The Mighty Ones' Fall

Chapter 7: Battle Practice and a Storm

Alec sighed. "I'm going to abolish that age rule tomorrow." He said this with certainty, as if he was promising he would succeed. I hoped he would carry it out.

With that, Hannah followed me out of the tent, leaving Alec to sleep in peace. If he could even fall asleep, that is. Anyway, I told Damien and Darius what Alec had said as soon as I returned to my tent, and they responded with enthusiasm. So much enthusiasm that they had trouble lying still, and I only fell asleep after they finally did.

.

I was dreaming. That was the only explanation I could come up with. How else could I have fallen from the sky and landed on my feet without dying? Not to mention the fact that I appeared to be standing in the small meadow in the Forest Gods' realm. The long, lush grass brushed up against my legs as I spun around to get a better look at my surroundings, but the silver mist was too thick. I stumbled around aimlessly, not quite sure where I was going or what I was doing.

Things only got worse when I tripped over something and fell. When I turned my head to see what I had fallen over, expecting to see a log, I couldn't help but scream. Staring back at me with lifeless brown eyes was the twisted body of a fallen Warrior. I recognized him as one who had died in the war. But as if one dead man wasn't enough to scare the light out of someone, the mist suddenly rose up, like the sun was pulling away a blanket, revealing a battlefield littered with at least twenty more bodies of Warriors and countless piles of black dust, the remains of satyrs, nymphs and monsters. I screamed again and tried to stand up to run away, but I was pushed back down from behind.

"Beware," a raspy voice said to me in Greek, and I rolled over, finding myself looking up at the one and only Oracle of Delphi, who was clad in long, heavy, purple robes. Her eyes were open, though nothing but bright green light emanated from their sockets and her wide mouth. When she raised her arms, preparing to speak and asking the world for silence, her long black hair slipped smoothly over her shoulders, and hyperventilating, I waited for her to speak again.

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream sounded from the far edge of the meadow. Apparently shocked or frightened, the oracle abruptly disappeared in a puff of smoke. I stood up and ran as quickly as possible towards the origin of the sound, jumping over dead bodies on the way, but stopped in my tracks when Layna poked her head out of the trees, hair messy, eyes wide.

And then everything went black.

"Wake up, Jace!" Darius shouted in Greek, and I bolted upright, looking around the tent wildly. When I wiped my brow, I realized I had been sweating. A lot.

"What happened?" I whispered to the concerned twins staring back at me with their big blue eyes.

Damien shrugged in bewilderment. "I don't know. You started screaming and thrashing around in your sleep. You would have woken up everybody in the camp if it wasn't already breakfast time."

"Had a bad dream," I mumbled in explanation, scratching my head. That had been the second night in a row I dreamt of Layna, and I wished I could get her out of my head. Not to mention the other creepy parts of the scene.

"I'll say. Sure hope it wasn't the oracle trying to give you some crazy mission," Darius joked, nudging his brother in the side. "Just look at what happened to Alec."

Damien laughed. "Yeah, Jason was so pissed. He still thinks all of that vision stuff was total bullshit. A prophecy is the last thing anyone needs."

"Agreed," I lied half-heartedly, forcing a laugh. If my friends wouldn't even believe me, who else was I supposed to talk to? I would be lucky to befriend Alec within twenty years, let alone twenty minutes.