Chapter Seven

Phoenix

We enter the main cabin in silence. Annabeth and Percy were holding hands. They had made up beautifully. When I had whispered in her ear, I had told her that any guy that could hit a girl would be willing to stand up to anyone for their girl. It was a weird thing to say, but Annabeth liked it.

I close the door behind everybody. When I turn around, I see Chiron as well as the girl that separated Percy and I earlier. There are also a couple of other kids, but one that sticks out to me the most is a boy with horns and goat feet.

"Grover!" Percy and Annabeth cry as the rush over to hug the goat boy.

He laughs. "Percy! Annabeth! It's great to see you both!"

Percy laughs along. "What are you doing here, man? I thought you were off helping spread Pan's wisdom."

"I was. It's just, I was in the neighborhood and I wanted to stop in to see Juniper. Chiron caught me and asked me to come to this meeting. He said we'd be discussing another prophecy." Grover laughs. "I should've known it would be about you again Percy."

Percy does a half groan. "Actually, it's not about me. Thanks the gods."

Grover looks puzzled. "Then who's it about?"

Percy and Annabeth point to me and Lucius. I look to my side and notice that Lucius is standing right next to me again. He has a grin on his face as he waves to Grover.

The three of them walk over to us. Grover smiles at the two of us and stick out his hand. "I'm Grover." He laughs. "But I guess you figured that out."

Lucius laughs with him as he shakes his hand. "I'm Lucius." He points at me. "And this is Phoenix."

"Pleased to meet you both." Grover says. "So I hear this prophecy is about you two. Who're your parents?"

Lucius points at himself. "Dawn." Then he points at me again. "Nyx."

I almost smile. It was really nice of Lucius doing all the talking for me. He knew I didn't like talking to people, and was covering for me. Even though we'd only known each other for about an hour.

Grover's eyes widen. "The Day and Night prophecy?"

He turns to Percy and Annabeth. "I've heard part of that prophecy. It says something about the elements destroying the world. Now, I realize why Chiron had me here. The earth is part of my business."

Suddenly Chiron begins to speak. "People, people. Please, if you'll all take your seats in the circle we can begin the meeting."

Everyone moves to the middle of the cabin, where a bunch of chairs are lined up in a circle. I take the seat next Annabeth. Percy sits down next to her and Grover next to him. The girl Clarisse sits beside Chiron. I can't help but tense as Lucius sits next to me.

"Now then." Chiron starts. "You've all hear about the Lastrygonian attack, right?"

Everyone in the circle nods. My stomach begins to churn. I still couldn't believe that I had actually predicted something like that. Although, I liked Chiron's idea better. That my mother had given me the bad feeling and I hadn't really predicted it.

Chiron continues. "Mere moments before that attack, two demigods were newly marked. Now, why is this a big deal you ask? We have new demigods popping up all the time now."

He pauses and looks at me and Lucius. "If you two could please stand."

Nervously, I stand with Lucius. Everyone had their eyes on us. The sick feeling in my stomach begins growing. I swallow and I feel my face heat up. I glance at Lucius. He was all calm and even had a slight smile on his face as he nodded politely to everyone in the circle.

They all smiled back. Everyone seemed to like him. I straighten my back, determined not to be shown up by him.

"Now, may you introduce yourselves and tell us your parents?" Chiron asks nicely, but I feel as if he just asked me to chop off my own hand.

Lucius speaks first. "My name Lucius Masterfield. My father's name is Joe Masterfield and my mother is the goddess Dawn."

A wave of whispers goes around the circle at this point. Clearly everyone had heard of the Day and Night prophecy and had already guessed who my parent was.

Chiron puts a hand up and silences everyone. He points at me to begin speaking. I open my mouth to begin speaking, but nothing comes out. My tongue feels like it's stuck to the roof of my mouth, and the churning in my stomach was making me want to throw up.

Lucius coughs. Everyone turns their gaze to him. "This is Phoenix, and her mother is the goddess Nyx."

I quickly sit down before my legs buckle under me. Lucius sits down calmly beside me. I glance at him. He smiles at me and I duck my head.

Lucius had saved me twice now. I owed him now. He wouldn't want anything in return, because that's the way he was. But until I paid him back, I wouldn't be able to look at him. It's a pride thing for me.

I barely notice the whispers going around until Chiron silences everyone again. "Now, we've all heard of the Day and Night prophecy, but Rachel, may you repeat it for us please?"

I suddenly notice that Rachel was sitting on the other side of Lucius. She stands and smiles at everyone in turn. Her eyes pass right over me, and they linger on Lucius. I narrow my eyes at her until she recites the prophecy.

"Two half-bloods born of dark and light

Enemies the Son of Dawn and Daughter of Night

Appearances are naught but an illusion

Elements destruction over unneeded confusion

To storm or fire, the world must fall

If the truth is not told to all"

Rachel doesn't seem to come out of a trance, so I assume that she just memorized it when Chiron had repeated it to her earlier.

Before the murmuring can begin again, Chiron speaks. "The purpose of this meeting is to figure out what this means."

A blond girl raises her hand. Chiron points at her, and she rises. She smiles and then speaks. "The first two lines obviously refer to Lucius and Phoenix. He's a son of Dawn and she's a daughter of Night. Dawn and Nyx have always been enemies, so I assume that they're both enemies too."

The girl sits down, and I have to wonder at her statement. It made logical sense, but I couldn't help but thinking that while I wasn't the closest person in the world to Lucius, I wasn't his mortal enemy either.

Chiron points to a raven haired boy with piercing green eyes. He stands and looks straight at me. Beside me, I see that Lucius tenses.

"I think that they have a secret. That must be what the last line was referring to. And if they don't share, they're going to destroy the world."

A brunette girl beside him stands up. She's obviously his girlfriend. "Tommy, they don't look like they want to destroy the world. They've only known they were demigods for a few hours. They've only known each other for about the same amount of time."

He turns and looks at her. "Sara, the prophecy said that the elements would cause the world to fall."

She takes his hand. "You need to be more trusting Tommy. Do they honestly look like they want to destroy the world?"

Tommy shakes his head. "Luke didn't look like he wanted to take over the world either."

I can almost feel the tension in the air that little statement created. Annabeth rises beside me. She speaks with fury in her voice. "Luke died a hero. Forgiven by the gods, and forgiven by the demigods. You will not forget that it was only because of him that we managed to save this world."

She sits down. Percy takes her hand and squeezes it. Annabeth sniffles and turns to rest her head on his shoulder. Tommy and Sara both sit down, and I look up at Chiron. He smiles weakly at me and then points to another girl.