Camp Half-Blood, Lia's POV
I woke up with a massive headache. I think my brain has been overloaded. Need food and water now.
Groaning, I rolled over. Remembering too late that I am in a bunk bed, which is not as big as my home bed, I found myself on the ground. Ouch.
"It's about time you woke up." I heard above me. Glancing up, I saw a bright blonde haired girl looking down at me. "You're our new sister, right?"
"Um... Guess so?" I sat up, rubbing my head. That move definitely made that headache worse.
"Nice to meet you then! Name's Herring, we'll probably see each other around a lot since we're siblings, and therefore in the same cabin... You get the gist." She offered me a hand, which I took gratefully.
"Thanks. I'm Lia, nice to meet you too." I grinned down at her, noticing she was much smaller than me now that I was standing up. Most girls are, so no surprise.
A horn sounded in the distance, and I heard rustling from a few beds as the last few siblings got up. Herring grabbed my hand, dragging me out the door without a word. I didn't bother arguing, since we were headed towards the dining pavilion.
"Lia! You're awake!" Allan ran over, clapping his hand on my other shoulder hard. Herring sighed.
"Just cause daddy's Apollo doesn't mean we have to be sunshines all the time, Allan." She muttered, letting go of my hand.
"Yeah, but it's our choice whether or not we want to be happy." We sat down at our table, some of our other groggy siblings sitting down as well as we got our food.
"So... We're all siblings then, huh? Do gods normally have a bunch of kids?" I whispered to Allan, seeing Herring get into a conversation with a guy from another table.
"Well... That depends. There's a lot of gods out there, and a lot of rules, especially recent ones with the Titan War and the Giant War and the Perfection War..." Wait, wasn't that guy named Perfection? I thought for a moment, before realizing Allan was still talking.
"... So kids of the Big Three like Nico over there are rare. There's something I heard about him even being born before the pact, not many that know about it talk about it though, especially not him." He was pointing at a kid sitting by himself at a table, the same one that had been playing with the figurines with Chiron. In fact, it looked like he was messing with them lazily now instead of eating.
"Huh." I started on my food, letting my thoughts wander.
I wonder if I'll see that cute boy from my dream again...I shook my head at my own thoughts, looking back at Allan, who was exchanging facial expressions with Warren. I smiled, continuing with eating my own food.
These meals, despite all the odd creatures and magical food, were already starting to become fairly comfortable. In fact, the entire place seemed to be growing on me rather quickly. Though the idea of practice sounded dreadful...
Suddenly, part way through the meal, some people suddenly stopped eating, staring at someone who suddenly was getting up jerkingly. As the commotion died down, it quickly became obvious why. The person standing up, a red-haired girl like me with paint splattered clothes, had glowing green eyes.
And she was walking straight towards me in a zombie like manner.
After all the weird things I had seen in the past day, I would have thought that this wouldn't creep me out. But something hit a nerve, since this definitely did not seem normal. I backed away from the girl, just as everyone else did, but she still got to me, putting her hands on my shoulders and speaking in an odd voice.
Children of light,
Child of dark,
Travel forth to retrieve
An unknown child,
Born from a spark.
Defenders of old
Protect against their ghosts.
But one must hold
A secret from most.
To begin their travels,
Westward they head
But beware of those,
Who seek perfection instead.
The girl suddenly collapsed. So I only saw it fit to follow suit.
~~~ Here we go again... ~~~
I don't think waking up in the same hospital room twice is right. Especially if it's for two different things two days in a row.
Good news: I was not waking up alone. Creepy news: I was being watched by three people. Well, two were watching me, one was sitting to the side in a very annoyed fashion.
Chiron smiled when he noticed I was awake, walking over. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine...?" Better than saying I felt dead inside. This seemed to be a reasonable answer, Chiron nodding along.
"Herring, can you give her a check up?" He looked at the other person watching me, who huffed.
"It's Fawn, not Herring..." She muttered, walking over and holding a stethoscope to my forehead, handing me some food that I had never seen before. "Eat this, it'll help." I did so, watching her as I felt my headache clearing up some. She looked to Chiron "She's well enough, though she'll need a day or two before she's ready to go on the quest."
Chiron nodded. "Sorry about the mistake. Can you get Rachel then, Fawn?" She nodded curtly, walking out of the room. Chiron looked to the boy, who obviously did not want to be here.
"Nico, I believe we all know it is obvious that you are a part of this quest, so do try to talk some." Chiron asked calmly. He rolled his eyes, pulling over a chair and sitting in it, glancing at me for maybe a second before looking back to Chiron.
"Let's make this quick then." He muttered, leaning back in the chair. I noticed a scary looking sword by his side. I guess it's best not to get on his bad side. Though for some reason I already seemed to be on that side.
"Yes, Lia needs to rest anyways." He turned to me. "Rachel is the Oracle in camp. She hosts the spirit of Delphi within her, which occasionally says prophecies to campers so they can go on quests. In your case she has quite obviously given you a quest. In the second line of the prophecy, it also states that a child of dark is to be part of the group, which is where Nico comes in. He is the only child of Hades at this camp, and no other god fits the description of 'dark' that has a child at this camp."
"Not even a child of Nemesis?" Nico offered. He was clearly not thrilled with the idea of going on a quest.
"Not as well as it fits you and your father's description, no. Besides, it is good that a new camper will be going on a quest with an experienced one." Nico groaned, leaning back in the chair and closing eyes, playing with some ring on his finger.
"It is obvious that the prophecy wants you both to go west, most likely to visit the Roman camp, so the only thing left to decide," Chiron turned back to me. "Would be you choosing another member of your cabin to join. The prophecy does ask for two children of light, after all."
"You have got to be kidding me." With this, Nico got up, glaring at the wall across from me "Just get me if you need me for anything, have someone let me know when we'll be leaving for this quest." Chiron sighed as he watched him storm out.
"Is he... Always like that?" I asked carefully, leaning against the backboard.
"Yes and no. He is always like that around children of Apollo, however." He turned towards me, a sad look on his face "It'd be best for you not to ask why, though. It would reopen old wounds."
"Don't ask angry guy about why he doesn't like me because of my dad. Got it. What did you say I have to do again?" The food stuff that tasted like mom's homemade bacon may have stopped the headache, but I still had a mental overload.
"You need to choose another member for your quest. Though I will have to ask you to keep an eye out for a few other things." He moved closer to me, though his equine body did not move well in such a confined area "Have you perhaps had any weird dreams lately?"
"Loads of them, why?" I asked jokingly, receiving a sigh.
"If there are any at all that may seem to relate to the quest, please report to me, okay?"
"Sure thing." I smiled at him thinking over the dreams I had last night. Something about some guy stacking cards...
"Well, I best leave you to your rest now." He began to step away and I shot up, shaking my head.
"Wait wait, one question." Chiron looked at me incredulously, but nodded for me to continue "I keep hearing something about Perfection, I even had a dream about some guy talking to himself and calling himself Perfection. What does that even mean?"
I don't think even my mom looked so terrified when I broke her grandmother's teapot. Which is really saying something.
"Should you... Have any more dreams about it, let me know immediately. Perfection is a dangerous primordial that was recently locked away with great sacrifice, however if one of his followers are perhaps trying to bring him back..." Chiron shook his head. "Do not worry about it for now. Hopefully it is nothing."
Seeing his troubled look, I didn't bother asking about the winged people.
~~~
And... Done! If you have to stop here before the next chapters are finished and uploaded, then thank you for being such a vigilant reader of my story!!
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