the prophecy | leo valdez

ᶜᵒʳᵈᵉˡⁱᵃ

when rachel said campfire, cordelia was not expecting this. in her head, a campfire meant a tiny pile of sticks with a couple of orangish flames in a circle of stones. or maybe a huge, roaring pile of wood.

what she got instead was almost as weird: a sing-along. the amphitheatre steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a huge fire pit. fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners. 

cordelia felt a spike of deja vu. she was sure she had been here before, but none of the campers had seemed to recognize her. even annabeth, who she had found out more about after a talk with rachel, had been here since she was seven and didn't have a clue who cordelia was.

the flames of the fire were leaping higher and higher into the air as everyone got more and more riled up. cordelia shifted uncomfortably in her seat beside her new siblings. she'd been placed there by rachel and was mildly irritated that she'd been left with no explanation. she didn't even know her siblings names!

a rowdy applause broke out as the song ended. a guy on a horse trotted up. at least, cordelia had thought it was a guy on a horse, until the shadows shifted and he turned out to be half horse. in any normal situation, that would have freaked her out, but she'd decided normal wasn't exactly a regular thing around here. 

the centaur - there was that knowing stuff accidentally thing again - was half a white stallion, and half a middle aged guy with curly hair and a neatly trimmed beard. he brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows. cordelia figured that was normal here too. 

"very nice!" his voice was deep, but had a slight lilt of humor in it too. it sounded familiar. "and a special welcome to our new arrivals. i am chiron." by now, cordelia was sure she knew this guy. "your camp activities director, and i'm happy you have all arrived here alive and with most of your limbs attached. in a moment, i promise we'll get to the s'mores, but first-"

a kid underneath the red banner with a boars head emblem - ares - yelled out, "what about capture the flag?" grumbling broke out in the group.

cordelia snorted quietly. capture the flag? really? 

chiron frowned at them. "we've talked about this already, guys. no capture the flag for now." 

okay, really then. weird. 

the centaur continued talking, and cordelia felt her mind drifting away from her again. stupid adhd. 

but then a girl with dyed, dark red hair and an older man, looking very much middle aged, stepped down the stairs. the girl had one hand on his arm, and a silver cane in the other.

the guy had balding brown hair, and was wearing a leopard print hawaiian shirt, with purple crocs on his feet. he had a look of indifference on his face, but she could tell he actually cared about the girl beside him. anyway, cordelia was more interested in her. 

she was wearing a short black skirt, with fishnet tights and red laced doc martins. her crop top was also black, but she had slight dark red accents on it. there was a huge scar going right across her eye, beginning just on her hairline, and ending below her cheekbone. her eyes are a purple that seem s to glow

chiron seems to notice them to, and stops his talking to greet them. "ah, dionysus, lilith, come for the marshmallows have you?" the campfire behind him swells to a deep red.

the man, or dionysus, rolls his eyes as he helps the girl into her seat - right next to cordelia. "of course not. i will not be subjecting myself to that torture." a chalice appears in his hand, and chiron looks like he wants to say something, but then he presses it into the girls hand and leaves.