Nina's Destiny

Council and the Smithsonian

Dionysus held a council about the prophecy. All the cabin leaders were supposed to attend. Percy and I both led our cabin because we were the same age and were here an equal amount of summers. We sat together at the end of the ping pong table next to Thalia. Yeah, we hold war council around a ping pong table, get over it.

Dionysus supplied snacks. He waved his hand and cheez whiz, some crackers, and a few bottles of red wine appeared. The Stoll brothers were all for the wine, but Chiron reminded him about his restrictions and that most of us were under aged. Mr. D. snapped his fingers and the wine turned to Diet Coke.

Grover was here too. He represented the satyrs. For the Aphrodite cabin, we had Silena and Beckendorf from the Hephaestus cabin. They waved at me. The Stolls were from the Hermes cabin, and Lee Fletcher represented Apollo. He gave me that look that said, 'We need to talk.' He and the rest of his siblings probably wanted to know why there dad had been carrying me. That was one awkward conversation I didn't want to have. Katie Gardner was here for the Demeter cabin, and both Castor and Pollux were representing Dionysus. The Ares cabin didn't send in a representative because they all had mysteriously gotten broken limbs during Capture the Flag. Zoe and Bianca represented the Huntresses.

Zoe began to lecture us on how she should go west with six Huntresses. "You're missing something as usual," Thalia interrupted her. Uh oh, here we go again. "Campers and Hunters combined prevail. We're supposed to do this together."

"No! The Hunters do not need thy help."

"Your! No one has said thy in, like, 300 years Zoe. Get with the times."

We were all watching the two girls like they were a tennis, er, ping pong match.

"I fear the prophecy says you do need our help," CHiron broke into the conversation. "Campers and Hunters must cooperate."

"Or do they?" asked Mr. D. "One shall be lost. One shall perish. That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?"

"Father," sighed Castor, "with all due respect, whose side are you on?"

"Sorry, my dear son, just trying to be helpful."

"We must not delay. Today is Sunday and Friday is the Solstice. Artemis must be present at the Solstice. If she is absent, we will lose another year of war preparations," said Zoe.

"Are you suggesting the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" asked Dionysus.

"Yes, Lord Dionysus."

"Just checking. You're right, of course. Carry on."

"Now, we must decide who goes on this quest," Chiron said.

"Three and three," I said. Everyone looked at me. "We're supposed to have 6. Three Hunters and three from Camp Half-Blood. I'm going, I don't care what anyone says. Now, we just need to figure out the prophecy." People all nodded their agreement.

"Well, it sounds like at least two of the five are going to die," said Connor Stoll.

"One shall be lost in the land without rain. If I were you, I would stay out of the desert," Beckendorf said.

"And the Titan's curse must two withstand. What could that mean?" asked Silena. Chiron and Zoe exchanged nervous looks. I don't like the looks of that.

"One shall perish by a parent's hand," continued Grover. He was eating cheez whiz covered ping pong balls. "How is that possible? Whose parent would want to kill them?" I glanced at Percy and Thalia. The prophecy, we were all nearing the age in the Great Prophecy. Percy and I would most likely be the ones who would be killed though. The prophecy did speak of two half-bloods reaching that age.