Chapter 10:Prophercy Of The First Quest

Arvin's point of view

I grimaced when I saw the bodies all lined up beside a great fire. The bodies were all wrapped up in white cloth in an attempt to delay rotting, but already some were showing signs of decomposing. Wrapped within the cloth, I know laid the corpses of the brave demigods who had died in the recent battle. My eyes teared when I saw there were so many of them. They all have made great sacrifices.

In total, I could tell that there were almost hundred or so demigods who had gave their lives; and this had greatly reduced the camp numbers by half. By the time Leo and I had led Geoff to the counsellors' meeting place, almost half the corpses had been cremated. Each body had a shroud upon them which will be burned together with the body as a sign of respect from the cabinmates. They will all go to Esylium.

As I led Geoff to where Chiron was, I saw many of the campers casting looks of disgust at Geoff's wound. Though many of them had bandages around their arms and heads, neither of their injuries could be compared to that of Geoff's. Despite their wary glances, Geoff did not seem to be affected. Instead, he seemed to be contemplating about something.

Finally when we reached Chiron, we saw that all the counsellors were already present and seated around a battered table. They were still wearing their battle armours. The centaur himself was witnessing the cremation of a Hephaestus camper. Surprisingly, his shroud, which was a huge ton of metallic chains burned up easily when placed among the roaring flames.

"Geoff, it seems you are well but it is not right for you to be walking around in the midst of your recovery," Chiron spoke grimly when he saw us approaching.

"I cannot be lying in bed all day when there is chaos brewing," Geoff muttered.

Chiron gazed at him for a moment but said nothing. Then he beckoned us to the table. After helping Geoff to a chair, Leo and I then sat down to the left and right of him. "Can we start?" Clarisse, counsellor of the Ares cabin grumbled impatiently.

" Yes, but we will have to wait for Rachel," Chiron replied.

Rachel arrived soon after he had said that, dressed in a flowing purple robes but walked barefooted. As the camp's Oracle, the campers always seemed to respect her when she was present, even Clarisse. After she had taken her place at the head of the table, Chiron cleared his throat.

" First things first, how is the camp's situation?" he asked Leo.

" The damage is quite bad. Not only the amphitheatre is destroyed, so is the Great House and almost half of the cabins as well as part of the camp borders. Approximately, we will need about two months to reconstruct everything so in the meantime, we must stay in the infirmary. As for weaponry, it will take two weeks to replenished what we have lost."

" Any news from the Roman camp?"

" I fear not. We haven't been able to contact them since the battle." Upon hearing that, Chiron furrowed his brows. "Don't worry, I 'm sure Jason can take care of the camp," Piper said.

Chiron nodded before asking Annabeth, who was sitting next to him. " How is Percy?" As soon as he asked that, all eyes turned to look at her with concern, though Clarisse gave a snort. Even though Annabeth had slept, her eyes looked as if she hadn't been sleeping lately and her face was really pale. She remained silent at his question and looked down instead.

Not wanting to ask her further, Chiron changed the topic. " Now, about the upcoming quest. According to the Great Prophercy and what Lord Poseidon says, Chaos will try all means to bring down this world and we all have a duty to stop him by finding the two divine objects. We must not let our losses gain the better of us. Now I believe that it is time for us to reveal the prophercy of the first quest."

Just as he mentioned that, Rachel slumped forward. Seeing this, two of the counsellors seating by her side rushed to help her up. When they held her up, I could only see that her eyes had glowed a luminous green. Green smoke left her mouth as the Oracle of Delphi within her spoke the new prophercy.

"Eight stones of the destined demigods to be found..." it hissed.

"Four each to the orb and scroll... the heated lands wherein the scroll lies back time..."

"The shadows must travel in solitude..." Upon hearing that, Geoff's face paled. The voice then continued." Perish will be the final bow of flames..."

"Saved must be the red warrior with the help of quartz... the wisdom to be found in the heart of Rome..." The counsellors around the table held their breath as they heard the final verse of the prophercy.

"And the last lies within the bottom land of ice..." With that, the voice of the Oracle faded and the cloud of green smoke vanished into Rachel's mouth. Her eyes opened as she gazed at the faces of everyone gathered around the table. Beads of sweat covered her forehead and face." Well what did the Prophercy say?" she asked.

There was a deadly silence around the table as one of the counsellor repeated the prophercyto her. As far as I can tell, the prophercy spelled a harbinger of doom for the camp. " Aside from the Great Prophercy, that is the wierdest prophercy I've heard so far," Travis, counsellor of Hermes cabin broke the ice.

Nodding, Chiron replied," It does not matter what the prophercy says; most importantly is that we need to complete the quest as soon as possible. The gods of Olympus have been facing trouble two months ago, so it is unlikely that they will be providing any aid for us. We must be depending on ourselves. From what I see, it must be completed within four months before worst destructions come upon the world."

" But who will be going on this quest?" Morris, the new counsellor of Hecate cabin leaned forward and asked. The talismans hanging on his clothes clanged and jangled.

"Both prophercies had mentioned that eight demigods will be playing a role in this quest and quests to come. The Roman camp will definitely send a few demigods, so a few of us must go on this quest while the rest stay behind to defend the camp. Given now the camp's situation is dire and Dionysus is not present, we must risk much," Chiron replied.

"Arvin and I will go," Geoff immediately blurted. Hearing this, I had wanted to smack his head for his 'marvellous' idea. Although he may be the eldest, I had always been the one refraining him from doing anything foolish. Now, Chiron had taken on my role. "You and Arvin are new here and inexperienced; besides, you are still recovering from your injuries."

"We had been facing monsters ever since we were born. I have a feeling that both of us are needed in this quest. Anyway, I cannot leave Cyrus all by himself; I must find him." The other counsellors started discussing among themselves, with many, including Clarisse, protesting about his decision. I was hoping that Chiron would refused but all the centaur did was to ponder a long time before giving a curt nod. "Both Arvin and Geoff have been displaying inexplicable abilities ever since we had met them and I too have a feeling they are part of this quest," he reasoned.

Great, I thought sullenly. I cast Geoff a look of anoyance but he refused to meet my eyes. Annabeth finally spoke, in a soft voice," I will go too, the prophercy mentioned 'wisdom' and I think it is referring to one of Athena's children."

"Me too." Everyone turned to look at Will Solace, counsellor of the Apollo's cabin. "The Chaos warriors slew all my cabinmates, do you expect me to forget that?" His words struck everyone of us like arrows. Though Will can be an amiable sometimes, most campers knew not to displease him, for he was the best archer in camp. From his words, I felt a pang of sympathy for him.

"All right, we have talked much today. The quest will begin on the morrow. For now, all of us must rest," Chiron said before galloping off.

I was leading Geoff back to the infirmary when he suddenly halted. "You don't have to lead me anymore, I'm able to walk on my own," he told me. Loosening my grip on his arm, he struggled to stand by himself. Even wearing the orange camp shirt, the blood from his wound still managed to stain his right sleeve. He gritted his teeth as he steadied himself.

I fixed him with a glare. "How many times I've told you not to rush into making decisions," I said to my big brother, referring to the reckless choice he made just now.

"What about you? You did not tell me all the things that transpired when I was unconcious," Geoff retorted. I frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"Not only you did not tell me about the Great Prophercy and about Poseidon's visit, you kept your dream last night to yourself. Do you know how important is it to the camp and our upcoming quest?" I froze when he told me that. How did he know? Then I realised he had been reading my memories. Silently, I cursed myself for not knowing that.

Geoff held my gaze for a while, then he straightened up. "We should not dwell on the past. Anyway, you should not keep that dream to yourself. Even though, I'm sorry for making that reckless decision; it's just that I feel that there is a need for us to go, in order to find out our past and save Cyrus."

A breeze blew across our faces and made the grasses rustled. "I understand," was all that I could reply.

"I need to take a breather. See you later at the infirmary," Geoff continued before heading in the direction of the lake, his empty right sleeve fluttering.

Sighing, I continued my way to the infirmary. Geoff had changed ever since I last talked to him. He was more cold and direct now; maybe he was still frazed about his wound or angry with me for not telling about my dream. The dream did seem crucial to the quest. In fact, one of the primordial, Pontus had visited me in my dreams last night.

The ancient sea god looked so old with a white beard. He had a trident upon his forehead, like a tattoo burned on skin. His right arm had even more 'tattoos' of intersecting lines, which started from his shoulders and ended at his wrist. His dark green eyes looked at me with such intensity as he studied me.

"Arvin, fear not for I am not here to interrupt your dreams, neither am I one of the primordials which oppose the Olympians. The fate of this world rests on you demigods, depending on whether you will cooperate with us primordial gods on your side and the Olympians."

"And how do we do that?" I asked.

"For those eight who are part of the quest and chosen by fate itself, they must depend on the gods within them, including you."

"What?" I asked again uncomprehendingly. The god smiled sadly.

"You will know in time to come, about the one within you. All you have to do is to put your faith in him." The god then looked behind him, as if he was expecting something. "My time has come to be within the fated one."

The dream faded before I had the chance to ask the god further questions. Its just seem so ridiculous. Primordial gods just kept appearing. And the most uncomprehending part is what Geoff said about my dream being important for for the quest. What on earth was on his mind? Sighing again, I stepped behind a door of a room of the infirmary and knocked. There was no response.

"Percy?" I called. Still there was no reply. Perhaps he was still unconcious. Carefully I opened the door of the room and gasped when I saw that the mattress was empty.

"Sorry. I didn't hear you knock," a voice called from the far side of the room.

"Percy?" I asked the person again," is that you?"

"I look different, aren't I?" Percy grinned. I must agree that Percy definitely looked different. His eyes looked a darker green than before and his hair... his hair was white instead of his usual black. There was a trident upon his forehead. As he was bandaged on his chest and abdomen, only both his arms were left bare and aside from a tattoo of a trident with the letters SPQR and a bar on his right arm, there were tattoos of intersecting lines on his right arm.

Pontus,I thought to myself. My time has come to be with the fated one. Now I knew what the god meant when he said I smiled," Welcome back, Percy. You are just in time for the quest."

Third Person Point of view

Cyrus grunted in pain as he crashed into a rocky wall. He knew from the moment when he met this titan, all his efforts from trying to escape from this cursed place had gone up into smoke. He clutched his only sword, Power tightly as he struggled to stand up. This opponent was too formidable. Where was he, he did not know; but his main focus was to finish off the enemy. If he could do this easily, like what he did earlier to the Chaos warriors that had been guarding his prison door, he might be able to escape. However, aside from swordplay, the main problem was that this foe was able to anticipate his powers. Worse thing, the opponent could even use some of his powers.

"Fool! If you think you can defeat me with the powers of the universe, you are mistaken. I had a share of Chaos powers and none of your petty tricks can work," the opponent smirked, waving his crescent-shaped sabre.

"Snap out of it, Astraeus. Either you or me will be going down," Cyrus muttered as he held the red sword up. His gut tightened as he summoned the earth beneath him. The ground shook as an earthen hand made of soil reached out to grab the titan.

"Too slow," Astraeus mouthed these words before vanishing and appearing before Cyrus's back.

"You are slower," Cyrus grinned and smashed the hilt of his sword into the titan's face, sending him stumbling back. He slashed again, this time at Astraeus's shoulder. A red streak slashed across the titan and he vanished into a shower of sparks. Cyrus stopped to take a breather. Did I win?

"You lose," Astraeus's voice boomed forth in the rocky cavern. Suddenly, the titan's sabre whirled in front of him. There was a sharp clang as Power met with the sabre, but Cyrus only found himself being tossed back by the impact and smashing into the walls again. Pain laced up his back and his vision turned red and white. He tried to get up but his entire body was numb.

"You are inside Chao's domain and this is where his powers are the greatest, so are his minions. Your chance of victory over me is zero. The domination of Earth will take place a fortnight later and there is nothing you can do to save your friends or the world, child of cosmos. Now, cower before the great Astraeus." With that, the titan raised his glowing sabre and slashed it swiftly across the roof of the cavern. The ceiling caved in immediately and the rocks made a jarring crash as they tumbled onto Cyrus.

For your information, Astraeus is the primordial titan of planets and stars. Just make a search in wikipedia.