Alright, I know what is about to happen is a little bit too much like The Sea of Monsters, but it is an important part of the story and you'll see how different it is when I get the next chapter up. So read on and tell me if you like it!
Nico's POV
So She's Not a Carrot?
Aphrodite's words ran through everybody's heads, refusing to make sense.
"But Aphrodite," began Chiron. "That can't be possible. We need a full grown goddess to win whatever war is coming."
She sighed and thought for a moment. "Well…You have me!"
Chiron smiled a forced smile and Conner snorted.
"Wait," I said. "Go back a little bit. What was that about a war that's coming?"
Chiron's eyes bulged and his jaw dropped. "You haven't heard the prophecy yet, have you Nico?"
I shook my head. "No. I've heard about it though."
Chiron turned to everyone else. "Let's take a short break and show Nico the prophecy-"
"Wait, no!" I said suddenly.
They all turned to me and I held my hand out to keep anyone from going anywhere.
"Don't take a break! I don't want Laina to go vegetable because of the pain!"
Annabeth put her hand in front of her mouth and everyone else looked at me weird. Even Laina seemed to have a confused look on her face.
"What?" Asked Chiron.
I blushed. "She could go into a vegetative state because she's in so much pain. It happened to that Hermes kid last June, remember?"
Conner and Travis each raised their right eyebrows and Chiron shook his head.
"Annabeth, what the Hades is he talking about?"
Annabeth giggled. "Nico, you can't go into a vegetative state simply because of pain."
"What?" I asked. "You told me just a few minutes ago that-"
She cut me off. "I told you that because I needed to get you out of your cabin and out here. No Hermes kid turned vegetable."
"I was going to say." Said Travis.
My face burned and I looked down at my shoes. "Oh, sorry."
Chiron chuckled and all but the Apollo kids followed him down the hill. He led us down to the big house where Dionysus was using a spray bottle to send an I.M.
"Yes Zeus, she's up on the top of half-blood hill right now being treated." Dionysus was saying, his voice panicky and nervous sounding.
"Have you seen her yet?" Asked the gruff voiced person on the other side of the I.M.
"No," Dionysus sighed. "Not yet."
The curt man let loose a large amount of air through his nose. "Well why not?"
"Because I was sending this message to you!" the god of wine said irritably.
"Well have any gods seen her?"
Dionysus thought for a moment. "I have no clue; Chiron!"
The centaur sighed before responding. "Yes, Dionysus?"
"Have any gods visited Laina yet?"
Chiron thought for a second before nodding. "Aphrodite."
Dionysus groaned. "She's here?"
A black haired, gorgeous brown eyed girl piped up from behind me. "Yes Dionysus darling. I am here." She smiled and Mr. D groaned.
"Yes Zeus, Aphrodite visited her."
"Well let me talk to her."
Dionysus moved out of the way and Aphrodite walked over.
"Lord Zeus!" She cried happily. She chatted randomly with Zeus and we listened for a few moments before the ADHD in us began to kick in and we squirmed uncomfortably.
I guess we were beginning to ride on Dionysus' nerves because he gave Chiron the evil eye and the centaur motioned for us to follow him. We happily tiptoed out of the room.
Chiron led us down the hallway with all of the bedrooms in it. There were five of them and all but three were spares. One was Dionysus's and the door to it was purple, the next was Rachel's and it had a sign on the front that said, 'I may not be a blood related child of Apollo but I'm still hot!' The last room was one that I had never been in before. A large hoof print was marked on the door and inside of the hoof print was the letter C. Chiron pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door before leading us all inside.
Chiron's room was not my taste, I'd hate to say. The walls were a pale yellow and the light bulbs also gave off a yellowish glow. His brownish tanish bed was made so well it looked professional and his magical wheelchair was pushed up against a wall, right next to his beside table. His carpet was absolutely stainless and there was a little mat on the ground just in front of the door that said, 'Wipe your hooves please'. He led us inside and had us sit on the ground to the left of his bed. The ceiling was a little low for him so he trotted over to his wheelchair and put himself inside it.
"His bed is so neat." I whispered to Conner.
"That's because he doesn't sleep in it." He whispered back.
I stared at him in confusion but he just smiled mischievously and looked back at Chiron.
"I am just going to get a piece of paper from my stable." Chiron said rolling over towards two closet doors I hadn't noticed before. He opened them up and I was surprised to see that the floor of it was all hay. He rolled his wheels over the hay and moved out of my sight. I looked back at Conner with a look of amazement and he just laughed.
"You didn't think a horse could sleep on a bed did you?"
I chose the wise decision and didn't think too much about it.
Chiron came back and he had a small slip of paper in his hands. "This, Nico, is the longest most recent prophecy from our oracle of Delphi." He looked over at Rachel. "Would you like to read it dear?"
Rachel nodded and stood up. The redness of her face was beginning to fade and I saw some of that familiar determination and ferocity in her eyes. She took the slip from Chiron and cleared her throat before beginning.
"The missing daughter will soon be found,
With abilities greater and more profound.
She'll see the lonesome in a daft old soul,
And bring life to the person burned into coal.
The old acquaintance will admit his wrong,
And the light will change during the skeleton's song.
The trusted one, evil in the end,
Will bring a terrible fate to a, once called, friend.
The daughter will do what's been done before,
To postpone, not end, a terrible war."
My jaw dropped as she read the lines. This was the longest prophecy that I had ever heard. It was even longer than both of the great ones! Very few of the lines actually sounded like they were to our benefit. The only part that I knew for a fact was good was the part about finding the daughter. She is very powerful and likely to be a huge help even though the majority of her power is only half blood portions.
As for the second line, I guess bringing life to someone burned into coal is good, but it kind of depends on whom. I wouldn't want to think to positively if it was possible that Kronos could be brought to life again. I felt hope stirring inside me that it would be Bianca but I willed that thought to fizzle away.
I had no idea about what old acquaintance they were talking about in the third line. It could really be anybody. The question was who's old acquaintance. If it was Chiron's then we were pretty much hopeless trying to figure it out. He knew and knows so many people we would never be able to narrow it down to just one. For that line we would just have to see.
The light changing could be for either the good or the bad. It was the part about the skeleton song that really got me. When I read that line a chill went down my spine and I knew that it had something to do with me, though I had no idea what.
The thing about the trusted one being evil gave me déjà vu like heck. It was courtesy of that Aphrodite girl Silena and how she had actually been a spy for Luke. That hadn't been too much for our benefit.
The line about terrible fates to once called, friends are not usually that promising. The only person who I could think of who was a 'once called, friend' had to be Luke and he was dead. That line from the beginning about bringing life to a person appeared in my mind and it occurred to me that he could be in the line about the one brought to life and the one about the once called friend.
The second to last line about repeating what's been done before really irked me. I wasn't quite sure why but something about it just rang a bell in my head. It gave me a sickening feeling for some reason so I quickly thought about the last line.
It didn't make me feel too much better.
'To postpone, not end, a terrible war.' Postponing is sometimes good but in the world of Greek gods, that could mean anything. It could mean that we beat them for a long time like what happened with Kronos or it could mean that we lose a ton of campers before they finally decided to surrender. Whichever it was, it definitely promised deaths and I could only hope that one of them was not mine.
To sum things up, this was by far the longest and most confusing prophecy I had ever heard and I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. To be honest, the only thing I did know was that this time around I was not going to take the backseat.
The last few prophecies to be sprouted always had me in the background. I was never some star that everyone looked up to and found amazing and heroic. The only one that ever actually mentioned me by name was the one about perishing by the ghost king's hand. I mean, I guess it's cool to be a ghost king but I wanted to get what Percy had always gotten; the spotlight.
Yeah yeah, dumb, I know. A child of Hades wanting the spotlight? Go join a drama club! But that's not what I'm saying. I don't want the spotlight as Romeo in some romantic play. I want the spotlight as a hero. The sort of spotlight where people don't consider you the emo kid who weeps for his dead sister. The sort of spotlight where you don't have to worry about where you are going to go for your free time at camp. The sort of spotlight where you know exactly where you are going to be every single second of the day. And when you want to, you have friends with you. And when you don't want to, you don't. These days it seems like the complete opposite. Whenever I want to be alone, there is always someone there bothering me. It could be Percy, Annabeth, Aphrodite, my dad, Ronald; basically, I was never alone when I wanted to be.
But when I really needed help and was alone and depressed, I never had anyone to help me. The dead were my only companions and the only times I got to see anybody else was during the summer at camp. For my dad it was the complete opposite. The only time he ever got to see his wife was during the fall and winter. He used to have companions all year, but when my mother died he was left with company for only half of it.
I felt a pang of guilt go through me as I thought about how hard I had been on him. Compared to him, I was lucky. I could visit my friends when I wanted, I could go down and converse with the ghosts when I felt like it. Hades, on the other hand, had loads and loads of work to do and the only time he actually got company besides me was when Persephone was with him. And she didn't even like him.
Realization shot through my head like a bullet.
What if dad doesn't even like Persephone? I wondered. What if the only reason why he kidnapped and married her was because he was…
The words refused to appear in my head.
He's a god! I thought. Of course he's not…
I trailed off again. It made way too much sense to be coincidence.
My father never loved Persephone.
She's a jerk who wouldn't know a gentleman if he came out of the ground and kidnapped her on his skull chariot.
The only reason he stays with her in the first place is because he's…
The word finally appeared:
Lonely.
My father was lonely even from the start. He thought he loved Persephone because he saw her happily running through the meadow as beautiful as she can be, laughing along with her mother, cheerful as ever. But when he took her she showed her not-so-nice side and proved that she was not the right girl for him.
I knew that there was another piece I still needed to fit into the puzzle but I didn't have enough time, because just then Will came running into Chiron's room, breathing hard.
"Chiron!" He wheezed.
We all turned to look at him and the activities director wheeled over to his side.
"What is it my boy? What's wrong?"
Will took a few deep breaths before continuing.
"It's Peleus." Will gasped. "He was shot with one of those sleeping bullets hunters use with lions. The golden fleece was removed from the tree and now…" Gasps erupted around the room. Will coughed and Chiron rubbed his back.
"Now what, Will?" He asked calmly.
Will cleared his throat. "And now demons are attacking. Hundreds."
Alright, like I said before, sorry about the Sea of Monsters-like ending. Don't worry, it's completely different and has little to do with Thalia's pine. I've decided that I want to come up with more demigods so that I'm not just using the ones from the regular PJO books. Granted, I can come up with them on my own but I think you guys would like to be a part of my story too so instead I'm letting you tell me ideas of some new characters.
I'm only going to choose some so not all will make it but I would like you to give me the general info.
The character's first, middle, and last name,
Their appearance (hair, clothing style, eyes, etc.),
How they act around people,
And their personalities. Not to mention any background info I need to know about them, for instance if they had a terrible past. Oh! And their parentage. Sorry, almost forgot! Be creative and remember; I don't like the plain old boring half-bloods. Thanks!