•as the world caves in•

•an almost normal day•

"Look, I know I'm a daughter of Aphrodite and all, but I'm still a good fighter." I smiled to Annabeth as I twisted the small gem on my sword and it folded back into a ring. "That's the tenth time in a row I beat you."

"Coriane, just shut up." The blonde snapped back at me. "I need to train with Luke more."

"Speak of the devil."

Luke walked up to us and smiled brightly. "Let me guess, Coriane beat you again."

Annabeth threw her hands in the air. "Am I that bad at sword fighting?"

"You're not bad, it's just that Coriane has a talent in it." Luke tried to assure her.

"She's a child of Aphrodite, she's supposed to fawn over boys and cry over chipped nails, not beat everyone in sword fighting."

"Hey!" I gasped. "That is so rude! I can't believe you'd say that!"

"It's the truth!"

"Oh yeah? I thought children of Athena were supposed to be smart, not sore losers!"

"Girls," Chiron said from behind me. "Settle down."

"Sorry Chiron..." we both muttered.

"It's alright, but you must learn how to not argue so much."

I looked up at the centaur and nodded. He had a soft look in his eyes, but his lips were pulled into a thin line.

He had been gone a lot lately, and he now seemed... different.

Grover was gone a lot as well, which was also odd.

Chiron gave all three of us nods before cantering off.

Me and Annabeth groaned as Luke started to laugh. "Wow, that's what, the third time you've gotten yelled at?"

"Luke, shut up." We both said.

•.•.•.•

Silena braided my hair back in our cabin.

"How's sword fighting?" She asked to fill the silence.

"It's going good, I'm getting better at it, but still room for improvement." I answered and looked down at my ring.

"That's good to hear. I'm glad Luke has been able to teach you so much,"

"Yeah. Some of the Ares kids still look at me weirdly though,"

"Let them stare," Silena snapped. She finished the braid and moved to be in front of me. "They can stare all they want. But, you won't care. You may be a daughter of Aphrodite, but you can still kick butt just as well as they can and you'll look pretty while doing it."

I nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back and kissed my forehead. "Alright, Cor, time for bed."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Goodnight sis."

"Goodnight." With that she turned off the lamp on her dresser, leaving the room in darkness.

I rolled over on my bed trying to get comfortable. I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep, perfectly content.

Until Annabeth crashed into my cabin. "Coriane! You might want to see this!"

My cabin members groaned and Silena motioned for me to go along with her.

I rubbed my eyes as I got up from my bed and followed her to the Big House.

"You'll never believe this." She said as we approached the porch, where Chiron was. Below Chiron was Grover, passed out. Holding on to Grover, however, was a boy with black hair, who seemed like he was in pain. "He's the one. He must be."

"Silence, Annabeth," Chiron said and looked over at us. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."