Chapter 7: The Mist gets a little funky

Have you ever had that one really uncomfortable group chat with your friends where two of them are arguing, one of them is trying to stop them from arguing, the other one is making jokes, and then there's you, watching uncomfortably while all Hades breaks loose.

Yeah, that's how I felt.

When we got to Chiron's office, he invited me to sit directly across from him, Mr. D to my side. Kai and Amethyst were standing pretty close to me, while Alexander was sitting on the floor, trying to find dust and add it to his collection. (Don't ask. You'll find it common that Alexander does some nasty things.)

"Now Dionysus, please explain to us what occurred at the bar. How was an entire group of mortals able to through the mist?" Chiron asked, frowning.

Dionysus took a deep breath before explaining what happened. Basically, while he and the satyrs were partying or whatever, they had a run in with some sort of monster. There were a group of teenage mortals nearby the fight but Dionysus and the satyrs didn't think much of it since the Mist would cover what was actually happening and turn into something their mortal minds could actually comprehend.

But as it would turn out, they were completely wrong. When they finished attacking the monster, the teenagers began looking at them in horror and called the police, who hung up on them since, well, a story about a weird guy and a bunch of satyrs attacking a monster isn't very believable.

"Wow. Good job, Mr. D! You effectively screwed up the Mist!" Kai mocked.

Mr. D scowled at him. "I'm very close to punching a hole in your stomach."

"Stop, you two. Rose, recount your dream to Dionysus," Chiron said.

"Wait, who were you dreaming about? Was it a dude?" Alexander asked.

We all ignored him as I told Mr. D my dream. When I finished, Chiron turned toward Mr. D.

"Does this warrant any action? Maybe a quest related to the prophecy?" he asked.

Dionysus groaned. "A god forsaken quest, with heroes doing the job of gods? Hell no!"

Kai furrowed his brows. "I totally agree! Because heroes are red eyed, drunk, leopard looking human beings with a Diet Coke addiction!"

Before Mr. D could tear Kai apart, Amethyst interceded. "I mean, we have a prophecy and a problem that could possibly threaten the existence of demigods. Shouldn't that start a quest?"

Chiron combed his hair over. "She's right, Dionysus. As much as you hate heroes and quests, we can't sit idly by while a war might possibly break out."

"Fine," Mr. D said, rolling his eyes.

"However, we do need to break down the prophecy a little more. The chained god's magic will start a war? Which god is chained exactly and how will their magic start a war?" Chiron deduced.

"It might have something to do with my dream. They were using them for some purpose," I suggested.

"Camp Half-Blood's a target, along with the masks of four," Kai recited. "The first is only kind of vague, but what even are the masks of four? Like a ventriloquist kind of thing?"

"That would be so cool though! I've always wanted to see a ventriloquist do magic!" Alexander said.

"Not exactly, the masks of four refers to the Four Masks of Olympus, old artifacts that were hidden away by the Olympians so it wouldn't be used against them," Amethyst explained.

"Classic Olympians. Selfish and greedy, like a certain somebody in this room. Anyways, what did the masks do?" Kai asked.

"Well," Chiron said. "A long time ago, Hecate set a possession spell on Ares, which made him start a war. The Olympians tried to beat him and his army up so they could put him out of his state, but it didn't work, so they resorted to finding the four masks to cure him, which reversed his possession spell."

"So what? We have to find these two demigods in New York and find the four masks to reverse a possession of some sort?" Kai asked.

It was a fair question. From what the prophecy was very vaguely saying, we needed to find a lot of things.

"In summary, yes. The next line states, The God of War shall lead the way," Chiron answered.

"Ares," Mr. D said.

"Yeah, no dip, Sherlock. If the entire possession thing is true, Ares has a really bad habit of getting mind tricked," Kai said.

"I'm not liking this prophecy so far," I muttered.

From what I had heard, Ares was going to lead a war, some god was chained, and we had to find four masks to stop Ares and two demigods. Gods, this was too much.

"Six demigods must keep the attack away," Chiron continued.

"Well that's pretty self-explanatory, we just need to know who the six demigods are, but the last line, the forgotten king rises, isn't as simple as the last line," Amethyst said.

Everyone stared at each other awkwardly, waiting for someone to explain what the line meant before Kai said, "Well, whether we know what the last line means or not, the prophecy clearly emphasizes the need to start a quest." Kai glared at Mr. D.

"Don't test my temper, Kennedy Barnes. I'll let you start your little quest if it makes you little brats shut up," Mr. D snarled.

"Then it's settled. Let's announce the quest at the campfire." Chiron said.

"A quest?" Alexander popped up. "Can I go?"

"We'll see. Let's go announce it to the camp." Chiron answered. We made our way back to the campfire, where everybody was anticipating our return.

"Excuse me, everybody. Given some recent events, we will start a quest. Dionysus, would you like to do the honors of selecting the leader?" Chiron asked.

Mr. D hobbled forward. "Okay, raise your hands if you want to lead the quest."

The classic I'm-too-lazy-to-choose response. Almost everyone raised their hands, with Amethyst hopping around like a bunny and yelling, "PICK ME, PICK ME!"

"The one in the front," he said, pointing to Amethyst. He then sat down in a chair and began reading a wine magazine, satisfied with his work.

Amethyst began screaming her head off, shaking Kai like a maniac and yelling, "I JUST GOT PICKED FOR A QUEST, AND I'M THE LEADER SQUEEEEEEEEE!"

"Get off me, woman!" Kai groaned. Amethyst blushed before getting off him and settling down.

Chiron clapped for her. "Congratulations, Amethyst. Now, who is your first pick for the quest? Based on what the prophecy said, you may have three picks."

Everyone began jumping around like clowns and begging for her to pick them.

"Ummm...I'll pick Kai," she picked.

He grinned at her as everyone clapped for him.

"I'll also choose Alexander, since he's a good fighter and...Rose!" Amethyst pointed towards me.

Everyone began cheering for me and Alexander, as I stared at Amethyst in horror. A quest? A QUEST? What in the world? I'm sorry, but I definitely didn't feel like going on an adventure to my death, especially not after what happened to Marianne.

"Then it's settled! In the morning, you four will head out. Nights out, everybody!" Chiron said.

As the cheers died down and everyone began heading to their cabins, I gave her a look and motioned her to come to the pavilion. I was about to give her a piece of my mind.

"Why the heck would you choose me? I don't know if you recall, but my sister died at the hands of a monster! I don't want to die or have you, Kai, or Alexander die the same way she did. I don't want to lose anyone else." My voice broke. "Not again."

Amethyst smiled sadly at me. "I'm really sorry, Rose. I didn't think about how you would feel going on such a life-dangering quest, especially after what happened to your sister. But, it can't be a coincidence that the second you arrived here, the prophecy was spoken, and the Mist stopped working. Also, you've gotten good at fighting and using your magic. You could be a real asset in this quest."

I sighed. "I guess, but just promise me that you'll do your best not to die. I wouldn't want to lose my first ever friend to some monster, now would I?"

Amethyst smiled at me again. "I promise, no one will die. We've got Kai and Alexander to protect us if we're ever in danger. Nothing bad can really happen if we all just stick together."

With that said, we embraced and headed to our cabins to get a good night's sleep. Considering that this might be the last time I ever got to sleep in a bed, I decided I may as well take full advantage of it while I could.