Chapter Fifteen: The Quest

A/N: This one's short, but I now have gotten over my writer's block!

Sam's POV

I was looking at Freddie with a sort of suspicious look, but I guess he hadn't noticed. I still had sort of mixed feelings about seeing him and Carly in the showers that morning. He looked worried, almost scared. It's hard for me to admit, but even I was a little nervous. People had died on these quests before and I did not want my best friend to die.

"How long will Carly be up there?" Freddies asked.

"Who knows," Melanie replied, "could be five minutes, could be five hours." Melanie smiled as if that was no big deal. It was easy for her to do that. She'd been at this camp for years! Who knows how much training she'd had.

We spent several minutes just standing there in awkward silence. Every once in a while, one of us would open our mouth as if to say something, but no words would come out. So we just stood there until finally:

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" I screamed. I turned on my heels and head straight towards the main building. Melanie held my arm.

"Sam, don't! Only one hero can consult with the Oracle at a time. You can't disrupt them!" I knew she meant well, but the tension was killing me. Then Freddie stepped in.

"Melanie's right Sam. You can't just barge in there like a maniac. We've just gotta be patient and wait." Both of them knew I sucked at waiting, but I did nonetheless. I really wondered what Carls was doing at the moment.

Carly's POV

The stairs creaked slightly as I climbed them to the attic. I was shaking with nervousness and my mouth was dry. The air was damp and smelled foul like if the attic was filled with stuff as old as the Earth itself. As I approached the attic door, I realized that my hand trembled as I reached for the brass door handle. I was breathing heavily now. I slowly turned the handle and opened the door.

"BOO!"

"AHHHHHH!" I screamed so loud that I swear the building shook. A girl about my age was giggling right in front of me. She had curly red hair and green eyes.

"Sorry," she said, still giggling, "I rarely have any visitors. It gets boring and I pretty much need to make up my own fun." Now that she was looking straight at me, I noticed that she was very pretty.

"You're the Oracle?" I asked. I was still a little shaken up from her scaring me. I could still feel my heart racing.

"In a sense, yes. My name is Rachel and I am the current host of the spirit of the Oracle." She looked at me thoroughly as though she was trying to see past my appearance and into my soul. I know it sounds weird but that's how her look felt. She smiled.

"Well, come in! Don't be shy!" She led me inside the attic. The smell was extremely strong inside. I held my nose. Rachel noticed.

"You get used to it after a while," she said. She then sat down on an ancient looking table and motioned to a matching ancient chair. I sat down and looked directly at Rachel.

"So now what?" I asked. It's not like I was in a hurry to find out about my quest, but it was pretty awkward just sitting there in silence. Rachel shrugged.

"We wait I guess. I'm pretty new at being the Oracle. I've only belted out one prophecy actually." She smiled sheepishly.

"So you don't know how to just give me a prophecy?" I asked. She shook her head.

"But I will get one eventually. It just takes ti —" Just as she said that she began to shake uncontrollably. Her arms and legs began to jerk like she was having a seizure. Her eyes began to glow a bright neon blue color.

I stood up from my chair. I didn't know what else to do. I was terrified.

"R-Rachel? Are you ok?" Rachel didn't reply. She kept jerking and twitching and her eyes kept glowing. She then began to levitate off the ground and into the air. She stopped just short of hitting the ceiling. Then she began to speak in a deep familiar voice. It sounded like a man's voice.

"Carly Shay! Your existence has been questioned by the gods. We do not think you should be left to live!" Rachel wasn't twitching and jerking anymore.

"In order for you to continue living, I, King of the gods, have created a quest in order for you to prove yourself. I have created three challenges that you must overcome and each one ten times more difficult than the last. I will allow you to select a few friends to accompany you. Know this, Carly Shay. If you fail, you and your friends will die!" I gulped at the word 'die.'

"You will find your first challenge in Brooklyn. Each time you overcome a challenge, you will be given a clue as to where your next challenge lies. The deal is complete the three tasks and you live. Fail any one of them and you die!" With that Rachel's eyes stopped glowing and she began to descend. She landed a little hard on the table. She rubbed her eyes as if she were just waking up.

"W-what happened?" she asked groggily. I was too taken aback to speak.

"Did I give you a prophecy?" she asked.

"You don't know?" I asked. "You don't remember what just happened?" Rachel sat up.

"All I remember is you asking if I can't just give you a prophecy and then I blacked out." She stood up and dusted off her jeans.

"Well you didn't give me a prophecy. You were possessed by Zeus." I had figured that part out by the 'King of the gods' bit.

"Possessed? Now that's new. And what exactly did I, I mean Zeus, say?" I told her all about the challenges and that if I didn't do them, I would die.

"Oh yeah, I heard about the forbidden child of Artemis. Is that you? Oh my gods! That's so crazy!" She didn't sound at all frightened. She sounded amazed.

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"Talk to Chiron. I'm sure he'll know what to do." She took a look at her pink wrist watch and gasped. "It's time for my lunch break! It was nice meeting you, uhh—" I remembered that I hadn't even told her my name.

"Carly," I said. She smiled and waved and then exited the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts, the weird old things, and the foul smell.

A/N: Oh yeah, and thanks to those who reviewed my last chapter. They are:

iBrizzy- Daughter of Hermes, , baritonegirl, and Shur'tugal Daughter of Artemis. You guys are awesome and I hope you continue to read!