This isn't my best chapter. I would've wanted to make it longer. BUt If I continued it, it would span 4000 more words and that would take at least two more weeks for me and I just had to get one out already! ENjoy!

How long was it before anyone decided to move? It could've been seconds, minutes, days, months or even years.

All Will knew was that he stuck in a strange limbo with that deadly stare. He had no way to describe it but surely, if it was Annabeth or Percy stuck in that deadlock, they would have described it as hell.

Will was undoubtedly strong willed (no pun intended). It was more of an ingrained habit within him to try to overcome any obstacle blocking his way, and in this situation, the obstacle looked to be nothing more than fear. He willed his body to move – and that was his big mistake.

It was what the hellhounds were waiting for. There was a snarl, a flash of teeth, a blast of hot breath and suddenly Will felt a searing pain in his left shoulder.

"Will!" Annabeth screamed. Or was it Percy? At that point, everything was muffled. All he could focus on was that blinding and deafening pain that exploded from his shoulder.

Will closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying his best to focus instead on his thoughts. If he was going to die that day, he would feel much better if his last thought was not on how excruciatingly painful this was.

It took a few more seconds before the pain disappeared and became nothing more than a lingering sensation. Will heard a thud, and it took him a few more seconds to realize the thud was his body hitting the ground.

I didn't even feel it, Will thought. Was he dying? He tried to wiggle his toes, move his hand up, make a sound or force his eyes open but at that point, his body was not cooperating. He couldn't blame it. That was one painful attack. It was not a bite an everyday mutt could imitate.

Were those dogs natural? Do dogs with bright red eyes thrive here? If I'm right and they're not from here, where do they come from? Will forced himself to analyze the situation. He was in no shape to do so but that was the only way he could keep himself alive. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel. He couldn't speak. In other words, he was slowly losing connection with the world. If he let his guard down for even a moment, he would probably remain in dreamland forever.

Percy! Are they dead? That was Annabeth's voice.

If he could, Will would've widened his eyes in surprise. He could still hear! Instead of racking his brain for hypotheses and conclusions, all he needed to do was concentrate on that one reliable sense that was still working – his hearing.

He heard a howl of pain from one of the mutts, then rustling bushes.

Don't follow them! We have more important things to think about right now than a bunch of rabid mutts.

They could come back. Then we'll all be dead.

Can we please think about your hunt some other time, seaweed brain? Right now, we kinda have to stop the bleeding.

Footsteps. Probably Percy's.

We need a little bit more light. Where's your phone?

Some rustling. Here!

Click. Shit… We're going to have to cut up his shirt.

Seriously? Percy, It's almost September. Last time I checked, this isn't really the proper temperature to cut up someone's shirt. What's more, it's night time, he could catch pneumonia.

Well if it's a choice between death or pneumonia, which do you think Will would pick?

Can't we wait until we find the hunters first? We can cut up his shirt and survey the wound later, once we're all inside a warm tent.

No time for that now,. Who knows when we'll see them? Let's do what we can now.

He heard Annabeth sigh in submission.

There was a little more rustling, then a snipping sound which he figured was his shirt being cut up.

Gods. I don't think that was a normal dog… What kind of bite is that?

I have no idea. Annabeth, you have nectar right?

Don't tell me you're going to feed that to him… Remember what happened last time?

And his wounds healed then too, remember?

Yeah but, his fever went so high…

Think of the imminent fever as a side effect of not dying.

What kind of first aid is that?

We're miles from civilization and we have a dying friend right in front of us, you're going to have to lower your standards of first aid.

If Will wasn't the dying friend the two were talking about, he would have been, at the most, slightly amused by their banter. But in this situation, he felt nothing but frustration at the two for the way they were handling it. He swore, once he was be able to move again (if ever he woke up again), he was going to force to those two to learn to cooperate even if he had to crack a couple of skulls to do it.

Fine… Just a teaspoon. Don't feed him too much.

I never said I was going to feed him the nectar.

So… What are you going to do?

Something… Less conventional… Percy's voice trailed off and with a softer tone, he added. Will, if ever you're aware for this, I'm sorry.

Will pretty much thought his senses were all dead. He was wrong. It turns out all he needed to speak or feel was a strong catalyst, and the nectar that promised a world's worth of stings and burns was strong enough to wake all the nerves in his shoulder once again. The pain that followed elicited a vocal reaction from Will.

He was making a sound which was both a whimper and a gasp at first, but as the pain escalated to something less bearable, he started to scream. His hands tried to swat away whatever was causing that burning sensation but something was pinning him down.

Will, I know it hurts but please cooperate. It was Annabeth. It's almost over! I promise.

He opened his eyes, just wide enough to make out the blonde's face.

She looked like she was having a hard time keeping that comforting smile on her face. She looked to her right. "Percy, are you done?"

"Yeah. I think this is enough to at least minimize the pain"

Will guessed that the last part was meant for him. He wanted to turn his head and give Percy a weak nod but as he made that attempt, he realized that he had already expended all his energy.

He closed his eyes once again. This time, he didn't try to stay awake.

Will, of course, still wanted to live, but the energy to stay connected was sapped by everything that happened the past few minutes. Besides, even if he went to sleep, he had a good feeling he'd still wake up alive.

Thanks to those two, Will thought to himself as he let his dreams carry him away from reality.

How was it? I know not a lot happened. THis is basically another filler chapter. School's starting for me next month so expect updates to be weirder. I also am starting a new story in the Attack on Titan fandom so if you watch that, give my story a try. I'll be posting the first chapter soon. I kinda have a good idea of how I'm gonna balance writing both but we'll see how things go.

Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank Dr. WHovianist, robintje1q2 and Silvia Moretti for your help in getting the feel for more temperate climate transitions. I hope how I interpreted it was correct. I'm gonna be using the knowledge a bit more too as I go through the story and the seasons transition along with it, and of course for the very detailed review! I would've loved to reply but I was pretty the passed few weeks and I'm gonna have to fix some stuff for our family trip before I start doing the next chapter.

Also, thank you also Gill Face, Kale of the Dragons,Jala and Wethe Treatys for reviewing too!

So, I'd love it if you'd also review this chapter, it gives me more motivation to write especially as my beautiful summer comes to a close! Tell me what you thought was nice, what you thought was not so nice and we'll be having some new characters come in in the next chapter and a little bit of a revelation or a few hints on Will. Well, either the next chapter or a few chapter's later..

Actually, I'm curious about this too...Where do you guys think Will came from? You can give me a few of your theories in your reviews ^^

Hope you enjoyed!

Savannah Silverstone out!