Son Of The Cup Bearer {Percy Jackson x Ejen Ali}

Rizwan Tries To Comfort Ali (And Fails)

To leave, or not to leave? That is the question.

Ali didn't know how many minutes or hours had passed as he laid in his bunker in Cabin Eleven, staring at the musty underside of the bed above. The scene of him activating his yoyo and blowing an eighth of the arena up, that includes Mika, kept replaying in his head.

It was obvious the yoyo was trouble. The look on everyone's face as he came down from the arena told him that they wanted to stay clear of him even more. News do spread like wildfire here, no doubt.

"No, Ali, this is home. This is the only safe place for you guys- I mean, us - demigods."

It's clear what he was supposed to do, isn't it? He was proving a potential threat or sign of doom for the campers, and they know it. He couldn't stand the fact that if he continued staying here, he would be endangering the only place safe for people like him - demigods. Only difference is that they do not have a destiny that would end in them destroying the camp.

A creak from the end of his bed.

Ali looked up to see his counsellor, Rizwan, in his usual bright orange Camp-Half Blood shirt and tight jeans. He wasn't staring at him, but Ali could tell he was here for him; nobody else was in here except them him, after all.

Silence.

"Don't you want to meet the others?" was the first thing Rizwan said. Talk about communication skills.

"What do you think?" Ali grumbled, turning on his side to face the dull brown wall instead.

Despite staring at the wall, he got the feeling that Rizwan was eyeing him fondly.

"It was cool, you know, Capture the Flag yesterday," Rizwan said. Hah. Trying to change topic. Like that was gonna work.

When Ali didn't reply, Rizwan continued, "It was an intense fight. Both the Hunters of Artemis and Diana wouldn't give up. They ended up a tie and Lieutenant Thalia was forced to accept that they were going to sleep with their counterpart. A shame. Bet Thalia didn't like that."

It was now or never.

"Rizwan," Ali said.

The man must have been taken aback, because his tone was way more of genuine than before; not as if he was trying to put on a fake talk just to make him talk. "Yes?"

"I...want to tell you something."

Ali sat up so that he was beside Rizwan, so that he would meet the man's eyes and made sure he knew he was serious about this.

"But promise me," Ali said in an undertone, as if the walls might listen in. "Promise me to never tell anyone else."

The sunken areas of Rizwan's pale face suddenly became more deeper. This freaked Ali out a little bit, but he didn't show it. Rizwan said in a voice most monotone, "I swear on the River Styx."

Ali didn't know if it was him, but a distant roar of thunder could be heard from outside. He considered that his senior counsellor had just sealed the greatest oath.

"Alright, so here goes..."

With the best way he could, Ali explained about the nonsense Rachel Elizabeth Dare had spewed out when he met her. It had been bothering him a lot daily, and if he didn't know what it meant, Ali was sure he was going to explode.

Rizwan listened to the entire thing, his face scrunching up more and more as he continued. Finally, he said, "Ali, what you just heard...that was most undoubtly a prophecy."

"Doesn't seem to tell the future to me," Ali snorted.

"Well," Rizwan tilted his head, as if considering the best way to explain something simple to a toddler. "It usually leads up to a quest. Like an adventure, but with high chances of death and an objective if failed usually also end with death. The prophecy gives clues about the quest. It can have double meanings, so don't go over your mind with worry."