A/N Thanks again to MyNameIsAwesome for helping, this time with the prophecy. Enjoy!
Chapter 12: The Quest Begins
Nico smiled at Melody, who was asleep with her head against his chest. He stroked her hair, which was softer than it looked. She looked so calm when she was asleep... he wondered if she was dreaming, and if so, what about. He hoped it was something pleasant.
It wasn't.
An inhuman cackle echoed through a dank stone tunnel. The smell of decay was all around, filling the air. Melody drifted, without a body, through the cave.
The cackle sounded again, ringing in Melody's nonexistent ears, and to her horror, something began pulling her toward it. She tried to struggle, but it was difficult without a body.
Then the force made itself visible- or, rather, himself. He turned to look at her through his dark, wavy hair, then gestured with one paint-flecked hand. "You need to see this," he said quietly. "You must tell the son of Hades."
Melody stopped struggling and let herself drift into an wide cavern, where a very familiar figure loomed over a small pit. "It is time, my children! Time to rise and eat your fill!"Echidna shrieked gleefully.
Morpheus pulled Melody over to the pit. He pointed at it.
"Look, Melody. This is what you must tell him."
She looked down at something that chilled her to the bone. "No..." she whispered. "It can't be..."
Nestled in the sand were three eggs: one red with gold flecks, one black with silver stripes, and one blue marbled with green.
Melody had never seen anything like them, and she had seen a lot.
"What are they, Morpheus?"
"You know as well as I."
"Meaning you don't know either."
"They are something different. Something new."
"But that's impossible."
"What is the first rule of your family?"
"It can be done," she whispered.
One of the eggs began to rock back and forth.
Suddenly Melody was in Camp Half-Blood. She was still bodiless, and could only watch as people screamed and ran and fought something she couldn't make out.
She saw Dave reaching out to her, his eyes filled with fear.
She woke up screaming.
Nico was startled. "What happened?"
"We have to get back to Camp Half-Blood, right now."
"What's going on?"
"Trouble."
"Melody, what hap-"
"There's no time!"
She ran in the direction of the camp. Nico ran after her, caught her hand, and they shadow-traveled to the top of Half-Blood Hill.
Camp Half-Blood was being attacked by a huge flock of harpies.
Before Nico could stop her, Melody ran down the hill, slipping her ring off and expanding it into its trickstaff form. She dashed straight into the battle, slashing and hacking at the monstrous bird-women. "Dave!" she called.
"Here!" Dave called back. She located him just outside the Hermes cabin, blasting down harpies as they came near. He stood back-to-back with a boy who wielded a pair of wickedly curved daggers, and the two were putting up quite a fight. She made her way over to them, cutting a path as she went. Finally, she stood close enough to talk to Dave.
"What happened?" she asked, raising her voice to be heard over the squawking and clanging.
"I don't know! One moment everything was fine, and the next, there was a flock of harpies attacking Camp!"
"You didn't notice anything? Anything at all?" Melody swatted a harpy to the ground, then impaled her.
"There may have been a slight fluctuation in the flow of naturally occurring magical energy, but it was hard to tell from that distance."
"Which way did the harpies come from?"
"They came out of the forest."
"How big was the possible fluctuation?"
"Hard to tell. It was pretty far away. My instruments said just a few manabits. I would normally disregard something that small, but- die, you stupid bird!- but it happened right before the attack, and from the same direction."
"That can't be good."
"No, it- Gah!"
A harpy sank her talons into Dave's shoulders. Melody slashed at the bird-woman's wings furiously, but the monster just yanked them out of the way and headbutted the enraged demigod as more harpies took hold of Dave, flapping their wings furiously. He struggled as they lifted him up off the ground. Lightning shot from his fingertips, turning several harpies into clouds of dust. Melody hacked another's leg off.
Then one harpy seized a rock in her talons and dropped it on Dave's head.
"No!" cried Melody, as still more harpies appeared to carry Dave away. She grabbed his ankle, weighing him down. A harpy flew at her face, and she shrieked as talons slashed her cheek, barely missing her eye.
But she would not let go.
Or so she thought, until another harpy forcefully pried her fingers away from Dave's ankle.
She fell to the ground, crying out, as the harpies stole her brother.
She could see other Campers being carried away, many limp in the harpies' claws.
She felt Nico's hand on her arm as she screamed at the sky.
She screamed as loudly as she could, as long as she could, then took a breath and screamed again.
She screamed a wordless challenge at the harpies.
Wherever they went, wherever they took him, she would go there and save him.
No monster could stop her. If she died, then by Hades, she would come back from the dead. She would stop at nothing to save her brother.
Hours later, Nico sat down next to Melody and handed her a plate of food. He was worried; she hadn't said a word since the attack. Her fingers and her face had been treated; with a little ambrosia and nectar, she was fine, physically speaking.
Her mental state was something else entirely.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
She still wouldn't answer. She just picked at her food and stared at the forest.
Nico sighed. "Melody, why won't you talk to me? I'm worried about you."
"I'm worried about my brother."
"Your brother? I didn't know you had a brother."
"You've met him."
"Wait- you mean Dave? He's your brother?"
"Yes. He's adopted."
"Oh. Well. Any other siblings I should know about?"
"I have a mortal half-sister. Her name is Kiseki."
"Huh."
Melody stood up. "I need answers," she announced.
Nico stood up as well. "I'll go with you."
She glanced back at him gratefully.
They went into the forest. Melody looked around, searching for any clues as to what had happened. Nico noticed that she kept her ring in the palm of her hand.
Suddenly she stopped. "Nico," she said quietly, "I found something."
"What is it?" he asked, looking over her shoulder. He frowned. "I don't see anything."
Melody reached out a hand. "It's invisible," she said, "but I can feel it. I've lived with Dave long enough to know what magic feels like."
"Magic?" Nico reached out and put his hand near hers. The hair on his arm stood up, and the air felt like it was full of static. "Oh. That must've been a big spell, to leave that much magic behind in the air."
Melody nodded. "A big spell like, say, a massive monster summoning."
"Possibly," agreed Nico. "Let's tell Chiron."
Melody growled. "I say we handle it ourselves."
"No." Melody looked up in shock as Nico continued. "You're not the only one who lost someone in that attack. Dave wasn't the only one kidnapped. There are about a dozen other lives at stake. We tell Chiron."
Melody sighed. "Lead the way."
They walked out of the forest and to the Big House. Chiron stood outside. He looked up as they approached. He and Nico greeted each other, and Nico reported what they'd found.
"Then it is as I feared," the centaur said as Nico finished. "There is a traitor in our midst."
"What should we do?" Nico mused.
Chiron pointed. "She might know."
Nico and Melody turned to see a woman with frizzy red hair staggering toward them.
"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Nico explained. "Oracle."
Melody shivered slightly. "She doesn't look so great," she noted.
Rachel staggered up to Nico and placed a hand on his shoulder. Then she began to speak in a very strange voice.
"The darkness will rise and the Ghost King will fight
To search for the lost and a thief in the night.
By unicorn's choice, a hero shall sleep
And the love of a shadow will drive you to weep."
She collapsed. Nico cught her and set her gently on the ground.
"Well," he said. "I guess I have a quest now."
Melody blinked. "Prohecies. Why do they have to be so vague?"
Nico shrugged.
Chiron's voice was grim as he said, "I will announce the quest."
"And so Nico must now choose the people who will accompany him on this quest," Chiron said to the assembled Campers. He turned around and Nico stepped forward.
He remembered what Melody had said in front of Morpheus's art studio. Big heroes don't generally invite people like me on quests, despite fifteen years of training. Well, that was about to change.
"I'll take Melody," he announced. A murmur went through through the crowd.
"Who?" someone asked.
"I've never heard of her!" someone else complained.
Melody pushed through the crowd, growling, "Lemme through."
"Her? She's a weakling!" bellowed a son of Ares.
In reply, she whirled around, snarling. Her trickstaff snapped outward. "Wanna test that theory?"
Nico put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down."
She let out a rumbling growl and shook him off, her eyes never leaving the son of Ares, who was drawing a sword. "Whaddya gonna do with a stick?" he demanded, moving closer.
With one fluid motion, Melody flicked out her trickstaff's blade and pointed it at his throat.
"As I was saying," Nico said, "I'll take Melody, and... who else wants to go?"
As several hands went up in the air, the boy who had been fighting back-to-back with Dave shoved his way through the crowd. "I will go whether you take me or not," he announced. "So you might as well pick me."
Nico pondered it, while Melody grinned and said, "I like your attitude."
"Okay," Nico said, "you can come with us."
"Oh, come on!" someone shouted. "He just wants to save his little boyfriend!"
He snorted. "Watch it, daughter of Apollo. Your dad is about as straight as I am."
"Okay," Nico said, "let's go save some people."
