"A quest?" I raised my eyebrows, suddenly not as excited to have a private talk with Chiron than when Percy had told me he needed to have a stern talk with me.

Chiron nodded. "Yes. A quest. I will allow you to pick the two others that must come with you, alright?"

"Fine." I shrugged nervously. "I guess I could go for a good quest." I laughed humorlessly.

Chiron nodded and offered me a small, grim smile. "Yes, well, you may now go speak to the oracle, Rachel."

Rachel was already waiting for me in the empty Apollo cabin, and when I walked in, she turned slowly and her eyes glowed. She grabbed me by the shoulders, shaking me slightly. "Apollo's child saves the rest, through the glowing eyes of death, may they seek another rise and for the gone shall they die."

The prophecy made absolutely no sense to me, but I nodded, and Rachel released me, her eyes going back to normal. "Oh, hi, Starling! Your new here, right?"

I nodded and offered a tiny smile. "Yeah, I'm new. "

She nodded back, then walked out of the cabin, leaving me to my many troubled thoughts. "Hmm." I thought aloud. "Well, I'm assuming I'm the Apollo's child from the prophecy, but the rest I can't even begin to understand."

The prophecy was still on my mind as I walked down for dinner, sitting at the Apollo table without much thought. "Hi." smiled Liz. "How are you?"

"Fine." I shrugged absently. "How about you?"

Liz grinned good-naturedly. "I'm great."

Brenda, who say across from us, made a cooing sound. "Yeah, because the Aphrodite cabin set her up with Daniel!"

"Who's Daniel?" I asked, shifting my attention from the prophecy to my new friends.

"A child of Iris." shrugged Liz. "It's not important anyway."

"If he's your new boyfriend, it's pretty important!" exclaimed Brenda, and I nodded in agreement.

Liz shrugged and gave us a teeny tiny smile. "Yeah, well, the Aphrodite kids want me to break his heart already anyway."

I frowned. "Are you going to?" I asked. It just seemed wrong to break someone's heart for no reason.

"I don't know, maybe." She gave Brenda and I a mischievous smile. "He's kind of stupid anyway."

It just didn't seem like Liz to call someone stupid. I gave her a dirty look, but she didn't seem to notice. "He probably doesn't even know what 2 + 2 is !"

Unfortunately, the guy that I assumed was Daniel was standing right behind her. He frowned, looking extremely offended and hurt. "Liz...?" He whispered questioningly, heartbrokenly.

Liz spun around in her seat, eyes wide. "Daniel! Um, I was just joking...?"

The sad thing was, he believed her. His face brightened instantly and he smiled warmly. "Oh, good. For a minute there I thought the best thing that's ever happened to me disliked me or something."

"Of course not." Liz choked out. "I mean, why wouldn't I like you?"

he shrugged and grinned at her. "Your right-that would be bad though. So, anyway, wanna go for a walk or something?"

Liz gave Brenda and I a help me now look and I fought back a smile as I shrugged lazily. Brenda and I exchanged a glance and smile, then waved goodbye at Liz, who stood up as Daniel practically dragged her out of her chair. "He's a bit clingy." Brenda commented when they were long gone.

I nodded and smirked slightly. "Yeah, and he's completely under Liz's spell."

"Olympus only knows why!" Brenda grinned with a small giggle.

"I don't even think Olympus knows why." I joked lightly, and Brenda playfully rolled her eyes and grinned again.

"Yeah, they probably don't." She faked seriousness.

We both laughed, and it felt really good. Who knew, we might not even get the chance to do this anymore; What if I died on my quest or something? That would really suck, I thought sadly. Brenda noticed my change in expression and mood, and she gave me a questioning look. "Starling, what's wrong?"

"I dunno, Chiron assigned me a quest and if I die I'll never see you again..." I whispered sorrowfully.

"Aw, girl, don't worry about it." She soothed softly. "Have you decided who your taking with you yet?"

"No." I replied quietly. Then, it dawned on me. "Hey, Brenda, do you wanna come?!"

She shrugged and smiled slightly. "I thought you'd never ask!"

"Who else should I take? I get one more person." I said, and Brenda looked thoughtful.

"Hmm. How about Nico?!" She exclaimed suddenly, looking excited.

I pondered this for a moment before shrugging. "Sure, okay. I don't see why not!" I said cheerfully.

Brenda smiled at me and nodded. "Good. Now, can we start joking again? This mood is kind of drab, don't you think?"

"Hmm." I pretended to think about it for a moment. "Okay!" I giggled with a grin.

Brenda smiled and gave my shoulder a light nudge with her hand. "Your such a dork." She teased.

I rolled my eyes playfully and smirked. "And your not?"

"Maybe a little." She laughed, smiling broadly.

It'd been a long day, but I finally decided I could cope. And it would all be worth it then.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was up as the golden sun was just rising over the hillside, half way up. "Pretty." I mumbled sleepily, climbing to my feet and changing into a Camp Half Blood T-Shirt and dark jean shorts with sneakers.

It was all so pretty at dawn. Then, it dawned (No pun intended) on me. I was part of the new dawn at Camp Half-Blood. And no way was I going down.

AUTHORS NOTE: I'm apologize it's so short, but for the first time ever (sad, right?) someone asked me to update so I did :)