The Last Oracle

Summoning Tentacles Doesn't Help Kill Roosters

I clutched Felix tightly. I moved behind a tree, but couldn't pull my eyes away from the direction of the footsteps. Finally a creature stepped into view. My whole body froze, as I gazed upon the monster. At first it looked like a giant rooster, but it was made of stars.

Its feathers were pitch black except for the small twinkling spots pepped across its body. Its eyes felt infinite. I stared into them, and my whole body felt useless, I slid to the ground as all of my regret in my life, my doubts, came flooding to the surface. As the beast approached me, I didn't even flinch.

It moved its head down close to mine. My memories flashed before my eyes so fast all I could do was whimper. I didn't react when it raked a sharp talon across my chest. All I could feel was regret. The whole universe seemed to be pressing down on me. I regretted everything. How was anything I had ever done right? I never should have come to camp. I shouldn't have abandoned my legion. I shouldn't have left my father.

"Get away from him!"

Celestial bronze daggers buried themselves in the rooster. It let out a deafening caw, and suddenly all my senses returned. With it the overwhelming pain. I forced myself to my feet as the rooster turned away from me to find the dagger thrower. It was not a good sign that it hadn't yet crumbled away.

The burning of my chest seemed to intensify. I looked down and instantly felt nauseous. The rooster had cut my chest, and the wound festered with a black goo. The goo seemed to be slowly soaking deeper and deeper into my chest. I glanced back up to see the rooster throwing its head towards a boy. I could feel the same power radiating from the wound that I felt radiating from the rooster.

I recognized him from the capture the flag game. And in the Big House. He had blond eyes and the all telling gray eyes. I couldn't recall his name, but I did know he was the head counselor of the Athena cabin.

Sparks flew as he deflected the rooster's beak off of one of his blades. He carried many of them which made me realize they weren't daggers but rather celestial bronze throwing knives.

"You could keep watching or you could use that magic to help make sure this oversized chicken doesn't kill us!" He said.

I scrambled with Felix, flipping through the pages until I found a spell that might work. It was supposed to turn the target into an octopus. While not optimal I figure octopus would be much better than super deadly giant rooster.

I read the latin words from the page quickly, green smoke rising off of the page. I saw the boy barely dodge the rooster's sharp beak. While he was a good fighter, it was obvious he was losing steam. I chanted the words faster, the green smoke turning purple before there was a sharp bang. The smoke vanished and tentacles emerged from the pages.

Now is a good time to remind you that I suck at magic. In fact I have never once correctly cast a spell from Felix. Based on the octopus tentacles that wrapped around me while the rooster continued to try and slice the boy to pieces in the background, that was not changing anytime soon.

The rooster finally got a strike on the boy, cutting his left arm. The boy hissed, but didn't back down on using a blade in each hand. He'd been wearing glasses at the beginning of the fight, but they were now lying crushed in the grass.

I realized this must have been a very recent event because it was obvious he was having trouble accurately pinpointing the precise place the rooster was aiming for. I knew he would be toast if I didn't figure out how to help somehow.

I struggled against the octopus tentacles, pulling at them to get the suctions to release me. They held firmly to my skin. Some even sought out the cut in my chest, making the pain worse. I felt small spikes of pain all across my body. I realized the suctions were all sharp. Blood soaked into my clothes as it ran down my body.