Chapter 3: I Dream a Dream

Chapter 2

Yes Pheonix, replied Growlz. He was crying, bad man wanted to kill father.

“Whos father?” I asked Growlz, getting confused. Bad mans father, bad man wanted wanted to kill his father, annoying Titan. Sean and Anna were looking at me in confusion. “Who are you talking to Mark?” Anna asked as Sean put his weapon away.

“Growlz here said that the bird thing was the Pheonix, and that it was being controlled by a male child of old Atlas over there.” I replied as I reached into my magic pocket and pulled out a doggy treat  The doggy treat was actually a capsule that contains oil and jalapenos. Growlz eagerly snapped it up.

“Seriusly?” Anna and Sean replied at the same time, then blushed and looked away from each other. Growlz growled contentedly, and then climbed into one of the near endless pockets in my jacket to go to sleep.

“Sola, Viator, Uwriy, get moving!” came the call to find survivors and we moved to start helping with finding survivors and starting repairs to the fort.

That night, I had a dream.

I was standing on an unfamiliar hillside, it was night. The constellations were different from what I was used to. The city under me looked like it was on fire. Something drew me in. As I passed through the streets I saw chaos. People littered the streets, dressed like people from ancient Rome. Men, women, children cut down as if they were fleeing the center of the city. As I approached the center, where the fire appeared to have originated, I saw a building I did recognize. The Temple of Jupiter on capital hill. I was in Ancient Rome.

In the courtyard of the Temple, soldiers were kneeling to someone sitting in front of the temple, so still it was as if they were afraid to move. They all faced the temple, so I looked to see what was happening as I passed through the lines. In front of the temple, sitting on a pile of statues representing the Gods was a man. He was not exceptionally tall, he had white hair that was extremely short, almost making him look bald. He wore a purple toga and a laurel crown. He was talking to a statue of a woman who looked like some of the gods. She was so familiar, but I could not place her. The man smiled, nodded his head, then turned to face the kneeling troops.

“My Worshipers, “ he called out as his eyes scanned the crowd. As they passed over me I could so, madness dwelled in this man. Madness, and ambition.

“I have shown you that I, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, am not just your Emperor, I am your God. I have overthrown the power of these other Gods here, and now I have been called to Olympus to defeat Jupiter himself!” The Soldiers cheered at this, whether at the honor of the man who would be called by history Calligula being called to Olympus, or at the fact that he would leave them alone, I could not tell.

“But before I go, I would like for you to spread across the countryside,” he stopped scanning the crowd and focused on me. “To deliver a message. Tell all you see that I shall rule Olympus. That I shall take the power of the gods unto myself. Rome shall never again know hunger, shall never again know failure. With my holy guidance, Rome shall become the greatest nation in the world!” He continued to stare at me as the cheers died down. Then he turned toward the statue, which burst apart and the fragments wrapped around him and spun until he disappeared.

Thunder rumbled in the heavens and a lightning bolt, the size of which easily covered the square the solders and I were standing in, I awoke.

I woke up so violently I flew off my bunk and landed on the floor wrapped in my blankets so that I looked like a very surprised burrito. Luckily, I was the only camper left in the barracks. Everyone else having already gotten up and off to their chores. I wondered about that strange dream. Caligula was dead... he died a long time ago. He did not, as far as I can remember, destroy the temples of the Gods and take the fight to Mount Olympus. So what was all that about?

I untangled myself from the blankets and got ready for breakfast. Here at fort we don’t sit by cabins, like we did at camp, so Sean, Anna, and I ended up sitting with the Forts commander, Joshua. Joshua was a child of Minerva, and had a long record of successful quests having to do with attacking or defending forts. He looked up as we approached.

“Ahh, just the people I was going to look for after breakfast,” he commented as he lifted a spoonful of cereal to his mouth. Looked like fruit loops.

“Why?” Sean asked, but I had a feeling I already knew what was up.

“The Oracle wants to talk to Mark, which means a quest. Whenever Mark leads a quest that’s not a Vulcan specialty, you two are his companions, so I figured I should let all three of you know.” He replied calmly as he lifted another spoonful of cereal to his mouth.

“But we were just attacked, we cannot leave the fort in this condition!” Anna replied as she sat down.

“It has something to do with the attack doesn’t it?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. According to what Lupa told me over the Iris TV your cabin mates created, ingenious device by the way, Vulcan sent a communication to the Oracle a few minutes after the attack, telling her you needed a quest. I have to assume they are connected in some way.” Joshua said as he regretfully eyed his empty bowl. “I do so love fruit loops...and they were the last.”

I looked at Sean and Anna. My father...talked to the oracle? That was...unusual, to say the least. We scarfed down our breakfast and moved to the communication center. It was located, thankfully, in the least area of damage the western wall of the camp. Inside it was organized chaos. Children of Minerva ran around on various Iris screens. Iris screens are special mirror emplacements with prisms inside creating rainbows. The goddess of the rainbow, Iris, allowed gods and demigods to communicate through rainbows, and so we created a setup where we could always have a rainbow when we needed it. All but one of the screens was in use.

We approached the unused screen and I withdrew a golden Areus, the currency of Rome.

“O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbows, accept my offering, I wish to communicate with the camp.” As I finished my prayer the screen shimmered momentarily and Lupa appeared. She raised her head as the communication became clear and motioned to someone off screen, then put her head back down. Another person came into the picture. She wore a deep cowl so that her face was unseen. Green smoke billowed out of her cowl, and then came the wierd part. The smoke came through the Iris message, billowing around me. Then hands of green smoke came through the message and grabbed my head. I heard the raspy, snake-like voice of the Oracle in my head.

A child of endurance shall capture rebirths flight Who shall guide the way with light The anvil, the messenger, and the archer shall seek the maze To return what left to a deeper grave Fire shall seek freedom while the Mist shall imprison

As the prophecy was finished the hands withdrew, then the green smoke withdrew back into the Iris message, and finally further into the womans cowl. Then she turned and walked off. The Oracle was like that. Sean was a little pale, Anna’s eyes were like saucers.

“What did she say?” Anna asked.

“What was that?” Sean yelled in shock.

“Well...” I replied intelligently. “That was a prophecy.” I repeated what she had told me.

“So, do you guys want to come along?” I asked. They looked at me like I had just asked if the sky was blue.

“Of course we want to go with you, when have we ever not done a quest to -” Sean stopped, remembering the last time I visited the mountain. The prophecy that time said that I had to take a true son of Mercury and an unclaimed camper to recover a piece of Uranos, the God of the Sky. He could never truly become a god again, but recovery of a part of his body would extremely powerful. We failed. Atlas tilted the sky enough that Richard White, who we later found to be the son of Hercules. He was my friend, he had trusted me, and I had failed him. It was one of the worst days in my life. Then I had an idea.

“A Child of Endurance. The Titan of Endurance is just up the mountain, groaning under the weight of his father. Of Atlas’s children, only one could hunt, and he died on the hunt.” I said. Sean looked at me blankly, obviously not understanding the connection I had just made. Anna, on the other hand, picked up where I left off.

“He was a hunter, so it is believable that he could capture the Pheonix... But why try and kill Atlas?”

“If Atlas were to die, the sky would reunite with the land, and the west coast would be destroyed.” Came a voice from behind us. We turned around and saw Joshua approach reading a stack of reports. “You three should get a move on Hyas, the son of Atlas, apparently hates his father very much and we are in no shape to deal with those Earthborne if they attack again. We lost some guardsmen to the assault and they would not die.”

“Well then,” I looked at my friends. “Lets get ready and get out of here.”

Chapter 4