Second fanfic! I dedicate this to my friend!
Okay, please...please...please read and review!
Chapter 3: The Problem Long Ago
Laveila's list of fun things to do did not include witnessing Rachel Elizabeth Dare spew out green smoke around her and her mouth while she talked with that creepy, raspy and snaky voice that could drive anyone mad. But of course, there were demigods who were brave enough not to let themselves land into the world of insanity. But still, it was creepy. Enough said.
Mr. D could have just said something about the problem that set Olympus into anxiety. But being him, meetings weren't as interesting and fun as pinochle and Pac-Man, which he had the nerve to play during the Second Titan War. Laveila even scratched her head once when she found out that Hestia gave up her seat of power for that pudgy cherub. He just got a position because his dad was a party animal and he invented wine which added flavor to Zeus' parties, or something like that.
The thought of Mr. D being high and honorable muddled Laveila's mind. It felt like a total meltdown for her because she just didn't understand the rules on how to attain a position on Olympus. It seemed messed up. For example, Zeus and Poseidon, both are womanizers, yet if someone, mortal or immortal alike, had the gut to just sneer at them for being so foolish. Boom, they'd be ashes in no time.
Zeus' sons were also womanizers. Ares, having a very long affair with the ever lusty Aphrodite, didn't seem to get the meaning of "marriage" and ironically, his mom's the goddess of marriage. And then, he even had other affairs besides Aphrodite. Then again, being immortal that he was, maybe he just couldn't control himself, he couldn't die and he couldn't get killed also. Injured but not to the point of death.
Apollo, the F-Romeo, always was the hopeless romantic. He had a wide sphere of power yet no woman, mortal or goddess, seemed to be interested in him for a long time. Just an affair with different kinds of women and sometimes men! But that was it—no wedding bells for him. He was a musician and also a poet but the Fates must have cursed his love life, so that no one would fall in love with his antics. Poor him.
For Hermes, he was a lot like Apollo but the one that made Laveila confused was his sphere of power over thieves. He was the god of the thieves. She didn't know what he did to the thieves, either punish them or guide them, she didn't know but the crimes that mortals did made her thoughtful about how Hermes really used his power.
For Hephaestus, he seemed alright, although the shy type. He seemed okay except for his looks. Laveila had nothing against his physical appearance but if the gods had the ability to change then how come she never saw him do it? Maybe because he didn't care? Or maybe he just found it stupid to look after his appearance. And another irony was, his wife was the exact opposite. But maybe because she was the goddess of beauty.
Hera was hated by demigods because of her infamous deeds of making their lives a living Fields of Punishment. But even though Laveila was a daughter of Zeus and automatically Hera's target of her rage, she did understand that Zeus was being unfaithful and unfair to his wife. But it seemed unfair that she would incinerate the innocent women and their children especially.
Aphrodite would always be her. Goddess of love, beauty, lust, yeah, that's her power but the lust part made Laveila scrunch her nose as it looked out-of-place in an Olympus that she envisioned when she first heard about it.
Athena, yeah, she was awesome and awfully smart. A know-it-all, literally. She's okay and everything that she said or argued was reasonable but her pride sometimes got better of her and that could be bad if mortals dared to question her. Like Arachne for instance and the Trojans because of Paris.
Demeter was fine until the kidnapping of Persephone. Yeah, it seemed an excuse that she'd wallow in self-pity as her lovely child, with her brother, Zeus, was abducted by her other brother, Hades, and then Demeter was raped by her other brother, Poseidon, while looking for her child, and that union led to a talking horse. Talk about major incest. But she was a nagger, especially to Hades and up until now, she could never forget her brother's deed and still made the mortal world suffer with her for months.
And the last one was Artemis. The most independent of all deities. She was also awesome like Athena and she was friendly to all but not to boys, except for her brother, Apollo. She's, well, cool and all but her utter hatred for boys and her morbid sense of humor were minus points for her. Actaeon was one of her victims of her horridness; he just accidentally (although Laveila wasn't sure whether it was really an accident or he did it on purpose) passed by when she and her nymphs were bathing but of course, that's was still counted as being a peeping tom so—boom, attacked by his own hounds and ripped to pieces. Another victim was Niobe and her seven daughters. Well, that was because she mocked the twins' mother—which was not cool—but Laveila thought it was going too far. Killing fourteen innocent children (seven girls for Artemis and seven boys for Apollo) because their mother bragged that she had more kids than Leto? That was also unfair.
Laveila sighed as she thought all of the things that made the immortals imperfect. Nobody was perfect, even their high and mighty relatives that ruled over mortals.
Her train of thoughts was cut off when she heard something crack underneath her left foot. She looked down and gasped—even though she should've expected to see one. She lifted her foot to make sure it was what she really saw and shuddered. She put her foot down and did not try to remind herself that it was a bone that she had stepped.
She looked at the place and frowned—curtain embroidered with snakes, old bones (which would've definitely delighted Nico when he'd come here) and swords scattered the place. Despite Apollo's happy-go-lucky attitude, he can be pretty scary when he wanted to.
Laveila shuddered again and reluctantly went inside.
It definitely had a fortune teller's eerie aura. The place was lit up with candles, making it look dark and mysterious at the same time. Things from the attic were placed here but Laveila didn't look at it, she went straight to the busy oracle.
Rachel was the same as ever, frizzy red hair, freckles and weird, brightly painted clothes that went against her black shawl that was draped on her shoulders. She was doing something, although she couldn't see it clearly—her hair was so wild that even her clips wouldn't work against it.
She cleared her throat and waited for Rachel to finish. The redhead looked up and grinned at her.
"Oh, it's just you, I knew someone was coming though I wasn't sure who" she said, putting away her work and Laveila craned her neck to see it but the place was too dim, "so, I'm pretty sure you're going to ask me about something, that's what you—demigods—always do."
"Yeah, it's about Olympus' sudden anxiety" Laveila replied.
"Olympus' sudden anxiety…huh—well, it has always been like that even in the old times, I wonder what old trouble had sent Olympus into that kind of state" she said, before going to her three-legged stool and waited for the spirit of Delphi to "hijack" her.
Then, as expected, green mist spewed out of her mouth and around the stool, Rachel opened her eyes and it became green. She opened her mouth and the snaky voice talked.
Children of the eagle and the messenger shall unite
To save the deity of bloodlust with their greatest might
But a half-blood shall become a sacrifice
Between the enemies' goal of revenge and claiming their tantalized prize
With that, she quickly collapsed but Laveila managed to catch her before she could crack her skull.
She slowly put Rachel down on a nearby table and quietly—or rather tried to—went out towards the cave though it wasn't an easy job. She kept looking at Rachel, wondering whether it was alright to leave her there—lying with no one to wait for her to wake up. Laveila hoped that her waking up wouldn't end as a big if. She considered carrying her towards the infirmary because she was rather pale and she wasn't sure if the girl was breathing. She looked back again to make sure Rachel wasn't dead (Laveila still wasn't used to Rachel as the new oracle as the former one was already dead and she needn't to worry whether that mummy would collapse or something…she'd even freak out if the mummy would suddenly tap dance or something) but this time—she wasn't lucky at her footing.
She slipped and her breath was forced out of her. She cursed at herself for being so careless and sat up, rubbing her head. She looked at the thing that tripped her and her eyes widened. She quickly scrambled away from that thing and knocked a lot of things that were carefully placed on shelves. Some even landed on her head, just to be cruel.
At the same time, Rachel the Oracle bolted upright and a barrage of spluttered noises were heard before she spoke in one words, "Who—what—How—Hotdogs? Prophecy? Right"
The girl who just freaked out when she saw a very old bone that looked like the oracle's hand, rubbed her head and complained at the things that bonked her head. She went cross-eyes for a minute but she was fine when Rachel started spluttering.
"I gave you a prophecy right?" Rachel asked Laveila who was—at the moment—thinking of ways to get back to those lifeless properties of the oracle who gave her a concussion.
"Yeah, you did" she moaned and got up to her feet.
Just then, Rachel realized the mess that surrounded Laveila, "What happened to those?"
"Your bone here" Laveila pointed to the protruding bony fingers, "tripped me and freaked me out"
"Oh" she said but didn't scold her, though she wouldn't like to admit it but sometimes the bones freaked her out too and she just didn't want a certain someone—ehemNicoehem—to find out or else it would all become alive when she would come back here.
"Later" Laveila said and went off, not looking back at Rachel anymore, as she was alright.
XOXO
Laveila went back to the Big House and what she saw surprised her more than how the bones freaked the Hades out of her (heh, bones and Hades).
Or maybe it was her concussion that was confusing her brain.
Xandri was talking to Chiron with a very grim expression on her face. Like something bad happened while she was too busy being knocked out by Rachel's teacups.
Chiron's face sagged while the blonde explained to him. She wanted to know what it was but Xandri stopped talking and nodded at Chiron. She turned her back on him and saw Laveila. For the first time in her life, Laveila saw how guarded Xandri look—like every minute someone or something might pounce on her. She didn't give that kind of look before and Xandri was never that serious—even during the Second Titan War—she was the type to give people reasons to laugh (very much like the Stoll brothers).
Xandri looked so forlorn Laveila thought she might be an impostor. Xandri just passed by and didn't even acknowledge her existence and Laveila was miffed at her action but then again—she did tell Xandri that she would never forgive her. So maybe they were even.
Laveila looked again at her ex-bestfriend (as she now called it) and saw her scowling at something which made her eyebrow shoot on her scalp. She really never did that as long as Laveila remembered. Or maybe she was seeing another side of Xandri that she never knew.
She shrugged it all off and went straight to Chiron who looked at her expectantly. She sighed deeply before talking.
"As usual, Chiron, the Oracle was always gibberish when talking" she said but Chiron still looked at her, "Fine, it went like this…um…Children of the eagle and the messenger shall unite/To save the deity of bloodlust with their greatest might/But a half-blood shall be a sacrifice/Between the enemies' goal of revenge and claiming their tantalized prize…yeah, something like that"
"Please, sit down" was all Chiron said before plunging deep into his thoughts. Laveila didn't know what the prophecy really meant but the first and second lines were so obvious.
Ares was kidnapped or something and she was part of the team that would save his godly butt. And she didn't like the words "children of the messenger". He was also part of that team.
"I presume you understood some lines in the prophecy, am I correct?" Chiron began to talk that Laveila made him repeat again.
Chiron asked the same question, word-for-word.
"Oh…um…yeah. I do. I'm part of the quest and Ares was kidnapped by some enemy. Though I'm not sure about the third and the fourth lines. I'm not really enthusiastic about it" she said, squirming in her seat.
Chiron nodded and sighed, "I'm very afraid of that half-blood whoever he or she might be…I just don't like how the word sacrifice was used"
Laveila nodded in agreement and spoke, "We're gonna have a meeting won't we?"
"We still need two volunteers for this quest" Chiron started to get up, "and we are going to see who fits best for this dangerous quest"
Laveila wanted to point out that he just made a rhyme but stopped herself, as she realized that it was a stupid answer to what he just said. Together, they went out and he called Connor Stoll, who was doing something Laveila didn't want to find out and ordered him to tell the senior counselors of the meeting in the Big House rec room.
He scrambled his way to the busy senior counselors and frantically talked to them.
After a few minutes, they were all settled in, with the exception of the Apollo cabin whose counselor was late. They all waited—impatiently, in the case of Clarisse—and waited for another few minutes. All of their heads perked up when they heard scuffling, panting, bumping and a string of cursing outside. A blonde girl almost tripped just by entering but managed to catch herself and stood up, panting and smiling nervously. She had a lighter shade of blonde hair than the usual color of Apollo's kids' hair and darker blue eyes; she looked college-age with her figure.
"Oh, hi, my name's Daisy by the way, the temporary senior counselor of the Apollo cabin because Will's away with some quest…um…nice to meet you" she still had the nervous smile but went to her place anyway and sat.
The silence was cut off with murmurs of, "Finally, the lanky geek showed up (by Clarisse)" "Daisy? A daughter of Apollo? Wow, what a unique name (by Connor snickering with his brother, Travis who were being shooed and glared by Luke)" "Hmmm...Johnnie Walker…what a wine…what a wine (by none other than, Mr. D)"
But Chiron cleared his throat and everyone stopped talking at once, "As you can see, we're here for a meeting—"
Clarisse rolled her eyes and murmured, "No, we're not—we're here to play Ping-Pong" and then shrugged when she saw Laveila glaring at her.
"—the event that led Olympus' into anxiety was the kidnapping of one of the Olympians" he gravely said, "Ares, the god of war, was the… victim—"
But Chiron wasn't able to continue as Clarisse, obviously, gasped and spluttered, "WHAT? How could this happen? But he's too strong to be just whisked away! No—"but wasn't able to continue when Chiron held up his hand.
"Patience, Clarisse" he said and the counselor reluctantly sat on her chair, "This has happened before, I assure you, it happened when the Aloadae twins ambitiously thought they could have the goddesses, Artemis and Hera, for themselves…Ares was kidnapped by them and trapped him inside a pithos—"
"Lies! Dad would never let himself be just defeated like that!" Clarisse retorted once again, cutting off Chiron's story. Really, the meeting had been magical with all the "cutting off".
"I do not lie, Clarisse, please sit down" Chiron said patiently and Laveila gave him some credit because if it was her she'd punch the girl first before telling her to put her butt down in the chair.
"Fine" she grumbled and cursed in Ancient Greek.
"So where was I? Oh yes—they were able to trap him but Artemis was able to defeat them by tricking them to shoot one another."
"Are they, like, monsters?" Daisy asked, which startled some people who almost forgotten that she existed.
"No, they're like demigods like us" Annabeth was the one who answered her question, "Their mother was the wife of Aloeus, as they were named after him and their father meanwhile," she lingered for a moment and gave a knowing look towards Percy, "was Poseidon".
"Great, another killer brothers" Percy mumbled.
"They actually chased Artemis for a long time, heck, they even ran on water just to keep with her pace" Annabeth added.
Percy looked thoughtful, "Hmmm…I guess I should try that trick sometime"
But Clarisse looked like she was trying her best not to listen but she talked anyway, "So, there's some prophecy here right? I volunteer!"
Chiron looked worried when she said that one, like he knew she'd do that and was trying to say something that wouldn't hurt her feeling, "Clarisse, my dear, I'm afraid that the Oracle had not included a child of Ares to save him"
She gave an incredulous look but soon turned to an indignant one and stood up, "WHAT? HE'S MY DAD! I HAVE TO SAVE HIM NO MATTER WHAT THE COSTS ARE! I'M NOT GOING TO FOLLOW THAT FORTUNETELLER'S PROPHECY!"
Laveila rolled her eyes and grumbled under her breath but Chiron just sighed, "My dear child, if you do not follow the prophecy, something might happen bad to you"
But Clarisse would hear none of it, "WELL ANNABETH BROKE THAT RULE ONCE! SHE DIDN'T DIE AND NEITHER DID BARNACLE BREATH, THAT CYCLOPS BABY AND THAT GOAT!"
"Hey! Don't call Tyson and Grover—"Percy started but was held back by Annabeth who shook her head.
Annabeth faced the enraged girl, "Clarisse, in my prophecy it didn't say who the people were—"
"Annabeth's right, Clarisse" Laveila butted in, feeling like there's going to be a fight if she didn't intervene, "I heard the prophecy, I heard every line that the Oracle spoke. It didn't say that a child of Ares would come and save the day. The lines went like this…Children of the eagle and the messenger shall unite/To save the deity of bloodlust with their greatest might/But a half-blood shall be a sacrifice/Between the enemies' goal of revenge and claiming their tantalized prize…so it's clear that I'm going and two of Hermes' children"
"Yeah, we understood that and all…but you should be careful Laveila—the third line's not pretty" Miranda Gardiner said.
There were murmurs of agreement and some even shuddered; it was never really easy for half-bloods.
"WHAT?" Clarisse shouted for the third time and some even groaned when she spoke—or rather shouted that word again, "You can't be serious? Her and two Hermes children? Was the Oracle mad to give such a dangerous quest to these weaklings?"
"Excuse me" Laveila stood up, looking indignant as she glowered at Clarisse, "I could fry you any minute if I want to Clarisse! So, don't underestimate me!"
She looked unfazed with her threat and just snorted when she took a seat once again, "What a joke. My dad's out there being imprisoned and then three losers save him? I bet the twins would be laughing their butts off at the sight of the trio"
Laveila gritted her teeth and shouted a, "That's it! You're crossing the line!" before lunging at Clarisse like a wild animal. But Laveila was unable to do so as she was stopped by Annabeth and Percy (really, they're like Siamese twins) while Clarisse was stopped by Luke and several other girls. She thrashed and kicked but was still held back by the Siamese tandem. Meanwhile, Clarisse was ready to kill.
Chiron just sighed, "Let us finish this meeting now before the conch horn sounds"
When everyone else calmed down (well, not entirely all of them as Laveila was glaring at Clarisse while the latter was cracking her knuckles), they pondered for a moment.
"Okay, so we have Laveila, then who are the other two?" Percy asked Chiron but the others already looked at Luke expectantly.
"What—? Oh, fine" was all he said when others looked at him with those big puppy dog eyes.
Laveila's attention towards Clarisse disappeared when she heard Luke's words. Her expression changed from disbelief to outrage…he was coming with her! Of course, she would've expected something like that—he was part of the prophecy as he was the son of Hermes and all. But still…Travis and Connor Stoll would've been her first choice. She had decided on that after she heard Rachel speak the prophecy.
"Okay, so we have two now but the prophecy said that the children of the eagle and messenger shall unite and Thalia's not here…I presume we take another child of Hermes?" Annabeth said, ignoring Clarisse's string of insults towards the would-be trio who would save her dad.
"I suppose that would be a yes but who to take is another question" Luke said, looking disgruntled as he was forced to come as he knew that the person he'd be going with would definitely kill him in his sleep since he didn't like the way she ignored him only and talked to other people, she might as well plot a plan to murder him.
"Well, convince your siblings or something, your dad's like the god of travels so travelling would be a whole lot easier if two children of Hermes would come" Percy said.
"And we'd never starve" Luke slyly commented, earning a glare from Annabeth, but the guy just chuckled.
"I guess that's partly settled then" Laveila said in a nonplussed voice.
"Nah, that's not gonna be a problem, besides Hermes has a lot of kids—I'm sure Luke would be able pick one" Percy said
"The problem is—we have no idea who is the enemy and I don't like the feeling about this quest. I got a feeling that it's going to be a disaster" Miranda said, feeling agitated as she spoke.
"Every quest is bound to be a disaster but I suppose this one's going to be the record breaker" Clarisse growled as she glared at Laveila and Luke, who respectively glared back and ignored the girl.
"A half-blood shall be a sacrifice/Between the enemies' goal of revenge and claiming their tantalized prize…hmmm…there are a lot of theories as how the Oracle had used the word sacrifice but I have an idea about the enemies" Annabeth said as she faced all the soon-to-be-bored counselors.
That got their attention, they all focused on Annabeth as she started speaking, "The word tantalize is obviously the clue…although I detest that word as it was named after Tantalus"
They all cringed at the name when they all remembered the time when Tantalus took over Chiron's work as camp director. He was not a pleasant man.
"But anyway" Annabeth continued, "the word means that, if someone or something tantalizes you, they make you feel hopeful and excited about getting what you want, usually before not letting you have what they appeared to offer. This word is the exact description about the Aloadaes' failure to capture Artemis. They were so close to capturing her but like what I said earlier, they failed because she tricked them. So, maybe it's like usual history-repeats-itself thing. The enemies are the Aloadae twins but I'm not sure where they are now, they are hunters so I—I d—don't know" Annabeth wrinkled her nose when she said the last part; everyone knew that it was hurtful for every child of Athena to say that they do not know something
"S'okay Annabeth" Laveila assured her, "At least we know who are enemies are"
"But I still fear for that half-blood" Daisy spoke as she squirmed in her seat, "Words have started to terrify me"
"What a baby" Clarisse said, as she rolled her eyes, "You shouldn't dwell too much on those words; they'd really terrify you if you let it take over you"
They all stared at her in amazement, Clarisse never lectured them like that; although it was quite harsh when she first uttered.
"What?" she glared at them and they all looked away.
"Okay" Laveila stood up, "I guess that settles it, though we might need a plan on our quest"
"No to worry" Annabeth said, "I'll take care of that problem"
Everyone stood up as they took this as a sign of a finished meeting. They all murmured to themselves as they went out to the Big House rec room. One by one they all walked—some of them jogged and one of them still kept on cursing—towards the pavilion hall when the conch horn sounded, signaling the campers to eat their lunch.
Meanwhile, Laveila waited for them all to go out, she even refused Annabeth's offer to come with her and Percy to eat, and she had wanted to talk to Chiron about something that bothered her. She just didn't bring it up since the quest was far more important than her personal question.
When Chiron was ready to leave, Laveila called his attention, "Chiron!"
The centaur looked at her, bemused at her expression, "What is it Laveila?"
"I just wanted to ask you about Xandri" she said, as she jogged to equal her pace with Chiron's, "she looked so guarded a while ago—like she was expecting something to happen to her and she rarely scowls, okay, I never saw her scowl—that I have to admit, it was quite weird, really"
"She didn't tell me anything strange, though she did mention that she had a nightmare but other than that…nothing" Chiron said.
"Oh" was all Laveila could say.
Chiron smiled at her, "Do not worry about her, she's a special one, that girl is also strong"
"Special? Why? Because she's an offspring of a demigod and a god?" Laveila asked, but her tone sounded rude and jealous.
"Partly yes because, not only is she a healer but also a smart one—a nerd as Will had described her sister— but I suppose that would be from her mother whose mother was Athena" Chiron said, which did not make Laveila feel special.
"Although" Chiron added, "there were times when she's serious especially when she trains"
"Well, naturally Chiron, even clowns would get serious if their lives are on the line" Laveila commented, "But anyways, I have to go, thanks Chiron"
And then she ran off to eat her lunch.
Meanwhile, Chiron stopped and stared at the horizon; mumbling, "I have a bad feeling about her"
Sorry, I just tend to zone out and procrastinate that's why it's sooo late!