Preparations
"And then there's Megan and Alec," Micaela muttered to herself as she lay on her bed scribbling furiously on a pad of paper. She had written down each name Crystal had said in her trance (using her photographic memory, which she was very proud of) and was trying to figure out who they were and what part they played in the scheme of things. "I wonder . . ." Her voice trailed off as she got an idea. She rolled off her bed and pulled out a giant book from one of the bookshelves in the Athena room.
"What are you up to?" one of her half-sisters inquired.
"Research," Micaela replied. She sat back down on her bed, read her list over again and then flipped through the book. "Let's see. Class of 1999, class of 2008," she murmured to herself until she found the year she wanted. "Ah, here we go, the present members of Camp Half-Blood. Alright, let's see who this Dilhan fellow is." She scanned the pages until she came to the right name. "Alright, easy enough. There's only one Dilhan and he's from the Zeus cabin." Micaela wrote down some information next to the name 'Dilhan' on her list. "I really wish Crystal had said the last names of these people in her vision. It would have made things a lot easier. Let's see. Alec is the next name."
Micaela hummed a tune to herself as she flipped through the pages. "There are a few Alexanders, but only one refers to himself as Alec. He's from the Hades cabin." Micaela wrinkled her nose. "Oh, he must be that annoying one that was making all those comments about the—quote, un-quote—'lesser cabins'."
"Micaela, would you lower your tone? It is hard for the rest of us to concentrate on what we are doing," one of her half-brothers complained.
"Sorry," Micaela apologized. "It's just easier for me to think when I say things out loud." She lowered her voice to little more than a whisper. "Next, Megan. Hmmm, alright, there are nine Megan's. Great." She scribbled down the names of each Megan and which cabin she was from.
"Alright, there are five Isaacs, Seven Sarahs, twelve Katies, four Crystals." She stared down at the last name on her list: Michaela. "What if . . . what if it's Micaela? That would mean it's me . . . Hmm . . . Well it's a possibility." She wrote down the information next to the name on her list. She read the list again and shuffled a few names around. "If Megan was the Megan from Hades cabin and it really was Crystal, then . . ." Suddenly it struck Micaela. "Oh . . . this means . . . Crystal and Katie's prophecy? Oh my gods, it can't be!" She looked over the list again. "No, it has to be. I've got to tell Chiron!"
She jumped off her bed, flung open the door and ran towards the Big House, ignoring the sounds of her half-siblings yelling at her to come back. Finally she made it to Chiron's door, gasping for breath. She knocked lightly and stepped back, waiting for him to answer. The centaur opened his door with a look of shock on his face.
"Micaela? What are you doing here? It's only five minutes until curfew."
"I know, but I've got something I need to show you," Micaela stated.
"Well, alright. I was busy figuring out who would go help Apollo but—"
"Actually," Micaela cut in, "I think I've got the list of people who need to go right here.
Crystal did not have a good feeling about going to see Chiron. When she had been informed that he wanted her to report to his room, she knew she must be in trouble.
"What have I done this time?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe this is about me and Katie switching all the Aphrodite campers' toothpaste with glue, but I was certain no one saw us do that."
Crystal knocked on Chiron's door, and when he called her to come in she opened it and walked inside, making sure to close the door behind her.
"Oh, Micaela! What are you doing here?" she asked the Athena camper when she saw her inside. "Did you get in trouble too?"
"No," Micaela replied coolly. "I simply had some important information for Chiron."
"Ah, I see," Crystal looked over at the centaur. "So, uh, what about me? Am I in trouble?"
"Not yet," Chiron responded, "but I have a feeling you soon will be. Tell me, when did you and Katie have time to go to the Oracle and receive your prophecy?"
Crystal's mind went blank and her mouth dropped open. "You told Chiron about the prophecy?" she hissed at Micaela.
"I had to," Micaela hissed back.
"Um, well, uh . . . you see . . ." Crystal stumbled for words as she tried to answer Chiron.
"Actually," Micaela cut in, "it was my fault. I convinced Katie and Crystal to visit the Oracle."
Crystal's mouth dropped open a second time. She couldn't believe that Micaela was taking the blame for something she wasn't even a part of.
"No," Crystal interjected, "Micaela had nothing to do with this, and neither did Katie. It was all my idea."
Micaela gave her a strange look and mouthed the words 'I'm trying to help you' to the daughter of Apollo. Crystal nodded and mouthed, 'I know' back. She gave a sigh, seeing no point in lying to Chiron, and told him the whole story. "You see, I didn't mean to disobey Mr. D, I was just . . . scared."
"I admire both of you for standing up for each and not blame-shifting," Chiron said. "Although, that doesn't mean you're going to get out of trouble."
"Just don't punish Micaela. She honestly had nothing to do with this. I met her officially after I got the prophecy."
"That may be." Chiron tapped his chin. "You did disobey a direct command. However, because of this, we have learned some very valuable things, like who should go on this quest."
"Actually, I don't know for certain. I just know that it's a daughter of Apollo, Hermes, Athena . . ."
"Actually," Micaela cut in, "I figured it out. The names you said when you were semi-conscious—those are the names of the people in the prophecy."
"You . . . I . . . Micaela, you're brilliant!" Crystal hugged her friend, rather awkwardly.
"It was easy, really," Micaela smiled. "Hardly a worthy test for a daughter of Athena."
"A-hem," Chiron cleared his throat. "Now about your punishment . . ."
"I'll do an extra load of dishes with the furies," Crystal said quickly, "just, please let me see the list!"
"Right here," Micaela handed the piece of paper to her friend. "We don't exactly know who's going or not—that's Chiron's decision—but we've got a pretty good idea, take a look."
"My name's on here," Crystal grinned, then she paused. "Wait a minute, your name's on here too."
"Yeah, apparently." Micaela's words came out just a tiny bit too quickly, giving Crystal the idea that she was nervous.
"Girls, please," Chiron cut in. "I will take care of it. Now both of you back to your rooms. And Crystal? I expect to see you in the kitchen after breakfast for that extra load of dishes."
"Yes, Chiron," Crystal said, and turned to leave the room with a little bounce in her step.
Crystal gave the last dish a spray of lava, washed it and then put it in the tray to be dried.
"There, finished!" She pulled the rubber gloves she was wearing off of her hands and placed them on the counter. She looked at the clock on the wall. "Well, look at that, I still have some time before lunch!" She turned, left the kitchen and ran across the field to where the rest of Apollo cabin was practicing their archery with the Hermes cabin.
"It's about time you showed up," Katie said. "I thought you'd never come out of that kitchen again, at least not alive." She pulled back her bowstring and shot an arrow into the target.
"Your aim's off, Katie," Crystal observed. "Here, try to do it more like this." She took the bow from her friend's hand, fitted an arrow into it, drew the string back to her ear, and in one swift motion fired the arrow straight into the middle of the target.
"Not everyone's an Apollo camper," Katie growled, a bit agitated, and snatched the bow back from Crystal. "Show off," she muttered under her breath.
Crystal grinned as she found herself an unoccupied bow from the weapons rack. She jogged back beside her friend and waited for her turn to shoot the target.
"Hey Katie, did you hear the news?"
"What news?" Katie asked as she shot an arrow towards the target.
"The news that . . . one second." Crystal pulled back her bowstring and then once again fired her arrow into the centre of the target.
"Bah, stupid kids of Apollo," Katie grumbled. "I could beat them in a stealing contest."
"Anyways," Crystal continued, not taking notice to Katie's complaints, "Micaela figured some things out."
"About what?"
"About the prophecy! What else?"
"So?" Katie asked, as if it didn't really matter.
"So? So? Our whole existence could be at stake and all you have to say is so?"
"Oh, stop being such a drama queen. You sound like a daughter of Aphrodite," Katie grouched, firing an arrow off.
"I happen to like drama," Crystal replied coolly, "so by calling me a drama queen you are actually giving me a compliment."
Katie rolled her eyes. "So, are you going to tell me about the prophecy or what?"
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, right. Micaela figured out who's going with us, or something resembling who's going with us anyways."
"And? Is there anyone you recognized?"
"No, not really. Well, besides us, and her . . . Hey look, there's Chiron now!" Crystal pointed as the centaur approached.
A ripple of whispering rose up from the members of the Apollo and Hermes cabin. They stopped what they were doing and watched.
"Crystal, Katheryn, come with me, please," Chiron said.
Crystal nudged her friend and whispered, "He called you by your full name. That's never a good sign."
"Come ladies, we don't have all day," Chiron beckoned the girls to follow him. Slowly Katie and Crystal slunk after him.
He led them into his quarters and motioned for them to sit down. The girls didn't do anything at first as they scanned the room full of six other campers, but when Micaela waved them over and offered them two seats beside her, they quickly accepted.
Crystal glanced at her companions; Alec and Megan from the Hades cabin sat in one corner, a blonde demigod who Crystal instantly recognized as Sarah, the demigod she'd saved just a few days earlier, sat by herself awkwardly. A tall muscular camper who Crystal was pretty sure was that Isaac-guy from the Hephaestus cabin sat next to that Dilhan fellow from the Zeus cabin. Everyone seemed confused and on-edge.
"So, why exactly are we here?" asked Alec in a very agitated and thoroughly bored voice.
"That is exactly what I am about to tell you young master Alexander," Chiron responded edgily. When the teenager remained silent Chiron continued. "Most of you probably know about Apollo's visit to Camp Half-Blood—"
"Oh yeah, what was that all about?" asked Megan.
"Really, is interrupting people a habit the Hades cabin has? May I continue, Megan?"
Megan's cheeks flushed red a little. "Yes, go ahead."
"Thank you. Now, as I was saying, Apollo visited camp to ask me for help with something." Sarah raised her hand. "Yes, Sarah? Did you have a question?"
"Um, yes," Sarah responded. "If Apollo really is real, and he really is the sun god, then why can't he do it himself?"
The room fell silent. Micaela flashed Katie a glance which seemed to say, 'who the Hades is this girl?'
"What do you mean 'if'?" Crystal shot up off her chair. "My father is real and he most certainly is the god of the sun!"
"Crystal, sit down, now." Chiron's voice was dead serious, and almost dared Crystal to protest. She quickly fell back to her seat. Then Chiron turned back to Sarah. "Apollo can't do anything because he is a god, and has duties that he must attend to (namely making the sun rise and set), so he can't go on this quest himself. He needs heroes to do it, and that's what you all are."
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is this quest?" Katie's fingers were twitching as if she couldn't wait to hear what Chiron had to say.
"Well, we fear that the Laurel Tree has been poisoned."
"So? It's just a tree, right?" Sarah asked.
"This is not any ordinary tree," Crystal responded between clenched teeth. "This is Daphne's tree."
"Oh, hurrah, that makes it so much more important," Alec said, each word laced in sarcasm.
"Actually, it does," Crystal shot back. "This tree is sacred to Apollo, my dad. It's all that's left of one of his lovers, and if something happened to it, he'd be really upset. And when he's upset he tends to shirk his duties. If he's upset then you might as well say good-bye to the sun, like, forever, or at least until he regains his composure. But with something as important to him as Daphne's tree, it would take him a long time."
"Camp Half-Blood has experience with poisoned trees though, right?" Katie asked. "Like the time Thalia's tree was poisoned and Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase brought back the Golden Fleece. So you have a plan on how to fix this tree, correct?"
"Well can't you just take the Golden Fleece to Daphne's tree, then?" Sarah asked.
"No!" Crystal, Katie and Micaela exclaimed in unison.
"Without the Golden Fleece, Thalia's tree will die. The Golden Fleece is keeping the magical borders around Camp Half-Blood up," Micaela explained impatiently.
"So do you have an antidote or something for Daphne's tree?" Crystal asked Chiron.
"Yes," Chiron replied, "at least, we believe so. There is the possibility that it won't work."
"So basically we're going to this tree and injecting this antidote into, right?" inquired Dilhan.
"What a glorious quest this will be," muttered Alec under his breath. Megan elbowed him in the arm.
"But why us?" asked Isaac.
"I'm glad you asked, Isaac," Chiron said. "The reason is because two of our campers, Crystal and Katie," he motioned to the two girls, "received a vision from the Oracle."
"I know it perfectly," Micaela added, grinning because her photographic memory was coming in handy again, as it did nearly every day. "It is:
'Eight children must go where no one desires
Daughter of wisdom and son of fires,
Child of sky, daughter of health,
Offspring of death, girl of stolen wealth,
An unknown camper will make a pivotal choice,
She will discover her parent and find her voice,
The Sun God's pleas will not go unheard,
The children will leave, though it seems absurd,
A once defeated foe shall rise again,
The path will be hard and full of pain
Good fortune will come if you pass the test,
Camp Half-blood will ring with your success,
But are you prepared to pay the cost?
Choose wisely or all will be lost.' "
Megan raised an eyebrow. "And because of this riddle you figured out that it's us who need to go?"
"Actually Micaela figured that out later, when Crystal had a vision and said all of your names in her trance."
"Whoa, take a step back, who had a vision? Crystal's not the Oracle." Megan observed.
"No, but she is a daughter of Apollo." Chiron responded. "Now, Micaela brought me the list of all the names and I chose from that list who would go."
"And you chose us? I'm flattered," said Alec, but he didn't sound flattered at all.
"But Chiron, I just came to camp. Literally, I just came," Sarah pointed out. "I shouldn't be going. I don't even know who my father is!"
"Sarah has a point. She has absolutely no experience, and from the sound of things, she possesses next to no knowledge of Greek Mythology," Micaela stated.
"I made the decision. Do you question it?" Chiron asked.
"N-No, Sir," Micaela stammered. "I was simply clarifying why it would be unwise for her to come, but you made the choice, so I don't question it."
"Alright, good. Now everyone pack your bags. You leave tomorrow morning."