The Princess of the Ocean

12. Candles Are Only a Small Fire Hazard

12. Candles Are Only a Small Fire Hazard

Happy Reading!

Apparently, this was a really big deal, because Percy rushed to get Chiron.

In a matter of minutes, Percy and Chiron were with us. Chiron was in centaur from. His white horse legs skittered slightly in agitation.

He immediately went over to Rachel, who managed to stand up without falling.

"Is it true?" Chiron asked urgently. "Do we have the next Great Prophecy?"

Rachel pressed her lips together and nodded. "This one felt different, more like when I said the Prophecy of Seven."

Chiron sighed. "It has been almost six years since the last one. When will the Fates ever give us rest?"

He paced (can horses pace?) back and forth for a while before stopping. "Do you remember it?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. It's taken me a  long time, but I can finally remember them." She took a deep breath and recited it:

"A being bigger than the Earth will rise
Only a daughter of the sea can save the skies,
She must be sixteen to accept and fight
And raise or reject the gift of plight
The fall of the first or the fall of the sea?
One or the other, it need be,
Both will be needed to banish the first,
But only one can quench the thirst

Great. Like I needed to hear it a second time.

Chiron started to say something, but then looked around. Campers were starting to circle around us, trying to find out what was going on.

"Maybe we should go inside," Chiron said.

Rachel nodded and pushed aside the curtain that covered the entrance. When I stepped inside, the only thing I registered were candles. Lots of them. They were on the nightstand next to the bed, on the table in the corner of the room, sitting in the crevices of the cave.

Rachel managed a small smile. "Like the decor? Electricity would have been way too expensive, and torches would've made a very big fire hazard. Candles only give a small fire hazard, so why not?"

We sat down at the table in the corner of the room, which I figured must be her dining table because she hadn't gone to eat with the other campers since I got here. And because there was a discarded box of chinese takeout.

When we were all seated (Chiron turned back into wheelchair mode), Chiron sighed. "So... we have another Great Prophecy. And too soon. I was expecting it to come many decades from now."

"Expecting? You mean that having Gaea nearly take over the world isn't the worst thing that could happen? That there even needed to be another Great Prophecy?" Percy said. He looked very agitated, if not worried.

"It seems so," Chiron said. "Percy, you must understand. There needs to be a Prophecy. The world is in constant peril. How would we know how to help it if not for the Prophecy?"

Percy started to say something, but Rachel put up her hands. "Please. We need to speak about the Prophecy we have right now and not the ones that'll eventually come."

Rachel looked at me with sympathy. "I'm sorry, Liliana."

I blinked, confused. "Sorry? You didn't do anything wrong."

Rachel took a deep breath. "Well, this prophecy happened after you came here...and you're the first daughter of Poseidon in decades...and since Poseidon rules the ocean and water..."

My heart skipped a beat. "The prophecy is about me?"

"No," said Percy. "It can't be. It's like the Delphi likes to pick on Poseidon's kids. The last two had something to do with me and now the new one has to do with her? I refuse to-"

"Percy, calm down." Chiron said. "You know how prophecies are, they are very vague. It might not be about her. There are plenty of beings that could count as daughters of water."

"Yeah, but I doubt that a nymph is going to save the world," Percy said.

I gave a small laugh. "Hey, I've met some nymphs and they're more lethal than you think."

"But it says daughter of water and night. Do you know of any demigod children on Nyx, Chiron?" Rachel asked.

"It doesn't necessarily talk about demigod children, Rachel." Chiron's eyebrows knitted together. "But no, I don't know of any."

"But... A being bigger than the Earth will rise," Percy said. "What could be older than Gaea?"

Chiron took a deep breath and for a moment I thought he actually looked scared. Could this be worse than I thought?

"There is only one being that is older than Gaea, more powerful than she could ever be. Many people believe that Gaea was the first entity, but there is someone else that was truly the first primordial being.

"The being that is going to rise is Chaos."

WHOAAAA ANCIENT PRIMORDIAL BADDIE IS GOING TO COME THROUGH.
Who is this daughter of the sea that will save them all?
What possible torment is waiting in this girl's future?
So many questions!
Will probably update around Thursday or Friday
In all your demigodishness and all that,
Peace Out!