Chapter 1

"Are you sure you have made the right decision, Thalia?" Artemis asked me.

"Yes I believe I have lady Artemis." I answered truthfully and she smiled sadly.

"Then I am going to miss you being in the hunters, dear friend." She said, hugging me tightly. I started to give her back my armor but she stopped me.

"Keep it. As a reminder of your days with the hunter's." She stated. I smiled and nodded. Still smiling sadly, she stepped back from me.

"Are you ready to have your immortality taken away?" She asked and I nodded firmly. She started to say a spell and a bubble of power surrounded me. Some energy came out of my body and went into the bubble. I was surrounded by the bubble for another minute until there was no more energy coming from my body and it disappeared. I felt weak as I fell to the ground but I still felt strong and sure. I stood up and smiled at lady Artemis.

"Goodbye Thalia, I wish you a happy life." She said.

"As to you lady Artemis." I said, bowing. When I stood up I turned around and headed out of the tent. As I walked past all the tents the hunters came out and said goodbye to me, hugging me as well.

"Goodbye Thalia we'll miss you." 8-year-old-looking Celine said, hugging me.

"I'll miss you too." I said, tears in my eyes. I hugged the rest of the hunters and then I headed into the forest with all my belongings.

~~~~~~~~The next day~~~~~~~

The hunter's campsite was in Washington and I am now in the middle of Idaho. I've been walking and running non-stop and I am exhausted, I forgot how tired you could get as a human but I don't regret my decision to leave them I know it was the right one. You may be wondering why I left the hunter's and here's why. You see about a month ago the hunter's and I visited camp half-blood and while I was there I got to spend alot of time with my friends. They were all older than me but Nico was only older by acouple of days. I spent most of the visit with Nico and I fell in love with him which I realized by the time the hunter's and I reached Washington because I couldn't stop thinking about him, he wasn't that dorky 10-year-old kid I found acouple years ago so I am now heading out through the country. I was now walking through a big forest, each step getting me closer to camp half-blood. I have decided that I'll join everybody back at camp and stay there until it is safe enough to go out into the world, and so I'll be with Nico.

I walked acouple more miles until I came across a river and realized how thirsty I was since I ran out of water two hours ago and I decided to fill all my water bottles up. It took me awhile but I finally filled up most of them and was on the last one when suddenly someone pushed me into the river, taking me by surprise. When I rose above the water I was gasping and choking for air. I looked up to see Nico shaking with laughter. I got alittle angry when I saw him and I knew he noticed that because he stopped laughing and stepped back as I got out of the river, soaking wet. I was shocked that he was here and was thinking that I was probably hallucinating but he seemed too real to be one.

"How did you find me?" I asked him when I calmed down and could breathe again. He shrugged.

"I was walking around the forest and I saw you by this river so I decided to push you in." He stated casually and I thought of a great plan. I walked up to him and hugged him tightly because 1. It would be payback because now he will be as wet as me, and 2. I get to hug him! Yea I have it bad. I pulled away and smiled when I saw how wet he was. He stared at me shocked while I laughed. After acouple seconds he relaxed and smiled a smile at me that made me melt, of course I didn't let him see that. We talked alittle bit more as we headed down the river trying to find a place to set up for camp.

It took us awhile but we finally found the perfect clearing for it. After we made a fire and settled down it was already lunch time. I reached into my pack and started to search for my food but I couldn't find it anywhere.

"Here." I heard Nico say. I turned around to face him and he handed a sandwich to me, "I have alot of them." I hid my blush, took the sandwich, said thanks, and started to eat. It was really good.

"Did you make this yourself?" I asked him after swallowing.

"Yea." Nico said taking another bite.

"It's really good." I complimented. He stopped eating and stared at me, shocked, "What?"

"You just gave me a compliment and meant it." He stated, still shocked.

"So? Why's that a big deal?" I asked.

"You never compliment me let alone another boy." Nico stated.

"Oh well things change." I explained, shrugging and taking another bite. He stared at me a little longer and then he got back to his sandwich. When we were finished we got some blankets and sat by the fire.

"So how have you been the past month?" I asked him.

"Great! I've been hanging around in the underworld and camp alot. I've also been hanging around with Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Rachel too." He stated, "What about you?"

"Hanging out with the hunters of course, and hunting monsters too." I stated.

"Cool." He stated simply.

"Why aren't you with the hunter's right now?" Nico asked after acouple minutes of silence. I didn't want to tell anybody the truth yet so I decided to tell him something different.

"Artemis let me take a break for awhile." I stated simply.

"How long?" He asked.

"As long as I want." I answered.

"How long do you want it to be?" Nico asked.

"I don't know depends on what I chose to do during the time." I explained.

"So where were you going before I ran into you?" He asked.

"I was heading to camp." I stated. He looked at me shocked.

"So was I!" He exclaimed.

"Then why did you stop in the middle of a forest?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked down and I swear that he blushed. He mumbled something I couldn't hear.

"What?" I asked him, confused. He looked up and sighed.

"I love nature and I was just appreciating it." He said truthfully, looking down at his hands, "You probably think I'm a big softy and all girly now."

"No I think that it's a great thing to like, most guys don't but it give you a soft side." I stated, grabbing onto his hand. I felt a spark and I was totally sure it was not my powers. He smiled.

"Thanks." He stated softly. We stared into each others eyes for awhile and just when we both leaned forward he clear his throat and stood up.

"Ummmm...I'll go get some more firewood." He stated, hurrying off to find some. I groaned inwardly, pulled the blanket closer around me, and layed down on the warm ground. Acouple minutes later I still wasn't asleep when Nico came back with some firewood. He added some to the fire and turned to look at my seemingly sleeping figure. He walked towards me, knelt down, put the blanket on me more, and kissed my cheek. I felt warmth where he had kissed me and it spread throughout my body. I smiled, snuggled more into the blanket, and fell asleep thinking happy thoughts.