Nico POV
I was out of breath. I had been chasing this girl everywhere and I had never even seen her! I hate stupid demigod quests. She is seriously hard to keep up with.
As I was walking in the shadows, following her, I realized a hellhound was following her too.
How did I not notice this sooner? I thought. Oh yeah, shadow travel. Duh.
You would think a son of Hades would know that.
The hellhound pounced, and I shadow traveled closer to her, just in case she needed my help. What was in her hand? Of course, a switchblade, a mortal weapon. She stabbed, well, tried to stab the hellhound and her blade snapped. I was about to run and help, but the hellhound leaped off o her. I thought she was going to be fine, but as she got up, she doubled over and almost fell. She got up again, and the hound charged. She dodged to the side.
I decided to go help right about then. I wasn't going to have this demigod die and me be the blame. The hellhound charged again and I shadow traveled right behind her. She dodged again, as I had expected, and I stabbed the hellhound right through his head. Clear shot. Well, stab.
I looked at the girl, and she looked terrified. Well, she looked more than that. She looked exhausted, scared, and really hungry. You could almost see every bone in her body. Her wrist was so tiny that a seven year old could probably wrap their whole hand around it. She was pale, and her green eyes stood out intensely against her skin. Her brown hair fell in messy choppy layers around her face. She was wearing purple converse high tops, ripped jeans, a tattered and worn 30 Seconds to Mars shirt, a blue jacket and a… wait, a Sonic hat? You have got to be kidding me.
Okay, I'll admit, I was kind of liking this girl. 30 Seconds to Mars? Oh yeah. She would probably be beautiful if she hadn't looked like she had gotten run over by a dirt bike. Emphasis on the word dirt. She had freckles on her nose, and under her eyes, and her mouth constantly looked like it was trying to form a smile, but couldn't remember how.
"um.. hi" she said. Her voice was hoarse, I be she hadn't had a drink of water in a while, much less talked to someone in a while.
"Hi. I'm Nico Di Angelo." I replied in my best, "I have just heroically saved the day" voice. Yeah, like she'd buy that.
Right after I finished, she collapsed. Wow, she falls down a lot. I walked over to her and checked her pulse. She was breathing sharp, quick gasps.
"My r-ribs" she managed to get out. Of course! When she was tackled, her ribs probably cracked! Oh, that's bad.
I felt along her ribs, which was easy to do, since she was so skinny, and sure enough, two of her ribs were cracked. Crushed, more like. I reached inside my pocket and got some nectar and ambrosia to feed her. Her ribs healed, but she was still in no shape to walk. I picked her up and walked over to some shadows in the alley.
Soon, we had arrived at half-blood hill, and were making our way to the big house.
"Where am I?" the girl asked.
"Camp Half-Blood, don't worry, you're safe here."
She was beginning to realize what was happening, that she was with some strange guy who just suddenly appeared at this place. I forgot that I didn't tell her that she was a demigod, and I didn't even know her name. Oops.
I carried her into the infirmary and set her down on one of the beds. She had fallen asleep while I was walking her down to the big house, so I had no trouble getting her into the bed. Chiron came in in his wheel chair, I guess he didn't want to freak her out yet.
"I see you've returned safely. Some what."
"Thanks Chiron." I replied sarcastically.
"Where's she from?" Chiron asked.
"I don't know"
"Does she know she's a demigod?"
"No."
"Well, what's her name, then?"
"I don't know."
"Nico! I expected you to know these things!"
"I couldn't! She fainted right after I introduced myself!"
Chiron sighed. "Fine. I guess those will have to wait till later. What caused her to faint?"
"A hellhound tackled her."
"And you killed it?"
"Well, yea"
"Good."
Ok, so I didn't know her name, and I didn't tell her she was a demigod. What's the big deal? I got her here alive, right?
"Go to your cabin and get some rest, Nico. I'm sure you need it."
I wanted to protest that I wanted to stay, but Chiron didn't want to argue. As I made my way to my cabin, something surprised me. It was quiet. Camp is never quiet. I also remembered that when I brought the girl in, nobody came to greet me. Where was everybody? I looked around. Nope, nobody on the volleyball court, the beach, the forges looked completely empty, and the cabins had no lights on inside.
I decided to check the arena though, just because I was getting way too freaked out. As I got nearer to the arena, I could hear shouting, cheering, and booing. I walked in, and the stands were packed with every single camper. In the middle, sword-fighting, was Percy Jackson and Leo Valdez.
"What in Hades…" I trailed off. "Uh, why are Percy and Leo fighting? I asked a nearby camper. Piper McLean, I remembered.
"Oh, Nico, you're back." She barely even glanced at me. She was watching so intently that I was afraid she would fall over, she was leaning forward so much. "Uh, there's this tournament thing, it's mostly sword-fighting, but you can use any of your inherited Godly powers."
"And they decide to do this while I'm gone? Figures."
"Well, it was kind of a last minute thing. Percy and Leo are the final contestants. Percy knocked Clarisse out last round, and Leo won over Annabeth."
"Wait, Leo beat Annabeth? I bet Percy's mad."
"It does look like he's fighting hard.."
I looked at the fight. There was a huge water basin so that Percy could use his powers, and Leo was going all flame-o and stuff. It looked as though Leo were winning, which was weird, Percy is usually amazing at stuff like this. Percy's hair was singed, and his clothes had burnt holes through them. Leo looked fine, except that he was soaking wet.
As the fight went on, Leo kept throwing fire, and Percy kept putting them out, until Leo summoned tons of white-hot flames. Percy tried to put them all out but Leo knocked him out with the hilt o his sword, and it was done. Apollo kids rushed to the middle of the ring and started healing Percy. Everybody swarmed Leo and started raising him on their shoulders and running him all over the arena. Percy was up, he didn't have any major injuries, and his hair wasn't singed anymore, probably thanks to the Aphrodite campers. He didn't look mad, he just looked happy that it was over. I guess that Clarisse had probably given him a really hard time.
Everybody was going to the Mess Hall to celebrate, but I was tired, and needed sleep right away. So I headed back to Hades cabin, walked in, and crashed on my bed. Within seconds, I was asleep.
A/N
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