NOT FRIENDS ━━━━━ p. mclean²

003.

"You told off a goddess."

"Not my proudest moment, but yeah."

Piper looked down the base of the doors. "So who goes in here?"

"No one. The cabin is just honorary, like I said. No one goes in."

"Someone does." Piper pointed at a footprint on the dusty threshold. On instinct, she pushed the doors and they swung open easily.

Isa stepped back. "Um, Piper, I don't think we should ─ "

"We're supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?"

And Piper walked inside.

Why was that attractive?

In all her years spent at Camp Half-Blood, Isa never step a foot in Hera's cabin and she wanted to leave immediately as soon as the two girls entered.

It was as cold as a freezer, with a circle of white columns around a central statue of the goddess, ten feet tall, seated on a throne in flowing golden robes. Hera's piercing eyes seemed to follow Piper and Isa. At the goddess's feet, a fire burned in a bronze brazier, which was odd but not that odd. A stone hawk sat on Hera's shoulder, and in her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower. The goddess's hair was done in black plaits. Her face smiled, but the eyes were cold and calculating, as if she were saying: mother knows best. Now don't cross me or I will have to step on you. There was nothing else in the cabin ─ no beds, no furniture, no bathroom, no windows, nothing that anyone could actually use to live. 

Piper froze in front of Isa, making the smaller girl stumble into her. Isa peeked from behind the girl and to where Piper's eye were darted at. They weren't alone. Behind the statue, at a little altar in the back, stood a figure covered in a black shawl. Only her hands were visible, palms up. She seemed to be chanting something like a spell or a prayer. 

"For fucks sake, Rachel!"

The other girl turned. She dropped her shawl, revealing a mane of curly red hair and a freckled face that didn't go with the seriousness of the cabin or the black shawl at all. She wore a green blouse and tattered jeans covered with marker doodles. Despite the cold floor, she was barefoot. 

"Hey!" she ran to give Isa a hug. Isa may not be close to Rachel as Annabeth and Vivi are, but being around them a lot, the girl got to know their oracle a bit more, "How are you? Any signs of Percy?" 

Isa sadly shook her head, "No," she said, "But we found three new demigods, one of them is this pretty lady beside me."

Rachel grinned slightly at Isa.

"Rachel, this is Piper," Isa said, rolling her eyes at the redhead, "Piper, this is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle."

"The friend who lives in the cave," Piper guessed.

Rachel grinned. "That's me."

"So you're an oracle?" Piper asked. "You can tell the future?"

"More like the future mugs me from time to time," Rachel said. "I speak prophecies. The oracle's spirit kind of hijacks me every once in a while and speaks important stuff that doesn't make any sense to anybody. But yeah, the prophecies tell the future."

"Oh." Piper shifted from foot to foot. "That's cool."

Rachel laughed. "Don't worry. Everybody finds it a little creepy. Even me. But usually I'm harmless."