Of Shadow And Sky

A New Quest

A/N: I almost forgot. I do not own anything except Alex and the plot. Familiar characters, places, etc belong to JK and Uncle Rick.

Alex sat straight up, a sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead. Next to her, Connor Stoll was rubbing his ankle where she had kicked him, and Travis was chuckling a few bunks away. She must have looked pretty bad, because the two brothers stopped joking, and Connor knelt down next to her and felt her forehead.

"I'm not sick," she muttered. "I just had a nightmare."

Travis frowned. "A nightmare? Wanna talk about it? Demigod nightmares are nothing to brush off...."

Alex shook her head, getting to her feet and stretching. "No, but thanks anyway. I think I'll just go for a walk by the beach."

As she was heading out, she heard Connor yell to watch out for the cleaning harpies. She didn't need to be told twice. She'd gotten caught out after curfew once before, and those harpies had chased her from the far end of the woods all the way to the Hermes cabin in five minutes - which she swore was a record. A soft breeze rustled the grass as she made her way to the beach, eyes on the soft pink of the pre-dawn sky. Dark turquoise waves lapped at the shore, and a seagull flew low over the sea before plucking a fish up. In short, it was a very peaceful morning. 

She sighed as she drew  a bird in the sand. "I wish my nights were as peaceful as my days are....er...well...ah forget it." 

It's true that the days were peaceful - by demigod standards, that is, which meant that there weren't any evil beings seeking to take over the world. At least not anymore, thanks to Percy Jackson and his friends they'd defeated Kronos and his army.  Still and all, her nights were always the same. She dreamed of a faceless boy yelling for her to run, and then the scene changed to a haze of smoke, shadow, and fire. Then she would wake up. Always the same. It never changed. 

"Alex?"

The voice made her jump, hand immediately going to the sword she had strapped to her waist as she spun around. It was just Chiron, and he was walking over to stand beside her, his brown eyes unreadable.

"Oh," she held her hand to her chest, "Don't startle me like that, Chiron!"

"Sorry," his lips quirked into a small smile. "You've been having trouble sleeping lately haven't you?"

Alex didn't say anything right away, choosing instead to look out over the ocean. "No. I've been having nightmares. Well...the same nightmare every night."

"That's what Connor and Travis just said. It does not do well to keep dreams to yourself, especially if they happen to repeat. However, we don't exactly have time to interpret them just now. I was wondering if you would come up to the Big House. There is a...matter that has come up that I was hoping you would help resolve."

She frowned. A "matter" that had come up? Her expression became flat and she gave him a rather unamused look. "By 'matter' you mean 'quest', don't you?"

Chiron sighed and looked up at the rising sun. "Yes. Rachel has given another prophecy, and she is quite adamant that you are involved in the quest."

So, the Oracle had issued a quest, and she was supposed to be involved? Great. Just fantastic. Sure, she helped fight in the Second Titan War, but the prophecy had centered on Percy. She had been hoping to never get a quest, much less a random prophecy. Knowing that refusing to go would most likely result in a very painful death or worse, she followed Chiron up to the big blue farm house that few people liked to go to. Chiron lead the way to the war room, and she stopped in the doorway. Sitting at the ping-pong table were Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Rachel. She had spoken to Rachel a few times, but she usually stayed away from the other three. Not because they were mean or anything, but because they were legitimate heroes and children of the Big Three. Vaguely, she scolded herself for being such a fangirl.