Daughter of Hades: Dahlia's Struggle

Dahlia's Childhood comes back to haunt her.

It took an hour. For each cabin to arrive and to calm down, it took an hour. I was beyond annoyed, but I didn't yell at anyone, so I was already doing better than earlier. The fire glowed purple, which was normal, as everyone finally calmed down and shut up. Harper was sitting beside me, tense as a coil, waiting for Chiron to announce her quest. I already had a feeling who she wanted on her quest, but I prayed to the gods I was wrong. Chiron raised his hand and announced Harper's quest. She sprang up and walked stiffly over, and announced who she wanted for companions. I wasn't wrong.

"Dahlia and Drew. Will you accompany me on my quest." She said smiling slightly. She knew I didn't want to go, but I couldn't say no or they'd choose another idiot to go along with them. I placed my fingers on my temples and sighed.

"Sure." I muttered, lifting my pounding head. I was getting a stress headache and it was not cool. Harper was giving me a look, so I answered a little more dramatically. "Yes, my friend, I accept this request." I wiggled my eyebrows at my joke and Harper rolled her eyes at my act. We both knew it wasn't me, and my head didn't appreciate the loud laughter from the other campers. I walked down to stand beside her and Chiron. Drew said yes with less flair than I did and then followed me up beside Harper. Harper got a prophecy from Rachel, but now she fit the title of 'The Oracle'. Her eyes glowed a toxic green and dark green fog poured from her mouth as she spoke and pooled around our feet. I didn't hear what she said, but I did see that Harper's reaction wasn't good. Most people wouldn't have seen her grin twitch slightly, or her eyes widen. Nobody would have noticed her forehead wrinkle as her brows knit together before she made a conscious effort to fix her face. She was afraid, which made me afraid, which made people even more annoying than before. There was lunch to be had, but I'd lost my appetite. I stalked to my cabin, passing Nick on the way.

"Congratulations! I hope I get a quest soon! My cabin counselor says we get quests to prove ourselves, I already know you're annoying, though." He grinned slyly at me at his last comment, but I didn't have the patience to react. I shoved past and ran to my cabin, crawling underneath an empty bunk. One thing I learned, small, dark spaces feel like the safest places. I can't go unseen there, because there's nobody around to see me. I don't know, it's probably stupid. But it makes me happy, so suck it.

Anyways, I was laying under the bunk when Drew came clumping in, celebrating his first quest. It wasn't his to lead, but he was going so who cared, right? No, that's incorrect. I was the grumpy, pouty, in-pain person about to ruin his mood. His loud whooping hurt my head.

"It's not your quest, so you can stop jumping around and shouting." I growled, scaring Drew half to death. He shouted again and I winced from the sudden spike in pain.

"I thought nobody was in here, sorry. Where are you?" He was probably being quiet, but it sounded like he was shouting directly in my ear.

"Under the bed. Shut up. We're gonna die soon and I want to get a good night's sleep first." I grumped as I crawled out and climbed up to my bunk. Drew snorted.

"We're not going to die. I doubt we'll be gone even a week. Whoever warned you about quests was just trying to scare you." I threw my knife into the wall by his head and he jumped a mile.

"Willow was telling the truth. She died on the quest to bring Lia and Sean to camp, and now we're going on a quest. We're all gonna die. Willow was always right before, why not now?" I was talking more to myself by the end of my rant. "She always told me quests were dangerous and that eventually I was going to go on one. My godly parent was going to give me one, but I'm a child of the big three with no powers, so probably not happening. I just have to get the other two there and back alive, since I know for a fact they'll go running recklessly into battle. Am I the only one with a brain?" I groaned and flopped back on my pillow. I sat back up almost immediately realizing that I still hadn't packed. I grabbed my magic bag and gathered the few belongings I had. With that done, I laid back down and slept, my dreams riddled with nightmares.