Hey guys! Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Everything around me is falling apart so that may affect my posting schedule a bit.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.
"We're here! That wasn't too bad!" Will said brightly.
"We've been walking for like a mile," Cecil said miserably.
"You're a child of Hermes, travel should be easy for you," Nico pointed out.
"And a mile is barely anything. You once ran the entire perimeter of camp, including the forest, 3 times to avoid getting pummeled by the Ares cabin for turning their weapons into bubble wands and balloon swords," Lou smiled at the memory.
"Yeah! And you were the one who did the magic! They didn't even go after you!"
"I'm good with magic. I left no trail—unlike you who decided it wasn't enough to simply do that. You just had to go and attempt to draw on Clarisse's face! You try it every time and it never works, why don't you just give it a rest? Besides, drawing on people's faces isn't even that good of a prank. I would have expected it to be below you, being a demigod of pranks."
"Well it is, I don't do that to anyone else—just Clarisse. I've never been able to before."
"You're stubborn."
"Persistent."
"Idiotic."
"Determined."
"I found something," Nico interrupted them. Half way through their argument, Nico and Will left them to it and went to go scout around.
"What is it?" Cecil asked.
Nico held it up as Will jogged over. Cecil and Lou went down to meet them. In his hand was a sand-covered receipt for "Delphi Archeological Museum."
Lou gasped. "Nico, you were right. About Delphi. What if... you were right about Python too?"
"What if?" Nico asked.
"What are the odds," Will said, "that this guy says he is on a divine mission or whatever and goes to the place Nico theorized we should go to?!"
"Theorized- hold up. You mean you followed me to the Ancient Lands and you didn't even believe that the threat was there?!" Nico exclaimed.
"It's not that we didn't believe you. We just didn't want to..." Will admitted.
"Will," Nico grabbed his hand. "It'll be fine. We defeated the father Titan and Mother Earth. A snake should be a piece of cake."
Will gave a small smile.
"It's getting dark," Lou commented.
"We should eat dinner," Cecil suggested.
The pig squealed in agreement.
Will nodded, "Good idea. We need to get some glucose to our brains!"
Nico sighed. "Okay, I suppose we'll camp out here tonight too then?"
"Because that's safe," Cecil huffed.
"I bet you it's safer than anymore vampire hotels," Lou snorted.
Cecil shuttered at the memory.
They dropped their bags, leaving their shoulders feeling as though they were floating. Lou pushed the sand into a mound and left the pig there.
Nico grabbed some drift wood and Lou used some spell to make it catch fire, despite being wet. They had all packed thin blankets which they set on the sand and sat on. They feasted on Twinkies and chips, and the pig finished the apple cores, snorting happily. Cecil was hit with a nostalgic longing for camp. He missed the nightly campfires and sing-alongs. He missed the full dinners the nymphs prepared— platters of roast beef, sirloin steak, barbecued chicken, cheese, grapes, everything you could possibly ask for. He missed the Hermes Cabin food fights that would accidentally hit the Ares cabin, getting them involved. Whenever that happened, it would always spread like a wild fire and soon the whole camp would be chucking oranges and launching grapes at each other. Except for the Aphrodite cabin, who always hid under their table and protected themselves with their Michael Kors umbrellas.
Lou must have noticed his change in mood because she nudged him. "Hey, what's on your mind?"
Cecil smiled. "Food fights. At camp."
Will scrunched his nose. "Those are incredibly unsanitary. Not to mention a horrible waste of food."
"It's not a waste. The harpies attack the leftover meat once we all leave," Lou said.
"On this quest you guys know what hunger feels like and you still waste," Nico shook his head.
"What do you know about hunger, Richie Rich?" Cecil asked.
That must've struck a nerve. Nico scowled. "If you take a look at me you'll see." He pulled his shirt back, tightening it onto his chest, where his rib bones were poking out.
Cecil winced, "I- I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I- I-"
"Yeah, okay," Nico snapped.
Shit, way to go, Cecil. What were you thinking?!
"If you had the money, then why did you let yourself starve?" Will asked.
Nico scowled. "It's getting late. We should rest."
"Nico-"
"I'll take first watch." He got up, signaling the discussion was over. He unsheathed his sword, it gleamed threateningly in the fire light.
Lou squeezed Will's hand comfortingly and told him to go to bed. She snapped her fingers and the fire was out. She laid down, and Cecil did the same. He couldn't sleep, though. He felt the guilt creep it's way into his heart and mind. He never trusted the Son of Hades, nor did he particularly like him because of what he was doing to Will, but that didn't give him permission to act like him. Even Nico would never attack a person the way Cecil did just then, albeit it was by accident. He heard Will and Nico mumbling, but it sounded distant. His eyelids grew heavy.
"Curse you and your Hecate magic," Cecil muttered.
He couldn't see it, but he imagined Lou smirk at him.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o
Sorry this one is so short!