Camp Half-Blood

We Find a Freaky Lady Living in the Attic

After a few shooting lessons I convinced Dale and Shadow to take a break from their practice and come eat. We were having a capture the flag game after the meal and I figured our team could use their help. While we were eating we noticed that Chiron wasn't around. Neither were Bram or Astarii.

"Where do you think they are?" One of the Hephaestus kids, John, asked as we gathered around in a group, all wondering if anyone knew anything.

"Maybe he's in the Big House?" One of my Aphrodite friends, Joanna, suggested.

"Well then, let's go look for him." Rex said.

"We're coming too." Dale said dragging me after her.

"I want to come as well!" An Aeolus kid with spiky, snow white hair called as he ran after us. I'd met him once before and I was pretty sure his name was Skye.

We got into the Big House and started searching, calling out Chiron's name, and asking where he was.

"Oh, Mr. D... Um.... We were looking for Chiron." I said walking into the living room and finding him sprawled out on the couch.

"Obviously, with all that hideous caterwauing. Quiet down, I'm suffering a major migraine right now. Why don't you obnoxious brats go look upstairs." He grumbled.

"Thanks, Mr. D!" I said turning towards the wide stairwell.

I ran up the flight of steps and started looking around. Something banged in the attic and I went to stand under it. It was open, which was odd, and there was obviously someone up there. Chiron couldn't climb the ladder though.

"Guys! Come here!" I yelled and a few minutes later they were all gathered around, staring upward.

"It may not be Chiron, but it's definitely someone. Come on and let's go see." Rex said grabbing hold of the ladder and starting up.

We followed and found ourselves in a dusty, dark room that looked like part of an old museum. There were stuffed animal heads nailed on the walls, but they weren't normal animals. They were like no animal I'd ever seen. Jars with pickled body parts were stacked on shelves and I had to force myself not to get sick. I looked around some more and spotted what looked like an old lady. I went over to to her and reached my hand out to tap her shoulder, asking her what she was doing. She turned and I jumped and let out a high pitched shriek.

Her skin was graying and green and her face looked like it was nothing more then her skull wrapped tight with skin that looked as if it would tear if it was pulled any tighter. Black braided hair fell from the top of her head and I noticed beads were also braided in. It was all held back with a tie-dyed scarf that matched her lose fitting, sleeveless dress. Her eyes were the worst part. Instead of having color they were milky white, like marbles. All in all she wasn't a pretty sight.

The others joined me quickly and the lady opened her mouth. Green smoke flowed out like water from a fountain and she began to speak.

"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python."

"Yeah, thats great. We're leaving. Come on guys." Dale said, gripping my wrist painfully tight.

The spirit of Delphi kept talking.

"Six half-bloods must go

Daughter of beauty, son of snow,

Sons of fire and the daughters of Apollo.

Two more allies you shall find;

The fate of one shall soon unwind.

Fourteen Elements you must take

to the god of healing, the cure he'll make.

Beware the land of endless sand

For one will die by the traitor's hand."

The green smoke stopped and the lady sat down.

Dale was shaking next to me and the boys and Joanna were all looking at me like I'd just done something wrong.

"What do we do?" John asked looking around at us.

"Well, Six of us have to go." Joanna's a daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty... Skye's the son of Aeolus, the god of snow... You and I are sons of Hephaestus, the god of fire, and Dale and Kaire are daughters of Apollo." Rex answered.

"So we're all here?" I asked. "Who are the other two?"

"Not sure. We really need to find Chiron." He said.

We all stumbled down the ladder and ran down the flight of stairs.

"Doesn't this place have a basement?" Skye asked as we headed towards the door.

"Yes... Let's check there before we leave." Joanna said and we turned around and headed to the basement door.

When we got down to the basement we found Chiron there standing next to a kneeling Bram. He looked tired and worried as he looked over at us.

"What's wrong with Bram?" John asked and I noticed that Bram didn't look so great.

He looked tired and was sweating heavily. Astarii stood to the side holding a bowl of water with a wash cloth.

"It seems Bram has fallen ill. Neither Astarii or myself can figure out how he may have gotten it." Chiron answered. "What brings all of you down here?"

"Well, we were looking for you because the capture the flag game hasn't started yet and we went into the attic and there was this creepy old lady walking around and then this green smoke came out of her mouth and she was all like "I'm the spirit of Delphi", or whatever and we were like "Ok. Well nice to meet you we're out of here.", and then she told us this weird rhyme, and then sat down, and we then went to look for you, and found you here." Joanna said speaking faster then I had thought possible.

Chiron raised his eyebrow. "You talked to the Oracle? What did she say?"

"Six half-bloods must go

Daughter of beauty, son of snow,

Sons of fire and the daughter's of Apollo.

Two more allies you shall find;

The fate of one shall soon unwind.

Fourteen Elements you must take

to the god of healing, the cure he'll make.

Beware the land of endless sand

For one will die by the traitor's hand." Rex quoted. "Holy heck! How did I memorize that?" He rubbed his temple.

"What do you think it means?" Skye asked.

"We figured the half-bloods who had to go were us since there is the exact number of us she said. But we don't know what cure she's talking about or what the 14 elements would be." Dale explained.

"She must have meant the cure for Bram. The 14 elements are different ingredients of the cure. You'll have to go see Ascepius, the eldest medicine god, for the recipe." He said stroking his beard. "I'll Isis- Message Mount Olympus and let them know you're coming. Where is Argus? I'll have him drive you all."

Once we'd found Argus, Chiron told him what we were doing and that we needed him to take us to the Empire State building. It would be sort of a long drive so he advised us to take along a few things for the trip. I was nervous about the trip but I knew Dale wanted me along so I did't back down. Maybe it would be fun?