Chapter 7: To the Call of Duty
Our campfire activities were cut short because of interruption. Chiron called an emergency meeting at the Big House wile most of the campers went to turn in.
The meeting was around a ping pong table with satyrs and nymphs were serving snacks. Even though I ate, the donuts were not easy to resist. I was told by Robert before he went to the cabin that meetings were usually only of senior counselors of the cabins, but since I was involved with Josh, we were V.I.P. So including all the cabins, about over twenty of us were around a crowded table. Josh and I were standing behind Sarah, not knowing what to think. Thaila was also at the meeting with two other girls that were with her when they came in. Savannah was leaning against the wall, looking down at the floor. A few girls were talking while another was doodling on a guy's face who appeared to fall asleep. Generally, it was loud in the room.
After waiting about five minutes, Chiron finally came into the room. "Let's have order," he said stomping his huff. The room became silent. Chiron looked at us smiled. "Sorry, boys. I would have preferred to have an individual talk, but since everyone saw it…"
"Yeah," Josh said, "privacy went out the window. So how do we start this off our duty?"
"I should start this off," I said. "I had a dream just last night." I went on and told them about the dream. When I was done, it was dead silent. Finally, Sarah spoke up. "I thought we already dealt with the giants a century ago! Are the Doors of Death open again?"
"I don't think so," said a guy who was in the Hermes chair. "We would have known about this a lot sooner if it happened. The legendary seven closed those doors for good. Plus, with the finishing they dead, Gaia will be counting sheep for who knows how long."
"But we can't just do nothing!" a girl for the Aphrodite said. "Who knows what that guy is doing to them!"
"I agree," said Thaila, "I am not sticking around here when Artemis is in that kind of danger. I'm going."
"That," said Chiron, "would the quest leader's decision." All eyes went toward me and Josh.
"Hold up!" Josh said. "You mean we get to pick who we want to take with us?"
Chiron scrunched his beard. "Normally, there's usually one quest leader, not two. Thus, quests are usually a set of three to avoid attraction of any sort. But yes, you two may pick. How many is up to you, but be warned that three is a sacred number. Three elder gods, three furies, and others. I'd strongly recommend three people."
Josh turned towards me, not sure of probably what to do. Great, I thought. I wanted to bring Vanessa, Josh probably wanted to bring somebody of his own, and there was Thaila. She was looking at me with eyes which I couldn't tell whether it was pleading or future black mail.
I gulped. I hated pure pressure. "Maybe later, we can sort that out," I said weakly. "But first, um, what's a prophecy?"
Everyone's head went towards Savannah. She looked around at everyone starring at her, and then she sighed. "A prophecy, Don, is like a layout or guide of a quest. For example, ask me a question."
"Um, ok, how do I save my dad and aunt?"
Then she froze. Not literally, but she made no movement like a statue. Then her skin paled and her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her mouth hung opened and a bright green mist started to come out. In the mist, figures started to appear. As it swirled around the room, the lights somehow turned off. I couldn't make them out. Then there was a reptile sound:
The five of the quest fight for salvation,
Reenactment of a rescue, rebirth of a creation.
You shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power,
But fail to save the hero in that hour.
The king's domain shall show you the way,
Their daughter's weakness shall show you astray.
An ancient creature reveals the key
That'll make or break your destiny.
Then the green mist swirled back into her mouth and the lights turned on. Then she fell. The Hermes guy scooted back and caught her just before she hit the ground. There was the common dead silence again. The moment of silence was thankfully broken by Josh.
"So, the only person close to a king in the U.S. is the president, but I don't think that's what she meant."
"Five," said Thaila. "The prophecy said five are in the quest. I'm in."
I didn't object. She might have had an aura of hate towards me, but if my mom's health was on the line, I'd go too.
"Sure," I said, "and I already have an idea of who I'm bringing. Do you, Josh?"
He leaned in his chair and looked up. "Naw, I don't have a favorite in particular, but—"
"Do you mind if I bring Phoebe?" Thaila came in. "She's an excellent healer."
"Who's Phoebe?" Josh asked.
The girl on the left of her waved, the same girl who gave me an evil look on the way to the cabin. She didn't have any look on her face right, but I was pretty sure she was holding that in at the moment.
But even if I said no, I knew Josh wasn't going to say it. "Sure!" he said. "Maybe we can exchange a few notes."
Phoebe didn't seem to like it, but Thaila nudged her. Then she shrugged.
"Then it's decided," Chiron said. "Don, Josh, Thaila, Phoebe, and whoever Don asks shall go on the quest to save the twin gods. Now that that is settled, lets talk about the prophecy, shall we?"
"The five of the quest fight for salvation," said a tough looking girl of the Hephaestus cabin. "That's solved."
"Reenactment of a rescue, rebirth of a creation," said the guy who was sleeping a few moments ago, Jeremiah. "That could be saving Artemis again. Last quest for that was a hundred years ago led by Zoe."
Thaila's face darkened. I don't know if she knew anything bad about it, but she wasn't letting on about anything else. Jeremiah continued. "Rebirth of creation could be the giant. They can be in Tartarus for millennias, but eventually come out."
"You shall triumph with Artemis's eight minutes of power," said the hunter on Thaila's other side. Then she scratched her head. "When can that be? Night?"
"And fail to save a hero in that hour," said the person for Demeter. "Great. Another death. Just the thing we need."
"The king's domain shall show you the way, their daughter's weakness shall show you astray," said a girl of the Hecate. (She looked like a wizard. No judgments.) "Probably the same thing Jeremiah said, maybe a king of some monsters rose."
"But their daughter leads to astray and the domain is a good thing?" Jeremiah asked, "What monster is good again?"
"An ancient creature reveals the key, that'll make or break your destiny," I finished. "Sorry, but I didn't know I had a set destiny for me already. What could it be?"
"Ey," Josh said, "it could be referring to me, too, you know."
"Sorry."
"Who knows," Sarah said. "Usually, they're bad, but let's not pray for break yet."
I nodded. "So, when do we leave?" Josh asked.
"Now could be best," said Thaila. "The sooner we can help Artemis, the better."
"Did we forget that we saw Apollo tied to a chair?" Josh asked.
"Yeah, I beg the differ," I said yawning. "I don't know how you trained to go on for hours without sleep, but I wasn't built like that. Besides, the person I plan to ask is probably asleep right now."
Thaila gave me an evil eye. If I was in good physical condition, I probably would've bended to her will, but my body was on autopilot of "get sleep".
"Who's the person?" Josh asked.
"Vanessa. I don't know her last name. She's of the Ares cabin.
"Good," said her brother. He was the same guy who showed me the demonstration with his sword. "Maybe she can continue to teach you. But besides that, she's probably still up. I allow the cabin to stay up whenever. It's just natural consequences when they fall off a pegasus because of lack of sawing logs."
Thaila glared at me. "Fine, we leave in the morning. I won't be waiting for you any longer than that."
I nodded. "So, are we done?"
Chiron nodded. "Unless, anybody has anything to contribute to their quest."
Silence.
"Very well. I'll adjourn this meeting. Everyone, off to your cabins."
I followed Quinn, Vanessa's brother, the cabin. He stood right in front of the barbered fence for a moment, and then swung it opened. As we walked to the door, he turned towards me. "Oh yeah, never try to come in here without permission. The gate would electrocute you. And even if you made it into the cabin, the floor is seeded with electrocution mines that electrocute on contact with… unwelcome visitors."
I nodded, putting this in my brain. Quinn stood in front of the door for a few moments, and then opened the door and I looked inside. The cabin was like a war bunker with very nice beds. The beds were headed against the walls around the room. Weapons with displays on them hung on the wall and a fur coat of a bear or boar like they have at cabin lodges was on the floor. Everyone was chatting, adjusting their weapons, or cleaning armor. Vanessa was lying on her bed rubbing her sword against a cloth. "Hey, Vanessa. You have a visitor."
She looked up and saw me. She then stood up and came outside. "I'll leave you two to discuss," Quinn said. Then he closed the door, leaving us two in front of the cabin.
We stood there for an awkward moment looking at each other. As usual, I didn't know how to start off. Luckily, she understood.
"What is it?"
Nice to see you, too, I thought.
"I'm going to say it plain and simple: want to go on a quest with me, Josh, Thaila, and one of her hunters?"
She didn't even hesitate. "Sure."
I blinked from surprise. "Just like that? Did you even think about it?"
"What you just asked me in translation was 'do you want a chance to get a pegasus?'. Why would I say no to that?"
"I have no idea," I said. Then I smiled. "Even though you have your own reason, thanks anyway."
She smiled back. "Anytime, Sunshine." Then she went into the cabin, closing the door behind her. I turned around, pumping my fists. Then I headed towards my cabin.
This dream was better than last night, I guess, but I wasn't saying thank you to my dream giver. I was in the air, just floating. Then I took off. I started at Maine and flew forward across the US. How I knew that, I had no idea. First thing I noticed that when I started flying, it was morning. As I flew over the US, the time progressed. When it seemed to be five, I looked down and saw mountains with a cave entrance. I flew into the tunnel and looked around. Then I felt a bump on my head, and my dream changed.
I was at Maine again in the sky. Then I shot. It was basically a repetition of what happened, except it was as night progressed. But when I went into the cave, I didn't stop to look around. I just ran.
Then I uncomfortably woke up with Thaila pushing on my stomach hard. I gasped for air and coughed. "Geez, could you be any more asleep?"
"Was it necessary to do CPR?"
"Yeah, I shook your shoulder first. Then I shook your head. Honestly, I think Percy would've woken up when I shake his head."
I rubbed my eyes. "What do you mean Percy? Wasn't he the legendary hero a century ago? How could you have known him?"
She smirked. "Don, you still have a long way to go. Head to the big house when you're ready. Then we're out of here."
Then she got up and left out of the cabin. I sat up and looked at the nearest clock. Four forty-five. This girl was more of a nightmare than my dreams. I got up and got dressed. I wanted to sleep in, but I was pretty sure she wasn't kidding when she said she wasn't waiting for me.
I got my backpack with my stuff: my knife from my mom, ambrosia and nectar, my iPod, and my bow and quiver with mixed wood and celestial bronze arrows. I also still had the hundred dollars my mom gave me. I was set…except for food.
I headed out of the cabin and towards the big house. Everything was there when I went in: my friends and breakfast. I sat down and helped myself to a cinnamon roll and bacon and eggs. Josh and Vanessa were also digging in with me. They were also kind enough to wait for me before they started. True friends, I thought.
Thaila and Phoebe were sitting on the side of the ping pong table talking. "So," I asked as I ate my bacon, "where do we start to go?"
"We probably don't have to go anywhere in general," Josh said. "Remember what Apollo said? He said to look for the hippalectryon he sent us. But one question: what is that?"
"It's a horse with chicken or vulture parts, sometimes both," Thaila said. "I never saw one before, but I saw some in pictures."
I almost chocked on my eggs. So did Josh with his bacon and we looked at each other. Then I looked towards Thaila. "Yeah…about that…"
I told her of our day at the park, shooting it down, and the hellhounds.
She sighed. "It's unfortunate that you guys encountered hellhounds as your first encounter with a monster, but the hippalectryon shouldn't be down. If you shot it with the wooden arrow, it should still be able to recover. I've been told they're really tough, even tougher than pegasus. If it found you guys, then we probably shouldn't have a problem."
"So, what?" Josh asked. "Do we just sit and outside the camp until it finds us? I think we should move and hopefully we run into it."
"I agree," she said, "but that's our only lead right now. We don't even know where to go."
I thought back to the dream I had just what seemed a few moments ago. I should have probably said something about it, but I held. It didn't make sense to me, and it would have been useless if I did and it meant something else. "We should ask around friendly places," I suggested. "If the mixed chicken found use the first time, then he could find us again."
Vanessa nodded. "But do you know a friendly place that could give us information?"
"Just one," I said and turned to Chiron. "Do you know anything that could help us find this place?"
He scrunched his beard. "I know of many people who could possibly help you, but I am unsure of their current whereabouts right now."
I sulked in my chair. "Never mind. I got nothing right now."
"We can try the oracle again," Josh suggested.
"It only works for long term events, not sudden needs," Thaila said.
We all stood there thinking. I was about to say something random just to break the silence until Vanessa spoke up. "Where'd you shoot the hippalectryon?"
"In the wing."
"Revise: where were you when you shot it?"
"California."
The atmosphere seemed to get lower with that question.
"Well, that only leaves one thing to do," Josh said as he stood up from his finished breakfast.
"What's that?" Thaila asked.
He went over to the wall and picked up his med. Kit and hooked it bellow his pack so it was hanging. "Kick it old school. Search for a lead." Then he headed outside the house.
Vanessa looked at me as I got up. "Are you seriously going with this? We have no where to go."
"Aw, c'mon," I said. "Christopher Columbus didn't need a map to discover America. Why should we?"
I slung my backpack over my shoulder and headed outside. I saw Josh walking and caught up. "So, Columbus, where should we explore first?"
He pointed at a girl next to a fireplace. She wasn't old, maybe ten. She had a white skirt with a high collar. It struck me weird that I've never seen her, or maybe she wasn't a person who liked to stick their heads out. But then again, I didn't know too many ten year olds who like to be up at five in the morning.
Josh leaned back and whispered to me, "She was one of the people I met on the tour May took me."
The girl looked like she was playing with the fire, making it go up or down. When we approached, she turned and smiled. Her smile made me feel relaxed and ready for me to go to bed again.
Josh threw his stuff on the ground and sat down near the fire. "Morning, Lady Hestia."
"Welcome, Josh Green," she said. Then she looked at me. "Welcome to the hearth, Don Sharp."
"Um, did you tell her my name, Josh?"
He shook his head. "You know this is a goddess in front of you, right?"
I almost stumbled and turned towards the girl again. She spread her hands over the fire and the fire rose. If I could have felt any better, I did now.
"Um, I'm going to guess you're the goddess of good feelings," I said. "I'm sorry, my mom never really told me of the greek myths and stuff like that."
"This is Hestia, goddess of the hearth," Josh said. Then he turned towards her. "Maybe you can help us." Then he stopped and went threw his bag. Then he took out a milk chocolate Hersey's bar and handed it to her. "An offering for you, Lady Hestia."
She smiled and took the chocolate. Then she threw it into the fire. I thought that Josh would be ticked, but instead he seemed pleased. Then the air smelt good… like very good chocolate. "It is rare for me to get a full tribute. When demigods do a tribute to their godly parent, I get some of the offering." Then she took a deep breath and exhaled. "Of how can I help so early in the morning?"
Josh looked around then spoke. "Plain and simple: we're lost on where to start with our quest. Our dad sent a hippalectryon for us, but we accidentally shot it. Until we find it, we can't start for our quest. Apollo said the hippalectryon was suppose to drop us off at certain places. Do you know of one?"
Hestia sat there for a moment. Then she opened her hands at the fire again. In the fire, I saw a nice field of open grass and trees around them. "Ok," I said, "but where is that?"
"Where is what?" Thaila's voice came behind me. I turned around to see Vanessa, Phoebe, and her approaching. Then Thaila looked into the fire. "Is that-?"
She was cut off to my by my view getting dizzy. I turned towards Hestia to see her, but she was no longer there. In fact, we were no longer in camp Half-blood. We were where I saw though the fire, wherever it was. I turned around, now cold, to see the others looking around to as we sat in a field of grass with trees surrounding us. The quest has begun.
Finally I'm at the good part! I'd thought I'd never get here, but it pays to be patient, I guess. Tell me what you think so far! READ AND REVIEW!—Flappy741
