This quest was meant to be simple. Run in, take a new demigod to camp, and kill monsters that get in the way. 'Of course, nothing is simple when the gods love making things hard for you and watch you struggle.' I think as monsters crowed us closer to the edge of a cliff.
Wait. Let me start from the beginning. My name is Nico di Angelo. I am a son of Poseidon. A few days ago, Chiron asked me to go to a school that one of the satyrs said had a demigod. I agreed right away. Nothing too hard. No major quests going on right now, that I had no problem going out to get a new kid.
As I was packing, I heard a knock coming from the door. Turning around I saw my boyfriend leaning on the frame, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. I normally don't get scared, others fear me, but you never want to piss off a child of Apollo. Especially head medic. They know the fastest, cleanest ways to kill their enemies.
Standing up, I turn around to face the other. "Hey Will." I say bashfully, while I run my hand through my hair, trying to think of what I did to make him mad at me. Not be able to, I give him a, hopefully, apologetic smile.
"Where were you this morning? What do you think you are doing?" He asks.
"Um …" Great. Can't even give him an answer to his questions. His glares at me more, before he waves a hand to the backpack that is behind me still half packed. I quickly look at it before turning to him, unable to look him in the eyes.
"Chiron asked me if I could go pick up a new demigod."
"You planned to leave without telling me?" I could hear the hurt in Wills voice. I quickly look up. He doesn't look upset, but I was sure I heard the pain when he asked.
"NO!" I take a step closer, not sure if I should try to touch him or not.
Now his visibly pouting. "Then, who's going with you?"
"Will, it's a quick quest. Run in, run out. I'll be back before nightfall tomorrow."
Now the son of Apollo is glaring at me again. "Did I hear you right di Angelo? You aren't bringing anyone with you?"
I swallow before I can answer him. "Yeah."
"I forbid you from going."
"You can't tell me what to do, Solace." My own glare in place now.
"Then take someone with you." Will rarely raises his voice, but it looks like he is fighting with himself not to right now.
"It's a quick quest. It will be a waste of everyone's time to come with me."
A vain on the son of Apollo's head thoubs. "Fine! Be a stupid fool for all I care!" Before I can say anything back, Will turns around and storms off. Standing there for a few minutes, I try to calm down.
'Stupid Will. What does he know. He doesn't go on quests.' I think to myself as I finish packing quickly. I throw my backpack on, once its packed, and walk out of the camp towards the school this new kid is at.
Getting to the school was simple enough, but it was the sun was starting to set for the day. I needed to find some place to sleep before nightfall. I can get the kid tomorrow before he goes to school.
Thankfully, the satyr had a place to stay that he let me borrow for the night. Sleeping outdoors is never fun, especially when monsters always want to kill you. He even had a little bit of information on the kid I am looking for. Apparently, the kid has black hair, green eyes, loves to wear, too big for him, blue hoodies, and his on the shorter side, around age 10 is no surprise that he's short right now.
After a good night's sleep, I go up and walked with the satyr, I really should learn his name, to the school. I guess he's friends with this demigod. We waited at the entrance for him. After watching a good fifty students walk in, I stopped really paying attention. If the kid walked in, the satyr will probably let me know.
"GROVER!" I hear over the chatter of students. I look over and see the kid the satyr described last night walking towards us. 'Thanks kid for telling me that satyrs name.' I thought as I straighten waiting for the new kid to reach us.
"Hey Percy" Grover greets back once the kid in close to hear. Percy has a huge goofy smile on his face. It's all teeth and gums. I can't help a small smile grace my face when I see his happiness. "Percy, I want you to meet someone." Grover turns towards me. I stick out my hand trying to be a little less threatening.
"Names Nico." He looks at my hand then towards my face and back. Finally, he grabs my hand.
"Percy." He introduces. We shake hands for a few seconds before dropping then to our sides.
"Is there a place we can talk for a little bit Percy?" I ask, hoping not to scare him off.
"Um …" He looks more nervous than he did before. This time looking towards Grover and me a couple of times. Grover nods his head, to signal that he could trust me. "Sure." Percy finally says. He takes us towards a clump of trees.
Once we get there, I sit down indicating the other two to follow. When we are all sitting, I explain to Percy that he is a demigod, while Grover interjects every so often to add some detail that I forgot about. He looks skeptical throughout our whole explanation.
Once we are done, all Percy says is, "You're wrong. My father walked out of my life." He got up and practically ran into the school before we had a change to say anything. I sigh before turning to Grover.
"Watch over him. I don't think this is over yet." I say before getting up and walking away too.
The rest of the day was uneventful, which put me on edge more. Having a child of one of the big three around and no monsters is never a good sign. By the end of the day, I've been looking over my shoulder every few seconds, even when I was back at Grover's place. He told me that Percy didn't seem to believe us, nor saw any monsters either. 'Tomorrow I'll just show him my powers.' I thought as I laid down to sleep.
For some reason, both of us slept in, and both Grover and I had to run to get to the school before Percy. We just made it just as Percy was reaching for the door handle. I run as fast as I could, grabbed his arm, and pulled him over to the tree patch we were at yesterday.
Percy shouted as I dragged him over. I pushed him down towards the ground, where he stayed. I grabbed his backpack, opened it, and pulled out his lunch. "Hey!"
"Just watch." I said as I pulled out a water bottle and uncapped it. I concentrated on the water inside, slowly making the water slid out without turning the bottle over. Once some of the water was out, I formed it into different shapes, circle, star, and finally a horse. The whole time, Percy was in awe. I put the water back then handed him his lunch back. "We weren't lying yesterday. I'm a son of Poseidon. You are also a demigod, and based on what you said yesterday, you're the son of some god."
"It's important that you get to camp to. Before monsters start attacking you." Grover added.
"But what about my mom?" The new demigod asked.
"Your mom will be safe. Your mom is mortal, so monsters will not even notice her." I answered.
"Will I be able to …" Percy could not finish his question. A scream ripped through the air. I turned around, and saw a small group of hellhounds, five or six, growling at us. Pulling out a dagger from my belt, I cursed under my breath, and got into a fighting stance. They charged. The closest one pounced. I ducked and drove the knife into its ribcage. It fell just to dissolve into gold dusk. It took a long time before they all were gone. Sweating, I turn towards Percy and Grover to make sure both were alright. Once I saw they were, I pushed them towards camp, telling them to run.
As we ran through the woods, more and more monsters started to show up. Some just blocking our path, others trying to kill us. We kept having to take detours to get around most of the monsters. By night fall, we were nowhere near the camp, when we should have been there before lunch time. None of us could sleep, always waiting for the next attack that never came.
When dawn finally came, we were all exhausted. We didn't have the energy to run anymore, so we slowly walked towards camp. Monsters didn't start showing up again until close to midday.
That's how we ended up at the edge of a cliff with monsters around us. My dagger starting to shine gold with all the monsters I've killed, but I don't think we can get out of this mess. Either we are going to die from jumping off, or monsters eat us. 'I should have listened to Will. I should have brought someone with me.' I thought as another monster moved closer. Percy was shaking behind be, his hand clutching tightly to my shirt.
Just as one of the monsters raised its arm to attack, the ground started to shake. Out from the dirt and mud came a white boney hand, followed by a body. Soon stood a skeleton, clad in armor and holding a rusty sword. It swung at the monster, killing it quickly. The skeleton was fast. Soon all the monsters were gone.
Thinking I'm never, I raised my knife in front of me waiting. I've never fought one of these before, so I'm not sure what the best move against it is. Instead of turn around and attacking though, it crumpled to the ground. At the same time, I felt Percy's grip loosen. I turn just in time to catch Percy from falling to the ground.
Looking between the unconscious demigod, and the skeleton, I put two and two together. Percy was not a son of just any god, he was a son of Hades, lord of the Underworld.
I picked him up, and as quickly as I could, brought him to camp, taking him straight to the infirmary.
Percy didn't wake up until a few days later. In that time, Will yelled at me for being stupid and not bringing anyone with me for backup, but also glad I wasn't seriously injured. I talked to Chiron about Percy being a son of Hades, and what to do about that (he said that they would be getting to building a cabin for him right away). I also got to rest as well.
When he finally did wake up, I told him what happened and how he saved us. He didn't seem to excited about it though, which I can understand. It's a lot to take in that the gods are still around, even more so when you find out that one of your parents is said god. But Percy slowly got use to camp. He even called his mom ever so often from what I've noticed.
Today Percy wanted to practice learning his powers more after waking up in a completely different place then where he fell asleep at. He called this power Shadow Travel, and wanted to get better at it. To see what it takes to use his powers. Will agreed to help him train.
I sat on the bleachers, watching Will bend light trying to get Percy to move faster if he wasn't to be able to travel between shadows. I always loved watching Will use his powers, whether for healing or bending light to form a weapon. Percy was having a hard time moving fast enough to get to a shadow before Will took it over, but there was a huge smile on his face, showing that he was having fun.
Percy was walking backwards, not paying attention to what was behind him. Just as I was about to yell "Watch out!" Percy tripped over a discarded wooden sword. He fell straight onto his butt. Laughing, the son of Hades slowly got back up. Once he did, the lunch bell rang. Yelling, Percy ran out of the training room. Both Will and I laughed. I got up, and walked over to him. He put an arm around my waist, while I got onto my tippy toes to give him a quick kiss. Together, we made our way to lunch.
Aelitastones1 (from AO3) suggested doing a Hades!Percy and Poseidon!Nico. I hoped you enjoyed it.