~The Beginning of Life~

¥ NICO ¥ Chapter 59 Lost ¥

NICO'S POV
Date: August 29th
Time: 2pm
Place: Outside the Big House

Sighing, I walk down the steps of the Big House.
It's happened again.
Since December, we've been having a lot more campers. By January, we had 584. Kids of many different Gods, minor and beyond minor. The only kids we don't have yet are of the virgin ones.

But then, near the end of June, they started disappearing in groups. No one really paid much attention, but by the beginning of August, 56 campers had gone missing.
No one knows how or why.
Yesterday we just lost 4 more.

I haven't sensed any deaths yet, so they're most probably just lost.
And not only that, but Rachel is still having problems with her prophecies.
Well at first the Oracle had just completely shut up, and that was because of Apollo. Zeus had taken away his godliness so prophecies were out of business.
I'm not sure if it's working now, since Rachel has returned to the city. But she visits once in a while, and I heard she came again today.

((I'm trying to include The Trials of Apollo here))

Apollo hung around for a day until he too disappeared. But I'm guessing that was because of some chick he saw in the city.

I head in the direction of the forest, my second home, when Will suddenly runs up to me.
"Nico, did you hear!?"

I stop. "Hear what?"

"There's been another disappearance, this morning!"

"Who!?" Please don't be somebody I know-

"Emily!"

"Our groupie?" I raise my eyebrows inquisitively.

"No, she's a daughter of Hephaestus. She has a twin brother, Jake."

"Oh. How?"

"She wandered out of the border of the camp. Her brother said he heard her screams and... a giant's voice..."

I curse. "Let's go see Rachel."

-------------------------------o-o

Rachel stares mournfully towards the opening of the cave.
"From what I feel, a giant and a few other strong monsters are capturing demigods."

"Feel?" Asks Will.

"Yes. The Oracle's presence has faded slightly. But I have these eerie feelings when I guess about prophecy vibed stuff," answers Rachel.

Will nods seriously.

"I don't get it," I whisper to him.

"Neither do I," he whispers back.

Rachel looks at us. "What I do know is that soon, there's going to be a great prophecy. And it'll probably be my last and pretty much only one for the year."

I look around, disappointed. "How soon? We can't have these disappearances continue."

"At least a month. But just make sure everyone stays within the border, and away from the forest."

"I thought that was protected too!" Will says, surprised.

"Only half of it," I reply. "You can leave the camp if you go deep enough."

"Then that's a huge problem. Many campers go to train there. Oh so that's how there are monsters..."

"Yeah." Well I'm not the one who figured that out... it wasn't even Annabeth, but I heard it from her.

"Well... thanks Rachel." Will gets up and I follow suit. "Hopefully this'll end soon."

Rachel nods grimly. All we can do is... hope. Shifty thing if you ask me.