I didn't love the picture Katie had drawn. I dreaded it. Why did it look like I was controlling Will? Did she just know that, or did she find out somehow? How could she have? I hadn't told anyone. Nobody knew except…Ciardha. I tuned back into the conversation, which consisted of Percy and Katie talking about dolphins, and Will and Annabeth chatting about the designs that Annie had done. No one seemed to notice that I'd left the library, so I kept walking. It was what, 10:30 am? Nisha would be at archery class with Will's cabin, or at least, she should be. Making a beeline to the archery range, I only saw her cabin mate Lou Ellen, and the Aphrodite kids. I asked a few where she would be and the only responses were that she was in the woods looking for something. I understood immediately.
I stepped into a spot of darkness beneath a willow tree, and wrapped the shadow around me. Pushing the shadow away, I gasped, hands clutching my knees for stability. Lucky thing that Will wasn't here to tell me all the ways I could have died. But the question still remained; where was here, exactly? I'd emerged in a large heavy plated room, so huge that it had several stories. Why would someone want to be stuck in a dump like this? Shrapnel and stray pieces of metal littered the work benches and tables and the air inside was freezing cold. It looked like no one had been here in ages. The only glimmer of someone being here was the subtle tapping that echoed against a pipe. I followed the sound up a ladder to the second story, sneaking along a catwalk to where the sound was coming from. I found a small room, tucked away from view. It was dark and nearly empty; only some bedding, chest of drawers and some old mint packets remained. I could still hear the tapping though, and it was louder in this room than any other. Carefully, I flipped the light switch, and drew my sword. Nothing here looked dangerous, but you always had to be safe.
"What's tapping? Is that you, Nisha?"
From behind the bedframe, a disheveled mop of black hair popped up, dabbing at her eyes and cheeks.
"What do you want?" She'd definitely been crying, her voice cracked.
"How about some answers?"
"Huh? What for?"
"Katie, she drew someth-"
"Which Katie? Hephæstus cabin Katie or Iris cabin Katie?"
"Neither, I'm talking about my Katie. She's 2 and a half, likes green and purple. She drew something strange."
"Well, while this kid sounds great and all, and I'd probably love to meet her, kids draw strange stuff. It's just what they do."
"Yeah, well…" I was frustrated. She obviously wasn't getting the message, "Trust me, it's much weirder than you'd think."
"Fine. What kind of weird? Like drawing da Vinci helicopters, or like drawing some blobs?"
"Blobs."
"Beats me. It's your kid."
"Yes, but what she drew is something that only you and I are supposed to know."
She been slowly getting to her feet and edging closer to the door at the back of the room. But as I spoke, she halted, gaping.
"What? No, impossible. Nope. I don't believe you."
"You told someone?"
"No. I didn't tell anyone. Besides, why would they believe me? I'm just a freak, searching for things. Leo. This bunker. Answers to all the questions I have. And when I did tell someone, they left." Her tears started flowing, making patterns in the dust on her face from being in here. I stepped towards her, just pulling her into a hug, not knowing what else to do. She was only twelve, and she'd gone through so much. Clearly it was all starting to get to her.
"Ok, well maybe we should head back to camp. It's got to be lunchtime now. I'm starving, I haven't had food since last night. Are you hungry?" She laughed lightly, stifling her tears with the sleeve of her sweater. "Come on, let's get out of here for now."
We took the long route out of the bunker, going through a secret door. I just followed Nisha, she seemed to know the way. She would just walk between the trees, occasionally stopping and turning to the right, before continuing. She seemed to be on constant alert, like a rabbit, eyes zig-zagging through the forest at the slightest sound or movement. She had just slowed down to change direction again when - Snap! I looked down at my foot and the stick that I'd just broken. She turned to look back at me, a death glare stark in her eyes.
"Sorry," I whispered trying to apologise. She picked up on a crunching sound, I could faintly hear it too. She cautiously drew her dagger, lowering herself slightly as she creeped towards the sound. I waited for her to move about six feet before I drew my sword and followed her from the back. Being small and lithe, Nisha hid behind the trees and shrubs easily. Me… not so much. Firstly, the black of my shirt and jacket stood out blatantly in the mid morning sun. plus the fact that I was tall and gangly and couldn't hide at all.
Crunch! Another heavy thud against the gravel and scattered leaves and twigs. It scraped along the ground, a bellow erupting from its jowls. I peeked out from behind a huge tree trunk, sword ready to defend myself. It was a huge greying and black mottled dog. Cumbersome and finding movement difficult, she whined, laying on her side on the ground.
It was Mrs O'Leary. She had started panting heavily. That was something I'd never seen her do. Ever. She was sore, and in pain. I could feel it.
"Come quick!" I yelled at Nisha. She was still hiding behind a berry bush. She instantly jumped up racing over. As soon as Mrs O'Leary whined again, Nisha skidded to a halt.
"That's not good. There's blood." Where had she seen blood? I looked at where her finger pointed. Yep. Mrs O'Leary had been bleeding, the ground starting to run with it.
"You," I pointed my sword at her, "You stay here. I'll go get help." I'd barely finished speaking when I started to run towards the camp. I couldn't think clearly, I had tunnel vision.
Run. Get Help.
I broke from the line of trees on the edge of the woods and sprinted to the Infirmary. There was no reasoning behind my choice, just a hunch. I hurled open the door, thankfully there were no patients inside. Just Will and Katie. Will was busily filling in some forms on a clipboard, and Katie was making a pillowfort out of some blankets and two neighbouring gurneys. She was the first of the two to notice me.
"Papa!" She waved, a blanket edge still clasped in the other hand.
"Do you know," I panted, clutching at the stitch in my ribs, "How to give a Hellhound a checkup?"
"Random question." Will put his pen in his pocket, starting to stack the papers together.
"We don't have time for the long story."
"Give me the short story then."
"Mrs O'Leary in the woods. Bleeding."
"And you just left her alone?" Will hastily starting grabbing medical supplies, throwing them into a first aid box.
"No. I left a 12 year-old there."
"You left a 12 year-old in charge of a tank-sized Hellhound?" His voice was thick with disbelief and annoyance. In hindsight, it was probably a dumb decision to leave a kid in charge, that was my fault.
I grabbed Katie, promising her that we'd finish her fort later, and started jogging back to where Mrs O'Leary was. Will followed behind us.
"Shhh. It's okay, girl. You're okay." Nisha was soothing the Hellhound, rubbing circles on her forehead. Mrs O'Leary still whined and panted. The blood was still all over the ground. Her voice was low and soft, trying to keep her from freaking out. It was a pretty smart move. Will bent down on Mrs O'Leary's side, stethoscope already in his ears, checking for clear sounds in her chest cavity. As soon as Will had started examining her, Nisha headed over to Katie and I.
"Where have you been?" She crossed her arms, and her face was contorted into a scowl, "I've been talking to that dog for ages."
"I was getting hel-"
"I could've done that, and you could've stayed with the freaking dog!"
She was right, but I couldn't do anything about that now. Instead, I focussed on petting Mrs O'Leary.
"Did you seriously bring a little girl here?" Nisha wouldn't stop complaining. Did she not eat enough for breakfast this morning?
"Yes. Well, er, no one was going to be able to watch her in the Infirmary." I shrugged, glancing at Katie. She was sitting under a tree, babbling and playing with some pine cones and sticks.
"That's just great." She was laying on the sarcasm thick, and kicked a stone in anger. "And what do you want me to do now?"
"You could look after Katie for a while, take her around the camp."
"Sure." Nisha then mumbled, "Show her the camp. 'Cause that has a specific meaning." And with that she held Katie's hand and walked back to camp.
Now that they had left, Will walked over to me. He grimaced.
"It's not looking bad, and it does clear up yesterday."
"Yesterday? How?"
"Mrs O'Leary is with puppy. In fact, she's in labour right now. And from the amount of blood, this would be her first litter. Presumably, of course. I'm a human doctor, not a mythological doctor."
"How does that clear up yesterday?"
"Using the amount of energy that it took to shadow travel us from San Francisco to here would have been astounding. It also would've damaged the puppies. You subconsciously used some of your own power to get us here and keep Mrs O'Leary healthy."
That made much more sense now.
"So what do we do now?"
"Simple. We help her deliver the puppies." Will started putting on some gloves. And I just prayed to the Gods that I wouldn't be scarred for life.
I showed her the camp. It wasn't that hard, and a two-year-old gets distracted very easily. She liked the strawberry fields the most, and ending up eating over a dozen. I had to practically pull her away when the Demeter kids gave us an irritated look.
I had no idea what to do with a kid. I'd barely been one, let alone had to look after one. Why did I put myself up to?
"I'm hungry," she complained. I looked around the camp. It looked pretty empty. That meant that it had to be lunchtime.
"Fine. Come with me." We walked in silence up to the dining pavilion. I grabbed a plate and nodded to her, "Am I supposed to grab you a plate too?"
She just shrugged, raising her hands up. Great, just great. I decided that I wasn't overly hungry, and walked over to my table, holding a hand behind my back so she could tell which person I was. I sat down opposite Lou Ellen, and had to hold in a laugh as the kid heaved herself up onto the seat.
"Who's the toddler?" Lou Ellen looked up from her notebook, and took another bite of the burger she had in front of her.
"Will and Nico's." I took the top off the burger on my plate and started tearing it to pieces, "What was your name?"
She smiled and pointed at herself, "I'm Katie."
"She's Katie, apparently," I answered to Lou, giving Katie a piece of the bread topped with chicken and cheese to eat. She held it in both of her small hands, nibbling at the edges.
As soon as she'd finished eating, I could see her blinking a lot and yawning. She was no doubt tired. So we headed back to her dads' apartment. Opening the door, it was really bipolar. There was gold. There was black. The colours striped almost everything in the apartment.
"Do you usually have someone tell you a story or something before you have a nap?"
Katie shrugged, "Sing, please."
Ugh. This kid's pristine manners were getting on my nerves. I didn't know any nursery rhymes, partly because no one had ever sung them to me, and also because I'd never been a kid. I lifted her up onto her dads' bed, and pulled a chair up beside it. She turned on her side to face me, as I started to sing some of the songs I knew.
