Hey, my faithful readers! I'm alive! Not that you would think that, anyway. I know, I know, I said the story would be out by last weekend. But publishing my chapters takes awhile, because I have to(Well no but I love writing these) write these authors notes, and proof read—these chapters aren't exactly short, are they?—, and all that Jazz, and it takes a good half an hour or more. These are all copy and pasted cuz I write them on google docs, and some stuff doesn't transfer well...but I wanted to publish this for my faithful(hopefully) readers. Speaking of faithful readers! I was gonna do this earlier but the website wouldn't lemme look...Back on topic! Thanks to my first (*cough cough* and only *cough cough*) favorite and follow on this story, dbf09!

I'll stop ranting now and let you guys read.

Toodles!

—Alex

(Will's POV)

"You shall go south, into the monsters' den,

You shall retrace the steps of heroes then.

To release the children of Wisdom and the Sea from their curse.

The injury of one shall result in another's curse."

Malcolm sighed as he finished reciting his prophecy, and I shivered.

"I mean, Percy's told me about him and all of his monster curses, but releasing them from their curse? Do they both have the same curse? Is that even possible?" Jason Grace, counselor and sole camper of the Zeus cabin, questioned. The rest of the counselors around the ping pong table nodded. Chiron had called a meeting of all the counselors—and the Oracle—to discuss Percy and Annabeth's disappearance and the prophecy.

Malcolm, Rachel, and I locked eyes. We were the only ones present who knew the prophecy was incomplete. And what most of it meant.

"Well, let's try to figure the rest of it out," Piper McLean, Jason's girlfriend, also the counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, said as she squeezed his hand, "I mean, what about the first line? "The monsters'" den. You don't think the Oracle meant The Sea of Monsters, do you?" She looked at Rachel, as if she knew.

"Hey, like I tell you guys every single time, I don't give the prophecies. The spirit of Delphi mugs me to release them." Rachel defended herself. The Stoll brothers snickered, and after Rachel shot them a glare, they quickly shut up.

"Well, what else could it mean?" Leo Valdez cut in. "'Cause if you only went on a dangerous quest to a single monster's den, it wouldn't be dangerous, would it?" The counselor counsel muttered in agreement.

"And what about the "You shall retrace the steps of heroes then" line? You don't think it means Clarisse, Annabeth, and Percy's quest for the Golden Fleece?" Connor Stoll said.

"Yeah, because getting blown up on a ship seems so amazing." Travis, Connor's brother, cut in.

"That's not what I meant, and you—" Connor got into his older brother's face.

"Boys!" Chiron said exasperatedly. "This is an official meeting, not one of your pranks!"

"Sorry, Chiron," they muttered, as Katie Gardner glared daggers at them.

"We've got more important things to worry about. What about the whole 'the injury of one shall result in the curse of another'? Last time something like that happened, Gaea was summoned with a nosebleed. Like, oops, you stub your toe, and someone gets cursed. Again. Like we're not all already cursed enough." She stated, looking at the gathered campers, and they all nodded again like an obedient kindergarten class.

"On that happy note, have you chosen your quest members yet, Malcolm?" Nico asked from right beside me.

Malcolm nodded. We'd talked about it earlier with Irida and Rachel. "I want to take Will and Irida, if they'll have me."

I nodded immediately. "Yeah, I'm with you, Malcolm." I said. Nico looked at us like we weren't speaking English.

"So, you're taking two powerful campers and that one girl from the Iris cabin?" Leo pointed out.

I balled my fists. "She is a powerful half-blood, Leo." I said between clenched teeth. Just because Irida didn't save the camp or whatever, people just thought of her as another camper. "She's the daughter of another half-blood and a goddess."

"Oh right, the one that ignored the warfare going on all around them and ignored it?" He retorted.

"I don't seem to remember you there the first time either, Valdez." I snapped at him.

His face turned a deep red. "Solace, you know that that time was different."

"Well, you weren't watching over a dozen of your friends die, did you?" I growled back at him. We were leaning across from each other on the ping pong table. Leo started towards me and I did, too. It took both Nico and Jason to hold us back.

"Enough!" Piper yelled, probably with a bit of charmspeak in her voice. "Stop fighting, you two! Jeesh!"

Leo and I both stopped. We looked down at our shoes. "Sorry, guys." We said in unison.

"I guess we're just stressed," Leo muttered. "Our friends are missing."

Oh gods. I thought. I'd forgotten about Percy and Annabeth, laying in my bag. "I'm gonna go take a walk." I muttered.

"Will!" Chiron shouted as I walked out. "What about the quest?"

"Malcolm can tell me about it later, right?" I yelled over my shoulder, and I saw the other boy nod. It wasn't like he was going to tell me a lot I didn't already know.

"Will!" A boy's voice shouted after me. "Will!" A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me around. "Will, what is going on with you today?" It was Nico, my boyfriend.

I shrugged off his hand. "It's nothing, Nico, leave me alone."

He looked shocked. "Will—"

I interrupted him. "Just go back to the meeting, Nico. They may need you."

"But they need you, too!" He pleaded.

"Nico—" I started. "Just please. Please let me be."

He looked hurt, but turned to leave anyway.

When Nico was finally in the meeting place, I ran all the way to the Poseidon cabin, clutching my bag against my chest.

As soon I stumbled in and closed the door, Irida was upon me.

"Will!" She cried. "Why are you back so early?" She stopped and have me a once-over, looking at my red face and eyes. "What did you do, Will?" She asked, her hands on her hips.

My nose grew uncomfortably warmer. "Leo Valdez and I may or may not have almost gotten into a fight." I mumbled to my now-interesting shoes.

Irida groaned. She registered my omnipresent satchel. "Oh gods, are they okay?" She murmured softly, just quiet enough so our friends couldn't hear.

"They—well, I hope—are fine. I think. I hope." I muttered as I rushed to the nearest bunk.

I grabbed my friends by the scruffs of their necks—maybe a bit too rough—and plopped them on my bed. "Are you guys okay?" I asked worriedly. Percy grumbled, like he just woke up from a nap, and Annabeth was rubbing her face with her paws like she was trying to clean it. Or maybe she was trying to hide her face. I decided the latter was most likely true. Little did I know.

Percy nodded anyway, and curled up back to sleep. Annabeth continued rubbing her face with her paws.

Irida and I sighed with relief. "So, what happened at the counselor meeting, Will?" She asked. I told her everything, while calmingly stroking the demigods'(or demi-pets? Were they still partly godly?) backs.

1,145. Hmm. Also, I said this was gonna be out by Saturday, then Sunday, and now I've learned my lesson. It's all gonna be out by Friday, I promise.

Totally random side note—like everything I write in these things—I said toodles because I can, but mostly because I grew up with a lot of British kids(not in Britain) so some chapters I will write like the Californian I am, and some chapters I'll sound British or something else...

Also I'm a very strange child so that's also part of it. Probably.

Random topic time over! See you next chapter!

—Alex

Next time on Circe's Revenge:

"She..." I forced it out. "She was kidnapped."