Legend

Chapter 6: Behind The Sun

Sabire Andrews

It's the beginning of August now. The humidity is almost unbearable, the rain of late summer is already setting in, and the sun seems intent on burning us all to ash. And maybe it would with time.

I was sitting under one of the many large trees in one of the sections in the sprawling forest used by the Alliance. The descending sun broke through the canopy of leaves in some places; in others it threw shadows against the trees, the grass, myself, and my companions.

After months of knowing Shane, I still cannot tell you one solid fact about him other than that his name is Shane Micheal Perry Junior. He was ever changing, ever evolving to fit whatever situation he was thrown into next. He was the type of person that you don't notice immediately, not a face nor voice nor soul to remember. But he was one of us and that's just the way it was.

Hayden; him I can give you a better picture of. He tired often, practiced with his bow and arrows often, remained silent often, was serious often, and got depressed often. But he was one of the most fiercely loyal people you could ever meet. He'd let you rant and scream and cry about any nonsense at all and he would sit there and take it. Yes, I knew the rumors and the stories concerning him, but that didn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things. Because, to me, he was just Hayden. He was just my friend, Hayden.

Then, lastly, there was Kyle, who sat next to me, his back to the tree, eyes intently staring up through the leaves at the fading sun, as if determined to watch until it disappeared over the horizon, even though sunsets weren't anything special as they happened every day. He's the most optimistic of the four of us. Always has been too. He ignored the shadows of the sun, and focused on it's brightness. He was a dreamer, without doubt. An unrealistic dreamer who dreamed far bigger than any one person had ever dreamed before, and yet he did nothing more than dream.

Dreaming was something that we all did. I stared through the leaves high above our heads and dreamed of what lay behind the sun, trying to see the world from his point of view. But, of course, no one perspective is exactly like another, and Kyle's was so unique, no one else's could ever be even a relative match.

But perhaps there was some sense to that. Dreaming of behind the sun. Beneath the surface. Passed the obvious. In between the cracks of reality. It was a worthy thing to spend, say, a few minutes pondering. But since there is no way of being absolutely certain of what lay behind the things we all see by simply dreaming, I found it a rather useless activity. I didn't understand what Kyle saw in it, so I stopped looking up as the sun made it's decline in the sky, because no one can ever grasp what Kyle sees and, after all, there is always another sunset. Two valuable facts of life.

Alternatively, a fact of death is that there will be no more sunrises, which left me dumbfounded at the irony of my mind's aimless wanderings.

The forest was never silent, and now made no exception. The chirping and songs of the ever active birds, the rushing water of the river, the whistling wind flying through the trees, the pitter-patter of animals' paws, the howls' of monsters in the distance, the rustle of the leaves above, and the light breathing of whoever happened to be in your earshot. It was a disorganized, beautiful symphony of a wide assortment of sounds. But now, right now just sitting in a peaceful lapse of time with three of my four best friends, it was as quiet as this forest could ever possibly be. A completely comfortable, relaxed silence.

I reviewed their positions again. Kyle beside me, Hayden perched in the lowest branch, Shane leaning against a tree close to ours. Their faces, so different in feature, were at this moment so similar in content that they might have passed as each other in a former life.

I smiled to myself as I traced a meaningless pattern into the slightly moist soil beneath me. This was more my speed. I loved the thrill of monster hunting and fighting, as I had slowly progressed to becoming an average warrior, which had made Annabeth finally, somewhat, grudgingly, tolerant of me. But, all the same, this calm in the middle of the storm right here, this was one of the moments in my life where I felt truly at ease with the world.

To be a demigod and experience this feeling was the most unusual of events, so I cherished this as much as I could in the light of the dying sun.

And with the dying sun came the growth of the shadows of which my brother of sorts would choose to appear quietly across from me as if he were one of his own subjects: a ghost. His hood pulled low over his bent head obscured his face from view, and the darkness of his clothes allowed him to melt into the background as if the angel of death watching with vigilance over the unsuspecting mortals. And he was silent, but he was there, and it was him.

Kyle tensed up next to me, aware of the son of Hades' presence, though his clear blue eyes remained focused on the purples of the sky. Shane and Hayden, I suspected, were not yet conscious of him. Just as well; not many had the perception of noticing when Nico made his appearance. I, however, would not break this quiet, for two reasons that is. Firstly, if Nico did not want conversation, he would make no move to ignite it or give no signal for anyone else to initiate it either. Secondly, it was now that I had all the people I held dear around me, even if Kyle was not at the ease he was before. A selfish thought, yes.

But for now, I would stare at these people who would stare at the sun, or the woods, or off into nowhere, and I would enjoy this, I was determined to, even if it is to be the last thing I shall ever do. Until the building tension forced this away, I would try to forget the stresses and eternally live my life now.

Of course, 'now' changes with every passing second. Time moves along more steadily than anything else, for the most part. And this moment was just that: a moment in a day in a month in a year in a split second in the history of time. Time: the enemy; time: the savior. Time always changed, and yet time always remained the same. So I should have anticipated this to last no longer than it was destined to, which was a moment.

It ended on Nico's step out of the shade of his tree and gliding with stealth, darkness, and silence out into the fast retreating light, though his face remained shadowed from his bangs and his hood. Kyle brought up his chin in acknowledgement of him to look up into the space where he judged Nico's eyes to be. Hayden jumped down from his branch and landed with a thud off to Kyle's right, with Shane coming in on my left. We too much resembled a wall against him for me to feel a fraction of the ease I felt a moment ago. I stepped up to meet my first friend, my best friend, my brother once again.

"Hi, Nico." My voice sounded strange to pierce the quiet, but it was necessary to be done. I took another step towards him, unhesitantly hugging his frame to me. I could not remember when we had last made any contact, though I do remember the fleeting conversation. If he were actually voluntarily showing his face here, I would force him to stay or at least make a decent dialogue with me, whether or not the others wanted his presence.

Nico didn't hug. It was a universal truth. He just sort of stood there like an emotionless rock, though, of course, I knew he was neither. But I did my best to make the embrace work, as I always had to. After several endless moments, he began to pull away, so I grudgingly released him, though I did take the second to flick the hood off his head, at which he scowled and I just smiled a small smile in return.

"So, what brings you to this side of the track?" I asked jokingly; we both knew he didn't show up here if he could help it, only if the Founders ordered it or he had to do one of his monthly reports. He'd just I.M. me if he felt like talking, though I I.M.'d him more often then he. He kept very busy; he was the Alliance's finest spy, and his father's lieutenant after all, though he did run a lot of personal errands and missions that he liked to keep quiet.

"I am under strict orders not to divulge any information regarding the previous series of missions I have undertaken to any who do not already recognize the situation." Hands clenched in his pockets, jaw tight, eyes vacant. His face remained smooth and impassive throughout the entire sentence, which was normal. He spoke distinctly, formally, and detached, which was normal as well. What worried me was that he usually only gave very short answers or a nod or shake of his head as answer to any question. Also, Nico was not one to follow orders, so whatever this was, it was serious, too important for the order not to be obeyed, so grave that he'd feel the need to keep information from me of all people.

"Hey, Nico." Kyle edged forward subtly, but not subtly enough to escape the eyes of the Ghost King, who was literally born to register everything, take it all in, and dismiss it like the spy he was trained to be.

Nico inclined his head as way of greeting the three others of my closest friends.

A beat of heavy silence.

But then, "I merely hoped to glance a look at your face a last time before I faced the dragon," he said to me, referring to his meeting with Annabeth Chase, the head of the Alliance in all her perfect, blonde glory, and the rest of the Founders. "I should be off then." And then, just like that, he was one with the shadows once again, as he always had been; the shadows were him, and he was the shadows.

And in the now darkness of these same woods I cherished for their sentiments, I'd never felt more more unsettled by the world around me, and what could possibly lay behind the sun.