Hello! Here's the next part! I hope you guys like it and let me know what you think! Also there are only a few chapters left. I'm getting close to wrapping this story up which is scary!

The hellhound attack had taken its toll on all of the kids at camp. They often huddled in small groups now whispering about what it could mean. How could it have gotten through the protective barrier around camp? Could anything now get through? Were they even safe at camp anymore? They seemed to have an endless stream of questions for each other. Of course they came up with their own theories as to what had happened but many were farfetched and bordering on the impossible.

I heard one Hephaestus girl whispering to an Apollo kid about how she thought the hellhound must have eaten leaves off of Thalia's tree and so had become immune to the barrier and that was how it was able to enter camp. I was close to reminding her that a hellhound would much rather eat her than leaves as they were carnivorous creatures not herbivores but I felt like this would only panic her further so I remained silent.

With all the rumours flying around camp the kids seemed to be sure of only one thing. It had been after Percy.

It had been clear that the creature had eyes only for Percy and the campers were not blind. They had come to the conclusion that they would be safest if they were as far away from Percy as possible so they now avoided him like the plague.

If Percy thought that being claimed by one of the 'big three' was going to make him lose friends it was nothing compared to the effect of a hellhound. The kids now feared him and didn't want to be anywhere near him. The Hermes kids had even refused to have sword fighting lessons with him. Luke was now having to give him one-on-one lessons instead.

Luke wasn’t one to be scared off by idle gossip and, in all honesty, I think he knew how Percy was feeling. After he came back from his quest, the campers started whispering about him. He never mentioned it and never even acknowledged it, but I knew that it got to him. But over the years the kids moved on and found other things to whisper about. They would move on from the gossip about Percy too, it’s just going to take a while.

Annabeth was still teaching Percy Greek but she still wasn't over the fact that he was Poseidon's son. She couldn't let go of her mother's argument with Poseidon and so it was eating away at her slowly. I often heard her muttering to herself about the situation or complaining loudly to another child of Athena about how Percy was terrible at Greek.

I could never understand it when campers picked up their parents arguments but I guess that's what happens when you have all of them as your parents. I didn't feel the need to be extra loyal to one god or pick sides, I could say what I thought and call both of them idiots.

The campers were different. They only had one parent. They were biased. They worshipped their parents (often misguidedly because even though they’re gods, they don’t always set the best example for their kids). But the point is that they could never see the other side of the argument, either that or they refused to see it. It caused so many arguments and unnecessary issues in camp. It would be so much easier for everyone if they just let their parents’ feuds remain their parents’ problems but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

All of this left Percy often alone. I would see him walking around camp by himself and my heart would sink. He had just started to fit in and make friends but now they had all been scared away from him.

I don't think his mood was lifted at all when one rather malicious camper (who I was yet to root out) stuffed a human newspaper through his door. This act in itself was not what made me want to seek out this camper and make them clean out the stables for a month. It was what was in the newspaper. On the front page there was an article about Percy.

It was saying how he and his mother had gone missing but their car was found crashed at the side of the road. Gabe, a man who Percy had described as the most disgusting person he'd ever met and his mother's boyfriend, was talking about how Percy had always been a troubled and violent kid. He was practically blaming Percy for Sally's disappearance.

Percy didn't often talk about his mother's boyfriend but when he did it was only to complain and to say how he didn't understand why his mother was with him.

I knew why.

It was the same reason that Lydia (the witch who had helped my parents make me) had hidden me with the man that she had. Vile humans gave off vile scents. They prevented monsters from sniffing you out (and in my case gods too). Percy was a powerful demigod, or at least he would be once we’d trained him up a bit, and that means he attracts powerful monsters. His mother probably needed a man that vile to have kept him alive this long.

I wanted to tell Percy this but I doubted that it would comfort him. It would probably only make him feel guilty for making his mother put up with that man.

When I saw the article I felt a fresh wave of hatred for Gabe. I hated anyone who put my demigods through crap but Gabe had to be one of the worst I’d heard about. He was purposefully making Percy a prime suspect in his mother’s assumed murder! He would have police all over the country looking for him now. I doubt Gabe even really cared about either of their disappearances, he only missed having someone to hand him a beer and someone to blame everything on.

I had gone to Chiron shortly after seeing the paper and ranted to him about how disgusting Gabe was and I think I listed off all of the ways I would hurt him if I ever met him in person, but I can’t really remember. It was a rant fuelled by rage and my brain had very little to do with the words that were coming out of my mouth.

Unfortunately, Chiron banned me from doing everything that I had listed in my rant and had specifically said that Gabe had better still be alive by the end of the week or else I would be in trouble.

I couldn’t help but think about what Chiron could do to me as a punishment, his options were limited. A normal punishment would be to take a particularly tiresome or tedious activity in camp but I think Chiron might regard the murder of a human, even one as horrible as Gabe, an offence requiring a more serious punishment. His next level punishment would be to tell my parents, but that wasn’t an option right now. They had enough problems on their plates. The only one he could tell would be Dionysus but he wouldn’t care. So really Chiron didn’t have any punishments he could give me.

If I didn’t respect Chiron as much as I did, I would have ignored his rules and gone after Gabe. I probably wouldn’t have killed him, just made him sorry that he ever hurt Percy or his mother. I probably wouldn’t have left much permanent damage either.

But I cared about Chiron’s opinion of me too much to ever disobey him like that, so I grudgingly agreed to keep my distance from Gabe.

It was the day after my rant to Chiron about torturing Gabe that Chiron called me back into his office.

“I didn’t touch the man. I swear it! If he fell dead of his own accord then it has nothing to do with me.” I said defensively as I walked into the cabin. I had promised I wasn’t going to touch Gabe and I was going to stick to that promise. I dropped down into the chair in front of the desk and crossed my arms moodily.

“I didn’t call you here to talk about Percy Jackson’s step-father. As far as I know Mr Ugliano is still alive and well.” Chiron said in a tired voice, rubbing his temples. I could tell by just looking at him that he was tired. He had bags and dark circles under his eyes like he hadn’t slept at all last night.

“Then what is this about?” I asked cautiously. I was half afraid that he was going to tell me that my parents had declared war on each other last night and both of my fathers were expecting me to fight for their side. But I knew that this wasn’t the case. If war had broken out between Zeus and Poseidon I would know about it.

“I’ve had an idea. A way to maybe resolve this whole situation.” Chiron muttered, not meeting my eyes. This caused a small knot to form in my stomach.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” I asked slowly, already knowing that this wasn’t going to be a good thing. Whatever it was that Chiron had thought of, it was going to be a big deal. He had lost sleep over this. Chiron ran a hand through his hair and let out a tired sigh. But it wasn’t the tired sigh of somebody who’d lost a night of sleep, it was the sigh of somebody who’d seen many years and far too many deaths and was exhausted with the whole cycle.

“Well ... good wouldn’t be the word I would choose.” Chiron mumbled, frowning.

“What word would you choose?” I was scared for his answer. My heart was beating faster and I could feel my palms starting to sweat.

“Unavoidable. I don’t see us having any other option.” Chiron said, letting out another sigh.

“Just tell me the idea.” I said quickly. I couldn’t take the tension any longer, I needed to know what was going on. What was this plan that was obviously tearing Chiron apart?

“We send Percy on a quest.” Chiron admitted, looking directly at me for the first time since I entered his office.

What? How would giving Percy a quest help the situation in Olympus at all?

He obviously saw the confused expression on my face as he quickly carried on. “A quest to get the master bolt back.”

“No.” I say immediately. I didn’t even need to think about it. There was no way that I was letting that happen. “Not going to happen.”

“But it could solve all of the problems.” Chiron said, trying to get me to see the other side to this argument but I wasn’t having it. If we sent Percy out to get the master bolt back he would die. No doubt about it.

“Because he’d either succeed and bring back his uncle’s prized possession, fixing all the issues in Zeus and Poseidon’s relationship in the process or he’d die and then wouldn’t be a problem anymore? Is that what you mean?” I asked in a tone that was laced with venom. I didn’t care if it would solve all the problems in the world I wasn’t going to sacrifice Percy to make it happen.

“You don’t have to say it like that.” Chiron said quietly, looking back down at his desk.

“Why? Because that way you don’t have to think about how you are sending a child to his death? Don’t you remember how close Luke was to dying during his quest and his was only to get back a stupid apple? This would be a thousand times harder, and a thousand times more dangerous! And Percy has hardly had any training at all! We don’t even know where the bloody bolt is!” I replied, my voice rising with each word that I said. I had to try and remember that campers could be walking past this cabin and I definitely didn’t want them to overhear this conversation. “This quest is as good as a death sentence.” I said more quietly.

“Maybe not. He is a child of the big three. We haven’t seen a child with this much potential power since ... well, in years.” Chiron protested.

Since Thalia.

Neither of us said it, but we both knew that was what he meant. That was what he was going to say before he caught himself.

Since IT happened, Thalia had kind of been a taboo subject between us. Both Chiron and I felt responsible. It was our duty to look after these kids and we had failed her. We felt as though we should have done more for her, more to help her.

“Potential power, Chiron! He doesn’t know how to use any of it! He doesn’t even know what power he has. We’ve had no time to train him or teach him anything.” I said angrily, purposefully ignoring the hint at Thalia. That was somewhere that neither of us wanted to go.

“That’s not always something you can teach. Sometimes they have to figure out how to use their powers by themselves.” Chiron said, trying to justify his ridiculous idea.

“Well, let’s frigging hope that’s true or else he’ll be dead before he can make it out of the state!” I snapped.

“I-I think that Percy might have something else on his side too.” Chiron said, unsure.

“What do you mean?” I asked, still angry.

“I think that Percy could do this. I think he’s meant to.” Chiron said quietly.

“I hope you don’t mean to send Percy off on possibly the most difficult quest in the last century merely because you think he has luck on his side.” I said with an attitude.

“No, it’s more than luck.” Chiron said, pausing to figure out how to phrase his next sentence before he continued. “I think he has a prophecy on his side.”

That caught my attention.

The Great Prophecy.

A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen against all odds

And see the world in endless sleep

The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap

A single choice shall end his days

Olympus to preserve or raze

We had talked about the possibility of Percy being the demigod of the prophecy before but that was all it was, a possibility. There was no guarantee that it was Percy and I wasn’t going to bet his life on a possibility.

“But we don’t know if that’s about him!” I said, voicing my thoughts.

“Who else could it be about? It has to be a child of the big three and they don’t come around all that often.” Chiron pointed out.

“But that prophecy has been around for decades. And it could be decades more before the ‘hero’ comes along.” I interjected. “I do not want to risk Percy’s life just because we think that he MIGHT be protected by some prophecy!”

“But if it is him, this could be how he saves Olympus.” Chiron argued.

“Olympus isn’t falling!” I shouted.

I wasn’t going to let it. My parents were NOT going to fall apart at the seams. They’ll be fine. They’ve just ... hit a rough patch. Olympus won’t fall.

I don’t know whether I was trying to convince myself or Chiron by shouting that, but by the looks of things, neither of us was convinced. Chiron was giving me a sympathetic look. He knew that I found it hard when my parents fought, but I hadn’t let him see quite how much these last few days had been affecting me. But I guess after that outburst he started to realise just how much my parents arguing was hurting me.

“And anyway, the prophecy says the hero will be sixteen when he saves Olympus.” I quickly add, not wanting to linger and give Chiron the opportunity to ask me about my feelings. I was fine. “Percy is only twelve.”

“He could save Olympus when he’s older. This quest could just be the start.” Chiron added, but I could see that he didn’t really have faith in what he was saying.

“Don’t you think that that’s a bit of a long shot?” I asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

“It could be true! You have to admit that at the moment Olympus is in a slightly dire situation and this is the moment a child of the big three arrives. Those two events have to go together. It can’t just be coincidence. And the prophecy would explain it.” Chiron countered.

“I don’t like it.” I said, crossing my arms petulantly.

“I think I gathered that.” Chiron said whilst rolling his eyes. “So you’re obviously against this idea and I’m for it. We need a deciding vote.”

“You can’t mean ...” I trail off, shocked that he’d even suggested it. Chiron nodded confirming my suspicions. “But that’s a terrible idea. He won’t take it seriously! We can’t leave such an important decision down to Dionysus. There is a child’s life on the line here!”