Heroes of Olympus: Next Gen

Luke

On our way to the cabins, some of the Aphrodite kids kept staring at Marie and Emily- mostly at their eyes. I understood why of course. It's not often that we find Demigods who have complete Heterochromia which is a condition where a person has one eye as one color with the other a completely different one. Unfortunately, Marie and Emily's eyes are a little less subtle and makes people look twice to make sure they saw it right. They both have brown and golden eyes. Emily has the golden one on her right, while Marie has it on her left. They both had their mother's skin tone, but still had some Asian features in their faces because their dad is Chinese-Canadian. They are honestly really pretty. You'd mistake them as daughters of Aphrodite at first glance before you actually get to know them. They both have big curly hair, but not course. Marie likes to use the bow and arrow as her main weapon as well as her magical abilities, and she has been trained with spear but doesn't like using it,  while Emily mostly uses her shape shifting abilities to fight or a celestial bronze gauntlet and knuckles for close combat (she likes to use her fists). So yeah, an unusual pair, but they like to flaunt their differences which I've come to admire.

When we reached the middle of the cabins, we had a group meeting before we split. I stepped up to talk.

"We have lots of training ahead. Get some sleep, even though we probably won't, but just try, because for the next couple months, there's gonna be blood, sweat, and tears."

Everyone nodded and we dispersed like water spilled on the floor in the dark

  *     *

After I told Grace goodnight, when I fell into the bed, I immediately passed out and began to dream-the same dream I've been having for a month now. It always starts with me in the dark. It hurts to breath, and then, a line of fire appears. In that fire, I can see images, images of a war. On one side, there was monsters, titans, and-

And us.

That's wasn't there before. Why were we there? Fighting WITH monsters? It didn't make any sense. I tried to move past it because On the other side, there was this gigantic being, but now, I know who it is -Tartarus.

He stood alone in the flames, unopposed. He was tearing through the army like foam in a bubble bath-with almost no effort. Then he turned to me, and said, "You WILL fail. Join me, and I will spare you. If not, then you have brought this," he waves his hand over the ruins of destruction and death. "Upon yourself. Leave, Half blood. Or this is your fate."

The air becomes hot and noxious. Its unbearable. I slip and fall backward, and tartarus's hand comes crashing down.

Then I wake up, with a pillow hitting me.

"WAKE UP! Gods, your like a hibernating bear, literally nothing can wake you up."

I forced a smile, still processing my dream. But I  wondered, was she, or any of the others having dreams too? It was about time that I should ask.

"Grace-" my voiced cracked.

She turned around with a quizzical expression, almost concerned.
"What's wrong?"

"Have you-." It was hard to get the words out from me still being shaken up by my dream.

"Have you been having any dreams lately?"

Her face changed immediately-a look of dread. That's when I knew that she was too.

"It's been happening for about a month." She said "I wasn't sure if you or the others were having them, but now it seems obvious."

"What happens in yours?" I ask

"Well....It's like a video of the future, except I never see the ending."

I stared at her waiting to finish and she stared right back at me blankly.

"So what happens?" I ask

"It starts with me looking up at Tartarus, behind me, an entire army of monsters. You all are their too."

I nod my head in reply. This didn't sound good, but I needed to hear the rest of it.

"Then, I start running toward him, charging. I then leap into the air with some type of weapon that I've never seen before, with Tartarus ready to land an attack, and then it ends."

"Just, ends? That's it?"

She nodded. "I never get to the end of the dream."

Suddenly, a knocking at the door disburses the cloud of weariness that had settled on us. We both turned around to find our father standing at the entrance. His face turns from confidence to concern.

"I know that look." He said, "What did you both dream about?"

My eyes met with Graces, then we looked back at our father and sighed.

"Come in. This might be a lot."

He came inside, and breathed in. My guess is that he was remembering the days he used to stay here when he was our age.

"Grace, why don't you go first?"

She gulped then sat down and began relaying the same thing she told me.

"Hm. You might have viewed a possible outcome of the future, but I'm not 100% sure." Dad said. "What about you Luke?"

I sat in silence for a moment, remembering the poisonous air, the harsh flame, and the images inside it. I then told him everything inside my dream.

When I was done, he seemed to be deep in thought-like he was elsewhere for a minute.

"Dad?"

He must've snapped out of whatever he was thinking about because he looked at me then seemed to remember what we were talking about, then tried to explain my dream as best he could.

"That was the environment of Tartarus. The poisonous air, the fire, the monsters. You must've had a vision of Tartarus, but not a very good or clear one."

I sat in silence along with Grace, listening to our father speak.

"The fire though, that's going to be your number one source for anything. It's the River of Fire- Phlegethon. It has been known as the river of healing as well, but in only heals you just enough to keep moving and breathing. The ground, you would think some parts of it are just black sand but it's not. It's glass-tiny itty bitty bits of glass. The reason I'm telling you this is because you need to be prepared. Everything within Tartarus is made to kill. You must rely on each other and NEVER separate. Staying together is your strength when in the pit. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

We both nod our heads

"The only reason your mother and I got out alive was the fact we kept each other alive-we stayed together and never left each others side. Your mother was also hurt really badly. I almost lost the sense of who I was because I was so intent on protecting her. She reminded me who I was. You all need to do the same for each other and keep yourselves in check."

I looked at my sister and took her hand. She squeezed it so hard, it felt like she almost broke it.

"Alright, now come on. It's time we get the others and train."  Dad said

With that, we all filed out of the cabin and met the others in the middle of the cabin yard.