Tarah's POV
I helped Sam out of the tree house as best I could. He wasn't able to stand by himself, and he looked like he might be sick. As we walked toward the big house, I tried to get him to explain what he meant when he said he knew where Nat was, but all I could get from him was something about seeing an impossible girl or some such gibberish.
We reached the front porch, and Sam collapsed on one of the rocking chairs that looked like they belonged in front of a cracker barrel instead of in the middle of a camp for demigods. I hammered on the door until Chiron appeared. To my surprise, he had curlers in his tail and what appeared to be a horse-bath-robe on his lower half. I briefly wondered how he managed to sleep, and a vision of a centaur in a giant fluffy bed filled my mind.
Chiron took one look at Sam before disappearing into the house again, returning a few seconds later with water, a tylenol, and a heat pack. Apparently this wasn't the first time Sam had collapsed at camp.
Sam gulped down the tylenol and all the water before he started explaining. "Nat is in Washington State. I had a vision, Chiron. A big one."
"What did you see Sam?" Chiron asked calmly while I stared in shock at Sam. What did he mean by vision? Did he see the future? The present? Is he some sort of psychic?
"I saw Nat. She seems to be frozen or something, because her eyes were wide open, but her expression was completely blank. Whoever took her is keeping her at the top of some mountain in Washington."
Chiron tensed up, his eyes grew wide. "Not...is it-"
Sam interrupted him, saying, "Not Mount St Helens, no. This one was covered in snow, it looks like it hasn't blown up in hundreds of years."
Chiron relaxed a bit. While I was curious what could have been so bad about some mountain named after a saint, I also wanted to focus on getting Nat back. "Is that all? Did you...see...anything else?" I asked, still not sure how Sam could know all this.
"No, I didn't see anything, but I heard something. Voices, lots of them, yelling about..."
"About what?" Chiron asked a little less patiently.
"About Nat not being the original target, how Lamia failed in her mission to retrieve the...the twice-blessed one." Sam refused to look at me. I, on the other hand, was staring at him like he just sprouted a second head. If I was the original target, then is this entire thing my fault? Why would anyone want me? The most impressive thing I've ever done is catch 90 blueberries in my mouth in a row. Well, that and kill a bunch of monsters, but I still consider the blueberries more impressive.
"Well, it would seem we have a quest." Chiron announced. "Gather everyone first thing in the morning, I'll call the oracle to see if she has anything to add to your vision."
Chiron started to walk away, but Sam called out, "Chiron, wait! There's one more thing..."
Chiron stopped and looked back. "What would that be my boy?"
Sam was shaking and a tear started to climb down his cheek. "It's Mia. I saw her. Chiron...she's alive!"
