Chapter 2 (Lysandra)

Lysandra was giddy with excitement. Her childhood friend, Rosamynd was here! True, they met the first time when Rosamynd accidentally screwed up an iris message, but they became really good friends.

"Oh my gods! I still can't believe you're here!" Lysandra exclaimed. "So, anyways, about the message?"

"Oh yeah," Rosamynd frowned, "I guess I should take this to Chiron."

"I'll go with you!" Lysandra chimed in, which brightened Rosamynd's face considerably."We have loads to catch up on." They linked arms, with Rosamynd nodding earnestly and Lysandra talking everybody's ears off.

"So what's so important that you need to run from Manhattan all the way here?" Lysandra inquired.

"Well, I took a bus," Rosamynd muttered, "And I don't know what Hermes wanted to warn Chiron. Lately nobody tells me anything."

"Oh come one, brighten up!" Lys frowned, nudging her.

"Oi, stop it!" She said, laughing. "So, Lys, how are you?"

"I'm good" She blinked her brown eyes innocently. "How ab-" She was cut off by a scream. Adrian was running towards them, with a cybonic, vampiric demon behind him.

"An empousai!" screamed Lysandra

"No duh," Adrian sneered, "RUN!"

The godlings bolted desperately towards the borders, trying not to trip over the jutting rocks and roots.

"Ow-" Lysandra widened her eyes as Adrian cursed in Ancient Greek. Loud.

"Stop!" She screeched, turning around to face the small horde of monsters,"We have no choice but to face them- the borders are sealed. We can't get in until someone comes in and lets us."

"Stop being such a arse, Adrian," Rosamynd frowned, "Fight like a man."

They rushed in as one - monsters were exploding, ichor spilled on the golden-red stained grass.

"I permit godlings Lysandra Claw, Adrian Belikov and Rosamynd Summers to enter the grounds of Camp Half-Blood," A voice boomed out from the boundary on the crest of Half-Blood Hill. The fighters whirled around and sprinted towards the safety of camp.

As they reached the camp, Chiron came- more like galloped- towards them. "Lysandra, Adrian- please go to your cabins. I need to talk to Rosamynd." He announced.

"Our cabins- wait, we have cabins?"

"Oh, just come with me." Said Lysandra with a hint of annoyance in her tone, dragging a very tired and confused Adrian with her towards the cabins.

"So since I have two godly parents, which cabin do I go to?" Adrian asked. Lysandra looked at him with a deadpan expression, as if he was the dumbest person in the world. Maybe he was.

"Obviously, we're not going to camp. We're gonna sneak in and find out what they are talking about."

"Oh. Right." He replied warily.

Lysandra rolled her eyes, slinking between demi-gods in training, ,heading towards the big house. A few daughters of Aphrodite took one look at Adrian, and started giggling and whispering to one another. One even gave him a flirtatious wave. Adrian looked flustered and started to wave back, but was once again dragged away by Lysandra.

"Come on," She groaned, leaping up the stairs four at a time, leaving Adrian to chase after her.

"Where are we going?"

"Just come on! We're going to the roof so we can climb on the tree, and eavesdrop- okay?"

"Okay."

Lysandra nimbly climbed up the branches, leaving Adrian not-so-gracefully stumbling up after her.

"Can't we just listen at the door?- or you know, not eavesdrop? I'm hungry and tired- I wanna eat and sleep!"

"No! It's way too obvious." Clearly ignoring his other question.

Lysandra peered into the Big House's attic window, straining her keen cat-like
ears, vaguely making out what Rosamynd was saying.

She heard footsteps making their way up the attic stairs. There was a third person. Who?

"I can hear Chiron" Lys whispered to Adrian "He's saying "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. This is Rosamynd- she's the one with the prophecy."

"The prophecy? What prophecy? That's the message?" Adrian looked as confused as ever.

"Shh! Not so loud. " Lysandra frowned at Adrian's direction, not willing to take her eyes off the three inside the room, "I think we're about to find out what the new prophecy is."

Lysandra's eyes widened as Rachel's eyes turned misty and unfocused. She opened her mouth, and a prophecy flowed out of her mouth,

"Nine godlings must unite,
and plunge into darkness and the night.
To face their own greatest fear,
and lose a loved one they once held dear."

Rachel briefly went back to normal, then her eyes rolled up to the top of her head. She collapsed, unconscious, with Chiron and Rosamynd catching her.

Lysandra gaped at Adrian, who responded with a simple "What?"

"Did you not just see what happened?"

"No- why? what?"

Lysandra sighed and recited the prophecy to him, and how Rachel fell, shuddering at her own words as she spoke.

"Wow," Adrian swallowed hard, his expression suddenly matching hers - equally terrified, "Who do you think this prophecy is about and what does it mean? I mean it mentioned 'nine godlings'. That could easily refer to anyone, including us."

"But we're only three godlings, Adrian. You, me and Rosamynd"

Lysandra sighed, pushing her hair fervently from her face. This was too much to process in one afternoon, maybe after a nice nap-

"Hey! What are you two doing up there?!" A voice yelled from below. Lysandra froze, unwilling to move. Oops. Very, very slowly, Lysandra and Adrian looked down from their tree.

And sighed in relief.

"Rosamynd! It's only you," Adrian laughed, sliding down the tree and landing on the ground with a thump. "We were afraid it was Chiron."

"Chiron's right next to me, stupid." Rosamynd huffed,while Adrian waved nervously at the centaur and Lysandra tried to offer him an apologetic smile. "And what do you mean you're scared it was him? You weren't scared it was me?"

"Uh.."Adrian frowned. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. Lysandra tutted silently as she watched his defence mechanism kick in."Well, you're not much to be scared of, are you? You're just a little girl."

Rosamynd gave him a deep frown, "Well, mister. You aren't much to by, for a man. Now who screams like a little girl?"

Adrian stuttered, turning red, "She took me by surprise, ok? We were just flirting, and then out of nowhere she just transformed into this donkey-robot hag thing. "

Chiron looked alarmed, " How did they figure out where the camp is? And monsters don't attack on groups, with other monsters. The last time that happened was..." He trailed off, clearly not inclined to finish the thought.

"The last time was when?" Adrian interrogated.

Lysandra nudged him and whispered, "He clearly doesn't want to talk about it. Show him some respect."

Chiron nodded gratefully at her, "I should leave you to your discussions. Have a nice stay." He trailed away, deep in thought.

"Hey, at least he didn't get mad at us for eavesdropping," Adrian shrugged, earning whacks from the two godlings beside him.