There was an odd sense of calm, the atmosphere eerily quiet. Rachel Elizabeth Dare looked on curiously, but couldn't help but think that it was the lull before a storm. Then something stirred. Darkness seeped through the landscape, like ink trickling through paper. As the facade melted away, Rachel was engulfed by the Night – mysterious and terrifying. She felt as if she had gone blind, such was the intensity of the darkness.

Rachel had faced multiple near-death situations before – She had led her friends through the trap-infested Labyrinth fabricated by the great inventor Daedalus, faced multiple monsters, be it Empousai, Cyclopes, or Hellhounds, and had even witnessed and survived two great wars. Hells, she had even hit the all-powerful Titan, Kronos, in the eye with her hairbrush. Yet, she had never felt surer that her time was up. Her insides had turned to jelly, and Rachel felt as if her soul was trying to pry itself from her hopelessly mortal body and run along to the Underworld.

What made her feel this way? As if in answer, a deep rumble sounded from somewhere around her.

"Wh-who are y-you?" Rachel croaked, although she wasn't sure if she desired a reply.

"Hmm." The voice hit her ears from all sides, making her teeth chatter. "It seems those demigods spoke truly. I appear to have been forgotten." The voice was feminine, as soft as coffin lining, but cold and sinister. "For too long you have worshiped these false rulers, these weak Gods. No more. Fear not young Oracle, for this will not last. Everything is going to change. I will rise, soon..."

That was all she heard before the dream shattered. Rachel bolted upright in bed, flinging aside her bedcovers. She pressed her fingers to her temples, a vain effort to remedy the pain. For her, headaches were as regular as homework nowadays. Being stuck at an idiotic boarding school didn't help at all. How in the world could she explain to someone at St. Clarion Ladies' Academy, that she was the Oracle of Delphi? Could she really tell them that she had been seeing visions of monsters, demigods and whatnot? As much as she hated the boarding school, she didn't think a mental hospital would be an improvement.

Rachel reached under the bed, and pulled a dusty little bag. She unzipped it to reveal a glass prism, and a bunch of golden drachmas – the medium of transaction used by the Greek Gods and demigods. The bedside clock declared that it was nearly seven in the morning. Thankfully, it was a holiday; otherwise Rachel would have been forced to wake up even earlier and get ready to go to class.

She hopped down from bed, drew back the curtains and flung open the windows to allow light to enter the room. Using the prism, she tried to form a spectrum on the wall, since it was the closest thing she could get to a rainbow on a non-rainy day. After the ordeal was over, she fished a drachma from the bag and held it in her fingers, muttering, "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering and show me Chiron."

The dazzling colors of the spectrum seemed to glow brighter that second, and the drachma disappeared with a poof. An image shimmered into existence on the wall, revealing Chiron - the centaur, in his office in Camp Half-Blood.

Chiron looked like a middle-aged man from the waist up, though he was over three thousand years old (one of the many perks of being immortal). His face was a warm display of the color brown, for everything, ranging from his short hair, his bushy eyebrows and beard, to his kindly eyes, was brown. This was contrasted only by his fair appearance and the shades of grey in his hair. From the waist down, he had the body of a white stallion, though he was ten times faster than any ordinary horse. He was wearing a peach tunic, with the words 'Camp Half-Blood' embroidered in front.

Rachel noticed that he was studying a sheet of paper intently. He was so focused that he didn't even notice the rather obvious Iris message protruding in front of him, prompting Rachel  to clear her throat. Chiron looked up in surprise, but when he saw her, his features relaxed and his face melted into a smile. "Rachel! I haven't heard from you in a while. How has—" He stopped as he noticed the look on her face. "What's wrong, child?"

Rachel didn't even know where to begin. She just looked at Chiron sullenly and said, "Everything."

***

"Regular visions and dreams, whisperings in your head... these are far from good signs." Chiron said grimly. He seemed to have aged twenty years during their conversation.

"I ignored them earlier. I thought this wasn't anything to worry about, since I've had visions before, and I do see glimpses of the future often. But I think I was wrong. These visions keep troubling me, and I keep seeing the same thing over and over," Rachel admitted. "The war with Gaia might be over, but I fear that something worse is yet to come. I think ... these dreams are warnings."

Being the Activities Director at Camp Half-Blood, Chiron had undoubtedly witnessed thousands of horrifying events in the process of training demigods through the years, yet he too looked worried. "It would be best if we discuss this in person," he told Rachel. "I understand that your term gets over in two—"

"No!" Rachel yelled, and she realized that she sounded more severe than she had intended. "I can't stay here any longer, Chiron. I just--- I have to get to Camp now. Something big is going to happen soon, I can feel it."

"Very well. I will send someone to bring you to Camp as soon as I can. Until then, be careful," Chiron said.

"Yes, I will,"  she assured him.

"Also," he said, before he waved his hand through the image, closing the Iris message "I suggest you start packing."

***

Although Rachel was done packing in just about two hours, it was late afternoon by the time help arrived. A knock sounded on the door, and she opened it to find the smiling face of Hazel Levesque.

"Hazel! What are you doing here?" Rachel asked incredulously, though she was happy to see her all the same. She had first met Hazel about six months ago, when the latter had arrived at Camp Half-Blood to help fight Gaia, the primordial Goddess of the Earth, and her army of giants. Hazel had even helped her get accustomed to life in Camp Jupiter, where Rachel had spent three months after the war, trying to reconstruct the Sibylline Books (the ancient books of prophecies, which were said to have been destroyed centuries ago). She was supposed to resume the work there once school ended.

"I've come to take you home of course! I'm on an exchange visit to Camp Half-Blood currently," Hazel explained. "You look a little worn out, Rachel. Are you sure you're alright? Chiron said something about---"

"I'll explain later," Rachel interrupted, though she knew that the other girl was right. Her frizzy red hair was a mess – she had not bothered to comb it well, and it was no secret that she had bags under her eyes. The teachers there, at St. Clarion Ladies' Academy, would never approve.

Hazel on the other hand, looked quite prim and proper. She had fashioned her cinnamon hair into a bun, and she had donned a denim jacket, black trousers and riding boots. Although she couldn't see it, Rachel was sure that Hazel had a weapon hidden somewhere - a necessary precaution, for you never know when you might run into monsters.

"Anyway, come on in!" Rachel said, shaking her thoughts away, but her smile melted as pain lanced through her head. She heard cold, cruel laughter, and then it was gone just as quickly as it had come.

"What is it?" asked Hazel.

"I-I think we should get going. I'll tell you everything once we get to Camp," Rachel replied in a troubled voice. Fortunately, the daughter of Pluto didn't ask any other questions.

In a few minutes, the girls were walking down campus with Rachel's luggage trailing behind. It only consisted of two bags since she'd decided to leave some of her things behind. "What if someone sees us?" she asked.

"Don't worry, I'll use the Mist to cover us. I've gotten fairly good at manipulating it now," Hazel assured her.

The Mist was the veil that separated the mortal world from the magical world. It prevented mortals from seeing monsters and Gods by disguising them as objects that the mortal mind could comprehend. Rachel had even heard of a Chimera (a terrible monster) being disguised as a fire-bellowing Chihuahua by the Mist. It was powerful enough to even fool demigods sometimes. Rachel was one of the few mortals who could actually see through the mist. This enabled her to recognize monsters, gods and demigods instantly, and it had been the principal reason behind her becoming the Oracle of Delphi.

A few people, mostly teachers, did raise questions upon seeing Rachel and Hazel leave campus, but Hazel's magic was strong enough to ward them off. One moment they were strolling towards the girls, ready to bombard them with a barrage of questions; and the next moment they were walking away, as if everything had been sorted out.

As soon as they had exited the school grounds, Rachel spotted a great white stallion staring at them from the other side of the road. "That is Arion," Hazel told her, beaming. "He's the fastest horse in the world. He brought Frank, Percy and me to San Francisco Bay all the way from Alaska in just about four hours, when Camp Jupiter was under attack."

"I've never ridden a horse before," was the only thing Rachel could say to this extraordinary pronouncement. "Unless you count Chiron."

"Well then, you better hold on."

***

Riding Arion was in no way enjoyable. The landscape was a complete blur throughout the journey, such was Arion's agility. He sped down roads and even rivers tirelessly, not stopping once. Rachel felt too dizzy to count the time, but she didn't need a watch to tell her that they arrived at Half Blood Hill in a flash.

Her heart started hammering as they drew closer to Camp, and it practically jumped out of her chest when she leaped down from Arion's back... but she had a feeling that it wasn't because of the adrenaline rush that she had just experienced. She gazed at the familiar landscape – the great pine tree on the hill that enforced the magical boundary around Camp Half-Blood, the lush meadows all around, and Long Island Sound in the distance. Still, she felt queer. She couldn't even understand how she felt exactly.

Even when she heard Hazel promise Arion that she would feed him gold bars the next time around, Rachel did not react. Everything is going to change, she recalled what the voice had said, and it filled her with foreboding. She had a feeling that something important was about to happen.

Hazel appeared beside her, clutching her bags. "What are you looking at?" she asked. Rachel ignored her, and stepped toward the pine tree that stood tall and mighty on the hill. Something was begging her to turn back. She could tell that whatever was about to happen, wouldn't be good for anyone, yet she moved closer still. Even though she did not know what lay ahead, the Oracle knew that her destiny waited on the other side of the magical boundary.

In a daze, Rachel stepped forward and passed through the border, entering Camp Half-Blood. She only had a moment to observe the beautiful valley, home to the Amphitheatre, the training arena, the cabins and more, before her vision turned dark, and she doubled over. She was dimly aware of someone shouting. Was it Hazel?  She did not know.

And then it happened. The spirit of the Oracle took over her. Rachel stood up unsteadily, in a trance. Her eyes glowed serpent green, and Mist – the magical kind, swirled around her. A crowd of campers had gathered near her, though she could not discern who they were. Their faces appeared distorted, as if she was looking at them through a filter.

A glimpse of the future beckoned her.

"Rachel, can you hear me? Are you alright?" somebody screamed, but the only thing Rachel could offer in reply, was a Prophecy:

Bleeding darkness ascends to the Hearth,

Gods and Campers battle for the Earth

Seven shall prevail to fight the foe

The Dream Gods shall madness sow

Only Hero's touch will open the Gate

While strength and light will annihilate.

At the last word, Rachel collapsed, her entire world spinning. Somebody caught her, but she was too weak to react. Her eyes rolled back, and everything turned dark.