A/N: This is a short story I scribbled down after seeing a comic strip on Tumblr. Unfortunately, I lost the link so I can't give credit but I hope you all like it anyway.
Nico decided that saying that shadow travel was complicated would be a huge understatement. It was more than complicated. Kind of like dealing with people, actually. And all those stupid shenanigans that came with them. It was all about the kind of clothes you wore, whether you watched certain shows, and liking loud, obnoxious...Nico wasn't even sure what it was called. Music, or something.
Oh, where was he? Right. Shadow travel.
It was annoyingly complex. After all, there are shadows all around the world. There are shadows in your bedroom, in your closet, Hades, there are even shadows in your toilet (the less said about those, the better). Shadow travel meant using these shadows as some kind of bridge to get to places. Simple? Hardly. It wasn't as if those bridges were constant. Shadows never linger. Imagine trying to pinpoint an exact location on a map that randomly changed every few minutes. A single miscalculation could send you hundreds of miles away, leaving you completely drained and defenseless in an unknown place. But despite how jumbled up it all was, Nico was fairly sure that he had almost all of the basics covered. Almost.
"Am I...?" He steadied himself against a tree and waited for his vision to clear. He was almost positive that he was back at Camp Half-Blood. A place, which throughout the years had become the closest thing to home. The far-off sound of sword fighting could be heard, he could see the smoke from the forges curling up into the sky, and he recognized the unforgettable smell of pegasus poop. Thanks to years of lurking around in the shadows, he knew this forest like the back of his hand, but something about it seemed slightly off. Almost as if it was...younger.
CRACK.
Nico's reflexes kicked in immediately. There were things you learned from hanging out in graveyards with no one but the undead and occasional group of freaks. Whirling around, he freed his sword with a sharp clang and faced his...er, attacker. Right in front of him stood a boy who couldn't have been a day past eleven.
"Oh!" he said cheerily. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you."
Nico gaped at him. They both looked so much alike, yet they were both so different. They shared the same dark chocolate eyes, the same olive skin and the same messy dark hair. But the boy radiated happiness and hope, while Nico knew he carried the aura of death wherever he went. Yes, he knew. People weren't exactly subtle when it came to avoiding him. But this kid definitely caught him off-guard. He didn't seem threatened in the least. He had even apologized for scaring him. It was definitely a first. Who was this kid anyway?
"Do you want to play Mythomagic with me?" Grinning, the boy held up a packet of cards. "My sister Bianca usually plays with me, but she's on a quest right now. She's the best! You'd like her!"
Oh. Oh. Mythomagic. Bianca. Quest.
No one understood the complications of shadow travel better than Nico di Angelo. And yet he was thoroughly shocked to find himself here. At camp. In the past.
The boy continued to babble on. "I wish you could meet her right now. She's awesome!"
Although he was still confused, Nico somehow managed a small smile, and for a single moment, looked exactly like the eager little boy standing in front of him.
"Yeah," the Ghost King replied. "She is, isn't she?"
A/N: Leave a review and let me know what you think! Until next time, my lovelies!
EDIT: Fixed a bunch of formatting errors. Also, to the person who was wondering how exactly shadow travel brought Nico to the past, this was entirely based off an AU on Tumblr and is purely a work of fiction. :)