Chapter Two

Chiron Gives Me a Quest

I returned to camp, only to find Dionysus waiting for me.

You see, Dionysus is this crazy god who has been banished by Zeus for chasing some off limits wood nymph. Too bad Zeus hadn't just kept him in a godly jail. His life goal is to make our lives miserable.

"What do you want, Peter Johnson?"

"It's Percy Jackson."

"I very well know your name, Perry Johanson. Now tell me what you want before I turn you into a dolphin."

"Let me talk to Chiron, Wine Dude."

"The next person who calls me wine dude does kitchen duty for the rest of the summer. But fine, you can have Chiron."

"Now let me through the camp borders, Old Drunk!"

"Same goes for calling me old drunk."

Mr. D finally let me through. I walked down to the big house to find Chiron. He was in his office, going through reports.

"Come in."

I walked in.

"Chiron, Rachel told me this prophecy."

"5…land without light?" Chiron muttered "Mortal's life? Save, kill…one lost at bull man? What kind of prophecy is that?"

Then Chiron said: "Oh, now I got it!" Then turned to me: "We need a quest."

I called a war council, and the counselors from all the cabins sat down in the Big House. As usual, Travis Stoll from Hermes cabin was trying to set a ping-pong ball on fire. Leo Valdez from Hephaestus was summoning fire and throwing it at Travis. Butch from the Iris cabin was stuffing pencils in the Hecate counselor's nose. Will Solance from the Apollo cabin was arguing with Clarisse. I was trying to see how much water I can hurl at Nico (son of Hades)'s face, and he keeps trying to put me into a death trance.

"OK now, Travis, extinguish the ball, Leo, stop summoning fire, Butch, I think 15 pencils is really enough for a human nostril. Will, Clarisse, stop arguing; Percy, stop soaking Nico and Nico, stop trying to kill Percy." Chiron ordered.

I told all the counselors about the weird prophecy I had been given. When I finished telling the story, I was afraid all the counselors might start beating me up. We really didn't need another quest.

Fortunately, Chiron told me "Well, Percy, you heard the prophecy yourself, who do you pick for this quest?"

I scanned the room. So many different options. Leo could come in handy for blasting people with fire, but Nico could walk onto a battlefield and everyone would step back, like he radiated death, which, of course, he did. Will Solance could be useful, Clarisse, well, even though I hated her, things might be better if she tagged along.

Then I thought about the prophecy about how one would die. But I pushed that out of my mind.

I looked at Annabeth, and she nodded. One down, three to go.

"Nico?"

"Yeah! I want to go on a quest!"

"Leo? Wanna tag along?" Leo nodded.

I figured we would need a medic, since the prophecy told me that one would die.

"Will, you are the last member of the quest. Coming?" Will nodded at me.

"Chiron, I still don't know where we are going!" I said.

"New York Subway. It has to be it. Something is down there, something invisible to mortals, but extremely evil. You have to stop it."

Great, I thought. I have to kill something that most people can't even see, and that wouldn't be the Minotaur.

"Okay, questers, get yourselves some rest. Tomorrow morning, Argus is driving you into town. Then you are on your own."

On the way out, Chiron stopped me. He gave me something that looked like a grenade.

"This is a magical grenade, Percy. You get three throws out of it. It kills and monsters within 10 feet of its blast radius. But it doesn't harm mortals. Once you throw it, it will return to your belt, but on the final throw, it would disintegrate."