A Storm and a Prophecy
"The one you must seek, the classified name.
From knowing his history, death would claim.
His soul lost, vanished.
The ones he trusted, the reason he banished
The once blackened heart, of torture and abuse.
A curse laid upon, the one you must reduce.
The sky of ash, you will know the time
The assassin’s oath, upon this will be sworn.
This will let you know, to finally determine his side
For once this loose cannon may relent,
And if the wrong team wins, they won’t be able to repent.”
The prophecy kept echoing through Isobel’s head. There were many who didn’t believe it, encouraged everyone else not to, but she couldn’t not think about it. A prophecy hadn’t come true in years. Some of the campers didn’t even believe they were real. Just a bit of mumbo-jumbo spoken to freak everyone out. She had first heard it 2 months ago, it had been issued the night she arrived. Not long after, the gods shut down Olympus. They were scared, Annabeth, the oldest person at camp except for chiron and a few other immortal campers, had said. But what were they scared of? What could possibly frighten, not that they would ever admit it, all powerful immortal, unkillable gods? Questions had been swirling around her head for long time, but she could never quite work up the courage to ask them. She knew many people had been banished from camp since it had begun, wayyy back in the ancient times, but they wouldn’t banish someone without good reason. The immortal campers had assured her of that personally. And no one had been banished in years and years. So there couldn’t be anyone looking for revenge. And the only assassins in the world were mortal, so why would one of them be included in a prophecy? It just didn’t make any sense.
The immortal campers were tense, though. They were constantly huddled together in deep conversation. Arguing sometimes, it seemed. And any other time, at least 3 them were guarding the boarders with the regular campers. It was all so confusing. It didn’t help that they were always incredibly tense around her too. Isobel was sure it had something to do with the prophecy, but none of her siblings would believe her. It was understandable, but she couldn’t shake the feeling. The feeling that this prophecy meant something and that something would be catastrophic.
Dinner on Friday was different. There was something different in the atmosphere of camp. It had all of the immortal campers surrounding the boarders. She wondered why the were all so worried that they all had to miss dinner, there was a protective barrier for god’s sake! Nothing that wasn’t a half-blood could get in. They were safe. But Chiron looked skittish too. He kept glancing nervously at the sky and then down at Thalia’s tree where Jason and piper were situated.
As dinner went on, Isobel went up to scrape some of her food onto the fire. Please, she thought, can one of you please explain. No one understands anything. As she sat back down, it started. A crash of thunder boomed in the distance. No one thought anything of it, believing it was just the gods. But then it happened again and again all through dinner. By the time dinner has finished, they were seeing lightning. It seemed pretty close. What surprised all the campers, even the immortal ones, even Chiron was that it started raining. Inside camp borders.
Everyone had gathered closer to the camp boarders and Isobel could the wary looks Jason and Piper were giving each other as they talked to Chiron.
Annabeth ran up to them, “what is this?” she yelled over the wind. “This can’t be the gods.”
“No, my child. You are right. I fear it is someone much worse”
“It can’t be,” Jason intercepted, “he swore he would never come back.”
Annabeth’s expression was pained. “Not on the River Styx. But he wouldn't be able to anyway. We all heard him, he wouldn't even have his powers anymore. And how are we to know that he's not dead? The mortal world is dangerous, and ambrosia and nectar wouldn't work on him anymore. There are a lot of monsters that want him dead.”
"And then there's the fact that the gods can't even seem to find him. He can't not be dead," Piper had added herself to the conversation.
Suddenly a branch snapped. The immortal campers’ heads turned towards the sound. Out shuffled a little boy and a little girl, holding hands. The boy couldn’t be older that 12, the girl, 8. They were dirty, and had grazes all over themselves, but neither seemed too injured. The boy looked calm. Although, he may have been acting strong for his sister. As they got closer to the border, the storm started dying down. By the time the passed the border, the storm had completely stopped.
The boy looked up at Chiron as he neared, “I am Tyler, and this is my little sister Blair. We were told that up this hill was a safe haven for people like us.”
Chiron looked at Annabeth, who looked too stunned to speak.
He said, “yes this is a safe haven for demigods, which is what you are. I am Chiron, an immortal centaur and activities director, here at camp half-blood. If you could please follow me, I would like to ask you some questions as to how you got here.”
Tyler nodded, and took Blair’s hand again. They followed Chiron to the Big House, along with Annabeth. And Isobel was left more confused than ever.