The steady thwack of my celestial bronze sword hitting the canvas training dummy echoed through the empty arena. Usually, this place was deafening by June, packed with yelling demigods and clashing blades. But summer holidays hadn't officially started yet. The fields were quiet, the strawberries were just beginning to bloom, and the main wave of campers wouldn't arrive for another week. Right now, it was just the two of us. We’d arrived early to help Chiron prep the camp, which mostly meant we got the place to ourselves. I swung at the dummy again, but my footing slipped, and Riptide scraped clumsily against the leather padding. "Your stance is too wide," a voice called out from the shaded bleachers. I didn't need to look up to know who it was. Annabeth was sitting with her legs curled under her, a massive scroll of blueprints unrolled across her lap and her laptop balanced precariously on her knees. "I'm improvising," I said, wiping sweat from my forehead. I capped Riptide, letting it shrink back into a pen, and walked over to the stands. "The enemy won't know what I'm doing if I don't know what I'm doing." Annabeth looked up from her screen, her storm-grey eyes glittering with amusement as she tucked a stray blonde curl behind her ear. "That explains your entire life strategy, Seaweed Brain. But the arena is going to be packed by next Monday, and you're supposed to be leading the sword fighting demonstrations." "Good thing I have a genius strategist to keep me in line," I said, leaning against the wooden railing right next to her. She closed her laptop with a soft click. The intense, focused look she always got when designing buildings vanished, replaced by that specific, familiar smile she saved only for me. "Come here," she said. I didn't need telling twice. I climbed up the bleacher steps and slid onto the bench next to her. She leaned her head against my shoulder, smelling like lemon soap and the crisp, clean air of Long Island Sound. For a second, everything was perfect. No monsters, no world-ending threats, just a quiet camp waiting for summer to begin. Then the arena doors slammed open. The heavy oak wood banged against the stone walls, the sound echoing like a thunderclap. I flinched, my hand instantly flying to my pocket to grab Riptide. Rachel Elizabeth Dare stumbled into the sunlight, panting heavily. Her paint-splattered jeans were covered in fresh mud, and her frizzy red hair was wilder than usual. She looked like she’d just run a marathon through the strawberry fields. "Percy! Annabeth!" she gasped, clutching her side. Annabeth stood up instantly, her hand dropping to her drakon-bone knife. "Rachel? What’s wrong? The camp borders-" "The borders are fine," Rachel cut her off, staggering toward the bleachers. She stopped at the base of the stands, her green eyes suddenly losing their focus. A cold, heavy feeling washed over the arena, the kind that usually meant a god was watching. Rachel stiffened. Her jaw dropped, and a thick, glowing green mist began to spill from her mouth, pooling around her sneakers. Oh, great, I thought, a familiar weight dropping into the pit of my stomach. So much for a quiet summer. The green smoke coiled up the bleachers like a living thing, making the air taste like old dust and ozone. Rachel’s eyes glowed a brilliant, blinding emerald as she threw her head back. When Rachel spoke again, it wasn't her normal voice. It sounded like a chorus of ancient, scraping snakes, echoing directly inside my skull. “Five shall journey to the fading light, To claim the spark before the endless night. The child of wisdom finds the broken thread, While ocean's storm walks among the dead. The maker's hand shall wake the flame, The mistress of Mist speaks the hidden name. Crossroads' daughter must choose the way, Or trusted steel shall bring decay. A silent betrayal seals the debt unpaid, And hope shall die where shadows fade.” The mist suddenly snapped back into her mouth like a pulled string. Rachel collapsed forward, her knees giving out completely, and the eerie green glow vanished from the arena as quickly as it had arrived. “Well, that wasn’t ominous at all!” I joked, but my voice sounded hollow. I turned to Annabeth, and could practically see the gears turning inside her head. “Four, that would mean four demigods, child of wisdom-” Annabeth looked uncomfortable. “That could mean me. Mistress of the Mist, Hazel, maybe? Maker’s hand…fire…a child of Hephestus? Crossroads’ daughter…a child of Hecate. Ocean’s storm could be a child of Posiden-” “That’s me!” I said, grinning. Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Anyway,” she continued. “The rest of it…I’m not sure, but I don’t like it.”
“No one ever likes prophecies, Wise Girl,” I reminded her. “And I especially don’t like that I might have to ‘walk among the dead’, that’s Nico’s thing, not mine. But right now, we might want to deal with that.” I pointed at the floor, where Rachel was lying, sprawled out. Annabeth recoiled, then recovered quickly, smoothing her orange camp Half-Blood t-shirt and nodding. We hauled Rachel down to the sands of the arena, where we laid her down. “I guess we just wait?” I suggested. Annabeth raised her eyebrows. “You mean, stand around and wait for the Oracle to finally wake up?” She asked. “No thanks, I’ve got a better idea.” With that, she grabbed my hand and ran off, dragging me along with her. Annabeth took me all the way down to the beach, where she sat on the soft sand and curled up. I plonked myself down beside her, and we sat in silence for a while, until a realization hit me. “Annabeth!” I yelped. Annabeth looked up, confusion written across her face. “Yes?” She asked. “Rachel!” I cried. “We left her! By herself! What if she wakes up and we’re not there?!” A small smile crossed Annabeth’s face. “Oh, Percy,” she sighed. “You’re so cute when you worry. She’ll be fine. I checked before we left, she won’t wake up for another ten minutes.” “Oh…” I settled back down. “Alright then.” We stayed like that for a while, me making the water twist in lazy spirals, until Annabeth stood and headed back towards Camp. I leaped to my feet and scrambled after her. When I managed to catch up to Annabeth, she shot me a sly smile and said, “Race you!” Before darting off into the woods. I grinned. This was a race I’d win. The water swirled around me as I coaxed it closer, then swished under my feet and boosted me into the woods, where I found new water sources and used those to boost me. The woods turned into a blur of green as I shot through them, startling poor Dryads. A few recovered quick enough to wave to me. I arrived at Camp a few seconds before Annabeth burst out of the trees, panting. I gave her an easy smirk, trying to make it seem like I’d been there for ages. “Nice of you to join me,” I told her. Annabeth almost sent me through the rock I was leaning against. “Come on!” I whined. “That’s hardly fair! I beat you, then get shoved as a reward?” Annabeth grinned. “That’s right, Seaweed Brain. You’re welcome.” She sauntered off, and I hurried after her. We reached the arena, where we found Rachel had vanished. A note was left in her place. Annabeth picked it up, “Hi!” She read, “Um, so…I kinda just left ‘cause I got bored. See you later! Just send me an iris-message if you need me!” Annabeth grunted. “So we’ve lost our best source of information,” she grumbled. Just then, we heard hooves clopping across the pavement beside the arena. Chiron smiled at us as he got closer, but he looked tired. “I’m assuming you talked to young Miss Dare?” He asked. We nodded, and he sighed. “The prophecy is…concerning. I don’t know what it means but…” He trailed off, a troubled look on his face. “But…?” Annabeth prompted. Chiron sighed again. “Nothing,” he forced a smile onto his face. “How about we clean the cabins before the other campers arrive, eh?” I groaned. Cleaning the cabins was a nightmare. There was always old food underneath the beds, and slugs in the pillow cases. Annabeth shot me another sly grin. “Sure,” she replied. “I’ll take the Poseidon cabin, Percy can clean the Hermes cabin.” I gave her my best stink-eye. With me being the only one in the Poseidon cabin, it was pretty clean. But the Hermes cabin was always full, which meant there was plenty of rubbish. Hooray for me. Unfortunately, Chiron was nodding, so I was stuck. “Better get cracking, Seaweed Brain!” Annabeth called as she ran off in the direction of my cabin. By the time I’d cleaned half of the cabin, Annabeth had cleaned three cabins: Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, and had started on hers; Athena. The ones that were almost never occupied, or, if they were, the cleanest ones. She was leaving me the worst cabins to do. Figures.
