“Holy monkey!” I yelled. “Dad, you scared the gorgon curse out of me.”
“I’m sorry, son. I just wanted to tell you good luck. You are going to need it.”
“Wait, what do you mean I’ll need it?”
But he had vanished. At the same time, Chiron came from the really big house to talk to me.
“Alex,” said Chiron. “I feel ashamed to request this but, when you are talking with your father, can you talk with him with your mind? It’s freaking the campers to see you talk to the air, and the fact that Death is nearby is killing the grass.”
I looked at the ground where my dad had stood a few seconds ago. The grass was yellow with the shape of boot prints.
“Ok,” I said. “Chiron, what is a quest?”
Chiron laughed as if it had been a good joke. Then, he stared at me and worry crossed his face.
“You are being serious?” he said. “Gods of Olympus! Well, a quest is a mission that a hero or member of the camp has to embark in when he has done something bad and has to repay it, or to show his true value. In your case, I think that it is both.”
“Gee, thanks. Listen, I was going to the infirmary to see the girl I rescued and I don’t remember where it is.”
“Surely you can fly, right?”
I had not thought of that. Partly because it freaked the campers half way to my dad, and partly because I needed to train some more.
As if reading my thoughts, Chiron said, “If you think that you need practice, then you have to practice whenever you can.”
I went to the infirmary flying. Hit one or two pigeons and landed almost killing a satyr. As I walked inside, the air changed quickly from smelling like fresh dirt to thousand year old medicine. Few people where inside and the majority where staff. Dressed like real doctors but talking softly to the patients that where inside. I saw Leaphy taking care of the girl I had saved and my heart made a three-sixty leap, which I had no idea why. Honest.
“Hello Alex,” said Leaphy. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Listen, the girl you are taking care of. Who is she?”
A voice like the wind in the sea said:
“I’m sure that I can talk to you myself. My name is Angelica. I’m a daughter of Poseidon, the Earth shaker. Please do sit down.”
“Hi, Angelica, my name is Alex and I am the son of Death, the… soul… reaper?”
She laughed as I had just said a very funny joke. Normally everybody feels nervous just by being near me, but something was different about her. Something sinister loomed over her, as if her fate was destined to be a horrible one. Yep, warm and cozy.
“Listen, I have just been ordered in a quest and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”
“Yes,” said Angelica. “I would love to go on an adventure, with you.”
My face felt so hot that I had to be blushing.
?
?
?
And so I started practicing. Whenever I could I would fly, I did it, and the first few exercises went terribly: first I landed in the hay stack for the pegasus, then, I landed in the Ares cabin and as they chased me, they yelled insults that would have made a grown up cry as they threw grandes. The days before the deadline went away like the wind and before I knew it, we were supposed find another companion; get the prophecy, stock up, all in less than twelve hours.
For the companion guy it was easy. I found this really cool kid; his name is Anthony, son of Hades, which sort of made him the son of my dad’s boss. The materials where a bit harder to collect but we got them all in a few hours, turns out that ambrosia is not on sale the months of December to April, and the camp has only three tons left. The last thing, we needed a prophecy.
The house of the augur was not very inviting, but desperate times lead to desperate measures.
“So, who knocks the door?” I said. I glanced over my shoulder but both of my companions where at least five feet away. Sigh, I needed brave companions, but alas, I had to make do.
I raised my hand to knock and one second before it reached the door, it flew open. I froze in knock mode. Right before me was a short girl with gray hair, very green eyes, and the tattoo of an eye on her forehead.
“Come in,” she said. She didn’t eve glance at my fist that had almost flown at her face in punch shape.
It was not very cozy in the house from the outside, but appearances can deceive. Inside it was the most expensive house of the world.
The living room alone was more than ten apartments sewn together. The game room, filled to capacity with the latest consoles, but the unnerving thing was the cameras. They filled all the high corners, made me feel like I was trespassing sacred ground. I actually was.
“So…, we came to get a prophecy-”
“-for your quest that will determine the fate of the Earth?”
“…Yes.” I said. I had to be stunned. Nobody knew what I was going to say. Oh, duh. She is the augur, she can see the future. What happened next was even creepier.
“To see the eye of Horus/ the hero shall die.
The blood of the gods! / shall the hostage cry.
The power of death/ the evil god shall taste.
The wrath of the titans/ the gods will not escape.”
Immediately, the cameras whirred and a DVD came out of the computer. Its title read: ‘Alex Thanatos. Prophecy for quest possibly not destined to fail.’
‘Horus?!’ really?
Well, that is reassuring! We thanked the oracle, and left before she started going mumbo jumbo about our quest. Before we parted, an Apollo cabin member said that Chiron wanted to talk with me.
I entered the really big house and sat in Chiron’s office. I waited, and waited, and waited.
‘He’s a no show’, I decided. And, as I started to walk out, he appeared in the doorway.
“Alex, I might be late, but never consider me a No show.”
“Sorry master Chiron.” I walked inside Chiron’s office. Again.

?
?
?
“Alex, let me see the disk.”
How did he know? I had not seen him near the house at all and if he had, I had not told anyone. But, still I passed him the disk.
“ ‘Alex Thanatos. Prophecy possibly not destined to fail,’” he read. “Well, that is reassuring, normally the disk read ‘destined to fail.’ So you are lucky.”
“Or not,” I answered. “Chiron, when you came to tell me that I had to talk to my dad in my head, he had told me that I was going to need luck. Why?”
“Alex, the waters of the river Lethe make you forget, and the waters of the river Styx are deadly to anything inhabited with a living soul. It dissolves stuff, the only way for you to get the waters of the River Styx is to bathe in it, and that alone is one of the most painful things in the planet, both rivers are located in the underworld, Utah. So you are going to have to go to the copper mining hills and enter. So as I said, good luck.”
We left down the hill that bordered Camp Demigod, and started walking toward Salt Lake City, when we got caught in our first of many ambushes. How they got scent of us seconds after we passed the boundaries is a mystery but, there they were, facing us with smug faces: a dracaena, a skeleton, and a spartus. My dad appeared floating over them, grinning and rubbing his hands, and nodding confidentially at me.
“Demigodsss,” said the first one, a dracaena. “Prepare to meet your maker.”
“If by maker you mean our different parents, you are mistaken. We have already met them. But, thanks for the interest,” said Anthony. “You in change are going to find it very difficult to come back.”
The dracaena hissed and lunged.
He charged the spartus, Angelica got the dracaena and I had the skeleton. Yay, but heck he was difficult, he was very difficult. He was dressed like a gladiator, those that you see in movies and always win the battle? Exactly like that, but armed with a sword, a trident and a net.
“Hello, mind if I call you Grinny?” I asked.
His jaw opened and closed but no sound escaped from him, and at the same time, I tapped my ring twice.
He threw his net at me but I dodged it. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but the fight with Margaret had skilled me up. He slashed with his sword but I cut his arm off. He picked his trident with his other arm but I sliced his neck and his head fell off. He started to dissolve but the head stayed where it was, so I picked it up, and tossed Grinny in my bag.
Mean while the fight was going on, Anthony was having problems with the spartus. I picked Doomsday and threw it.
I scored in the chest of the spartus and it melted into shadows, leaving my scythe logged in the ground. I picked her up, looked in Angelica’s direction but she was just sitting there, toying with a little snake, surely a spoil of war.
“Nice work son,” said my dad. “I’m proud of you, so young and already killing monsters.”
I looked up but he was gone again. I really need to look in the direction before he stops talking.
“Alex that was the most unorthodox way of fighting that I have ever seen in my entire life.” Said Anthony.
He was walking towards the place where the spartus had disappeared. He knelt and spoke in ancient Greek, saying: “let me see who you work for.”