003: I recommend rereading Evan's last line from two chapters ago before reading this chapter. Enhances the effect.
[CENSORED]: This chapter brought to you by RoosterTeeth, Hp, Naughty Dog, Kern High School District, and cake. Ah, cake.
Jacob's POV
"I am not enjoying myself," I said as Tony gave the arrow another yank.
"Hold still," Tony repeated as he adjusted his grip.
I know you're expecting a full explanation of what exactly is going on here, but I really don't want to talk about it. So I'm just going to give you the short version. Archery practice went really, really badly. I'm just lucky the arrow only got lodged in my pants.
"You know, I may not be the best at archery," Tony said as he planted a foot on my rear, "but that was the worst shot ever, of all time."
"Just get the thing out already," I groaned. Even though that was a horrible shot and as soon as Alex found out (And she would find out.) she was going to turn my life into a living Hades, I felt a strange sense of pride knowing I was a terrible shot. I'd heard a ton of stories from Mom about how horrible with a bow Dad was, and I guess I was a little happy to be a chip off the old Jackson block.
Well, I was, until Tony finally managed to yank free the arrow…along with the entire seat of my pants. I fell face first into the ground, feeling a very intruding breeze across by boxers. At first there was silence, then as I rolled onto my back, I caught Tony desperately trying to hold in laughter.
"What?" Tony demanded. "It's hilarious!"
"Give me back the rest of my pants!" I shot back, snatching the arrow that was still attached to the scrap of cloth that had once covered my rear flank.
"Aw c'mon, admit it!" Tony said, laughing by now.
"Not going to happen," I said, getting up and dusting myself off.
"Admit it!" he repeated.
"Shut up," I said flatly, walking away.
Tony tried to get his laughter under control, but only succeed in bring it down to a chuckle as he asked, "Where you going?"
"To change pants!" I yelled back.
About ten other people saw me by the time I reached my cabin. Two of them were Ares kids, which is just what I needed. As if they didn't have enough on me after the "garden hose incident". Angry, embarrassed, and grumbling to myself, I dug through my drawers for some fresh pants.
"Jacob…that's an interesting look," the voice of my cabin mate said.
I whirled around to see Alex, and I instantly felt my face heat up and my mind go to static. "Uh, yeah…I uh, there was an arrow and…and…I'm stupid."
Alex looked me over, trying to keep a straight face. But finally, hilarity won out and she broke out into a fit of barely suppressed giggles. She shook her head, smiling.
"Are we one-hundred percent sure you're the prophecy kid?" Alex laughed.
"Oh shut up," I said as I changed into some pants that didn't have any holes. "What are you doing here anyway? I could have sworn you were on stable cleaning duty after what happened last week."
Alex got that look in her eye that usually signaled someone was about to be in big trouble. I didn't like that look very much, because it usually meant I was going to be in big trouble.
"Yeah well, I convinced Will to take my shift," she explained.
"How?" I asked. "You know what, never mind. I don't want to know."
"See? You did inherit something from your mom after all," Alex teased. "But anyway, I'm here for you. Chiron's calling an emergency meeting. Something about a giant monster attack? I stopped paying attention once Chiron asked how I'd finished the stables so quickly."
"Ah," I said. "So I'm going to this meeting alone then?"
"That's right," Alex confirmed. "And meanwhile I…am going find something fun to do as far out of Chiron's sight as possible."
Alex ducked into her "dark corner" of the cabin, and she was gone. I shook my head, tossed my destroyed pants onto my bunk, and headed for the Big House. Giant monster attack huh?
Han had been the one to first bring the news story to Chiron, who was now showing it to the head counselors from each of the cabins. A giant squid, wreaking havoc in the harbor and leaving the Golden Gate Bridge a mess. People were trapped on it, traffic flow across it had ground to a halt, and to top it all off the slimly sea monster was still out there. Ships were capsizing in the harbor right now, reports coming in of smaller boats being snapped in half.
This thing was dangerous, and it had to be taken down. It was also inconceivably bigger than me. Little, young, inexperienced, destined-for-greatness me.
"And that is exactly, I'm afraid, what three campers will be up against," Chiron said, finishing his explanation of the situation.
"Three campers? Are you saying we're just going to give this quest to some random trio and hope for the best?" Grind, head of the Ares cabin asked. "With all due respect sir, that is the dumbest thing you've ever said. You saw that thing, we need to send the best of the best."
"Volunteering for a quest and tooting your own horn at the same time," Dax from Athena taunted sarcastically. "Now that is truly impressive, Grind."
"You wanna dance Wise Guy?" Grind threatened.
"Only if we're not talking about the tango," Dax replied, gritting his teeth.
"Enough!" Chiron interrupted, cooling the temper of the two rival warriors. "Both of you, control yourselves."
"Obviously we're not just going to send in a couple of rookie seven-year olds," Ellen from Apollo admitted, secretly referring to her younger brothers. "But how exactly do we decide who gets the quest?"
"Not to borrow from Grind's play book," I spoke up, "but I think I should lead this one."
All heads turned towards me, and with good reason. I was only eleven, and I was asking to lead a quest against a giant sea monster. I was by far the youngest out of all the head counselors, and in a place where everyone had an almighty parent, being the son of someone famous really did zero for your rep.
"How about you just leave this one to the grown-ups, okay kid?" Dax offered.
"Hear me out," I insisted. "Who else do we have who's suited to fight in and around the ocean? I'm our best guy for this, and I can handle it."
"Aw, cute," Grind scoffed.
"I think he's got a point, actually," Rick from Zeus spoke up. "Poseidon and I aren't exactly on good terms after what happened last time, Henry's still off in swamps on that quest for Hermes, and Grind, you can't even swim."
"You weren't supposed to tell anyone that!" Grind said in an angry whisper. We all got a laugh a Grind's expense.
"Jacob, are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into?" Ellen from Apollo asked. Ellen was only a year older than me, and spent a lot of her time keeping her two younger brothers in check. She had a tendency to be a little motherly with everyone. "You saw the news feed, right?"
"I saw it," I assured her. "Relax. I can take care of this."
"Is everyone else ignoring what should be obvious?" Chuck from Hephaestus asked. All heads turned toward him, and he shrugged. "It's just, what's happened the last few times we've gone after some rampaging monster?"
"It turned out to be a trap set up by…" Dax began, but he stopped once his brain clicked together the details of what Chuck was trying to say.
"The Pit," I finished. "You're saying the monster's not the only thing we're dealing with, then?"
"It's actually pretty likely, given the circumstances," Dax admitted.
"Well then, I'll just have to deal with them too," I said. "If the Pit is behind this, there's nothing we can do about it."
"You really are set on going aren't you?" Ellen asked.
"Yeah," I said. "I am."
Although, I wasn't really sure why. I could talk all I want, but I had no idea had how to stop this thing. I looked just a little too big be skewered by Miz, although I'm sure he'll protest otherwise as soon as I click him to life. I was putting on a brave face for everyone, but I was growing more and more worried I was in over my head.
"If you're anything like your father, there's little I can do to stop you then," Chiron said. "Jacob Jackson, you will be leading this quest. Best of luck."
"Time for the Oracle, isn't it?" I asked.
"Have fun," Rick offered.
Dad once told me about how back when he was a camper, the Oracle was some decaying old corpse of an Oracle that had died. I can only imagine how creepy that would have been. Thankfully, since those days we'd gotten a new Oracle, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, an old friend of my Dad's.
I'd never personally gone to see her, but I'd heard from others (Including Mom) that she was pretty cool…until the prophecy came out. Then she could be just as scary as the last Oracle.
Which was why I was still standing uncomfortably outside the entrance to her cave. I wasn't scared, exactly. It was just, if so many people got freaked out by prophecies, could I really be able to face one without flipping out?
"Someone out there?" a voice called from inside.
Well, so much for turning around. I swallowed any doubts, and entered the lair of the Oracle.
And I gotta say, it's a lot scarier on the outside. Deep in the hills near the forests of camp, with a purple curtain and torches at the entrance. But inside, it was as decked out as any place could be. I could tell Apollo himself had come up with a lot of it. Towards the back, I was pretty sure I could see a game room, and just one cavern over was a huge home theater system.
Reclining in a purple couch reading a magazine was the Oracle of Delphi, my Dad's unofficial ex, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. When she saw me, she smiled and set down the magazine before getting up to greet me.
"How can I help—" but she stopped mid-sentence, and her gaze locked on me. Her expression changed suddenly, as if something in her mind clicked. "Jacob L. Jackson?"
"Have we met?" I asked.
"It is you!" she said. I was enveloped in a quick hug, which I was too surprised and confused by to return. She ruffled my hair afterward, a massive grin on her face. "Oh, I haven't seen you since you were a toddler! You know, you look just like your mother."
"Uh…thanks?" I asked. You know that awkward feeling you get when a relative you've never met before gets touchy feely and goes on about how they haven't seen you in x number of years? Yeah, that's the feeling I had now.
"I'm sorry, it's just so incredible to see you all grown up now," she apologized. "But I guess you didn't come here to catch up, did you?"
I almost felt bad about not visiting except to get a prophecy. Which is weird, because it was the first time I'd ever met Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Even so, I decided to make a mental note to stop by again later. "I got a quest to take care of a really big monster out west."
"Sounds like the exact same kind of trouble your dad used to get into," Dare said with a smile.
A silence settled in on us. "So, now what?" I asked.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare shrugged. "Well, try asking a question about the quest. The spirit of Delphi only seems to come out when you give it a question. By the way, never ask me what time it is."
I gave a light chuckle and tried to think what to ask. "What's going to happen on this quest?" I tried.
Only silence. Rachel looked left and right, as if looking for the spirit of Delphi. Apparently not finding it, she shrugged. "Any other ideas?"
"What is my destiny?" I asked. Still no magical response.
I got a little frustrated. "Well, now what?"
Rachel's eyes flared open, glowing green as a thick fog of Mist rolled out of nowhere, curling around our ankles before quickly spreading to fill every nook and cranny of the cave. It became all I could see, filling my lungs and practically stinging my eyes.
Cold shivers ran down my spine, my heart raced like Hermes on a sugar high, my breathing sounded more like someone who'd ran a marathon in the snow than someone who'd just been standing around. A raspy, chilling voice echoed in my mind, and I could feel its hot breath on my shoulder as if it whispered in my ear.
As the child foretold in prophecy marches West
He faces impossible odds on his first true quest
Your enemies watch as your own swords fail you
The mortals sacrifice innocence, as the astray one shall do
The sacred three is broken again by the headstrong hero
As monuments crumble, the sea beast fades from tomorrow
And as quickly as the fog of Mist had swept in, it vanished, returning me to the cave with Rachel. She staggered back, and her eyes returned to normal. She looked at me with exhausted eyes and asked. "Get what you need?"
"Y-ye," the words got stuck in my throat. I coughed to clear it before trying again. "Yeah. I-I think so. Are you okay?"
She nodded. "I'll be fine. Just…just need to rest a little is all. Good luck Jacob."
I said my goodbyes and left the cave. So that was what getting a prophecy was like. I shuddered at the thought of having to talk to an old, dried out mummy in an attic instead of a nice, living person. The fog, the voice, that feeling of some ancient evil breathing down your neck as it told you in so many different ways that the road ahead was going to be a living Hades…
I tried to occupy my mind with something else and push the memory of that eerie feeling the Oracle visit gave me aside, and I found myself trying to decipher the prophecy. A lot of it sounded like trouble. Mortals sacrificing innocence, impossible odds, monuments crumbling, my own sword failing me…
I took Miz, in pen form, out of my pocket. For all his talk about how much he hated me, he hadn't let me down yet.
I stuffed him back into my pocket and continued the short hike back to the Big House. With nothing else to occupy my ADHD brain except for doubts and questions that couldn't be answered, I was going to be pretty stressed by the time I got back.
And as it turns out, when you ask a stressed out Hybrid about a prophecy he doesn't want to think about, he gets pretty irritated.
"Looks, it's not really important what she said, what's important is I got my prophecy and I'm ready to go," I repeated.
"If you insist," Ellen said. "So, who are you taking with you?"
I didn't even have to consciously consider it. Alex's name was forming on my lips practically before Ellen could finish her question. But reason kicked in before I could actually say anything. Alex was off who knows where doing who knows what, dodging chores and staying out of sight. She wasn't going to be coming with me this time.
My next thought was Han, the satyr who'd watched over me during my days before camp. But as loyal and awesome a goat as Han was, he was only so good in a fight. And only so good didn't usually survive.
I thought of Henry, but he'd been gone on his own quest along with one of the Hermes kids and Roxanne. As I mentally scrolled through my list of friends, I found that all of them were either a bad choice or busy with something else. Who was I going to take?
Ellen seemed to figure out what I was thinking. "I'll go with you," she volunteered.
"Really?" I asked. Ellen wasn't usually the adventurous type. She spent most of her time taking care of her younger siblings, keeping them safe and out of trouble. She was like a twelve year old mom to them really, and she had a tendency to act like everyone else's mom too as a result.
I always figured Ellen never went on quests because she was afraid of what her brothers would do without her. But here she was, volunteering to back me up against something that could shake one of the world largest suspension bridges.
She nodded. "Really."
I turned to the other cabin leaders present. Grind and Rick both already had their reasons for not being able to go. Dax was a decent guy, a good fighter, but I was smart enough to know two strategists would more than likely clash for the leadership role, something I couldn't let happen if I was going to be leading this quest.
"Chuck?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I'll pass."
"You could talk to Tony," Rick suggested. "The squirt's been craving some action lately."
"You really think he'd go for it?" I asked. Rick nodded.
"Try checking the sword arena. The Ares kids are probably using him as a mop again," Rick offered. I nodded my thanks, Chiron called the meeting to an end, and I left with Ellen in tow to look for Tony, the son of Zeus.
Just like Rick said, we found Tony in the sword arena, where the Ares kids were in fact, almost literally mopping the floor with him. Before you wonder why I'd pick him to help us on a quest when he was getting his butt kicked, you have to put in context who he was getting his butt kicked by, and how many of them there were.
The Ares kids were some of the fiercest fighters at camp. From their youngest (Roxanne) to their oldest (Grind) any one of those seven could tear apart just about anyone. And Tony had somehow, some way, ended up taking on five of them at once.
Tony hit the floor again, tried to get up, and received a spear shaft to the face in return. He hit the floor hard, and when he didn't immediately get back up he got a kick to the ribs. Knowing the Ares kids, it was about to get ugly.
"Hey!" I yelled, but my voice couldn't be heard over the sound of senseless violence. Tony continued to fight in vain against the impossible odds. One of the Ares kids looked like they were about to go for a stab.
A sharp whistle resonated through the air, stopping everyone cold and making my ears ring. I snapped my head in Ellen's direction and sure enough, she had two fingers in her mouth. I nodded my thanks.
"C'mon guys," I said to the Ares kids, "I need him in one piece."
You have to be careful when negotiating with Ares kin. Too submissive, and they'll laugh and punch you in the face. Too demanding, and they'll growl and punch you in the face. Too underhanded…you get the point.
"Take him," one of them spat. "It wasn't even fun anymore."
"We appreciate it," Ellen said, grabbed hold of Tony and dragging him away from them.
"You got lucky this time Tony!" they sneered as Ellen and I half directed, half dragged Tony away.
Tony looked like he was about to say something prideful and stupid, so I slapped my hand over his mouth before he could. Whatever he intended to say to the Ares kids, all that came out was a muffled "Hmf urg nmlhm!"
"I could've handled that myself," Tony said after we finally let him go.
"Yes, because you were doing so great before we showed up," Ellen said sarcastically.
Tony gave her a sharp glare, which she returned full force. I was really hoping the whole quest wasn't going to be like this. I cleared my throat, cutting their stare-down short.
"So, what's this even about?" Tony asked. "Because if it's not important, then you just forced me to back down from a fight for nothing."
"There's giant sea monster is tearing apart the west coast, and we get to go after it," I summed up. "Are you in, or not?"
I could tell I had Tony's sense of pride and glory hooked. "Did you say giant sea monster?"
003: You would not believe how long it took him to come up with a decent prophecy. Also, we're not really sure on the canon-ness of Rachel's cave, but Apollo mentioned it in the The Last Olympian, and we decided to run with it. So regardless of what Rick decides, that cave is now part of the Rise of Urunos Canon.
There was supposed to be some trio vs. monster action this chapter but…eh, it didn't happen. Sorry.
Next chapter, we interview Tony and Will (Combined because we all know there's not much for either of them to talk about solo.)
Yes, this took an eternity and a half to debut, but last school year there were zero updates, so no complaining!
Oh hey before I forget, anyone have any song suggestions for Jacob's theme song?