I was too busy with all of the patients coming in to keep up with practicing combat, but that didn't matter too much, everyone in the Apollo cabin was either sick, dead, or like me, immune and spending too much time in the infirmary. My close friends were still alive though, but Anya, Monty, and Clarke were all sick, and Finn, Jasper, Anya and I were spending more time than anyone else keeping them alive. After a bit, the effects of the disease wear off, but because we've recruited any healthy campers for shifts, we can never be sure if everyone is being taken care of properly.
My time was spent either working longer shifts keeping people alive, running over to talk to Mr. D or Chiron, taking showers to remove all the blood constantly dried up on me, and sitting outside of the infirmary sketching. Anytime someone was brought in, I made sure they were properly treated, brought to a clean bed, and someone was paying attention to them.
Sleeping was hardly an option.
Now like I said, Lilac and I had drifted apart, we seemed to always have similar shifts, and I got to talk to her more often. Her cabin was one of the most effected by the disease, and even though I didn't pay much attention to the cabins of those sick, you could tell she knew so many.
So many Apollo kids got sick, but only a few died, everyone else was able to kick out the sickness.
At one point, I had a conversation with Chiron, while walking along the lake, it felt surreal, I wasn't surrounded by blood, or the constant sound of vomit. It was peaceful, but our conversation wasn't.
"What have you observed about the sickness?" he asked me.
"It doesn't have a cause, except contact with others, and even then, you can spread it for a few days after you've kicked it," I reply, "We're trying to keep everyone in the infirmary for a few extra days, but we don't have the records to do that, some patients are only being cared for by people in other cabins, and no one knows how long they've been free of the disease."
"Do you have any ideas on how to keep that from happening?"
"If we had the space, we could move others to another facility once they've been cured, and they have to stay there for three days, regardless of days free from disease, but we don't have the space."
"Hm, we don't."
"It's pretty easy to cure the kids quickly, but we can't let the kids from other cabins know so easily."
"Do you want to hold a talk, a training of sorts, just in this disease?" he asked, "You can do the talk with your friend, Finn. You can get everyone healthy at camp around the campfire space. All the Apollo kids can take that shift."
"That sounds good."
"How about tonight."
"Yeah."
So that night, Finn and I held a training in treatment and personal safety. Things have been getting better since then.
But now, I am sitting on the steps of the infirmary with a sketchbooks. I'm drawing every patient I see, people milling around outside, the flowers growing, the blood-soaked hands of everyone leaving the building. Anything.
Every time a patient is brought in, I jump up, and get them to their bed. Then return to drawing.
I'm sitting before my shift outside when I see Lilac sprinting up towards the infirmary. Just as a young girl is being brought in. I recognize her as Meg, the 12-year-old from Nyx, one of Lilac's little sisters. I rush in and make sure she's okay, luckily, she was caught quickly.
I return out to talk to Lilac, who isn't let in until her shift.
"How's Meg looking?" she asks me.
"She looks the best out of everyone in there. You brought her in just in time."
I turn to head into my shift, as Ash comes up. We have this shift together.
"Ash," I say, my face straight.
"Devereaux." she says, equally flat.
I make a move towards inside, and Mary, whose shift is over, says, "Okay ladies, come on in for your shift."
"Actually Mary, they need to come to the big house with us," We all turn and see Chiron and Mr. D walking towards us.
"But, we're really busy, and the three of us are a smaller shift!" I protest, "I'm needed! They're needed!"
"I appreciate you efforts to keep everyone alive, but you're needed," Chiron says.
We walk over to the big house.
"We need a cure for this dise--" Chiron says, but I interrupt.
"What do you think I've been doing?!" I reply, "We're working so hard on this, and you pull us away from when we are needed!"
"Yes, I see your frustration. But have you noticed it's only demigods getting sick. Not me. Not the satyrs. No one but the demigods. We think its being created by some other force. And we need a quest."
"And you think that the three of us should be doing it?!" Ash says, excitedly, "But why Hannah? She's not the fighter of the group."
"She's actually the best archer in camp," Chiron says, with a questioning look from Ash, "one almost as good as the centaurs."
"I'm right here," I say.
"Sorry about that," Chiron apologizes, "And you Hannah are a medic, and have more knowledge in the disease then a lot of people."
"Thanks," I say.
"So do we visit the oracle?" Lilac asks, eager to do this rite of passage. Ash and I both laugh a bit, but then stop when we see the other doing it.699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrs6n5toGg
"Yes," Chiron replies, "You are, right now."
He gestures towards the stairs to the attic, as we walk towards the stairs.
Ash goes first, followed by Lilac, and I fall at the back. My first step hits a loose board and as I hear a crack I jump, and the others do too. The stairs creak all the way up, as we open the door to the attic. 699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvClkaJDIv
The attic is filled with all sorts of artifacts from quests. Helms, cloaks, books, journals, statuettes. Everything.
And a mummified woman.
"I think that's the oracle." Lilac says with a nervous smile.
"How do we get it to talk?" Ash asks.
"I think we wait." I reply, she turns around and glares at me, but I respond, "Hey, it's not my fault you're impatient. I have to wait every day, so see if someone will survive, if it's my fault they die. If I got them to a point where they can survive."699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSnUnnsXE1
"Sorry," Ash says, her eyes filling with something other than hate for once.
But before anything else happens, the room fills with smoke, and the oracle's eyes start glowing, and we hear her start to talk, in a rickety voice, that seemed as mummified as her body.
"The sun, the night, the wise,699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPnTVIO1Kf
needeth prevent a demise.699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ561liPdxv2
Three shall travel to the rainbow699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18RHFcK0mL
for clues of the volcano.699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpUlI6Xp2T
For thou shalt prevent699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ55V8Qmkkf7
from finishing life spent."699Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPmEwcyAcOe
