging," he retorted when he caught up with me.

"Look at the ground where you were pacing. There's no grass there anymore," I pointed out.

Sure enough, if you did look at where Percy was walking around, you would see a big ring of dirt. Yeah…we were sitting there for a good while. Or, at least I was sitting there for a long time.

Percy rolled his eyes and ran off in front of me. I just continued to walk. Who cares if I'm late to something like archery? I'm not very good at it anyway.

There weren't many people at archery today. The Apollo cabin was there (big shocker, right?) and one or two people from other cabins. I'm only here because I want something to do besides lying in the dirt.

I didn't shoot many arrows, and I usually never do. Mostly, I sit and watch Percy or some other people shoot arrows. But when Chiron or a camp consular walked by, I got up and shot a few just to make it look like I was participating.

This was exactly what I just did when Chiron rounded the corner of a building. He looked kind of grim, but I pretended to be extremely focused with the targets in front of me.

"Nico!" he called sharply. I turned to him and he used his hand to beckon me.

Did I do something wrong? I racked my memory to see if I could remember doing something that could get me in trouble. Nope, nothing I could think of. I'm just a perfect little angel, aren't I?

"Here, I'll put these away," Percy said and took my bow and arrows.

I walked over to Chiron, who looked even more depressed up close.

"The Oracle has summoned you," he said and moved towards the Big House. I followed him, very confused. I have never been the leader of a quest. If it was a quest I was about to be given.

On a side note, I've always wondered what else the Oracle could tell you. I know it could be anything about the future, but do you think if I went to the Oracle she would tell me how to win the lottery?

I wasn't scared to see the Oracle. It was just Rachel, not that creepy mummy from before. Sometimes Rachel goes home instead of just hanging out at the Big House all year. She goes home for the winter and stays here during the summer.

Rachel was sitting in a wooden chair next to Dionysus' desk. She was swinging her legs and it looked like she was staring at something very distant. Something I couldn't see.

Her eyes moved their focus to me when I came close enough. They were still very distant, though. She just sat there a moment before she spoke.

"A hero and friend will follow you over high mountains. The fading child of your enemy will sneak past and follow you too. The world will perish unless you find the golden cure. Unseen tasks await you. Hidden from mortal eyes and watched by the treasure guardians. Discordia will rise and a friend will fall," Rachel recited.

She looked at me with a surprised look on her face.

"When did you get here?" she asked but I just shrugged and slowly backed out.

Chiron was waiting outside and he looked at me, waiting to her what Rachel said. I told him the prophecy word for word, but Chiron didn't look all that happy after had finished.

"Doesn't explain anything," he mumbled to himself. Don't you find it annoying when people know something you don't and they won't tell you the full story? Well, I do at least. Especially if I'm involved.

"Explain what?" I asked impatiently.

"What has been happening here," he said. Can you get anymore general than that? "I…I don't know what the prophecy means," Chiron admitted.

Does this mean I get out of it? I hope so because I don't really feel like traveling across the States today, thank you very much.

"Doesn't help," he repeated. Hello? I'm right here. Stop having a one-sided conversation with yourself and tell me what you're thinking because it's starting to bug me.

"So, does this mean I'm not going on a quest?" I asked, but Chiron shook his head.

"No, you have to go sometime. Just not today, and maybe not tomorrow," he responded. "You may go rejoin your friends if you want," he said finally. Yeah, my invisible friends. And Percy.

Archery was over, and I had nothing else to do today. I seriously need to find a hobby or something to do because I was back to sitting on the ground; minus Percy pacing around in circles.

There were lots of people done with their activities, which wasn't very surprising considering it was the late afternoon. People were running through the campsite, catching up with their friends. And here I was, sitting in the dirt.

It took me awhile to realize someone was staring at me. Dirt is just that distracting, you know?

It was a girl, who looked very much like Illia or only more matured. I've seen her a few times before; she was one of the oldest in the Eris cabin. She wasn't important enough to me to try and figure out her name. I tried to ignore her, but she wouldn't move. What is up with people stalking me all of a sudden?

I had also noticed the girl's whole cabin was pretty much missing. I didn't see them at lunch or at any activities. Like they disappeared. They were such strange people, and trust me, I know strange people when I see them.

"You're going to steal it, aren't you?" she mouthed to me when she was able to hold my attention.

Steal what? See, no one ever tells me the whole story.

The girl looked like she was in distress. Like something really horrible just happened to her. Or was going to happen to her. I looked away to see if any of her siblings were lurking around, but no one. There was no one.

She was gone when I looked back. I only looked away for a couple seconds, too. There is no way she could have left and be out of my sight that quickly. From where I was sitting, I could see the whole campsite.

I stood up and started to walk in the general direction of where she used to be sitting, but I still couldn't see her or anyone else from the Eris cabin.

I shrugged it off and went back to my own cabin.

I felt tired, and I just wanted to lie down and sleep for the rest of today, and tomorrow too, maybe. But I couldn't fall asleep. This was already a stressful day for me. This could even be in at the top of my list of the most stressful weeks of my life. That's not really saying much because I usually have very stressful days.

Lately, I haven't been sleeping very well either. Now that is saying something because I fall asleep easily and I always sleep good. The cause for my restless nights is all the nightmares I've been having. They're not really all that scary. They're dark and weird. Sometimes I see things from a monsters point of view and I end up killing myself in the dream.

The only positive thing about these dreams is they get me up early enough to be the first one in the shower. Though, I'm supposed to be one of the last cabins to take a shower because I "failed" to keep my cabin in order.

A sudden knock on my door brought me out of my thoughts. If that was Percy I am just going to slam the door in his face and pretend I'm going back to sleep.

It wasn't Percy though.

I didn't notice the person at my door right away, but what they were holding interested me more. My Stygian Iron sword was right in front of me. I looked back inside my cabin to where I keep my sword, but the holder was empty. I didn't take it out of this cabin since capture the flag!

"I found this outside in the woods," Illia said and held it out towards me. She seems to know where I am all the time and happens to show up at the most random times of the day. I had also noticed she wasn't on crutches anymore, thanks to a day of ambrosia.

"Where did you get that," I asked angrily. Someone better not have been looking through my stuff.

"I said I found it," she said and pushed it towards me some more, but I didn't take it right away. "Why won't you take it?"

"Did you take it?" I asked but she shook her head. I didn't trust her answer.

"Can I come in?" she asked suddenly after giving up on trying to stuff the sword in my head.

"No," I said shortly and her nostrils narrowed. That's something weird I've noticed about her. She'll narrow her nostrils when there's something she doesn't like. I've seen her do it to Chiron plenty of times.

"Fine. I guess I'll just keep your sword," she said and marched off back towards the rest of camp.

I can't believe her. She gets on my nerves too easily. Walking off with my sword, who does she think she is?

I waited to see if Illia would turn around to check to see if I was following her, but she didn't look back once. She kept on walking until she got to her own cabin and shut the door behind her. Did she seriously just do that? I waited a couple of minutes to see if she would come out with my sword but she never did.

Sighing, I walked off towards her cabin. I wanted my sword back and I guess I'll have to get it back myself. I knocked my fist against her door hard, but she didn't open it. Gods, that was annoying.

I banged on the door harder and she finally opened it. Illia was smirking like she had just won some great game.

"Did you want something?" she laughed a little.

"My sword," I said. I knew I sounded irritated now.

"I don't have a sword," she said.

I gave her a look that told her I wasn't going to play her game, but she kept acting like she didn't know what I was talking about.

"Give it to me," I said and she brought the sword out from behind her back.

I made a grab for it but she pulled it out of my reach and moved back into her cabin.

No one else was in her cabin and it was just as messy as mine gets. Illia moved towards one of the beds that I assumed was hers, and sat down with the sword in her lap. She was careful not to touch the blade.

"Why didn't you leave yet?" she asked suddenly.

"Because I don't know why you want me to leave," I gritted my teeth.

She nodded and thought for a moment.

"Well, I guess it's too late for you anyway," she remarked more to herself than me. That's another thing that has been bothering me. People have been talking to themselves more than speaking directly to me.

"Can have my sword back yet?" I asked and moved closer but she just shook her head and tightened her grip on the handle.

Illia stopped talking too and just held on to the sword as tightly as she could. I had no more patience for her at this point.

"Where are your siblings?" I asked, hoping to distract her.

She didn't take her eyes off the sword in her lap.

"They're hiding," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Hiding? Hiding from what? I didn't ask her anything else, or make another grab for my sword even though I really wanted to. It looked like Illia was ignoring me now. I wasn't going to leave until she gave me the sword, but I certainly was not going to stand here in the middle of the room. I sat down on the bed across from hers and her eyes shifted from the sword to me.

"Don't sit there," she said.

"Why?"

"That's Miranda's bed. She'll know if you sat on it and I'll get in trouble," Illia explained.

"Oh, well, in that case, I'm going to keep sitting here," I said. I needed something to annoy her as payback because she was really starting to get on my nerves now.

"Fine, then I won't give you your sword," she said simply.

"You're not going to give it to me anyway," I pointed out.

"That's not true," she said but Illia made no move to tell me she was going to give it to me.

She didn't give it to me and I didn't move form her sister's bed. Which I kind of wanted to right about now because it smelled like perfume and made me gag a little. Then out of no where, Illia held out the sword to me. It was like she just wanted me to follow her and sit in her cabin for awhile. Like I said before, Illia and her siblings were their own special kind of strangeness.

"I can take it?" I asked making sure she wasn't going to just walk off with it again.

"Mhmm," she mumbled.

I took the word from her and Illia let her hand drop. With my sword in hand, I moved towards the door to leave and go back to my own cabin.

"You're not leaving, are you?" she asked right before I could get my hand on the door handle.

"Yeah. I'm not going to stay in here with you. You're annoying," I said.

"I don't think I'm that annoying," she said.

"Uh, yeah, you are. Why would I want to sit in your cabin with you?"

She shrugged. "Don't leave, though. I promise I'll be quite," she said.

"No," I said shortly and opened the door.

"I'll steal your sword again and hide it in a place where you'll never find it," she threatened.

"What, are you going to fly into my cabin and a magical pink elephant and whisk it away and bury it in your underwear drawer or something? I think I'll be able to find it just fine if you do hide my sword," I said mockingly and I walked and closed the door behind me.

Why can't she find someone else to annoy?

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter. I got a lot of people adding this to their favorites list, so thank you very much and I'm glad people are enjoying this. :) I hope I did an okay job on this chapter.