Hali~

We arrive late to dinner, but at least it’s because we’ve been talking about serious things. I’ve explained to Alana what’s going on, and she agrees that it would be best to probably go on a quest of some sort.

As we sit down, I remember a question I was thinking about earlier. 

“Hey what did you mean I wasn’t a fighter?”

She furrows her eyebrows when her eyes brighten. “Oh! No, I just meant that you’re not violent like the Ares kids. Not that you can’t fight. Speaking of that, when you passed out, you missed the capture the flag victo-“

Suddenly we’re interrupted by a screech and a crash of plates. Ruckus ensues as the Oracle appears, with a message that I hear perfectly. 

“The Big Three has come to thee

now three things you must agree

twelve heroes will head out into the ocean

toward a sea in the east, where there is commotion

but beware eachother, monsters, and otters

for one of you will turn on another

in grief they shall loose their structure

one will be sacrificed for the good of others

once they defeat the titan's soul and heart

only till then shall they depart.”

She disappears in an instant, and campers are loud asking what that was and why they couldn’t hear anything. I look towards Alana and her wide eyes match mine. We both definitely heard something. 

“Hali, there you are,” Colin says as he walks up to me. “Did you hear that?”

Without hesitating I tell him yes and then everything that happened in the Zeus cabin. Mason and Colin walk up to us, followed by Aurora, Kathlynn, Brae, Dylan, Aubrina, Solange, and Zora. 

“I’m guessing you guys all heard it too, right?” Colin asks. 

I nod. “All twelve of us.”

There’s a thoughtful silence before Aubri speaks up. “Well, what are we waiting for? We need to tell Chiron.”

Ok, so I wrote this bit before school so this coincides with Bob R.'s post. I sort of wanted to post it anyway because I think it strengthens Zora and Solange's relationship. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Solange~

I heard a scream come from the forges. There was a blast, and the forge started burning. Will starts to rally campers to help put out the fire. I looked around to see where the fire came from. I saw a pink figure run towards the woods. That Aphrodite girl, Zora I think. I ran after her.

I guess I wouldn't make the best hunter, because I made loud crunching noises as I ran toward Zora. She whipped her head around and pointed her knife at me. She had a burn mark on her cheek. Once she realised it was me, she put a finger to her mouth as if to say "shhh" and looked straight ahead. There was a crunching noise to our right, and I could vaguely make out a man. He almost reminded me of a male version of a water nymph, with his blue hair and slightly sea green skin. 

"Can you shoot him?" Zora whispered to me. I drew my golden bow, and notched an arrow. I took careful aim and shot. It landed about 5 feet to the left of him. He saw us and bolted, disapearing in a cloud of mist. I sighed. Apollo was known for three main things: archery, music, and healing. Out of all of those, I was mainly a healer, having a special healing gift. Archery was by far my worst.

"Darn. Was he the one who started the fire?"

"Yeah. I was walking past the forge and I saw that guy crouching behind a boulder holding a sack of Greek fire."

"I guess we better go back then."

We started to walk back to the cabins. Zora winced and touched her hand to her cheek.

"What happened to your cheek?"

"I got a blast of the Greek fire. It's ok, nothing some nectar and cool water can't fix."

i could see she was visible in pain, so I touched my hand to her cheek and healed the skin.

"I've always wondered how you do that."

"It's not that exciting. I kind of just imagine my energy going into the person's body to aid the healing process. That's why I pass out if the injury is really serious."

"Huh. Interesting. I actually want to be a doctor. I know that sounds weird, an Aphrodite girl who wants to be a doctor."

"No, it's not weird at all. You should stop by the infirmary sometime, help Apollo out?"

"I'd love to, thanks!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So this is part two, that actually matches up.

Solange~ 

Somehow, I think the twelve [eleven?] of us all knew that the prophecy was about us. Hali, Colin, and Mason recapped what happened to them in the past few days. 

"Well what are we waiting for? We've got to tell Chiron." said Aubrina, breaking the silence.

Chiron was talking to a few satyrs about the prophecy. We approached him.

"Hello, um, with everything going on, it would probably be best you went back to your cabins."

"Chiron, we know what's going on. Colin, Hali, and I had the same vision about this." Mason said.

The three of them shared what they saw, and how the rest of us were the ones the quest was talking about.

"...we need to send a quest."

"We are not sending a quest. Twelve? That's much to risky. This prophecy might not even apply to this generation. We need to work on restocking the weapons that were blown up accidentally by some Greek fire."

"That wasn't an accident." cut in Zora. Solange and I saw this man with blue hair, sort of like a water nymph, plant the fire. My guess is he's working for Oceanus. This isn't some prophecy that's going to happen in the next century. This is happening now."

"According to this prophecy, one of you will die. I think we want to avoid this for as long as possible."

There was silence. We all started glancing at each other, as if to try and decipher who was going to sacrifice themselves. We hadn't thought about that, and the one in twelve chance of dying seemed frightning. 

Chiron gave us a half smile to signal he had won this argument. "Goodnight."  

We stood there as Chiron trotted away.

"What do we do now?" asked Aurora, breaking the silence.

"We still have to go. Or at least, I'm in. If we don't do this, we'll all die." I said.

"I agree with Solange." said Zora.

Everyone nodded in agreement, their look of fear replaced by determination.

"I say we take tomorrow to pack, and we can leave tomorrow night."

We all agreed, and returned to our cabins for one last summer night at Camp.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, are we talking about the Pacific ocean? Because a trip to the Atlantic wouldn't be as interesting.  

Aurora~

I can barely sleep. I ponder the prophecy over and over in my mind... it won’t get out of my head. Ugh. 

I grab my cassette and headphones from my pocket. Totally old, I know. But it soothes me. I press the little arrow that makes it play and I discover that the song “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash is playing.*

What a coincidence! Because I’m wondering whether to stay or to go on this quest. I sigh and flop back on my bed.

I try talking to Artemis. “Mom,” I say. “I don’t know what to do. Should I go with them?”

Then I hear a calm voice in my head. You know the right choice to be made, Aurora. You know deep in your heart.

I sigh again. Artemis is right. Even though I don’t want to admit it, I know what I have to do.

I have to go on this quest. Even if it means me dying. 

I fall asleep thinking about this.

~In the Morning~

My alarm clock beeps quietly, and I turn it off, sitting up in bed and stretching. It’s 5:00 AM. Don’t judge me—I’m just a morning person!

I change into my Camp Half-Blood shirt and pull my black Nintendo hoodie over it. Tomorrow I plan to wear my special hunting dress.

I step outside and am welcomed by the typical sunrise dew and fog. I breathe in peacefully and sneak in to Braelynn’s cabin and pull her out.

She wakes up immediately. “Huh?” She mumbles.

“Rise and shine,” I murmur, and I bring her back to my cabin.

We sit on my bed together, talking about the prophecy.

“Someone has to sacrifice them-self. I bet it will be that goody-two-shoes Hali Brook.” Braelynn scoffs.

I elbow her. “Hey, at least be nice,” I say back. “I mean, we’ll have to go on a quest with these people.”

She sighs. “I guess you’re right, Aurora.”

I put my arm around her. “Just, don’t worry about that. Focus on now. We’ll have to leave tonight.”

I smile warmly at her, and she smiles back.

It’s always good to have a friend, with all this craziness.

~~~~

Hey, so I was wondering if Aurora could be the one to sacrifice herself? Not right away, of course. I want the other characters to form a bond with her, that way it adds more drama to the story when she dies. But I was thinking that maybe towards the end of the story, she’ll die. Are you guys okay with that?

“You’re not going without me,” Max said, after dragging me and Kathlynn over into the Zues cabin.

“We were planning to,” Hali said, leaning in the doorway, a smug plastered on her face, “in fact we were trying to find you,” her voice was clearly hiding something, through I didn’t exactly know how to say ‘hey, I know you have secrets, spill them’ and I felt that would be a bit straight forward.

“Chiron said no, didn’t he?” Kathlynn said, shaking her head, her eyes traviling onto the ceiling, as she flopped down on my bed, picking at a loose thread on my blanket.

“Even for an Athenian your smart Peterson,” Hali smiled, “we leave tomorrow morning, early, try not to oversleep,” the last bit was directed toward me, but I tried to play it off, rolling my eyes at the jab.

“Gods, you do realize Chiron’ll kill us if he finds out?” Kathlynn said, shaking her head, a smile crossing over her face. “I’m so totally in.”

“Wait so we’re just leaving tomorrow? I mean, dont’t get me wrong, there’s no way I’m letting you guys leave me here, but shouldn’t we have a plan?” Max spoke suddenly, as if the idea has just crossed his mind and he needed to get it out, before someone took it.

“Spend too much time in the present and the future will never come,” Kathlynn said, shrugging, “we can make plan on the way, where are we meeting?” she asked.

“Right outside the boundries, if you get caught, or you’re late, we will leave without you,” Hali said warningly, and with that, she meerly walked away, no ‘goodbyes’ or anything like that. Kathlynn, got up, and closed the door, a seriouse look on her face, something that I’m not used to seeing from her.

“Someone’s going to die, Oracal herself said so herself," Kathlynn started, beginning to pace the floor in front of me and Max. "personally, I'd rather not die," she said. looking to me, as if I were supposed to just come up with some magic life alixer to keep up alive forever and always. sadly, that was out of my powers.

"well, that's probably the one thing I can agree with that has come from you today," Max replied, shaking his head. "it's inevitable, Kathy, at one point we're all gonna die, one of us is just going to a lot faster than the others," he said. 

"but there's gotta be a way to stop it, the oracle's always being dumbledore-y saying things that sound like one thing but can mean something completely different?" Kathlynn said, despritly grasping onto an idea that didn't result in death.

"yeah because there a so many figurative meaning for dying," I pointed out, realizing my mistake. 

"yeah, you're right," she gave up, sinking down next to Max.

"you know it won't end like that," Max began turning to look at Kathlynn. "what  happend to him, Kathy, that won't happen this time, it'll be the same thing, but it won't be in vain, it'll be a sacrifice, in a good way," he was stumbling over words trying to string them together to make them make sence, it wasn't working. 

"you can't say that, and not know-not know if it's gonna be me, or one of you two, Max, I've gone through death one to many times, I swear if I lose one of you I will lose it," she said. fingering through a knot in her hair. she looked up on the clock on the wall, "I should get back to my cabin, I'll see you guys tomorrow though," and with that she got up, and walked out the door. 

I sat in my bunk, thinking about what to do. It was quiet in the cabin. Most of the Hephaestus kids had been in the forges when it happened, and there were only 14 in the cabin. Even Rex was silent. Due to the fact that i modeled his brain and heart after mine, the minature elf had heard the prophecy as well. I shook my head and shifted my thoughts. I was already packed. All my tools were in my special back pack, neat and organized. I had my black sweatpants, white War of Ages shirt, and Rams sweatshirt laid out. My watch and knife are lying side by side on my desk. I look at my clock. Its already ten. I better get some rest.

Time skip~

I wake up to my alarm jittering. Its eight o' clock in the morning, and I don't want to miss breakfast. I put on my clothes, slip my watch on, and walk outside. As soon as i'm out the door a rumble shakes the camp, and rain starts pouring down. I sigh, go back in, grab my green raincoat, and walk out again to be greeted by a dreary day in the sky.

~Annabeth C can Max and Dylan be friends? It would get kind of boring if he was only talking to the NPCs. 

Kathlynn-

Just the thought of sleeping made my skin crawl, as soon as my eyes closed, visions of that night came flooding behind my eyelids. I wasn't older than thirteen, the night had been silent and rainy. my dad had recently left to go on a date with the first woman he had found since my mother, who had left when I was two months old. I was happy for him, and the woman he had met, seemed nice, her son Max, was nice, and we hung out sometimes. 

I had sat on the couch, eating ice cream because no one was home to tell me I couldn't, watching mindless TV I looked down at my watch, they had left meerly an hour ago, yet something felt off, and as soon as I got that gut feeling, the house phone had rung, I jumped, the sudden noise scaring me. laughing it off, I got to my feet, surprised and terrified to see the number 911. 

I had answered, and nearly dropped the phone when they told me the news. my father had died, in a fatal Car crash, the woman who had been in the car with him, May, had survived, just barely, and was now in the hostpital. 

of course in the end everything did end up okay, but the mere thought of losing someone else so important to me, like Max, or Mason, or dying myself, made me feel sick. 

I reached into my back pack, something I always kept close to my bed, and pulled out my Phone something I barly used. (let's just say that she found a way to not have it give off a signal when she listens to music, :)) I put up the the first music app I found, and simply let it play. 'don't you worry child' was the first thing to play, and I smiled softly, I used to love the song, and I hadn't heard it in a while. slowly, I felt my eyelids become heavy, slowly, slowly drooping down, intel I was consumed by sleep, taken to anything but a peacful coma. 

"NOOOOO!" a shout in a taunting voice filled my ears.

"this is no place for you," 

"go back while you still can," 

"UNWORTHY!" 

owls swooped and pecked at me, coming from no where and everywhere at the same time, consuming the air, yet taking up no space at all. filling me with the dread of pain, when I felt nothing. "GET AWAY!" I screamed, dread filling me. something inside told me this wasn't right, I tried to move but it was like my feet were glued to the ground, making

me endore this torture like Atlas and his punishment.

"My dear grandaughter, if you cannot take this, whatever gives you the beilef of you being able to survive the quest, let alone an hour?"

"you know nothing!" I shouted, well aware of how my voice was becoming distant and soft, making it so that even the smallest of words of sounds, were almost in strain to be heard. 

"keep in mind, that no one will to be at blame but yourself, Kathlynn Peterson," Zeus spoke, as if he were high and mighter, er, more so than usual. 

"wake up," Max whispered, shoving me, I groaned, and looked down at my phone, three thirty in the morning, Gods this was too early. my earbuds had fallen out, but the music hadn't stopped playing at the moment 'Catch my breathe' was playing. I pressed pause, quickly went into settings, and unabled my password, if I didn't comeback, at least they'd be able to see everything interestresting. 

"Max, before we leave, if I don't make it-"

"don't talk like that of course you'll make it back," he cut me off. 

"shut up, and listen to me," I gave him a fake glare. "spread all my secrets like wildfire, every last one of them, needs to see the light of day, well, the good ones," I said, Max smiled, and nodded.

"so in other words, I'd have your permission to tell everyone that you have a crush on-"

"shush! don't say his name  you have no idea when the Hermes' are listening!" I scolded, shaking my head, "you need to be more careful!" 

and with that, we began our way out to meet the rest of the twelve, and send one of us to our doom. 

Hali~

I wake up with a jolt from the recurring nightmare. 

Once my breathing slows down and I dictate my dream from reality, I glance to the side and see it’s 5 in the morning. Sun rises in two hours, so the others will probably meet at 6. That means I’ve got an hour head start, because I sure am not going back to sleep. 

I put on black leggings, my cloudy pale grey blue shirt, and my black insulated bomber jacket, along with a few anklets. I quickly put on running shoes before going outside. 

The cold blast of air hits me, so thank goodness I’m warm. Although it’s dark, the pale moonlight washes over the lake, revealing the thick fog dispersed on the surface of the glassy water. It’s lonely out here. 

I clear my throat and get a small knapsack that has a few helpful supplies, like a compass, a map of the outside world, a knife, and other small things. 

I head out of my cabin and to Apollo where Silas is. I know he doesn’t usually sleep easily, so he should be up by now. 

I silently slip in and am thankful for all the times I snuck through places with Alana. 

I tip toe past the snoring Apollo kids and to Silas’ bed, which is empty. 

My eyes widen when I feel a hand on my shoulder and one over my mouth. 

Either I’m getting kidnapped again or Chiron has found out or Apollo himself has found out-

“It’s me. Let’s get outside. I just didn’t want you to shout and wake everyone.”

Silas releases his hands, and we quietly slip outside and hold our breathes until the cabin door closes. 

“Okay. Where are the others?”

“We’re about an hour early Silas,” I reply. “But I suppose we could go see if Alana is up. She’s usually up early. You ready?”

He nods and we head to the Hermes cabin, slipping past some counsellors up early patrolling. 

I look through the window and see the dim lit screen of Alana’s computer. 

I nod. “She’s up.”

Once the counsellor gets to the other side of camp, we quietly walk up to the front of the building and tap on the door. 

Within seconds, Alana arrives, fully dressed with a small bag. 

“Ready?”

I nod, and we all head to the boundaries. In 30 minutes, all twelve of us will be there. 

OMGOODNESS-I am so sorry-I totally forgot about this! Sorry again-I will post now!

Aubrina~

Well-so many different events happened today... I swear I just barely got here at Camp Half-Blood when a traditional game of Capture the Flag started, (my team lost, but that's ok!) Then Hali got a concussion, and was taken to the infirmary, where she woke up. She said that she was ok, but I could tell that something was wrong. I'm not that daft.

I was on my way to her cabin to go talk to her, when someone screamed "It's the ORACLE!"

That's when things started to get crazy.

The oracle prophesied that 12 heroes would go on a quest, one would die, and one would betray them. My friends and I figured that the "12 heroes," was us, and we went to go talk to Chiron about it. As usual, Chiron was the cautious one, and said "no," but again, as usual, we're going. All 12 of us.  

I don't know what's going to happen in our future. I'm really worried about  someone dying, but I'm also worried about the person who is going to betray us. Could it possibly be me? 

-Aubrina 

I  sigh and put down the pen I was writing with in my journal. I nervously twirl my mascara dagger in my hand to alleviate my fears. Perhaps the oracle was wrong, and no one had to die?  Sighing, I throw my dagger to the wall above my picture of a cute actor. Direct hit. "Bullseye!"

I sigh again. We're all meeting at 6 tomorrow morning, and I need some rest. "Goodnight." I whisper.

~Time skip~

5:30 A.M.

I was awake all night. I couldn't sleep. I knew I needed my strength, but I was just to nervous. Getting out of bed, I quietly crept over to my niightstand and packed my mascara dagger, my compact mirror shield, some snacks, a hairbrush, a couple makeup things. and a change of clothes.  

I sigh and look at the clock. 5:45. I still had time.

I knew Hali would kill me if I was late, or if I told anyone, but I had to talk to Caleb before we left. 

Caleb is my... well, I guess you could say he's my boyfriend, and he's a son of Athena. I say he's my "crush," but everyone thinks otherwise. He has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is tall. He's also one of my closest friends-and he'd go crazy if I didn't tell him where I was. 

"Psst. Caleb!" I whisper at a window of Athena's cabin. "Caleb!"

"Aubrina?" Caleb sits up in his bunk and comes over to the window. "What's wrong? Are you ok?" 

"Yeah. You heard the prophecy right?"

He nods. "Yeah."

"Well... I'm going."

"Did Chiron say?"

"Well..."

"No? Aubrina..."

"I know, I know. But we have to do this. If we don't..."

"We?"

Oops. I shuffle my feet. "Yeah..."

"Aubrina, you can't go. Stay here. Please. I don't want to see you get hurt, and you heard what the prophecy said. "One will die..."

"Not to mention that "one will betray." Don't worry Caleb. I'm sorry, but I'm going. There's no stopping me."

"Then I'm coming with you."

"NO. Caleb, you have to stay HERE. You're needed here, I'm needed... elsewhere. Besides, you have a life, a family, friends,"

"You do too!"

"I'm not that important. I have to go, or else I'll live with that guilt that I never did. I might never see one of my friends ever again..."

"No. I won't let you go."

"Caleb... please."

He sighed. "Ok. Hang on."

"Um...ok?"

He walked over to the door of his cabin, and silently opening it, walked over to where I stood. Standing in front of me, he reached out and embraced me, as I leaned my head on his chest. 

"Just... promise me that you'll come back to me. Please."

My eyes welled up wth tears. "I.. I will," but he and I both knew that I might not come back.

"And if you don't, I swear upon the river Styx that I WILL go to the underworld, and I will annoy you day and night, every second of your undead life." He teased.

I smiled and stretched up on my tip toes to kiss him on the cheek. "I'd like that."

Waving goodbye to him, I ran to our meeting place. Hali was already there, along with a couple others.

"Geez Aubri, how much stuff do you need to bring?" Hali joked.

I smiled and patted my sack. "Only the neccesities."

"You ready?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "As ready as I'll every be." 

'Good." Hali nodded. "We're just waiting for the rest of the group, then we'll be on our way." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok... sorry for not posting, sorry for the bad writing. and sorry for the long post.

Also, I have a couple question as I've been reading different posts on here to catch up on the story line so far.... 

Doesn't Artemis not have any kids? I thought she only had huntresses because she's a maiden goddess...

Who is going to be the one who betrays the group?

And are electronics allowed at Camp Half-Blood? I thought they weren't, since monsters can detect electronic activity.

Anyways... again so sorry!  

Braelynn~

The night before we left for the mission. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't sleep.

I tossed and turned, thinking about the prophecy. Why was I chosen? I'm not the smartest in my cabin, or the best fighter. I doubt I'll be any help to anyone.
I clutch my pillow, turning on my side. 

Was I the one who would die? I don't fear death as much as others, we all die at some point, yet I haven't lived up my life to its full potential. 
I bury my face in my pillow.
Though I want to deny it, my greatest fear whispers in my ear.

What if I will be the one to betray? 
I shake my head, pushing the thought away. Yes, I'm bitter towards the gods. Who isn't? The way I've had to live my life, the way we've all had to live our lives, is partially caused by the neglect of our godly parents.
Athena is a very kind mother, if not always around. And besides, I could never betray Aurora. 

Or Max. 

I flip over to my back, sighing. Hearing the noise, one of my cabinmates chucks a pillow at me. I glare into the dark patch it came from, before settling in my bed and falling alseep.

~~~

I lug my bag to the meeting area. I've packed my clothes, a few books, toiletries, and of course my sleeping mask and earplugs. At the bottom of my bag is my stuffed owl, Ollie. I've had Ollie since I was a little girl, though I'll never admit I still have him. 

A few campers are already gathered, speaking in hushed whispers. A nervous tension fills the air.

"Good, you're here." Hali walks up to me, obviously anxious to get going. "We'll leave as soon as the others arrive."

I shrug and plop my stuff down, sitting on the ground and beginning to pluck apart a strand of grass.

Once we get going on this mission, my life will never be the same. 

Can i join? i could just say i just discovered my parentage