Chapter Eighteen: Raymond. Fourteen Facepalms At The Master's Name

Here's chapter eighteen of Heroes: The New Level.

Fourteen Facepalms At The Master's Name
The others and I sat in the Big House at the center of the Greek camp, waiting for two of the camp's leaders to arrive.

A man came in. He looked sort of like a typical middle-aged guy, except for the fact that he was a stallion from the waste down. I struggled to remember the name. Centaur. "Chiron," Tara whispered.

Chiron looked at us. "I am sorry to inform you that due to events at Olympus, Dionysus will be unable to join us..."

"Yes!" I heard Percy and Annabeth breathe at once.

"Instead a different camp leader will be here with me," Chiron finished.

Percy's grin fell. "Not Tantalus? Or Quintus?"

"There are others at this camp, you know," a powerful girl's voice said. The girl who made it was huge, with dirty blonde hair cut unevenly and an arrogant sneer.

"Sorry, Clarisse," Nico said. "Just used to the term 'camp leaders' meaning more than cabin leaders."

"Yeah, well, the Oracle told me some stuff you might need to know," Clarisse added.

"What did she say?" Percy asked. Annabeth glared at him.

Clarisse recited, "Owl, bolt, crossbones, lyre/Four half-bloods face the god of fire/In the temple, one will fall/When the master enters misfortune's hall/Each mythology needs the glue/As the heroes enter a level that's new."

Face the god of fire? I asked.

I suppose it is possible that Sekhmet is our enemy, Ra said. Unlikely, but possible.

"What do you mean 'face the god of fire'?" Jason asked. "There is nothing really wrong with Vulcan."

"Or Hephaestus," Percy added.

"And Sekhmet's bad, but not that bad," Carter finished.

We looked at Natalie, Phoenix, and Cam. It was Cam who spoke. "Wellllll... the Aztec god of fire is Xolotl who was... uh, Quetzalcoatl's evil twin... and the temple that we're worried about does worship him."

We all chorused a simultaneous facepalm. I would've laughed if it wasn't so serious.

"So at least the first part is easy," I said. "'Owl, bolt, crossbones, lyre'. The owl is Eddie's mom, the bolt is the symbol of Natalie's dad, crossbones are the universal symbol of death, and Apollo works with a lyre. It's talking about the four of us."

"'In the temple' must mean that we are supposed to go to the temple in Tenochtitlan," Eddie reasoned. "We were on the right track before Tara took us here."

Nico snapped his fingers. "I'll be right back." He left the Big House in a hurry. We got back to our discussion.

"So the four of us are going to face Xolotl at the temple," I summarized. "One of us will fall when he goes to misfortune's hall. There's some sort of glue holding the mythologies together and there's going to be a new level of heroes."

"Like a level that blends myths into each hero?" Zia pointed out. "Perhaps this would be the most suitable name for the four of yoou. The New Level heroes?"

"Sounds great," Nico said as he walked back in, holding a sword. "And now, I present the mighty Paradosiakos Thánato!" He put the sword in Tara's hands.

"Nice, we've all got our personal weapons with us now," I completed. "And now we know to head to the temple. Tara, if you would?"

"Can't," Tara said. "I tried."

"Perhaps it only works with places you have been to before?" Chiron suggested. "You could return to camp, but not enter the temple you'd never been to?"

"Great, another trip there," Carter said. "Let's move."

Additive Words
Xolotl is the master of the sphinx and the lamiae. Tara has her own weapon. They know where they are going, though it may take awhile. But if the Prophecy of Eight is this story's prophecy, how can there be another one? Unless the Prophecy of Eight is a Great Prophecy. But that would make it infinitely more dangerous... As for the trip there, SPOILER ALERT, there is another, simpler way there. But it'll involve three of them. Now they have to get to the temple and fast in order to save the gods.

Here are your links.

Prologue: Lan. It May Start Soon

Chapter One: Tara. Some Weird Kid Fights Something

Heroes: The New Level

Wait for ch. 19