Robin stood among a great crowd, the entire Apollo cabin and many of the Athena campers, and traded arrows with them for anything they had in their pockets. He laughed with them and carefully explained the qualities of each arrow as he passed them out. Andy arrived at the edge of the crowd at the same time Rachel did.

Robin had thus far only sparingly given out his feathers, which were more magical and more rare than his arrows. But when Rachel came up to him, he put his fingers in the bag and considered what feather to give her.

"I do not think an arrow for you, oh Oracle," he told her. "But perhaps the blackbird's gift of omen-telling." He handed her a black feather that was tipped with red and she took it, smiling. Rachel looked down at the feather, then closed her eyes as she suddenly swooned.

Two of the Apollo campers caught her and helped her sit on the grass. Green mist stated to swirl around Rachel; she opened her eyes and they glowed emerald green. When she spoke, it sounded like the hissing whisper of snakes:

"Feathered child of the muse

Seeking water children's news

Set the virgin's statue right

Like a homing dove's pure flight."

On the last word, Rachel collapsed backwards, but the two Apollo's campers caught her and carried her away to the Big House.

"So it does happen everyday," Robin muttered.

"Someone need to tell Chiron," Will said, looking somber. "Robin's been issued a quest."

Chiron was sent for and, though several of the Athena and Apollo campers had dispersed, the crowd around Robin was steadily growing larger as news of the quest spread across the camp.

"What happened?" Chiron asked, trotting up.

"Rachel gave Robin a prophecy," Andy told him.

"What was it?"

"Feathered child of the muse/ Seeking water children's news/ Set the virgin's statue right/ Like a homing dove's pure flight," Robin recited. The rhythm of it was like poetry, and one thing Robin was good at was memorizing poetry.

"Seems fairly straight forward," Chiron mused. "The feathered child of the muse who is seeking water children's news is obviously you. The virgin can either refer to Athena or Artemis..."

"Or Hestia!" someone reminded him.

"Or Hestia," he agreed. "But what I don't understand is the homing dove. Are you supposed to bring an Aphrodite camper with you?"

"I could go," one of them, Robin thought she was called Drew, volunteered immediately, looking at Robin as though he was a piece of meat.

"No, I think it means something else," Robin said. "Homing dove, that is just a homing pigeon. Do you know about homing pigeons?"

"Yeah, don't they, um, home?" a Hephaestus camper said.

"They always return home," an Athena camper explained. "If you put food at one location and their home at the other, they can be trained to carry messages back and forth."

"They do not home," Robin said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him. "If you separate a carrier pigeon from his mate, he will fly back to her. He will stop at nothing, cross thousands of miles in a few days, that he might be with her again. That is why it is called "pure flight", because it is done purely out of love."

The campers looked uncomfortable, but Andy and Will had looks of dawning recognition across their face.

"Someone captured my Oenone," Robin said. "One of the virgin goddesses took her. They wished for their statue to be righted, so they took Oenone and placed her near their statue, knowing I would come if only to find her."

"That is so romantic!" the Aphrodite girls gushed.

"Both Artemis and Athena have statues," Chiron said. "Artemis's was lost once, it fell off of mount Olympus, so Apollo sent a hero to rescue it."

"So it's definitely Artemis's statue," Will said.

"But where is it?" Andy asked.

"South," Robin said. "Far to the South."

"How do you know?" someone asked.

"The same way a dove knows the way home," he smiled. All of the Aphrodite campers sighed, "Awwww! That's so cute!"

"That just leaves two questions," Chiron said. "How will you get there and who will you take?"

"I'll come," Andy said. "I'll help you find Oenone." Robin smiled at her; he was glad she knew the real reason he had taken this task, but even more glad that she wanted to help him reunite with the nymph. Robin had been worried that Andy was attracted to him, but he could not love her in return because his heart belonged to Oenone. Andy's offer to come was really her was of acknowledging that Robin belonged to another woman.

"I guess I'll come," Will volunteered. "I mean, I owe you."

"Thank you, Will," Robin said. "But I believe I know a way south, and it is not a child of Apollo who provides it."

A/N: Footnotes:

Homing doves (pigeons): as far as I can tell, the Athena camper is actually right about the behaviors of these birds. Robin's suggestion of mates seeking each other out is an older, more poetic interpretation.

Artemis's and Athena's statues: Artemis did have a statue that fell from Mount Olympus. It fell onto an island where it was worshipped as the goddess herself until Apollo sent a hero to reclaim it. Athena's statue was placed on earth by the goddess and, as far as anyone knows, was never returned to Olympus.