Hi again, update today, I'm so happy! Wow, I never thought I would even make it this far... I like this chapter... Sorta... It's a nice one, I think, although i liked the last one better. Ok, so I'm not going to rant or anything, but, yeah, the usual. Pleas please please review. It makes my day and really inspires me and gives me hope. It makes me want to carry on.
Oh, and a special thanks to forevrskysong, who is just the most awesome person ever. Thanks for reviewing, and in this chapter, I don't think I used "though" that much. And there aren't any spelling errors. Oh, and, last I checked, poise is a word. In my dictionary. The UK dictionary... See, it's different from the American one, and it has different words. So if you think there are any spelling errors, please say so, and I'll check and make sure. Thanks again!
Thanks for reading, guys. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Nico
Nico managed a soft landing. Well, as soft as you can get when you fall from 8 metres in the air.
He'd been aiming for a riverbed, but he'd gotten the cliff right next to one. Luckily, they didn't fall from the top, instead they fell from a few metres under halfway. The soft sand of the river offered a squishy, uncomfortable landing, but at least he hadn't become a demigod pancake in the middle of nowhere.
He jerked himself up, spitting the mud out of his mouth. It really had been a less than pleasant landing. He tried to tug his legs out of the ground but they wouldn't budge; they were stuck quite solidly in the sand. In fact, he couldn't even feel his feet.
So he settled for squeezing out his dark, thick, shoulder length locks, scraping his pale skin clean, and emptying his shirt of dirt.
Just a quick glimpse around showed him the beauty of the valley.
Grover would love this place, he thought.
He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and madly turned, trying and failing to reach his sword, which had skittered a few metres away. He cursed, and remained empty handed, balling his hands into fists.
Then he saw that it was only Reyna and Coach Hedge; they, too, had been struggling to extricate themselves from the ground.
He moaned, loudly, and Reyna turned towards him, frowning.
"Great work!" She shouted across at him. "I couldn't think of a better place to land. A stupid riverbed with hardly any water! Now, you think you could get us out of it?"
"Geez, calm down," Nico said. His voice was unnaturally soft, so Reyna couldn't hear him.
"What?" She yelled back at him. "I can't hear you!"
Nico was sure she was pretty annoyed with him, but he was surprised the grumpy old satyr hadn't uttered a word yet.
"Hey, Coach, you okay?" He asked.
"There ain't any damn water," Nico heard him mutter. He wasn't very good at keeping his vice down.
"Hey, Coach, you okay?" He shouted, a lot louder this time.
"Huh? What? Oh. Yeah. Yeah! I'm okay!"
"Good to know," murmured Nico.
The other two seemed to have stopped trying, and were now lying forlornly with half their bodies invisible. It really was quite a sight. But not funny enough for Nico to even show the shadow of a smile.
He looked directly above him. The moon was blocked by a massive structure. The Athena Parthenos obscured his vision, and darkened the shadows.
Shadows, he thought. Oh, clever me.
He then concentrated really hard on a point a little farther away from his 'grave' and willed himself to appear there. It didn't work for some time; he had to strain himself, and, in the end, when he did find himself in that place, he had beads of sweat rolling down his lean, hollow cheeks.
"Hades' underpants..." He said, "I never thought it would be so hard."
He heard clapping coming from where his... 'Friends' were.
He looked over at them and actually smiled, although it disappeared quite quickly. He shook his head at them, and they raised their eyebrows.
"Hey, cupcake, you gonna get us out of here, or what? I can't feel my hooves!" Coach Hedge complained.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Nico said, more to himself than anything. He couldn't get his mind off Percy.
Wow. That guy... He had been so much in Nico's life, and, gods of Olympus, he still was. But, even after his meeting with the god of love, Cupid, he couldn't face his feelings. They were more muddled up and strange than ever now: that heart wrenching tug that he got whenever he thought of Percy had dimmed a bit; he didn't have to try so hard when he pushed his feelings away into the heavily padlocked chest at the back of his mind; he found it more difficult to concentrate on destinations when he was shadow traveling; and, most peculiarly, he had started to notice things about... Girls.
He didn't notice he had reached his friend until he tripped over one of their arms.
"Ugh," he muttered.
"That is one Minerva - i mean, Athena - worthy smarty pants we got here, don't you think, Coach?" He heard Reyna say. She was really giving him a hard time, but she was grinning slightly, which surprised him; she was such a reserved, strict person... At first sight, that is. She looked quite lighthearted, which shocked him even more. They were on a quest that might result in their deaths...
Oh well, he thought, might as well make the best of what time we have left.
But instead of going directly to them, he inspected their surroundings. Beautiful vegetation was bursting from every corner, making a sort of green waterfall of the side of the top of the cliff. He had never been a fan of wildlife, but he had to admire the sheer splendor of the valley they were in.
He spotted a little cave at the base of the cliff, and peered cautiously at it, scrutinizing it for any sign of danger. He found none, so he carried on his inspection. He saw that the clearing they were in was about 20 metres in diameter, quite a cosy little space.
He sighed, and glared at his accomplices. They weren't exactly friends, but they were all he had at the moment, so he was willing to help them in return for the same favour.
He took Coach Hedge first, just to see what Reyna's reaction would be. She grunted indignantly, and glared at him.
"Have you never heard of 'Ladies first'?" She asked him.
"Well, now that you mention it, I don't remember. And I thought you were happy there?" He posed it as a question, but she gave no answer. Instead, she just flipped off the poor boy.
He started, quite stunned at her. Then he shook his head at her and dissolved into the shadows.
He trudged back to her from where he had landed, which was right underneath the giant bosom of the Athena Parthenos. He had left Coach Hedge in the darkness, and the satyr hadn't moved. He had kept muttering to himself about moonlight being worse than sunlight and there being next to no water in the riverbed. Nico hadn't bothered to ask, because he knew he wouldn't have gotten a straight answer.
He took Reyna's hand, which sent a pleasant tingling sensation up his arm, and through his whole body. He gloried in it for a few moments, then realized that the girl was staring at him with her head cocked slightly to one side. Her dark eyes glistened with curiosity, but, weirdly enough, she hadn't let go of his hand. He found himself unknowingly swimming in her eyes, trying to get to the depths of the chocolate pools to find the secrets underneath solid colour. All he got was a hint of bitterness, just as one would find in dark, cocoa rich chocolate.
He blushed, and he could feel his cheeks burning.
She smiled knowingly up at him, and he calmed down, only slightly, though.
"Ready?" He asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," she replied, but slightly... What was it? He couldn't quite place the emotion that he heard in her voice. Contempt? Doubt? Sorrow?
He had always considered himself master of all cold, horrid feelings, as he had experienced most of them firsthand. But now, he wasn't quite sure about it.
He cleared his mind, shoving everything back into the chest, and willed the two of them to appear next to Coach Hedge.
When they reappeared, Nico stumbled, and Reyna squeezed his hand, pulling him towards her, using her other hand to hold him steady.
"Thanks," he barely managed to speak.
"You should rest. You don't want to be like this when we have to fight. And even if you don't fight, it's not like we could make a quick getaway. You wouldn't have the strength to shadow travel even a metre," she said all this quite gently, all the while holding Nico up, close to her.
He was so close to her, he could smell her sweet yet spicy fragrance. Her warmth was so comforting, so welcome after all the cold he had endured, he felt himself slipping again.
He mentally chided himself for being so stupid. He didn't like her. He couldn't like her. And what about Percy?
Yes, what about Percy, another presence in his mind spoke. He had never heard it before in his entire life. And that was saying something, looking at his past.
Percy- he's just... Different, I guess.
Is he? Is he really that different? The voice sneered.
Yes! He's amazing. I mean, well, he did save the world and everything...
Nico couldn't believe he was having this conversation with himself. He never let himself think about Percy... Never.
He tried to push his evil conscience out of his head, but it stood just as solidly as before.
Get out, he mentally growled.
You cannot make me leave. After all I am you. Your deepest thoughts hopes and fears, all combined into one, perfect creature. Me. There was a horrid cackling laugh that seemed to echo in his ears, and he felt himself falling into darkness, spiraling into the deepest darkest parts of his most horrible and terrifying thoughts.
"Nico!" He heard a voice, but it was very far away.
"Nico!" Again, this time slightly louder. A hint of light came into his mind.
"Oh come on, Nico!" Yet another time he heard someone calling his name, though quite close this time. Another streak of light broke through the darkness.
And then, as if it was shouted in his ear, two voices called him, filled to the brim with desperation and worry. His mind exploded into a million shards of ebony glass, light streaming through the gaps and reflecting off the shiny surfaces.
His eyes fluttered open, and he found himself face to face with an anxious Reyna and a seemingly angry Coach Hedge.
"Gods of Olympus, boy, why'd you do that? Nearly gave the poor girl a heart attack," he scolded Nico, gesturing a Reyna.
She glanced away, shutting her eyes. Nico saw her mouth tighten, and when she turned again to look at him, there was a sturdy wall blocking him from her.
He was just thinking about how exhausted he was, when he heard a vicious howl. One he was all too familiar with.
He untangled himself from Reyna's arms, and staggered forward, to where the moonlight was shining brightly on the ground. He crouched slightly, and made his way forward towards his sword haltingly. When he reached it, he scooped it up, thankful for the familiar weight of the cold sword in his hand.
He spun around. He had heard a noise coming from the scrub off to the left of his group of... Gee, he really had no idea what to call them. It confused him. What were they to him?
He realized his mistake too late. As he blinked he saw enormous black shapes hurtling towards them at full speed. Eight, to be exact.
And one was barreling straight towards him, too fast for him to react.
It was on top of him in a matter of milliseconds.
And as it snarled ferociously in his face, he saw his life flash before his eyes.
