A Nascent Kaleidoscope

It only took a few seconds for Arachne to realize she may have made a mistake.

Perhaps her first reaction, upon seeing a zombie, shouldn't be to throw her spear at it.

Though, she blamed her family.

From her mom, who quite literally killed undead for most of her life so they didn't escape the Land of Shadows. To her Aunt Izzy, who also disliked dead things, as a goddess of death. All the way to her Aunt Meridia, who despised undead things with a passion.

"WHY DID THE ORACLE GO FLYING OUT THE WINDOW!?"

Arachne recognized Chiron's voice.

She recognized the anger and panic too.

"Uh oh." Percy whispered.

"Ah, a am gonna be in trouble." Arachne said quietly. "Mum gonna take away me spear again…."

"Damn, we're screwed." "It's okay, a will take the blame; a was the one who did it." Arachne reassured.

"No way, we did it together." Percy crossed his arms.

Arachne choked, mostly because she wasn't used to having a friend stand by her like this.

It wasn't just a passing comment when she mentioned that she didn't have friends. It was hard for her to relate to other kids her age for the most part. Even kids of non-human parents always seemed to care about other things compared to her, so it was difficult to make long-lasting friendships.

"A have an idea." She thought of a way to get out of trouble.

"What's the plan?" Percy quickly asked her.

"How quickly can ya start crying?" She asked.

"Uh…?"

"My big sis taught me when a was younger, but a havn't had the chance to use it. But she said if a start crying when I mess up, a can get out of a lot of trouble." She was, of course, talking about Kunou in these circumstances.

"I don't think I can cry without a reason." Percy admitted.

Arachne let out a breath. "A can't either."

"Dang, we're screwed then."

"...maybe not." Arachne shook her head. "Percy a need you to do something for me."

[Line Break]

Chiron trotted up the stairs of the house with a purpose.

Mr. D was right behind him.

Frankly, Mr. D didn't really care that the Oracle was sent down the mountain on the spear express. If anything, he was laughing as he saw that old bag of bones flailing helplessly as he watched.

But, also, he did sort of have a job.

Mordred was also with them.

Sorta as the de facto 'adult supervision' on Arachne's behalf, she recognized that her little sister shit the bed.

They were about to burst into the attic when Chiron paused.

"Harder!" He recognized Arachne's voice along with the shaking of the floorboards. "Hard, do it harder!"

"I'm doing it as hard as I can!" He heard Percy respond.

"It's okay, a can take it. Give it to me as hard as ya can!"

"I'm trying; it's just uncomfortable and awkward!"

"A trust ya, it's okay, just do it as best as ya can. Set a rhythm and go from there."

Chiron's hand was frozen on the doorknob.

He had been around teenagers long enough to know that he really didn't want to open the door. The shaking of the not-so-well-kept floorboards certainly didn't help his desire to not open the door.

"That's it, Percy; precision and technique are just as important as doing it hard."

Chiron finally worked up the courage to open the door, but Mr. D stopped him.

Chiron looked at him in confusion, but Mr. D just shook his head.

"Let that brave boy finish." Mr. D raised his glass of wine up.

Chiron didn't want to actually voice his thoughts, but his face pulled back, scrunching as the actual thought now crossed his mind in more vivid detail.

Mordred, to her credit, kept her mouth shut.

Mostly because she knew her stupid little sister. That brat barely even acknowledged boys, let alone be willing to do that so quickly.

Chiron decided to ignore Mr. D and finally pushed the door open.

All three of them peered inside and saw what was happening.

Arachne's cheek was red, and Percy had his arm reeled back like he was ready to punch her…..

The two kids went still, awkwardly standing there.

"We weren't doin nothin." Arachne quickly said.

"Yeah, we weren't doing anything." Percy nodded.

The three of them stared silently before Chiron spoke up.

"What happened to the Oracle?" He was blunt.

"Okay, but it's not me fault."

"What. Happened. To the Oracle."

"...it was a zombie. Me mum said zombies are bad…" Arachne shrank under his gaze.

Chiron face-palmed as his answer had apparently come.

"Honestly, she's not bullshitting either. She hears a lot of shit about killing anything 'undead.'" Mordred spoke on her behalf. "Should have warned her if whatever she was meeting was a zombie or something."

"It was a zombie, really creepy." Percy nodded.

"Shit, yeah." Mordred just sighed. "But, uh….maybe it's not dead…more dead?" Mordred offered.

Mr. D took a sip of his drink. "Well, it is cursed with undeath, so it's probably not fully dead."

Chiron's eyes flashed, and he quickly bolted out of the room to go find the Oracle now that things had been clarified.

"Well…that didn't end too badly." Percy perked up, expecting a lot more yelling and punishments.

Mr. D let out a sigh. "I suppose I should go help. I know Apollo won't let me hear the end of it if his Oracle actually does bite the dust."

Mr. D slowly, casually, walked out too.

Arachne was about to follow, but Mordred grabbed her arm.

"...Hey, big sis." She forced a smile.

"You were having him punch you so you would start crying, weren't ya?" Mordred asked with a deadpan.

"N-no." Arachne looked away, though her red and a tiny bit swollen cheek was rather obvious.

Percy flushed a little and also looked away.

Mordred knew that her stupid little sister probably planned some waterworks to get out of trouble.

Mordred decided not to mention that her plan did work, just not the way she expected.

[Line Break]

Rather quickly, the others tracked down where Chiron was. Far down the mountain, between two crevices, they found the Oracle.

She was currently twitching, a certain red spear impaling her to a rock formation.

Chiron seemed completely unsure of what to do.

Mr. D, on the other hand, just watched rather curiously. "So, nice throw."

"Thank you." Arachne responded without a second thought.

Mordred smacked her on the back of the head. "Don't take the compliment, you idiot."

"Okay, we're going to gently pull the spear out—" Chiron was vocalizing the game plan before Arachne interrupted him.

"Um, maybe this is a bad time to say that me spear is meant for killing undead….." Arachne bit her lip.

Chiron's head snapped to her.

"Well, she isn't wrong." Mordred confirmed it. "Her mum used it to kill a lot of undead over time. That thing is as anti-undead as it can be. The fact that your weird zombie is still even 'alive' is kind of surprising."

Chiron let out a long-suffering sigh. "How did this even happen?"

"Honestly, you can blame this idiot's mother." Mordred snorted.

Chiron, for his benefit, didn't agree with her.

Out loud, that is.

He didn't want Athena upset with him, despite how true her statement was.

"Um, Mr. Brunner, what's the deal with the zombie anyways?" Percy raised his hand like he was in class.

"Chiron." The Centaur corrected him for what felt like the hundredth time. "And this is…was…is the Oracle of Delphi. Blessed by Fate and Destiny to deliver prophecies that always come true. However, something happened this past century. Usually, the Oracle 'dies,' and the 'Oracle' is then passed on to a new host who becomes the new 'Oracle of Delphi.'"

"So it's like a title?" Arachne tilted her head.

"More or less." Chiron nodded curtly. "As you can see, the Oracle isn't dying as she should."

"She's cursed." Mr. D added in. "Apollo's been upset ever since. He doesn't know who did it."

"Wasn't it Uncle Hades?" Arachne responded in confusion.

Even Mr. D did a double take as she blurted that out.

"...What?" She seemed even more confused as Chiron and Mr. D were staring at her now. "Who else can get away with cursin something with 'undeath' but Uncle Hades 'round these parts? If anyone else did, he'd be the one offended, wouldn't he? You would just have to tell Uncle about it, and he'd have fixed it cause death is his thing."

That, and the fact that her spear didn't immediately turn the zombie into dust, meant that the 'curse' on it had to be pretty powerful. At least a god on the level of Hades to keep it still 'intact' and all that.

Mr. D raised his hand as if to argue, but suddenly, he had a sort of realization that she wasn't wrong.