Nico's POV

"So how's everything back at camp? Has it burned to the ground after one of Leo's inventions escaped?" I asked Percy who was on the other line. "Camp is still standing as of now, what about you? Arizona any good?" He asked. "I guess, it's nice and all but I'll be coughing up red dust for weeks if I don't get out of here soon." I said. "Trust me man, that weird god told you to go there. There must be something there for you to find, the winter solstice is almost here so hang on for a while longer." In case you were wondering, I was told by someone god to go to Arizona and stay there until after the winter solstice passes, after that I could return to camp. I was hunkered down in a hotel that was paid for by the camp and frankly I was getting tired of coughing all the damn time, the red dust in Arizona really messed with my lungs causing me to cough half the time and sneeze the rest. "Yeah, I can't wait to get out of here. See you soon hopefully." I said and hung up the phone. After a while I laid down on one of the beds in the room and fell asleep. When I woke up the next day I decided that a walk wouldn't hurt me so I went off into the nearby forest and walked around. After a while I came across a cliff that overlooked a part of forest, I smiled a little at the view and sat down at the edge of the cliff letting the wind blow through my hair. "Well, well, what do we have here?" I turned around to see several men standing around looking at me with looks in their eyes that I couldn't recognize. "We've got a little godling all on his own. Where's your friends godling? Or are you all alone?" I didn't like this one bit.

"I-it's just me, I-I should go." I said standing up. "Aw, leaving so soon? The fun hasn't even begun yet." He said stepping closer to me. I didn't know what was going on or what to do when I was saved. "Hey, leave him alone." I turned to look at my saving grace which happened to be a girl. She looked about my age, African American, black hair with a white streak, and coco brown eyes. "Beat it freak if you know what's good for you." He said. One of the men grabbed my arm and tugged me, I dug my heels into the ground and struggled but his grip on my arm was tight and it hurt. Suddenly the girl rushed forward and pulled me out of his grip, once I was out of his grip she pulled me close to her and held me defensively. I didn't try to fight her since she was clearly helping me and I just gripped her jacket. "I said leave him alone. Now leave before I kick your asses one by one." She growled. The men looked pissed off but the leader apparently just huffed. "Fine, take the godling. We weren't going to do much with it anyways." He said and they walked off. I had flinched a little a being called a it and huddled close to the girl. "Thanks for that, I bet you're wondering what they were talking about." I said.

"Yeah but that can wait, can I look at your wrist?" She asked. I pulled away from the hug and gave her my wrist, I noticed just then that she how much taller she was then me, the top of my head barely reached her shoulder blades. She rolled up my sleeve and I could already see the bruises forming on my wrist. "He really had a grip on you huh?"She asked. "Yeah, it doesn't hurt too badly." I said. "Well I'm glad you're alright, my name is Nudge by the way." She said. "Thanks for the help Nudge, I'm Nico." I said. Nudge smiled and then patted my head. "You're so small compared to me, it's adorable." She said. I growled and crossed my arms. "I'm not adorable, I'm a dangerous boy who can kill people." I said. "Of course hun, I don't doubt you but you're still adorable because of your height." She said. "Oh please, I'm 5'6 your just a freaking giant." I said. Nudge chuckled and gave me a hug.

"Okay, not that that's out of the way mind explaining the whole godling thing?" She asked. I sighed a little but gave a small nod. "Yeah, you might want to take a seat cause this is going to blow you away."

Nudge's POV

"And that's the story." Nico finished. "Okay so basically your dad is a god so that makes you half mortal half god?" I asked. "Yep, any questions?" He asked. "Can you do anything special?" I asked. "Yep, I have powers that I got from my dad so I have some abilities that I put to use sometimes." Nico said. "Huh, do you get chased by things every now and then?" I figured that if he didn't say anything about what his powers were that it probably meant that he didn't want to talk about it at the moment. "Yeah actually I do, usually monsters that want to eat me for dinner." He said. "Really? So you guys have your own form of Erasers." I said mostly to myself. "What's a Eraser? I'm guessing it's not the kind you buy at Staples." He said. I giggled slightly and shook my head. "Yeah, not thoses, you know those guys from earlier?" Nico nodded. "Well they didn't morf in front of you but for me they'll turn into these horrifying wolf-man things that smell like rotting meat." I said. "Why do they do that for you?" Nico asked. "Well… try to not freak out about what I'm about to show you okay?" I asked. Nico nodded so I sighed and opened my wings. Nico's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "I guess now you know why they called me a freak." I said wrapping my wings around myself.

"Oh my gods…" I looked away from Nico as he tried to process my wings. "Can I touch them?" I turned to look at Nico who was looking at my wings with a look of wonder. "You're… not freaked out?" I asked. "My freaked out level is about 3.5 at the moment, besides Nudge I've seen weirder things. So can I?" He asked. "Uh, sure, go ahead." I said stretching out one of my wings towards him. Nico reached out and just barely brushed his fingertips against my feathers. Upon hearing nothing negative from me he ran his fingers through my feathers and gently held them in his hands. "This is amazing… can you actually fly?" Nico asked. "Yeah, it burns a ton of calories though." I said. "That sounds pretty cool, wish I could do something like that." He said. "I could take you flying some time?" I offered. "Oh no thanks, I hate heights. I get uncomfortable when my feet leave to ground longer than it takes to jump and stuff." Nico said with a nervous chuckle. "Okay, but the offer still stands if you ever change your mind." I said. "Thanks, do you live around here?" He asked. "Sort of, I live in a house that I can fly to from here. I heard what was going on while I was taking a break and decided to step in." I admitted. "So what about you?" I asked. "Nah, I live in New York. I'm staying at a hotel near here." Nico said. "What are you doing down here? So quest or something?" I asked. Nico shrugged. "Some god told me to come down here and stay until after the winter solstice, I can stay for as long as I want but they made a point that I had to stay until after the winter solstice." He said. "Huh, I guess you had to stay to find something." I said with a shrug. Nico shrugged too.

"While we're on the subject of things…" We ended up talking for hours and hours on end and only stopped when it started to get dark. "Shame that we have to part now…" I said. "Let's meet up again, here again. Tomorrow?" Nico suggested. "Sure, see you then." I said. I jumped off the cliff and opened my wings and started to fly, I did a quick lap around the cliff so Nico could see before flying off throughs the house. Once I got there Max blew up on me. "Where have you been!? You've been gone all day!" I stayed calm about it. "Sorry Max, I lost track of time. I dozed off for a while." I said. Max let it go so I went off to my room and collapsed in bed, I didn't fall asleep for a while but when I did my thoughts were all about Nico. The next day I rushed out of the house, grabbing a apple to eat on my way out. "Woah, where are you going so early?" Fang asked. "Places." I said rushing out the door. I got into the air fast and flew to the spot I had met Nico, sure enough he was there waiting for me.

I fluttered in front of him and booped his nose. "Hey there cutie, your favorite bird girl has arrived." I said and landed. "Well your the only bird girl I know so…" He said with a soft smile on his face. "Okay I get it, so what's up?" I asked sitting down next to him. We basically picked up right where we left off talking about anything and everything and just generally getting to know each other while we sat there on the cliff just pretending that it was only us in the moment and that there was nothing to worry about. This continued for about a week or so until one day. "So this is what you've been doing." I turned around and there stood Fang glaring at us. Nico went stiff and his eyes where laser focused on Fang. "Fang?! Did you follow me?!" I asked. "No, I came looking for you after you were gone for two hours and decided that something was up." He said. "Fang it's fine, Nico here is my friend. All we've been doing is talking." I said standing up. Nico stood up with me staying close to me but also kinda behind me. "It's true, all we've been doing is talking." Nico said. "Like I'll believe anything that comes out of your mouth." Fang growled at Nico. "Fang I just told you we were just talking, are you not going to believe me either?" I asked. Fang was silent for a moment and then sighed. "Okay, but how do I know I can trust him with you?" He asked. Nico stepped out from behind me. "I can't do much to her when she's a lot taller than me." He said.

Fang stared at Nico before he cover his mouth with his hand to hide his smile. "Oh my god your so tiny." He said behind his hand with a laugh. "Bitch I'm 5'6 y'all are just giants." Nico said. "True, you just look so small standing next to Nudge." Fang said still trying to stifle his laughter. "I'm aware, now can you trust me with Nudge now that you've seen how much bigger she is then me?" Nico asked rolling his eyes. "Yeah, now that I'm sure that she can drop kick you no problem I can trust you to not doing anything." Fang said. "She's already made that joke, but to be honest I'm not willing to find out if she can actually do it." Nico said. "Well I guess I'll leave you two to chat again, I would say anything to Max if you don't want me too." Fang said. "That'd be great." I said. Fang nodded and then flew off back to the house. "So that was something." Nico said. I nodded and looked at the smaller boy. "Have you ever considered wearing platformer boots?"

A/N

So this happened, not sure when the next chapter when be out but look out for it. Until then bye bye! -June