Sorry for the wait everyone. I hope you enjoy this chapter which is dedicated to ricojohn. I also give thanks to all of you for reading this.

I was dumped into cabin three the next day.

Or at least that was what it felt like. Chiron helped me move my stuff from cabin eleven to the Poseidon cabin and that was it. People avoided me after that. No one talked to me unless it was absolutely necessary, cabin eleven stopped having sword training with me, even the Ares cabin stopped picking fights with me. I hadn't even seen Grover since the end of the capture the flag game.

I was miserable.

I knew people were talking about me behind my back, every time I walked into a room all conversation stopped until I left. It was like they didn't know what to do with me.

I hadn't seen Hestia since the day I had been claimed either, I wasn't sure if she too was avoiding me or if she as just to busy on Olympus to come down to talk. Annabeth still gave me lessons on Ancient Greek, but every time she looked at me she scowled like I had personally insulted her. It took all of my willpower not to snap and stop going to her lessons.

The only person who acted like nothing had happened was Luke.

He continued to teach me how to sword fight, only he pushed me a lot harder. He claimed it was because I was going to need these skills a lot more then anyone else in the camp. I hated the training, but I knew it was necessary. Plus, Luke was the only person talking to me anymore. I wasn't going to complain to him.

One night, after a particularly bad day, I had the worst dream yet.

The wind was howling, blowing sand in my face from the beach I was standing on. The sky was dark and lightning flashed, two people fought in the surf.

They were wrestling, shouting at each other as they did so. I wanted them to stop fighting, something was very wrong. They needed to stop fighting!

I tried running forward to help, but I wasn't going anywhere. Then the laughter that had haunted me for days sounded throughout my head.

"You can not stop them!" It shouted at me in glee. "You can not stop them and the world will be mine!"

The ground below me cracked open and everything was swallowed by the darkness.

I landed in a cage.

The metal from the bars gleamed, it was the only source of light in the room I was now in. I ran up to the bars, "Show me your face you coward!" I screamed into the darkness. There was a sound from behind me, I spun around to see what it was.

The flock was there, they were bleeding and dirty and looking like they had stayed a week in the School.

I tried to run forward but every time I tried they got farther and farther away. Then it was like the air was being sucked out of the room with a vacuum. I fell to my knees gasping for breath.

My eyes began to water, my hands clawed at my throat... I woke up sure I was suffocating.

I gasped trying to get more air into my lungs, I flailed around in a panic. I was able to settle down after a moment, Grover had told me that these dreams could be real premonitions. I sat up and began to get ready, I was either leaving with Chirons permission or escaping tonight.

Just as I was about to open the door, a knock came from outside.

I hesitantly opened the door, no one had visited me in my cabin since I had moved in, so I was wondering what this was about.

When I opened the door I was surprised to find Grover there, shifting back and forth on his hooves nervously.

I raised an eyebrow at him when he didn't say anything. Finally he opened up his mouth and said, "Chiron wants to speak to you in the Big House."

He acted like I should be surprised by this, maybe even scared, but I had been expecting it. Annabeth and Luke had talked to me about this. It was a crime for children of the Big Three to be alive, I figured the only solution was to kill me. The only thing I was worried about was the flock, the dream I had just had had practically confirmed that they were in danger. Maybe I could still get away before they killed me?

Grover was looking at me in concern, I grinned at him trying to calm him down, and gestured for him to lead the way.

We walked in silence. Campers stopping what they were doing so they could stare at me, they were muttering to each other. A few glanced up at the sky and at me.

When I looked up to see what they were looking at I was surprised to see a storm brewing above the camp. And it wasn't a small storm, if I had been flying through it I probably would get swatted out of the sky by the winds.

Grover looked up at the sky also, he gulped nervously and kept walking. It wasn't an encouraging sign.

When we got to the Big House, Chiron and Mr. D were sitting at the same table they had been when I first woke up here. Only this time they weren't playing a card game.

Mr. D was gloomily looking at a glass of Coke and Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair reading a book, but his eyes weren't looking over the pages. They were fixed solely on us as we approached them.

It was only once we were on the steps that he chose to acknowledge us.

"Percy, Grover."

I waved a hello to him but chose to ignore Mr. D for now as he hadn't even glanced up at us.

"Thank you for bringing Percy here, Grover. Now Percy, do you have any idea why I called you here?"

I automatically had the notepad in my hand, already jotting down the morbid reason.

Chiron read my response and when he was done his eyes showed an emotion I couldn't easily identify. He looked me right in the eye when he responded. "While it is true that your existence causes a few problems Percy, we did not call you here to kill you."

Grover, who had leaned against the railing of the porch, shot up in surprise. "WHAT! That is what you thought we were doing? And you just walked with me no resistance at all?"

I shrugged and looked back over at Chiron. 'Then what am I here for?' I wrote down, feeling slightly confused now that I knew I was going to live for at least another day.

"There are problems on Olympus Percy." Chiron started right off. "The gods are fighting on such a scale that had not been seen in a long time, war is brewing. And you are the cause of it."

I felt my jaw drop, my eyes went wide a chocking sound escaped my lips as the air left my lungs. What?

"Zeus and Poseidon are fighting. Zeus seems to believe you stole something of his, something very important." Chiron paused for dramatic effect. I held my breath, wondering what they thought I had stolen.

"They think you stole Zeus's master bolt."

I tried to understand what he was telling me. They thought I had stolen a what?

Grover bleated nervously from beside me.

I came to my senses and scribbled furiously on the pad of paper, ripping the paper in several places in my haste.

'I didn't steal anything! I didn't even know he existed until I met Katie! Zeus is crazy!'

Chiron seemed to struggle to read my handwriting but once he did he cleared his throat nervously.

"We realize this Percy. However, Zeus has reason to worry. Someone did steal it and he believes that Poseidon is conspiring against him, then you show up. The perfect thief. Now Zeus is set in his ways."

I frowned at what Chiron was telling me. It seemed to me like Zeus was paranoid about Poseidon.

'So why does this concern me then? We just need to explain to Zeus that I'm not the thief.'

It seemed so simple to me.

"It doesn't work like that Percy. The gods are notorious for being stubborn, they don't like being wrong. Zeus demands that you hand him the bolt by the summer solstice, and your father demands an apology from Zeus on the same day."

Chiron stopped talking. Grover leaned forward, eager to hear what Chiron said next. I myself could sense that the next thing Chiron said was going to change my life forever. However, there was nothing I could do about it but sit there and listen as my life changed.

"We need a quest."

He let that settle into our minds before continuing. "If you choose to accept the quest you may go up to the Oracle before we continue."

I didn't bother writing anything down in response, I knew he wouldn't tell me anything more about the quest. I had to accept it first.

My first instinct was to say no, what had my father ever done for me? Then I thought about it more. I needed to leave the camp anyway to search for the flock, that had been my plan since I had woken up. Here Chiron was, giving me the go ahead. And who knows, maybe the two were even connected?

So I mustered up the courage I had and nodded my head.

Chiron gave me the directions to the Oracle, he gave me a sad look as I was walking away. Like he had just sent me to my death.

The oracle was located in the attic, I remembered that I had seen something move in the attic when the flock and I had been taking the tour. I wondered if that had been her. If it had been, why was she in the attic? Why hadn't I seen her yet, if she was so important to the camp, she had to eat too right?

My questions were answered when I opened the door to the attic.

The air smelt musty thick, making me make a face as I walked inside. The entire room was cluttered, full of bent swords and other miscellaneous things. Most of them were labeled, names and monsters I had never heard of covered the slips of paper the objects were attached to.

But what quickly caught my attention was the dead body sitting in a chair near the window. It looked like a mummy, if you were to dress one up in hippy clothes that is.

I knew immediately that it was the oracle.

As I walked closer to it green smoke began to poor from its mouth and circle around the floor. It straightened up, like it hadn't been dead for years, and I heard an ancient voice echo in my head.

"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach seeker, and ask."

I stepped forward. I couldn't ask out loud but if the Oracles powers worked anything like Angels I could just answer in my head.

'What am I supposed to do?'

I got the feeling the Oracle grinned at me, even though her face was incapable of doing that anymore.

The green smoke swirled around the two of us until it formed the flock, their wings extended behind them. They were standing in a line, their faces unnervingly blank as they starred at me. Then Max and Fang opened their mouths and spoke, only it was the oracles voice.

You shall go west, and face the god who has turned,

Iggy and Gazzy opened their mouth this time, their heads twisting to look at me.

You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned,

Nudge and Angel spoke the next line together, in perfect sync. They smiled as they delivered their line.

You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend,

The smoke started to disperse, the flock melting away with it. Their faces twisting into pure agony as they screamed the last line together.

And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

I stumbled back from the remains of the smoke, my eyes wide in horror. The Oracle was slumped back in her chair, like she had never moved. Her dead eyes were starring at me though, looking strait into my soul like she was waiting for me to so something. I didn't know what to do however so I turned around and left, barely remembering to close the door behind me.

When I got back down to the Big House deck, Chiron and Grover were still there. They weren't talking, they were sitting in a nervous silence.

Grover was the one who saw me first. He scrambled to get up. "How did it go Percy?"

I held out my notebook. I had written the prophecy down on it in case I forgot anything from it. But the Prophecy was etched in my brain, I had a feeling I would never forget it.

Grover read it out loud so Chiron could hear, his voice growing shakier with every line he spoke.

When he was done we sat in silence.

Chiron was the first to break it. "Well it seems that my assumptions were correct, if you wish to find the lightning bolt you will need to travel West, towards the entrance to the Underworld."

Grover yelped. My eyes widened, from the classes I had taken with Annabeth I knew that the Underworld wasn't someplace you just walked into. And getting out would be like escaping the School again.

"Now that you know your destination, you can have two people accompany you on your quest." Chiron informed me.

I snatched my notebook back from Grover, quickly scribbling down a question before giving it back to Grover.

'You still want to go on a quest?'

Grove's jaw dropped. "You would really want me to go?"

I grinned at him and nodded.

Chiron spoke. "You can have only one more person accompany you. Choose wisely."

I didn't really know a lot of people in the camp closely. Luke, Katie, and Annabeth being the main ones I usually knew. Something told me Luke wouldn't want to go on another quest, not after what had happened on his last one. I thought maybe Annabeth or Katie would want to go I opened my mouth to ask Chiron where they were so I could ask them when my question was answered for me.

Annabeth shimmered into view, holding her baseball cap in her hand. "Is there any room for me?"

I looked over at her. I knew she wanted to go on a quest, Luke and Grover had made that clear, but I couldn't help but think she might be in danger if I took her on the quest, that maybe she was to eager.

Then I realized that out of anyone in the camp, Annabeth probably was the smartest and most trained fighter. Excluding Luke of course.

So I nodded, resulting in a large grin from Annabeth.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Now that that is settled, you can leave in the morning. I will be on the top of the hill to send you off."

The three of us nodded and left the Big House together, splitting up to go to our respective cabins, Grover seemed nervous and Annabeth seemed to be a mixture of nervous and excited. I wasn't sure how I was feeling, I wanted to find the flock and this was my only chance. The only problem was that I had no real way of knowing where they were.

So as I walked towards my cabin I realized that I should have talked to Chiron about it, or maybe Grover to try and figure out a plan. With this thought I promised myself that it would be the first thing I did the next morning.

I opened the door to my cabin and started to pack what little possessions I had into a backpack Luke had stolen for me a while back.

Finally, I took off my jacket and extended my wings, sighing in relief when my sore muscles were stretched. And that was the only good thing I had found about living alone, I could stretch my wings whenever I wanted as long as I locked the door and closed the curtains.

I tried not to think about the prophecy I had heard as I laid down on my stomach, wings still extended. Their massive length going from one end of the room to the other.

But even still I found the last line repeating in my head over and over again.

"...And fail to save what matters most in the end..."