Rachel had a tough time coming up with prophecies.

Austin and I were out by the volleyball court, near the cave to meet up with Rachel. We were going to go grab a bite at the pavilion, but unfortunately, she was half an hour late. "Dad's getting really out of hand with the sun," Austin pushed back his glistening blonde hair with his fingers, "I swear that if I squint, I can see a lamborghini." He plucked the string on his bow like a guitar, actually managing to play the tune of 'Mary had a little Chimera' on one string.

"Have you heard Will sing?" I asked while he continued to play, "He sounds like a walrus giving birth. People are starting to bring earplugs regularly."

"Sometimes I wonder if he is a son of Apollo," Austin laughed, "He doesn't have most of our father's traits."

After waiting a while, I started to get impatient thanks to my ADHD. "Should I go check up on her?" I stood up from my seat, trying to get a better glimpse of the cave, "Maybe she's having her midday meditation and forgot to set her alarm again."

Austin looked at his wrist as if looking at an invisible watch, "I have to get going soon; my archery class is going to begin."

"Just a couple more minutes," I said, tapping my fingers against my knee anxiously. Lunch was about to end, and all the campers were already leaving to get back to their schedules. There was a couple of playful shoves here and there, but nothing as bad as earlier this morning. Connor, Travis, and Katie were stuck back the Big House with Chiron, having a bit of a 'talk'. Lance was with the Hermes brothers, making sure that they wouldn't cause any trouble.

Austin got up as well, yawning from the warm sunlight. His sleeves were pushed back to reveal his toned arms, and he stretched towards the sky out of soreness. As he finished yawning, he leaned his chin onto my head like a pillow. I wrinkled my nose, jealous at his six foot frame (because most children of Apollo are naturally tall) while I was barely five feet five inches. We watched as the door to the Big House, opened, revealing an exhausted looking Lance. He looked up, starting to brighten up when he saw me, when all of a sudden, he frowned. Maybe the sunlight got in his eyes.

Austin chuckled to himself, creating a small massage into my scalp, "I best get going. I can't keep the campers waiting." He got off my head, gave me a fist bump, and headed off to the targets. I watched his retreating back, and turned back to the Big House.

Lance approached me after Austin left with a furrow embedded between his eyebrows from his frown. His piercing blue eyes seemed to glare against the sunlight. He reached out a hand, and started to pat my head.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to look up.

"Your hair was messed up," Was all that he said.

"Oh. How'd it go in there?"

"Not good," He sighed, taking his hand off my head, "The Stolls have no memory of what happened, and Katie can only vaguely remember. It was almost like they were possessed. Chiron is trying to figure out the possibilities right now, but..."

"When we thought everything was over, something had to happen," I said, recalling what happened back when I first learned that I was a half-blood. We stood silently with each other, locking eyes, and abruptly started to burst out laughing. "Remember that time when you stole my shoe?" I cackled, "I can't believe that's how we first met."

"Yeah, and you gave me a pain which no man should experience," He doubled over, and we laughed until we got sore. We had a knack for thinking of the same thing at the same time. "Hah, I needed that," Lance wiped his laughter tears, and gave me a bright smile.

"Why?" I asked, "Thinking of someone?"

His face immediately flared as bright as a tomato, "What-, no!"

"Aha! I knew it!" I pointed at him with my index finger, "I had a feeling! You like someone!"

"Screw you and your love tracking device!" He punched me lightly, and I pretending to make a painful face while grasping my shoulder, "I wouldn't have ever thought the goddess of the hunt would pass down such a weird trait. Aphrodite would've made more sense."

"Eh," I shrugged, letting go of my shoulder, "Nico and I think it's because of her original hate of men. She would be able to tell if someone liked someone and then decide if she'd accept that person into the Hunt. Now, tell me who it is!"

"Never!" We started to playfully shove each other, when a ear piercing scream echoed from the cave. Heads turned around at the pavilion, and one camper accidentally dropped a spoonful of mashed potatoes onto his lap and cursed.

"Oh no, Rachel!" I yelled, and the two of us made a beeline to Rachel, hoping that she'd be okay.

* * *

"Rachel! What's wrong?!" I yelled, pushing the purple curtains aside and rushed to the redhead's side.

"Astra," She angrily sobbed, holding up a piece of paper, "I tried really hard, but it just never happened!"

I looked at the paper, scanning over the contents, "A... bird?" Lance peeked over my shoulder, slightly sweating from the heat and from running up a hill.

"Yeah," Rachel slouched in her seat, "I've been trying to write out a prophecy for the past month, but all I've done is drawn this stupid hand turkey!" She banged her forehead against her desk in agony, and let out an angry grunt. "People keep asking me questions about the fights and the missing Aphrodite cabin, and I felt bad that I couldn't do anything. Sorry for not being able to meet you and Austin in time."

"It's fine," I placed the artwork back on the desk and rubbed her back consolingly, "It's not your fault. You've been stressed and overworked. Why don't we go grab a bite? I'm sure that if I threaten the nymphs, they'll make us a bit extra."

Rachel let out a small laugh, "You're the best, Astra." 

I looked up at the wall above her desk, realizing that it was covered in turkeys. Mostly hand traced ones, but literally countless images of turkeys were taped or pined on the wall. In fact, littered around her room were images of the flightless bird, including magazine cutouts. Lance was being careful that he wouldn't step on one, remembering Rachel's hate for wrinkled paper. "Is this what you do when you have a prophecy block?" I asked.

"Yeah," She gave a heavy sigh, "Turkeys are uplifting." Her bright green eyes stared into her pictures, fixated, as if she was looking into an empty void, and her red curls were taped against her cheeks from her drying tears. I lifted her up by pulling on her arm, trying to get her out of the trance.

"Let's go take a break."

* * *

We sat at the Artemis table together, since lunch was over, and ate our chocolate ice cream with delight while ignoring the heat. "Honestly, I think that I'm just really evil sometimes," I stated as we stared at the strawberry fields, "I'm just full of darkness. I could be a child of Hades. I feed off the souls of the living and strike fear into-!"

"Astra, you sleep with a teddy bear," Rachel said.

"HE'S MY SECOND IN COMMAND OF MY ARMY OF DARKNESS!" I retorted, and Lance almost snorted ice cream out of his nose. We continued to laugh about how the year's been treating us, and ended up reaching the topic of the head councilor meeting. "At least nothing has happened since earlier this morning," I licked my snack with happiness.

"I heard about the meeting from Percy. Leo was lucky to miss the majority of it," Rachel popped the end of her ice cream cone in her mouth.

Lance was quietly eating his frozen food, watching something from far away. I followed his gaze, noticing a couple of campers from the distance. There was a bit of yelling, but not enough to get a grasp of what was going on. A couple shoves, nothing to worry about. But when the weapons came out, that's when I realized that it was time to get involved again. I sighed, handing my leftovers to Lance, "Hold my ice cream."

"I'm not going to promise that I'm not going to eat this!" He shouted as I ran off towards the two campers. I nearly wanted to turn around and run when I realized which two campers were almost going to fight each other to the death. One of them was Malcolm, the second-in-command of the Athena cabin, and Nyssa of the Hephaestus cabin. This was not going to be pretty.

"Hey, hey!" I ran up to the two and held out my arms to hope that they'd stop, "What happened and do I need to call 911?"

"Look," Malcolm angrily pointed at a giant hole in side of the Athena cabin, oddly shaped like a dog, "The Hephaestus cabin had a malfunction with one of their designs and destroyed our cabin! And now she's not going to apologize or help us fix the hole. Annabeth would totally have my back on this."

"Don't bring your sissy into this," Nyssa grunted, tightening the red bandanna wrapped around her head, "It's not our fault that our dog-shaped cannonball had a glitch; Leo's been out of it ever since that goddess came here!"

"But you're the one who fired it!" Malcolm growled, holding up a celestial bronze sword to attack. Nyssa brought out two golden daggers and grasped their hilts tightly.

Realizing that a close combat battle wasn't going to be good, I reached for a small knife that I always had with me. But it wasn't in its usual sheath. Dang it, I left it by my dresser today, I thought, Time to improvise. I slowly undid one of my hair clips, and it opened up into a quiver filled with silver arrows. I slung it over my shoulders, and took a hold of two arrows, "Don't make me do this and send you two into the infirmary."

Nyssa scoffed, "You think that two measly arrows can be a match for a Hephaestus child's weapons?"

"Or the son of Athena's brains and hand-to-hand combat?" Malcolm sneered.

"I'm the daughter of the goddess of the hunt. And today, I'll be hunting for your guys' livers!" I said, and they immediately launched themselves at me. Malcolm tried to hit me first, swinging his sword at my body. I parried it with both of my arrows, and kicked him in the stomach in the process, knocking him backwards. Nyssa used her double hand technique, something I had learned a while ago. Stomping on the heel of my shoe, the small knife point popped out of my shoe. She intentionally tried to hurt me by shoving her dagger at my eye, and I was shocked for a brief moment.

What was causing them to act like this?

Getting back into the moment, I quickly did a spin kick, knocking the dagger out of her hand while causing light sparks. Swiftly, she gave me a strong punch to the cheek, and I spat a bit of blood out. She just had to be one of the best fighters in the Hephaestus cabin. Malcolm sprang out of nowhere, his sword cascading down onto my skull. I parried it once more, and twisted the arrows, causing his sword to slip out of his hands. Instantly, he made a pair of fists, and began to fight with martial arts. I tried to block with my legs, but I had to remember that Nyssa was right behind me. I made a rolling kick, luckily hitting both of them on their shoulders. They both fell onto the ground, and I dropped my arrows in exhaustion. They rippled and disappeared, materializing back into my quiver.

"Okay... Are we done now?" I asked the two who were panting heavily, "I won't write up a document if we end now, mostly because I do not want to write another one." Out of nowhere, Nyssa kicked me under my knees, and I buckled. As I fell, Malcolm sprung up and elbowed my back, and shoved me straight into the dirt. I gagged, feeling my mouth fill up with a mixture of blood and dirt, and mind you, wasn't very tasty.

"Any last words before we finish you?" Nyssa cracked her knuckles eagerly.

"One question," I coughed, "What do centaurs do with their arms while they run?"

Nyssa, obviously annoyed with me by now, got ready to kick me by pulling her foot back. Right before she swung, I heard Rachel's voice, "NO!"

Rachel's thin frame tacked Nyssa's, and they both fell onto the ground. "Get off of me, you darned oracle!" Nyssa pushed Rachel off her body. Rachel's eyes closed, and when she opened them again, they were bright neon. Green smoke grew from between her lips, and the three of us flew back in shock, even in my painful state.

"Oh no," I muttered, "Not another danged prophecy."

-------------------------------------------------------

Did you guys know that Austin isn't an OC? He's actually a really minor character that Rick used in The Last Olympian, and I decided to bring him back for a visit.

Truthfully, I don't think this chapter came out as enjoyable as I thought it would. I hope you guys were still able to find it a bit funny, though.

GUYS. I JUST REALIZED THAT I HAVE TO WRITE ANOTHER PROPHECY. I CAN'T RHYME TO SAVE A LIFE. IF SOMEONE WAS ABOUT TO MURDER MY PILLOW PET AND THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE IT WAS TO MAKE A POEM ABOUT HOW AWESOME THEY ARE, I'D SALUTE AND SAY, "BERNARD, I'LL MEET YOU AGAIN ONE DAY".

And, goodness Lance, WHO IS YOUR CRUSH?!

(Edit: Goodness gracious my readers are heck of a sarcastic bunch XD)

Vote if you enjoyed it, and comment whatever you think is necessary at this certain point in time.

XOXO,
Arisa