Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

IX. I Come Clean About My Prophecy

(A/N: Here we go. Colton coming clean to camp about his prophecy. More shipping moments and other stuff will most likely ensue.)

It was an awkward silence that the campers were under as they sat around the campfire, waiting for Colton. He had given them about half an hour for them to process the bombshell revelation he had told him in the aftermath of his fight against Tantalus. Many of them couldn't begin to comprehend it.

Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and Chiron also gathered around it as well, having returned during that half hour and having been brought up to speed on what had happened by Lee and Clarisse. Even they were all stunned at the revelation, especially Chiron.

The night it had happened, Colton hadn't said a word when he came back down from the attic, looking like he had seen a ghost or something up there. Chiron just attributed it to maybe he had seen a ghost of a demigod from the past, since they were known to make appearances up there from time to time. Now, he knew that it had been something else.

Kayla simply couldn't believe it. She had no words to even describe how she felt about this whole situation.

Clarisse and Sherman felt.. unusually worried and annoyed at themselves. The fact that Colton had lived with the knowledge about this prophecy since last summer and not once had the two suspected that something was up was like a punch in the gut. That he had managed to keep this a secret for so long, mainly because of them being distracted by Luke, was an absolute shock to both of them. Why would he feel the need to keep this a secret? What was said to him by the Oracle that would cause him to act like that?

The sound of footsteps all alerted everyone gathered their that Colton himself had returned. He walked around the campfire, sat down by Kayla, head looking down at the ground and sighed. "I guess you'd like me to start from the beginning, wouldn't you all?" he asked.

"That would be greatly appreciated, Colton. Please do.." Chiron answered, and Colton simply looked up, had to blink twice when he saw that Chiron was back, before he turned to his siblings. "While Percy, Grover, and Annabeth were off locating Zeus' missing lightning bolt last summer, my siblings all decided to guilt trip me into cleaning the attic one night because Sherman didn't feel like doing it.. he was the one who was supposed to that night.." Colton started, causing his siblings to feel the stares of everyone else upon them, and look down to the ground in a little bit of shame.

"I wanted to refuse, but couldn't.. since Chiron would get suspicious.. so reluctantly, I went up there.." Colton continued. "..got up into the attic, and started cleaning. For a while, there was nothing happening really. Quiet night, aside from the distant thunder in the distance since you know.. Zeus was still angry and suspicious of Poseidon back then."

The fact that he could remember it so well was surprising to many, since it had been almost a full year since that quest. The quest that had exposed Luke as an agent of Kronos.

"I was in the process of cleaning the window opposite the Oracle, behind the ladder you would use to enter the attic.." Colton told them. "..and I had just turned around to get my cloth wet with more water, when I noticed movement out of the top of my vision. I looked up. The oracle's hand was moving.. literally moving, and keep in mind, I hadn't said a single word to her at all."

He gave them a few moments to process that before Beckendorf spoke up. "So what did she say to you then?" he asked, having a gut feeling that he wouldn't like the answer.

Colton trembled a little, remembering that prophecy from that night, then stabilized himself. He nodded, sighed and then spoke.

"It went something like this.." he started. "Bulls give way to flaming red hair.. Deciding the choice that drives one there. To save camp, he must fight.. Once against one, then against many twice. Love builds a bridge strong.. For him to guard well and care. When the time comes and war flares.. A single kiss will bless them fair."