Chapter 2: I Get Mugged by a Spirit

Chapter 1

My face slamming into the stone floor of my room in Cabin Nine woke me up.

It’s been about two months since I arrived at camp half blood. For the first few weeks I spent every waking moment in the forge, normally not a bad thing for me, but this time I was there training people. When I arrived I delivered a letter to a Leo Valdez, which contained information letting him know that I had a skill he very much needed. I could forge metal plates for the Argo II that would be as strong as they were supposed to be, but light enough to hold up with your little finger. Fixing the weight problems to get that boat flying.

So I showed everyone how I did what I did. Only a few people were able to duplicate the process, which meant that the month it took to make all the metal plates for the ship. Once that was done most of Cabin Nine, along with some other campers who knew something about making boats, were locked away in Bunker 9 getting their build on.

Me? I set to work trying to relax and get some of my own projects done.

As I pulled myself off the floor I took a look around my room. The Hephaestus kids have dug a catacomb of personal rooms under almost every portion of the camp, I got one of the most recent digs. This meant that I had an 8x8 square I could do whatever I wanted to, with no neighbors that I might break in on accidentally. After about a week of digging with special equipment I had room for a personal forge and a worktable that could hold a vehicle. I know, it has. On the stand next to my bed sat Ignus and Glacius, my weapons, in their bracer form. I picked them up and slipped them back over my forearms, tightening them up so they would not fall off no matter what I did today.

Growlz looked up from his perch by the forge and growled at me. I snagged a jalapeno and walked over to my bronze headset. My first project at camp was to get some music broadcasting. Demigods and technology do not mix, which means that in most cases Ipods are not something we get to use. However, being a Demigod does not mean that we automatically do not like what regular folks in the normal world listen to. So I built a set of automatons that broadcast particular radio stations created by Demigods, as well as a whole set of personal stations for individuals. The trick was the headset. Once the headset was forged and and wired up, we tuned them to a specific camper, connected it to the automaton, and boom personal radio station.

The Apollo kids loved it. They set up their own radio station, which is our primary music channel now. They even fight for who gets to DJ when. The Satyrs, under Grovers lead, set up a support nature radio station that informed campers when and where the next rallies were and stuff like that. A few other stations popped up for other group interests - the search for Percy Jackson, as well as the Roman Half-Blood camp, things like that. Otherwise people installed their own music onto the automatons and we had Radio Free Demigods.

Mine sent me a mix of stuff that I found in my jacket pockets when I finally got to emptying them, as well as some stuff I picked up when Alex and I went to the city. I slipped it over my head and turned it on. “Monster” by Skillet started up, and I got to my morning routine. First was simple stretching to get myself limber, followed by some push-ups, sit-ups, and all that other warm up stuff. After about an hour of that I toweled off and picked up Lucy, my collapsible guitar, and practiced on it for about 30 min. I may not be an Apollo kid, but I still like my music.

After that was done I changed into a jogging outfit and sat on my bunk. The bunk is the way in and out of my room, taking me straight up to the main cabin for the exit. I got up and saw that everyone was asleep, so I quietly went outside and started my morning jog. It was about 6:30 am on a brisk March morning, which meant that the air was a bit cold, but nothing for me to worry about. I started towards the sound, avoiding most of the buildings.

After a few minutes Jason Grace was next to me. Seeing as the both of us are Roman in a Greek camp, we tend to have similar workout schedules. Jason admitted to me after finding me out here a few mornings during my first week that he didn’t want to do this at first, worried that he would be mobbed by something or someone who had a problem with him. But he got over it. Now every morning we ended up here jogging until about half past seven, giving us thirty minutes till breakfast call.

I entered the cabin to observe controlled chaos as people were running around and lining up for the bathroom or cleaning up for inspection. I smiled and ignored them as I headed down to my room. I also took the opportunity in the last few weeks to install my own shower. After getting showered and dressed, I glanced at my workbench. On it sat some things I was working on, what looked to be a briefcase, a couple of pens, and a drafting pad where I kept my notes. To the left of it, hanging from some heavy duty steel chains, a Celestial Bronze Engine. If it worked, I think it would be one of my greatest achievements. Best not to jinx a project before completion. I signaled Growlz, slipped on my jacket, and went upstairs.

With that we went to breakfast. At the pavilion I nodded to Jason, who was sitting at the table for Cabin One all by himself. The other two big three tables were empty as well, Tyson cried about his missing brother while shoving food into his mouth. Nico frowned down at his meal from Cabin Three’s table. I nodded at Steve at Hecate’s table and Alex at the Ares table. We sat and ate. As Cabin Nine fed our offerings into the fire the flames rose high into the sky. A face formed and stared down at me, nodded, and the fire fell back down.

“What just happened?” Leo Valdez, my cabin leader, and half brother, asked. I was afraid I knew.

“Something important is going to happen today,” Chiron replied. Breakfast continued as normal, with the exception that I got dirty looks from Jackie Snowsong, the self proclaimed protector of the Oracle. She had a thing for Steve Smithson, and she felt that any danger he was put in was all my fault. That and she was annoyed that the Oracle was missing. There was nothing to indicate that anything was wrong at the moment, but she also seemed to blame me for that too.

After breakfast, Jason and I met for our daily spar. Our fighting styles generally matched up from legion training, and in one on one training we tended to outperform most of the other campers, so far everyone except some of the Ares kids, so we trained with each other. As usual, we drew a crowd. Campers loved to watch us, and the Hermes kids set up a betting pool on who would land the first hit. We never failed to impress.

After we finished our sparing match, winning a few hundred dollars in the process, I went to the camp forge. The morning had been rather disturbing with the dream and the face of fire, and the forge always helped me clear my mind. I entered the familiar heat and my body visibly relaxed. I took my place at one of the anvils and got to work. I didn’t know what I was working on at the moment, and honestly, it didn’t matter. I just needed to relax.

I must have been there for at least an hour and I was finishing up my project. I had made a necklace whose chain alternated bronze and red - Celestial bronze mixed in with liquefied Ruby, difficult to do. The center point of the necklace was a miniature version of Ares shield. I had missed Alex’s birthday last month, and she was miffed at me about it. This might make her less upset. Or it would piss her off more.

That’s when the eternal burning fires of the forge died. This was not good.

I looked up, from the entrance of the forge a shadowy figure was standing in the doorway. I could not recognize who it was, and then I saw the green smoke.

“Rachel?” I asked. “Rachel Elizabeth Dare? Is that you?” No response. The smoke billowed over dead forges, and green flames billowed up, forming the shape of people I had seen in my dream. First up was a tall fellow with military fatigues and a sword sticking out of his chest.

“''The tridents giants shall fall Unless with music you take the hall”''

Then came a boy with a chain wrapped around his arm.

“''To find the horrid task half dismissed greed and hunger shall assist''”

Third was a girl holding a burning arrow held up to a bow.

“''The fathers scythe shall be reborn unless the crossed torches repairs the thorn''”

The prophecy was concluded by a wolf.

“''Save the Aloadae from their pain only to recapture them again.''”

Then the four figures burst into smoke once more and flowed into the original figure. She, in turn, puffed into smoke also. Then the smoke flew straight at me and sent me flying to the back of the forge. I got the feeling this had happened to me before.

When I got up, I saw a piece of paper lying in front of me with the words that the spirit of the Oracle had just told me. Considering she came as a spirit, instead of in person, did not bode well. But considering my dream of Caligula earlier, and the burning face during breakfast. I must have been on the clock.

Then the forge fires burst up, resuming their eternal burn.

Chapter 3