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.
'Two Campers should definitely go," said Silena.
"Oh, I see. And I suppose you wish to volunteer?" Zoe said, sarcastically.
"I'm not going anywhere with the Hunters. Don't look at me."
"A daughter of Aphrodite does not wish to be looked at," Zoe scoffed. I growled at her. "What would thy mother say?" Silena stood up, ready to attack Zoe. Beckendorf grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back to her seat. When she kept struggling, he pulled her into his lap and wrapped an arm around her, rendering her immobile. Aw, they would make such a cute couple! Shut up, ADHD!
"Which three Hunters will go?" asked Beckendorf after telling them to stop it.
"I shall go. I will take Bianca and Phoebe. She is our best tracker."
"The big girl who likes to hit people?" asked Travis.
"The one who put those arrows in my helmet?" asked Connor. Zoe nodded. "Give this T-shirt to her, will you?" Zoe rolled her eyes, but took the shirt anyways. "What of your campers, Chiron?" Chiron looked at us.
"I already said I was going," I said. I leant back in my chair and put my feet up on the table. I pulled out Mov and began to clean underneath my nails. I could feel all the eyes on me. Grover offered to go and my brother and cousin offered at the same time. Zoe chose Thalia, something about refusing to travel with a male. I guess satyrs don't count as male.
That night, after dinner, I made a promise that I would keep. "I will search for her, fratellino. I will look for Annabeth. I do not know if I will find her, but I swear on the Styx itself that I'm going to try my best to find her." My brother just smiled sadly and hugged me. I may not like Annabeth very much, but she was one of his best friends.
"Thanks, Nina. Try not to die, will you?"
"I make no promises, Perce."
"You just did."
"Shut up." Percy grinned at me and I turned back to finish packing. This would be my first quest without my brother. I got to say, it kind of scared me. I had done some pretty dangerous stuff at Hogwarts, but this was different. There were no teachers that would come running to my aid if I asked. It was just me and five other kids. I barely even knew three of them! I had trouble falling asleep that night.
The next morning, Zoe woke me up before dawn. I yawned, but grabbed my duffel bag and followed her. We met up with Bianca, Thalia, and Grover on top of Half-Blood Hill. Our guard dragon, Peleus, came up to greet me. He protected the Fleece and would never even dream of harming a camper. He and Blackjack were Percy's familiars. "Where's Phoebe?" I asked.
"That T-shirt was covered with something. Phoebe is now in the infirmary," Zoe said. I tried not to laugh. You can't trust the Stoll brothers with anything unless it's in battle. Zoe glared at me and stalked down to the van. I assumed Argus was going to drive us, but Zoe got into the driver's seat. Oh well. I climbed into the back with Thalia and Grover. Bianca sat up front with Zoe.
Zoe drove like a maniac. Let's just say I'm shocked we weren't pulled over about 500 times just getting into Manhattan. I have never seen someone drive as crazy as Zoe did. She zipped straight through rush hour and made it to New Jersey in less than half an hour! You can't do that when there are absolutely no cars on the road. I was really glad we had seat belts.
I sensed a couple presences following us. One seemed evil, but the other seemed like it meant us no harm. I was still wary of it. Eventually, Zoe stopped the car. Somehow, we made it all the way to Washington D.C. I felt sick and could hardly walk. Zoe hadn't let us eat any breakfast. I was grumpy about it before, but now I was thankful. I think I might have thrown it back up if I had eaten anything. Thalia and I were leaning on each other for support. Grover, Bianca, and Zoe seemed unfazed.
Zoe led us into the Air and Space Museum. Why in the name of Hades are we in here? We pretended to be tourists and looked around. So far, everything had gone well. I didn't even feel sick anymore! Knowing my luck, something was bound to go wrong eventually. I was right. We were on the second floor when I body flew at me and knocked me over.
It was Percy, and he was trying to get us out of here. I wonder why. Oh, that's why. A giant lion jumped into the building. A bunch of tourists screamed and a little boy though it was a kitty. There was only one monster I could think of that would fit the lion's description. The Nemean Lion. Heracles had defeated it by bashing its head. I don't think that was going to work for us. None of us were as strong as Heracles.
Zoe and Bianca began to fire arrows at it. Percy pulled out Riptide, I had Mov in my left hand and my wand in my right. I quickly put my wand away when I realized that spells were just bouncing off of the lion's skin. I had no idea what to do. I remembered coming to this place once with Percy and Sally. Percy had gotten astronaut food and when we tried it, it was absolutely disgusting. "Percy!" I shouted. He looked over at me. "Astronaut food!" He smirked and ran towards the gift shop. Zoe started to yell at him for being a coward. I rolled my eyes at her and continued to keep the claws from slicing me into deli meat.
Percy ran back with an arm full of packets of astronaut food. He threw a whole bunch into the lion's mouth. It roared and tried to spit it back out. To do this, it had to keep its mouth open. Zoe and Bianca began firing at its mouth. They kept missing. Well, here goes nothing. I flung Mov at the nemean lion. It sailed straight at the lion. Mov soared into the monster's mouth and punctured the roof of its mouth. The lion collapsed to the floor and its pelt turned into a skin. I gave it to my brother for his awesome aim and because I'm pretty sure the dehydrated ice cream sandwich killed it. I should give some of those to Malfoy.
We all ran out of the museum and back to the van. A black military helicopter was following us. It was just like the one at Westover Hall. "They know the van," I gasped.
"We have to ditch it," Percy agreed. Bianca led us to a subway saying she remembered seeing it last year. She told us that it hadn't been there when she was growing up. She meant the whole subway system. How long was she in the Lotus Hotel and Casino? We bought tickets and boarded the subway. The plan worked, the helicopter circled the van and didn't follow us.
Eventually, the helicopter began to follow us. We changed trains twice. Thankfully, we lost the helicopter again. Unfortunately, when we finally got off the subway, we were at the end of the line. There was no where else to go. We were in an industrial area. "Y'all need to get warmed up? Come on over!" There was a homeless guy a few yards away from us. He gave us a toothless grin and we gladly joined him by the fire he had started in a trashcan. Don't judge, it was freezing and I don't want to get frostbite! "You know, you're never completely without friends. You kids need a train going west?"
"Yes, sir," my brother said. "You know of any?"
The man pointed to a freight train. It had Sun West Line written on the side. It was shining and completely free of snow. "That's convenient," grumbled Thalia. I turned around to thank the man, but he was gone. The fire was gone too. I shrugged and climbed into one of the cars. The others followed me. Bianca and Zoe crashed in a Lexus and Grover decided to play race car in a Lamborghini. Thalia had managed to hot wire a Mercedes SLK and was listening to some DC rock stations. Percy joined her. I climbed into a Mercedes Benz. I rested back against the driver's seat to try and get some sleep, but I jumped back up when I felt an arm go around my shoulders.
I pulled Mov from its sheath and pointed it in the direction of the person. the blonde teenager held his hands up in surrender. "Apollo, you scared me," I groaned. I put Mov away and flicked the lights on inside the car. "What are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious? You're in the sun chariot."
"You mean the Mercedes or the whole train?" Apollo gave me a look that said, 'Are you really asking that question?' I smiled sheepishly up at him. "Why are you helping us, 'Pollo?" I asked as I slid over to the passenger seat and onto his lap.
Apollo slid his arms round my waist and pulled me closer to him. "You are going to save my sister, and I really do care about her. I'm not going to just stand by and watch as my twin gets tortured. Oh, and you're on this quest and despite what you have thought in previous years, I really do care a lot about you. I'm going incognito by the way, call me Fred. I'm not really allowed to be helping you guys."
I laughed and smiled up at Apollo. I really did miss him. "Well Fred, thank you for the help, but I really should be getting some sleep."
"Then go to sleep, Sparkles. I'll look after you. Good night."
I curled up into Apollo. He radiated heat. Probably because he's the son god. "Good night," I murmured into his chest as I fell asleep.