BRADY
NOAH WALKED OUT OF THE HADES CABIN GROGGY. I figured he must've had a bad dream, a typical side-effect of being a half-blood. Looking at my watch, it was now four o'clock. We had to hurry if we wanted to finish the tour Chiron told me to give him.
"Hey," I said, "I'm Brady."
He rubbed his eyes. "Yeah," he said, "son of Apollo, right?"
"Yeah, that's me. If we want to finish the tour before sundown, we have to hurry."
He eyed my bow and the quiver of weapons on my back. "Do all campers own bow and arrows?"
"No, mostly just children of Apollo, but all campers own weapons; it's kind of a must during battles. You want to go to the armory first?"
He smiled for the first time during our conversation. "Lead the way sun boy."
We arrived at the armory and he stood in amazement the way I did the day I first got to camp. We had an extraordinary assortment of weapons at camp, so I wasn't surprised to see he was surprised. I watched as he browsed through daggers, swords, spears, etc. He attempted to pick up a four-foot long Celestial bronze blade and almost fell trying.
"Be careful!" I said. "Don't pick up anything too big; I don't want you to hurt yourself."
"Okay," he said dropping the blade, "I'll keep looking." He kept scanning the armory when Anna, daughter of Khione, came sprinting up to me and busting through the door. She was a blonde girl with ice blue eyes and fair skin. She held her katana on her back. It was a three-foot long Celestial bronze blade with a light blue hilt. Its presence was cold.
"Brad!" she exclaimed. "Chiron and I just witnessed Rachel speaking a new prophecy, and Chiron thinks it's another Great Prophecy."
My jaw dropped. "We just had one three years ago! We can't have another one!" I said.
"Chiron thinks it might not be happening for a few years, but he says he wants you to analyze it."
"What? Why me?"
"Well…for one, your dad is also the god of prophecy and reason. You should be able to at least find the meaning of it."
"Okay fine."
"That's a cool sword!" Noah interrupted.
"You have no idea." Anna replied. Her blade was cold to the touch, literally. It was given to her by her mother, the snow goddess.
"Where did you get it?" he asked.
"Oh, my mom gave it to me."
"Who's your mom?"
She smiled showing off her extremely white teeth. "Khione, the snow goddess."
"That's cool." He said grinning widely. He went back to browsing through our assortment of weapons.
"So," I said to Anna, "what is the prophecy?"
She shuddered (which was weird for a child of the snow goddess). "Six half-bloods shall travel west, a child of Ares put at rest. Twelve weapons will break Hecate's chains, plus one mad goddess's will to reign. The song of light leads frenzy's sleep, a holding bond the friends shall keep. Ares child with blessing on wrist, one choice to make to save the Mist."
"Scary."
"So you think you can analyze it?"
"Surely, with a little help."
"I can help you." said an unidentified voice. Jack Evans, son of Hermes, stood at the door of the armory.
"How can you help?" I said. Jack was a tanned boy with a black Nike hat over his dark brown scruffy hair. He wore an unzipped, jet black windbreaker over his Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and brown rumpled shorts. He was the only Hermes child I knew that didn't really have elfish features.
"I know what's going on outside the camp's borders. The Mist has stopped working because the goddess Hecate is captured. Mortals are beginning to see monsters and are being killed. How does this affect us? Well, if the mortals are dying and vaporizing because of their ability to now see monsters and everything the Mist is supposed to veil, the gods, demigod, and mortal worlds could be in maximum danger."
"When did you become so smart?" I questioned. "Are you sure you're not a child of Athena?"
"I just spend a lot of time outside camp borders."
I sighed. "Okay you can help, but don't try anything smart."
"Your cabin is already in bad terms with Chiron." Anna said. "Remember Luke?"
I remembered Luke. He was a son of Hermes like Jack, but helped during the awakening of Kronos and even let him use his body as a host. "I'm not like him, I promise you." Jack assured.
"We hope." I said.
"Uh guys," Noah said, "I think I found my weapon. We all turned our heads to see Noah holding a double-handed battle axe in his hand. He held it up with pride (as if he had ever held a weapon in his whole, living life. It was three-feet long and had a long, black handle. I didn't notice it at first, but left blade of the axe was made of Celestial bronze (like most weapons at camp) and the right blade of the axe was made of Imperial gold, the rarest monster-fighting metal at our camp. It wasn't as good as my bow and Celestial bronze-tipped arrows, but it was beautiful.
"What do you guys think?" Noah said. He slashed the air with it sending all three of us flying backwards and hitting the door of the armory. Jack adjusted his hat and stood.
"That is the coolest weapon I've ever seen."