Kassandra and the other two arrived at the campfire to a sing-along, something she dreaded more than Annabeth. There were fifty or sixty kids, the entire camp sitting in the amphitheatre under their respective cabin banners. Kassandra lent against the entrance whilst Rachel and Piper moved in.
Standing in front of the fire, half a dozen campers with guitars and strange, old-fashioned lyres?—were jumping around, leading a song about pieces of armour, something about how their grandma got dressed for war. Everybody was singing with them and making gestures for the pieces of armour and joking around.
Finally the song ended with a lot of rowdy applause. Chiron trotted up to the campfire. He brandished a spear impaled with toasted marshmallows.
"Very nice! And a special welcome to our new arrivals. I am Chiron, 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-"
"What about capture the flag?" somebody yelled.
Grumbling broke out among some kids in armour, especially the children of Ares.
"Yes," the centaur said. "I know the Ares cabin is anxious to return to the woods for our regular games."
"And kill people!" one of them shouted. Stupid Ares spawn.
"However," Chiron said, "until the dragon is brought under control, that won't be possible. Cabin Nine, anything to report on that?"
Leo was at the front of cabin Nine sitting next to a girl with an army jacket like Leo's and a red bandanna.
"We're working on it."
More grumbling.
"How, Nyssa?" an Ares kid demanded.
"Really hard," she said.
Nyssa sat down to a lot of yelling and complaining, which caused the fire to sputter chaotically. Chiron stamped his hoof against the fire pit stones- bang, bang, bang-and the campers fell silent.
"We will have to be patient," Chiron said. "In the meantime, we have more pressing matters to discuss."
"Percy?" someone called out.
Chiron gestured to Annabeth.
She took a deep breath and stood. "I didn't find Percy," she announced. Her voice caught a little when she said his name. "He wasn't at the Grand Canyon like I thought. But we're not giving up. We've got teams everywhere. Grover, Tyson, Nico, the Hunters of Artemis- everyone's out looking. We will find him. Chiron's talking about something different. A new quest."
"It's the Great Prophecy, isn't it?" a girl called out.
Everyone turned. The voice had come from a group in back, sitting under the rose-coloured banner of Aphrodite. They'd been chatting among themselves and not paying much attention until their leader stood up: Drew. Kassandra shuffled into the amphitheatre and took a seat by the campfire It was comfortably warm.
"Drew?" Annabeth said. "What do you mean?"
"Well, come on." Drew spread her hands like the truth was obvious. "Kassandra just shows up out of nowhere. (Y/N) disappears. Olympus is closed. Percy's disappeared. Hera sends you a vision and you come back with three new demigods in one day. I mean, something weird is going on. The Great Prophecy has started, right?"
Everyone moved to stare at Rachel. Other than Annabeth, she was commonly the one with answers to these sorts of things.
"Well?" Drew called down. "You're the oracle. Has it started or not?"
YOU ARE READING
The Daughter of War and Medicine
مغامرةThe sequel, part two, the continuation, whatever you want to call it. Kassandra is trying to forge a path ahead in such a confusing time, but with a mother who won't contact her and a missing father who no one will tell her about, it's difficult. Lu...
