Crius had never seen so many people before. Sure, the sights around him in Camp Jupiter were amazing in themselves, but it was the people all around him that really caught his attention. Almost all of them were wearing the same kind of armor that Octavian was wearing, except they seemed to know what they were doing and their armor actually fit.

Also, there were a whole lot of people… who weren't people. Crius thought that he recognized somethings that were called fauns and even ghosts, but the other kids just strolled by so he guessed it was pretty normal.

"You'll have to see the Augur first," Octavian said. "Then we'll decide other things around here. Unfortunately that all falls under my responsibility since I'm the one who found you." The town had many buildings but Octavian went straight up ahead to a nearby hill. From whatever Crius could see, it looked like parts of the place were being rebuilt. As they climbed up the hill, Octavian constantly was groaning and stopped at many places. It was clear that he really needed to work out more, Crius thought, but from whatever he could tell, Octavian's armor was pretty heavy.

Crius saw a lot of fauns on his way up, which he recognized from the Narnia movies. They weren't very active though and just laid around on the grass. Crius wanted to ask about them, but wasn't sure that Octavian was the best person to ask.

Finally, they approached what looked like a newly built wooden cottage at the top of the hill. It had several signs in front which said: THE AUGUR'S CHAMBERS ARE A TEDDY BEAR MISUSE FREE ZONE and TEDDIES HAVE RIGHTS TOO.

Crius really wasn't sure what to think when he saw them. Octavian snorted when he saw them though.

"Teddy bear rights? Please. When I was the augur, I did things properly. I saw things in the remains of stuffed animals, but this new child of Mercury goes around protecting them and instead tries to foresee the future through crystal balls and such. I tell you-" Octavian continued on ranting though Crius really wasn't listening.

Though he guessed that he probably should have waited, Crius knocked on the door. Almost instantly, the door was opened though no one was there.

It was after looking around for twenty second fruitlessly that Crius finally looked down. He wouldn't have guessed that the child was supposed to be human. For one, though she was eleven years old, she was really short and probably because she was a demigod, or maybe it was just because she was a child of Mercury, but her face looked kind of elvish.

Crius thought at first that she was a fairy or something until Octavian said,

"So yeah, that's the Augur, and my job here is kind of done." Octavian walked away like he was happy to get rid of Crius.

"Come in," the Augur said. She had an odd accent and did things with surprising… discipline for an eleven-year-old. The inside of the place had teddy bears lined against one wall, on the floor, on the furniture… as Crius looked around he summed it up as 'everywhere'.

But inside, Crius finally began thinking about the things he was seeing. He remembered right then that most of the people in town had looked at Octavian oddly, and some of them seemed to just outright hate him. He remembered what Octavian had said earlier and guessed that he had screwed up badly somewhere and so he was being treated like an outcast.

He also found it odd that a daughter of Mercury was the Augur. Even though Crius didn't know much about Greek mythology, he was sure that Apollo was supposed to be the god of prophecies…

As if she could read her mind (or maybe she could just tell that Crius was about to ask), the Augur said,

"When Mercury was born, he, in a fit of childishness, stole one of Apollo's cattle. Apollo then went to Zeus so he could decide how to punish the baby, but Zeus was more amused than enraged. In the end, Mercury gifted Apollo a lyre, and so Apollo decided to forgive him and taught the child much of what he knew, including the art of Prophecies. So, once, occasionally, a child of Mercury will be born who can divine the future, though rarely." Crius was amazed at how serious and sophisticated her words were even though she looked little more than like a toddler.

"But for now, I need to divine things about you," the Augur said. "You won't believe how many girls and passersby I get up here asking me things like 'Doe so-and-so like me?', 'How will my romantic life be?', 'What are the questions going to be on the next maths test?', really, things like this never happened when Octavian was around, but seeing a little child some of these people are really getting too close."

Crius just nodded even though he had no idea how the conversation had just shifted from him to this girl's problems.

"But anyway," the rather talkative Augur said, "we need to figure out who you are and why you ended up here. I think you've lost your memory? Well, there was one hero like that who came here, but that was before my time. And I, unfortunately, cannot see unto the past, only glimpses of what is yet to come." She then gestured for Crius to sit down at a nearby table which had a teddy bear the size of the Augur on top. But this bear was different and had what looked like a crystal ball hanging off of its neck. The Augur turned the bear around so she was looking into it.

She peered into it as if she could see something inside. Surely this couldn't be it, Crius thought. He was sure that the Augur was supposed to do something different, but he couldn't exactly remember what that was. But it probably wasn't looking into crystal balls.

"It is odd," the Augur said. "I cannot see much about you. I can see some minor flashes here and there, but nothing that seems to tell of any truth."

Just then, Crius decided to try out a little experiment. While the Augur was busy, he touched his sword, which thankfully, he found that he still had.

The moment he did so, the Augur froze. She glared into the crystal ball as if she was trying to levitate it using the Force. "Odd. All signs about you have suddenly vanished. I can see absolutely nothing at all now."

Just then, she suddenly collapsed and started clutching her throat as if she was choking on something. Crius immediately got up and tried to help her, but just as quickly as she had collapsed, she began speaking in a voice that didn't belong to her.

"Crius Sympan. I have found you. You will not escape. The Augurs and Oracles are tools of the Fates, and soon you shall fall."

After that ominous proclamation, the Augur got up quickly and seemed to be perfectly fine. She then quickly said that Crius should wander over down quickly as they were beginning something like a meeting.

Crius ran down, and as he saw the crowd gathered below, he just couldn't help but wonder as to what the Augur had wanted to say.