After Jillian left, I decided to learn how to sword fight by doing. I had seen tons of movies on the subject. It was a lot of special effects and wire work, but the basics were there and I had to know the basics at this point. If I didn't, well, I would be ashamed. So, I squared off with the dummy, my feet shoulder's width apart which was probably something my mom told me to do. I held the sword with both hands and held it at an angle then with a cry of intensity, I swung. The blade sliced through the air, aimed for the dummy's neck and finally landed with a clang! Smacking into the metal bar holding it up and causing a vibration to go through the sword, making my hands sting and drop the weapon.

I held my hands in my armpits in an attempt to quell the pain as I felt a feeling of just pure ignorance. If Jillian had seen that, she probably would have killed me. If Lindsey had been there, then she probably would have laughed her head off. And not spoken to me for a long time. Out of embarrassment. At least, that's what her reputation said. I took my hands out of my armpits and shook them, the pain subsiding finally. I looked down at the sword and saw that it was shining and bronze-y. Like how they looked in Mythomagic. I reached down and picked it up and it seemed to stop glowing. It darkened like clouds were going over it or something. I stared at it and it darkened even more like the blade was being corrupted with some sort of dark energy.

It intrigued me. I had seen these mega-amazing powers of mine and I was curious if this was another one of them. Not sure what use making metal look dark was, but I was curious by what was actually happening to the weapon. I looked closer and saw that the metal was cracking slightly. I stabbed it carefully into a dummy and backed away and it seemed to go back to normal. I paused a moment then pulled it back out. I focused on it this time. I imagined it rusting and eroding until it was nothing. I suddenly saw myself in the middle of a field of battle among people with bronze weapons. I raised my hands and all of the weapons rusted and broke, leaving them defenseless for an attack.

I opened my eyes quickly and dropped the sword, backing quickly away from it, but it was too late. The sword broke into pieces. I stared at it, feeling scared of myself. I had done it again. I had let myself slip into some sort of mental state where I was the master of the battlefield. Not in a good way. I didn't have a strategic idea. My only thought was to raze the whole area. I backed away from the broken sword quickly, bumping into a rack of spears. I catch one and immediately the wood in the shaft seemed to darken and wilt, cracking and aging before disintegrating in my hand to a pile of ash and a spearhead. I look around quickly before kicking the ash around and sliding the spearhead under the rack of spears.

"No one saw that. No one saw that." I mumbled to myself like a crazy person, trying to pretend that it never happened. I thought for a second before reaching into my back pocket and retrieving my slingshot. It didn't blacken. It didn't burn. Nothing happened to it. I raised an eyebrow and pulled back the sling, firing a small marble at a dummy. It worked just fine. I took a deep breath and looked around then decided on trying some target practice with my slingshot. I pocketed my slingshot then walked over to the shields, tucking several of them under my arm. I carefully walk around the arena, trying not to destroy them by touching them and placing them as targets at different distances and different elevations and angles. I finally stood in the middle of the arena and drew my slingshot.

I felt like Link, the Hero of Hyrule/time/legend/nature/whatever he is in the rest of the games. I felt like him. Except with the ability to talk and to not wear a tunic. I pulled back the slingshot and fired at the first shield, missing completely. I shook my head at myself then took a more careful aim and fired, hitting the shield. I quickly turned and hit a shield that was upon the wall of the arena, hitting it in the middle. I turn all the way around hitting shields. I still missed every once in a while, but I was getting better. I had practiced for pretty much the entire lunch period and I could tell when people started walking in and watching.

I had hit a good rhythm and was hitting bulls-eyes and a lot of them. I had a small group watching me, but a lot of people were on their own, practicing with their weapon of choice. I didn't hit any of them, but I did come close. I was aiming for one near the door when a familiar face walked in. I fired and then headed toward the fedora and black goat legs.

"Freddy!" I shouted as I walked up to him and almost hugged him. I stopped myself. Didn't want to get too awkward. It was just good to see him.

"Peter! There you are. I was looking for you." He said with a sigh. "Last time I saw you were in a bed in the infirmary and you looked like could power a third world country."

"Yeah. Good to see you, too." I said with a sigh. "Where have you been?"

"Well, I made a quick run to Providence to grab some child of Hermes who was distress signaling bad." Freddy said with a nod. "He had somehow managed to attract the attention of the Nemean Lion."

"That's…impressive, actually." I said with a laugh.

"That little kitty always seems to squeak his way out of Tartarus. It took out a semi-truck before we could get away from it." Freddy added, removing his fedora and pushing his hair back. "Okay. Enough chit-chat. Chiron needs to see you in the Big house. Come on." He said, patting my arm. He tried to pull me, but I didn't move.

"He what?" I said, a little worried. A lot worried, actually. Chiron more or less had final say here and as far as I knew, I was in major trouble.

"Dude, relax. Chiron rarely ever punishes people. And if he does then it's usually like…dishes. Or extra sword practice." Freddy said with a chuckle. I nodded and Freddy led the way again, me following close behind him.

"Hey, Freddy. What is this slingshot made of?" I ask, thinking about the handle of the spear from earlier. Freddy looked at me and then held out his hand. I placed the slingshot in his hand and he looked at it carefully.

"Nice and supple. Holly wood. Eleven inches long." He said before snapping it in two. "Phoenix feather. A beautiful wand, Mr. Pot—"

"What the hell!? Why did you break it!?" I asked, reaching for it. He put his hand up and then carefully pieced it back together, sealing itself along the crack.

"It'll never break, wilt, petrify, splinter or any other bad thing that happens to wood stuff. As far as what it's made out of…Olive? I think. Greeks like Olive trees. Especially children of Athena. They're kind of a big deal." He said with a nod. I laughed quietly just as we neared the Big house. I was about to step onto the porch when I heard shouting from inside.

"You don't have a choice here, princess!" I recognized the voice as Mr. D. I never really anticipated yelling coming from him, but stranger things have happened.

"No. I refuse to go on the quest then." The other voice was Jillian. I looked toward the door and then over at Freddy who had an equally worried look on his face. "Walker and I will not be subject to this."

"The gods have made a ruling and your father was in support of the decision. We know more than you and in time, you will know the facts and you will know what we do, but right now, you're both going and he's going with you!" Mr. D finished. I was curious why Chiron needed to see me, since he and Mr. D had their hands full with Walker and Jillian.

"Let's try to remain calm." I recognized that as the restrained voice of Chiron. "There's no reason to get excited."

"Excited? I—"

"He's green. He's completely untrained. And to top it all off, I can't stand the guy! He gets a little angry and—" That was Walker and from what he said, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I stepped onto the porch and listened a little closer.

"Listen, you don't even know what the prophecy is. Rachel said that it was for you." Mr. D said, sounding aggravated.

"Eavesdropping is so rude." I turned around quickly and saw a tallish woman with bright red hair and freckles smattered across her face. She was beautiful in an adorable kind of way. He hair was tied into a messy bun on her head and she was wearing a plaid shirt and ripped jeans that had paint splattered all over them.

"I…I didn't…" I mumbled. She smiled and patted my arm.

"I'm only kidding. Let's go in, kid." She said, pushing me into the Big house.

"Ah….Ms. Dare. Thank you for joining us." Chiron said with a pleasant smile, looking at me after, his smile faltering for a moment.

"Chiron. Dio. How have you two been?" She said with a pleasant smile. She glanced around a moment then sighed quietly.

"Don't call me that." Mr. D said

"Everything okay?" Chiron said, disregarding the wine god's objection.

"Yeah. I was just worried it was gonna be Hunter again. It's been 4 years since we've had prophecies this close together. I was worried he was stirring things up again." She said with a giggle. She waved her hand and took a seat at the ping-pong table, looking at Jillian and Walker and then me and Freddy.

"You're the oracle." Walker said with a nod.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, at your service." She said with a smile. "Just need to wait for the actual important part to come."

"The prophecy?" I asked, taking a step toward Jillian who looked up at me in disdain.

"Yup! I came by because I could feel it was close, but I never really know when it hits." She said with a sigh, picking at a splotch of paint on her sleeve.

"Basically, she says a prophecy. Three people go on a quest to fulfill it." Freddy explained in my ear, behind me. I nodded and then was about to sit when Rachel inhaled sharply. Everyone froze and looked at her, but she just smiled and then giggled.

"Works every time." She said with another laugh. I laughed as well, but I was one of the only people who even smiled.

"If I had a way of turning my eyes green and barfing smoke, I'd probably have demigods going on snack runs for me. I have been working on my rhyming poetry." She said, clearing her throat. She took a deep breath and suddenly, her eyes glowed red and she stiffened.

"In the bottomless pit, a portal has been found

In the elephant's den, the enemies will be unbound

The hubris of your adversaries will let you escape

But it won't be clean; you'll be hurt more than a scrape."

I started clapping once she was done, but quickly realized what it was I had just heard. I continued to clap, but it was mostly because my brain was too busy panicking to tell me to stop.