Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO (Sorry, I only just noticed that was wrong)

Zoë continued forwards and they followed her, but at least now for his sake Percy was not the only confused member of the group. Well, James was probably as confused as him most of the time, but he usually ignored them or just covered it with sarcastic comments. They were all looking at Zoë as if she was insane.

"What do you mean the Mountain of Time? Kronos ruled from Mt. Othrys," asked Hazel,

"When did I ever speak the Titan Lord's name?"

"Well, you kind of said time, and Kronos was the titan of time so…"

"So what?"

"So shouldn't his mountain be Othrys,"

"I was not talking about Kronos,"

"Then who?"

"You shall find out in thy own time," Lee groaned at the pun,

"Come on, you can give us some clue,"

"No," she stopped walking, at the edge of the woods that climbed the steep hillside, "I must leave you now, Lee and I cannot venture to this place, it is forbidden. Only the chosen may enter,"

"What about Nico?"

"That responsibility lies with thee. I shall make sure Lee gets to camp safely, you should Iris message Lupa, she wants to hear of the quest,"

Hazel was curious now, because nobody else seemed to know about the camp, they were all talking about some other place that he hadn't been to,

Percy seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because he asked, "How do you know about Lupa? We haven't talked about her,"

"Percy, I am nearly five thousand years old. I watched as she tended to Romulus and Remus on the hunts field trip of two thousand BC. Of course I know who Lupa is,"

"Five thousand?"

"As you would say, 'give or take',"

"But that's impossible," said James

"Percy seemed to get his head around it at the age of fourteen, I'm sure you can manage it now," She stepped over to Hazel and whispered in her ear, "Good luck. Before you have watched Jason fighting the titans, now you must face something even more dangerous. You need to find Nico as quickly as possible, Percy will do his best as soon as you mention it to him, he would risk the world to save a friend. You have to get to know these two. When you return to camp, they will not be happy about this quest, and thy guidance is going to be imperative in getting Percy right into the centre of your camp and its politics."

"Why?"

"You shall find out soon enough. I have a gift for you," She pulled a silver bow from somewhere on her back, and handed it to her. "This was my bow for the last seven hundred years of my life, the bow of a huntress. It is unbreakable, fashioned from the bone of a Manticore, and coated in the purest silver in existence, that mined from the peak of mount Olympus, and blessed by my lady. Take it and use it well,"

Hazel stared at the bow in wonder, but before she could thank Zoë she was gone, talking to Percy. Then she touched his sword, spoke one more line and grabbed Lee, pulling him away from them, completely ignoring James. Percy spoke first,

"So… this Iris message thing, how exactly does it work?"

"We need mist, and light, then we throw in a golden denarii and ask for whoever we want,"

"Like a video call from anywhere?"

"Exactly,"

"Sweet,"

"We should find some water," She looked around, "There, where the trees grow thicker; there must be a stream,"

Percy nodded, "I can feel it… I think,"

"Don't mind me! I'll just stay here alone then. Why the hell are you dragging me along anyway?"

Hazel and Percy ignored him.

They rushed to the stream, leaving their bags behind on the floor. Percy extended a hand, concentrating, and a fine string of mist began to extend from just above the water, until a decent sized cloud hung in front of her. She threw in the coin, muttering the name Lupa. The message took almost a minute to connect, which was strange. Lupa appeared, growling at three demigods, Gwen, Bobby and Dakota. She was lecturing them about some mishap that had happened earlier in the day, but suddenly Hazel couldn't comprehend the words, like they were being spoken quickly and quietly.

"Lupa!"

Lupa turned her head, as if she had been expecting a call, she then looked back at the group before her, and looked as if she was about to kick them out, when Gwen shouted out,

"Hazel! Where have you been! George is in a foul mood and won't tell us and Lupa keeps spilling some crap about some new guys on a quest. What in Pluto's name happened? We only left you for a month and-"

"Ok! Gwen! Shut up!"

"Sorry,"

"I'm on a quest with Percy and Nico, some new kids who showed up. Before you ask, we're not entirely sure what we're supposed to be doing. We need to talk to Lupa about it,"

"Cool," Said Dakota, then sat down watching her,

"Alone,"

"C'mon Hazel, you can tell us,"

"Sure. 'Cos everyone knows how trustworthy the Mercury cabin is. I mean, what are the chances that you would ever blab, like a million to one?"

"Ye-"

"I was being sarcastic…"

Lupa stepped forwards, "I'm sure that Hazel will be able to tell you all about her quest down to every last minute little detail… when she gets back, now scram, dinners ready, unless you want to become dinner?"

The trio left dejectedly, and when the door was firmly Hazel began to recount what had happened so far. Lupa's eyes flashed in recognition when she mentioned Zoë Nightshade, but she didn't speak until Hazel was done.

"This sounds worse than I thought. If your enemies have Nico, then they are going to try and use him to their advantage, lure you into a trap. But you have to get him back, so try to strike when your opponents least expect it. And try and scout around, you still don't have many clues on what Mimas is doing. His purpose was and is to replace Lord Vulcan, and he is a fire giant much like Vulcan is the god of fire. This fight will be especially dangerous for you, Hazel. I'm sure you have noticed, but plants don't tend to be fire's best friend. Use Percy to your advantage. Just make sure it doesn't get the better of you after you return. Remember what I'm sure Zoë talked to you about. And remember the line, that-"

The message dissipated, their allotted time was over, Percy looked like he was thinking about something, with his eyebrows scrunched together, "That what? The prophecy is like ten lines long,"

"I don't know, but I have more money in my bag, lets go and get some more and call Lupa again,"

"What was it?"

"My fatal flaw,"

"Which is?"

"The most important piece of information any demigod has, and should never, under any circumstances be told to anybody else other than Lupa,"

"Nice. Thanks for sharing,"

They ran back the way they'd come, rounding a corner to place they had left their nice, clean, in one piece bags full of helpful-so-you-don't-get-killed supplies, to find them being ripped to shreds by a small pack of hellhounds. James was nowhere to be seen Percy ran forwards and tried to grab one of the hellhounds, but to no avail. They turned on him, and though they could not wound him, they bared his way and began pushing him back.

"Fight them!"

"I- I can't!"

"Why?"

"I don't know, it feels wrong,"

"Oh my gods Percy! If you don't kill them they're going to eventually kill you!"

"I can't do it!"

"Fine, then I will!" She threw him her huge shield, after unclasping it from her back, and he caught it, using it as a barricade. She almost drew her sword, but then thought of a better idea. She drew out the huge bow from her back and an quiver appeared on her shoulder. She chose an arrow and fiddled around until she worked out how to notch it. Finally she drew back, pointing the arrow at one of the huge dogs and fired. The arrow fell to the ground. Great… this was going brilliantly so far. She tried again, this time faster, and her arrow actually managed to hit one of them on the shoulder, before bouncing off. The huge beast turned on her, unharmed but infuriated, and, mouth agape, charged. She screamed, and grabbed an arrow, throwing it at the monster; it missed.

Quickly she grasped the sword at her hip, and held it in front of her, trying to quickly steady herself she thrust forwards as if came upon her, and to her disgust her arm went all the way up to the shoulder before the beast finally stopped, and disintegrated. She looked down at her arm. It was covered in saliva, and there was a long cut up from the back of her hand to her elbow. Her hand still grasped the hilt of her sword, but the blade lay in bent up chunks around her. There was a huge tooth on the ground by her left foot, midnight black and razor sharp, and she picked it up. Great, Lupa and Bobby are gonna kill me she thought. Percy was looking at her, he saw her cut and suddenly he looked enraged. His fist slammed into the flank of one hellhound, and it collapsed wheezing. He dealt with the others in a similar fashion, but couldn't seem to bring himself to kill them. Hazel concentrated hard on the ground, and green tendrils extended upwards, rapping themselves around the paws and jaws of the beasts, imprisoning them, for now.

"Why don't you just kill them?" she asked, half annoyed, half curious

"I can't do it, it just feels wrong," She decided she would be better off trying to probe Nico for answers later than his clueless friend.

Percy seemed to notice something for the first time, "Wait a second where's James?"

"Don't know, he was gone when we got here,"

"Do you think they took him?"

"Probably. We should see if theres anything left in the bags undamaged, like nectar or ambrosia,"

They began to rummage through the torn to shreds remains of their bags, looking for a bottle or bag.

"There's a broken bottle here but half a bag of ambrosia,"

"I can't find anything else in tact, you?"

"Nope, guess this will have to do,"

Hazel looked up at the mountain that towered above them, it was huge, like, Mt. Othrys huge.

"Great, we have two lost teenagers, half a bag of ambrosia, I have a bow I'm crap with, a tooth and some arrows, and you refuse to kill hellhounds. This mountain is huge, where do we start?"

"The bottom,"

"Haha,"

Sorry for the long update time, I took a break over the holidays an then I had some pointless R.E essay to do when I got back to school, so I haven't had much time for writing. I had some good advice at the start of the story for how to improve, but I'm worried about the canon characters being ooc and my ocs being Mary-Sues, are they? What do I need to improve now that the story has progressed more?