Lightning Bolts Hurt
Kassandra and the other two arrived at the campfire to a sing-along, something she dreaded more than Annabeth. There were fifty or sixty kids, the entire camp sitting in the amphitheatre under their respective cabin banners. Kassandra lent against the entrance whilst Rachel and Piper moved in.
Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned lyres?—were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armour, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armour and joking around.
Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. Chiron trotted up to the campfire. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows.
"Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, camp activities director, and I'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. In a moment, I promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first-"
"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled.
Grumbling broke out among some kids in armour, especially the children of Ares.
"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."
"And kill people!" one of them shouted. Stupid Ares spawn.
"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"
Leo was at the front of cabin Nine sitting next to a girl with an army jacket like Leo's and a red bandanna.
"We're working on it."
More grumbling.
"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.
"Really hard," she said.
Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones- bang, bang, bang-and the campers fell silent.
"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."
"Percy?" someone called out.
Chiron gestured to Annabeth.
She took a deep breath and stood. "I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis- everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."
"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out.
Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in back, sitting under the rose-coloured banner of Aphrodite. They'd been chatting among themselves and not paying much attention until their leader stood up: Drew. Kassandra shuffled into the amphitheatre and took a seat by the campfire It was comfortably warm.
"Drew?" Annabeth said. "What do you mean?"
"Well, come on." Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. "Kassandra just shows up out of nowhere. (Y/N) disappears. Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with three new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"
Everyone moved to stare at Rachel. Other than Annabeth, she was commonly the one with answers to these sorts of things.
"Well?" Drew called down. "You're the oracle. Has it started or not?"
"Yes," she said. "The Great Prophecy has begun."
Pandemonium broke out.
Everyone broke into conversation along with shields, weapons and armour pieces were thrown around. From what Kassandra remembered this was supposed to be a prophecy hundreds of years in the future. She had her own private one, but since she was a god she was hoping she'd get to grow up and become stronger until then.
When the talking finally subsided, Rachel took another step toward the audience, and fifty-plus demigods and a goddess leaned away from her, as if one skinny redheaded mortal was more intimidating than all of them put together.
"For those of you who have not heard it," Rachel said, "the Great Prophecy was my first prediction. It arrived in August. It goes like this:"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall. The monsters commander born unknown, the vessels power challenges for the throne-"
Jason shot to his feet. His eyes looked wild, like he'd just been tasered. Even Rachel seemed caught off guard.
"J-Jason?" she said. "What's—"
"Ut cum spiritu postrema sacramentum de juremus," he chanted. "Et hostes ornamenta addent ad ianuam necem."
"You just ... finished the prophecy," Rachel stammered. " -An oath to keep with a final breath/And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you-"
"I know those lines." Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. "I don't know how, but I know that prophecy."
"In Latin, no less," Drew called out. "Handsome and smart." There was some giggling from the Aphrodite cabin. Tension was still high though, the campfire was burning a chaotic, nervous shade of green. Jason sat down, looking embarrassed, but Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder and muttered something reassuring.
Rachel looked back at her. The daughter of (Y/N) hit her with a smile and double thumbs up.
"Well," Rachel said, trying to regain her composure. "So, yeah, that's the Great Prophecy. We hoped it might not happen for years, but I fear it's starting now. I can't give you proof. It's just a feeling. And like Drew said, some weird stuff is happening. The seven demigods, whoever they are, have not been gathered yet. I get the feeling some are here tonight. Some are not here."
The campers began to stir and mutter, looking at each other nervously, until a drowsy voice in the crowd called out, "I'm here! Oh ... were you calling roll?"
"Go back to sleep, Clovis," someone yelled, and a lot of people laughed.
"Anyway," Rachel continued, "we don't know what the Great Prophecy means. We don't know what challenge the demigods will face, but since the first Great Prophecy predicted the Titan War, we can guess the second Great Prophecy will predict something at least that bad."
"Or worse," Chiron murmured. Maybe he didn't mean everyone to overhear, but they did. The campfire immediately turned dark purple.
"What we do know," Rachel said, "is that the first phase has begun. A major problem has arisen, and we need a quest to solve it. Hera, the queen of the gods, has been taken."
Shocked silence. Then fifty demigods started talking at once. Chiron pounded his hoof again, but Rachel still couldn't get their attention.
"Listen!" yelled Kassandra, her voice imbued with power.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. She went red and put her hand over her mouth. A trait of her mother, command over others and stuff like that. So embarrassing sometimes.
With everyone silent, Rachel stepped back up to speak.
She told them about the incident on the Grand Canyon sky walk- how Gleeson Hedge had sacrificed himself when the storm spirits attacked, and the spirits had warned it was only the beginning. They apparently served some great mistress who would destroy all demigods. Then Rachel told them about Piper passing out in Hera's cabin. Finally Rachel told them about Jason's vision in the living room of the Big House.
Jason," Rachel said. "Um ... do you remember your last name?"
He looked self-conscious, but he shook his head.
"We'll just call you Jason, then," Rachel said. "It's clear Hera herself has issued you a quest."
Rachel paused, as if giving Jason a chance to protest his destiny. He did no such thing. Romans weren't typically the ones to back down from a challenge anyway.
Yet he looked brave and determined. He set his jaw and nodded.
"I agree."
"You must save Hera to prevent a great evil," Rachel continued. "Some sort of king from rising. For reasons we don't yet understand, it must happen by the winter solstice, only four days from now."
"That's the council day of the gods," Annabeth said. "If the gods don't already know Hera's gone, they will definitely notice her absence by then. They'll probably break out fighting, accusing each other of taking her. That's what they usually do."
"The winter solstice," Chiron spoke up, "is also the time of greatest darkness. The gods gather that day, as mortals always have, because there is strength in numbers. The solstice is a day when evil magic is strong. Ancient magic, older than the gods. It is a day when things... stir.
"Okay," Annabeth said, glaring at the centaur. "Thank you, Captain Sunshine. Whatever's going on, I agree with Rachel. Jason has been chosen to lead this quest, so-"
"Why hasn't he been claimed?" somebody yelled from the Ares cabin. "If he's so important—"
"He has been claimed," Chiron announced. "Long ago. Jason, give them a demonstration."
Ooh, the big reveal. Except anyone with half a brain could tell who's kid he was.
Jason reached into his pocket. His coin flashed in the air, and when he caught it in his hand, he was holding a lance, a rod of gold about seven feet long, with a spear tip at one end. The other demigods gasped. Rachel and Annabeth stepped back to avoid the point, which looked sharp as an ice pick.
"Wasn't that... " Annabeth hesitated. "I thought you had a sword."
"Um, it came up tails, I think," Jason said. "Same coin,long-range weapon form."
"Dude, I want one!" yelled somebody from Ares cabin.
"Better than Clarisse's electric spear, Lamer!" one of his brothers agreed.
"Electric," Jason murmured, like that was a good idea. "Back away."
Annabeth and Rachel got the message. Jason raised his javelin, and thunder broke open the sky. Every hair on Kassandra's arms stood straight up. Lightning arced down through the golden spear point and shot out like one of Zeus' bolts.
It was heading straight for the campfire. Funny, wasn't she... sat at... the campfire?
"Oh, what the...!"
She watched the lightning arc towards her in slow motion. It hit her in the chest and before she could brace, sent her flying. Her eyes twitched and she spasmed uncontrollably, hitting her head on one of the entrance columns to the amphitheatre. A sickening crunch rang out as she fell to the floor.
"Hades!" yelled Annabeth, darting over to her side. When the daughter of wisdom reached her side, she had already raised her head and groaned.
"That stuff hits like a truck," she muttered, getting to her feet with the help of Annabeth.
From across the campfire, Jason awkwardly shouted over a sorry. She put her hand up to signify she was fine. Kassandra stumbled back over to her seat.
"Jupiter," Jason said. "I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky."
Apparently, the rest of the camp wasn't so sure. Everything broke into chaos, with dozens of people asking questions until Annabeth raised her arms.
"Hold it!" she said. "How can he be the son of Zeus? The Big Three... their pact not to have mortal kids... how could we not have known about him sooner?"
Kassandra had the answer, but knew wiser to not say anything.
"The important thing," Rachel said, "is that Jason's here now. He has a quest to fulfill, which means he will need his own prophecy."
She closed her eyes and swooned. Two campers rushed forward and caught her. A third ran to the side of the amphitheatre and grabbed a bronze three-legged stool, like they'd been running drills for this duty.
They eased Rachel onto the stool in front of the ruined hearth. Without the fire, the night was dark, but green mist started swirling around Rachel's feet. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing. Emerald smoke issued from her mouth. The voice that came out was raspy and ancient- the sound a snake would make if it could talk.
"Child of lightning, beware the earth,
The giants' revenge the seven shall birth,
The forge and dove shall break the cage,
And death unleash through Hera's rage."
On the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. They carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.
"Is that normal?" Piper asked. Then she realised she'd spoken into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. "I mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"
"Gods, you're dense!" Drew sneered. "She just issued a prophecy- Jason's prophecy to save Hera! Why don't you just-"
"Drew," Kassandra snapped, rubbing the back of her head. "Piper asked a fair question."
Annabeth took over as the ex huntress clutched her head.
"Come to where the creek ends and the lake begins after this," it whispered eerily.
"Something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes a bunch of death... why would we free her? It might be a trap, or—or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."
Jason rose. "I don't have much choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."
Nyssa rose. "Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son- our dad- down a mountain just because he was ugly."
"Real ugly," snickered someone from Aphrodite.
"Shut up!" Nyssa growled. "Anyway, we've also got to think- why beware the earth? And what's the giants' revenge? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"
Annabeth took a deep breath. "It's Jason's quest," she announced, "so it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions."
Someone from the Hermes cabin yelled, "Well, you, obviously, Annabeth. You've got the most experience."
"No, Travis," Annabeth said. "First off, every time I've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."
"It's connected," Piper blurted out.. "You know that's true, don't you? This whole business, your boyfriend's disappearance- it's all connected."
"How?" demanded Drew. "If you're so smart, how?"
Words escaped Piper, but luckily Annabeth came to her rescue.
"You may be right, Piper. If this is connected, I'll find out from the other end—by searching for Percy. As I said, I'm not about to rush off to rescue Hera, even if her disappearance sets the rest of the Olympians fighting again. But there's another reason I can't go. The prophecy says otherwise."
"It says who I pick," Jason agreed. "The forge and dove shall break the cage. The forge is the symbol of Vul —Hephaestus."
Under the Cabin Nine banner, Nyssa's shoulders slumped, like she'd just been given a heavy anvil to carry. "If you have to beware the earth," she said, "you should avoid travelling overland. You'll need air transport."
"The flying chariot's broken," Nyssa continued, "and the pegasi, we're using them to search for Percy. But maybe Hephaestus cabin can help figure out something else to help. With Jake incapacitated, I'm senior camper. I can volunteer for the quest."
She didn't sound enthusiastic. Then Leo stood up. He'd been so quiet. "It's me," he said.
His cabin mates stirred. Several tried to pull him back to his seat, but Leo resisted.
"No, it's me. I know it is. I've got an idea for the transportation problem. Let me try. I can fix this!"
Jason studied him for a moment. Jason clearly had experience on the battlefield, but Leo was... a little different in comparison to him.
Then he smiled. "We started this together, Leo. Seems only right you come along. You find us a ride, you're in."
"Yes!" Leo pumped his fist.
"It'll be dangerous," Nyssa warned him. "Hardship, monsters, terrible suffering. Possibly none of you will come back."
"Oh." Suddenly Leo didn't look so excited. Then he seemed to remember everyone was watching. What a showman. "I mean ... Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this."
Kassandra, still tenderly touching the back of her head, nodded. "That leaves the dove, does it not?"
"Oh, absolutely!" Drew was on her feet and flashing Jason a smile. "The dove is Aphrodite. Everybody knows that. I am totally yours."
Piper stepped forward. "No."
Drew rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, Dumpster girl. Back off."
"I had the vision of Hera; not you. I have to do this."
"Anyone can have a vision," Drew said. "You were just at the right place at the right time."
She turned to Jason. "Look,fighting is all fine, I suppose. And people who build things..."
She looked at Leo in disdain. "Well, I suppose someone has to get their hands dirty. But you need charm on your side. I can be very persuasive. I could help a lot."
The campers started murmuring about how Drew was pretty persuasive. Gods, Kassandra hated charm speak. It was so unfair towards those with weaker minds. Godhood meant she didn't have to worry about silly things like that, but still. And because of that, it was clear Drew was winning them over. Even Chiron was scratching his beard, like Drew's participation suddenly made sense to him.
"Well... " Annabeth said. "Given the wording of the prophecy-"
"No!" All of a sudden Pipers voice sounded much clearer and commanding, similar to her own just a minute ago when she got everyone to shut up. "I'm supposed to go."
Everyone started nodding, muttering that hmm, Piper's point of view made sense too. Drew looked around, incredulous. Even some of her own campers were nodding.
"Get over it!" Drew snapped at the crowd. "What can Piper do?"
There was no response from the crowd except silence and the crickets.
Well," Drew said smugly, "I guess that settles it."
Suddenly there was collective gasp. Everyone stared at Piper like she'd just exploded.
"What?" she demanded.
A little bit of saliva escaped from Kassandra's hung open mouth as she stared in awe of Piper.
She was adorned in a beautiful white sleeveless gown that went down to her ankles, with a V-neck so low the daughter of (Y/N) never would've. Delicate gold armbands circled her biceps. An intricate necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers glittered on her chest, and her hair...
Luckily Aspen wasn't here so she didn't have to compete with that.
"Oh, god," Piper said. "What's happened?"
A stunned Annabeth pointed at Piper's dagger, which was now oiled and gleaming, hanging at her side on a golden cord.
Her hair was perfect: lush and long and chocolate brown, braided with gold ribbons down one side so it fell across her shoulder. Make-up brought out all her best qualities and gently hid some of the not as nice ones.
"Beautiful," Jason exclaimed. "Piper, you... you're a knockout."
Drew's face was full of horror and revulsion. "No!" she cried. "Not possible!"
"This isn't me," Piper protested. "I- don't understand."
Whilst everyone was caught up staring at her, Kassandra figured she'd take the lead. Aphrodite's charm wouldn't work on her as long as she was aware of it.
She got down and bowed to her, the rest of camp following quickly.
"Hail, Piper McLean," Chiron announced, oddly gravely. "Daughter of Aphrodite, lady of the doves, goddess of love."
When the campfire was trampled out and the amphitheatre was emptied, Kassandra snuck out the back and into the forest. She didn't have much reason to trust whoever that was in her head, but since she was in camp borders there was little to risk. But then again that had been proven wrong around 5 years ago.
She found the rushing stream that was the camp creek relatively easily and began to follow its path. The serenity was calming. It was somewhere she'd expect the Iris kids to meditate and do yoga. She took long steps down the creek, leaves crunching underfoot.
One step, two steps, three steps...
Ouch!
She walked directly into something hard, causing her to fall to the floor and hit her head for the second time that day.
"Mother Bellona, what in the name of-"
Her voice hitched as she got up and looked for what hit her. But weirdly enough there wasn't anything unusual around. No branch to have run into, no person who may have knocked into her; nothing.
She looked around, hoping this wasn't a joke from the Stolls, and put her hand in front of her face, walking forwards again. She hit something again, something and smooth to touch.
It wasn't a flat surface, as she trailed her hand down to reveal there was a slight curve. She pushed forwards, and suddenly her hand fell through. It disappeared through whatever veil was there.
Furrowing her brows, she pushed the rest of her arm through, quickly followed by the rest of her body. There was a tingling sensation as she passed through the barrier, but it passed over quickly when she was through.
Blinking, she snapped her knife from her hip and held it out defensively.
It didn't look like she had travelled anywhere, her surroundings looking pretty similar to just before. Trees, the flowing creek, rocks. Well, something actually did stand out. A rock, well carved into the shape of a headstone stared at her ominously.
It was about half the size of her and was almost decaying, with chunks almost torn from it and moss covering much of its surface.
She cautiously approached said headstone, her knife held out. Nothing blew up, no nets sprung from the ground and she didn't snag her foot on any tripwire. When she got to the headstone, she knelt down and could make out some words. It was a little difficult, but she could make out a few words and names.
Elara, Zoe Nightshade, lover, warrior, triumph, failure, aunt, memory. Someone mourned here, and this was a message to the dead, not for her.
She got up and brushed her knees. Somehow, she felt connected to this place. Putting her fingers to her lips, she kissed them and gently placed them on the top of the headstone.
"Mater, pater, ubicumque es, ad me redi," (Mother, father, wherever you are, please come back to me,) she whispered, leaving the closed off land. She figured she'd keep this place a secret, vowing never to come back to it.
She continued to follow the creek, watching it get faster and wider the closer they got to the lake. Selene and the constellations above watched her as she walked. The orphaned god.
Soon enough she reached where the lake met the creek, an eery silence surrounding her.
"I trust the sandals were to your size?" asked a voice. It sounded weak and quieter than she was usual to.
"Uncle Hermes!" she exclaimed, spinning around to meet the god face to face.
He wore a post master uniform, lacking his signature caduceus, but something further was off. His face was twitching, almost like a computer glitch. One moment he was grinning like the mischief maker he was, and the next he had the perfect poker face. It was creepy to say the least.
"Thank you for meeting me here. It's taken a lot of power to arrange this." He spoke timidly, lacking the usual spring of confidence in his own words.
"Are you... are you okay Hermes?" asked Kassandra, taking a step forwards. The god of messengers took a step back in response, holding out a hand to keep her back.
"I wouldn't recommend coming closer. I'm very volatile right now, as are the rest of my family."
"What do you mean? Does this have something to do with Olympus being closed off? Well I actually didn't really know it was until recently, because you've been visiting just fine recently."
"As I said, I've been forced to use a lot of power to make our meetings possible. And that's because-" he winced a little, his arms snapping to his stomach. "Because it's all going to Hades up on Olympus. Up everywhere for that matter."
"But why? Annabeth and Chiron apparently have there theories, and there's the big prophecy that's apparently started connected to the one you gave me a while ago, and these new kids arrived; surely it's all connected, right?"
Hermes laughed and ruffled Kassandra's hair.
"Always full of questions, and luckily the right ones. To answer it as simple as possible, yes, it is all connected. I haven't seen any of the other Olympians beside Apollo, but I'm pretty sure all our Greek and Roman forms are clashing. But there's not much I know about that. Zeus has been rather withdrawn with what information he shares."
"Does... does this have anything to do with my father? Or my mother for that fact?"
The god of mischief turned away from her and looked out to the lake. He had a face of misery as he stared out. The water was like glass, occasionally interrupted by a surfacing fish or water spirit.
"Ignoring what Zeus says, there's a high chance so, yes."
"So what can I do!"
"Pardon?"
"If my parents are connected to all this, I'll do anything. Quests, labours, whatever it takes."
Hermes laughed weakly, but it still filled her with a sense of relief. It was a comforting noise.
"So eager and rightly so. Well I do actually have something for you, something just for you that will help solve and fight against this mess we're all in."
"What is it?"
"A prophecy."
"Another one? Why doesn't Apollo just pass them on through Rachel, isn't that literally her job?"
"Normally he would, but this is a different sort of situation. These prophecies are for you and you only, which is why no one else can know about them, else it'll mess up a lot of important stuff."
He put his hand into one of his pockets and produced from it a scroll, held in a roll by a thin rope.
"Does this by any chance have anything to do with the prophecy Rachel spurted out at the campfire tonight?"
"Perhaps. But that is for you to decipher and for you alone."
"Sometimes I wonder if you gods even want heroes to succeed int their quests."
She went to reach out for the scroll, but quickly pulled her hand away.
"Wait a minute, I am a god! Why am I being issued prophecies like a demi-god? If anything shouldn't it be me issuing them to some poor soul?"
"Ehh, maybe when you're a few hundred years old. But for now, you're needed to fulfill our bidding."
"Maybe I'll be softer on demi-gods in the future," she muttered, taking the scroll from Hermes.
"Go on, give it a read," invited the god of messengers.
She sighed and took the rope from around the paper, unrolling it.
Daughter of Rome, aid the three,
Who dare fight giants, those who planted the tree.
The sovereign of monsters, controls millennia worth of entities,
For he unleashes the demi-gods greatest enemies.
She sighed as she rolled up the scroll and bound it again.
"Why give me another one if I already have one?"
Hermes shrugged. "Don't ask me, ask Apollo."
"Great," she said, gritting her teeth.
"Well, it's been great," the older god wheezed. "I don't know when I'll see you again, so make good use of my gifts and those prophecies."
"Will do Uncle!" she said, watching him fade away. When the god had vanished from view, she spun on her heel and took off. She was tired, this prophecy could wait till tomorrow.
She woke up on the sofa, unaware how exactly she had gotten there. All she could remember was meeting Hermes the night before. She wiped the sleep from her eyes.
She was still wearing her camp clothes and new sandals, but on the foot stool was now a second piece of parchment. She couldn't be bothered to look into it right now. According to the clock it was time for breakfast anyway.
She washed her mouth out with a swig of water and made her way to the door. Salmon sounded nice, maybe avocados too.
When she opened the door and stepped out, she took a deep breath. Prophecies, missing parents, giants; one step at a time now, that being food.
Whoosh
She was blown back against the door as something flew past her. Stumbling forwards to get a better look, she watched as a dragon flew around the camp in the sky, doing tricks as it went. Something, or someone, sat on top of it.
Her eyes snapped to attention, rushing back inside to retrieve her weapon. She returned with a taut bow, aimed with precision at whoever was on top of that thing. It turns out others had the same idea as her, with many of the Apollo cabin taking aim at the beast and Ares kids armour donned with blades out.
Soon enough, the dragon came down to settle in the green, and the boy riding the thing called out, "Don't shoot!"
That voice, that sounded like that Leo kid.
Hesitantly, the archers lowered their bows, Kassandra included. The warriors backed away, keeping their spears and swords ready. They made a loose wide ring around the metal monster. Other demigods hid behind their cabin doors or peeped out the windows. Nobody seemed anxious to get close.
The dragon was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living sculpture, different shades of copper and bronze, a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins cascading out of a slot machine every time they flapped. Pretty was one word to describe it.
The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and hefted their weapons,but Leo slid calmly off the dragon's back. He held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy grin on his face the first time she met him.
"People of Earth, I come in peace!" he shouted.
He looked like he'd been rolling around in the campfire. His army coat and his face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease stained, and he wore a tool belt around his waist. His eyes were bloodshot. His curly hair was so oily it stuck up in porcupine quills, and he smelled strangely of hot sauce. It was so strong she could smell it from the porch.
But he looked absolutely delighted. "Festus is just saying hello!"
"That thing is dangerous!" an Ares girl shouted,brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"
"Stand down!" someone ordered.To Kassandra's surprise, it was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and Nyssa. Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"
"Found a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"
"It—has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.
"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them."
"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"
Leo hesitated, and anyone could tell he was hiding something.
"In... the woods," he lied. "Repaired his circuits, too,mostly, so no more problems with him going haywire."
"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.
The dragon's head twitched. It tilted to one side and a stream of black liquid—maybe oil, hopefully just oil- poured out of its ear, all over Leo like some sort of shower.
"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said."But how did you survive...?" Nyssa was still staring at the creature in awe. "I mean, the fire breath..."
"I'm quick," Leo said. "And lucky. Now, am I on this quest,or what?" Something wasn't adding up.
Jason scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"
The dragon twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings. "That's a yes, bro!" Leo said. "Now, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the- um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."
Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just-"
"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, like this reminded her of better times. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"
Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper. "Are you ready, partner?"
Piper looked at the bronze dragon wings shining against the sky, and those talons that could've shredded her to pieces.
"You bet," she said.
Jason jumped onto the dragon and gave a hand to Piper followed by Leo. There was clapping all around as they took off, including from the young goddess. Hopefully they'd succeed in freeing Hera or whatever it was, anything to get closer to unravelling this mess.
She should probably go over that prophecy again if it was a big clue she needed all the hints she could get. Back inside, she snatched it up and finally got to go to the mess hall.
The place was already full, filled with conversation about the three demi-gods who had showed up and gone on a quest within the first couple days of arrival. Most of the camper here would kill for a quest, a chance to leave camp for a while and earn glory for their cabin.
The head table was empty, Dionysus obviously gone from the camp since Olympus was 'closed' and Chiron probably drowning in paperwork about the children of Jupiter, Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Kassandra imagined that since he was Roman Zeus had been Jupiter when 'creating' him.
She had always been invited to the head table by Chiron, an offer which she normally took and now figured it would be a good place to get some privacy. She shuffled on up, sitting down and bringing out the parchment.
Daughter of Rome, that bit was probably her. Her mother was the patron of Rome for thousands of years and her father earned the title when he became a god. Apparently them arguing over who was the better patron is what got them married, so she was grateful for it.
Aid the three, that had a few possibilities but one stood out. Piper, Jason and Leo, who had just left. Well if that's who she was supposed to be aiding, she'd have to catch up with them at some point.
Who dare fight giants, those who planted the tree. Fighting giants? She hoped that meant something else that actually fighting giants. The second part of that was a little more confusing though. Who planted the tree? What tree?
Sovereign of monsters of monsters, controls millennia worth of entities. A king of monsters? There was a mother and father of monsters, but those had both been dealt with in the past. What did it mean by millennia worth of entities? She knew monsters regenerated in Tartarus, but they were wild creatures, so why would they have a singular king?
For he unleashes the demi-gods greatest enemies. Pretty ominous, good thing she wasn't a demi-god then. The greatest enemies of the demi-gods was a subjective opinion though, surely? Some would say it's the monsters they slay, others their own parents, and some might claim it to be each other. But with the 'sovereign of monsters', she expected the former.
"Whatcha looking at?" spoke a sultry voice behind her.
She shivered and froze up. When she came to her senses though, she remembered to roll up the parchment.
"A message from Hermes. Apparently I may need to go away for a while to help those kids who just left."
"Aww, but I thought we had a date planned," responded the nymph, her hands delicately tracing down the young goddesses arms.
"I know," she muttered, "But if I don't do this, the pantheon's going to collapse."
Aspen sighed, resting her head on Kassandra's. "Well, now you owe me twice. So you're going to have to do something REALLY big when you get back."
The daughter of Bellona gulped.
"Well, if you'll, uhh, excuse me, I have to go see Chiron to take my leave," she stuttered, stumbling over her words as she spoke.
"Alright then, I'll be seeing you soon," responded the nature spirit, blowing her a kiss as Kassandra ran off to the Big House.
"I need to go after Jason's quest!" said Kassandra, bursting into Chirons office.
"Well, good luck then."
"But I had this prophecy from Hermes and... wait, I can go?"
"Kassandra, perhaps you forget your place. Yes, you are one of my students, but you are still a god. If you choose to do something, I can't stop you. And if there's logical reason behind your decisions, I'll support them as a supporter of Olympus."
"Oh. Well then, I'll take my leave. Thank you!"
"Your welcome child."
Leaving the office, she put her hands together and muttered a few words in an old tongue. She had never bothered to learn such languages, but they came to her naturally last month as if she were raised with it.
Teleportation was an easy technique for a god to master, but since Kassnadra had no one to teach her it was a little more difficult than expected. Then again, she was pretty good at teaching herself things like that.
When she finished her mutterings, she vanished without a trace.