Percy
The next few days went by pretty quickly. Nico and I helped Tessa, Jake and Marc train and talked to them more about the World of Gods and Demigods. We didn't find or have any more demigods show up, which was probably for the best since we only had one weapon left to give out and we weren't exactly used to teaching, so progress was somewhat slow with the young boys, Marc and Jake.
Tessa however, seemed to be a natural fighter, picking up quickly on things. It gave me a few ideas on who her godly parent might be, but that just worried me, since the one in my mind wasn't exactly my best friend.
It had been just over a week since we'd escaped the throne room, and I waved Nico over to me, letting the others spar together, they were getting along pretty well, joking around together. Tessa helped with taking care of Marc along with Jake, and even Nico was adored by the two young boys. Which was a big surprise, but hey, when you're a demigod with a cool sword and stuff, little kids tend to like you.
"I think we need to get some extra weapons for training" I said when he got close enough to me. He nodded hesitantly, "Yea, but the only places we'd find any, realistically, are the camps" he replied, "And I don't think we can just waltz in asking for weapons."
"I know, they'd happily lend us the weapons, but you know, just in time for Zeus to show up and smite us" I said, frowning, "But I had an idea."
Nico's eyebrows raised, he looked intrigued, "What's the idea?"
"We see if one of our trainees wants to help us out" I said, glancing over at the three kids who had joined our campsite.
Nico turned to them anxiously, "Wouldn't it put them in danger?" he asked, turning back to me.
I shrugged, "Two of them are unclaimed, though I wouldn't even be asking Jake, he's too young" Nico nodded in agreement, "But Tessa might be willing to do it, and Marc's dad is Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods, he might just have it in his nature to want to take our request to the campers."
Nico smirked at me doubtfully, "I don't think it works that way, Percy"
"Shut up, I can dream"
He just laughed and turned to look back at the others. "You can ask them, I guess you're right that they won't be in danger, that'll be my job, sitting somewhere waiting for him to get back"
I slapped him on the back, grinning, "Exactly, way to think positive, buddy"
I walked over to the others with him, as they were sitting in a circle in the grass.
We sat down with them and I figured I'd just bring things up now. "So uh, this is sort of short notice, but I was wondering if either of you – " I pointed between Marc and Tessa, " – Would be willing to run an errand for us."
The two demigods looked at each other and then back at me, warily. "What kind of errand?" Tessa asked.
"Well, you've probably noticed that we only have four knives with us, three of which are with you guys now, and we need weapons to be able to train demigods, besides, we don't want to just teach everyone to use a knife, they could be skilled with other weapons that we don't have right now"
I stopped and gathered my words, "So we're hoping that one of you would be okay with going to Camp Half Blood to ask them to send us some weapons for training and defensive purposes. You'd get to see the camp and meet some of the campers, and as long as you say you're with Nico and I and show them this note," I held up a note I'd written earlier asking for some weapons and supplies, and assuring everyone I was fine, "They'll get it all for you to bring back, and probably treat you like a gift from the heavens"
I saw their eyes cloud as they thought over the proposition, before Marc spoke up. "I'll do it" he said, shrugging. "I want to see camp, even though I want to keep training with you guys, and besides, my dad is the messenger god, right? It's practically my obligation to run the errand for you." I turned to Nico with a smug grin, remembering our earlier conversation, he just rolled his eyes. "Alright" Nico said, "I'll shadow travel you to the creek in the forest at camp, there's monsters there so it'll be harder for Zeus to sense me, and you can go into camp and get the weapons from them, I'll tell you directions once we get there, it'll be easier."
Marc nodded eagerly, "When do we go?" he asked.
Nico looked at me for an answer and I shrugged, "Whenever you're ready, the more daylight you have to get everything sorted with the Campers there, the better"
He nodded and stood up, "Come on then kiddo, we'll go right now" Marc rolled his eyes and jumped up, "Don't call me kiddo, you're not that much older than I am"
Nico shook his head at me in disbelief at the response and then reached out his hand to Marc, who grabbed on to his arm, they disappeared into the shadows together.
Nico
We showed up right in the middle of the creek, splashing up the water and soaking my shoes.
I stepped out of the shallow water, pulling Marc with me, and glared down at my wet sneakers, "Damnit" I muttered.
Marc looked around, adjusting to the new scene. What adjustment needed to be made, I don't know. We went from a forest, to another forest.
"Alright Marc," I began, turning to him. He turned to listen intently, since he probably figured it was a serious errand he was running for us.
I pointed in the direction of camp, "You go that way, you'll see buildings and stuff, go until you find someone, and ask them to take you to the Big House to see Chiron. He'll be the dude with the beard who is either in a wheelchair, or is a Centaur, you'll notice him standing out either way" his mouth opened in awe of the idea of a centaur. "Give him the note and answer his questions, but don't tell him where I am or anything about where Percy is, he probably won't ask, but don't. Same for if any campers ask." He nodded slowly in understanding, so I kept going, "After that, just do what seems right until you've got the weapons and supplies they give you, and come back here, make sure no one follows you, cause if a bunch of them come here, It might tip off a god or raise suspicion, and they'll all want to come with us."
Marc grinned, "Got it, so, is that all?" I nodded, "You'll do fine kid, go nuts" I watched as he turned on his heel and ran in the direction I'd told him, heading for camp.
"Who was that?" a voice rang out, setting me into alert mode, I grabbed my sword and pointed it in the direction of the voice, but let it drop and frowned when I saw who it was.
She smirked, "Hey Di Angelo" she said, hopping off the rock she'd been standing on and walking towards me calmly. Though it was plainly seen she was bursting with excitement and trying to keep it under wraps.
"What brought you here, Annabeth?" I asked, trying to be casual. But hey, it wasn't every day someone like Annabeth walked through the woods casually.
"Oh you know, Poseidon tipped me off." She said, stepping into the creek, a slight smile on her face.
"I suppose you want to come with us?" I asked, sighing.
She just grinned at me, "You know you can't say no, Nico, if there's one person Percy would want you to bring, it'd be me."
I shrugged, "I know that, but won't your mom be able to tell where you are? I know that other gods have trouble finding a Demigod who is avoiding them, but she's your parent."
She sighed, "Yea, well, when you cut off all ties you had with your parent because of their ignorance, it gets much easier to avoid them like the plague. Besides, Poseidon likes me" she added, smirking.
"Seriously though, who was the kid?" she asked. I smirked, "Percy decided to use all his newfound free time to find and help demigods. Marc showed up that night being chased by a hellhound, his dad lead him to us"
"Who's his dad?" She asked thoughtfully.
"Hermes. Which was partially why he decided to run the errand for us, said it was almost like his obligation because his dad is the messenger god." I scoffed, thinking of Percy's smug grin.
"So what now, just wait for the kid to get back?" she asked, glancing in the direction of camp.
I nodded, "I think we have some questions for each other, so it'll probably go by quick"
She smiled at me, "Very true, so, what's the past week or so been like for you, Nico?"
Marc
The camp was way cooler than I'd been expecting. I gasped in awe at what I saw as I got out of the forest. Taking in all the buildings slowly, but I didn't have time to sightsee, so I just took off into a jog further into camp, looking for someone. It only made sense that the first person I ran into was my brother.
"Who are you?" I turned to the sound of the voice to see an average height guy with curly brown hair, "Uhh, I'm Marc" I said, "Can you show me how to get to the Big House?"
He looked at me suspiciously, "Uhh, how do you not know where it is if you're here?"
"I uh, I'm not a camper here, I just have a message for Chiron to deliver."
"Message to deliver, huh?" the boy mused, "Alright kid, I'll bite. Connor Stoll, Son of Hermes." He said, stretching out a hand.
I grinned at him with newfound interest and shook it, "Marc Andros, Son of Hermes" Connor grinned, "Well then bro, lets deliver this message." He put an arm around my shoulders and led me through the camp to a large farmhouse.
"Wait here kiddo, I'll get Chiron." He said, leaving me on the steps of the porch and going in.
About a minute later, Connor came back out, along with a man in a wheelchair, I remembered what Nico had said and realized this was Chiron.
"I hear you have something for me, young man?" He said, with a deep voice that sounded old and wise.
"Uh, yea" I said, fumbling in my pocket and grabbing the note, handing it to him.
Chiron opened it and looked down, looking back up at me with his eyes slightly widened, a surprised expression on his face, and then looked back down quickly, reading the note. I guessed that he recognized the handwriting.
"Connor," He began, not looking up from the note, "Go get all the other Councillors and get them together." He said quietly, Connor nodded and jumped down the steps of the Porch before Chiron called him again.
"Send them all to the Ampitheatre, I don't trust the Big House with this meeting, not with Mr. D around"
Connor nodded again and sprinted off, while Chiron sighed, "How is Percy?" he asked, looking at me.
"He seems fine to me, but I mean, obviously you all know him better."
"That's probably true" He murmured, "Come, child, we must go talk to the Councillors about your message, they'll have some questions.
I nodded, and then watched in surprise as he lifted out of the chair, growing until he was towering over me, with the body of a horse. "Oh right" I said, my voice choked, "I forgot about that part"
Chiron smiled kindly at me and began to trot off. "Come along, young one. You're about to meet some of Percy's friends"
The Amphitheatre was really impressive. It was like something straight out of ancient Greece… probably because it WAS something straight out of ancient Greece. It was just a breathtaking sight, really.
"Councillors" Chiron greeted, nodding at the group of teenagers who'd gathered. "Thank you for coming on such short notice, I believe what you're about to hear will make it worth being pulled out of whatever you all had been doing"
"What exactly is it, Chiron?" One girl, with eyes that kept changing colours asked.
"Well, our new friend here brought us a message from Percy" he replied.
All eyes turned to me.
"Percy sent you here?" the boy with blonde hair and blue eyes asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
I looked around nervously, "Uhh, yea, he needed to get a message to camp, and I volunteered, cause I wanted to see camp, and figured it was my thing to do, since Hermes is the Messenger of the Gods"
"Also the god of thieves" one girl muttered, while Connor and the boy who was definitely his brother high fived beside me. I guess the other guy was my brother too. They both seemed pretty cool, and I felt a little sad I wouldn't be able to get to know them better.
"What was the message, Chiron" another blonde boy asked, but he had grey eyes, like, intense grey.
"Well, Malc – " Chiron paused and narrowed his eyes, "Malcom, where is Annabeth?" Everyone's eyes turned to Malcom, which was a relief, it'd been weird having everyone stare at me.
He shifted nervously, "Uhhh, she left the cabin early this morning and left me in charge, said she had something important to do."
Chiron glanced at me thoughtfully and sighed. "I believe Annabeth might've known about this message being delivered beforehand" he said.
"How would she manage that?" Connor asked.
His brother laughed, "She's Annabeth, she always figures it out!" the others chuckled in agreement.
"So where did she go then, she's not here for the message" the girl with the changing eyes asked.
"Think about it Piper," Malcom began, "The kid had to get here somehow" he said, pointing at me.
Once again, all eyes were in my direction. "Uhh, Nico brought me here."
"That explains it." Piper said, sighing, she didn't seem too annoyed though, like she was expecting it to happen.
"Wait," I interjected, "Why is Annabeth going to Nico?"
"To get to Percy" Chiron stated, a faint smile on his face.
"Well uh, Percy and Nico both said for me to not let anyone follow me back to him, because they didn't want to bring anyone back." I stated, trying to sound firm.
The boy beside Piper, with the blue eyes, grinned. "I think Nico will let her though, Percy's got a soft spot for Annabeth"
Connor's brother leaned over to Connor and whispered, "More like Percy's got a hard spot for Annabeth, huh? Huh?" the two snickered quietly and I couldn't stop myself from joining in. The two paused and looked at me, with something akin to pride in their eyes, and then continued to laugh silently with me. The others looked at us weird, except for the girl beside us who smacked Connor's brother on the shoulder, "Travis! Don't be so gross!"
Travis just grinned, "Hey, Percy's thoughts, not mine" he said, wiggling his eyebrows at her. She huffed and glared at him and I smiled at my newfound brothers.
Chiron cleared his throat, "Anyways, Percy has asked if he could borrow some weapons and supplies from us. It seems he and Nico are using their free time to find and help demigods." The others nodded, obviously seeing that as a very Percy thing to do.
"Sure" A big guy said, rubbing his rough hands together and grinning, "We've got a bunch of swords in the forges we can send to him." Another boy with golden hair grinned, "We can send him some bows too, in case he finds some Apollo kids, just have to pray Percy doesn't try to use them himself"
Some of the people laughed, grinning.
My mouth opened and I blurted something out quietly, "Well, if you'd have said no, I'd probably just steal the supplies for Percy anyways."
Apparently I'd said it louder than I thought, because everyone heard. A few of the councillors laughed, most just looked at me in surprise. Chiron raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. I tried to backtrack, "What? They saved my life and took me in, I owe them." I murmured.
Travis and Connor were laughing the loudest, and turned to me with prideful expressions, "you, are definitely our brother" they said together, grinning and high fiving me. I grinned back, and I could definitely see myself enjoying a life at this camp one day.
-LineBreak-
I'd managed to escape the bombardment of questions that all the random campers had sent my way when word escaped that I was sent by Percy. Travis and Connor helped me out, distracting the mob so I could escape into the forest with the big duffel bag of supplies I'd been given.
I finally found Nico, which was good, since the sun was setting, but then saw he wasn't alone. I saw he was with a girl who had long blonde hair, and when they heard me coming and turned to face me, I saw her eyes were grey, just like Malcom's.
"Oh, right, you must be Annabeth" I said, remembering the meeting.
She raised an eyebrow, "You know me?"
"Uh, yea, all the Councillors talked about you when they noticed you weren't there, and figured you'd known about the visit beforehand and went to find Nico." I paused, pointing at said boy, "They were right"
She accepted my explanation, "Well, nice to meet you Marc, Nico told me a bit about you, but uh, I'd like to leave, if that's alright."
I smirked, walking over and grabbing on to Nico's arm like she had done. "Alright then"
We were engulfed by the darkness as the sun set over the forest.