t was the first friday of Christmas vacation so the campfire was a cheery orange. The Apollo cabin was leading [those who chose to participate] in some Greek Christmas carols. Who could forget the classics: siopilí nýchta, rígona kálanta, and sas efchómaste Kalá Christoúgenna. Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia sat near the back of the amphitheater laughing at Will making a fool of himself. Percy had his arm slung over Annabeth's shoulders. Being around her made him so happy; it was like she made him whole, like hadn't felt since the end of the titan war. Program was wrapping up when Rachel, who percy didn't even know was at camp, walked up to center stage. She had the foggy look in her eyes that she got when she was about to drop a hot new prophecy.
The arena fell eerily silent, the fire dropped to a chilling blue, and rachel began to speak. "The daughter of thunder will travel to the devil's trench, travel will she in company of three, one will live broken and torn, one will survive wishing to not have been born, one will be consumed by the rage of a millennium."
The air in the amphitheater felt icy cold as a hundred pair of eyes turned and looked directly at Thalia. She would have been upset at everybody staring, but she was already absolutely terrified. She knew this meant she was being called on a quest, but for one goddamn time in her life couldn't she just be normal?
Chiron stood up and walked to the fire. He motioned for Thalia to join him, and began to say, "Thalia this is your quest, time for you to choose who will go with you, but if you want to give it some more thought feel free."
Thalia stood, not 100% sure she knew what she was doing, and said a bit exasperated, "Percy and Annabeth, shit, was that too fast? It's just that I don't really know who else I would take."
Percy and Annabeth stood next to her, and put their arms around her shoulders. "Hey you're one of my best friends, began Percy, I would walk to hell and back with you, I mean you kind of almost did once."
Then Annabeth chimed in, saying, "yeah me too, I mean I've been there twice already, but for you, who's always been there for me, I would gladly go there again. The irony of it all, was that they were just about to do that very thing."
That night Thalia had some weird dreams, which, as I mentioned before, should never be taken lightly. She saw herself in a wide expanse of desert. In front of her, Percy and Annabeth we're fighting a wurm alone. She ran forward but it just seemed to get farther and farther away. It lunged at Percy, but Annabeth push him out of the way, and Percy stood up, cackled, and summoned 3 more to his aid. Thalia looked on in horror as Percy's wurms tore Annabeth to pieces. He turned to her, and his face molded into that of her father, saying, "I told you baby girl, don't trust anyone…" Thalia woke in a cold sweat, and looked at our clock. The time read 3:17. She knew she couldn't get back to sleep, so she decided to pack her things for the quest. Sometime around 4:30 though she passed out on her bed from exhaustion.
The next morning Annabeth got Percy and Thalia up bright and early to start packing for the quest, she had practically decided it was her quest even though she knew full well it was Thalia's. Annabeth began to think that Thalia and Percy were almost a little too much alike. With both of them, she had to pound on their doors for nearly 10 minutes before they even recognized that she was at the door. They were both conked out on their beds, and they both had the same terrible taste in music.
When she opened the door to the Zeus cabin Annabeth realized Thalia had packed the night before. Her bag, her bow and arrows that Artemis had given her, and Aegis were lying neatly in a pile in the middle of the room. Thalis on the other hand, still laying in her bunk in the back corner in her pj's. Annabeth pulled her out of bed, and set her to getting dressed. Thalia put on a Green Day shirt, a pair of skin tight, stretchy, black jeans, and the black jacket she'd had forever. She paused for a second, remembering the fact that it was December, and chose to also put on a grey beanie.
Percy on the other hand, was not quite so prepared. His cabin was a mess, and none of his stuff was packed aside from Riptide which was always in his pocket. Thankfully, packing for Percy was pretty simple. Annabeth just threw in a couple of Camp Half Blood shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, his wallet, which still had a Lotus Casino credit card in it for some reason, socks and underwear, and a magic capsule bed, which leo had invented just for such occasions. Thalia gave Percy a sharp knee high boot to the rib cage, getting him out of bed in a hurry. As it turned out, Percy had worn last night's t-shirt and jeans to bed, so Thalia threw a blue coat she'd found on the floor at him and dragged him out of the cabin.
The three of them met with Chiron and Argus in the driveway of the big house. Chiron handed them out some supplies, which they didn't have themselves like nectar, ambrosia, Gold drachmas, and some spare cash should they have a human necessity. Just then, Leo ran up the hill panting and wheezing to give Thalia, who he still had a huge crush on, a pull string backpack that worked like his tool belt.
"Anything you want," said Leo, "as long as it fits in the bag, you can take anything out of it... and don't think I forgot about you two jokers," he continued, "for you, Annabeth, I give you an anywhere-iris-messenger". He handed Annabeth a small box not much bigger than a phone, " All you have to do is push the button in the middle and throw in a drachma. Just like that it sends an iris message. And for you Percy, a special camp half-blood t-shirt made with woven magical bronze. In all our testing with the duplicate one, we found it to be blade, bullet, arrow, and tooth resistant. Won't be getting skewered anytime soon, will you now?" he finished with a wink.
Thalia looked at Percy, and laughed as he stripped down to change his shirt. It didn't feel any different, but what was Percy supposed to know about that. The three of them thanked leo and got into the SUV with Argus. Thalia was still sniggering about percy stripping right then and there, which turned Annabeth's face all sorts of red, as they drove off the property.