A/N: To Matt: No, sorry to disappoint, but in this story, Nico and Will are straight. Everything that has to do with that will be explained in future chapters.
Sunlight flitted through the branches of the forest canopy. I sat up and stretched. No one else was awake as far as I could see, besides me and Nico, who had already started the fire and was stoking it. I walked over and sat next to the fire across from him.
"Is anyone else awake?" I asked.
Nico nodded. "Yeah. Grover. He went looking for berries."
I tilted my head, perplexed. "But we already have the magic plates. Why would he want berries?"
Nico shrugged. "You can never tell with satyrs." He returned to stoking the fire, his face solemn. I wondered why he was always reclusive and quiet all the time. I was about to ask him, but decided it wasn't a good idea. I didn't want to get on the bad side of a son of Hades.
I looked at Nico again, only to discover that he was looking next to me with a surprised expression. I looked over and saw Arya laying contentedly, like nothing had happened.
"She's friendly," I assured Nico.
He lowered his eyes back to the fire and muttered under his breath, "Just like Mrs. O'Leary. Freaky teleporting cat."
Arya growled deep in her throat. Let's see how your face looks after you call me 'cat' one more time.
"Arya," I warned.
Arya huffed and rested her chin on her paws. I smiled in spite of myself and scratched her behind the ears. Arya closed her eyes and purred blissfully. Down, down, over—yeah, that's the spot.
I giggled and continued to pet my tiger. I could've sworn I saw a shadow of a smile pass Nico's face.
A crunch of branches came from the trees, and a moment later Grover came stumbling through, his arms full of blackberries.
"Blackberries. Seriously, dude, we have magic food-creating plates," I told him. I immediately regretted it. Grover's eyes were red from crying.
"Grover, I'm sorry. What's wrong?" I asked gently.
Grover sniffed. "Juniper's very sick. If she stays out of the state with her home tree for more than twelve hours. . ." Grover trailed off, but we all knew what would happen.
"Wait. . . Juniper's tree. . . I thought she couldn't leave the camp because of her tree..." I stopped when Nico raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh," my face suddenly felt hot, "Rick Riordan twisted that up too, huh?"
Grover nodded. "Yep. But Juni still can't go very far without getting sick. As for the blackberries, they're her comfort food."
Grover walked over to Juniper, who was still sleeping, but her face was greener than usual. Her eyes barley opened as Grover knelt down next to her log. "Hey, Juniper, how you feeling?" he asked tenderly.
Juniper managed a weak smile. "Better, now that you came."
Nico grimaced like he ate something sour. Despite the crucial situation, I almost laughed.
"Brought your favorite," Grover continued. He helped Juniper sit up and handed her some blackberries. Juniper took the fruit and ate it tentatively. The color started coming back to her face. She took a deep breath and exhaled.
"I'm fine," she lied.
"Juni," Grover said sadly, "you can't continue on the quest. You won't make it. We need to get you back to camp. . ." he trailed off and looked at Nico.
Nico's face flushed. "Oh, um, well. . . is it really a good idea to shadow-travel with a sick nymph?"
Grover gave Nico the death look, which effectively shut him up. "Anyway, Nico, you guys better get going. I don't think Juniper can hold out much longer," Grover said.
Nico nodded and offered a hand to Juniper, who took it and stood up. "Don't worry, Grover, I'll be fine," Juniper assured him. She kissed him on the cheek, and walked with Nico to the nearest tree. Juniper grabbed Nico's arm as he walked straight into the tree and disappeared.
I patted Grover's shoulder. "She'll be ok," I told him. Grover looked at me gratefully. Arya grunted in her sleep.
"Argh," came a groggy voice. Grover and I turned around to see Leo stretching so far back he nearly fell off the log. He yawned. "'Sup."
"Hey, Leo," I said. He flashed me a grin and grabbed a plate from Annabeth's backpack, which immediately produced an exaggerated amount of blueberry pancakes and bacon. Leo wolfed them down in under five minutes. Grover stared at him with a genuine horrified expression. Leo and I both laughed.
Hazel made a muffled snort from her bedroll and Annabeth rolled over in hers. She opened her eyes and looked like she didn't know where she was for a second. Then her face grew red with anger and cried, "You guys!"
Tyson jumped out of bed, his brown eye looking frantically around; Hazel sat up, her hair like a rat's nest and little diamonds popping up around her legs; and Will, who was aiming his bow with his eyes half-closed. How ironic that his bow happened to be pointing at my head.
"What?" Grover asked Annabeth.
She glared at him. "Why didn't you wake us up? We could be halfway to Alaska by now!"
"Sorry," I muttered.
"Over reactive," Leo coughed.
Annabeth looked at him. "Excuse me?"
"Nothing," he yelped.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Pack up! We still have a long journey ahead of us. A couple hundred miles at least."
"No way!" Leo said sarcastically. "A couple hundred miles is far? Really?"
Annabeth ignored him. She gave Grover a quizzical look. "Where's Nico and Juniper?"
"Camp Half-Blood," Grover answered. Annabeth seemed to understand. "Juniper will be ok," she reassured him. Grover gave her a look that said, I hope so.
"Nico will catch up to us as soon as he drops off Juniper. I'll send him an Iris-message later. And as for us. . ." Annabeth said, "let's go."
