RACHAEL

Chapter 7

I really hate demigod dreams.

Let me fill you in. Demigod dreams aren't your normal everyday 5-year-old dreams. They're not about flying unicorns or Candy land, or silly superheroes saving the world. Our dreams are more like insights. We get glimpses of the past, present and sometimes future.

Normal demigod dreams are bad enough, but I just have to be special.

Like I said, in a usual half-blood dream you just get glimpses of what's going on. If you are getting an insight on the enemy some monsters might even feel your presence and can end your dream, but you don't actually see yourself there. I, however, am an actual being or person when I have dreams. It's not me, like my body, but part of me. Still not so bad, you think? Well, instead of my being or spirit or soul or whatever being the image of me as a person, it's the image of a highly respectful and powerful animal:

A chicken.

Go ahead and laugh.

On more thing: I can actually choose whether I want to experience the dream or not. I've never told anyone about my special uh…case, but I think Chiron knows. I guess after training heroes for three thousand years you start to pick things up.

Anyway, tonight, like most nights, I was offered a decision. Experience a life-threatening, extremely terrifying vision that probably won't even make sense, or stay nice and comfortable between the covers of my bed.

The choice was pretty simple.

I shivered as the chicken form of me floated out of my bed and into the night. The world around me blurred in and out of focus, making me dizzy. After my surroundings cleared, I spotted a river in front of me. But this wasn't any normal river: this river was made of fire.

Sure. Why not?

But something troubled me. There was only one river of fire that I knew of and that was the River Phlegethon. There was only one problem: the River Phlegethon was in Tartarus.

I took in my surroundings. It looked like I was inside a darker version of the Grand Canyon. The cliff dropped off more than 80 feet, much to steep for me to climb up. That left only one other direction: forwards. I floated ahead slowly. The air was hot and humid and it seemed to be weighing me down with every step. The ground was like an oozing mud pot, bubbles of gigantic sizes gurgling and rising up and then popping loudly. I looked up, but there was nothing to look up at. The 'sky' was pitch black and quiet. The whole place had a pungent odour. It reeked of one thing: monsters.

I kept float-walking forwards, down the side of the Phlegethon. But a huge brown bubble rose up directly in front of me, at least 10 feet in diameter. With a hiss an empousa broke through the bubble and stood up. I froze, praying to the gods it wouldn't notice me, but the empousa passed its eyes right over me and continued on. I was completely exhausted now, which was weird because it was only a dream. I slowly felt the air around grow colder and darker with every step. The whole land was pulling me down, taking away my energy.

After a while I came to what seemed to be the edge of another cliff covered in sand. No, not sand, more like…glass. The whole area was covered is sharp shards of black glass. The darkness here was extraordinary, darker than anything I'd ever seen. The darkness was almost tangible, twisting in and out of itself, pulling at me. It felt like standing on the edge of a black hole. I looked down the edge of the cliff to see (if that were possible) an even darker place. But what should've been a deserted and forlorn area was actually alive with energy. The desolate area beyond the cliffside seemed to be pulsing like a heartbeat. I squinted into the distance and spotted the outline of a black mansion. Floating in the abyss, perhaps about 300 feet below was a doorway of pure black marble.

By now I felt the ground tearing at me, my identity being pulled away. How did I even make it to this place? No mortal should be able to stand here and live. I must be having help from one of the gods. I screamed in my head, willing myself to stay in reality. Grey mist swirled from beneath the cliff up to where I was standing, burning my skin. I screamed again, louder this time. This was no place for a mortal.

I woke with a start.

The entire cabin was empty of people. I looked across from my bed expecting to see the softly snoring figure of Annabeth, but the bed was clear. What time was it? I glanced at my watch: 9:57 a.m.

I had no idea I had slept in that long. I dressed in my orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and black yoga pants in record time and, slipping on my pearl bracelet, bounded out the door. Pulling out a crumpled piece of paper out of my pocket, I glanced quickly at my timetable: archery. I ran towards the target field, but thinking back to my dream, changed course.

I stopped at the dining pavilion to grab a quick snack and pocketed an apple. The scenery was beautiful, and I would have taken a moment to enjoy had I not been heading straight for lava dishwashing punishment. From here, you could see pretty much everything. On Half-Blood Hill Thalia's pine tree stood with the Golden Fleece glittering on its branches, magically protecting the camp from monsters. Our guard dragon, Peleus was so huge now so I could see him all the way up from here, curled around the tree, snoring and sending rings of smoke up in the air. The newly placed 40-feet tall Athena Parthenos glittered in the sunlight on its place next to Thalia's tree.

To my right spread the woods where we played capture the flag. Most of the trees there were evergreens, but other tress dotted the valley, their leaves ranging from gold, yellow and orange to dark red and crimson. On my left were the canoe lake and the climbing wall that glowed red from the lava pouring down its side as well as the original 12 cabins – one for each of the Olympians – which made the shape of a horseshoe, along with the new additions for the minor gods and goddesses. Farther south were the strawberry fields, the armory and the four-story sky blue Big House.

I needed to talk to Annabeth and Percy about my dream. They had been to Tartarus and back themselves just a couple months ago. I thought about going to the Big House, but then I remembered that they both had pegasus lessons right about now, so I decided to head over to the stables. Teeny problem: To get there I had to pass the Ares cabin.

As I approached the Cabin 5 I spotted Clarisse and a few of her siblings sitting down outside, sharpening their swords.

"Hey, guys," Clarisse said smugly. "Look who's coming."

Her siblings snickered and some of them muttered "Loser," Under their breath.

"Do I hear a gust of wind?" I said. "Oh, sorry Clarisse, but I can't seem to hear you. Can you speak a little louder?" Clarisse growled and I smiled. Last week we were having a particularly big argument and it ended in me putting a spell on her that prevented her from speaking for 24 hours. Best. Day. Ever.

"What's your problem, loser?"

"When are you going to come up with a more creative name? Loser's getting a but old."

"Hmmm…" She continued while tapping her chin with mock interest. "Ooh! I know! How about Undetermined Loser?"

I stopped short. The fact that I still hadn't been claimed was a definite sore spot, and Clarisse knew it. He siblings started chanting like cheerleaders at a soccer game, "Undetermined Loser! Undetermined Loser!"

I growled. This had gone far enough, but Clarisse just kept smiling knowingly at me. Gods of Olympus, I hated that girl.

On a normal day I would have pulled out my bow and arrow and pinned them all to trees without a second thought, but I was still pretty anxious about my dream. So much to Clarisse's annoyance I simply walked off and jogged toward the stables.

The cool autumn breeze ruffled my hair and leaves falling from nearby trees gathered together on the ground. Camp was my favourite place. I looked ahead to the training arena to see demigods in orange and purple shirts alike sparring and talking in groups, and I smiled. Since Reyna has transported the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood both Roman and Greek demigods had turned overnight from arch enemies to best friends.

It was a long walk to the stables, and the route passed almost all of the cabins. I passed Demeter's log cabin, which had stalks of wheat curling around the braches nearby. A few demigods were sitting just outside growing flowers and plants of every kind in the doorway. I stopped by the window to grab an apple from the fruit bowl that sat in the wondow sill, but just ended up holding my nose at the mass of fruit flies and continued on. For the Demeter kids, it was either all-natural or nothing. Usually nothing.

Next was Artemis's cabin, which was of course empty as she had no kids. The white stone glowed silver and a few deer were grazing near it. I also spotted the gloomy Hades cabin, also empty. It was constructed of black marble and torches lit the entryway. I also quickly stopped at the Hecate cabin, which was quite near the stables. It was made of grey stone but glowed rainbow and white Mist curled around the base. I looked inside and saw three demigods talking inside and playing with the Mist.

"Hey!" One of them called to me. A boy with red hair and freckles wearing a Camp-Half-Blood T-shirt stepped outside.

"Hey Calvin!" I called back.

"Any news yet?" He asked, referring to me being claimed but I just shook my head. "Don't sweat it," he said. "you're always welcome."

"Rachael!" A girl with brown curly hair done in a braid and a leather jacket yelled out. "Can you show me that 'no talking thing' you pulled on Clarisse?"

I grinned. "Maybe later Millicent!" I answered, continuing towards the stables. When I finally got there, Percy and Annabeth were both attending to a gloating Blackjack.

Just a little higher boss, Blackjack said. Right between the ears.

Oh, yeah, maybe I should explain. You see, since Percy was a son of Poseidon and all, he could talk to horses and most sea creatures. I had the same ability, which suggested I was a daughter of Poseidon, but I didn't really know. I couldn't control water or anything like that.

"Well, you sure are giving that horse a nice time," I said. Percy and Annabeth both whirled around in surprise but calmed down when they saw who it was.

"Rachael!" Annabeth scolded. "Where have you been? Aren't you supposed to be at archery lessons?"

"Yes, well, I needed to talk to you. I had a dream," I explained. Percy and Annabeth both nodded. They had their own dreams and understood what it was like.

Is this how it is? No, "Hi! How are you doing Blackjack?" Just continue right along and leave the horse behind. I grinned.

"Hi, Blackjack."

Hey boss, He said to Percy. I finally came up with a name for the other girl.

"Other girl?" I asked, smirking playfully. "No, 'how are you doing'?"

Sorry. Blackjack apologized. But listen. How about 'Bossette'? I grinned.

"Bossette," I repeated. "I like it. You're one smart pegasus." Blackjack swelled up with pride and neighed loudly.

"Don't enlarge his ego more than it already is," Percy joked.

Annabeth crossed her arms impatiently. "Well, if you guys are done, we've got a dream to talk about."

"Right," I said. After we sat down, I told them everything. Except for the chicken part of course. By the time I was finished, Annabeth's face was pale and even Percy looked shaken up.

"Well?" I asked. "Was it really Tartarus?"

Annabeth answered. "Yes. It was Tartarus. But that wasn't just any part of Tartarus. That was Night's realm. Or Nyx, depending on what you want to call her."

"Night?" Percy asked. "You can't be serious. Last time…"

I understood how he was feeling. Last July Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus and the only way to make it back to the mortal world was though the Doors of Death. Percy and Annabeth had managed to get past the army guarding the Doors by visiting Akhlys (Misery), who turned them into a grey mist, a state right between the dead and living. Afterwards, they had had to battle Night, and had barely made it out alive. Annabeth simply confused her for a few seconds and then they ran off to the Doors.

"Rachael," Annabeth began. "That cliff you were by, that wasn't just Night's realm. That was were Akhlys turned us into…you know…" I did know. That was where she had turned them into half dead skeletons so they could get past the Doors of Death.

"So that cliff was the edge between existence and uh…not existing," I guessed.

"Yes," Annabeth confirmed. "Night is the oldest goddess of them all, the mother of all terrors. The Fates themselves, Old Age, Pain, Death and all of the curses. The giants, the monsters, the Titans, she's the mother of them all."

"In other words, she is very, very old," Percy concluded.

"What I don't understand is how I dreamt of being there," I said.

"You must have been having help from someone. A god, maybe," Annabeth reasoned.

But there was one more thing that really worried me. I remembered the pulsing sound, shivering at just the thought of it. "One thing," I started. "The area beyond the cliff, it was...it seemed...alive." Annabeth and Percy each grew at least three shades paler.

"I was afraid of this," said Annabeth. "The defeat of Gaea has angered Night. Somehow, she herself must be stirring, along with all her children. I don't know how, because Night can only operate in places such as Tarturus. In order to be able to attack Earth, she must first cast darkness on it. How she plans to do it I don't know."

"Is there any good news?" Percy grumbled.

"Well," Annabeth started. "Night is powerful, but she can't rise on her own. She'll need help."

"Like the Titans?" I asked. "Or Giants? Please not Gaea again."

"No. It has to be something more powerful than the Greeks. What that something is I don't really know."