Rise of The Night

Nearly four months passed, Nico and I trained and trained and trained. Percy stopped by twice more and we won Capture the Flag twenty-one more times, we were undefeatable. But other than that nothing else happened, no strange monster attacks or disturbances. Ava, Cloe, and I had painted the walls of my cabin with poppies of all different colors. Camp life got boring, even with all of the strange activities.
No weird dreams, and I finally realized that this was what life was like for a normal demi-god, I was finally normal. I couldn't have hated it anymore.
December came and nothing had changed, not even the weather. It was still warm and sunny, which I thought was weird for New York. Percy had come back for the holidays and I would be leaving in two weeks to celebrate Christmas with my mom and Henry. It only struck me then, that I hadn't seen my mom in four months.
Nico, Percy and I had just come back from the campfire.
"What was the worst monster you've ever faced?" I asked Percy.
He thought for a minute, and then said, "Either Mrs. Dodds or the Minotuar. Both times I had no idea what was going on."
"Who's Mrs. Dodds?" I asked.
"An old algebra teacher of mine," he replied.
"Terrifying," I remarked sarcastically.
"It turns out she was a fury."
"Oh," I said throwing my converse onto my porch.
Nico climbed up and sat on the porch railing lazily.
"The gods have been quiet lately and Dionysus is still at Olympus. I wonder if something's wrong," he said looking up at the stars.
"It sure doesn't seem like it," said Percy, "but with the gods, you never really know."
"I kind of wish something was wrong, just so that I would have a bit more to think about," I sighed.
"I know the feeling. It's as if all the monsters have gone into hibernation," reasoned Percy, "Well, I'm wiped out, see you guys in the morning."
He strolled of in the direction of his cabin, "Sweet dreams," I called to him.
He turned back to me and smiled, "With your blessing I'm sure I will."
Like always when I turned back to say goodnight to Nico, he was gone.
I walked inside my cabin, sighed, and pulled my pajamas on with as much enthusiasm as a corpse.
When I crawled into bed, it took hours for me to even shut my eyes. But when I did finally fall asleep, I dreamed for the first time at camp.
But it was the same dream as always. The clocked woman, she was back but this time she was younger, much younger, her skin wasn't wrinkled and as she stood up slowly it was with the grace and elegance of youth. Her long talon-like fingernails were paint such a dark blue that they looked black against the night sky. Her pale skin sparkled like those vampire's from those weird movies, and though she didn't wear any jewelry you could tell by her back satin cloak she had the wealth to buy a kingdom. She lifted her head, and even though I couldn't see her yes through the veil, I could tell she was staring straight at me.
Oh child, so naïve. You soon with take back you wish. I will give you plenty to think about. Pain, Suffering, Loss, Strife, Grief.
Her voice echoed in my mind. The stars on her clock seemed to glow more brightly than ever. Her deep red lips curled into a smirk.
Enjoy your time, soon the sun will not rise for you, little demi-god.
I woke up sweating and feverish. My breaths were coming unsteadily and I glanced around my cabin for anything unusual. Nothing. I sat on my bed for a few minutes waiting for my breathing to return to it's normal pace, but it never stopped it's fast pop song rhythm. I looked at the flowers painted onto my wall, even they looked slightly eerie, well as eerie as bright pink, red, magenta, and purple poppies can get. I hastily swung my legs over the edge of my bed and stood up trying to gain my balance. Once I felt stable I slung on my hoodie and rushed out the door, not even bothering to put my shoes on.
I strided through the cabin area and realized how late it really was, not a sound was heard except for the wind through the woods and over the fields and the waves crashing on the shore of Long Island Sound. Not a movement from any of the cabins. I stopped between Nico and Percy's cabins, who should I talk to? Percy's been a demigod longer but Nico was more informational.
I decided to go with Nico, he had a pretty good concept of demi-god powers.
I walked up to his cabin, two torches lit with Greek fire illuminated the front of his cabin a deep greenish color. I could tell where he based his cabin design off of, I was made from the same stone as the underworld, slick black obsidian that crawled up the cabin in shards. I pushed open the door with both hands, It was surprisingly light. Nico lay asleep in the single bunk of his cabin. He looked so peaceful, it was such a shame I had to wake him up. He looked so much younger than usual so much less tense, so naturally I grabbed his shoulders and shook him awake.
He jumped up attentively and as soon s he saw me gave me the ultimate "What now?" look.
"What is it, Lea?" he asked groggily.
"I had a dream," I said then realized how lame it sounded.
But Nico obviously didn't think so, his eyes widened and he asked, "What happened?"
I explained as quickly and as accurately as I could. Unlike other dreams, this one wasn't illusive I was as clear as a memory of yesterday.
Nico furrowed his brow, "That was definitely an immortal speaking, but whether it was a god or titan, I don't know. What did she say about sunrise, that could be a clue."
"She said 'Enjoy your time, soon the sun will not rise for you, little demi-god'." I replied shivering just thinking about it.
"Hmmmm," Nico was deep in thought, searching his metal library for any hits., "It was clearly a female and I'm pretty sure it was a titan. But other than that I don't know, we'll talk to Chiron in the morning. You can stay here for the night."
"Do I want to?" I asked teasing him, trying to keep my spirits up.
But I was too tired to leave so I climbed into the top bunk and slid under the black satin sheets. I fell asleep a little after I heard Nico's breathing slow, signaling that he was asleep.
Luckily I didn't dream again. When I woke up the cabin was still dark but I'm pretty sure that was because the cabin didn't have any windows to let the sunlight in.
"Nico," I whispered, "You awake?"
"Barely," he groaned.
"Let's go," I said, "It's creepy in here."
"Thank you."
I jumped off the top bunk not even bothering to use the ladder.
"I'll meet you at the big house, bring Percy. I'm gonna change." I said rushing out the door into the warm sunlight and fresh air. I ran barefoot, to my cabin and changed into jeans and the camp shirt, with my hot pink high tops, I didn't really feel like consulting Chiron with my pajamas on.
I jogged over to the big house, Nico was waiting on the big white wrap-around porch.
"Percy wasn't in his cabin," said Nico.
We quietly walked up the steps to the big house, I could tell by the sun that it was about ten o'clock in the morning.
Nico pushed open the screen door. It smacked itself back into place with a loud clack after we stepped through. I heard voices from the family room. Nico lead me down the hallway. In the family room were four people three of them I knew.
Percy sat on the couch next to a girl with fire-truck red hair and a tied camp shirt her jeans were all ripped up and drawn on, and Chiron stood next to Henry they all were talking and laughing with the, Percy was the first to notice us.
"Hey Lea. Hey Nico. What's up?" he asked.
"Oh nothing much just came to see Chiron about something."
"Okay, well first," he said standing up, "Lea, meet Rachel she's the oracle here at camp and one of my personal friends."
Rachel stood up and smiled at me her bright green eyes sparkled she walked over and shook my hand, "Hi, I'm Rachel, Percy's-"
Then she cut herself off, her entire body went rigid.
The whole room seemed to darken and her eyes rolled back into her head, but when she opened them again the were glowing completely green, a green smoke coiled out of her mouth.
I began to back up, this was seriously freaky. Everyone else was frozen too, staring in awe. I was about the scream to get them to snap out of it or something when a voice echoed around the room:
You shall go to the land where Apollo's ride ends,
Leave with two but arrive with one of your friends,
Trust scales of blue but not eyes of gold,
And defeat the night and titan of old.
The ancient voice hung in the air until Rachel's body went limp and she fell backwards Percy caught her and laid her on the couch. The room was back to normal again. Everyone looked at me.
"Okay," I said, "What just happened?"
"Rachel is our oracle as Percy said, she just said a prophecy." Explained Chiron.
"So that's normal?"
"It is usually the sign of the gods issuing a quest."
"A quest? Aren't those like really rare?"
"Not so much anymore," sighed Chiron, "Percy has been on almost seven of them."
"Lucky me," said Percy a hint of sarcasm his voice.
"Lea, you said you wanted to talk to Chiron about something," said Henry.
"Yeah, I had this dream last night."
I repeated the dream again. Chiron began to look worried.
"Have you ever dreamt anything like this before?" asked Henry.
"Yeah all the time, but she was older before and she never talked."
"Why didn't you tell me?" asked Henry.
"Because I thought it was just a dream, they stopped as soon as I found out I was demi-god."
"Lea, you do realize that this cannot just be a coincidence," said Chiron, "I believe that a certain titan is rising now and her main target is you."
"Another titan?" asked Percy.
"Yes, Percy, I believe all of the titans will awaken again sometime in the near future, all we can do is be prepared."
"So what does this whole quest thing entail?" I asked.
"You head to the land where Apollo's ride ends, whatever that means?"
"I think I might know, actually. Doesn't Apollo ride a sun chariot across the sky to give us day?" I said.
"Actually it's a pretty sick Mustang," added Percy.
"Okay, so his ride ends at sunset and the sun sets in the west right?" Everyone nodded, "So we head west, back home, to California."
"I'll bet it's San Francisco, Mount Tam or should I say Mount Othrys," said Percy.
"Let's talk about this on the porch, I think we all need a bit of fresh air," said Chiron.
He led us down the hall and out the door, we left Rachel on the couch Percy said that she'd wake up soon. We all sat around the small table on the porch. Campers were coming out of their cabins now and some were heading to the dining hall to get breakfast, other were doing yoga or playing some morning volleyball. They had no idea what was going on over here.
"When do we leave and how do we prepare?" I asked.
"Well, most quests leave the next day and Argus can take you into the city from there you can find a bus station and begin your journey."
"Yeah, because that worked so well the first," said Percy sarcastically referring to his first quest.
"But first you must choose two companions to go with you, Lea," continued Chiron.
"That's easy, Percy and Nico," I suggested.
"I don't know if that's such a good idea. Two children of the big three and a Primum cruor. You'd be irresistible to monsters."
"I can't think of anyone else to go with me, besides Cloe and Ava. But I can't bring three people can I?"
"I'm afraid it is against tradition."
"I've done it before," said Percy.
"You have done many risky things before that does not mean you should do them again, Percy," mused Chiron.
"Then it's settled, Percy Nico and I will go," I finalized.
"I'm not sure if I want to after that whole 'leave with two arrive with one' thing."
"Demi-gods don't usually die on quests do they?"
Everybody glanced at everyone else but me, avoiding answering my question.
"Errr," said Percy.
"Okay that's not good but anyways, what else did the prophecy say?" I asked.
"Something about trust scales of blue but not eyes of gold," Said Nico.
"So if we meet something with blue scales, that's good thing, but if we meet something with gold eyes, that's a bad thing," I reasoned.
"It was the last line that I find to be the most important," said Chiron.
"And defeat the night and titan of old," said Percy, "what do you think it means?"
"I believe I know who the titan is that is rising now," he began, "Lea, I think it may be your grandmother, Nyx the titan of night."

Notes