Chanel Hastings & The Treasures of Aphrodite Book 1: The Magic Girdle

Chapter 9: I Get A Blast From The Ancient Past

OOTD: A dark pink vest from Macy's, a white fleece sweater, black fleece leggings, and light brown leather boots

Makeup: None today, just some strawberry-scented lip balm

Hairstyle: Wearing my hair loose with a white fleece headband to match my sweater

Fragrance: 'Princess' by Vera Wang

Dear Diary,

If I sound like a blubbering mess, it's because I didn't get much sleep. I spent the entire night worrying about the prophecy, and wondering how I was going to pull off this quest.

Part of me wished I could talk the spirit of the Oracle into letting me return the prophecy somehow, or doing an exchange for something simpler. I mean, I was something of a professional shopper, and I definitely knew how to drive a hard bargain. But I doubted Ms. Oracle would let me hustle into chickening out of my quest.

In addition, she'd never even given me a proper gift receipt, so unless she had a super flexible return policy, I was pretty much out of luck.

I was sitting alone at the Hermes table for breakfast. Since it was a Saturday morning, most campers usually slept in, leaving most of the tables empty. My only other companions were some early risers from the Apollo and Athena cabins, and Mikhailo, who had just finished climbing practice. Mikhailo seemed uninterested in socializing, and I didn't really know the other campers very well, so I just kept to myself. Which was fine, since I wasn't really in the mood to talk.

I munched on a bagel with light strawberry cream cheese as I thought about my prophecy.

'Daughter of beauty, warrior of love...'

The Oracle was talking to me, that part was clear enough. Weird of her to call me a warrior though, seeing as how I wasn't really living up to the name.

'Recover the treasure stolen above...'

The mission was obvious: retrieve the girdle and bring it back to Mom.

'You shall journey to the south, crossing land to land, and discover the treasure where the monuments stand...'

Where the monuments stand...did that mean Washington D.C.? I mean, it was south of New York, and the National Mall was there with all the memorials. But the mall wasn't the only place it could be, could it? There were lots of other monuments throughout the entire country, and some of them could technically be considered "south" of New York. But Washington seemed like a good starting point, so I stuck with that.

'The cold wind will push you, the star lights the way...'

The cold winds...was that supposed to be some kind of hint about the weather? Or maybe I would be doing some kind of flying during the quest? Or maybe the lines didn't mean anything, and it was just flowery language. As for the star lighting the way...was there a star I was supposed to follow or something? I mean, I knew of the Nativity stories with the three wise men following a star...but would a Christian story help me on a quest for a Greek goddess? That seemed unlikely.

I sighed and sipped a bit of my oat milk, deciding to take a break from thinking about the prophecy. That was only half the battle, anyway; I still hadn't decided who my quest buddies would be. I'd thought about the few kids I sort of knew since I'd come to camp aside from my siblings. Deja seemed like a good choice, being a child of Athena and all. She could probably help me make up for all the things I didn't know. And it would be nice to have a companion who was good at planning and strategizing. Heaven knows that I didn't have much of a plan at all.