Drake Ray- Descendant of Lycaon

VI

They were all gathered in the Rec Room sitting around a ping pong table. Everyone present were the Councilors of their respective cabins, and Drake was surprised to see Cheez Whiz on the table considering the sour mood radiating in the room. They were all talking to each other and Drake caught a couple of them eyeing him as if he were the main topic right now. The door opened and Chiron entered, Drake had seen strange things in his life, but a half-man half-horse was a bit too much to digest for him. Since he had entered Camp and seen Chiron, he thought his mind would explode with all the weirdness around here.

"Alright now," Chiron announced, quieting everyone. "Settle down and we shall discuss the matters at hand."
Someone raised their hand, and Chiron nodded. "Sir, before we discuss about uh... What we heard about Percy," the boy looked towards Annabeth cautiously and then pointed towards Drake, "Can we know who he is? No offense, but isn't he a fresher? What's he doing in here?"
Drake was hesitant whether to reply, and whether to tell the truth about himself. He looked at Chiron who just pursed his  lips and nodded slowly encouraging him to answer.
"My name is Drake Ray, and um, I'm not a demigod..." For a moment, every being in the room, including the head of a leopard, which Drake did not know was alive, was too stunned to open their mouth. Then the confusion around the table started, and there was ruckus all over again. Chiron shook his head with annoyance and stamped his forefoot, "QUIET NOW!"
A girl, tall and buff (Drake made a note to not make this one angry anytime in the future), asked, "If you're not a demigod, then what are you? A mortal?"
"No, I'm a descendant."
"You mean a legacy? Of which god?"
"Not a god..."
"Huh? Look, boy, you better be clear about what you're saying, don't go 'round the bush!"
"Lycaon... I'm a descendant of Lycaon."
All the heads in the room started turning, the eyes looking at each other for answers but when they found nothing, they all started staring at Drake once again.
"Before you guys throw a bomb of questions again, lemme just, uhh, demonstrate..."
He recieved looks again, but this time- looks of confusion and curiousity. Drake breathed slowly. Hey, Azraq? You there buddy?
He suddenly felt himself in searing pain and a millisecond later, he was no more human. Drake thought that everyone present here would become excited at the very least, he did NOT expect to find the whole room screaming. Even Seymour the leopard was... roaring? The only ones who were still calm were Annabeth, Kayla and Chiron. 
"Alright, alright. SETTLE DOWN, NOW!" But no one was ready to listen, they were all throwing questions at Drake, the Stoll brothers (Kayla pointed towards them) were hiding below the table for some reason and the huge buff girl was red with... Anger? He could not figure.
Oh, they're all scared. How didn't he even think about that?
"QUIET, EVERYBODY! CAN YOU PLEASE, FOR GODS' SAKE, JUST SIT DOWN? DRAKE IS THE KEY TO PERCY! SO JUST LISTEN! OR ELSE, IF ANY OF YOU SAYS ONE WORD, I WILL DEFENESTRATE YOU! " Everything in the room froze, literally, including Seymour. They all looked towards Annabeth with fear and also perplexity as no one knew the meaning of defenestrate. She was standing now and was filled with anger, Drake could see it in her eyes. For some reason, he knew that she was much more dangerous than the buff girl. She was glowing, she had a grey aura around her, the same colour of her eyes. The buff girl broke the silence, "Whoa, Annabeth, calm down. This isn't good for yo-"
"Shut up, Clarisse! I thought you were wiser at least! With Percy gone, you should've been in charge, you know I can't!"
Clarisse's face was flushed red again, not with anger this time, but embarrassment.
"I-I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Now take your seats, everyone, and LISTEN!" 

"So, it first started with the dreams..." Drake narrated all his 'events' and 'experiences', and for once, the Rec Room was quiet for fifteen minutes in a stretch. After completing, Chiron said, "Hmm, it is intriguing and puzzling. I have no idea of who the figure might be, maybe one of you would know?" He gestured towards the whole table. Everyone shook their heads. Annabeth spoke up, "Please! Everyone, think! We've gotta know who's behind this! And this is about Percy! We don't even know if he's..." Everyone was stunned when they saw her start crying. Annabeth Chase never cried, not even in the worst of situations. A guy rose his hand and asked, "Drake, are you sure he didn't give you ANY hint? I mean the figure, there's gotta be something! If there's a vision shown intentionally, there's always a reason... I'm Will, by the way." Drake nodded and replied, "No Will, I'm sure of it. I even tried to assess the surrounding of the dream, but it was all pitch black. The figure? Blacker. And when he speaks, the temperature goes up, literally. Whenever I see him, there's this scorching heat all around-"
Chiron interrupted, having an intense scowl on his face, "Heat? Are you sure about that?"
"Definitely."
"Di immortales! I have a hunch about who it is, just pray that I'm wrong about this one."
"Chiron, who are you thinki-"
The door slammed open, and in came a boy. But there was something weird about him. Drake scanned the boy clearly, because his sixth sense was tingling. Wait, the boy had a goatee, and... Were those HORNS? He looked at the feet and almost collapsed, the boy did not have feet, he had HOOVES!
The goat-boy looked at Drake, who was probably gawking judging by the expression on his face. Drake could hardly say anything but managed to remove a, "Uhh, hi."
The goat-boy smiled and replied, "Hey," then he looked at Chiron and said, "Sir, it's urgent!"
"What is it, Grover?"
Grover looked at Annabeth with worry, then towards the counselors and then finally back at Chiron. "It's about Percy, sir. I kept trying to link with Percy via empathy link and last night, it worked..."
"Grover! That means he's alive!"
"Yes, sir, he is. I spoke with him."
Annabeth was totally paled and had wide eyes. "Wait, you SPOKE with him? Did he say anything? Like where he is?"
Grover shook his head, "No, Annabeth, I tried asking him, he didn't know..."
Annabeth put her face in her hands muttering something about seaweed. "But he did answer one question, though not totally."
That got everyone's attention again. Annabeth looked up, "Answer to which question?"
"I asked him who captured him... He could hardly talk and the connection was wavering, so I couldn't hear the whole name."
Chiron frowned, "What did he say?"
"Something like trts or trtrs... And if that is who I think that is..."
He left the sentence hanging, because everyone already knew the answer. After a silent two minutes, Clarisse spoke up. "Tartarus. He got captured by THE Tartarus himself. And that too, from the Throne Room of Olympus."
Will said, "Okay, now we know who kidnapped him. But where is he kept?"
Drake spoke up, "Wait a minute,"  Everyone looked towards him, "Tartarus? Isn't that a place? Like the hell of Greek Mythology? How can a place be alive?"
Chiron answered, "Boy, Tartarus is a primordial deity, born from the void of Chaos itself. So were Gaea and Ouranos. Now, Gaea is  Mother Earth, Ouranos is the Sky and Tartarus, an abyss for the evil. The worst kind of beings are put into Tartarus for punishment. And from what Annabeth and Percy said, after exploring Tartarus-"
"EXPLORING TARTARUS?" Drake was wide-eyed.
"They fell inside after a battle. Anyway, as they said, Tartarus, as in the place, is the body of the primordial himself." Drake felt sick just imagining it.
"Damn." He replied.
Grover nodded slowly, "Damn, indeed."
Annabeth suddenly stood up, again. "That's it! That's where he is!" Everyone gasped as they understood, but Drake did not and he felt stupid for that.
Chiron looked at her, "Yes, it is a possibility..."
Drake asked, "Umm, what do you mean?"
Clarisse answered, "Percy is stuck in Tartarus, again."

After a while, everyone headed back to their respective cabins and Drake, Annabeth and Chiron approached the Big House. The Big House was comforting but it creeped the hell out of Drake, he always felt like something or someone was watching him, except for Seymour of course. And the fact that the windows of the house looked like evil eyes from the outside freaked him even more.  After they settled down, with Annabeth lying on the sofa. Tears streamed from her eyes, it pained Drake to see her like this, even though he barely knew her. She opened her eyes and asked, "Chiron?"
"Yes, child?"
"Percy needs us. He won't be able to handle it down there all by himself."
"I know, child. I'm trying to think of a plan to get-"
"It has to be a quest, we have to send our best three campers to get him out of there."
"No, it's not possible, child. You and Percy barely survived the experience. And you survived because of each other, I would risk someone to go down and rescue Percy but with a war coming..."
"Please, Chiron! We have to!"
"But child, we don't have any prophecy yet. We can't just send anyone for a quest without a prophecy, can we? And Rachel has been quiet since... Apollo."
Drake tried to take in whatever he could, he was trying to understand everything going around him. He should be- The realisation hit him like a truck. "It's me... I have to go!"
Chiron looked up, "No, Drake, I don't think so-"
Annabeth chimed in, "Chiron! Think about it! Drake has had visions about Percy, and he knew somehow. It has to be him, it's obvious now!"
Chiron scratched his beard and was calculating everything, "Maybe, you're right. I will call Rachel tomorrow. Let's see what she has to say and if she can come."
Drake asked, "Who's Rachel?"
"Our Oracle, she is the host of the Oracle of Delphi."
"Oh, okay. So I have to get a prophecy before going on the quest?"
"That is correct. Once you get the prophecy, you can choose any two campers for accompanying you in the quest. Three is a sacred number and it's the safest. Then you will have to find an entrance to Tartarus, go down, find Percy and rescue him. But you will only be able to do this if you stay sane after consulting the Oracle as you're a mortal and it was never done before with one."
"Stay sane?"
"Yes, not many come back with a perfect mind after meeting the Oracle. There's a high chance you might come back without a mind at all."
Chiron smiled.